A little thing we like to call RNAConf13...

So, I'm going to make this brief. It's about 3,000 degrees outside and I've just driven back up the M1, so you're going to have to cut me some slack here.

I'm back from Conference!  Which is yippee in one way, because it means I didn't kill myself with liver failure (although not for want of trying - sorry anyone who looked for me on Saturday, I was either..err...poorly, or trying to make my head work) and boo because it means another year before I can see my lovely writer-people again.  I've had a flick through the pictures I took, and some are indecent on account of gussets, so here is a selection of the clean photos in which everyone is dressed, more or less.

The Edge. Bono not featured.

Me and Katie Fforde. Katie is the attractive one, I'm the one that looks as though someone stuck a melon on a frock and painted a face on it.

Jan and Roger, organisers of the whole shebang, and those with whom I shared a table during the glam event.

Ruth Long. I should like to point out that not all the bottles or crisps in front of her were actually consumed by Ruth and that statement will cost her a fiver next time we meet...

And finally, before we all melt... the Gala Event. Frocks and all!

As ever, I had THE most wonderful time it is possible to have, which contained Writerly Chats, Meetings with Old Friends (not that Sarah Callejo is old, but ...) and Occasions for Celebration, when the lovely Kate Johnson won the Elizabeth Goudge Cup for her Opening Chapter submission. She actually drank champagne from it later in the evening, but I can't show you a photo of that, because of gussets.

Now, if you'll all excuse me, I need a bit of a lie down. A week should do it...

Sun; does it influence your reading habits?

Over the last couple of days, it's actually been moderately warm up here in Yorkshire.  Well, I say 'moderately warm' because this is something of a consensus opinion - most people think it's delightfully warm, TMMQ says it's 'bloody hot', the dogs won't move from the side of the pond, and I've just taken my cardigan off. So, as I said, consensus is that it's warm. Ish.

And, as you may have gathered from my previous, unexpectedly 'midweek' post, I've just signed for my newest book with Choc Lit, which, all things being true to form, will be released next June, ie, the month of warm(ish) sun (hopefully), ice-creams and picnics. It's a book about vampires.  Look, I'll do the cover thing again for you, just in case you can't be bothered to flick back...

That's Whitby Abbey, that is. No, not the face, the building.  The book contains a big denouement (and don't think that I can't see you sniggering there at the back), which takes place at Whitby, so the Abbey isn't just there to look all Gothic and foreboding, it's actually in the book...

And this, together with the current pleasantly mild spell, during which I may even consider changing out of my long-johns and into something slightly more...well, breatheable, got me thinking.  I've been sitting out in the sunshine reading books, and I've been drawn towards the lighter end of the market, as though something in the ability to sit in the garden (at least, I think it's the garden. It's all overgrown and there are big rocks in it, so there is the slight possibility that a) I'm lost and b) Highgate Cemetery has really let itself go) has drawn forth the desire to read books that can be dipped into with a sense of pleasure, rather than the 'Journal of Psychology Today' and the incisive 'Dances with Frogs - a searing indictment of the state of amphibious life in the modern world'.

Is this a 'thing'? Is it something that happens to everyone - sun comes out and we flock to read books that reflect our ability to cast off seven layers of clothing and bask? Is this why some books are labelled 'Beach Read'?  Although I have to say that I've never seen the converse, books labelled 'Books to be read with all the lights on'.. And if it is a 'thing', then where does that leave my Summer Vampires?  Do people want to read about blood and zombies (yep, there are quite a lot of zombies in Falling Apart. Hence the title, do you see?) when outside it's 25 degrees in the shade and the cat just melted?  Or is there a nice juxtaposition in reading vampires on the beach?  Are we all now imagining a cross between Twilight and Baywatch?  We could call it 'Baylight'....Or is that a Yankee candle fragrance?

So, what do you think? Do you have 'sunshine' books and 'winter' books? I have a friend who reads 'Anna Karenina' every Christmas, because of the snow, and 'Emma' every summer, because of the picnic at Box Hill.  Is everyone's reading influenced by the season?  Although, I have to say that Vampire State of Mind came out in the summer, which doesn't seem to have put anyone off; but then, it was last summer, which was less of a summer and more of a winter-lite.. Can you read ghosties and ghoulies and dark doings when the sun is illuminating the unwashed state of your windows and that thing the cat did behind the sofa in January that you forgot about? Or, when it comes down to it, does it really matter?

Less frightening when looked at whilst watching Wimbledon with the other eye and holding strawberries?

Being revealing

Now I know this is a couple of days early and everything, but I feel that you should know about this.

I've just signed the contract for the sequel to Vampire State of Mind, for the second book in the trilogy. It's called Falling Apart, which is quite apt, because it's about zombies. Not just zombies, but the zoms feature quite largely.  It's also apt because our heroine, Jess, the put-upon council employee and all-round Queen of the Filing Cabinet, is not having a good time. Sil has gone awol and she's having to share a house with Zan, the Vampire King of Geek (and completely unreasonable when it comes to mess, untidiness and just putting things down on the floor).

And, your bonus for being nice... the cover!

You may stroke it gently.  I have...