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Paperback publication day!

Thursday 4th February, paperback publication day! And also, I notice, a full two months since I promised to update my blog. Actually, the publication of the paperback is a strange sort of non-event for an author, as I’m never quite sure what I’m meant to do. Go to bookshops and sort of…hang around? Smoke a cigar, like a new father? Celebrating paperback publication feels greedy, like having two birthdays. It’s a little like finishing a novel; I’d always imagined that there’d be a moment where you type ‘t-h-e e-n-d’ and then sit back in your swivel chair with your hands behind your head and a satisfied look on your face, before opening a dusty bottle of fine wine. Like so many things, I suspect I learnt this from films. In reality, typing ‘the end’ is just the beginning; of writing a second, third, maybe fourth draft, of copy-editing, proof-reading etc. a process that can take another four to five months. Also, today I have the flu, so will later be cracking open a bottle of Night Nurse.

I have, however, just typed ‘the end’ on the first draft of a script, the TV play that I wrote about last time. This has now been sent off to the producers, and another process begins – notes, second draft, more notes, third draft, feedback from broadcaster, decision from broadcaster, response from actors, etc. So who knows if this will ever see the light of day, but I’ve enjoyed writing my first original TV play for about three years.

I’ve also been enjoying writing the screenplay for One Day. Since I last wrote, we’ve appointed a director, the wonderful Lone Scherfig who did such a terrific job on the film An Education. As I write this, casting is taking place for Dex and Em - all very exciting but also top secret - and we should hopefully start filming this summer. So far there have been no radical changes to the script, or the story, though as ever the central problem remains. If you read all the dialogue in the novel aloud, I suspect it would take about four to five hours. And a two-hour movie is by no means two hours of dialogue – that would send you running from the cinema. So what stays and what goes?

What else. One Day continues to be doing well in Germany and Switzerland - a real delight and surprise for me - and we are gearing up for publication in the US in June. The next instalment of this will come sooner, I swear, and will have more news on current projects and the film version of One Day. But in the meantime, many thanks to everyone who has made contact through the website. I always imagined the ‘contact me’ tab to be obsolete but this turns out not to be the case. In particular, thank you for the kind words about One Day. I will do my best to respond as soon as possible, but apologies for any delay.