GUTEN TAG. How are we all? Nearly two months since my last post which is truly dismal, I admit. In my defence, I’ve been polishing book 4, which I am very excited to say is called…Did You Miss Me?. It’s out in August and the page proofs arrived this morning, which is basically the very last stage of editing, when you get a stack of printed pages which look like they will in book form and have to go through it with a red pen (I can’t find a red pen so it’s going to have to be green), reading the whole thing for the 28362 millionth time, hoping there are no glaring plot issues/mistakes/continuity errors and so on. PLEASE can there not be. If you wanted to pre-order it now, you can do so HERE and I will award you a prize. Might have to be a virtual prize, mind. A virtual jar of Mum’s marmalade? Consider it yours. The cover reveal is happening NEXT WEEK so stay tuned.

Other bits and bobs:

i) My second book, What Happens Now? came out in Germany earlier this month and if you’re reading this from there and/or are one of the lovely people who’ve tagged me in a picture of it then thank you very much. DELIGHTED that my book is having such a jolly time abroad, lucky little devil.

ii) The Wish List, my third book, is now coming out in paperback in July instead of April for pandemic reasons. I’m excited about this because I love LOVE love the idea of my books perking readers up on their summer holidays – whether they happen to be in Skegness OR Santorini. Who knows right now, eh? I would take anywhere that wasn’t my own sitting room. Even someone else’s sitting room, tbh.

iii) I did my first shift as a vaccine volunteer this week. I’ve written about it in my Sun Tel column this weekend so I don’t want to give away all my gags here, but if you have any spare time I so so SO recommend downloading the volunteer app (GoodSAM) and signing up. Seeing the operation up close was so moving and it’s such a slick machine. Plus you get a cool high-vis vest.

iv) Stylist mag has recently launched a series called ‘There’s A Podcast For That…’ and was chuffed to find out it covered Freezing Time a couple of weeks ago. Click HERE for the piece about it. As I said on Instagram, when I started researching egg freezing ahead of making the podcast last year, and trying to get in touch with various women and experts around the world, I signed up for daily Google alerts about it. I still get them every afternoon, basically a link to every piece of published media that mentions egg freezing lands in my inbox, and it’s pretty clear that the numbers continue to rise across the globe as this pandemic drags on. I’ve always tried to be v careful not to push freezing on anyone or sound as if I’m in the pay of Big Egg, but if the podcast can continue to help anybody mulling it over then I’m so pleased.

v) The results of the Telegraph’s teen writing competition were announced last week. Click HERE to read them. I was so honoured to be asked to judge these along with Bryony G and Charlie Higson. I also got to email the winners and tell them which was a huge privilege, and their happy replies made my heart pinch. Reading the entries, the sense of isolation and loneliness that Britain’s teens have felt over the past year was very stark, but there was a positivity to Alice, Oskar and Anna’s pieces which I think many of us could learn from, frankly. Nice work, guys.

vi) Um, what else? I bought a new five-litre tub of dried mealworms for the birds a few days ago and stuffed the seed tray, inadvertently causing a dramatic siege at my window. There were starlings, pigeons, greedy squirrels picking up dropped tidbits like dogs under a highchair and a crow the size of an eagle. I felt like Tippi Hendren when he appeared on the tray, his talons wrapped around it, so I think I might have to throttle back on the meal worms a bit and dole them out more gradually.

vii) That is ALL MY NEWS.

Back…soonish?