It was a good day yesterday when Leon and I went to Petersfield for the book signing at Waterstones there. Sold a few books and talked to many people who were interested and asked if it was coming out in paperback eventually, as it would not cost as much. I told them truthfully that I didn't know (depends how many hardbacks are sold I think) but that I hoped so. In any case it was interesting to meet and talk to buyers and potential buyers and library borrowers.

Several people said that now they had seen it they would put it on a birthday or Christmas gift list. These signings are good not only for selling a book but also for networking with readers. aren't they? It was an interesting couple of hours.

We travelled from Chichester to Petersfield by bus, going through some of the loveliest countryside in Sussex and Hampshire. It was market day in Petersfield and very busy there. It is a delightful place, nowhere too difficult to find even for somebody like me with a bad sense of direction. Do you ever go into a department store and come out to find yourself in an unfamiliar street. You walk round the corner, realising you have come out of the wrong door, only to find yourself even more lost because you turned right instead of left...

It was a really enjoyable day, as was the one Hales gave for the launch of Tin Hats and Gas Masks, which was a couple of weeks ago at Waterstones in Chichester.

All this partying is lovely but next week I want to get back to my desk and get down to the hard graft again. Among the comments from a lot of non-writers one of the most frequent is, 'How nice it must be not to have to work and just write when you feel like it.' Well, for the record, writing IS work. It is done regularly and not just 'when you feel like it.' Unless you are in the best seller lists, many writers could earn more for less hours doing almost any other job, but for a lot of us, this is where we are happiest. Certainly that is true for me. There are days when it doesn't go right and you scrap almost, sometimes all, you have written, but that's the way it goes. I like to write a few articles and short stories inbetween writing books, but always the next one is there, nagging away at me, and working itself out in my head. So really, even when you are not physically writing, you are still working - that's my story anyway.

Next month I will try to post some writing articles on this blog. Here are a couple of pictures from the signings. Happy reading and writing, Joan.