My novel Ignoring Gravity is now available to pre-order. Hurrah!

For those of you who’ve been reading the instalments on my writing blog and just want to order the book, please click here. At this stage, no money is taken from your card. Provisional price is £9.99. Publication date is provisionally September 2014.

If you don’t know what I’m talking about, click here to read the first chapter for free…
… and here to read the second chapter.
… or watch the book trailer here
Muchas gracias!

5 to remember
disponible – available
pedir – to order
un pedido – an order [a written order to buy something]
las entregas – the instalments
la novela – the novel

… when we are in Spain, with a basic Acer laptop and a Malm desk from Ikea at Malaga. This morning the sky is grey though rain is not forecast until the weekend. So I will take the opportunity and spend the morning sitting outside on the terrace, wrapped up in a sweater and scarf and supplied with copious mugs of tea. I’m copy-editing the manuscript of Ignoring Gravity at the moment, ready for the launch of ‘Britain’s Next Bestseller’ on March 28. I enjoy copy-editing, that must be the journalist in me. We used to proofread our pages so much that by the time the magazine was published, we didn’t want to read it ever again. It is a truth that other people’s mistakes shine out of the page, but it’s impossible to see your own errors. So I’m pleased to have other people copy-editing it too. To read more about Ignoring Gravity, click here.

After reading for a couple of hours, I’ll take a break and give my eyes a rest. I find weeding is particularly mind-clearing and is often followed by a productive writing session. The room where I write here has two windows. The smallest looks out at a fig tree where early on a summer morning I may be lucky enough to see a shy golden oriole, but not yet for this wet chilly spring has deterred them. The leaves are not fully filling the trees, and that’s where the orioles prefer to hide. The larger sliding window admits onto a small terrace ringed by pots of herbs – mint, parsley, dill, chives, basil – and lots of red geraniums, and overhung by an enormous rose bush studded with red blooms. I still find it amazing that geraniums continue to flower here, all year.

The bookshelves throughout the house are piled with fiction – read and to-be read – plus gardening books, guide books about Spain, books about birds, wild flowers, insects, reptiles, Spanish history, Spanish novels, and my Spanish language text books and notebooks which I should re-read more often than I do.

To find out more about ‘Britain’s Next Bestseller’, and how you will be able to pre-order your copy of Ignoring Gravity on March 28, click here.

5 to remember
básico/a – basic
el portátil – laptop
el escritorio – the desk
la oportunidad – opportunity
un jersey – a sweater