Laura Madeleine

So I’ve had quite a few pieces of exciting news in the last week or two. The first one is that The Confectioner’s Tale is being published a little sooner than planned: release date is now scheduled for 23rd April 2015! It was originally intended to be May 21st, but publication dates shift with remarkable flexibility; far more than I would have originally assumed. (There’s a good reason for the change, I promise, I just can’t mention what it is at the moment…)

The absurd, ridiculous coincidence is that my sister Lucy’s book is coming out ON THE SAME DAY. This wasn’t planned; in fact, it’s happened this way after both of our release dates were moved, twice. Double gin and tonics for us.

It’s going to be a bit of a whirlwind from now until then, but hopefully we’ll have time to put together a launch party or similar: more on that later.

Last Friday I was in London, and the day was jam-packed with meetings (business and social, both enjoyable) and all manner of food wedged into the free spaces. (Including pizza at Homeslice, cakes at Bea’s, cocktails at 5cc…) Anyway, before all of that I met the lovely folk at Transworld for breakfast, and Harriet, my editor, showed me the final cover design for TCT.

There it is! Everyone on the art and design has done a wonderful job, and I can’t wait to hold a physical version in my hands. The quote from Leah Fleming took me by surprise too – I had no idea she was reading the book – but am delighted she enjoyed it. It’s still an exceedingly strange feeling, that somewhere out there, unbeknownst to you, people are reading your words.

This hopefully means it won’t be long until a box lands on my doorstep with copies of the book itself. Don’t worry, I’ll be yelling on and offline, loudly and repeatedly when that happens.