Yes, it’s the usual reason for blogging – have far too many other things to do. Tomorrow I’m going to Gregynog which is this beautiful house near Newtown which belongs to the University of Wales and I went there nearly 20 years ago when I was a student in Bangor so it’s very exciting to be going back. It looks the same in the photos but may have changed indoors, and I only have vague memories of the bedrooms as I don’t think I slept much when I was 19!

The reason I’m going is because I’m giving a short presentation to a Wales postgraduates’ conference in English lit and creative writing. Somehow I have to connect my Psychology PhD on dreams with literature and make it sound good. I’ve decided to use an extract from Jane Eyre for my analysis. Multidisciplinary me! I’ve got a plan and am writing the powerpoint thing. Hoping to record it for the podcast but if it’s utter rubbish then won’t bother podcasting! Alys and I are going to this conference together as she is the official English PhD student and I’m tagging along. So it’s going to be a little jolly really, and I shouldn’t be as nervous as I am about a ten minute presentation given that I’ve been teaching undergrads for the past few months. My main problem is fitting everything into ten minutes as when I first planned the presentation I thought I’d have half an hour. Sigh.

Silence Goes Global

I heard this week that my publisher has been contacted by the people on the Bookmark Show on World Radio in Switzerlandto review Silence!

It’s an English language show presented in the format of three authors each choose a book then discuss it. The February one was on A Thousand Splendid Suns, Three Cups of Tea and Nothing to be Frightened Of, where they totally rip the books apart, gulp! I listened to it yesterday and it’s quite nail-biting to think that they’re going to be doing this to my book. The show with my book is going to be in June and themed on independent publishers. As all publicity is good publicity, even if they say it’s soap-operatic (which they say about ATSS) or better if written by someone else (TCT) or navel-gazing (NFO) then it’s still getting my title out there!

I will keep the blog updated on this, and post the link to the podcasted show when I have it, which will probably be sometime mid-June.

Wales Book of the Year

Another thing making me nervous and unable to settle to anything is that The Wales Book of the Year longlist is being announced this evening in Bangor. One of the judges for this is going to be at the conference I think. So I’m not sure whether I’ll know if Silencehas been longlisted or not when I go to Gregynog tomorrow, but I will probably find out while there. So that might be highly exciting or slightly uncomfortable and embarrassing depending on the outcome. Oh god. One can hope, can’t one? I mean, it’s not too inconceivable to think that Silence might get on the longlist, is it?

Right, I have to stop thinking like this and write the damn presentation.

Oh BTW, don’t tell Alys but I’m thinking of offering to drive Lindsay Lohan home from the club. You never know where it could lead…

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