One Week On

So, ‘Knowledge Waits’ was finally released last week and the company launch took place in London where my consumption of red wine was quite enough to liven me up, but not quite excessive enough to prevent me catching the train back home from Paddington.

So how does it feel to have a novel ‘out there’?

Well, of course until the Zitebooks publicity machine really gets into gear and the word of mouth starts to spread like foot and mouth it’s a bit disappointing that I am not yet in a position to start scanning the property pages for a pied-à-terre in The Maldives.

It is, however, rather good for the ego to have folk at work, whom I hardly know, tell me their partners are enjoying the novel. Less reassuring are the silent stares from those who may well have splashed out for it, but are now wishing they had spent the cash on some of the red wine I drank last week. Or am I only imagining that?

One guy who teaches in London wrote to me and said that I really must work in a ‘shit college’. I am glad the school in my novel comes across as so truly awful; it is meant to be so. But it is NOT where I work (and I am sticking to that statement).