Thanks so much to everybody who came along to my book launches this week, to the wonderful people at Argonaut Books in Edinburgh and at Category Is Books in Glasgow, and to my excellent hosts Kirstyn Smith and Louise Blain. Book people really are the best people, and I had the best time on both evenings.

I’m absolutely delighted to be doing my Glasgow book launch event in Category Is, one of my favourite places. Tickets are free but very limited so I don’t think they’ll be available for long. The event is on 8 December at 7pm and everything you need to know is at the end of this link.

Pre-orders of Carrie Kills A Man started arriving in readers’ homes this morning, and I received my author copies too. I had a bit of a moment when I opened the box and saw the pristine copies, because of course books are more than just paper and ink.   They’re magical things.

I’ve had many books published, but not a book like this. It’s a very strange feeling to publish something so personal. Good strange, but strange nevertheless.

I’m absolutely delighted to be featured on Damian Barr’s Literary Salon podcast as his book of the week, and I’m particularly pleased that Damian found lots of joy in the book.

You can listen to me reading an extract on Damian’s Soundcloud, which I’ve included below.

Carrie Kills A Man will be book of the week on Damian Barr’s Literary Salon podcast on Wednesday, and that means I also got the opportunity to recommend some books that I think are well worth your time. 

I don’t know what magic my publisher pulled to get Patton Oswalt to read and recommend my book, but as my best pal says, they have clearly sacrificed something.

I did my first ever literary event last night at the University of Glasgow as part of Publishing Scotland’s Creative Conversations series.

To say I was terrified would be an understatement. I barely slept in the days before, and during the day itself I managed to break two glasses and prang one of my neighbours’ cars because I was so preoccupied.

I posted about my fear to Twitter and got lots of reassuring replies, including one from Rebecca Lawther: “You got this! Book people are good people.”

She was right on both counts.

I had a blast and really enjoyed the readings from my fellow panelists Chitra Ramaswamy (an old friend from radio and a brilliant writer), Cynthia Rogerson (hilarious), Malachy Tallack (inspiring), Trishna Singh OBE (just gorgeous writing) and Mark Woolhouse OBE (fascinating). Despite being the only person on my panel without an OBE I think I did okay, and I loved chatting with other writers, publishing people and bookworms afterwards.

It’s a real honour to be invited to events like these, and I’m not just saying that because they fed us. I’m still not entirely comfortable – my impostor syndrome was through the roof – but book people are good people and they went out of their way to make me feel welcome and valued, for which I’m very grateful.

Hopefully my next book events won’t involve me damaging anybody’s cars.