Still feeling bouyant!

And just look at what the lovely Kate Walker sent to help us celebrate. I still feel fairly shattered, but I suppose that's to be expected, and it's going to take a bit of time to sort out all the consequences from the last year and a bit. We'll get there and meanwhile I'm smiling!!

Which I think is pretty darn good considering I was the guest author at a book group this week. It was an .... interesting experience. I don't think there was a reader of romance there. There certainly wasn't a reader of series fiction in the room and I felt the full force of that. :)

I think my favourite question of the evening was, 'Before you wrote for Mills & Boon did you *actually* know anyone who read them???'

Er .. yes, I must have because there's a Mills & Boon book sold every five seconds in the UK alone. We're published in 26 different languages and sold in over 109 international markets. It's impressive stuff and it honestly mystifies me as to why people are so sneering.

It's almost as though they make an assumption that only ignorant women would choose to read series fiction when, actually, the statistics show something else entirely. Moreover, scratch beneath the surface of these 'intellectuals' and you often discover avid viewers of soaps and reality TV. Not exactly high-brow viewing, is it!

I think most women read different things at different times in differing moods. It's all about choice. What's truly wonderful about category fiction is that in the space of a long hot bubblebath you can experience the rush of falling in love. There are days when I really really want that. Other days I'll go for the book about the one legged lesbian who robbed a bank and then murdered her lover. Not often I admit. :) But you know what I mean.

This almost constant criticism was the reason why Trish, Ally, Nic and I set up the Pink Heart Society. Tomorrow I'm blogging over there. It's my turn to write the Weekend Wind-Down. Come and find me.