Guest list woes

One of the things that I’m really struggling with about this book launch is the guest list. This is essentially a promotional event and not a personal party, but I’m not sure that the vast majority of my friends will grasp this fact. The actual book itself will be released on 24^th September, it’s called Things He Never Knew and will be available to order from all good bookshops and available in stock in the best; i.e. those that I can charm into stocking it for me. As a debut novelist it’s a bit of a tall order to expect bookshops to actually stock your book. However the launch is not until the 29^th September. The 24^th is a Friday, which is party night anyway and even more so if it happens to be the day that you’re having your debut novel released. That’s definitely the way I look at it anyway. So I’m thinking that I’ll have the personal party on the 24^th and then my promotional, ‘selling myself’ event on the 29^th, which clearly requires a very carefully structured guest list. By the very nature of this I am guaranteed to upset someone by not inviting them. But it will be unintentional. Clearly I must invite my parents (this is the etiquette when they’ve paid for fifteen and a half years of private education; I went to school when I was two and a half) and probably brothers, sisters and close friends. But the people that I really want there are the media types, those that might offer me an interview, or take a few photos and do a little article, something like that. It is intended to be networking at its very best- if anyone worth networking with turns up of course….

In addition to which, some of my friends have the capacity to drink a great deal and I don’t really fancy a) having to pay for their vast alcohol consumption, or b) dealing with any drunken behaviour. I’ll be far too occupied with my own. No, that is a very tongue-in-cheek comment. I shall have to be as sober as a judge at the launch (now I studied Law at University and none of the judges I saw looked very sober so that is a bit of a non-sequitur) I must be my most charming self.

And the other thing that I am struggling to get to grips with this week is Twitter. I mean – what is it all about???? I’ve only just grasped facebook (and now I’m addicted) but Twitter is beyond me. All the little # symbols, having to tweet and re-tweet and reply @people – pathetic it may be but I really am struggling. Plus for the vast majority of my time on Twitter I’ve only had 3 followers. I don’t find it hard to make friends in real life but believe me I was finding it hard in the virtual world. Eventually a kind friend took it upon himself to help me out and gather a few followers so I’m now up to the grand total of 33. If anyone else fancies joining me to follow my daily juggling of children/press releases/author bio/general writing/promotion/housework/husband then I’m @SH_Writes on Twitter.

Ahhh…..children. The big excitement in our house this week has been little Alice moving into a big girls bed! It’s slightly late, she is 3 ½, but I was keen to keep her contained in a cot for as long as possible. Now she can clamber out willy-nilly at any time of night and scamper about the house – as we discovered at 5am this morning. She’s doing reasonably well though; four nights in a big bed without falling out or any hiccups at all – until she bounced on her bed this evening and broke it. That’s right. As in, ruined it completely. Her mattress is currently being propped up by pillows. But I’m so busy dealing with everything that goes on when a book release is imminent, I don’t know when I’ll find the time to nag my husband into repairing it.