We have…lift off! The official launch

Well, I write to you in the throes of post-publication comedown. After a crazy, brilliant, exciting publication week and launch party (last week), normality has now resumed and I write this from my office, where I sit alone in silence (I just can’t work with music, I’ve tried…) a bagel with marmite, half-eaten on my desk, wearing odd socks and having just remembered I forgot to put some deodorant on - don’t you just hate that? Yep, it’s definitely back to normal!

Anyway, the launch party of HOW WE MET was amazing: the number of people who showed up to support me and celebrate with me, was amazing (see here - it was rammed! We ran out of booze and books! ) The work behind the scenes by everyone at Harper Collins (I literally love them) was amazing, and I really had to pinch myself a number of times and remember, that this really was my life; and that around sixty people really had come out to celebrate with me; and that I was publishing my third novel and that the people of Harper Collins want me enough to publish me and also arrange / pay for a party. I felt ‘proper lucky’ as they say in Lancs! However, possibly the most amazing, loveliest thing about the whole thing for me, was how that launch party exemplified the whole meaning behind the book itself.

HOW WE MET is a book about friendship, yes, but really it’s just about people and love and working out, what is really important in life. And if that room full of friends and family didn’t demonstrate what IS truly important in life, then I don’t know what would. About halfway through the party, I did a little reading, for which I had to stand on top of a stepladder (Can you see me clinging on for dear life here? That is because I was crapping myself and also, because I was wearing the most gorgeous and yet ludicrously high purple ankle boots ever.) However, when I stood up there and looked at the sea of people in front of me, my nerves went almost immediately because I just saw a room full of people I loved, who were going to support me, and I felt genuinely so LUCKY that I even knew this many lovely people who had all come out in force.

So, I want to say a massive thank you to those friends who came, who bought me cards and little congratulatory pressies and flowers and just brought themselves - and of course the book on the night! Also, to everyone who reviewed it - so many lovely reviews from bloggers and newspapers and magazines (The Sun, Marie Claire, Fabulous and so many more.) And I don’t just mean the gushy, wonderful ones (although, those are always nice, let’s be honest) but also the honest, thoughtful ones, who took the time to really think about what the book was about at its heart, and to understand the characters and do it justice in their write-ups. Lastly, I am so grateful to all of you who have bought it so far, and tweeted / FBd / written about it / written reviews on Amazon. I really felt the love last week and it totally, without a doubt, makes all the hard slog worth it.

Now for me to give you something back! There are still a few days for you to win a night away in a gorgeous boutique hotel for you and your best friend. Just tweet, telling us in 140 characters, how you met each other using #howwemet to @katyreganwrites or @W6BookCafe. We will be judging next week!

In the meantime, please don’t forget to tell me if you enjoyed HOW WE MET.

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