Just over a month on from the publication of You and Me, I thought I’d look back at what it’s been like launching my second novel during a pandemic. I began this piece last week in a slightly gloomy we-must-count-our-blessings state of mind, but, since the news from the US, as it looks to welcome its first female VP of colour, things feel brighter. Still, here are a few more nice things from last month…
On 2 October, I celebrated the launch of You and Me with a Zoom event, hosted by Book-ish in Crickhowell, with my dear friend Sara Collins… One of the joys of celebrating from home is that I could dress completely inappropriately in a ballgown, which had more or less been my plan last year for The Girl Before You until I chickened out at the last moment. This time, though, I wouldn’t be leaving my living room so there was NO EXCUSE.
I also now have a publication day ritual, which involves singing Frank Sinatra’s “My Way” into a hairbrush-microphone, while wearing said ballgown. Honestly, I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: everyone should do this – not just on publication day, but whenever you need a boost. It’s better than therapy and so much cheaper… Here are Chota and I moments before launch. The Chote, as it has been pointed out by my nearest and dearest, is absolutely determined not to look at my new baby.
“If I don’t look at it, perhaps she’ll send it back…”
It’s always a complete joy talking to Sara about books (or anything, really) so the hour flew by. All of my family and friends have completely fallen in love with her, which is par for the course with Sara… Her incredible debut The Confessions of Frannie Langton won the Costa First Novel Award last year – and these days, as well as screenwriting the TV series of Frannie, she regularly presents Open Book, where she went on to interview Hilary Mantel shortly after me. Just sayin’…
As I write this, Wales is easing up from a national lockdown as England plunges in the opposite direction, so it’s a good time to show Book-ish – or indeed any of your favourite bookshops – some booky love. Last week, the author Holly Bourne came up with the #SignForOurBookshops campaign to support bookshops during lockdown.
This is how it works: if you're one of the first 100 people to buy one of my books from a high street or indie bookshop during lockdown, I'll send you a specially signed bookplate. (I may even ask Chota to add a paw print…) All you need to do is email proof of purchase from a bookshop to nicolaraynerwriter@gmail.com, alongside your postal address, and any personalised message you would like (UK only, I'm afraid). A few of my favourite bookshops include Book-ish, as I say, the wonderful Waterstones Abergavenny and my local indie the Pitshanger Bookshop in Ealing, but feel free to pick your own…
About last month
Around publication, I had the chance to speak to some fabulous fellow book lovers about You and Me and all sorts of other things besides. If you missed them, here are a few things you can listen or watch again…
In September, I went for a rather chilly dip with my friend Joe Minihane in (or on?!) Port Meadow, Oxford, and talked about how wild swimming can help with anxiety, the theme of water in my novels and why it works so well in crime fiction on his podcast Floating. We also discussed the duality of water – how a river or the sea can turn from a twinkling, benign presence in the summer into another creature entirely in the cooler months. Plus, I reminisced fondly about the time I nearly drowned as a child and wanged on about Daphne du Maurier’s Rebecca too because, essentially, all roads lead back to that for me.
Port Meadow looking more clement than it did in September! Photograph: Nicola Rayner.
… Which brings us nicely to Shelf Help, where I chatted to the brilliant Kate Weinberg about Rebecca for a solid 36 minutes. BLISS. Shelf Help is such a fantastic series – I can highly recommend listening to every episode (I particularly enjoyed Kate and Sara Collins getting the giggles over Bridget Jones in episode five).
Another treat was chatting to fellow Avon author Caroline Corcoran on Hello, Again with Isabelle Broom about female jealousy, loneliness and how social media doesn’t really help much with either. I adored Caroline’s second novel, The Baby Group, which explores the isolation experienced by new mothers, while You and Me looks at how lonely childlessness can be for women in their thirties. Caroline and I found it interesting that women on both sides of this life-changing decision ended up feeling cut off from their peers…
Another reason to read The Baby Group is that it starts with officially my favourite opening sentence of any novel I’ve read this year. I don’t think Caroline will mind if I quote it here:
It’s a strange thing, thinking about who released the sex tape of you while you eat a blueberry muffin next to your baby.
Tell me you don’t want to keep reading now!! TOO GOOD. Other thrillers I’ve recently enjoyed include SE Lynes’s The Housewarming, which is exquisitely written and like a punch to the heart, but in a good way, and Emma Curtis’s Keep Her Quiet, an outstanding howdunnit with a brilliant baddie (who happens to be an author, ha!) that kept me up until the small hours until I’d finished it. Meanwhile Catherine Cooper’s The Chalet was as welcome as a vin chaud after a chilly day on the slopes – a fabulous locked-room murder mystery set in a luxury chalet. Cooper is a travel journalist and it shows in the details of her writing. I’m also currently swotting up on the superbly gripping thrillers All Your Little Lies and I Know Your Secret by fellow Ealing authors, Marianne Holmes and Ruth Heald. Join us on 24th November for Secrets and Lies, chaired by Catherine Patterson and hosted by Ealing Libraries.
Finally, a few more good things over the last month have included being one of the Independent’s books of the month and a Magic FM book club pick. I also fulfilled my long-held teenage dream of writing for Marie Claire – you can read my piece about why it can be so hard to let go (something my protagonist Fran knows a thing or two about…) right here.
Autumn has been an insanely busy time for publishing, so I’m incredibly grateful for the coverage and the kind words, and to EVERY SINGLE PERSON who has read and reviewed You and Me this month. If you haven’t yet, click here for a little more about it… And if you’re thinking about Christmas shopping, you know what I’m going to suggest, don’t you?