And so the paperback of The Dream Weavers has been safely launched. It was selected as one of Fern’s picks at Tesco, with a special section of questions for book clubs, after which we had a flurry of bookshop events. It was so good to be out and about again after two years of lockdown! I kicked off with a lovely conversation with Sue at Linghams Bookshop in Heswall, Wirral, followed next day by a pit stop at Mold, at both of which I met lots of readers – as always so many of them have read my books they feel like old friends. A week after that there was a truly splendid cream tea at The Manor Hotel in Crickhowell, laid on by Emma at local bookshop Book-ish for nearly 100 people. There I was talking with Dr Anne Rowe and we covered all sorts of fascinating topics. Next came Historical Fiction Night at the Carnival of Words in Wrexham, where they too were relieved to be back to real life after Zooming last year! There I met Californian novelist Patricia Bracewell and we discussed our mutual Anglo-Saxon queens (chaired by Paul Jeorrett). I think we could have gone on talking for hours. A couple of days later it was all the way down to Ross-on-Wye for an evening conversation with Andy at Rossiters - their first bookshop event too since Covid. It was so marvellous to be back on the road. And there are still three events to go in my diary – Hereford Cathedral on 11th May, where I will be chatting with Alex James. This one will be an extra special evening because so much of the book is set in and around the cathedral. After that comes a visit to Griffin Books at Penarth on 7th June closely followed on 9th by a very different kind of event, this one with professional hypnotist Tony Rae - my role obviously being to discuss the background to Lady of Hay and how I came to use regression as the theme for the book. Tony will be calling for volunteers from the audience, so if you ever wanted to find out about your past lives, now is your chance. For details of these last three, see the Events column in this website.
