From Notting Hill to Chile...in a month!

Hello,

Thought I’d better write a very quick catch up blog for March. Now where has that month gone again and what did I get up too?

Last week I went down to London. In the morning I headed over to Notting Hill to the Travel bookshop to sign 150 books for them! Lovely to be back there again, the last time was for my launch party way back in November. It's amazing to think that ‘From Notting Hill with Love...Actually’ is still their best ever selling book!

Then in the afternoon I met up with my editor, Caroline to discuss my third book, which I’m just about to start writing. I’m glad to say Caroline loved my ideas, so it’s now all systems go for book three! I’m very excited about this one. I’m loving the research I’m already in the process of doing and I’ve got some very exciting research still to come...

I also got to see the new cover for my second book ‘Breakfast at Darcy’s’ which comes out in November this year (I’ll hopefully be able to share this with you soon...) http://www.alimcnamara.co.uk/9.html

Everything in publishing works so long in advance that I’m now working on ideas for a book that will come out late in 2012, while occasionally editing and talking about publicity ideas and covers etc for a book that comes out at the end of this year, and still getting lovely messages from people who are enjoying my first book.

Talking of which I had this fascinating email from someone who found my book in a bookshop in Santiago, Chile! And Adele has kindly agreed I share it with you.

" Hi Ali, I have a tale I wanted to tell you of how I came across your novel 'From Notting Hill.. With Love Actually'. I'm currently on a one year travel in South America. My partner and I left our lives in Australia (however I'm English-Cornish in fact and he's Italian..) came to south America, bought a vw camper van and intend on driving the distance of Ushuaia to Vancouver in Canada...! Providing the van can get us there of course. We have all the will power in the world.. 'Betsy' our van, maybe not so much.. Anywho, we had driven from Santiago to Ushuaia and was heading 'the long way up' and I had already read the books I'd brought. So we stopped back through Santiago as I wanted to try and find some English reading books.. An impossible task.. However, luckily I found a very quirky 2nd hand book shop down an alley in Santiago and there in the window, as new, was your novel. I knew as soon as I saw it, it was a definite for me and I grabbed it! The woman told me, (in what little Spanish I could translate) it had just come to her. God knows how, most of the other books were very old romance novels.. ect. To my amazement after I'd left the shop and opened to read the first couple pages, you had also personalized it 'To Geza, with love.. Actually.. Ali McNamara!! Perhaps you had a book launch or maybe you know her? The book also had a fold 1/3 of the way in, so I think she must have lost it! If you know her I would be pleased to return it. Although.. I have read it.. and thoroughly enjoyed. Hopefully she won't mind if you do know her...? "


Fantastic story! And this is their wonderfully visual website if you’d like to follow their travels http://www.thelongwayup.info/

And if you’re Geza or you know Geza please get in touch!

Also March was Comic Relief night and if you didn’t see my escapades for Red Nose day here’s a link ;-)

So here’s to a fun-filled April....Mine starts with a wedding over in Germany next week. More on that next month...


Until the next time,

A x