One year ago yesterday, Up The Creek Without a Mullet was published.

Very much a process rather than an event, I am still enjoying the thrill and excitement of having a book published, and the range of events, interviews, publicity and more in the past year has confirmed – as if I needed it – that despite the years (and expense!) of travel, and the discipline and frustration of writing and pitching, in many ways the real hard work didn’t end on publishing, but rather began.  But I don’t want to dwell on that right now.

Instead, I’d like to thank absolutely everyone who has turned up to events, readings or signings, everyone who has bought the book, recommended it, reviewed it, blogged or tweeted about it, “liked” it on Facebook, told their friends about it, and much more.  I’m very grateful for so many people’s efforts on this front, because it’s really by word of mouth that books sell.

As anyone who has been to a reading or signing will know, if I’ve been asked to sign someone’s copy of their book then I’ve insisted they sign mine in return.  The relationship between a reader and author should be egalitarian and two-way, after all.  Flicking through my now quite tattered copy of UTCWAM, I can read the scrawled wishes from a whole host of people, some well-kent and legible, others less so, and it’s a humbling reminder of how much I owe to so many folk who’ve in a variety of ways been a part of the journey.

It will be an exciting year to come, too, what with continued promotion of UTCWAM (it’s not too late to do this author a wee favour and bung a review of the book on your favourite online bookstore or your blog, or tell your friends, or buy a copy for someone’s birthday!), and of course the continuing progress in writing the sequel.

And at each stage of both promoting UTCWAM and writing the sequel, I need to remind myself that the hard work is always only just beginning.