The secret to falling in love with your novel again...

...is holding the bound proof/Advanced Review Copy in your hands for the first time.

It arrived today and I actually gasped when I opened the package.

I've seen a pencil sketch of the actual cover - it's completely different to this one - and I know this cover is just temporary (a bound proof is for marketing/PR purposes and isn't for sale) and the 'real' book isn't out until 10th November but it's just so damned pretty!

And pink!

And the tag line - 'All she wants for Christmas are three little words' - is just perfect!

Not only that but, all of a sudden, the 90,000 or so words I've rewritten and edited fifteen million times over the last two years (okay so I'm exaggerating slightly but I did put a hell of a lot of work into this novel) are suddenly real.

They're not just part of my laptop they an actual, proper, you-can-turn-the-pages-and-everything BOOK!

There have been times over the last few years where I would quite happily have thrown this novel (if it existed outside of my laptop) against the nearest wall but now I just want to stroke it and stare at it (I'll draw the line at coo-ing!) and carry it around with me.

I know people compare books to babies and even the mother of the ugliest baby in the world thinks it's beautiful, so excuse the gushing. I'm ever-so-slightly in love.