I had a brilliant time at the Edinburgh Book Festival for the past couple days.  My Monsters of Men event was sold out, and I then had the longest signing queue of my life, which was brilliant!  I met tons of you, including a couple of excellent young writers.  The questions were great, the atmosphere really upbeat, I was very happy.  I think I even met FlossieTeacake who may have been disguising herself as "Rachael".

The Losing It school event with Keith Gray was the next day, and what could potentially have been a slightly uncomfortable hour was instead fantastic good fun.  430 teenagers listening and laughing and asking smart questions about a book on virginity.  A real pleasure, and a reminder once again why young adult readers are the best readers to write for.  Bookwitch wrote about this one with a photo or two.

A warm hello to all the new commenters (and yes, C, I do read them all).  A lot of questions lately about Todd and Viola's nationality, which is interesting.  Remember, they're from somewhere else, so I've always said (and mean) that they're the nationality you hear in your head when you read them.  After all, it could be you there in their place, couldn't it?