Last Thursday, I went down to London to meet my publishers in person! We sold the book in early March 2020 and now it’s nearly 20 months later. It’s been some time. Seems like we should be old friends by now – and in some ways, we are. But after so many rounds of edits (structural, copy, line, proof-reading), cover conversations, marketing and publicity discussions, and rights and sales news, it was *wonderful* to meet the team supporting Peach Blossom Spring in person. My much anticipated, long-awaited visit to the Wildfire/Headline offices did not disappoint.
We started off with making several short films about the book. I brought an armful of show-and-tell treasures relevant to the writing and the story including books, artefacts, and the scroll pictured below. We’ll be sharing the videos with you as publication draws near. Until then, here are a few shots from the filming. Photos from my editor, Ella Gordon.
After nearly 3 hours of filming, I got to meet the rest of the team at a lovely reception with bubbles and nibbles. It went by so quickly! I meant to take a photo or two, but there were so many friendly faces and new names and before I knew it, it was time to go for lunch.
Yes, it was a publishing lunch in London with my editors, publicist, and agent. Yes, it was glorious and delicious. No, I don’t have any photos, because, once again, I was so caught up in the moment. But I can assure you that I savoured every bite of food and bit of conversation. Such a treat!
Then we were off on a whirlwind tour of some of London’s finest bookshops with my amazing publicist, Caitlin Raynor, to drop off proofs along with lovely test tubes of tea. We didn’t make it to *all* the bookstores, but we did make it to six and that was a good thing. Among her many talents, Caitlin Raynor is better at remembering to take photos than I am, so here’s evidence of our happy traipse:
Book Bar, Blackstock Road 
Ink 84, Highbury Park 
Waterstones Tottenham Court Road 
Daunt Books Marylebone High Street
It was the kind of day an author can only dream of and I was pinching myself the whole time. It’s taken a full week to come back down to earth!