I knew I was going to really enjoy the launch at Book Soup when I popped down to the famous store in Sunset a couple of days prior. Tyson and Charlie were upstairs in the office, I sat down on one of those swivel office chairs, the one that’s abandoned because it’s stuck permanently at an inappropriate height and no one can be bothered to fix it.  Oversized now, and feeling a little like Alice in Wonderland, T&C offered me whisky, it being 5pm.   I declined, but only because I had a pounding headache having driven round in circles for an hour and a half when it should have taken me only 20 minutes to get there.  Too vain to shut the convertible roof up and turn on the air con.  Mini Coopers don’t seem to come with satellite navigation systems. Tyson and I compared tattoos - my henna “BECKY HEART MATT” which I hadn’t managed to yet scrub off, to his real ones, embellishing his arms.  We chatted about books and book launches and what Eminem’s real name was, and whether the red head one on CSI MIAMI is a really bad actor or a so bad-he’s-brilliant actor,  and how only the really nice authors bother to come into the store before their book readings, and then I left, and then lo! two days later I was back again, only this time in a long flowing dress with my hair and make up done, feeling more than a little nervous.  

Michelle Collins from Eastenders showed up!  Looking, can I say, absolutely gorgeous.  She was meeting a friend of mine, Millie Kendall, MBE, the other half of Ruby & Millie.  My friend Jen brought along half her family (she has a big family) as well as several girlfriends, and Kathy (Read California Beauty) came with half the mums from her school.  Good to see other familiar faces: Grant (aka Sausages), Nico, my best friend Jon.  Book Soup is small, intimate, if you have 30 people there you feel like you’re packing out Wembley stadium.  Questions were asked: what about film rights? (I guess that’s the difference between an LA book launch and a New York one) to which I was able to answer that some of the producers from Sex and The City have expressed an interest in turning Face Value into a movie  (hurrah!); what was the difference between the overall aesthetic on a US magazine and a British magazine? (I answered not that much, as so many Brit editors end up crossing the pond to edit US mags); what is it like being a beauty editor?  (one more perfume launch and I’d happily stick pins in my eyes).  I actually found myself relaxing and enjoying it.  Signed lots of books.  It’s hard sometimes to think of something witty to say, something marginally more interesting than “best wishes” but I think “Love your man boobs” was a new low for me.  (It was the recipient’s idea, honest).  Went back to the store the following day to sticker and sign the remaining pile.  They very nicely stuck them right in the front next to another nice author’s books Joshua Ferris, author of THEN WE CAME TO THE END (Back Bay Books). I bought his book.  No doubt he’s writing about Face Value on his website right now.. he’s that nice, is Josh…