Now I don’t want to give too much away but I can tell you that at St Jude’s this term: Gina really can’t decide whether she loves or hates her new boyfriend (does that make him the Marmite boyfriend?)… Amy is still trying to track down her real Mum but is frightened of what she might find out… and Niffy’s got family problems of her own. Then there is Min: exams are looming so she has just about locked herself in the study. Help!

What every girl needs is to grab a dress and a pair of sparkly shoes (just like the ones on the cover) and dance their problems away at a truly unforgettable party!

I like to say that the St Jude’s series is for teenagers of all ages. I know that I have a wonderful time channelling my inner teen (and remembering so many cringeworthy teenage moments) when I am writing the stories. I really hope you enjoy the new story!

Find out more on my Secrets at St Jude’s website and watch my behind-the-scenes video here!

Check out the new cover for the sixth Secrets at St Jude’s book, Party Girl. It’s absolutely brilliant. I love it.  A party in a cover… a party in a shoe! Unfortunately you will have to wait until August 4^th to get your hands on it.

I have been chained to my desk, literally typing my fingers to the bone for you my lovely readers. I’ve just finished Party Girl and put the final touches to the brand new (v v exciting) story The Jewels of Manhattan which comes out in November. Much, much more about that all soon.

Meanwhile, I am really enjoying all my new multi-media ways of connecting with readers.

You can now read Annie’s very own blog at annievalentine.wordpress.com – learn more about summer tights, fake tan and Kate Middleton’s dress sense right here. Annie also twitters @AnnieVshopper plus you can find the real me and lots of other Carmen readers (geddit? Sorry!) on the Facebook author page.

I look forward to catching up with you!

Oooh and here’s a little pic of me talking to some lovely St Jude’s fans. I do love to do a school visit, it’s one way of having a captive audience. (If you’d like a visit to your school email me at carmen@carmenreid.com and I’ll see what I can do).  However, I may have to take some Annie advice re author visit outfits. I mean I never want to be over-glammed for school visits, but grey Mary-Janes… what was I thinking?!

I have a new book out this month – the fourth Secrets At St Jude’s which is called Rebel Girl. I am loving the sparkly kiss kiss lips on the cover. Gorgeous! 

I can tell you that the Gina and Dermot romance comes under severe strain when deliciously handsome Callum appears on the scene. Callum is in hot pursuit of our fav Californian girl. Meanwhile, Amy is trying to cope with the fact that her Dad may no longer be rich. She may actually have to shop on the High Street (eeek!). Niffy is about to take drastic transformation action to make herself glamorous – think bad haircut. We’ve all been there. Min needs to be dragged out of the study to have some fun, she is swotting far too hard.

Rush to the bookshop and get a copy, I hope you’ll love it.

Now, what else… I’ve got an article in She magazine about turning 40. If you’d like to know more, you’ll have to get your hands on the June 2010 issue with Dervla Kirwan on the cover. But I’ll also post up a link ASAP. The piece was inspired by one of my birthday cards. On the front it read: ‘You’re only young once…’ then inside, it said: ‘How was it?’ Ouch!!! But it’s true, 40 is not young and I’m still adjusting!

Anyway, it has been a frantically busy month as I finish off the NEW Annie Valentine. The planned new title is: New York Valentine. Genius, no? But I’m not saying any more! I’ve also been inundated with birthdays lately.

Cake creating is hitting new highs. For the girl party, there was a chocolate delight studded with pink Smarties, for the hungry big boy party – a giant Victoria sponge with cream, jam and Star Trek action figures. To boldly go where no cake has gone before.

Sun… there is finally sun! So happy!

Yes, that really is me in the photo with the world famous Sophie Kinsella, Joanne Harris, Nicholas Parsons and the other fabulous authors at my publisher’s 60^th birthday party. Is the lovely Ms Kinsella not rocking her 8-month bump in the leopard skin dress? Go girl!

Now, I’ve had lots of email about the reading order of the books. First of all, don’t panic! The books are written so you can pick any one of them up, dive in and get to know the characters without missing anything vital.

But, if you’d like to read them in order, the Annie Valentine series goes: The Personal Shopper, Late Night Shopping, How Not To Shop and Celebrity Shopper (so far!)

Secrets at St Jude’s reading order is: New Girl, Jealous Girl, Drama Girl. Book four, Rebel Girl comes out in June.

My first four books are ‘stand alone’ titles, so no special order required.

I’ve done some fantastic visits and events during March. I’ve been talking about books, reading and writing in schools in and around London. I was talking at Waterstone’s in Guildford, then Stockton-upon-Tees library, I did a books festival and a Unicef event in Glasgow. Oh and a lovely primary school in Glasgow too. It’s been fantastic to meet so many readers and hopefully inspire lots of future writers.

This is some of the feedback from the lovely ladies I met in Stockton:

‘Carmen was an enlightenment – inspirational’

‘Really enjoyed listening to Carmen read extracts from her books. I’ve wondered how an author wants her books to ‘sound’ when read – now I know’

‘Carmen was such an interesting and charming person’

‘I really enjoyed the evening, Carmen was inspirational and funny’

Awwwww! Thank you so much, incredibly kind.

This is a picture of me and the lovely Jill Mansell (author of more than 20 bestselling books – wow!). As you can see, we are ‘relaxing’ in the bar after our Girls Night Out event.

NEW BOOKS!!

The third Secrets at St Jude’s : Drama Girl hits the shelves this month! The official publication date is Feb 4, but you will be able to get your hands on a copy from the last weekend in January. You can order direct from the publishers here and if you’d like signed book-plates to stick in the front, then just drop me an email – carmen@carmenreid.com.

Just a little bit longer to wait for the new Annie – Celebrity Shopper is out on March 4th!

This is Jimmy’s new winter scarf, knitted specially for him by the totally lovely, top St Jude’s fan, Zarah Ahmed. Is it not soooooo cute?! Jimmy has been enjoying the snow. But when the temperature goes below minus 5, his feet freeze, he stars limping and has to be carried home – which he hates as he may be tiny, but he is definitely no lapdog.

There has been so much snow for weeks that we have almost got bored of sledging! In the Botanical Gardens there is this steep hill peppered with trees. Claudie has no control over her sledge and it is terrifying to watch, but how can I not let her go without being a huge spoilsport?

When I was about 10, my Dad built this mile long downhill ‘cresta run’ which he used his tractor armed with a leaking water butt to ice over. We used to hurtle down it on an antique sledge which had metal runners rubbed with candle wax! I remember shooting clean through the wires of a fence. Now I hear myself suggesting to my children that they wear bicycle helmets…

The Bad…

Bleeeeeuuuuurrrrrrghhhhh!

I always have a lovely time over Christmas and New Year and tell myself that this year, I’m going to be positive and surely January won’t be that bad? Then it comes round and slaps me in the face all over again.

Jan 2nd, it is freeeeeeezing despite all the heating roaring at full blast and wearing three layers at all times. Jan 3rd horrible icky sticky sinusitis sets in, despite the fact that I have been saintly over the holidays, eating well and hardly drinking at all. My New Year’s resolution btw is to change from being a ‘regular’ drinker into a ‘very occasional’ drinker. Jan 4th my pipes burst and suddenly we have an indoor water feature. More like waterfall.

For an hour, it is a hideous drama. Water gushing from kitchen ceiling, light sockets (yikes!) door arches, children holding buckets and crying, parents rushing about trying to find more buckets, the plumber’s number and shrieking about where is the stopcock? And how does it work? And why the bloody hell don’t we know this?

(Just take a moment now my darlings to locate the stopcock, that’s the large tap that turns off all the water in your house, and work out how to turn it off. If your pipes burst, you will thank me. One friend already has!)

However, once the water has been mopped up and everything moved about and dried off. Things don’t look quite so bad. In fact, apart from some repainting and a new kitchen ceiling, we may not have to get anything else replaced. Obviously a lot more insulation will have to go up into the draughty attic space, where the pipes froze in the first place. But we have had days and days at minus 5 and nights of minus 10.

I am a terrible person to have around in a crisis. I did a lot of running about, panic sweating and shouting. ‘Just be calm, stay calm’ I shouted a lot, in a voice which didn’t sound calm at all. Generally I ran about like a great flapping chicken. But I did hug the children a lot afterwards and tell them how well they’d done. They stood under a doorway with buckets, catching water. I remember Claudie rushing down from her bedroom with a tiny sand bucket and her towel.

We couldn’t cook in the soaking kitchen that night, so we went to Macdonalds. See how I am cleverly linking images of family disaster with fast food in their impressionable minds.

The Ugly…

I was back at my desk (box of tissues on one side, used crumpled pile of tissues on the other, red, flaky nose doused in Nivea, sheepskin slippers, thermal vest, two jumpers) feeling totally depressed about the ceiling leak and the frozen pipes. The pipes re-froze twice after the burst! Cue much panic, heaters in attic, hairdryers, kettles etc. Me convinced everyone was going to be electrocuted.

But as my dear friend Annie Valentine would tell me: no good comes of huddling about in 15 layers of wool and nose cream. The January spiral will set in. Before I know it I’ll be too cold to leave the house. Too cold to leave the bedroom. Too cold to move from the electric blanket! Then that big grey, snotty blanket of bleakness will move in on me.

I know Annie’s advice would be to dress up a bit and face the world. So… I washed my face, applied lipgloss, put on my leopard skin hat instead of my woolly one and dug my black fake fur coat out of the back of the wardrobe. Yes, definitely more glamorous than the duvet coat.

Then I walked the school run, even though it’s nearly a five mile round trip. When I got to the playground, it’s funny, but other Mums I know approached to stroke the coat!! Then we were all swapping winter tales of woe. Someone’s child’s front teeth got knocked out sledging. People are buying bottled water at the supermarket because even their cold water has frozen solid. Someone else went up into the attic to inspect their insulation and found dust!

It was good to get out there, get some perspective and realise I’m not the only one with some minor problems!

The children and I walked home from school in minus 8. It was freezing yes, but magically cold. We saw someone skating on a pond. This winter will be a very special childhood memory for them.

Here is a sneak preview of the amazing covers for the two new books, out in early 2010.

Drama Girl is out on January 28th 2010. LOVING the tiara!

Celebrity Shopper – Annie’s latest adventures – comes out on March 4th. Not too long to wait!

Portlethen, Perth, Fort William and Blackpool are next.

Thursday 10th September – 7.00pm
‘Girls Night In’ Launch event at Cardonald Library
1113 Mosspark Drive, Glasgow G52 3BU
Library contact: Myra Paterson
Reading Partners contact: Mary Greenshields
£30 Topshop giveaway
Tickets £1

Thursday 17th September – 7.00pm
‘Girls Night In’ Carlisle Library
11 Globe Lane, Carlisle CA3 8NX
Contact: Helen Towers
Phone: 01228 227287
Mob: 07802 451545
Joint kids / adult event in association with Debenhams

Wednesday 23rd September – 7.00pm
‘Girls Night In’ Portlethen Library
Bruntland Road, Portlethen AB12 4QL
Contact: Lesley Masson – Adult Fiction Librarian
01651 871215
Joint kids / adult event

Tuesday 29th September – 7.00pm
AK Bell Library Theatre
York Place, Perth PH2 8EP
Contact: Katherine McLeod
01738 477023
Joint kids / adult event
Bookseller tbc
£50 Topshop giveaway

Wednesday 30th September – 7.30pm
Fort William Library
Airds Crossing, High St, Fort William, PH33 6EU
Contact: Charlotte Macarthur
01349 868247
Joint kids / adult
Beautician attending on the night

Wednesday 7th October
Blackpool Shopping with Words
Contact: Lynne Pattinson
Venue tbc

Make a little room in your summer holiday suitcase for the new Annie Valentine, as How Not To Shop comes out on 13th August.

At the AK Bell Theatre in Perth, I served my first ever time on a discussion panel this month.  Is The Love Story Dead? Discuss. It was a really interesting and enjoyable evening. Great to meet writers Ewan Morrison and Sharon Blackie as well as the incredibly well-read Dorothy Macmillan, Stuart Kelly and Ajay Close. Just as soon as I’d sipped down my second Buck’s Fizz to quell those public speaking nerves, I had a great time!

I’m going on a library tour in September… more details to follow next month. Hope I can catch up with lots of readers.

The rest of June has been all about two of the Very Important Males in my life: my son and my Dad.

On the same day that my son went off on his first week-long school trip to an outward bound adventure centre thingy, my Dad went into hospital to have his hip replaced.

Oh what a lovely amount of fretting and stressing I did! Will Sam have enough socks? Eat enough fibre? Survive the abseiling lesson? Will Dad have enough books to read? Eat any hospital food? Survive the operation?!!

Good grief it was stressful. My Mum and I got through much more wine and cake than usual, I can tell you.

However, the week ended. Sam came off the bus looking tall, brown, grubby and ridiculously chirpy. He was absolutely fine – apart from a neck rash brought on by a combination of ‘slurping on midge repellent like gravy’ (his words) and not washing properly (well, he is newly 11!) And apparently abseiling – which he’d been slightly worried about – was the best fun ever.

Dad came out of hospital the following day and went home to the farm along with crutches, a raised loo-seat and various other gadgets.

He has always been the fittest, healthiest person I know. Up until two years ago he was still running (he doesn’t jog, he RUNS!) and he looks after a herd of 80 cattle, so the ever-increasing hip problem has taken some time for him to adjust to.

I have no idea how Mum is going to keep him resting for six weeks. There is already talk of how soon can he get back on his bike (his new hobby now that he can’t run!) and my Dad’s usual competitive streak  means he will want to make the fastest recovery from the operation ever!

More news next month when I get back from New York! Yes, I’ll just say that once again… when I get back from New York!!