I laid an egg, by Catriona

I'm not answering the QotW today. 1. Eric said it all yesterday. 2. My new book, SCOT'S EGGS, came out on Tuesday and the launch party is tonight.

details here

But I'll sort of somewhat be answering the question if I talk about some of the feedback I've had at launch parties and other readings and book events down the years, right?

The funniest ever (although I had to force myself not to laugh) was years back, in relation to The Burry Man's Day (Dandy Gilver No.2) A woman came to a library reading in the village where it's set, also village where I was born. She was hot, dishevelled and grumpy. Turned out she was halfway through the book and had spent a fruitless afternoon searching the nearby countryside for the castle where the murder took place. Unfortnately, the author's note - revealing that the real castle was a hundred miles off in a different county - was at the end of the book. I don't think I gained a fan that day.

The bridge is real

The most humbling was a few years later at Watertones' (big chain) flagship Edinburgh store. It's not really feedback but it was a strong message. There was a sign halfway up the stairs that said, in big letters, CAFE CLOSED FROM 6PM. Then in small letters it said Reading with Catriona McPherson. Finally, in medium sized font, it said Sorry for any inconvenience. I took a picture, and I've searched all my pic files for it today but can't find it. This, added to the fact of how tin-eared it was, might make me wonder if I'm misremembering, but that store had form. A year or so earlier, I was introduced thus by the then manager: "It's been a very busy day, and if you need the toilet I wouldn't advise using ours. Right, here's Catriona McPherson". He doesn't work there any more. Gone off to a career in the diplomatic service, maybe.   

Usually, the questions and feedback at launch parties are lovely. No one's read the book yet so they can't stick the knife in. That comes later in emails. One recurring question that always tickles me is "If you were going to kill your husband, how would you do it?" How. Never why. (Walk behind him on a quiet clifftop path, by the way.)

He keeps a close eye on me

By far and way, the best feedback I ever had at a book thing was during a publishing party in London. I was very dressed up. I'd had my make-up, including individual fake lashes, professionally done at a beautician's in Kensington (which is another story, actually.) Back to the party. For some reason, Helen Mirren was there. (So was Michael Palin. He touched my arm to get past me and we shared this heart-to-heart: MP: excuse me. The End.) Anyway, Dame Helen was surrounded with people stopping the likes of me from bothering her. But, as I had learned at the end of that busy day in the bookshop, everyone needs to pee. And it was when I came out of the cubicle and went to wash my hands, that I looked in the mirror and saw guess who washing hers. "Great lashes," she said, grinned and left.

They were. I pulled them off a few days later, sitting at the top of a hill in Galloway, with a flask of tea and a foil-wrapped sandwich, back in my real life. 

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