Well, I'm back in the world of the web after a few days off! Had a good time in the UK. Went to stay in a convent to begin with -- Bas's aunt is a Carmelite nun, and lives in an enclosed order. She's in her 70s, and despite living within a convent for the last 50 years, is as wild as they come! She dated Richard Burton's brother in her earlier years ... she loves to smoke and drink ... and is the biggest Terry Pratchett fan I've ever met!!!! We try to get to see her at least a couple of times a year. I enjoy chatting with her -- she has a different take on life to most people.

Mary (the nun) was quite busy on the Friday, so we didn't see as much of her as we expected. We spent quite a lot of time driving around the East Anglia countryside. Popped in to visit a place called Grimes Graves. I was expecting some sort of graveyard, but it's actually the site of ancient flint mines. It was interesting, learning about the mining, though the mine itself wasn't much to view.

On Saturday we drove up to the coast for the wedding. It was one of Bas's friends getting married. We knew absolutely nobody there apart from the bride and groom. I was a bit edgy to begin with -- I'm not a great socializer, and find it very hard to get a conversation going with complete strangers. For the first few hours we didn't talk to anybody and I was feeling quite glum. But when we sat down for dinner, we soon got talking to the other guests at our table and they were an enjoyable bunch, easy to get on with. We spent the rest of the night chatting with them, and it was fun. Didn't have a crazy one -- drank sensibly and had an earlyish night -- but it passed nicely.

Got back home on Sunday. Went through my post and caught up with my e-mails. Found out that I'm back in the New York Times Top 10 Children's Bestsellers (hurrah!!) at #7!! I'm delighted when my books chart in any country, but because of the size of the place, America is obviously a vital and enticing nut to crack!!! Most authors from this side of the Atlantic don't make it in the States. I'm one of the few who've managed to take off there, and while I'm nowhere near as popular as Eoin Colfer (who's huge in America) I've made the NYT Top 10 with 3 of my last 4 books, which is an amazing achievement. It'll be interesting to see how "Lord Loss" fares there, especially coming so soon after the release of "The Lake of Souls" ...

Returned to book 8 of "The Demonata" today. Wrote 11 pages, which I was very satisfied with. Not the most exciting part of the book -- it's the build-up to the action scenes, the calm before the storm. I'll be glad to get down to the chaos and mayhem over the course of the next few days!!!!