News




	March 2010 It's been a shameful amount of time since I updated the website - but I do have a good excuse (honest). I've been moving house - back to Liverpool, the city of my birth and the setting for all my books. So research just got a lot easier! It's been an exciting month as publication of My Single Friend is only weeks away now. I got my first copies of the book last week and I honestly can't tell you how thrilled I am with them. It is undoubtedly the book I'm most proud of to date - I feel it's my funniest and I love the main characters, Henry and Lucy, more than I can tell you. When I finished writing the book, I really missed them as if they were my real friends. That's got to be a good sign. As if all that wasn't enough, The Nearly Weds has been nominated for a Romantic Novelists Association award. I'm up against the likes of Jill Mansell and Jenny Colgan - so am practising my 'dignified loser' face! I find out if I've won on March 16th at a glittering ceremony in London (they're always glittering aren't they?). Promise I'll update this as soon as I know! ------------------------------ December 2009 The covers for My Single Friend arrived in the post today and I'm beyond excitement. Hope it wins your approval! x ------------------------------ September 2009 I'm gearing up for a big book festival in Blackpool next month called 'Wordpool'. Lots of fab authors are involved, from Carmen Reid to Milly Johnson, Kate Long and Trisha Ashley. I'll be there on Wednesday October 8th - from 11.50 to 12.30 at A&B Christie's on Corporation Street, then later at 3.10pm at FYC on Church Street (where I'll be joining Carmen Reid, author of How Not To Shop). All the authors involved will be doing readings, talks and signings. Hope to see you there! On another note, I've just been interviewed by the lovely lady at Book Chick City. Take a look here . . . http://tinyurl.com/ydxpewb ------------------------------ August 2009 We've FINALLY settled on a title for my third book - and I'm so thrilled because, of the enormous list of possibilities, this was one was a clear favourite of mine. It's called 'My Single Friend'. So, now I've revealed that, I'd better let you know what it's about, hadn't I? Here's a little synopsis I put together... Lucy Tyler and Henry Fox have been best friends since primary school. So when he enlists her help to embark on an image makeover, she and her friends Dominique and Erin approach the project with gusto. As well as the haircut and fashion overhaul, there are master classes in flirting and seduction. But none of the girls imagine at the start of 'Project Henry' just how successful it's going to be. After a shaky beginning, Henry's transformation from Lucy's terminally single friend to an irresistable sex god takes on a life of its own. And she isn't at all sure she likes it. It'd help if her own dates were more successful. Only between vomiting on one companion's shoes, breaking another's arm during a YMCA routine and leaving someone in casualty, courtesy of an errant chopstick, they're anything but. With a romantic history like that, it's little wonder that she questions her judgment when her feelings towards Henry start to become more complicated. Surely the love of her life couldn't have been right in front of her for almost twenty years? ------------------------------ June 2009 I'm still buzzing from the Melissa Nathan Award for Comedy Romance last night. I didn't win - that honour went to Farahad Zama for the Marriage Bureau for Rich People. He's a worthy winner - if you've not read the book I'd highly recommend it; not traditional chick-lit by any stretch of the imagination, but a gorgeous story written with real warmth and wit. Amazingly, Farahad told me last night that he writes while still holding down his job as a city trader - he produces 250 words every morning on the way into work and 250 words on the way home. Now that's discipline. The night was fantastic - very glam at the decadent Cafe de Paris - and I felt rather star struck chatting to some of my favourite authors. For any fans of Sophie Kinsella, I can confirm that she (or Maddie Wickham, her real name) is absolutely beautiful in real life, as well as being sickeningly stylish. We can forgive her all that though because she was also enormous good fun. She even got on stage with her husband at the end of the night to entertain the crowd with her piano playing while he sang. They were quite a double act. The bit I was most thrilled about though was when each of the judges (Joanna Trollope, Gaynor Allen from Tesco, Sophie Kinsella, Liza Tarbuck and Morwenna Banks) stood up on stage to champion one book each. The judge talking about Bridesmaids was Jo Brand (who I love - and my husband loves even more). She said she thought Bridesmaids was brilliant because it was such a good laugh - and she couldn't put it down. I honestly couldn't ask for higher praise than that. Anyway, enormous thanks to the organisers, especially Melissa Nathan's husband Andrew Saffron, for such a memorable evening - I loved every minute of it. ------------------------------ May 2009 I'm now on Twitter and despite initial reservations I'm quite enjoying it. There's something cathartic about sharing my struggles to think of a name for a hero, or a new title. (Speaking of which, my four year old caught me trying to think of the latter this morning and suggested his own: 'The Lady and the Tree.' I thought it had a certain ring to it.) Anyway, any chick lit fans interested should feel free to search me out at http://twitter.com/janecostello; please do follow me - and I'll follow you too. Anyway, I've had quite a few signings for The Nearly Weds recently so thanks a million to those who turned up to chat. My next one is on Thursday 21st May at Waterstones in Liverpool's Bold Street. It's my home town so I really can't wait. Hope to see you there. x ------------------------------ April 2009 What a month. I've had some amazing feedback about The Nearly Weds and am so thrilled people seem to enjoy it as much as Bridesmaids. I absolutely loved writing the book and felt almost bereft when I'd finished it - I couldn't believe I wouldn't have Zoe and Ryan in my life any longer. I've also just had some amazing news about Bridesmaids: It has been shortlisted for the Melissa Nathan Award for Comedy Romance 2009. Previous winners are Marian Keyes and Lisa Jewell - and the judges include Sophie Kinsella, Jo Brand, Joanna Trollope and Liza Tarbuck. The idea that they've even READ my book is enough to make my head spin, never mind that they liked it! If that wasn't enough, I also get to go to a swanky do in June to find out whether I've won. Recession or not, I can definitely feel a new outfit coming on ... In the meantime, do keep the emails coming about The Nearly Weds - it's fabulous to hear what you think of it. ------------------------------ March 2009 It's out! The Nearly Weds officially hit the shelves this morning - March 2 - so there's no going back now. It's a slightly surreal day: Momentous by definition, yet I won't know for a couple of weeks how it's selling, once all the retailers' promotions have kicked in. Believe me, as soon as I know I'll be sharing it! ------------------------------ February 2009 A month to go and the neurosis is setting in. My other half doesn't help. 'Don't worry,' he said last night, glancing up from the football for the first time all evening, 'if The Nearly Weds is a flop, you can just go out and get a proper job again.' With that kind of reassurance, is it any wonder I'm a nervous wreck? ------------------------------ January 2009 I've just received the first copies of The Nearly Weds through the post - which means publication really is close. Seeing the completed book is an incredibly exciting moment, even though I have a policy of not reading my books at this stage. My thinking is that it's too late to change anything now, even if I spot a horrendous mistake, so there's no point in torturing myself as I'd be bound to find something. I also want to remain very focused on my third book, which I've almost finished writing. Weird, I know, given that my second isn't even on the shelves yet! What do you think of the foreign covers, by the way? I was surprised at how different they all were - both from each other and the British version of Bridesmaids. I think they've all got a certain something - and as long as they make people want to read it, I don't really mind what they look like... ------------------------------ December 2008 Things are getting really exciting now in preparation for the publication of The Nearly Weds. I've just had a copy of the cover and - although I'm not allowed to preview the design here yet - I can tell you that it really is gorgeous. I don't know why the cover design is such an exciting part of a new novel taking shape, but it is. Almost as much as seeing your book on sale for the first time - so I really can't wait until March 2 when it's published. This month I'm also lucky enough to have seen a preview copy of Milly Johnson's latest novel, A Spring Affair. I think it's Milly's best to date - a lovely, feel-good read that never fails to lift the spirits, even when the weather's as awful as it has been.