me, actually! This afternoon, I had a half day’s holiday from the day job so that I could deliver my second ever library talk. It was the first one I booked but the idea was to run it during one of the library’s book club sessions and they were hoping to have the book club a bit more established by now (it had only just set up when we first discussed me talking).

Eastfield Library is a small library in an area just outside Scarborough. It’s actually my local library and I have strong links with it. My mother-in-law volunteers on the library van, my daughter is a member and regularly borrows books, and I took my Brownie pack there to do their book lover badge last term.

I’d been really pleased with the turnout of 12 (plus organiser) at the first talk I did at the main Scarborough Library, but I suspected we wouldn’t be drawing those numbers today. I was pleasantly surprised to have an audience of 7 … although 4 of those were library staff or volunteers and only 3 were ‘general public’. Still, it was a lovely size audience.

When I arrived, I spotted Searching for Steven propped up on a table promoting today’s event, in its plastic cover. It was lovely seeing it like that, knowing it is available to be borrowed. I wonder how many people will borrow it.

The talk went well and I made sure it was a bit shorter than last time as I’d struggled for time for questions. Two of the external guests, one of the volunteers and two of the library staff stayed behind afterwards for a cuppa and a chat which I really enjoyed. One of them bought a copy of Raving About Rhys which I have available exclusively for family, friends, prizes and events (it’s officially only available on eBook) and another said she would borrow it from the library as it’s not her usual genre but she wanted to give it a try.

What was interesting was that I asked the question of my audience about the genres they like and nobody favoured romance. I therefore feel particularly flattered that they’ve come out to hear me talk when my book isn’t the sort they’d typically pick up.

A question arose about how I publicised myself and where I gave talks. It reminded me that I’d made contact with the WI about being a guest speaker and hadn’t heard a thing back from them. One of the library volunteers said she had lots of contacts in the WI and also Countryside Women (or something similar to that) so was going to get in touch with me with the best people to contact to get a response. That was a good success.

I now have a headache. A combination of a sleepless night, a 5.20am start for a very hard fit test at bootcamp, half a day’s work, and a library talk have taken it out of me and the paracetemol I took an hour ago haven’t touched it. My day isn’t over though as it’s Brownies tonight. It’s actually the first Brownies of term which means noise and excitement. I suspect I may make it home from that and crawl under the duvet, desperate for sleep!