153 days to go: Basking in Reflected Glory

I am holding a first novel.
I am so excited.
It is not my novel.
But I have lived and breathed the process for the past 18 months.
A lot less than the book's writer - Jenn who started writing it aeons ago.
Jenn is the librarian at the prison where I work as a writer in residence.
We started working there around the same time and became great friends.
When she told me she had written a novel and had an agent I was v excited.
But that was just the beginning.
It took ages (or what seemed like ages) before a publishing house bought it.
And then everything happened at once.
I saw the sketches for the book cover.
There were meetings with agents/publishers/publicists.
I saw the revised photographs for the book cover.
I heard about interviews with radio stations/magazines and newspapers.
I read the novel - A Kind of Intimacy- in manuscript form in one evening. I loved it.
And here it is in my hot little hands.
Jenn received the book through the post in a thick padded envelope on Valentine's Day.
Can a writer receive a better gift?
Today I took Jenn out to lunch to celebrate.
And she showed me right at the back - the acknowledgments.
For "being in her corner" I am thanked, listed between such literary luminaries as Anne Fine and Jenni Diski.
There is only one more thing left to say - you can buy it here.
Enjoy.

I wore:
Pink Coat - Next
Pink gloves - Jasper Conran
Underneath - grey dress and black boots - Dorothy Perkins.