…Title meaning Through My Sister’s Eyes, and out in, I believe, May. Pretty, isn’t it?

Do you like free stuff?

How about free stories?

How about free stories about Christmas? (Yes, I know it’s July. Go with me here.)

Have you not read Getting Away With It yet and would like a free taster of the story?

Or have you read Getting Away With It already and would like another bit about the Haven twins and Stoneguard?

I’ve put up a free read on Smashwords, a standalone extra chapter from Getting Away With It called ‘The Black Sheep.’ You can, if you like, download a copy for your ereader here. Or, if you like, you can read it on my website, here.

I had an absolute blast writing it. Let me know if you like it.

(Thank you very much to Freda Lightfoot, who made this very easy to do!)

I am still making cake! Only now I’m a little bit worried that nobody will turn up to eat it at our street party on Friday. See, it’s a party for the whole street, but as I only actually know five sets of neighbours and two of them are away for the weekend, and it’s a small cul-de-sac anyway, I’m now afraid that there will be great mountains of cake and only a few of us to eat it.

Which, come to think of it, is sort of a dream come true.

Anyway, I neglected to link to this earlier: social website Activagers have interviewed me about Getting Away With It, and they have also written a really interesting review of my book. I think it’s the first time I’ve had a male reviewer’s take on this particular book; it’s always intriguing to see what someone who is not your target audience thinks of your story. In this case, the reviewer imagines my heroine “kicking Jeremy Clarkson where it hurts if he made a sexist comment”. I like that.

They’re also giving away a signed copy, so check it out here.

And do you want to come round to our street for some cake?

The launch for GETTING AWAY WITH IT was absolutely wonderful, but as I was too overwhelmed to describe it properly, here are some pics, mostly taken by my photographer for the night, the ever-gallant Ben Pearson.

Me and my lovely agent, Teresa Chris

Vicky from Headline scoops out the beetroot and horseradish ice cream

The ice cream, by the way, was AMAZING. It was creamy and slightly sweet, with a definite flavour of fresh beetroot. And then, as it melted on your tongue, the heat of the horseradish came out.

There is a great picture of me trying it for the first time, but Biddy’s got it and she hasn’t sent it to me yet. I’ll put it up as soon as I have it.

Guests mingling and chatting in Reading Library

My editor, Sherise Hobbs, giving a speech while I look on gratefully. (Check out her shoes!) Pic by Jan Jones.

The book stall, run by Chapter One in Woodley. This is my mate Lizi buying a book. Every copy was sold...thank you everyone!

Me signing copies. Note the flowery tablecloths and the tulips, both provided by Headline PR. And MANY empty fizz glasses.

More books, hurrah! Pic by Jan Jones.

My purple shoes. Pic by Jan Jones

The after-party, in the pub. Writers Roger Sanderson, Jan Jones, Josh Williams, Valerie Dubord.

Maura Brickell of Headline, writer Brigid Coady, honorary neighbour Lorna, neighbours Anne and Gemma, and me.

Thank you so much to Madeleine at Reading Library, Maura from Headline PR, Vicky from Headline marketing, Sherise and Lucy and Kate from Headline editorial, Purbeck Ice Cream, Lesley from Chapter One in Woodley, Strange Sweets in Harris Arcade, Reading, and all of my friends, readers and fellow writers who came to support my book.

Well, my book is reviewed in Heat magazine this week. But you can get that at any old newsagent. What you can only get right here on this blog is my mate Valerie’s* quote about GETTING AWAY WITH IT:

“I’ve just spent 40 minutes on the toilet seat. I have to fake constipation so I can keep reading your book.”

Thanks, Valerie! You’re a true friend. And sorry for the red rings on your butt!

photograph by Graham New

In GETTING AWAY WITH IT, the heroine’s family business is making ice cream. Liza, the heroine, actually hates ice cream for a variety of reasons, and she’s chosen to be a stunt woman and live on the other side of the world. Her perfect identical twin sister, Lee, has taken over the business. Their mother, who founded the business single-handedly in the 1960s, has had to retire because of Alzheimer’s disease, leaving Lee to run the business all by herself.

Early on in the book, Liza and Lee are together, and they meet a top London chef. Here’s a short extract:

“What are you working on now?” Edmund Jett asked. “Some incredible flavour no doubt?”
“Well, um, we,” stammered Lee. “That is to say…”
If I didn’t rescue us, we’d be here talking to this windbag all night.
“Beetroot and horseradish flavour,” I said. “Yum yum yum.”
His eyebrows drew together, and he appeared to be giving my random selection the most serious of consideration. “Beetroot…and horseradish. How interesting.”
“Isn’t it?”
“And of course,” said Lee quickly, “we offer all the traditional favourites. Those are the backbone of our business, after all.”

When Liza returns home and finds that Lee has disappeared, she steps into Lee’s shoes and takes on the business, just to keep it ticking over until her sister gets back. And because of her comment, Liza finds herself having to make beetroot and horseradish ice cream.

Now, I thought this was pretty weird when I made it up, but I do like beetroot and horseradish, and while I was doing the research I contacted Purbeck Ice Cream, which is this small company down in Dorset who make incredible ice cream, including the best cherry ice cream I have ever tasted in my entire life, and I am a bit of a fan of cherry ice cream, let me tell you. They also make chilli ice cream, which I thought was very interesting, and sort of close to horseradish. I asked them a load of questions about how one would go about making such a thing, and they were extremely helpful, so I sent them the book when it was finished, and they were very nice about it.

So imagine my delight when I found out that Purbeck Ice Cream had actually created beetroot and horseradish ice cream, as inspired by my book! And that it is actually for sale, and that photograph at the top there is actually their catalogue photo, and that they are actually going to send us some so we can have a taste at my launch party!

I can’t wait to find out what it’s like. In the book, Edmund Jett wants to serve the ice cream with beef and a red wine reduction, but Hazel Hartle at Purbeck reckons it would be great with a deep chocolate brownie. At the Hotel and Catering Show in Bournemouth recently, they served it wrapped in dried smoked beef made by the Dorset Charcuterie Company.

Photograph by Purbeck Ice Cream

What do you think?

Well. What an exciting day yesterday was. I was on a total high anyway, but I also had an email from Australian magazine That’s Life Fast Fiction to say they were buying one of my short stories, and then I had another email saying that the books I’d posted to the US over a month ago had finally arrived, and then I had a phone call from my agent saying she liked my new story idea, and then I got into the soft-play area for free because I’d filled up a line in my loyalty card. Whoa!

Then, some reviews started popping up for GETTING AWAY WITH IT.

The ever-lovely reader, writer and cake-maker Helen Redfern said:

The book is written in Julie’s usual engaging and fast flowing style with a great cast of characters but also touching on some serious issues. People often say contemporary women’s fiction is easy to write. I think Julie has made it look easy because it is fast paced and enjoyable to read but you can see the amount of research and attention to detail she has put into it. As a reader I loved it and as a writer I admire her for it. Thoroughly recommended.

Laura on Girly Scribbles said:

This is a lovely, really heart-warming story with a superb compliment of characters, and it came with the added bonus that I now know how to make a crop circle – I’ll definitely be on the look out for more of Julie Cohen’s books in the future.

A new Amazon review appeared, too, saying things like superb and gorgeous and excellent. I might be getting a little bit of a big head now.

And Novel Kicks have published an interview with me and are also giving away five copies of GETTING AWAY WITH IT! Get yourself over there!

THEN, Biddy rang me to say she’d stormed into the Waterstone’s in Trafalgar Square and demanded to know why my books were not on the 3 for 2 table as they should be!! The booksellers apparently and quite rightly quaked in their shoes and promised they would be there sharpish. She is my enforcer!

Days really don’t get much better than that. Plus, I had ice cream.

Today is the publication day for the paperback of GETTING AWAY WITH IT! I am officially declaring it a day of using far too many exclamation marks!!!

Of course, like the marginally sane person I am, I went around Reading to visit it and nearly jumped up and down in excitement each time I spotted it. It was in WH Smith. It was on the 3 for 2 tables in the front of both the local Waterstone’s.

There it is. On the right.

I hear from several reliable sources that it is in Sainsbury’s. And of course you can buy it on Amazon in paperback and for Kindle, and you can also buy it with free shipping from the Book Depository. You can also buy it from your local independent book seller, where you will find a warm welcome.

You can also win a copy over on Dot Scribbles’ blog.

The other cool thing is that every copy has a sticker declaring that you can win a holiday in a cottage in Dorset, plus a tour of Purbeck Ice Cream! Purbeck is the company I consulted about making ice cream while I was writing the book and their ice cream is quite simply the food of the gods. It is stupendous. I had a cone of their Very Cherry while I was at Monkey World and that was pretty much one of the most perfect moments of my life. The most pleasure a human being can experience without spontaneously breaking into orgasm. (Because as cool as ice cream and monkeys are, it would be sort of weird to have an orgasm about them.)

Anyway. If you buy the book you can maybe go on holiday and experience it for yourself! You can even go to Monkey World if you want to! (The orgasms will be your own personal business though, thank you very much.) And I will be sharing some frankly amazing news about GETTING AWAY WITH IT and Purbeck Ice Cream soon. (Though you can see the news for yourself if you visit Purbeck’s website.)

My plans for this momentous day? I am doing some writing this morning, including a post for The Heroine Addicts about shoes. I am then taking my kid to the soft play centre. It’s all crazy around here!!

This week is publication week, tra la la la la. GETTING AWAY WITH IT is officially out in paperback on Thursday. I’m excited, to say the least, and I apologise in advance, but it’s going to be a New Book Zone here on this website for a couple of weeks. News, excerpts, videos, contests, ice cream…

Oh yes. The ice cream.

But first, I’m going to get all high-tech and offer you some fun things to see on your computing device.

Want to download a free first-chapter taster of GETTING AWAY WITH IT?

Click here: download chapter courtesy of www.bookdiva.co.uk.

And also courtesy of www.bookdiva.co.uk, here’s a video of me talking about some of the inspiration behind the book:

Behind the Scenes of Julie Cohen’s Getting Away With It from Bookhugger on Vimeo.

…in Sainsbury’s in Oxfordshire.

Thanks Valerie!

First glimpse of the paperback of GETTING AWAY WITH IT, including a front-cover quote from Miranda Dickinson and a pink sticker announcing the very exciting contest for readers!

Getting Away With It in paperback, out 17 March

(Thanks to the lovely Maura at Headline for the pic… I can’t wait for my own copies!)

The hardcover of GETTING AWAY WITH IT comes out today, and I’m celebrating by announcing the winners of my ARC contest. I had well over a hundred entries, which was amazing, and I’d like to thank everyone who tweeted or blogged about the contest, and everyone who entered.

I chose three names from the list using randomly-generated numbers, and came up with:

Laurie
Sandy Goodson
Gwynneth Carter

I’ve sent emails to the winners. Congratulations ladies and I hope you enjoy the book!

Everyone who signed up should be getting an email newsletter in the next few days.

GETTING AWAY WITH IT has had a couple of reviews already. The Bookbag says it is Wonderfully woven, a powerful and cinematic story that I found very moving.

And Dot Scribbles says Julie Cohen has written a lovely book, Getting Away With It questions what you are running away from in life and to consider that everyone has struggles no matter how calm and content they appear. I would highly recommend this book.

In other news, I am dreadfully, dreadfully hung over. It was the funeral of a lovely friend yesterday, the former secretary of Reading Writers, who did so much for the group over the years. When he was planning his funeral, he’d given us strict instructions that nobody was to leave the pub after the ceremony sober. We took those instructions very much to heart, with the result that I have a sore head today. But it was drinking in a good cause, and I’d do it all again, sore head and all.

I am fighting the hangover by doing some baking. I’m making zucchini bread in the top oven, and chocolate muffins in the bottom oven. Two baking projects at the same time, at different temperatures! I think I love my new cooker. (The Evil Cooker is lurking outside the house, on the pavement, waiting for someone to come and collect it.)