I’ve just come back from three weeks of epic family adventures and misadventures on the Transsiberian, from Moscow to Irkoutsk to the Baikal Lake to Ulan-Bator to the steppes of Mongolia. Eating clotted goat’s milk in a Mongolian yurt and pork liver dumplings in the deepest depths of the Russian countryside? Check. Sleeping on a tiny little train bed five nights in a row having not had a shower? Check. Still managing to talk to the rest of your family in a relatively peaceful manner? Check. Working on your Phd thesis? Hmm…

Here’s a little picture just to give you an idea…

While I was busy doing all that, my latest novel in French came out, La pouilleuse (The girl with lice). It’s a YA novel set in Paris, the short, dark story of a day in the lives of five über-privileged teenagers who out of boredom, idleness and other motives they don’t quite understand, kidnap a little girl outside a swimming-pool and decide to get rid of the lice in her hair. It’s published by the very cool Editions Sarbacane, who are famous in France for their award-winning contemporary urban fiction for teens.

Having a new book out is always half-exciting and half-underwhelming. It’s nothing like the thrill you get when the editor tells you that yes, they’ll publish it – that’s the big high. But the day the book actually comes out, and even if you’re not trekking through the Mongolian steppes, it’s not that incredible. Your local bookshop might not even have it yet. People you care about have already read it, because you’ve given them advance copies; other people are reading it but you don’t know about it. There might be a few reviews already on the internet, but that’s all. At least that’s my experience in France – I’ll let you know if it’s different in the UK.

But La pouilleuse has already got a few good reviews here and there and I’ve just learnt it’s been nominated for an award. Now it’s out, there’s nothing I can do about it apart from looking forward to seeing what happens to it.

On the Sesame side, things are getting very exciting and I’ll soon post a few updates. Meanwhile, back to the thesis…

Clem x