‘Out there’ means Lady Limbo is dancing up and down the land in her dancing shoes. Friends and family are sending me photographs of bestseller bookshop shelves and saying nice supportive things.

One of the photos thrills me. Sharing a shelf with J.K. Rowling feels amazingly good; until the niggling thought arrives that maybe the bookseller was just looking for a good contrast of cover colors so that readers could spot the J.K. Rowling book quicker!

This is what happens to us small fish after a while; one loses that brazen swagger and becomes a self-pitying mess. But wait, it’s crazy, I mean there are a lot of blue novel covers around this year, it’s pretty much a blue cover year; they could have chosen one of those other novels, but they didn’t, they chose Lady Limbo. So I revert to feeling pleased as punch which is a far better feeling!

Occasionally I open up one of the photos I’ve been sent of Lady Limbo on a bookshelf and test myself – Is there an awkward  umbilical connection? Do I feel the need to protect? The answer comes easily; it’s “no”. I recognise the feeling of separation.

This teenager doesn’t need me to hold its hand any longer; it’s grown up enough to go out to rave book shops on its own; and in the hectic book world of bestsellers nobody says “Hey, I know your mom, she’s a really cool person, no wonder you’re so well put together!” No, in that world you arrive dressed to kill, and you float there chilled in blue champagne, and a frisson of excitement passes through the book crowd, the true sign of a good killer thriller!