Hello again, and apologies for the long silence. Thrilled to be a blogger now, getting to it decades after everyone else did! Anyone who knows me knows what a technophobe I am so this is a major achievement, MUCH more so than writing books. 

Gearing up for the launch of ‘Secrets & Sins’ tomorrow. The publishers are going stir crazy with a Bollywood theme, using the slim excuse of the book’s hero being a Bollywood superstar. From what I can see, however, little excuse is required in Delhi for a glitzy party to be thrown involving loud music and lots of food and booze and enthusiastic bopping. The utterly gorgeous film star Sharmila Tagore is launching the book so we (that’s me and the all-female, all-very-pretty Harper Collins PR team) are throwing on the slap and glamming up as much as poss. 

Wish me luck because – even six books down the line – I still manage to get choked up a bit at crucial moments in my Oscars style spiel.  

Wish me luck too for the residential unit which is suddenly and incredibly going great guns. The National Trust (a wing of the Indian government that’s been set up to focus on disability issues) has given us a large disused building on three acres of land to get going. ‘Us’ being a group of parents, all with teenaged or older kids with special needs. We’ve just collected the keys, done our initial reccies and are now starting with the community link work. The plan is to have housed 10 people by January 2011, growing to 70 residents in the next few years when the place will have hopefully grown into a fully integrated residential community for people with learning and physical disabilities and also the elderly. Strong tailwinds required in the form of good wishes, prayers and, of course, help in all sorts of ways. More on all that soon. 

For now, I'm afraid I have a book to launch …