Page 15 of Slow Burn Summer

The fact that Fiona didn’t object counted as an endorsement.

“Cake?” Rachel lifted the lid on a box of cupcakes, pearl-pink frosting with a tiny perfect rendition of the cover perched jauntily on top.

“I honestly don’t know what to say,” Kate laughed, blown away. “Can I steal one for my sister?”

Liv would never believe all of this unless she saw it with her own eyes.

“Take the box,” Rachel said.

“So, your author bio,” Prue said, clicking forward to the next slide. “We took the suggestions you sent over and ran with them, as you’ll see here.”

Kate Darrowby lives in London with a Bengal cat called Clive, and when she’s not writing she loves West End shows, photography, and crochet—she’s currently crocheting a mouse orchestra.The Power of Loveis her first novel.

The room fell silent while they all digested the information, rain drumming against the boardroom windows.

“Clive’s a tortoise and, strictly speaking, he lives with my sister’s family,” Kate said, wondering how all of the crossed wires had happened. “And I can’t crochet. I actually think I’m missing a coordination gene—I’m really bad at following anything that requires remembering repetitive steps. I can’t thread a sewing machine, yet my sister is a complete whizz at it. Isn’t that a weird thing? Dancing too—I break out in a cold sweat if I’m expected to follow a sequence of steps, my brain just goes into panic mode. It’s as if balls of tumbleweed blow through my brain when people try to teach me stuff like that…”

She mimed scrunched-up balls scurrying across the table with her hands and then looked up to find all eyes on her,perplexed expressions around the table. Except Fiona, who rolled her shoulders as if she was gearing up to give her a dressing-down.

“I mean, we can totally change it to a tortoise, but we collectively thought a cat seemed more accessible,” Prue said. “We’ve gone with a mix of info that seamlessly blends girl-next-door with just a splash of kooky, and crochet is so of the moment.”

“She’ll learn to crochet,” Fiona said. “It’s mice. How hard can it be?”

Mice playing trumpets sounded quite difficult indeed, Kate thought, glancing at Charlie.

“You really don’t need to worry,” he said mildly, and everyone around the table nodded eager agreement.

“Honestly, it’ll never come up,” Rachel assured her. “You should see some of the other author bios, this is mild.”

Prue moved the conversation briskly along with a click of her button, bringing up a map of the world with several chunks shaded the same midnight blue as the cover. “Joel, would you lead with where we’re up to with foreign rights?”

A guy in a striped waistcoat with statement glasses and an impressively high quiff sprang to his feet, a transatlantic twang apparent when he spoke.

“Okay, so as you all know, our sister German publishing house is excited to come on board, with other European arms of the business expected to follow suit.”

He pointed to the corresponding shaded areas on the map in the manner of a hipster geography teacher.

“Additionally, I know Fiona has been having conversations with the U.S. too, so watch that space for news soon. We’re aiming to create a domino effect with the launch, spreading a tidal wave of love for the book around the world.”

Kate felt her heartbeat ratchet with anxiety at the sound ofsuch grand plans. She was certain no one had mentioned international publication. Charlie shot Fiona a sharp look and earned a nonchalant shrug in reply.

“Surprise,” she said, deadpan, adding lackluster jazz hands.

“Not all debuts get this level of buy-in,” Joel said, failing to read the room. “We’re all super excited to see how farThe Power of Lovecan go.”

He sat, pleased to have imparted his update, and Kate found herself touching her silver bangles in an effort to remain professional.

“I won’t need to actually go to all those places, though, right?” she said.

“Oh no, don’t worry, nothing like that,” Rachel smiled, chirpy, as the next slide appeared detailing a planned blog tour and a list of podcasts. “We’ve gone big on the blog tour so there’ll be quite a few written pieces to do, which is perfect as it’ll give you time to plan out what to say. You can play around with things to develop your author persona more deeply. Podcasts obviously you can’t plan ahead for so easily, but I’ve prepped a question list for you of the type of things we anticipate might come up, everything from inspiration for the story to favorite lovers in literature to quick-fire questions about your favorite writing snacks. My biggest advice is to keep notes, be consistent, and be as succinct as possible.”

Fiona laughed, then held both hands up as if the derisory noise had escaped by mistake.

“I can handle that,” Kate said, determined not to be rattled. “Would I be able to have a copy of this presentation to study again later, please?”

“Already done, emailed across to Charlie just before the meeting,” Prue said. “Keep in mind that every territory handles their own PR, so you’ll get separate requests from the U.S. for blog pieces, interviews, etc.”

The meeting whirled on around Kate for a little while longer, positive feedback from the sales team about conversations with the supermarkets and bookstores, plus news of competitions and a couple of potential well-known company tie-ins from marketing.

---