Today is a special day - but before I get into that, I just realised that my profile was set not to receive messages, so apologies to those who tried. I've changed it now.

So about today...a special day. 7th August 2013, the day Beneath an Irish Sky was officially launched.

I feel a Tom Hanks moment coming on...

Thank you to the Choc Lit reading panel for making this possible. Thank you to Lyn Vernham for following it through and having faith in us. And thank you to the Choc Lit staff and authors for the most unbelievable support and encouragement - when you're a Choc Lit author, you're never alone.

Thanks to my family, even though they actually thought I was just time-wasting; my work colleagues (friends) who are amazing; my dogs - Sheri(RIP) and Sophie, for listening to me rant and not interrupting; Val for accepting the challenge without hesitation; Mr & Mrs McFadden for producing wee Joe, our inspiration; Joe himself for having eyelashes to die for; Di Baker for proving you don't have to be sane to be lovely; Claudia, our dear German friend, whose English is better than mine and who has the patience of a saint - the number of times she must have read that draft; Enid Blyton for getting me started; JRR Tolkien for writing Lord of the Rings which led to the message board where Val and I met; Kelly's of Cornwall for their amazing icecream;

*break in voice and choking back tears*

Thanks too, to the writers of Once Upon A Time for making me look forward to the ending of the weekend; to Arsenal for selling us Van Persie; to God for giving the Irish that accent and for blue-eyed, dark haired men; to Kingsmill for their Crustless 50-50 (makes lovely toast)....

*Is carried off stage still muttering inaudible thanks to everyone from Barack Obama to Faramir of Gondor.

Liv x