Oh, The Glamour!!!

It’s been a big week for me with the publication of my latest book on Tuesday, so I thought I would give you a little ‘look behind the scenes’ of Publication Day later on in this week’s blog – it’s not as glamorous as you might think!

But first, Christmas is two months today, and as usual I have done absolutely nothing so far in terms of preparation! If you’re in the same boat, it’s Easy Gift Weekend on QVC. By that, I mean our Festive Find starting at 9 p.m. this evening and lasting until midnight on Sunday, is the option to select three easy interest-free instalments on anything in our inventory, not only on-air items, by using the code SHOP3Z at checkout, helping to spread the cost of Christmas. Check out the full T’s & Cs on our website.

Of course, other products may have more easy payments already on them like, for example, Sunday’s TSV from Gtech, which is already available on our website. I don’t have the handheld Gtech (included in the offer) but I do have the upright and I absolutely love it. I’m on with it on Sunday at 5 p.m. after an hour of Butler & Wilson Jewellery with Simon Wilson.

It will be our first show together since his amazing 50th Anniversary party in September – this year really is flying! With Halloween around the corner, there is a stunning spider/skull bracelet, in a choice of three colours… glamorous and scary all in one piece of jewellery!

But if cute is more your thing, how about this ski-ing mouse? There are also quite a few Christmas pieces in our show on Sunday at 4 p.m.

So, mentioning ‘glamorous’, some of you may think that book publication day is all about quaffing champagne. It may well be for some, but here is what my day looked like on Tuesday:

• Up at 7.15 a.m. – clean Wilfie (the cat’s) teeth and feed him!
• Open cards from the family and admire pretty flowers
• Cook poached eggs on toast for breakfast
• Put ingredients in breadmaker to make bread (just as Maddy does, the main character in ‘What He Did’)
• Strip the bedding off one of the beds and put in washing machine
• Accept delivery of flowers from Bookouture, my publishers

• Hang bedding on the washing line (it was a lovely sunny day)
• Write 750 words of the next book in the DCI Rachel Hart series
• Have a phone interview with a local magazine about my books and 26 years at QVC
• Hang second load of washing out

• Lunch
• Write another 750 words on my next book
• Open gift, which arrived in the post – this is the perfect gift as you will know if you read the prologue of What He Did… this is a coffee plant, though, rather than Atropa Belladonna or the Castor Oil plant!!

• Bake and buttercream a chocolate cake
• Do Facebook Live – it’s still on my JuliaRobertsTV Facebook page if you fancy a look – it was quite good fun actually and big thanks to any of you who tuned in to watch. I think it’s safe to say that Wilfie stole the show!
• Finally we opened the champagne before going out for a celebratory dinner

I haven’t included in this list all the social media throughout the day, thanking people on Twitter and Facebook for their Publication Day good wishes. It was absolutely hectic BUT really enjoyable too.

Unfortunately, the next day I succumbed to the cold and cough that has been lurking around – everyone I know seems to have it at the moment. I felt dreadful on Wednesday but slightly improved yesterday and today. It meant I couldn’t attempt the Gino Di Campo bean casserole in the Le Creuset dish I had been given to try out. However, my husband road-tested it with a sausage casserole last night – he’s definitely a keeper!

The only thing I forgot to tell him was that the lid can be used as a frying pan so he could have browned the veggie sausages in that first rather than using a separate frying pan – oops. It was very tasty, just the thing for a miserable wet autumn evening, especially when you are nursing a cold!

So, two more things to share before I head into work. Hobbs is launching on QVC tonight at 8 p.m. with Jilly Halliday. I ordered this dress ahead of time to try out the sizing. I ordered a 12 and it’s a perfect fit and the colour is gorgeous!

Also, there is a Gatineau promotion running until midnight tomorrow night, if you spend over £60 cumulatively on Gatineau products you will earn a ten pound voucher to redeem against your next Gatineau purchase between 29th October and 31st January 2020 – definitely worth having if you’re a dedicated Gatineau fan. I have a show with Andrew Bagley tomorrow at 4 p.m.

AND, I nearly forgot!!! Some fantastic news for all you Laura Geller fans. The SUPERSIZE of Balance & Brighten is back in stock – I know you’ve all been waiting for it. Currently we have all seven shades but it’s going fast. If you haven’t tried it before, it is in my opinion the easiest foundation to apply that we sell on QVC – approximately 30 seconds, and that’s if you’re being slow!

Just before I go, congratulations to both England and Wales for making the Rugby World Cup semi-finals and good luck to you both this weekend!

Much love,
Julia xx