IT'S hard to believe that my little bundle of pride and (mostly) joy, Cycling Back to Happiness, celebrates its first birthday today.
I'm pretty rubbish at this blogging lark and so far have only tapped a few notes into my keyboard for expressing gratitude, taking pop-shots at the mutants of Waterstone's Basildon and making observations about sweaty thongs on the escalator at Lakeside.
Well, I thought I should just say one or two things about Cycling Back's first birthday. Firstly, thanks again to everyone who keeps buying the book in shops around the UK (and Europe), as well as consistently forcing my good self between the likes of Bill Bryson and Danny Wallace as the meat in an Amazon top 100 travel writers sandwich.
Thanks for all the lovely words, from the guy who is cycling 18,000 miles down the Pacific Coast this summer to raise money for charity, declaring my book as a divine inspiration on his website, to the other lovely e-mails from people asking me to hurry up with the next book.
Then there's the reader thanking me for making his weekends entertaining and a battered husband informing me he is nursing a bruised arm from his wife, who kept punching him every time he laughed out loud at a chapter.
Hope that doesn’t fall into the ‘Where there’s a blame, there’s a claim category’?
Gushing praise indeed, but you also have to take the rough with the smooth, as this last 12 months has been a massive learning curve.
No matter how many people read your manuscript (it's near impossible to read yourself) and whoever edits the thing you always find little irritations you are unhappy with among the total 120,000 words tightly packed together on the first print run.
The greatest bane of my life has been an over excited spell checker. In the first run I found three examples of 'break' when it should have read 'brake'. We had some pigeon (pidgin) English and a can of Tenants Extra (Tennents), but these things happen thanks to computer gremlins and most of them have been put right now.
For any real clever buggers out there ‘hair-brained’ was intentional because of my well groomed look. Yeah, it was lost on most other people too!
If this spoiled your enjoyment, you have my most humble apologies. And if it really bothered you, go out and buy a revised copy. That will make us both smile 
In all honesty though, financial gain wasn’t what this was all about. It was therapy, as well as trying to write an interesting and entertaining story.
And on the whole the feedback has been very positive, beating Bear Grylls and Dave Gorman to star billing in a national travel magazine was reward enough. Get in!
As for the cycling. Well it changed my life. I have abandoned the car, much to the delight of my wife, and jump on Erika every day to make a 26 mile round trip to work, between Leigh and Basildon.
We wouldn't have it any other way and love spending quality time together.
Before tackling the North Sea Cycle Route I would never have done that!
There will be another book (did I hear groans) and I expect to have something new out early next year. I've been toying with loads of ideas, which will hopefully follow on one day, which have included Arctic adventures, football, motorways, monsters, movies and myths.
All I can tell you is the next book will follow a random anti-clockwise trip around North America, but don't worry, I haven't sold out (yet) and will still be sticking to my strict no flying policy.
Got to go now and catch that big ship across the Atlantic. It’s a long, long way!
Thanks and keep in touch x
P.S. Erika will be back one day and finish what she started.
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