All the bookshops are open on Sundays coming up to Christmas so the timing is ideal. My husband Pat does the driving . . . I'm well able to drive myself, by the way, it's just that he pulls up outside and double parks and I can run in and do my thing and leave again without the hassle of parking. When you have a book out, the bookshops really are the key to sales and it's amazing the difference that a bit of personal contact can make.

Unless your publisher has bought into the whole 'three for two' promotion thing, and your book is piled up on the tables near the front of the shop, it's easy to get sidelined. I find that if I visit, and make the effort to meet the people who own and work in the bookshops, I'm more likely to find myself promoted from the bottom shelf with the spine facing out to one of the shelves near the door at eye level, with the cover on display.

And I've a better chance of staying in the 'Just Published' section for longer. I don't move my books around in the shops myself, but certain members of my family have been known to do it surreptitiously. I find I end up doing quite a bit of clothes shopping as well as promoting the book, because there's usually a nice boutique somewhere near the bookshop and I have to go in for a look.

When I'm not 'on tour' I have a lie in on Sunday. I do some book reviewing so I stay in bed reading, which is half work and half pleasure, or else proofing my own work. We have a family mixed grill mid-morning, before my son David heads off to work in a local restaurant. He's at college during the week. Pat takes our other son, Mark, off to soccer training and I have a couple of hours to myself to write, or update my website (www. marymalone. ie), or work on an article if I have a deadline looming. I work in the Central Statistics Office in Cork four days a week so I write on my day off and every evening. All You Need Is Love is my second novel and I found it much harder to write than the first. It's set around the area in which we live . . . Bandon/Courtmacsherry . . . and it's about drug use among teenagers and the effect that it has on their families and on the community. The main character is a young woman journalist who is investigating the problem and becomes aware that someone in her own immediate family is involved. I became very aware of the prevalence of drugs in rural areas a few years ago and started taking an interest in the reports of court cases in the locality. I suppose I did a lot of earwigging around the place too! It was a surprise to me to learn that drugs like ecstasy and hash are much cheaper than drink and easily obtained by teenagers. Part of the reason I found it harder to write is that the subject matter is not attractive but the people in my writing group have been very supportive and in the end it took me about a year from start to finish.

On Sunday afternoons if the boys are not playing matches, we often collect my mother, who lives nearby and is a widow, and head into Kinsale for lunch. We usually go to either the Trident or Fishy Fishy. I love Kinsale, I could wander around for hours. Mum spends the rest of the afternoon with us and we drop her back home at around half past nine before heading to one of our locals . . . either Cornie's in Newcestown or Hickey's in Aherla . . . for a quiet glass of Guinness. I might get a free one now that I've given them a mention!