New book deal

I'm looking for some lessons in South Indian cooking because I've just heard that I've landed a two book deal in the U.S. with Touchstone Books, which is part of Simon and Schuster. In recessionary times you don't take anything for granted, and I know plenty of wonderful writers whose overseas sales are right down, so this is very exciting news. All I'm allowed to say for now about my next book is that it takes place in 1924 and 1948 in Oxfordshire and a small village in Kerala, and it's about the pleasures and perils of a mixed race marriage. Some might say that all of my books have a section set in faraway places so that I have an excuse to travel there to research them. If that's true, then who can blame me? It may be sunny today in Wales, but it's a rare and beautiful exeperience.