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Wednesday 24 November 2010

Author Envy

Ever read a really great book and wish you'd written it?

Actually, this happens to me quite a lot, and is probably a large part of what inspired me to want to write myself, after reading incredible authors such as Jodi Picoult (my literary idol) to Caroline B Cooney, Jacqueline Wilson, Sharon Creech.

Conversely, have you ever had a really great idea for a book, only to discover that someone else got there first? As the saying goes, there are only 5 possible plots in existence after all...

Both of these occurred to me most recently whilst reading Tamsyn Murray's "My So-Called Afterlife".

I first discovered the book after a fairly dismal meeting with a prospective agent who'd basically told me she liked my writing but what was selling these days was paranormal fiction.

My heart sank - all due respect to Stephanie Meyer and all the other supernatural writers out there but I just could not see myself writing a vampire book - nor could I see a way to incorporate vampires or zombies into Someone Else's Footprints! So I went to Leicester Square McDonalds and started brainstorming over a McChicken sandwich, watching people as they passed by (people-watching is one of my favourite hobbies in London).

Then inspiration struck - so many teen girls feel invisible - what if I wrote about one who actually was - because she was a ghost! Teen angst + supernatural! Hurray! Problem solved! And what if one day suddenly a guy did see her...?

I spent the next few hours furiously plotting - only to get home, go on Amazon and discover "My So-Called Afterlife", a book with an incredible title - and a rather similar synopsis...

"I knew it was time to move on when a tramp peed on my Uggs..."
Meet Lucy Shaw. She's not your average fifteen year old - for a start, she's dead. And as if being a ghost wasn't bad enough, she's also trapped haunting the men's toilets on Carnaby Street. So when a lighting engineer called Jeremy walks in and she realises he can see and hear her, she isn't about to let him walk out of her afterlife."

To say I was gutted is an understatement. But I was also extremely intrigued and was eager to read MSCA when it came out. Now I finally have I must say this:

I am SO glad Tamsyn got there first.

My So-Called Afterlife made me laugh, made me cry, and the plot races along like a wonderful rollercoaster, part-mystery, part-romance, part-comedy as it covers all aspects of being dead, from the difficulties of kissing when you have no lips and the agony of missing your favourite soaps and being stuck in stinky toilets, to heavier subjects such as bullying, grief, and murder, all dealt with truthfully and with Lucy's (and Tamsyn's) characteristic warmth and flair.

We may have started with the same seed of an idea, but Tamsyn's creation is an entirely different creature to what mine would have become - and all the better for it! It's MUCH funnier, faster, and probably a fraction of the size mine would've ended up, given the 140,000 words that poured into the first draft of my novel!

What it comes down to I couldn't have written this book, and I'm really glad Tamsyn did.


What books do you wish you'd written, and why?

And have you ever come up with a great idea only to find someone else wrote it first (if not better...?)

Thursday 18 November 2010

What's in a Name?

Apparently, quite a lot!


Just heard from my editors that they'd like me to consider an alternative title for my upcoming YA/Crossover novel. 'Someone Else's Footprints' they say "feels like something we've read before - perhaps a mystery?"

So they've come up with a few alternatives, and I've also added my own to the list above. (Please note, any title which includes the word Lives/Life I want to do something fancy with so it also reads 'LIE' e.g. Someone Else's Life/Someone Else's Lie)

This is where you come in! PLEASE HELP!!

I would be SO grateful if you'd have a quick squiz at the titles at the top of this page and tick your favourite(s) - which one would you pick up off a bookshelf?

If there are any you love - or hate! - please feel free to leave a comment (below) telling me why - Or perhaps you have a better suggestion altogether?

Anyone who comes up with a NEW title that makes it to print will get a whole stash of goodies - an ARC, a printed acknowledgement in the book, A CHARACTER NAMED AFTER THEM, and much much more...

Here's the synopsis:

"When seventeen-year-old Rosie’s mother, Trudie, dies from Huntington’s Disease, her pain is intensified by the knowledge that she has a fifty-per-cent chance of inheriting the crippling disease herself.


Only when she tells her mum’s best friend, ‘Aunt Sarah’ that she is going to test for the disease does Sarah, a midwife, reveal that Trudie was not her real mother after all – that she was swapped at birth for a baby destined to die…

Devastated, Rosie decides to trace her real mother, hitching along on her ex-boyfriend’s GAP year to follow her to Los Angeles.


But all does not go to plan, and as Rosie discovers yet more of her family's deeply-buried secrets and lies, she is left with an agonising decision of her own - one which will be the most heart-breaking and far-reaching of all... "

So what should the title be...?

Suggestions so far:

PARALLEL LIES                                THE DECISION

SWAPPED                                          STOLEN LIFE

EXCHANGED                                    CHEATING FATE

LIFE SWAP                                        SIDE BY SIDE

DEADLY LEGACY                            THE CHANGEOVER

DEATH SWAP                                    MY MOTHER'S DAUGHTER

FINDING ME                                      WHO IS ROSIE?

Wednesday 17 November 2010

Inspirational, Informative and a Social Whirl!


Wow! 10 Years of the Society for Childrens' Books Writer and Illustrators of the British Isles - and what a success story it has been!

Attending the Conference this year was



a) Incredibly Inspirational:
So many big names in childrens books shared their pearls of wisdom, whilst a HUGE number of fellow SCBWI members celebrated book deals, publications, and awards - including Carnegie nominations (plural! for the fab Keren David - When I Was Joe and Candy Gourlay - Tall Story) it was inspiring just to mingle in their midst. 

b) Wonderfully Sociable
Writing can be such a lonely activity - by its very nature it's a solo enterprise and while I'm actually very lucky in that my Mum's also a writer so we usually spend our days side-by-side on the sofa with our laptops typing away, or critiquing each other's drafts - but whenever she's out or away, and especially now I'm (finally!) about to leave home, the prospect of working day after day alone in an empty house does feel very isolating.

It's so wonderful, therefore, to such fantastic occasions to meet other writers in the same boat - friends made over Twitter or Facebook finally meeting in the flesh - as well as new friends met for the first time. The social supportive comradery of the SCBWI is truly incredible. 

c) Interesting and Informative
For we were not there only to shmooze and idolise, but to learn - about honing our craft, about the markets, about publicizing, promoting, and social networking...

So what did I learn?

1) That it's okay - nay advantageous - to be an internet slut. (It certainly hasn't hurt Carnegie-nominated Keren David!)

2) It is possible to literally devour a book

3. That writing 'Contemporary' fiction can be both a blessing and a curse:
Your work can 'date' really quickly - beware of slang and cultural references.

Or treat it as a contemporary historical novel - just without all the historical research - we're living it! In ten years time what does it matter if the cultural references are out of date - it's a story set in a particular time and place - not being 'current' hasn't hurt Enid Blyton.
Or you can hedge your bets by updating these references in a few years time - as long as the story is timeless, so should the book be.

4. It is possible to write a Carnegie-award nominated novel in 3 months, and blogs in 20 minutes.
If you are the superhuman Keren David.
GRRRR

5. Always interview prospective partners/friends/flatmates to assess their potential future usefulness - lawyers, the police, doctors will prove extremely useful resources down the line...

6. Writing's about what you can get away with! As long as you get the important facts right, you can invent much of the rest! - Creative license! 

7. Even when you think your editing might be finished, a workshop with the inspirational Miriam Halahmy will make you want to go and attack it with red pen all over again!

8. Writers read blogs, and teens use your Facebook page - sometimes to flirt with each other...

9. Dave Cousins has an incredibly impressive array of hats!

10. Don't get too distracted by tweeting and, erm, blogging, as it's the writing that counts. Um, on that note...

Thursday 11 November 2010

What's in a Name?

Apparently, quite a lot!

Just heard from my editors that they'd like me to consider an alternative title for my upcoming YA/Crossover novel. 'Someone Else's Footprints' they say "feels like something we've read before - perhaps a mystery?"

So they've come up with a few alternatives, and I've also added my own to the list above. (Please note, any title which includes the word Lives/Life I want to do something fancy with so it also reads 'LIE' e.g. Someone Else's Life/Someone Else's Lie)

This is where you come in! PLEASE HELP!!

I would be SO grateful if you'd have a quick squiz at the titles at the top of this page and tick your favourite(s) - which one would you pick up off a bookshelf?

If there are any you love - or hate! - please feel free to leave a comment (below) telling me why - Or perhaps you have a better suggestion altogether?

Anyone who comes up with a NEW title that makes it to print will get a whole stash of goodies - an ARC, a printed acknowledgement in the book, A CHARACTER NAMED AFTER THEM, and much much more...

Here's the synopsis:

"When seventeen-year-old Rosie’s mother, Trudie, dies from Huntington’s Disease, her pain is intensified by the knowledge that she has a fifty-per-cent chance of inheriting the crippling disease herself.

Only when she tells her mum’s best friend, ‘Aunt Sarah’ that she is going to test for the disease does Sarah, a midwife, reveal that Trudie was not her real mother after all – that she was swapped at birth for a baby destined to die…

Devastated, Rosie decides to trace her real mother, hitching along on her ex-boyfriend’s GAP year to follow her to Los Angeles.

But all does not go to plan, and as Rosie discovers yet more of her family's deeply-buried secrets and lies, she is left with an agonising decision of her own - one which will be the most heart-breaking and far-reaching of all... "
 
So what should the title be...?

Friday 5 November 2010

The Never-Ending Edit...HAS ENDED! (For now...)

Phew! Hi! Remember me?

Actually, I hardly do - it's been so long since I've surfaced from the swamp of paper, red pens, computer files to do - well - anything...

 - Look in the mirror...how'd I get so pale?


- Stand on the scales...Eek! (Editing is definitely bad for diets - all that mental agility and slogging doesn't actually burn off all that chocolate "brain food"- shocker!)

- Twitter...I've lost so many followers! :(

 - Clean the house...I had a massive tidy today (it had really gotten THAT bad!) and found a letter from my bank saying if they didn't hear from me by the end of September, they were going to close my account.

Oops.

I feel like I've been grounded for the past eight weeks, dropped off the face of the earth - it's been murder on my social life, my exercise routine, and I haven't been shopping in eight weeks!

But good (hopefully!) for the book - and that's the important thing.

For once it goes to print...there'll be nothing more I can do...

And that thought scares me silly.

That's why I've become a bit obsessive, devoting all my time and energy, poring over every word, every scene, tweaking and polishing til my keys are rubbed raw...

Actually, I'm a believer in the neverending edit. That may sound like a writer's worst nightmare - and in many ways it really is. It can be quite obsessive, but I each time I read something I've written I want to change it, tweak it, phrase that sentence or more - take out or add entire chunks...

I do worry sometimes that too much editing is actually counter-productive. I got quite obsessive over one new scene and spent two days constantly changing it until finally I realised that the best version was the one I'd started with. Distance is, of course, vital for perspective - sometimes you can't see the shape of the story for staring at the individual words, and it's only after stepping back for a bit that you discover what you've written isn't necessarily what you think you've written - especially by draft 15 or so! Sometimes they can be scarily different!

I'm relieved to discover I'm not the only one. Teri Terry wrote about how Mal Peet (winner of the 2009 Guardian Children’s Fiction Award for Exposure) feels the truth about writing novels is that you never finish one, and he never feels a wonderful sense of closure, but is an obsessive fiddler.

Phew!

That's why, the night before D-Day, I decided I should have just one more read-through...and consequently didn't send off the ms 'til my body finally ceased functioning at 5.30am  (Thank GOODNESS for email!)

Now I feel a bit dizzy. Drafts still linger stacked by my computer, as if confused to be suddenly abandoned after so much attention; every time I open my laptop I am irresistibly drawn to open the 'Footprints' folder - it's like it's become part of my routine - my muscle memory - it's so weird to suddenly be released from the pressure that's being weighing down so heavily for the past two months...

I've resisted (so far) reaching for said drafts to have just one more read-through, just to check everything, just while the editors are reading...

Stop it! Distance, remember?

Luckily I have other projects to take its place - new deadlines! After all, a change is as good as a rest, and you can't get much more removed from angsty teenagers than fairy-tales, can you? From 100,000 word novels to 1500 word funny rhymes - I'm so lucky to be able to do both!

And now the pressure's off a bit and the house is tidy, I can finally kick back and relax a bit - catch up on 7 episodes of Downton Abbey and weeks of Neighbours (thank you Demand Five!)

And I may have missed Halloween, but this weekend it's fireworks night and I can actually go out and enjoy it! I can go shopping again! And read books - books for fun, not research - books, not A4 typed pages covered in red scrawl -

BOOKS!

My shiny copy of Tamsyn Murray's 'My So-Called Afterlife' has been gleaming, neglected, on top of my TBR pile by my bedside table for FAR too long - so long she's brought out a sequel and written a third! - and now I can't WAIT to dive in...

But first I'd better go visit my bank manager...

Sunday 19 September 2010

Not Waving But Drowning

Whew - I'm finally breaking the surface for an evening from the OCEAN of edits I have been wading/swimming/drowning in for the past two weeks.

Procrastination? Who's got TIME?? Especially when you have EIGHTY pages of edits!! and a DEADline!

I even had to miss the amazing Keren David's launch for the Almost True (which I am just finishing reading - incredible - the story is so fast-paced and gripping, and the main character is just so real, his voice is so true that I'd find it hard to believe she wasn't actually a teenage boy, if I didn't know her already. And her writing - her characterisations and ways of expressing thoughts and feelings through actions inspires me to be a better writer. And also makes me incredibly jealous.)

On the plus side - and it's an AWFULLY BIG plus!! - I have finally received that most-longed-for, dreamed about, aspired to, precious thing - a CONTRACT for my first novel!!!



WOO-HOOOOO!!!

I still can't quite believe it - I have to keep pinching myself.

And actually, it's not just my first novel - it's for two!!! How incredible is that?

And more than a little bit scary - especially now I've seen the contract and the deadline for the first three chapters and detailed synopsis of the second are currently due on December 15th (which seems awfully close when I've got 80 pages of edit and 3 fairy-tales to write by Dec 1st) - but I don't know what that's going to be!! HELP!!
(Sorry for all the capitals - I'm over-excited, it's the first typing I've done that's not editing for days)

However my amazing agent and fairy godmother Jenny is hopefully working her magic and conjuring up a little more time for that - or perhaps choosing a story!

For now, the edits are the priority - in all their varied glory:

a) First there are the line edits - change this reference, cut this word, alter that sentence. Easy, straight-forward, quick.

b) Then there're the slightly more chunky ones - take out this character, this scene, add this back-story. A bit more tricky - how do you add all this information whist retaining the flow and the pace of the story? How do you cut one thing without pulling at threads throughout the entire novel...?

c) Then there are much bigger changes - add in a whole plotline, weaving it into the story and make it make sense with everything that already happens and look how everything afterwards is also impacted. Hmm - a biggy.

d) Then there are sort of vague, potentially volatile changes - strengthen this character, strengthen this relationship. Strengthen a character? A relationship? Look at every scene they're in and change their behaviour, their actions - this is one I'm really worried about as it could have big repurcussions and requires a lot of thought.

e) Then, finally, when all that is finally (hopefully!) done, come the fine-toothed comb edits - read through the entire manuscript, looking at any repetition of phrase or idea, picking at any sentence that could be better-expressed, any adjective that isn't pulling its weight, really concentrating on making this book the best it can possibly be.

f)After all this, the manuscript is bound to have grown (mine's grown 3,000 words in two weeks) so then you have to go through again cutting, pruning and adjusting any extraneous word (My agent and I cut 40,000 words before we even approached any publishers!).

And then, finally, (hopefully by the deadline!) I'll heave a big sigh of relief and send it off back to the editors.

Who will then send back the next batch of edits :)

Thursday 9 September 2010

Summertime is Over

This is it! No more excuses!

No more holidays abroad

No more weddings to plan/decorate/attend

No more house-guests descending from foreign shores

It has been one true jam-packed roller-coaster of a summer but Summertime is well and truly over (literally - my 2-year-old niece Summer who's been staying this week has now gone, leaving the house judgementally peaceful)

And I have a DEADLINE which is scaring me silly and has me glued well-meaningly to my laptop - doing anything but writing! Research is work, right? Emailing agents and research people is definitely work. As is looking up SCBWI upcoming events and other writer's facebook posts - and tweeting and blogging - these are all essential writerly tasks -

But funnily enough this is not getting my edits done.

WHY is it that when you're immersed in creative zeal things always come along to drag you away (like six weeks of holidays, family and weddings - what a drag! :)).

Or that that really great idea for the next book or for improvements to the one you're meant to be editing ALWAYS without fail hit JUST as you're drifting off to sleep, and keep you awake for the next two or three hours as your head spins with ideas and details you HAVE to write down before sleep obliterates them forever?

The same reason, I suppose, that in the evening when you're wide awake you don't want to go to bed and then when your alarm goes off in the  morning you don't want to get up. You KNOW that getting an early night will make it easier in the morning, but perversely I do not listen to this sensible little voice in my head, but instead read another chapter of a good book/watch another episode of Gilmore Girls/IM/surf the web - anything but go to bed. 

The same reason that it's so EASY to stop going to the gym or dieting after you lapse just once.

The same reason that when I'm meant to be working on novels I am inspired to write picture books - or vice versa.

Sod's law? Probably.

Stupidity? Almost definitely.

Will-power? Of course.

But more than anything it's that famed adversary of all (ok, most) writers.

Procrastination.

I tell myself this is no adversary at all, that chance would be a fine thing - that I'm far too BUSY to procrastinate, even if I wanted to. I've had an extremely busy, crowded, noisy summer.

And now?

There's no point starting now - it's late, I'm tired - much better to start tomorrow.

Tomorrow I will get stuck in.

Tomorrow I'll get up bright and early and do a full, long, productive day.

Tomorrow is another day - I'll get an early night and start refreshed!


So of course here I am writing my blog :)

Disclaimer: Please note, if any of my agents or editors are reading this please remember that I am a writer of fiction and all the above is purely fictional and not based on any person or persons living or dead - especially me - as I am a diligent, conscientious, and hard-working writer who would never ever be caught procrastinating. Ever.

Wednesday 7 July 2010

Sunshine, Summer and Marvellous Meetings


Well, it's been a very busy authorly week.

Not only was I treated to the fabulous Teens on Moon Lane event (blog below) but on Friday my lovely agent Jenny Savill threw a glorious picnic for her blossoming list of children's authors - Sunshine, smoked salmon, strawberries, and lashings of interesting conversation and laughter as we mingled with each other and the editors and scouts who'd been invited along to enjoy the fun. Some faces I knew - the lovely Sara Grant and Nick Cross from Undiscovered Voices (though he thought I was Karen Ball!) and some I felt I knew already from Twitter - the writer's social life! -  Keren David and I had had a lengthy debate the day before over whether Nadal or Federer made the best eye-candy - neither of us like Murray (sullen schoolboy) and I am halfway through my (now signed!) ARC of Almost True, sequel to the amazing When I Was Joe.
Other writers had come from further afield - glamorous Carina from Germany and Nigel had an awfully adventurous journey from Ireland - and it was just a wonderful occasion to get together as a family, a supportive and inspiring group at various stages of our careers from the published to the aspiring and everyone in-between. For what can sometimes be a fairly solitary profession, it was a real treat - thank you Jenny.

Then it was off to Foyles to catch up with fellow UV08 winner, the effortlessly charming Sarwat Chadda, fresh from the launch of his Devil's Kiss sequel, Dark Goddess. We whiled away a few hours discussing scary things like vampires, werewolves, US airport security, deadlines and school visits (the scariest of the lot!) and I listened hungrily, and I have to say a little enviously, as my books won't come out for another two years! Still, plenty of time to do all that editing!

Oh, and write the second novel - which I now have a deadline for! Yes, on November 1st 2011 my second book is due. This is very scary as:

a) I'm not sure what this'll be...

b) I have 4 editors so I really hope they AGREE what the next book is going to be, and

c) it took on-and-off SIX YEARS to write the first one - and I have 80 pages of edits on Someone Else's Footprints to do before I can even think about anything else! Help!

Still, it would be scarier not to have a deadline, I suppose - as I am a strong believer that editing never finishes - a book can ALWAYS be improved on every subsequent reading, so left to my own devices it would probably NEVER be finished. Probably part of the reason it's taken six years to get this far. And any job security you can get in this profession I'll grab with both hands and a contract thank you very much!




Then on Monday Mum and I had a meeting with a children's publishers based in the next village! Now, you have to understand my village has one shop, a post office, a hairdressers (of course) and that's about it, so to find a children's publishers in the next village is pretty incredible. It was so lovely to go in and chat to real live publishers, and have a chance to actually pitch our picture-book ideas - so often the manuscripts just get emailed off with a covering letter and a wish and a prayer and you never get to meet the people who read them unless they actually want them(!!) - and especially now I have an agent I'm even more removed from the process - so to have the chance to get a bit more hands-on and actually meet and pitch and discuss ideas with editors and get instant feedback about what worked/what didn't and what they liked/didn't like was glorious and so refreshing.

And inspiring! Since that meeting I've had four new ideas for picture books I really don't think I would've come up with without the buzz of that meeting. Whether they're any good or not remains to be seen... But fingers crossed!

Back to wishin and hopin' :)


Tuesday 29 June 2010

Teens on Moon Lane


Fabulous YA event last night, thanks to Dulwich Library, fab independent bookshop Tales on Moon Lane, and the wonderful Chicklish - celebrating its 4th birthday!


Most probably the UK's very first YA book blog, founders Luisa Playa and Keris Stainton (both with fab books on display) told of how they came to start the blog together after becoming refugees from online writing groups that didn't quite know how to handle YA Chicklit, and invited along the fab Sarra Manning and Simmone Howell to celebrate with us.



We were treated to readings by the authors, followed by a lively Q&A - everyone confessed they wrote YA due to an emotional age of 16 (phew, it's not just me!) discussed the rollercoaster that is teenage life, and agreed that while slang changes with the times (and locations) teenage problems are pretty much the same as they always were - lusting after the unattainable hotty, feeling uncool, peer pressure and friendship problems - but that while relationships in adult books seemed a bit 'serious', teen relationships are fun, passionate, heart-breaking, all-consuming, yet transient (hence the Chicklish amended quote "Reader, I snogged him!") and Luisa confessed she never knew which boy her heroines were going to end up with!


This led onto a discussion on planning, leading to more confessions - "I had no idea who stole Della's diary!" (Keris), "The characters lead the plot" (Simmone) - contrasting with Sarra's journalistic "I do a twenty page chapter summary before I write anything!" although she admitted she was less strict when it came to a writing routine, confessing that she doesn't sit down to write until 3pm, then doesn't write anything for an hour and a half - and then it's time for dinner! (another Phew! - not just me!) Although, of course she added this changes when deadlines are looming! The others were similarly reassuringly sheepish about their writing schedules - complaining about writers who claim to type 9 till 5 and then do 200 star-jumps before bed! - impossible!




Inspiration varied from eavesdropping on buses to song lyrics, to reinventing their own teen years (Keris admitted her own teens were spent in her bedroom reading, not going out to parties like she should have - so writing is a way of reliving her miss-spent teens!), and titles were an issue all their own, with the fab title "Della Says OMG" not evolving till the book was about to go to print!

Thanks all for a fab, fun, interesting, and entertaining evening, which left us all inspired :)

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