Oh, the shame

Forgive me, readers, for I have sinned. It's been bloody ages since my last confession blog post. No excuses this time. Let's just pretend this little blip never happened and have a quick round-up of what I've been up to, eh?

1. Finishing the first draft of book three. It was arduous. Like pulling teeth (but without the help of suitable tooth-pulling tools). There's still a lot of work to be done to make the story, y'know, make sense, but I'm taking a few days off to deal with all the other work I've been putting off since December. *cries*

2. Signing a contract to write a book for the wonderful Barrington Stoke. I'm crazy excited about this project. Here's what I know so far: it'll be published next year; the setting for the story is a house party; I'm stealing one of the characters from my crazy NaNoWriMo novel because I hearted her so much and decided she deserves to see the light of day instead of being banished to the shadowy depths of my hard drive until the end of time.

3. Going on tour! I visited a number of schools in and around London in February. It was awesome and exhausting.

4. Going to New York! I visited a number of shops and restaurants and spent a ridiculous amount of money I don't have. I bought these boots:

Aren't they amaaaaazing? I also met up with Nova Ren Suma and Victoria Schwab and Barry Goldblatt. It was officially Good Times.

5. Seeing The Hunger Games. I may have been a little over-excited about this (to the extent that I said 'OMG' out loud while sitting at a restaurant table all by myself). I saw it on an IMAX screen, so even tiny Peeta looked huge. I liked the film a lot, but loved the book MOAR. My thoughts: Jennifer Lawrence is spectacularly good; Lenny Kravitz is nothing like the Cinna in my head; Rue may well be the cutest person I have ever seen with my eyes; I wish the film was at least fifteen minutes longer; Stanley Tucci makes everything approximately 57% better.

I think that just about brings us up to date. I trust you are all well? If there's anyone out there still interested in what I have to say, that is...