Look! Feel? Cook meal? Brooke Shields?

BOOK DEAL! I've got a new book deal. More books, written by me! (Note to self: this means you actually have to, y'know, write more books. Eek.)

I'm very (VERY!) happy to announce a new two-book deal with Quercus Publishing. I'm hugely excited about getting to make more books with the Quercus gang - they pretty much rock my socks off.

Big thanks to my agent, Marvellous Victoria, for doing all that clever agenty deal-making stuff. And big thanks to Quercus (especially my wonderful editor, Roisin) for wanting me to write more books. And big fat HUGE thanks to those of you who've bought ENTANGLED or blogged about it or tweeted about it or mentioned it to your friends, because if you hadn't... *shudders*

Anyhoo, the first book is currently called UNDONE. I'll tell you more about it soon, I promise. But here are some of the featured elements to keep you going till then: a girl called Jem; REVENGE; the best character I've ever written (*crosses fingers*); a series of letters; someone called Fernando. (N.B. Some of these elements may not make it into the finished book, although the first three are pretty sure bets.)

Here's an unnecessary picture of Taylor Kitsch in celebration of this momentous occasion...

In summation: YAY!

In other news, I'll be taking a little break away from the blog, for personal reasons. It might be one week, it might be two. But have no fear, I shall return! Thanks for sticking around. Your patience is muchly appreciated.

19th November 2009

That was the day I got The Call, or rather a series of calls with a few emails thrown in. Entangled had been out on submission for a month, and there'd been some to-ing and fro-ing and meetings and such like for the past couple of weeks. But Thursday 19th was THE day.

I was at work, which makes these things 100% more awkward. Many furtive phone calls, much sitting at my desk with my head in the clouds. It's hard to remember the details. One thing I do remember is that my hands felt tingly, and it was very hard to type with tingly-hands syndrome.

So, I had a two-book deal with Quercus and it felt bloody brilliant. Everyone kept asking when the first book would be coming out. 'January 2011,' I said. There were two different responses to this, depending on whether I was talking to someone who worked in publishing or not. Non-publishing folk said something like, 'Blimey! That's aaaaages away.' Publishing folk said, 'Blimey! That's pretty soon.' Yes, it's a little-known fact that time moves differently in the publishing world.

Entangled is released in just under seven weeks. Crikey.

I haz returned

I’m back! I’m back! I decided not to stay in NYC after all, although it was MIGHTY tempting. I’ll post something about the trip at the weekend, but here’s a sneak preview: I bought books! Lots of books! And met the super-lovely, mega-awesome Nova Ren Suma. It was a truly fantastic trip. And now it’s over. Sigh.

Today is a very exciting day for me. There’s mention of the book deal on BookBrunch. Since you have to subscribe to read the article, I’ll copy and paste it for you. It makes me smile.

At Quercus, Roisin Heycock has acquired a debut YA novel, ENTANGLED by Cat Clarke, from Victoria Birkett at the Miles Stott Children's Literary Agency. The publisher has UK/Commonwealth rights in two books.

"It's a nail-biting story about an electrifying love triangle, and all the intensity, joys and pressures associated with friendship and love on a knife edge at a vulnerable age," Heycock says. "What attracted me so much to this book was that Cat Clarke got the UK teenage voice so perfectly. Quercus believes that Cat is a very important new voice in British fiction." Publication is scheduled for January 2011. Clarke's second book, about a teenager uncovering the suspicious death of a girl at her school, will follow a year later.

Clarke, a Children's Non-Fiction Editor, says: "I'm a huge Quercus fan, so I'm extra-specially thrilled to be joining their exciting and flourishing list, and to be published alongside Lili St Crow and Bernard Beckett."

It feels kind of strange reading that, but I’m officially excited all over again!

I hope you’re all having very happy Thursdays out there. 

Back to work

I've just started reading through my WIP with a view to jumping back in and GETTING ON WITH IT. So far it's looking OK, making me smile in all the right places. I haven't even cringed once. That's got to be a good sign, right?

After last week's excitement it feels good to be getting back to the business of actually writing. I'm not going to lie though - I'm feeling a wee bit of pressure. This book HAS to be good. It just has to. Eek. I'm scaring myself. The best way to proceed is probably to ignore The Book Deal (which will be impossible because... YAY! BOOK DEAL!) and carry on as before: just trying to write a story I would like to read.

So I'm going to try my best. Wish me luck. I think I'm going to need it.


Song of the day: Man in the mirror, by Michael Jackson
Non-disappointing lunch of the day: leftovers from last night

The post-I've-got-a-book-deal post

Three days have passed. And no, the news still hasn't sunk in yet. The idea that my book is going to have a cover and pages with words on them and EVERYTHING is possibly too big for my tiny brain to process. But that doesn't stop me being absobloominlutely thrilled that my book is going to be published by Quercus - a publisher comprised entirely of awesome, as you can see from these beautiful covers:

Can't wait to read these. And doesn't Strange Angels look just like a super-cool movie poster?

So I'd like to thank a couple of people for making this dream happen for me. They are (in no particular order, just like the X Factor results):

1. Ma and Pa. Thanks for believing that this could happen... or at least not telling me it was a completely ridiculous idea. And thanks for your patience - I let you read it EVENTUALLY, didn't I?

2. Non. My BFF and BWC buddy and general Keeper of the Faith. Quite literally couldn't have done it without you - you know it's true!

3. My agent, Marvellous Victoria. Thanks for seeing something in my writing, and reading my ms more times than any person should have to, and doing all your complex agenty stuff and finding me and my books a lovely publishing home. And big thanks to Awesome Nancy, too.

4. My new blogging and twitter buds. Over the past few whirlwindy months there's always been someone out there with a kind word, some fab advice or a blog post that I could relate to.

5. All the friends I've bored over the years, talking about this writing malarkey.

6. My ninja cats, Jem and Scout, for being supremely squishable.

Thank you thank you thank you, one and all.

NEWSFLASH!

So... um... it's actually happened.

I.

Have.

Got.

A.

Book.

Deal.

I still kind of feel like whispering it, in case it turns out that I'm dreaming, but I reckon the only way to get over that is to shout it really, really loudly:

I HAVE GOT A BOOK DEAL!

I must go and lie down now.