NaNoWriMo

Well I've only gone and signed up for NaNoWriMo, haven't I? How the heck did that happen? 50,000 words to write in the month of November? Easy peasy. Um... yeah.


I blame Twitter. People were talking about NaNo. I felt left out. I joined in. Simple. Trouble is, I have a pesky deadline looming. So I can't just start a shiny new project on November 1st and sack off the WIP (much as I'd like to... shhh... don't tell anyone). So here's the plan:


1. Write some words on the WIP every day. Try not to rush it and make it rubbish.
2. Write some words on SOMETHING ELSE every day. Rush it and try not to care if it's rubbish.
3. End up with 50,000 words by the end of November. The word count will be WIP words and SOMETHING ELSE words combined.


(N.B. SOMETHING ELSE will probably not be YA... Oooh!)


Now, NaNo experts among you will know that this is what's known as 'cheating'. Lucky for me, in NaNo world, 'cheating' is more commonly known as 'rebelling'. Yup, I will be a NaNo rebel (along with a few of my Twitter friends who introduced me to the concept). There's even a forum for us rebels... and that makes it official, like.


Somehow I've already managed to convince two friends to join me in this madness. Any chance I can convince you too? Or are you already signed up? Or would your rather lop off your left arm, nibble off all the flesh and then use the bones to bash yourself over the head?


NaNo? YesNo? Or HellNo?

My very first literary festival...

... recounted using pictures of dubious quality. (Except none of the pics are of the actual literary bit. Sorry.)

 A sign

 Pre-festival breakfast... nom nom nom

 A walk on windy, rainy Ilkley Moor (N.B. I was *not* dressed appropriately for this.)

 A waterfall on windy, rainy Ilkley Moor

 Wet leaves are slippy... who knew?!

 A creepy path (N.B. It looked way creepier in real life, honest.)

 Putting my feet up before the literary endeavours begin

Post-workshop reward: room service! Courgette risotto with crispy onions... and X Factor on the telly

In between the walking and the lounging and the eating, there were two workshops in Otley on Sunday and a workshop at Roundhay School in Leeds on Monday. I also met the very lovely David Logan (fellow Quercus author) and Martyn Bedford (author of FLIP, which looks... er... flippin' excellent).

My abiding memory of Ilkley? Bloody hilarious conversations with taxi drivers, which can not be recounted here. Rest assured they will be making an appearance in my writing one day.


What have YOU been up to, my lovely friends?

Jako v pavučině!

Hey lovelies. My very first foreign edition will be published on Monday! ENTANGLED is going Czech! And here's the cover...

I *think* this translates as 'Like the web', but please feel free to correct me. So tell me... what do you think? Personally, I reckon my name has never looked cooler. Huge thanks to NAVA, my Czech publisher, and Caroline Hill-Trevor, Rights Ninja, for making this happen!


(I would have posted this on Monday, but I will be busy terrorizing visiting a school in Leeds. Please send me good luck vibes for that.)

Confession time

OK, here's the thing. I'm a writer, right? But for the past few months I've been a writer who doesn't, y'know, write. 


I think this little fella was partly to blame for this sad state of affairs...

But it's not exactly fair to blame a cute little pupster for me being crap. Because that's exactly what I've been: CRAP. The real reason is... I just haven't wanted to write. I got 50,000 words into the WIP and realized I had no earthly clue what should happen next. Instead of sitting down with a notepad and working it out, I decided to ignore the problem. Surprise, surprise, this wasn't the best solution. 


Every time I even thought about opening the word document I would feel vaguely sick and massively uneasy. I would rather do ANYTHING than write - anything at all. But the thing is, when I don't write, I feel horrible. I mean, really, really horrible. I feel guilty and useless and pointless and blah. I was honestly starting to wonder if I'd ever finish this book. The deadline isn't getting any further away, and I already know this book's going to need some major rewrites (something I've never done before... eek). So everything was looking a bit rubbish, really. Apart from the puppy. Thank God for the puppy.


But then... but then... Something happened. I'm not sure what, exactly. But I started writing again this weekend. I still have no idea where the story is going, but now I really want to find out. And that ain't going to happen unless I write the bloomin' thing. 


Thankfully, a few factors suddenly came together to make me want to write again...


There's this song...

And this one...

There's also a playlist that one of my very favourite people created for me (thanks, Fras!). And the encouragement and help kindly provided by another awesome friend (thank you, Lauren!). And not forgetting the sensible advice from the lovely Zoë Marriott and my favourite email buddy, Lara. All these things went into the pot and helped me serve up a big ol' bowl of writing stew this weekend. And I'm still going. I do hope I haven't jinxed it by telling you lot.


So I'd better get back to it, eh?

VERGISSDEINNICHT!

That's German, in case you didn't know. It means (sort of) Forget-you-not. Pretty nifty title, eh?


And here's the cover.

The words in grey (which have come out way too faint here) are all lines from the book, and the letters of the title will be cut out and you'll see through to a purple flap behind. And 'roman' means 'novel'. My lovely German publisher, Lübbe, is going for a crossover audience with this cover and I FREAKING LOVE IT. I love the white, I love the purple, I love that my words are on there... and look how big my name is?! Eek.


Way back before I had a book deal, before I'd even finished the book, I used to daydream about what the cover would be like. And this is pretty damn close. I can't wait to see it in real life.


So what do you guys think? Pretty different from the UK version, yes?

Not cool

So here's a link to a Publishers Weekly article by two YA writers who were offered representation... on the condition that they turned a gay character straight. Not cool, right? 

Having worked in the publishing industry for a few years I feel I can quite confidently say that this kind of thing happens ALL the time. The agent in question may well have nothing against gay characters in a book, but they may think that editors will have a problem with it, and the editors may think that Sales & Marketing will have a problem with it, and Sales & Marketing may think that bookshop buyers will have a problem with it, and bookshop buyers may think that customers will have a problem with it. You see the issue here? Everyone trying to second guess everyone else. The status quo is maintained.

Here's my plea: ENOUGH WITH THE SECOND GUESSING. Give people a chance to make up their own minds. Simple.

I have a great deal of respect for the two authors in question for refusing to 'straighten' their gay character. I reckon a lot of writers would feel they HAD to, in order to sign with an agent.

So what about you? What would be your deal-breaker? What would you do if you were asked to change the sex/race/sexuality of a character in your manuscript?

Things I have done

Been a busy bee the past couple of weeks. Here are some things I've done:


1. Went to a Neil Gaiman event at the Edinbugh Book Festival. He was about as awesome as you'd expect.


2. Cooked burgers for the very first time in my life. Served them up with crispy bacon, cheese, sour cream, lettuce, tomato, jalapenos and salsa. Again, about as awesome as you'd expect.


3. Attended the launch party for Gillian Philip's BLOODSTONE. Lovely lady, great party, perfect venue - the wonderful Edinburgh Bookshop. You should go there and buy some books.

4. Took Griffin to his first puppy class. There were a lot of CRAZY puppies there. Griffin was obviously the best one. Not biased at all, no siree.


5. Attended the fabulous Teen Titles party and got to talk to lots of cool people - including some teenagers I met at my very first school event back in February.


I think that's about it. I'm sure I've done some other things too - like working - but these were the highlights.


What have YOU been up to? Glad summer's nearly over?