Sarwat Chadda's Blog, page 13

Tall Story by Candy Gourlay

Andi desperately hopes her long lost half brother Bernardo will be as mad on
basketball as she is. But when he steps off the plane from the Philippines,
she can't believe her eyes.
She hasn't seen him for ten years, but even so, how did he get to be EIGHT
FOOT TALL? An eight-foot-tall boy who is about to crash into her life with
his size 22 feet.

But Bernardo is not what he seems. Bernardo is a hero, Bernardo works
miracles, and Bernardo has an amazing story to tell.

A bittersweet story, funny, sad a...

Rearranging the shelves, as you do

What's up? Quite a lot. Where to begin?
1. The Book Club book. For Whom the Bell Tolls. Written by Hemingway. Set during the Spanish Civil War and the plot's about blowing up a bridge. Couldn't get more testosterone filled, could it?
OMG, its more soppy that a bucket of soppy with a dash of soppy all washed down with another bucket of soppy. If you love Twilight, you'll LOVE this! Pages and pages of a couple wondering around the countryside dwelling on HOW MUCH THEY LOVE ONE ANOTHER. It just g...

Summer Scream!

What are you doing on Saturday 19th June? Are you in Northern Europe?
Whatever it is, cancel it (they'll forgive you) and come to this instead!
Foyles Bookshop (yes, THE Foyles bookshop) are organizing a gothic horror treat of fantasmagorical proportions.
Taking the theme of horror circus you'll be able to meet Rachel Caine, Sarah Rees Brennan and me and discuss all things supernatural, paranormal and BEYOND!
Rachel's the bestselling author of the Morganville Vampire series to give all you fang-...

Being manly...ROAARR!!

No, this isn't a picture of me with my personal trainer but it is Hemingway, possibly the most manliest man of writing ever.
A few months ago I decided that I needed to hang out with blokes more. Now I don't want my wife (or anyone else in my family reading this) suddenly worried that I've decided to grow a moustache and listen to the Village People but more that, suddenly, I have very few male companions.
Now, once, that was not a problem. In fact, I had too many. You work in construction, yo...

Chapter One

The very nice people at Puffin (my publishers here in the sunny UK) have released the first chapter of Dark Goddess, for your entertainment and delectation. You'll find it here.The opening is set three months after the events in Devil's Kiss, and Billi's deep into the Templar way.Devil's Kiss was all about her trying to get out of the Templars, and the consequences of her indecision haunts her. She feels if she'd been more dedicated, she wouldn't have failed Kay the way she did.So, this is a ...

Sweden. It's so hot right now.

All of a sudden I seem to be reading nothing but Swedish books.OMG, where has this country been all my life?*Maybe it's the long, bleak (but beautiful) winters. The pine forests. I don't know, but suddenly I'm adicted to their flms and books.First we had John Ajvide Lindqvist showing us what a REAL vampire story should be like- tragic and terrifying- with Let the Right One In.Then Jan Guillou writing his Templar trilogy and giving us old school Templars and a taste of exactly how hard the...

Ever wanted to be a princess? I know I have.

I belong to the Greenhouse Literary Agency. It's a bit like being back at school. Remember all those anxieties about not being cool, or popular, not too bright or sporty or having the wrong shoes and fearing you'll never, ever get to first base with anyone when the rest of the school's population were running victory laps around the park?Being a writer is a LOT like that, all over again.The agency is like the class. There are some who are cool. Others who are bright. Athletic. Popular. Not s...

Volcanoes. Not good.

As anyone in the Northern hemisphere is no doubt aware (especially those trying to get flights to Europe), we've got some volcano action coming out of Iceland, specifically from the volcano at Eyjafjallajokull.
Flights are cancelled. We're having some very pretty sunsets. Basically that's about it.
But it could get so much worse.
A few months ago I did a school visit and talked about Dark Goddess. Now I know I'm menat to be writing horror, but it was the first time the audience were really stun...

TV Appearances

One of the most unlikely events in my career so far was my one and only TV appearance. This was all part of the US tour last year and I've only just dug it up.

Prior to this I'd been warned by a friend who does some tv stuff the following rules:

1. Get some powder on the bald patch. Studio lights can be bright and we don't want to blind the audience.

2. Keep your head still.

3. Ditto with the arms. No matter how small it may seem to you, the gestures are magnified and we don't want hitting the...

Why 'SanGreal'?

Given that Devil's Kiss and Dark Goddess are both set in the modern world one of the questions I'm asked pretty frequently (apart from 'what car do you drive'?) is why all the Arthurian names and the SanGreal references?

Well, here's my answer.

1. I wanted the story to have a mythic, legendary atmosphere, even if it was
set in 'today's world'. For this reason (and others) I wanted the Templars
to have unusual names, hence they're all named after the King Arthur and teh
Knights of the Round Tabl...