Sarwat Chadda's Blog, page 16

The US tour, Part 1

This is a clip taken at Kingwood High School in Texas, one of the first stops of the tour. The trip out to Houston was pretty hard (no First Class travel for us debut authors) but the hotel rather impressive, with gym and swimming pool and room service. I know it's shallow but hey, it's not often I get room service. So, I used the room service, if not the gym, nor pool (wait until Chicago for that).
Anyway, there were school visits to St. John's and Kingwood and a bookstore talk and Murder by ...

First love and other tales of horror

The horror. The horror. It was at a Halloween party many many years ago that I had my first 'Bella meets Edward' crush. The sort where you obsess about the target of your affection, you can't sleep, you feel sick and flustered and frankly can't do anything but act a total monkey on acid whenever they're near. You wonder how on earth they, who are Aphrodite/Apollo in the flesh will ever notice you, who feel like a Caliban, club-footed and whose face is hosting an acne convention of global...

My passport photo

Ho hum. Yes, you may wonder "what the **** is he doing?" or "Gosh, he doesn't have that much hair on his head anymore," but I'm starting to get a little concerned what with all the jet-setting I've been doing why oh why do I always get stopped at airports and have delays getting visas.
Obviously launching photos like this onto the Internet may not be the wisest move, but what the hell, I have nothing to hide, except the hairy-ness of my chest.
This was during my holiday in Yemen, some time ago...

Googling yourself and Devil's Kiss soundtrack

The two things are related, sort of. Before we get all excited that Sarwat has some interesting news, well I don't. Beyond that it's very nice being back home and I'm slowly getting my thoughts on the recent tour in some order.
Okay, I have googled myself. It's a bit of a dirty secret amongst writers (I suspect, don't know for sure, that's because it's a secret) but I will put my hand up and admit I used to do it.
I've lost count of the hours/days/weeks I've lost checking FB/Twitter/Youtube/wh...

The winners are...

Cast your minds back to last month when I ran the competition with Devil's Kiss goodies and such. So, without further ado, the winners are:
1. Lexie. Okay, she didn't really win but no-one seemed to understand the scoring system until she explained it. So that's a critique for you.
2. Jessica (Booklover). Hey, you only scored 4 points but your name came out of the hat! I think that's a copy of the book, yes?
3. Word Vore Prod. Copy of the book will be on its way shortly.
4. Bookologist. You can ...

Okay, the vampire thing

So, as I've toured around the US I've been asking 'who wants to be a writer?' and there's been a fair response. And most of you seem to be writing vampire stories.
Why?
Hasn't this bandwagon rolled? Does the world need more vampire books?
First, let me state I was reading vampire fiction before most of you were born (okay, not before Jon Mayhew was born). I love vampires. Like most of you, I went through a period (brief, but distinct) when I wanted to be one. Or maybe it was just me? Alas I'd h...

Allow me to introduce myself...

I'm in Memphis, hence the photo. Well, where to begin..?
The tour's coming to an end, but I've still New York to look forward to. However, I've met a lot of people over the last ten days or so and there's a lot to sort out.
1. HUGE thanks to all the awesome schools I've visited. There's St. John's, Kingwood, JFK and Timber Ridge. I can't thank you guys enough for the displays, the welcome, the cake, the gifts (I'm listening to the CD right now) and all the enthusiasm and bright and scary ideas...

Headin' over to Texas, y'all

This time tomorrow I'll be in Houston (actually I'll be in a plane over the US somewhere, but you get my drift) for the start of my US two (!!) tour.
Sooner or later, I'm going to wake up and discover my writing career was all a bit of a dream. The tour was as unexpected as the rest of it (the agent, the book deal, the parties, the dinners, the parties, the signings, the dinners) and it kind of makes you wonder 'how come Neil Gaiman's not fatter?" since he must have invites coming out of his n...

Judge Dredd and 2000AD

Amongst the many literary heroes that have been inspirations and beacons in my writing career there's one that stands head and shoulders above the others.I feel almost disloyal saying it (especially with the Christian Bale thing) BUT he's even better than Batman.Judge Dredd.We're not talking about the rather disappointing Stallone movie, but the original, in brutal 2D and black and white, comic character.I read 2000AD all through the 1980's right into the 1990's until a stint abroad, left me ...

The USA

So, in two weeks time I'm flying over to the US (for the second time this year, excellent!).
Here's the list of bookshops I'll be visiting. This may change.
Monday, September 28 Time: 6:30 PM Murder By the Book 2342 Bissonnet Street Houston, Texas 77005 Phone: 713-524-8597 http://www.murderbooks.com/
Wednesday, September 30 Time: TBD Watermark Books 4701 East Douglas Wichita, Kansas 67218 Phone: 316-682-1181 http://www.watermarkbooks.com/
Monday, October 5 Time: TBD Anderson's Bookstore 123 West...