Sarah Alderson's Blog: Writing and all the bits in between, page 4

Losing Lila Cover & Giveaway!

Very excitingly, Losing Lila's cover is finally ready to be revealed to the world. What do you think?

I love the strapline: 'It's time to stop running and start fighting.'

I wanted it to express how this book is all about the action and Lila coming into her own. And she does. She kicks ASS. Am very excited about its release...just three more months now and counting. Expectations are high for this one and I so want it to deliver for all the fans and bloggers who loved Hunting Lila.

I can confirm that there's tonnes more steam and some epic action scenes and a few more twists. All the characters from Hunting Lila are back in the sequel and all the questions still to be answered are finally resolved...Is Sara a goodie or a baddie? Is Jack alive? And if he is will he and Alex ever become friends again? Will Alex & Lila be able to make a go of it? Will they rescue the people from the base?

Is it a happy ending? That I can't tell you. What I can say is, it isn't a happy ending for everybody. And I can guarantee tears.

And if you need any more incentive to pre-order it let me add this extra morsel of information...there's a story from Alex's point of view in the back. So if you've ever wanted to know what Alex was thinking when Lila fell down the stairs and into his arms at the start of Hunting Lila, or ever wanted to know what was going on behind those inscrutable blue eyes of his when he was listening to her talk, then you'll be able to find out!

I'm also hosting a giveaway on Goodreads...so don't forget to enter for the chance to win a signed copy!

Losing Lila

How to get an agent

I got an agent when I was just like you (and by that I mean Googling ‘how to get an agent’ when I should have been finishing my manuscript and / or working).

I got one of the best agents on the planet in fact. OK I’m biased but she just negotiated a deal for my 4th and 5th books on manuscripts I haven’t even written yet (well one was a half-way written mess and the other was a three sentence synopsis that went something like ‘think Drive crossed with Bourne Supremacy with a really hot boy and um, it’s set in New York’) so yeah, allow me to call her the best agent on the planet.

I actually got two agents in the space of a week – both wanting to represent me for Hunting Lila. It felt like all my Christmases had come at once. I actually got to choose my agent (how cool is that?).

I remember on my first visit to my agent’s office seeing the pile of manuscripts on the desk that they’d received that week (they get 100 submissions a week – do the math – that’s 5200 a year and they take on just a handful of those.)

The submission pile was a mountain of paper reaching almost to the ceiling. It took my breath away. And knowing that my own submission had made it all the way off that pile to an editor at Simon & Schuster and then to a happy two book contract almost made me weep. I mean, I’ve never won anything before in my life (except this crappy toy Ferrari in a raffle once. I was ten years old. I’m a girl. May as well have given me herpes.)

A lot of people ask me how they can get an agent. So here’s my advice on the topic (for what it's worth). I also asked my own agent for her top tips (those are worth a lot more).


1. Buy The Writers’and Artists' Handbook.

2. Read it.

3. Finish your manuscript (no agent is going to take on a debut author without a complete manuscript).

4. Make your first sentence really count. And then make every other sentence count just as much.

5. Tailor your submission letter to each agency. Read their website, find out who you’re submitting it to. Do they represent any authors that you admire? Do you think you would be a great fit for them? If so, why? Also – get their name right. Don’t mess up your mail merge.

6. It all counts!
Remember that everything you submit – the cover letter, synopsis and sample is there to make an impression. So, the cover letter and synopsis needs to be short and simple with the cover letter saying a little about the author and the synopsis short and attention grabbing (like a book blurb) and make sure that the sample material grabs the reader’s attention from the first page – you can’t have it getting going in the third chapter, as the likelihood is that the agent will have stopped reading before then if nothing happens in the first two chapters.

7. Always SPELLCHECK.
I asked my agent what makes her fire something straight in the bin? Her answer? ‘Although we’d never fire anything straight into the bin (!), it is off-putting when there are a lot of spelling and grammatical mistakes in the cover letter and the wording doesn’t make sense!’

8. Keep it short and snappy
‘An incredibly long synopsis / covering letter is a negative – it shows that the writer is unable to self-edit. Not laying the sample material out in a manner that is easy to read – ie small, difficult to read font & not double spaced is not a good idea. And when we ask for the first three chapters, we mean the first three chapters – not the 8th, 21st and 38th [how are we supposed to see the progression if we are given three ‘random’ chapters?].’

9. Know your audience
Show that you have a clear understanding of your target readership. Your genre and your competitors. 'If the author states that they have never read a YA novel, but their submission is a YA novel, that will set alarm bells off. So obvious research and knowledge in the area that the author is writing is crucial.'


Apparently, and this surprised me, a platform (goodreads profile etc) is not essential unless you’re a non-fiction writer. ‘With regards to fiction, writing and plot is more important [obviously if they have a background or something that ties-in to what they are writing then that is great – but it isn’t the be all and end all. Once the author has a publisher, then their platform comes into play much more and needs to built up considerably (if not there) in time for publication.’

I don’t think it can hurt though to talk about a platform if you do actually have one.

Hope that's helpful to you!

Good Luck!

CATCHING SUKI

A while ago a friend of mine contacted me to see if I could help her. She's launching a charity called Girltank which aims to support girls around the globe who are making change happen in their communities.

Because I am passionate about supporting girls and empowering them I jumped at the chance and we talked about me writing a short story that they could then use to promote Girltank.

Straightaway I chose Suki from the Hunting Lila series as the protagonist because so many people warmed to her and because she's hilarious. So I wrote a short story from her point of view. It runs parallel to the start of Hunting Lila so we get to meet all the characters from Hunting Lila but before Lila does.

For a sneak peak on what Alex really thinks about Lila (Suki can read his mind remember) and to discover exactly how Alicia gets captured by the Unit (clue Suki might have had something to do with it) download now - it's FREE! All you need to do is go to Girltank's Facebook page and nominate someone you know who's making a positive difference to the world and they will email you a copy.


So, here's the blurb on the story…

The Unit are closing in and Demos needs one of his team to go deep cover.

Enter Suki.

Fashion obsessed, boy-crazy and more than a little kooky, Suki is a mind reader with a special talent for buying shoes and for listening in on private conversations.

Tasked with infiltrating the enemy (namely Jack and Alex) Suki rises to the challenge, leaving a trail of chaos, destruction (and a large room service bill) in her wake.


*DOWNLOAD YOUR FREE COPY FOR A LIMITED TIME ONLY FROM HERE https://www.facebook.com/girltankorg?...Catching Suki

Instinct over Intellect OR a lesson for writers having a bad day

Today was an interesting day for me as a writer.

Last week I started writing two new books – simultaneously. I’m not sure what it is about me and upping the ante. With my penultimate book I challenged myself to write it in 30 days – just because. This time I’ve set myself 56 days to complete two books. Again – I’m not sure of the reason why. I just like having goals I suppose.

This means roughly writing 4000 words a day – about 2000 words on each manuscript. And I’m finding the exercise actually quite interesting. Those moments where I find myself losing attention or coming to a standstill on one I switch to the other and find myself fresh. So far it's been easier to write two than to write one and to keep energised.

After writing my first two books (Hunting Lila and Losing Lila) I became a much more confident writer and stopped any pretence at planning. I’ve written six books now in two years and the last three I wrote just free flow style. I would sit at my desk, not really knowing where the story was going but just following the flow and trusting that my instincts were taking me somewhere good. Whenever my brain took over and ordered me in a panic to start thinking about it and planning I’d ignore it and just keep writing. Those books came from the gut. Purely from the gut. And yet the story development, plots and characters are all better formed than anything I’ve written to date. They’re better books (one day soon hopefully you’ll get to read them and agree!)

Anyway, back to these two new books I’m writing. The first ms is a young adult contemporary (so, new territory for me) and the second is an adult book (again, totally new territory.)

But today, maybe I woke up tired, I’m not sure, but I was having a downer day, the type of day where you start to question whether what you are writing is any good, whether anyone will buy it, whether you’re insane to keep going wasting precious time and energy on something that might be a pile of crap.

Particularly with the adult book - I kept thinking to myself – am I clever enough to write this? I mean I know I can write action and steam and paranormal hot boys, can I really write about this subject with any authority? Should I be more considered and spend more time plotting and thinking it through? So I spent all day getting stressed about the themes and the story arc and worrying that what I was trying to say wasn’t clear enough until I was in a really bad mood at the world (and went out and drank hot chocolate and bought a new bag to cheer myself up).

And then I was out at a birthday party and started listening in to a conversation between an artist and a designer. The artist was explaining to the designer how when he creates art he has to switch off his brain, which is trying to rationalize and impede his flow – aka his instinct. When he lets his instinct take over, he said, then he creates something of wonder, something truly representative of himself and that communicates exactly what is meant and is needed.

I smiled to myself, thinking, maybe that through this man and this overheard conversation the universe was trying to teach me a lesson. Maybe I need to stop thinking so hard and just come from the place that I usually come from – my gut - and not my head.

And then, as if to further emphasise this lesson, tonight lying in bed, my beautiful, smart, sensitive soul of a daughter said to me, ‘mummy are you OK?’

And I said, ‘I just had a rough day today. I’m a little sad about my work.’

And she said, ‘Is it about your book?’

‘Yes,’ I answered.

‘The book you’re writing at the moment? Do you want to talk to me about it?’

I smiled and kissed her and said, ‘That’s so sweet darling. I’m just a little worried that it’s not very good.’

And she stroked my arm and said, ‘Mummy you don’t need anyone to tell you that. YOU know if it’s good or not.’

What she meant was that all I needed to do was listen to the voice inside my head and it would tell me (failing that, she told me, I should ask Auntie Nichola - my best friend - she said.)

I can’t believe I forgot this. And I feel so blessed to have a five year old who can remind me of it.

Lesson learned. Instinct over intellect. Every time.

Editing Sucks Balls

I suck at editing. Thankfully I am lucky enough to have an editor AND a copy editor AND a proof reader. And I'm still having to blink in awe at that sentence.

I’m not a perfectionist so I really need all the help that I can get. I just finished a short story from Alex’s point of view, which is going in the back of Losing Lila and it took my agent to point out that I’d called one character by the wrong name for half the story.

My copy editor in particular picks up not so much the spelling and grammar errors but the continuity errors and repetitions. The places where I’ve said one thing on p.23 and then totally contradicted that on p.230. She also points out where references I’ve made to obscure 80s movies might go over the heads of teenagers today. Sigh.

I heard that Charlaine Harris’s publishers employ a full time fact checker and continuity person for her because with so many Sookie Stackhouse books it’s so hard to keep a grip on who’s who and what’s gone before. One day I can dream of such a thing.

So here are some of the things I do to help me edit.

Read it out loud
I find this the most useful way of editing. When you read out loud you pick up the cadence and rhythm of sentences, you notice where you’ve used the same word in the same paragraph twice. You realize where you’re missing words or where another word might be needed to give better flow and you realize where dialogue sounds stilted and wrong. If you read it in your head it’s not the same.

Kindle-it
Add the document to your Kindle or ereader. I find that reading my manuscripts off a Kindle makes it feel more like a book already and so I read it in a different way, more critically, and can add quick notes and bookmarks as I go.

Revise Revise Revise
Editing is a process. Losing Lila has been through about six revisions. And will probably go through two more (with my editor) before it’s even read by the copy editor where the final revisions will happen. I wrote it almost two years ago so I’ve had time to do this many revisions. I leave a few months in between and then return to it with fresh eyes. It’s true that the more revisions you do the better it gets. I’m now really happy with it. It’s tighter, funnier and better constructed and I’ve had the chance to take on board feedback from Hunting Lila and edit accordingly.


Continuity
If you plot as you go or have a convoluted plot that jumps from location to location and through time it can be easy to mess up the continuity. There’s a mistake in Hunting Lila which a reader spotted (it involves Lila’s birthday) and that was down to a continuity error on my part when I was editing (I wanted her to be a Sagittarius!) Solutions to managing continuity include having someone else read your book when you’re done to check for things like this (sometimes you can’t see the wood for the trees), keeping notes on a separate spreadsheet or doc, creating a timeline of dates or a story arc as well as character notes on things like birthdates, physical description, background, first appearance in book etc

If you are writing a series of books this becomes even more crucial. I still wonder how on earth JK Rowling plotted seven books so intricately.

Language
Whilst I’ve spent a lot of time in the States and now live in Indonesia surrounded by North American and Australian ex-pats, I’m English and have a sort of south London slash transatlantic accent. Most of my main characters are American and my books are for the most part set in America.

I send all my manuscripts to three American friends to read and check through for authenticity and idioms. In British editions some of the language stays British (mum for mom, vest for tank top, boot for trunk, pissed off instead of pissed) but at least I hope the characters sound how they are meant to sound for the most part.


Adjectives and adverbs
They just fill up space. Of course we need some descriptions and you can’t and shouldn’t strip out every adjective but try to SHOW- DON’T TELL as much as you can.

Instead of saying ‘He was arrogant’ – how can you show this instead of telling the reader it? Does he stand in a certain way? Speak in a certain way? Does he cock an eyebrow? Or curl his lip?

How can you show someone is nervous instead of telling us she is? Does her gaze falter, does she clasp and unclasp her hands, hop from foot to foot. If you read a lot you’ll see how other authors show and don’t tell.

Wordcount
Look into book length. As a debut author especially – an agent or publisher is unlikely to look kindly at a manuscript that is overlong.

An average YA novel is about 65,000-85,000. Hunting Lila and Fated both fall in at around 82,000 words (305pages roughly).

Adult novels at 100,000.

Whilst a 200,000 word tome is not necessarily going to be chucked on the reject pile (think Gone with the Wind, Great Expectations…) unless it’s truly a modern day classic stick with the genre averages. I’d say you have a better chance of your manuscript being read in its entirety.

If you stick to word count now you'll save hours and hours of editing time later!

Be Brutal
I cut 27,000 words from my first draft of Hunting Lila. At first I agonized over every sentence. And then I just got brutal. I chopped whole pages, even whole chapters. The rule of thumb – does it drive the story forward? Does it reveal something about the character? If not, take it out. Even characters – are they all absolutely necessary? If not take them out.

Then finally - at some point just say 'enough' - it might not be perfect but it never will be perfect. You just have to accept that.

My first draft of Lila got accepted by an agent and publisher and it was still pretty rough compared to the final cut. You could edit for forever but there isn't time for forever if you want to get your book out into the world.

For all you procrastinating aspiring authors out there...

Procrastinating is an art form. I write super fast (completing a book every three months) but that's not to say I don't know how to procrastinate like a pro too. I've just learned to manage my procrastination with a few techniques...(though there's nothing like having no other income to get you over the hurdle of procrastination...if I don't write I starve...or I live off my husband - neither very appealing options).


The things I am often doing when I tell my husband I am extremely very busy writing and cannot be disturbed are: reading Lainey Gossip so I am in the loop about the latest happenings concerning Ashton & Demi, Tom & Kstie, Justin & errr whoever, sending emails to fans who want to know if Lila & Alex will be having sex in the sequel, checking Facebook, refreshing my Goodreads author page 60 times a minute, watching Sons of Anarchy (and freeze-framing Jax) / Breaking Bad / True Blood, Tweeting, ordering take-out, checking the fridge for hidden chocolate supplies, eating take-out and downloading music on Spotify.


Yours may be fairly similar. But without further ado, here are my tips to help you stop procrastinating. This list is not definitive and it may not even help. There are more ideas covered off in my previous blog post about how to write a book in 30 days.


1. Speech
Start with dialogue if you don’t know where or how to start. Even if you then cut it out it’s a useful way of getting to know what’s happening in your characters’ heads in that scene. I often find that writing a conversation down (forget the punctuation and speech marks for the moment) gets the ball rolling. Then I go back and fill in the ‘stage directions’.

2. Maria Von Trapp was Wrong
You don’t need to start at the very beginning. If it’s that first sentence that’s freaking you out. If the cursor is blinking at you causing you a mental meltdown, skip forward, release the pressure of the first line and first paragraph. Start on the second chapter or write just one scene. I wrote the kiss between Alex and Lila before I wrote the first chapter of Hunting Lila because that scene I could really visualize. Oh yeah.

3. Oprah
Imagine the finished book in your hand, glossy covered, embossed with a Richard & Judy Summer Reads sticker, in the hand of Oprah, on the 3 for 2 table next to Twilight.

Ain’t none of that gonna happen unless you write the damn thing.

4. I can't believe I'm about to say this...but...
Exercise is not procrastination.
Swim or go somewhere where you have to be alone and where there is no wifi and where through repetitious action your mind is cleared and you can drift into daydreams and do your plotting. But keep a notebook by the pool. Or a Dictaphone in your pocket if you’re running. I find that after a swim my head is teeming with ideas and I usually rush back to my computer and write for hours straight.

5. Seek help for your addiction
Turn off the internet – I still find myself flicking to Facebook whenever I reach a roadblock in a manuscript. It’s an automatic reaction and I can’t stop myself, like an alcoholic reaching for the whisky bottle. Facebook is my crack. I’m telling you to turn off the internet though I’ve not yet mastered this myself and have already checked it about a dozen times since I started writing this post. When I figure out how to really overcome this addiction I will let you know.

6. Music
Like surgeons listening to Vivaldi as they carry out triple heart bypasses...pressing the play button can set the scene and help you write better. I create playlists on Spotify (another procrastination?) and listen to them over and over when I’m writing the book. A specific song can put me right into the heart of a scene quicker than my imagination can take me there. If you feel like procrastinating for number 7 then you can check out my playlists on my website.

7. Ration
Allow yourself 5 minutes of procrastination only. Set the clock. And episodes of True Blood are 45 minutes to don’t think you can squeeze just the one in before you start writing.

8. Cheerleaders
I send every chapter I write to my two best mates. They’re my reading buddies. I write for them and because they’re always hungry for the next chapter it makes me write faster! If you’re too embarrassed to send your writing to friends or writing buddies then get over it quickly. Sharing your writing can only help you in the long term. Charles Dickens used to write his stories serial style…chapter by chapter...so I figure if it worked for him…

9. Editing
Pdf it and add it to your ipod or Kindle or iPad then read it as if it’s already a book. That way you can read and make notes as you’re on the bus, in the bath, in a boring work meeting…I used to take my ms on the train with me to work and would deliberately not bring a book so it was either edit it or sit there staring at the person opposite for half an hour. And as the person sitting opposite was never Alex Skarsgard I got a lot of editing done. Also I used to take pages of it into meetings with me and edit when I was supposed to be listening to my boss talk about very boring things. It's a good job I sold my books and moved to Bali as I think I'd have been fired by now otherwise.

10. If you're going to do it then do it properly
If you’re going to procrastinate at least do it for a good reason. Don’t do it to watch re-runs of Gossip Girl or to clean out the fridge. Procrastination which feeds your imagination (and not in a ‘Dan, Nate or Chuck?’ kind of way), inspires new thoughts, opens your eyes to new world or possibilities or energizes you (apparently exercise does that) is not procrastination – it’s utterly and completely necessary for a writer to procrastinate in these circumstances though never for too long.

11. Stop reading this and go write that book.

How to write 3 books a year

So far this year I have written three entire novels (each around 86,000 words). That makes six books in just over two years.

One I wrote in 30 days just because I wanted to see if I could do it. That was kind of crazy though.

I am now ready to take a rest. I feel mentally exhausted.

If my brain is a sponge it is wrung completely dry. It’s manky and fraying and no longer something you’d want to keep lying next to the bath. I need to lay it in a swimming pool of valium diluted with vodka and after that when it’s good and fluffy again I want to read a thousand books, travel around the world one more time and let it soak up some further inspiration until that sponge is saturated to the max.

But having said that, all the effort of the last two years has paid off. In these two years plus a few months, I’ve signed a three book deal with Simon & Schuster as well as a very cool film rights deal for Lila. I’m hoping that I’ll sell books 4, 5 & 6 before Christmas, which would make for an incredible two and a half years.

I didn’t realize quite how unusual my productivity was until people asked me if I was in fact a machine. I am not.

My agent is delighted of course but I think my publisher is just plain scared. It’s too many books almost for them to handle I guess – especially as I’m still a debut author.

But anyway for those of you out there struggling to write your manuscript… here are my tips on how to write a book in 30 days:

1. Do not dwell – do not let those fingers rest on the keyboard even if it’s a day that you wake up grumpy and hungover and re-runs of Gossip Girl are playing on Sky. Sit at your desk and write. A young adult book is about 80,000 words long – divide that by 30 = about 2600 words a day. Stick to that. On some days aim to surpass that. Then you can take the odd day off when things come up.

2. Treat writing like the job that it is. Yes it’s a job that you’re passionate about but it’s still a job (at least it is if you want to write a book and sell it for enough money to live on). If you want to write a book in 30 days you have to commit to at least eight hours a day at your desk writing (not staring into space, skyping friends, fiddling on Facebook, checking Twitter etc)

3. Go with the flow: Don’t spend ages plotting. OK that might have sent some of you spiraling into panic…I know some people can’t write a book without having sketched the entire plot and chapter structure beforehand, but frankly that scares me – it allows no room for improvisation or for characters to grow and change. How can you possibly know what your character is going to do half way through the book? Characters always surprise me. The safer bet is to just go with the flow. And I have the benefit of practice and also a probably slightly insane but helpful belief in the universe throwing me bones. I just write and allow the flow to come to me. Plotting and writing character notes is for the most part an exercise in procrastination. Or maybe I’m just lazy.

4. Switch off the internet. DO IT.

5. Forget having a social life. Online or off. Your social life can wait a month.

6. Don’t go back and edit, you can do that afterwards. Don’t look back just keep going forwards, especially if you are a perfectionist as this will make you stall. I read over what I wrote the night before, make a few changes and then move on. I’m good at moving on because I’m not a perfectionist. If you are a perfectionist you will find this stage difficult but I promise you it’s much easier to edit after you’ve written the whole book.

7. Exercise is key – get out the house, swim, run (I’ve never run in my life but some people swear it’s good for you), do pilates or yoga or boxercise. Exercise wakes up the mind and it’s when I get all my ideas. When I’m swimming I can’t be distracted by anything else. It becomes like a meditation where my mind can start wandering freely and imagining scenes and dialogue. All my books have been born in water.

8. Don’t be hard on yourself. Don’t criticize yourself. Don’t tell yourself you suck or what you’ve written is awful and you’re never going to be published. The easiest way to defeat lies in listening to the negative voice in your head so from this point on banish it. When it tries to whisper in your ear yell at it to back the hell off, shut up and go away. That voice is not welcome. I always think my books rock (even when they probably don’t) and I always assume that they are naturally going to be published. I never doubt that for an instant (deluded? Not yet at least).

9. Get yourself a mantra and keep repeating it. Post it over your desk. ‘You rule. This book is awesome. Keep going.’


OK, I hope that helps.

Lila & Alex interview

The full interview can be found at the wonderful Brodie's amazing blog Eleusinian Mysteries of reading


Lila, it's been an emotionally rocky road since uncovering your abilities. But if you were given the choice of any superpower - which would you pick?

L: Demos has a superpower. I would love to be able to stop Jack from thinking. Period. The world could use less of Jack thinking. Removing certain emotions he's feeling right now about this (indicating her and Alex) would be helpful too.

Also Suki's power (reading minds). That would have been useful around the time I was falling down some stairs. It would have changed everything - I wouldn't have needed to hack Jack's computer for a start. I would have known about Rachel, I would have known straight up what Jack and Alex were covering up.

A: Not covering up - just protecting you from.

L: Same difference.

Alex gives Lila a look.

L: See that look? That one right there? The kind of inscrutable face he's pulling where you have no idea what's going on in his head? Do you know how difficult that is to deal with? Yeah, I repeat, it's annoying that I'm not a mind-reader.

A: Well if I had Demos's power I might have been able to stop you running away all the time. That's an annoying habit you have.

Alex, it's nice to see some bromance in YA - if you and Jack could do any outrageous crazy-ass 'guy' thing, would would you love to do?

(SPOILER)
A: You think it gets any crazier than tracking Psys and trying to contain them? We've done some stuff in our time, especially in training. They were dropping us half-way up mountains and out in the desert - with no supplies or weapons or maps. Just us on our own fighting off pretend bad guys and trying to make it back to the base in one piece.

There was also the time I had to break Jack out of a Mexican jail cell but let's not go there. It's classified.

Any embarassing childhood stories about each other? Spill the beans!

A: I'm not going to embarrass her. Though there was that time when you -

L: Stop right there. Not fair. Oh god. I did so many embarrassing things. Do we have to go there?

A: No. We don't have to go there.

L: I hid a teddy bear in his bag on Valentine's Day. I drew a card and then stuffed it all in his back pack when he wasn't looking.

A: Yeah. I pretended I didn't know it was from you.

L: You were at our house. Who else would have left it in there? Jack? In my defence I was six.

A: You were cute. Back then.

Lila pulls a face.

A: There was also the time she climbed the tree in the back yard and swung upside down trying to copy Jack.

L: (laughing) I can't believe you brought that up. I can't believe you even remember that.

A: She forgot to put on any underwear. Jack fell off the branch and landed on his head he was laughing so hard.

L: I was seven! Pause.

Well I caught you and Jack reading Playboy that one time.

A: Jack was reading it. You know me better than that.

L: Yeah, can we move on to Jack. I have plenty of Jack material. I could write a whole book on Jack.

Do either of you have a celebrity crush?

A: She used to have a poster of the Jonas brothers on her wall.

L: You haven't seen me since I was fourteen. Times have changed.

A: So who are you into now?

L: (looking down) Nobody. And seriously, if you keep pushing the Jonas brothers story I really will be crushing on nobody. And anyway, what about you and your Keira Knightley obsession?

A: (shrugging) It's the accent. The british thing - it does it for me every time. Lila's sounding more British these days. I like it.

Boxers or briefs, Alex? We're dying to know!
A: Boxers.

L: But he is a commando you know.

...

To read more...

Hunting Lila

WIN AN ADVANCED SIGNED ARC OF FATED

I hope the wonderful Maggie Stiefvater doesn’t mind me stealing her competition idea…

WIN AN EARLY SIGNED COPY OF FATED, my next book, personalized with a selection of my post-it notes (which I stick all over my walls and desk and which contain words of wisdom – not my own because I don’t claim wisdom as a trait – as well as ideas and quotes for Losing Lila and for Fated).

On your Facebook page or your blog (must be an actual blog from Blogger or WordPress – and not Shelfari or Goodreads etc) post the cover image of Hunting Lila and some words along the lines of OMG THIS BOOK ROCKED. IT’S SO FULL OF AWESOME. ORDER IT NOW! And then link to the Book Depository (Free Worldwide shipping)
here


Then go HERE and comment and add your link (If your FB profile page is private (as it should be!) then just tell me that it’s private and if you get picked we will verify it another way. Or you can just add me as a friend.

If you have Facebook AND a Blog you can enter twice but make sure you post the links to both.

There will be two winners chosen by grand jury of err, me. The first winner will be a random pick from a hat and the second winner will be the person who posted the Facebook Status update or blog entry that made me laugh the hardest!

This contest ends on midnight the 30th September, GMT. I will post winners on October 1st.

Book birthdays, Ecstatic Dance and MORE ALEX...

Lila had its Australian book birthday the other day – I wish I was there for it. Instead I had to make do with drinking frozen margaritas and going to ecstatic dance (moving meditation where you dance like a lunatic in the dark wearing only a bikini until pouring with sweat and ready to collapse – upside is you feel really amazing after). It’s when I dance or swim that I come up with new plot ideas for my books. That’s my excuse anyway.

At the moment I’m writing my sixth book. It’s very different to Lila or Fated, though similar in that it features a teenage girl who’s caught in a situation not of her choosing and who has to figure her way out of it. I’m having fun writing it – loving the flow. And the boys. There are boys. Naturally. In fact there’s only one girl. All the rest are boys. Like where I’m going with that? :)

Am also half way through writing a short story from Suki’s perspective – a side story to Hunting Lila. It’s going to be sold as an e-book on Amazon with all profits going to my friend’s new charity Girltank.

I spent yesterday at the beach dribbling into the sand whilst plotting the story and wrote some pretty awesome dialogue between Demos and Suki and between Jack and Alex. It’s fun to explore these characters outside of Lila’s perspective. I’m still struggling though on how to create a storyline that allows me to have Alex half-naked.

Fail on that score. He’s going to be clothed. BUT we will be finding out more about his love life over the last few years and more about his feelings for Lila – remember Suki can read minds – ACCESS ALL AREAS!

Finally I’m freaking out about Fated. It’s being released in January. With so much Lila love and reviews ending with ‘How is she going to top this?’ I’m having to learn to step away from the refresh button on Goodreads. There should be a cover reveal soon and I had my first reader give it five stars (thanks Jenny!)which helped ease the panic.

And whilst I’m here I need some advice. I’ve been invited to a school to do ‘something.’

Any ideas on what ‘something’ might look like? If I was coming to your school or college what would you want me to do? What would you want me to talk about? Any suggestions gratefully received! Because right now all I can think of doing is an ecstatic dance demonstration.