Sarah Alderson's Blog: Writing and all the bits in between, page 5

Hunting Lila Blog Tour & Giveaways

Today, as part of the Hunting Lila Blog Tour I've done an interview for Bookbabblers.

My favourite question:
What made you set ‘Hunting Lila’ in California?

I love California. After Bali it’s my favourite place in the world. It’s so spectacularly beautiful. I wanted to write about places I had been to, that I would feel confident describing, and I knew I didn’t want to base the book entirely in south London where I grew up. I mean it’s just not as glamorous really, is it?

But the ultimate decision to base it in California came when I was researching Marine bases. Lila’s brother Jack and his best friend Alex work for a shady military organization. I wanted them to be trained marines (too much watching 24 and Generation Kill). They needed to be able to handle weapons, kick serious bad guy butt, have access to sensitive information, know how to go on the run without being detected and… ok, maybe I just have a thing for a man in uniform with an amazingly ripped body who rides a motorbike dangerously…yeah, that would be closer to the truth.

When I was researching the book I looked up Marine bases in the US and found there was one in southern California. And double excitement… it was where Top Gun had been filmed. It was a Bingo! moment. I think I sat there grinning as all the pieces slotted into place (minus Tom Cruise).

I also did a fun interview for Daisy Chain Reviews which you can read here

And here's a post about a day in my life which might make you hate me just a little bit (I live in Bali):
at I want to read that

Thanks to all the bloggers who've reviewed the book and hosted the tour! It's been so much fun.

There's also a giveaway at the crooked shelf!

Book Launch

Hunting Lila’s birthday was yesterday. In the weeks running up to the launch I had an inkling of what Kate Middleton must have felt like before marrying Royalty. Not that I had to stand in front of the eyes of the world in a white dress and no one was bestowing any title on me but I honestly couldn’t eat, couldn’t sleep and was in a spiralling panic as the day came nearer. All those people looking at me – which given I used to act – wasn’t something I understood until I realised that publishing a book is a bit like standing naked in front of the world asking them to comment on your flaws.

So I did what any sensible girl would do in such a situation, I bought myself the most killer dress (Vivienne Westwood) which took all the attention off me and put it all on my hips and waist – thank you Vivienne. I also bought five inch heels I could barely walk in. My toes are still numb two days later.

It was an awesome evening which passed in a daze. I can’t remember much other than signing what felt like hundreds of copies of Lila and having a ten year old tell me he loved my use of metaphor and simile in the first chapter :) (I’m not sure I knew what a simile was when I was that age).

Thank you Waterstones for being so supportive of the book and Simon & Schuster for being generally wonderful! Can’t wait to do another one for Losing Lila. Any excuse to buy a new dress...

image: Hunting Lila

On the table

I had to take photographic proof



I’m right there on the table next to Stephenie Meyer and beneath the fantastic Divergent.

If the camera panned upwards you’d see my grinning like a loon. I’m on the table NEXT TO STEPHENIE MEYER.

My book.

Is on the table next to BREAKING DAWN.
And did I mention DIVERGENT?

If you’d have told me this a year ago I would have laughed in your face at how ridiculous you were being. But look people – there it is. In Waterstones no less.

I signed my first copies in store (Brighton Waterstones). The staff in Waterstones were brilliant and invited me back to do a reading or signing. (The girl who works there looks just like Keira Knightley.)

I am still grinning like a loon. It’s particularly funny because Stephenie Meyer was the reason I started writing in the first place. I loved Twilight and then when I was struggling to think of something to do to make some money I thought, ‘I know I’ll write a book! Stephenie Meyer’s a gazillionaire and all for writing about vampires. How hard can it be?’

Turns out, very hard, but look, I still made it.

I feel like this story should be in the fairy tale section of Waterstones.

Interviews & Giveaways

Things are getting a bit mental.
In roughly two weeks Hunting Lila gets released in the UK.
To celebrate I've done two things: Bought myself a Vivienne Westwood dress (oh yes) and some shoes I can't actually walk in AND listed a giveaway of two signed copies of Hunting Lila. They're sitting right by me now on the bed, along with the pile of books I pilfered from Simon & Schuster last week.

You can enter the competition here
Goodreads Giveaway

I've also been distracted from my edits of Fated and the ludicrously hot Lucas, by the interviews I've been doing for my blog tour. They've been so much fun.

The blog tour starts on August 1st but in the meantime Simon & Schuster made me reveal myself here.

Revealeda>

Hunting Lila, Fated and what I'm working on now...

The ARCs for Hunting Lila went out about a month ago and much to my delight it’s getting awesome reviews…there’s a real buzz starting which makes me giggle and freak out in equal measure. I never thought two years ago that these characters, that Lila and Alex, would have an audience outside of my best friends and my head. I find myself walking around all day at the moment grinning like an idiot at how stupendously exciting life is.

The consensus so far seems to be that everyone loves Lila and is lusting after Alex. Just as I had hoped. Waterstones and WH Smith are doing a big promotion on the book in August, offering it as part of their 3 for 2 deals - so keep an eye out for it on their tables and snag it at a bargain price. I'm also doing an 8 day Blog Tour starting on 28th July where some giveaways are planned.

I’ve had several emails over the last week from people asking whether there is a sequel to Lila, so I thought I’d post a blog about what I’m working on at the moment.

The sequel to Hunting Lila is written! I wrote it even before I had a book deal. I wrote it on the beach in India. I just re-read it the other day (it’s been a year since I wrote it) and it made me laugh out loud a lot. It’s possibly even more action packed than the first book, with some equally big twists. It’s slightly darker in tone, with more conflict and Lila really struggling to control her growing power. Alex also features a lot, as does his body. But that’s all I’ll say on the matter for now. Let your imaginations run riot.

It’s due out next summer though there’s no release date yet.

However…don’t despair. In between times I have another book coming out called Fated. It’s about a girl called Evie, who discovers that she’s a Hunter – a demon slayer. There’s a love interest who’s possibly hotter than Alex. His name is Lucas and he’s half Shadow Warrior and half-human. He belongs to a band of demons sent to kill Evie before she can fulfil a dangerous prophecy. If you visit my Goodreads profile you can read an extract.

I’m so excited about this book – so excited infact that I’ve already written two more books in this series, though these haven’t yet been bought. Apparently paranormal is taking a hit says my publisher, but let’s hope that it isn’t. I personally choose to believe it isn’t! I love paranormal! And hopefully after Fated comes out it’ll change their minds.

At the moment I’m working on edits for Fated and the sequel to Hunting Lila but I plan to start another book in August (top secret at the moment but I’m grinning as I think about it).

Anyway, thanks to everyone blogging, reviewing, tweeting or just adding Hunting Lila to their TBR shelf. I really appreciate it.

Sarahx
Hunting LilaFated

Hunting Lila, Fated and what I'm working on now...

The ARCs for Hunting Lila went out about a month ago and much to my delight it’s getting awesome reviews…there’s a real buzz starting which makes me giggle and freak out in equal measure. I never thought two years ago that these characters, that Lila and Alex, would have an audience outside of my best friends and my head. I find myself walking around all day at the moment grinning like an idiot at how stupendously exciting life is at the moment.

The consensus so far seems to be that everyone loves Lila and is lusting after Alex. Just as I had hoped. Waterstones and WH Smith are doing a big promotion on the book in August, offering it as part of their 3 for 2 deals - so keep an eye out for it on their tables and snag it at a bargain price. I'm also doing an 8 day Blog Tour starting on 28th July where some giveaways are planned.

I’ve had several emails over the last week from people asking whether there is a sequel to Lila, so I thought I’d post a blog about what I’m working on at the moment.

The sequel to Hunting Lila is written! I wrote it even before I had a book deal. I wrote it on the beach in India. I just re-read it the other day (it’s been a year since I wrote it) and it made me laugh out loud a lot. It’s possibly even more action packed than the first book, with some equally big twists. It’s slightly darker in tone, with more conflict and Lila really struggling to control her growing power. Alex also features a lot, as does his body. But that’s all I’ll say on the matter for now. Let your imaginations run riot.

It’s due out next summer though there’s no release date yet.

However…don’t despair. In between times I have another book coming out called Fated. It’s about a girl called Evie, who discovers that she’s a Hunter – a demon slayer. There’s a love interest who’s possibly hotter than Alex. His name is Lucas and he’s half Shadow Warrior and half-human. He belongs to a band of demons sent to kill Evie before she can fulfil a dangerous prophecy. If you visit my Goodreads profile you can read an extract.

I’m so excited about this book – so excited infact that I’ve already written two more books in this series, though these haven’t yet been bought. Apparently paranormal is taking a hit says my publisher, but let’s hope that it isn’t. I personally choose to believe it isn’t! I love paranormal! And hopefully after Fated comes out it’ll change their minds.

At the moment I’m working on edits for Fated and the sequel to Hunting Lila but I plan to start another book in August (top secret at the moment but I’m grinning as I think about it).

Anyway, thanks to everyone blogging, reviewing, tweeting or just adding Hunting Lila to their TBR shelf. I really appreciate it.

Sarahx
Hunting LilaFated

The perks of the job

The best thing about being an author, aside from the stupendousness of knowing that my ‘job’ requires me to plug myself into my imagination on a daily basis, stare vacantly into space, check out hot models on the internet and watch Buffy and Gossip Girl for um, research purposes, is obviously, the free books.

A year ago I met my editor and the team at Simon & Schuster for the very first time. I went with my agent to their office in London and the second I walked through the door my legs almost went from under me. Shaking hands, trembling stomach as butterflies started flurrying, it was like love at first sight.

I suddenly knew how Charlie felt when he stepped inside Willy Wonka’s chocolate factory. The place was literally held up by books, stacked on every surface, piled high, reaching to the ceiling, making the room as glossy and shiny as a L’Oreal hair advert. My mouth went dry.

Then I was ushered into a corner office. More books. And oh, look bottles of pink champagne! What an amazing job, I thought, why had I gone into the charity sector? What on earth had I been thinking? Why hadn’t I gone into publishing? Free books, champagne for breakfast….I almost dropped to my knees and begged them for a job right there and then, doing anything, scrubbing the floors, photocopying, dusting the shelves.

Then I realised that the champagne was for me. It was a mind-blowing moment. I didn’t need a job sweeping their floors. I had somehow managed to write my way into the best job ever. Pink champagne, free books and no scrubbing required.

And then some nice person saw me hungrily eying the bookshelves and invited me to help myself to whatever I wanted. Seriously. For one second I thought it was a trick, and that if I did, I'd swell to the size of a small planet and short men in dungarees would come and roll me out of there.

Then, once I'd realised they weren't kidding I almost told them to forgo the advance and just pay me in books.

Every few weeks a shoebox sized parcel arrives in my far flung outpost in Indonesia. I rip into it with glee. So far, my highlights of the year (all courtesy of Simon & Schuster)...

Amy & Roger's Epic Detour
Perfect chemistry
Milo & the restart button
She's so dead to us
Unwind
Rot & Ruin


Amy & Roger's Epic DetourPerfect ChemistryMilo and the Restart ButtonShe's So Dead to Us

Writing's like falling in love

So I did it. I finished a book in exactly ONE month. It was an epic journey but somehow this one just flowed. Usually when I write I spend a little bit of time before I start plotting and planning but this time I sat and I just wrote. And every time the voice of panic/sense screamed at me to maybe stop and think a little I ignored it and I sat and I wrote.

And the words just flowed. I did fewer revisions than I usually do and had none of the lying awake in the middle of the night moments where I try to puzzle out what happens next.

Admittedly it was my third book with these characters so I didn’t need to think about their personalities or puzzle out how they would behave in certain situations. I know them all inside and out and I knew the destination they were going to arrive at. I felt like I was observing them and then writing down what I was seeeing and hearing.

When I finished I jumped on the bed and high fived my husband and felt the layers of solitude fall away.

Then I turned to my to do list, which was racketing up into the hundreds of items and thought, ok, now I can come back to earth and actually get some stuff done. Then I double-checked the to do list and wished I’d stayed where I was, fighting demons.

It’s often said that writing is a lonely business but, damn me, is it. When I write I am so sucked into that world I don’t really inhabit the real world at all. For the month or months I’m writing I’m distracted and never fully present.

I hide from friends, am thinking of dialogue whilst cooking my daughter’s dinner, imagining fight scenes whilst I’m swimming, picturing how a main character would kiss whilst I shop for groceries (I spend a lot of time idly wandering the aisles in a daze). I turn down lunch dates, dinner dates, any kind of date because there’s simply nothing on earth I want to be doing other than writing.

It’s a hard place to be. On the one hand so enjoyable and all-consuming. On the other so lonely and mired in guilt at being more focused on the people in my head than the people in my life.


It hits me that writing a book is like falling in love, like being in love - obsessive, exciting, distracting, joyful and panicky all at the same time.

And always, the feeling when I finish and hit the save button for the final time, is above all else, beyond the relief and the elation, broken hearted.
Fated

My top ten list of ways to procrastinate when writing a book.

I'm about 1000 words off finishing the third installment of my Fated series, the first of which is out in January next year.

I started writing it one month ago to the day. It's been the fastest book I've ever written and my best friend who reads all my books as I write them (chapter by chapter) tells me it's the best book of mine she's read so far. And I think she might be right. I love it. But for some reason I'm dragging my heels on the last chapters.

Last chapters are always hard to write - final dramatic show downs, wrapping up story lines, making sure all the characters get some kind of ending or reference - it's a challenge. But this ending is even harder to write than normal. I think maybe it's because I don't want to leave these characters because secretly I'm in love with them. Well not so secretly. But yes, I am actually in love with figments of my imagination.

But when you meet them hopefully you'll see why.

Anyway, today I have astounded myself with the lengths I will go to to procrastinate. I think I should win a medal or something.

Check this out. My top ten list of ways to procrastinate when writing a book.

1. Watch Battlestar galactica


2. Make coffee even though don’t drink coffee

3.Contemplate doing the laundry (don’t actually do it but do clear up daughter’s discarded pyjamas and put in laundry bin)

4. Try to convince dog to write the chapters for me

5. Take photographs for posterity of the post-its stuck above my desk.

6. Tweet

7. Upload photos

8. Write this blog post

9. Check facebook five million and ninety one times

10. Play around with spotify playlist for book.

Fated

Trusting your instincts

FATE

I have a book coming out in January 2012 called Fated. Here’s the blurb.


What happens when you discover you aren't who you thought you were? And that the person you love is the person who will betray you? If your fate is already determined, can you fight it?

When Evie Tremain discovers that she’s the last in a long line of Demon slayers and that she’s being hunted by an elite band of assassins –Shapeshifters, Vampires and Mixen demons amongst them – she knows she can’t run. They’ll find her wherever she goes. Instead she must learn to stand and fight.

But when the half-human, half-Shadow Warrior Lucas Gray - is sent to spy on Evie and then ordered to kill her before she can fulfil a dangerous prophecy, their fates become inextricably linked. The war that has raged for one thousand years between humans and demons is about to reach a devastating and inevitable conclusion. Either one or both of them will die before this war ends.

If your life becomes bound to another’s, what will it take to sever it?



Following the Bologna book fair I had a quick chat with my editor at Simon & Schuster who told me that paranormal is on the way out, dystopia very much on trend at the moment thanks to the fantastic popularity of The Hunger Games and the eagerly anticipated Divergent which I can’t wait to read. Though what’s going to be next year’s trend is anyone’s guess.

The thing is, Fated is very much a paranormal romance and I was asking her whether she thought it therefore worth my while writing the sequels that I had planned. Her advice was probably not. And she’s probably right, given that I have no contract for them and she works in publishing so has a much better idea of what will sell and what won’t. But she did say, and for this I’m hugely grateful, that if they had to be written then they had to be written.

And I felt like these books had to be written.

With Hunting Lila the characters got into my head so much that they’d have whole conversations with each other. It got so I couldn’t ignore them and needed to write the second book in the series or check myself into an asylum and start receiving treatment for the voices in my head. I needed to let their story finish.

With Fated it’s been similar. When I finished writing that book I couldn’t stop imagining what happened to my characters next. So I mulled and I ummed and I arred. Should I work on the other ideas I had? Should I leap into Dystopia before that craze died too? Or should I follow my heart?

I was still unsure of which direction to go when I bumped into a friend of mine here in Bali. He used to work as a head of something very impressive for a big video games company. We discovered a mutual love of Buffy and all things vampire the first time we met and since then most of our conversations revolve around films and ipod apps.

Anyway I explained to him my dilemma about what to write next and he told me a little story.

When he was working in the gaming industry he had an idea for a baseball game but everyone said, ‘you can’t make that game, there have been dozens of baseball games, they never sell well.’

But he went ahead and did it anyway. They made it so well that it became the biggest selling baseball game of all time.


So write that book, he said.


So I did. And then I wrote the third book. And when I’m done I’m going to write the fourth book too.

Part way through writing the second book I realised that the theme was about trusting your instincts. I don’t think there’s any better advice for living or writing.


Hunting Lila