Mila Gray's Blog, page 2

Tune into S.W.A.T.

Sarah’s latest episode of the hit CBS show S.W.A.T. airs Wednesday November 6th at 10pm PT. Starring Shemar Moore, the episode Kingdom focuses on a young female dissident who becomes the subject of a dramatic kidnapping after speaking up about human rights abuses in her home country.

Hunting Lila casts Lila

Very excited to share this first bit of news about the Hunting Lila movie:

“UK-based Pari Passu Films is prepping YA project Hunting Lila and has attached American Honey breakout Sasha Lane to the title role. Oscar winning VFX supervisor Paul J Franklin is attached to make his directorial debut on the picture that’s based on the first in the series of books written by Sarah Alderson.” – Deadline.

To read the full press release click here.

Sasha is garnering rave reviews at the moment for her star turn in Andrea Arnold’s American Honey and I couldn’t be more thrilled that she’s going to be playing Lila.

It’s also been an absolute pleasure to work with the incredibly talented, multiple Oscar and Bafta-winning Paul Franklin. It’s an all round brilliant team and I’ll be bringing you more casting news over the summer so watch this space.

 

 

New MILA GRAY book out soon!

My third Mila Gray novel is out in February. It’s a standalone novel and here’s the blurb!

STAY WITH ME (out next month!)

Firebrand Emerson Lowe and popular ice-hockey player Jake McCallister have been best friends since third grade but just as their friendship starts to morph into something more a terrible event occurs that heralds the end of innocence for both of them.

Within a week Jake’s living on the other side of the country and Emerson is left alone to pick up the pieces of her life in a small town determined to paint her as a liar.

Seven years on and Emerson is still living on the beautiful Pacific West island of Bainbridge, helping her family run their outdoor adventure company. The last thing she needs is Jake turning up, bringing with him old memories and opening up old wounds. But Jake – even better looking than Emerson remembered and on the cusp of a bright sporting future – seems determined to revive their friendship no matter how much Emerson tries to push him away.

Forced to work alongside him for the summer Emerson soon starts falling for Jake despite her ex-boyfriend Rob throwing obstacles in their way, and soon they’re in the midst of a passionate summer romance that neither of them wants to end.

But if they’re to have any kind of future they’re first going to need to confront the past, a past that most people want to stay buried.

Signing in Bristol

My travel memoir CAN WE LIVE HERE? is out now (published by Blink). I will be doing a talk and signing at Stanfords in Bristol on October 22nd.

I’ll also be signing any of my other books you want to bring along. Hope to see you there!

Win a Copy of my new book!

Can We Live Here? is now out!

Based on the trip I took with my husband John and our daughter and the blog I wrote of the same name, it’s part travel memoir and part guide to quitting your job and following your passions.

Find out what made us quit our lives in London and head out on the open road with just a toddler and rucksacks in tow and how we lived for five years in beautiful Bali.

You can enter to win a copy of the book here:

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Double Whammy Book Birthday

About six years ago I was sitting on the 7.38 train to London Bridge and I turned to John and said:

‘I’m going to write a blog. What do you think about the title ‘Can we live here?’

Back then I think I possibly harboured a tiny hope that maybe one day I might turn it into a book or find a way to monetise it somehow. I mean, people did that back then. Remember Belle du Jour? I wasn’t a call girl but I thought maybe there was some potential, not to become a call girl, but to write a blog.

I guess one thing you can say about me is that I never let that small thing called probability bother me. I never weigh odds (probably because I’m not very good at maths) or think ‘well, the chances of that happening are zero so why bother?’

I always think ‘why not? If it can happen to other people, why not me?’ and that attitude is the same attitude that saw us quit our jobs, book tickets around the world and the same attitude that saw me write a novel, write nine more and then pen a couple of movies just because it looked like something fun and more lucrative than books.

Why not? is such a great thing to ask. What is the worst that could happen after all? Generally speaking we’re talking two things: You could be rejected or you could die. Now let’s think about those two things.

I’ve been rejected plenty in my life. Firstly by a boy I really liked when I was 14. Then there was the time I was fired from my customer service job at Accenture for telling a secretary who was above me in the pecking order to unjam the printer her own damn self. I was also rejected by nine agents and eleven publishing houses -all of whom turned down Hunting Lila before it was picked up by Simon & Schuster. I don’t like to smile smugly and say ‘hah, betcha regret that one’ but… no I am smiling smugly).

Rejection makes you stronger. It can also help steer you down a more helpful path. That boy at 14 was a loser. Me in customer service… ahahahahahaha. Being fired from Accenture made me realise I never wanted to work for a bunch of entitled bankers or management consultants ever again and gave me the push I needed to start working in the voluntary sector doing something that benefitted the community.

I’ve come close to death too – thank you dengue mosquito and tuktuk drivers all over India. But look at all that has happened! It’s nothing short of miraculous. I have to pinch myself most days that it’s all real.

Today marks my tenth book birthday. Ten books in five years! Not only is Can We Live Here published today (you can buy your copy HERE!) but so is my second Mila Gray book ‘This Is One Moment’.

I’m on BBC Breakfast tomorrow so look out for me swearing on that (or rather, don’t), and will also be on Claudia Winkleman’s BBC Radio 2 Arts Show this coming week talking all about the book and our travels. And if you’ve been with me since the beginning – those panicked, early days when I still worked in the voluntary sector and had no clue how I was going to make a living – then thank you for still being here, reading my story.

Oh, and if you are in London, I’m also doing a signing and Q&A at Stanfords next Thursday, August 13th. Do come along and heckle or… just say hi. Book tickets here.

Win Copies of This Is One Moment

The Blog Tour for THIS IS ONE MOMENT starts today!

Be sure to follow it as I’ll be doing Q&As, offering excerpts from the book, and giving away signed copies.

Here are the dates and blog names.

 

 

Conspiracy Girl on Sale!

Conspiracy Girl is just £1.49 for the next month on all e device platforms.

Buy it from AMAZON.UK here.

‘High on emotion, action, romance and danger, Conspiracy Girl grips like a vice… and steals your heart!‘ Lancashire Evening Post

‘I was honestly hooked the moment I started reading’ Slanted Bookshelf

‘Absolutely read it and fall in love with Finn.’ The Overflowing Library

‘Sarah Alderson is undoubtedly the queen of sexy YA thrillers’ So Little Time for Books

Everybody knows about the Cooper Killings.

There was only one survivor – fifteen year-old Nic Preston.

Now eighteen, Nic is trying hard to rebuild her life. But then one night her high-security apartment is broken into. It seems the killers are back to finish the job.

Finn Carter – hacker, rule breaker, player – is the last person Nic ever wants to see again. He’s the reason her mother’s murderers walked free. But as the people hunting her close in, Nic has to accept that her best chance of staying alive is by staying close to Finn.

And the closer they get to the truth, and to each other, the greater the danger becomes.

Out of Control

Out of Control had its US release a couple of weeks ago now.

Here’s the awesome cover. It’s available from Barnes & Noble, Amazon etc (just check out the links here.)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In case you haven’t yet read it there are lots of excerpts online as part of a blog tour I just did and there’s a contest still open to win an Amazon voucher.

Here are a few links to those posts.

Books In The Hall.

Long and Short Reviews.

Bookaholic Fairies.

But perhaps one of my favourite blog posts so far is this one on Weaving Pages which takes the time to highlight the main issue the book tackles – Human Trafficking.

If you have a moment pop over there and have a read and do leave a comment.

 

Can We Live Here?

Very excited to show off the cover for the CAN WE LIVE HERE? book, which is out in August, published by the lovely people at Blink Publishing!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

PRE-ORDER YOUR COPY NOW!

Amazon 

Waterstones 

WhSmiths

Also, I’m doing a Q&A and signing at Stanfords in London on August 6th.

BOOK YOUR TICKET HERE. It would be awesome to meet you.