Sally Nicholls's Blog, page 2

All Fall Down and New Covers

Oh dear. Can it really be November since I updated this site? That's terrible. What was I thinking?

Well, I'd better have some good news for you since it's taken me so long to post anything. My first set of good news is that the medieval book will be out in March! Which really isn't very long. Especially since I haven't quite finished it yet …

It also has a new title - 'All Fall Down', and a cover:

All Fall Down front cover

Isn't that gorgeous? I can't wait to see the finished version. It will be a trade paperback (large format, like the purple and green 'Ways to Live Forever' and 'Season of Secrets'), with endpapers, flaps, and textured cardboard finish. Very exciting!

If that wasn't exciting enough for you, 'Ways to Live Forever' and 'Season of Secrets' are also getting rebranded, with new covers to match the new Sally Nicholls look. 'Ways to Live Forever' will be blue

Ways to Live Forever front cover

And 'Season of Secrets' will be red

Season of Secrets front cover

I think the new 'All Fall Down' is still my favourite though …

A lot of people have asked about the film - is it coming out, when will it be in cinemas, can I get hold of a copy somehow? The filmmakers are still hoping for a UK cinema release, but have promised that if it doesn't happen, the film will be made available to fans - either in DVD format or on the internet. I'll let you know when I know.

As for me … I'm still here, still writing, still messing about on the internet. I'm planning on staying in Oxford for at least the next three years, which is great, something I'm really happy about. I've started work on the next book, which is also really exciting - something different again, although like all my books, it's also about family, friendship and growing up in a world that sometimes seems out to get you. I haven't killed anyone yet, though.

Oh, and I'm also on Twitter. You can follow me @Sally_Nicholls. Look forward to seeing some of you there!

I hope you all having a lovely summer. I've had a great week in Wales, walking coastal paths, swimming in the at-times icy sea and feeling happy to live in such a beautiful nation.

Take care,

Sally

Medieval update, Season of Secrets cover and Ways to Live Forever English trailer

Two website updates in two months … enjoy it while it lasts, because once I get stuck into the editing of the next book, I won't surface again for months.

The medieval book has been given the green light by Scholastic - hurrah! - and has a provisional title (A WInd From the South) and a provisional release date of some time at the beginning of 2012 (I know, I know, but things always take forever in publishing). I read through it again a few weeks ago, and was horrified at how much work needs doing to it. So that's what I'm doing at the moment, taking a lot of little scenes and trying to turn them into a book that works.

My American publishers recently sent me a very beautiful hardback edition of 'Season of Secrets'

Which looks something like this. It's coming out in America on the 1st of January.

Also coming out on January 1st is the American paperback of 'Ways to Live Forever'. In Britain, where most children's books are paperbacks, this feels like a very long time to wait, but I hope you're all looking forward to it and haven't minded it taking so long.

And most excitingly of all, after months of me banging on about it, here's a chance to see a trailer for the 'Ways to Live Forever' film:

http://www.trulymovingpictures.org/movies/ways-to-live-forever/

Doesn't it look rather wonderful? I hope it all isn't too different from how you imagined. I'll let you know as soon as I have a release date.

Yours,

Sally

(Who is enjoying living by a canal in Oxford, with ducks and canal boats and yellow autumn leaves)

What I Did Last Summer

This summer has been something of a busy one. As well as getting married and moving to Oxford, I also got to see an early showing of the 'Ways to Live Forever' film - and put together a first draft of the next book.

Our wedding was rather relaxed - we had a Quaker wedding in a little seventeenth-century meeting house in Yorkshire, followed by a barbeque in a field with a keg of real ale, a band and a bonfire. Molly would have greatly approved. (Sam would have liked the fire-eater and the marshmallows, but probably found the rest of it a bit dull).

The 'Ways to Live Forever' showing, however, was anything but relaxed. I'd seen a few scenes from the film already, and was a little freaked out by how much they looked like the inside of my head - a little like hearing someone read your work out loud, or act out scenes from your diary. I was thoroughly expecting to watch the film in an agony of embarrassment, curling my toes and muttering "Oh God, did I write that?" and various other authorly agonies.

Fortunately for my peace of mind, the film - while sticking very closely to the plot of the book - was different enough that I didn't know what was coming next and could watch it as an audience member and not an author. Of course, it was still a very odd experience. It's been three years since I read the book all the way through, and I'd forgotten how personal a story it is - how much of it comes from stories my mum used to tell me, or things my brother and I used to do, or dreams and ambitions my friends and I had. 'Ways to Live Forever' is a fictional story but it has a lot of my childhood in there too, and it was a little surreal to see that projected onto a cinema screen in the BFI.

Another thing that was odd was the film's colour scheme. When I wrote 'Ways to Live Forever', I wanted it to be a sturdy book. I was aware that it would be all too easy to end up with a pale, wistful, faux-poetic story about butterflies and flowers and white-faced children in hospital wards, and I knew that wasn't the book I wanted to write. I wanted it to be about real children living in the real world - watching real films and playing video games and painting Warhammer models. Sam and Felix and Ella all had deliberately solid-sounding names for that reason. And although I never mentioned this to the film-makers, they'd obviously picked up on it because the colour scheme for the film is all bright, primary colours. Even Sam's bedroom View this Posthas a very sturdy feel to it - just like I'd imagined.

The film is coming out on the 29th of October in Spain. It has a website here, where you can see the Spanish trailer and some photographs from the film. I still don't know when it's coming out in Britain, but probably not until the new year. Keep coming back here for more news.

Tom and I are now based in Oxford, at least for this year. 'Season of Secret' is all set to be published in America in January, and you can already pre-order it on Amazon.

I've finished a first draft of the medieval book, and am waiting to see what my editor thinks of it. It doesn't yet have a title, home or release date yet, so do hold it in your thoughts.

For those of you who haven't found me on Facebook yet, I'm still here. Snippets you get if you follow me include pictures of all the foreign covers, and a very early first chapter of 'Season of Secrets'. If I get 500 people liking me, I've promised to put up early versions of 'Ways to Live Forever', so do follow me if you're studying or reading the books.

Love as always,

Sally

Short and mostly devoted to Facebook

Hello, and happy World Book Day for Thursday! I'm going to be in schools all this wekk doing World Book Day visits, so hi if I'm coming to yours.

Some good news is that 'Ways to Live Forever' won the Salford Book Award - thank you very much, Salford. The prize was a Lowry print, which made me very happy as my mum grew up in Rochdale, so I know all about Lowry. We used to have one of his pictures over the mantelpiece when I was growing up.

Other exciting news is that I now have a Facebook page. Facebook pages are an excellent way to talk to authors (and stalk them). I'm hoping to update this one a bit more regularly than I manage to update the website, so if you want all the latest news, please do become a fan. There are some pictures of foreign covers and links to interviews and other good things on there already. If you aren't old enough to go on Facebook, get your mum or dad (or both) to fan it, then you can keep up with what I'm doing through them.

All the best,

Sally

Season of Secrets, Films and Prizes

Happy 2010! It looks like 2010 is going to be a good year - I hope this bag of news gets you as excited about it as I am.

First exciting news is that the mass market edition of Season of Secrets is now out - hurrah! Not only is it cheaper than the trade paperback (and will look very pretty on your bookshelf next to the photographic 'Ways to Live Forever'), but it has a very nice quote on the front from none other than Jacqueline Wilson saying how much she liked it, which is a little surreal for me, as I grew up reading Jacqueline Wilson. Jacqueline liked 'Season of Secrets' so much that she sent me fan mail telling me how good it was, which was bizarre and exciting and utterly wonderful. It has also been shortlisted for the Manchester Book Award, and longlisted for the Stockport Book Award and the UKLA Award. It's on 3-for-2 in Waterstones at the moment, so do check it out, if you haven't yet.

If you're looking for news about the 'Ways to Live Forever' film, don't look here, look here. Filming has now finished, and they're onto the cutting and sticking and twiddling phase of procedings, but there are loads of pictures of the film up to oogle at (like this one of Sam and Felix) and little videos of the actor playing Felix having his head shaved and the director saying how much he liked the book and other fun stuff to waste an afternoon over. Do go and check it out. It is very, very, very wonderful.

Ways to Live Forever also won the 2009 Stockport Book Award - hurrah! Stockport students had a wonderful time making some impressive artwork based on the book and on Sam's list of things to do - I'm hoping to get that up on the website soon.

I've also started work on another book three. Don't want to say too much about it yet, except it's going to be a bit historical (okay, very historical, it's set in 1349, and I've already killed seven major characters). I'll keep you posted on it!

Hope this year brings you all good things - lots of books to read, places to travel to, friends to make and new things to discover.

Hugs,

Sally

Sad News, VERY EXCITING News and Cat Update

Me With Emilia Fox, who plays Mum, and Ben Chaplain, who plays Dad.

Robbie Kay as Sam, in Sam's bedroom.

 

Okay, exciting news first. There's going to be a film of 'Ways to Live Forever'!

It's being shot at the moment in Newcastle - I went to visit the set yesterday, and it is scarily (excitingly) real and film-set-ish. They have built the whole ground floor of Sam's house in a warehouse in Newcastle, with fake trees outside, and a wonderful Sam's bedroom. There are fifty people working there every day, all with very Hollywood-ish titles like Wardrobe Mistress and Assistant Producer and Sound Man. They've even got those people who clap clapper boards and say things like 'Take One!' and a chair with DIRECTOR written on it. I also saw some of the early rushes and it looks suspiciously like a real film, and very beautiful. Sam is being played by Robbie Kay, and other actors include Emilia Fox, Ben Chaplain, Natalie Tena (Tonks from Harry Potter) and Alex Etal, who's playing Felix.

You can follow the film on Facebook:

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Madrid-Spain/Ways-to-live-forever/169503934077?ref=mf&v=wall

although some of the posts are in Spanish - this is because Gustavo Ron, the director, is Spanish (but don't worry, the film is going to be in English too).

They are hoping to have it ready in time to take to the Cannes film festival in May, which is apparently very quick in the film business, and go on general release some time after that.

I will keep you posted of more news as I hear it.

Thanks to everyone who suggested names for the cat in 'Tell Me The Truth About Love' - some great ideas there. I'm afraid the sad news is that Scholastic have decided that they don't want to publish this book at this time, so you'll have to wait a while for a book with a cat in it. However, I'm putting together some ideas for a new book as we speak, so if they say they'd like to publish that book, I will definitely add a cat somewhere.

Until I know what's happening with the new idea, though, THE CAT COMPETITION IS CLOSED. So no new entries please.

Thanks for checking the website and I'll put some more news up as I hear it.

Yours,

Sally

Name That Cat

Oh dear. It has been a long time since I've updated this website. My excuse is that I've been trying to get 'Tell Me The Truth About Love' into a readable state, so you guys can get your hands on it as quickly as possible. I'm working on the third draft at the moment, and there have been all sorts of problems with it - sections which are too long or too short, pace which is too slow or too fast, boring bits, repetative bits, not-funny-enough bits, bits that made even me go 'eugh'.

I'm working very hard to correct all of these problems, and can promise you that most of them have been fixed. I've now just found a whole lot more which need correcting.

One thing I've decided to do for draft three is add a cat. There was a cat in 'Ways to Live Forever', and I liked it. Cats are friendly, and very comforting in times of distress.

My request to you lot is: can you help me find a name for this cat? Put suggestions for cat names in the comments, and I'll choose my favourite. The winning cat namer will be acknowledged IN THE FINISHED BOOK (if Scholastic agree to publish it). I'll announce the winner on my website when I've finished doing my edits.

In other news, 'Ways to Live Forever' has been doing well for itself. It won the Bolton Book Award (hurrah!), the Calderdale Book of the Year (yippee!) and the North East Book Award (which made me very happy as a North Easterner myself). It was also shortlisted for the Branford Board Award, the Lancashire Book of the Year, the UKLA Award and the Redbridge Book Award. I am feeling a little miffed that I never got to be involved in any local awards as a child, so I am very much enjoying going along to all of these ones instead. Many, many thanks to the organisers most of whom do this on top of their full-time jobs.

And I'm still blogging away at http://awfullybigblogadventure.blogsp..., for those of you who are impatient with my very infrequent updates. Scroll down the labels on the right-hand side and click on 'Sally Nicholls' to find  posts written by me. Or read some of the posts by other authors. They're worth it.

Season of Secrets

I have some very happy news, which is that 'Season of Secrets' was officially released in Britain last Monday! Hurrah! You can go into actual bookshops and buy it (it's on buy-one-get-one-half-price in WHSmith and Waterstones at the moment). Or you can get it on the Internet.

It is probably the most beautiful book I've ever had my name on the cover of. It has foil and varnish, and the most lovely chapter heading pictures inside. Even if you're feeling poor, do go and have a look at its beauty.

'Ways to Live Forever' is still doing well - it won the Warwickshire Schools Book Award, the Concord Book Award and the HIllingdon Secondary Book of the Year, which is absolutely fantastic, as all of these awards are voted for by young people. Many thanks to everyone involved in those.

And last, but definitely not least, I have finished a first draft of Book Three. This is currently called 'Tell Me The Truth About Love' and has some of the same characters as 'Ways to Live Forever' in it - it's a book for everyone who wanted to know what happened next. It still needs a lot of work (at the moment it's much too long and doesn't really make much sense) but I'll keep you posted on how its going along.

I'm now having a  week off doing things like updating this website. Keep an eye on the 'Seasons of Secrets' page as I hope to have some new things up there soon.

Sending you happiness for spring,

Sally

The Luchs des Jahres

When you start writing a book, you are inclined to go off into daydreams. Of the winning the Nobel Prize for Literature/topping the bestseller list for fourteen weeks running/lots of people you admire telling you how wonderful your book is sort of daydream. Yes, it's silly, but sometimes you need a little motivation when you're twenty thousand words from the end and you still don't have a chapter five.

Anyway. Winning the Luchs des Jahres was a little bit like that.

Only in German.

The Luchs Prize 200 8s a fabulous book award, presented by the German newspaper Die Ziet for the best children's book published in 2008 in Germany. The presentation ceremony was held in the Literaturhaus in Hamburg, which in Britain would have been somewhere chirpy and modern, with a bookshop and a cafe, but in Germany turned out to contain, amongst other things, a ballroom and a restaurant with ornate twiddly bits on the wall. Several people gave speeches, which I hope were about how wonderful Ways to Live Forever was. It was rather hard to tell, because they were in German, and I took French at school. My name certainly got mentioned a lot, and every so often everyone would burst out laughing, although my lovely translator assured me that none of the jokes were offensive.

The prize was shared by my aforementioned German translator, and we both had to read from the book. I'd been assured that the audience would know enough English to get it, and they did seem to laugh in the right places. I was then presented with a cheque, which I had to give back because it was in Euros, and I gave another speech in the wrong language.

To add to the randomness, I discovered that the shortlist included a German translation of The Jungle Book, which means I apparently beat Kipling and one of the finest children's books ever written. I also got the stay in the hotel where the Literaturhaus puts all its authors - you could tell who'd stayed there by the signed books in the foyer, and I spent a happy few days wondering if I'd slept in the same bed as Margaret Atwood (who I did study at school) or possibly Vikram Seth.

All very bizarre, but rather wonderful.

In other news, it is now March, which means Season of Secrets is due out next month, in all its shiny, sparkly glory (hurrah!) And work on Book Three (working title Tell Me The Truth About Love) is progressing well - I've almost hit the 45,000 word mark, and am looking forward to having a first draft I can agonise over.

A very happy World Book Day to you all for Thursday,

Sally

News for the New Year

Welcome to 2009! I hope you all had a happy festive period - I had a rather hectic few days rushing betweeen my Christmas and Tom's, but it was lovely to see my family again, however briefly, and I now have lots of new books and board games and cooking pots to play with, so all good.

In other news, at the end of last year, I gave in my notice at my day job - so I'm now officially a full-time author - hurrah! It is very nice not having to go into work and pretend to be interested in invoices, but rather scary to have to sit down every day and actually write something. If you want to know what I do all day, you might be interested in this, which I wrote for the lovely people in Manchester, who have voted Ways to Live Forever onto the shortlist for the 2009 Manchester Book Award. Many thanks.

In America, I made it onto the Horn Book Fanfare 2008; The Horn Book's pick of the best children's books of 2008. It makes me particularly happy to be sandwiched between Terry Pratchett and Hilary McKay. I was also mentioned in the end of year round-up in The Irish Independent and was a book of the year in The Sunday Business Post (four critics down). And anyone who wants to know what I sound like might also want to visit this website, where you can hear me pronounce my name. Strange but true.

Wishing you all good luck and happiness wherever you may want to travel this year,

Sally