‘Back To It’ day

‘Back to it’ day. That’s what today is – the day for getting back to it.

Y’see, I’ve had a few days away from writing since I finished working on the edits for God and The Devil (next year’s book for adult readers), so it was with some trepidation that I began work on editing next year’s book for younger readers . . .

I always feel a touch of the nerves when I come back to a book, or start something new, but the good news is that it’s all shaping up well. The editorial notes are enhancements rather than changes, and as well as being under the expert guidance of my fab agent and the superb team at Chicken House, I have a lovely new editor to help me bring out the best in my next book – Bella Pearson, who worked on The Boy in The Striped Pyjamas – so I am in safe hands.

I’m also riding high on the fact that Red Winter will be published in the United States next year, and that I’ve received some great reviews for Red Winter. If you read my blog, you’ll know it was in The Times on Saturday 27th July, and then in The Sunday Times on 4th August but . . . well, they only went and put it in the ‘Must Reads’ section of The Sunday Times on 11th August as well! They called it a

 

‘ . . . gripping thriller with real depth of character.’

 

Uh-huh, that’s really what they said. It’s the kind of thing I could only dream about when I was a seventeen year old, scribbling angst-ridden stories onto A4 paper with the blunt stub of a well-used pencil. Who’d have thought I’d end up in The Sunday Times, ‘Must Reads’, eh?

Anyway, I’m keeping my fingers crossed that it will encourage a few people to pick up Red Winter and see what it’s all about, but of course, the loudspeakers in Danworld are all now broadcasting the same message . . .

 ‘don’t get smug; you’re gonna have to do even better for the next one.’

 

Quite.

 

So, back to it, then. Back to the world of a young boy living in Germany in the Summer of 1941. I’ve even got a work-in-progress cover and it’s looking fantastic. I’d love to show it to you but, well, you know I can’t. You’ll just have to wait . . .

 

That’s all.