I only really blog when I’ve got something to say. Which turns out to be not very often. Not much of a surprise, as I’m a quiet sort of person. However, this week I’ve written five pieces to celebrate the publication of The Drowning. They will be hosted by five lovely book bloggers in what I believe the young folk are calling a ‘blog tour.’
I’m very grateful to my generous hosts (Queen of Contemporary, So Many Books So Little Time, Readaraptor, Fluttering Butterflies, The Mile Long Bookshelf) for letting me invade their blogs for a day. I enjoyed writing the pieces. My subjects include:
1. A piece about one of the central thread in The Drowning – domestic violence and the worrying prevalence of violence and abuse in teenage relationships. Read it on the Queen of Contemporary blog.
2. A sense of place on the So Many Books, So Little Time blog.
3. How I needed to grow up before I could write for and about teenagers on the Readaraptor blog.
4. Where my story ideas come from on the Fluttering Butterflies blog.
5. Making it up or planning – what I’ve learnt about the process of writing on The Mile Long Bookshelf blog.
I hope you enjoy the blogs. I’ve surprised myself how chatty I can be. Perhaps I’ll blog a bit more often …
I was tagged to be a part of this meme (ooh, get me, part of a ‘meme’) by the lovely Sophia Bennett, whose own version appeared last Wednesday. It’s an opportunity to talk about a work in progress, but I’m a bit embarrassed by the title. I’d love it if my next book was a Big Thing, but I’d settle for a Medium-Sized Thing or even a Small-to-Middling Thing. To be honest I’m just glad it’s a Thing at all.
What is the title of your next book?
The Drowning.
Where did the idea come from for the book?
A friend of my husband told him about an experience he had on holiday. He had been swimming in a lake with two friends when they were struck by lightning. They all survived but were very shaken up. It set me thinking about a different scenario involving three people and a lake. What if a traumatic incident in a lake ended in tragedy? Why might people be in a lake in the first place? Were there dark secrets to be discovered? What if somebody who drowned didn’t want to stay dead?
What genre does your book fall under?
I have trouble with this whole genre thing. The Drowning is a contemporary, gritty, supernatural thriller for young adults. Is this one genre or lots of different ones?
What actors would you choose to play the part of your characters in a movie rendition?
My characters are so young (15 and 16) that the actors would have to be unknowns. Hopefully the film of The Drowning would be their big break. Unless, of course, we could get a couple of those One Direction boys to try their hand at acting – then we’d get a massive audience.
What is the one sentence synopsis of your book?
Sorry, I’ve cheated. I can’t sum it up in one sentence, so here are four sentences from the official blurb:
“Carl wakes up next to his drowned brother. What happened in the water? And who is the girl he glimpses nearby? He can’t remember … but he knows he must find out.”
Will your book be self-published or represented by an agency?
It will be published by Chicken House in May 2013. I’ve never had an agent – so far I’ve always dealt directly with my publisher.
How long did it take you to write the first draft of the manuscript?
It took approximately 8 months to write the first draft, although it was a bit of a stop-start process. I wrote about 20,000 words in the second half of 2011 when I was still working part time and the rest in the first 3 months of 2012 when I was on sabbatical and had the luxury of writing full time.
What other books would you compare this story to within your genre?
I can’t answer this one, I’m afraid. I haven’t read anything similar, and I’ve deliberately steered clear of reading other young adult books with supernatural or ghostly themes so that I wouldn’t be influenced by them too strongly.
Who or what inspired you to write this book?
I suppose the real answer is Barry Cunningham and Imogen Cooper of my publisher, Chicken House. I ran a few ideas past them when I had finished the Numbers trilogy and they both liked The Drowning best, as did I. I’ve worked very closely with Imogen on this book and she’s encouraged me to try working in a more structured way than usual(!), which I didn’t expect to suit me, but has been very fruitful.
What else about your book might pique the reader’s interest?
Well, I’m hoping that the book makes scary reading. I certainly freaked myself out writing it. At one point near the end of the first draft, I was so disturbed by the scene I was writing that I felt physically sick and had to step away from the computer for 24 hours to calm down a bit.
My 5 (actually 4) writers for next Wednesday are:
They’re all smashing writers and I can’t wait to hear what’s next from them…
May 2012 is an exciting month for me. The third book in my NUMBERS trilogy, ‘Infinity’ comes out in the Germany (‘Numbers – Den Tod Im Griff), France (‘Intuitions, Tome 3: Infini’ and the US ‘Numbers – Infinity’). I’m relieved and a little bit proud that the whole series is out now, and I really hope that those who have enjoyed the first two books will like this one, too. It’s nearly a year since it came out in the UK and so it’s a good time for me to look back and share a few thoughts about ‘Infinity.’
My husband was extremely ill while I was writing the book, and I was under a lot of pressure to deliver the book and keep the series’ momentum going, and so my view of it is inevitably clouded by rather distressing memories. Even now, although my husband is much better and I know that I met my deadline in the end, I can’t think about ‘Infinity’ without anxiety tugging at my stomach. Yup, there it is now as I’m sitting writing this blog. But it’s okay to acknowledge a bad time in your life and it’s great to be able to say that you got through it and out the other side. Life doesn’t stop when you become a writer – stuff keeps happening and you have to deal with it, just like everyone else.
Although I didn’t pick it, I love the UK title, ‘Infinity’. The main hook of this book is the possibility of swapping or stealing death dates so that you could keep extending your life, maybe forever. The plot concerns Sarah’s daughter, Mia, who seems to have this gift and it explores what it would mean to live with this and what the implications are for the human spirit.
It was a difficult book to write for all sorts of reasons. For a start, there are a variety of gifts (and curses) in the book – seeing death dates, dreaming about the future, seeing auras, and healing. It was challenging keeping track of who had which ‘power’ and who knew what when. The book also offers a glimpse into a possible near future and it was tricky finding a plausible, yet dramatic, context for my characters to operate in. Towards the end of the book, things get extremely dark and frightening. On the advice of my publisher, I toned it down a little bit (only a little), but it’s still pretty disturbing. I have to tell you that this is the only book which has given me nightmares, the kind which are so scary you have to wake yourself up.
I was very mindful that this is the last in the series and so I needed to find an ending which wrapped things up in a satisfactory way, while staying true to the spirit of the other books. I’ve had quite a few emails from fans asking for a fourth book in the series, but I think that this is it. I hope that I’ve done something different with all three books and that they are all strong in their own right. I don’t want to fall into the trap of diluting the series and, frankly, after five years of thinking and writing about seeing death dates, it’s nice to think about and write about something else for a change.
In the end, I hope that the real message of this book for the reader, like the other two in the series, is about love. The love between partners and the love of a parent for their child (birth child, adopted or whatever). The book is dedicated to my parents, grandparents and all those who went before, and to my children and those that may come afterwards. And, of course, to my husband. None of us are going to live forever, but I’m glad he’s here for a while longer … xxx
This time last year I was trying to feel optimistic, and failing. It had been a horrible year and we weren’t out of the woods yet. 2011 has been different. I started off struggling under what seemed like the huge weight of trying to get ‘Numbers: Infinity’ right and also worrying about my husband’s health. Well, ‘Infinity’ was published in July and my dear Ozzy is noticeably better and back at work.
‘Numbers’ and its sequel, ‘Chaos’ and ‘threequel’, ‘Infinity’, are still finding their way in the world and bringing me a constant stream of wonderful surprises at home and abroad. I’ve had two trips to Germany, and one each to Holland, Sweden and France to publicise the books. Everywhere I’ve been, my hosts have shown me so much kindness and the reaction of readers has been amazing! Sometimes I have to pinch myself that this is really happening.
Work is progressing on the ‘Numbers’ film, too. I’ve seen a draft of the script and so I’m starting to believe that the film will really happen…
Now, I’m looking ahead to 2012, and this time I really am looking ahead with optimism. I’m taking a year off from my day job, so that I can concentrate on writing Book 4, which isn’t another ‘Numbers’ book, but something different, challenging and frightening…but very enjoyable to write. I said ‘au revoir’ to my work colleagues yesterday and I will truly miss them, but I’m also looking forward to what 2012 will bring. I wonder what I’ll be able to tell you this time next year…
My year may have been better than last year, but I know that some of my readers will have had to deal with bad news and difficult situations this year and may be facing tough times ahead. I hope that you find the courage to deal with whatever life has in store and I’m sending you my very warmest thoughts and best wishes for Christmas 2011.
With love from,
Rachel
xxx
Over the past few weeks, my feet have hardly touched the ground, with trips to Frankfurt, where I found out that I hadn’t won a prize but met lots of lovely people, and Stockholm, where I visited the charming English Bookshop. To read more about my Swedish adventure, you can visit my guest blog on The Bookwitch’s site.
I’m staying put in Bath for a while now. If you want to know what Bath looks like, this clip gives you a good tour of the sites with some very happy dancing thrown in for good measure. That’s what it’s like over here – dancing in the streets is practically compulsory!
Over the last few weeks I’ve been doing something I haven’t done before. I’ve been plotting and planning my next book (or what might be my next book). Actually, it’s not a completely new experience. I’ve messed about with ideas, chapter summaries, little bits of action on strips of paper before, but only when I’m halfway through a book and have written myself into one heck of a pickle.
The difference this time is that I’m planning before I’ve written a word.
A few months ago, I didn’t have a clue what I’d write after the end of my Numbers trilogy. Now, joy of joy, I’ve got several ideas up my sleeve, one of which is emerging from the pack as favourite.
For the past week or three, I’ve been trying to work out (and write down) what the book is actually about. What happens and when? What do my characters learn and how do they change? I’ve got the bare bones of it now (printed out, cut into strips, arranged and re-arranged and pinned onto a board with lovely colourful pins which, by the way, I love almost as much as colourful paperclips, but that’s a whole different blog.)
But as I stare at the board, there’s something missing. The story is interesting. It disturbs me and upsets me. But the bare bones are so dry. And now I’m realising that what makes a book really engaging is the small touches, the little things your characters do or say which really ring true, which connect with you or shock you or move you to tears. So the next step is to try and find my characters, do a little test writing to see if I can make them come alive on the page. Can I make them real, vulnerable, complex and likeable? Wish me luck, because if I can’t, then maybe I need to go back to the drawing/pin board…
Today millions of people are mourning the death of Amy Winehouse, and I’m one of them. I never met her, but I did see her sing live twice at the Bristol Academy. She was fantastic, especially the first time, in 2006, when she seemed really together and genuinely happy to be there. Both times I went with my daughter, and those gigs will stay with me as mum-daughter experiences that are so precious. Back to Black, got stuck in our car CD player and so we listened to it for months on end, and I never got sick of it, and it was always playing at my hairdresser’s where my passion for Amy was shared.
When I’m writing a book, I often have a soundtrack or signature song in mind. For ‘Numbers’ it was ‘Love is a Losing Game.’ In my mind’s eye I saw it as the final song that would play at the end of ‘Numbers – the movie.’ I’d get to invite Amy to the premiere and tell her how much her music means to me. Foolish dreams, really (except that it does look like there is going to be a movie) and I won’t ever meet her now.
I don’t believe in life after death – I wish I did. I wish I had the comfort of knowing that Amy felt some sort of peace now and also that she could know how much she was loved by so many people. She was ridiculously, wonderfully talented and she’ll be much missed.
For the past few weeks I’ve been busy not writing. There’s the day job, of course. And I’ve tidied and cleaned the house. And taken up baking muffins, so some mornings my family wake up to a tray of yummy, warm cakey treats. Favourites so far; spiced apple; raspberry, white chocolate and lemon; and of course, chocolate chip crumble! Been swimming to try and counteract the effect of the muffins.
I’ve not stopped being a writer – I’ve been busy meeting some wonderful readers, teachers and librarians in Germany, Lancing and Salford. But I haven’t been writing.
It’s been a blessed relief to have some time off, but I’m starting to get the writer’s equivalent of itchy feet. I’ve been making notes, scribbling down ideas and snippets of conversation. Maybe, soon, it will time to start again…
Why don’t you check out my guest post over on Crime Central, the blog about crime writing for teenagers and young adults?
Welcome to my new blog! I’ll be posting here when I’ve got news, or I want to tell you about somewhere I’ve been or people I’ve met, or maybe when I just want to sound off about something.
Today is the official publication day of ‘Numbers 3: Infinity’ in the UK. The book is the third and final book in the Numbers series. It’s a scary ride to a conclusion that I hope you will feel is a fitting end. I’m excited and nervous about the publication. Like my other two books, I’m sending ‘Infinity’ out into the world and I don’t know where it will end up or who will read it…
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