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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