This counts as writing, right?

Tiny Nuggets of Happy

noreply@blogger.com (Cat Clarke) — Mon, 22 Oct 2012 14:03:00 +0000

Hello, how have you been? Well, I hope.

I've been a busy little bee but I can't seem to remember exactly what I've been up to apart from watching and reading Game of Thrones.

There is one thing I wanted to tell you about - a little Tumblr I've started called TINY NUGGETS OF HAPPY. It's all about those little things that make life worth living, that make it seem worthwhile getting up in the morning, that maybe remind you that there are good things in the world even though life might seem dark and bleak and hopeless. I don't know... maybe it seems silly and pointless, but I find that tiny nuggets of happy can add up to something a bit wonderful.

I'd love it if you'd take a look at TINY NUGGETS OF HAPPY and add *your* nugget's worth. If not, at least have a little think about the things that bring you joy. It might just make you smile, and this dreary old Monday could certainly do with a smile or two.

Here's one of my nuggets. Remembering a day out with Griffpup.

WINNER!

noreply@blogger.com (Cat Clarke) — Tue, 02 Oct 2012 07:49:00 +0000

Well, I put the names in a beanie hat, rummaged around and plucked out the name of the winner of the UNDONE ARC...

JENNI! YOU ARE A WINNER! Please drop me an email with your address and I'll pop the ARC in the post for you.

Thank you so much to everyone who entered the contest, and thanks for all your comments. The verdict on the cover seems to be a big thumbs-up, so that's nice.

Is anyone else reading The Casual Vacancy at the moment? Oh, and did I mention that I'm going to see J.K. next month? *falls over from excitement*

Undone cover and ARC contest!

noreply@blogger.com (Cat Clarke) — Fri, 28 Sep 2012 07:35:00 +0000

Well, here's the cover of UNDONE, which is out in January next year. Hope you like? I certainly do.

If you fancy winning an ARC, just leave a comment below with your thoughts about the cover. You don't have to say you like it... honest! I'll pick a winner at random on Monday at 4.00pm BST. And what the hell, let's make this one international.

Good luck, lovely people!

Things I've learned recently...

noreply@blogger.com (Cat Clarke) — Fri, 07 Sep 2012 10:02:00 +0000

1. It's very hard to get any work done in the month of August in Edinburgh. TOO MANY DISTRACTIONS. Incidentally, I had a grand old time at the Edinburgh International Book Festival. My event with Keren David went swimmingly (even though my dad was in the audience for the first time ever... he didn't even heckle!). I saw some amazing writers do their thing and do it very well indeed. Ali Smith, Joyce Carol Oates and China Mieville all blew me away.

2. It's very hard to go to the Edinburgh Book Festival without spending a whole lot of money on books. The TBR pile is officially scaring me now; I refuse to look directly at it.

3. A tidy desk and organized workspace make me approximately ten times more productive than usual. Huh.

4. A jar of sweets on my desk is a bad/good thing, depending on your point of view.

5. Living with someone who bakes really delicious treats is a bad/good thing, depending on your point of view.

6. Books set in the Deep South are still my favourite. Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistlestop Cafe was an absolute treat.

7. We live in a stupid-ass world. (Actually, I haven't only just learned this, but it's been reinforced a lot recently. Here's just one example: Kristen Stewart gets hated on by the whole world and fired from her job for doing naughty things with someone who wasn't her boyfriend.

8. Tapas ALWAYS works out more expensive than you were expecting.

9. The Great British Bake-Off is the best reason for Tuesdays ever invented. (Yes, even better than pancakes.)

10. Hard work is good for the soul. For some reason I keep learning this and promptly forgetting it, but the truth is I feel good about myself when I'm working hard, and feel craptastic and lethargic and blah when I'm not.

That's a whole lot of learnin' I've done this month. If you've learned anything and would like to enlighten me, please do so in the comments below. I'm off to do some work now. Honest.

August? How the jiggins did that happen?!

noreply@blogger.com (Cat Clarke) — Mon, 06 Aug 2012 09:28:00 +0000

Let's just gloss over the fact that I've been absent from this blog for *cough* a rather long time.

Anyway. How's it going? What's new with you guys? I've been a busy little bee lately and August looks set to be just as busy and buzzy.

So... a quick round-up:

1. I finished my third book for Quercus. ARCs of UNDONE should be available in the not-too-distant future, and the cover will be revealed even sooner. A few lovely bloggers got a sneak preview of the cover at Quercus Towers a few weeks ago. It's a bit of a departure from the look of ENTANGLED and TORN, so I hope you lot like it too. It's my favourite so far, I think.

2. I've started writing my book for Barrington Stoke. I should be writing it right now, in fact. Like UNDONE, this one will be out next year. It's an interesting challenge, writing a book with a much lower word count. I've just reached the difficult middle bit, hence the procrastination.

3. I did an event at Latitude Festival with the ever awesome Tanya Byrne. It was my first festival adventure and just about as rainy as I expected.

4. The French cover for ENTANGLED was revealed. It's mighty purdy.

5. I won an award! The Redbridge Teenage Book Award! And I got to go to the ceremony and meet hundreds of teenagers and some very cool authors and eat chocolate digestives. The award itself is shiny and pointy and would make a marvellous murder weapon, should the occasion arise.

6. A French girl moved into my house. Griffpup is now enjoying double the cuddles. All the cats in the house are very happy too.

7. We bought a rice cooker. I am obsessed with it. You should get one too.

8. This coming Sunday I'll be appearing at the Edinburgh International Book Festival with the lovely Keren David. You can buy tickets here if you like. I plan to be hanging around the book festival making a nuisance of myself A LOT in the coming weeks.

I think that about covers the highlights. I'll post again if I've forgotten anything.

Right, I'm off to ~~watch the Olympics~~ do some writing. Laters.

Randomness

noreply@blogger.com (Cat Clarke) — Tue, 10 Apr 2012 08:31:00 +0000

Hey hey, what have you lot been up to? I'm sure you'll be relieved to hear that I have *not* been watching lots of Jersey Shore and The Inbetweeners and Buffy the Vampire Slayer and being idle. Um. Yeah.

So. Some things.

1. There's a new blog in town and it's a good 'un. The awesome Keris Stainton, Susie Day and Keren David (the Charlie's Angels of the UK YA scene) have only gone and set up a whole blog dedicated to UK YA. It celebrates all that is great about British YA literature, so go check it out if you're at all interested in British books (and if you're not interested, then what the hell are you doing here? Just kidding... sort of). My favourite section is Britishisms, where you can go to translate our crazy lingo and realize it's not all rhyming slang and cor blimey, guvnor.

2. Here's a song for your ears. This track got me through the last couple of months of first draftage of book three. It's the acoustic version of You Make Me Wanna Die by The Pretty Reckless and it is made entirely of awesome.

3. I read and loved this book:

From Amazon: When Cameron Post’s parents die suddenly in a car crash, her shocking first thought is relief. Relief they’ll never know that, hours earlier, she had been kissing a girl.

But that relief doesn’t last, and Cam is soon forced to move in with her conservative aunt Ruth and her well-intentioned but hopelessly old-fashioned grandmother. She knows that from this point on, her life will forever be different. Survival in Miles City, Montana, means blending in and leaving well enough alone (as her grandmother might say), and Cam becomes an expert at both.

Then Coley Taylor moves to town. Beautiful, pickup-driving Coley is a perfect cowgirl with the perfect boyfriend to match. She and Cam forge an unexpected and intense friendship—one that seems to leave room for something more to emerge. But just as that starts to seem like a real possibility, ultrareligious Aunt Ruth takes drastic action to “fix” her niece, bringing Cam face-to-face with the cost of denying her true self—even if she’s not exactly sure who that is.

The Miseducation of Cameron Post is a stunning and unforgettable literary debut about discovering who you are and finding the courage to live life according to your own rules.

4. I should probably tell you about that crazy time last weekend when ENTANGLED was number two in the UK Kindle chart for ALL THE BOOKS, snuggling up next to THE HUNGER GAMES... but it all seems like a bit of a dream now. I have been assured by a number of people that it did in fact happen though, and all I can say to that is BAHAHAHAHAHA.

5. I've run out of Things. Here's a Griffpup pic instead of an Actual Thing.

Right, that's your lot for now. I must away for there is book planning to be done. I've got my Sharpies, a big sheet of paper and a head full of ideas. Laterz.

Oh, the shame

noreply@blogger.com (Cat Clarke) — Tue, 03 Apr 2012 09:24:00 +0000

Forgive me, readers, for I have sinned. It's been bloody ages since my last ~~confession~~ blog post. No excuses this time. Let's just pretend this little blip never happened and have a quick round-up of what I've been up to, eh?

1. Finishing the first draft of book three. It was arduous. Like pulling teeth (but without the help of suitable tooth-pulling tools). There's still a lot of work to be done to make the story, y'know, make sense, but I'm taking a few days off to deal with all the other work I've been putting off since December. *cries*

2. Signing a contract to write a book for the wonderful Barrington Stoke. I'm crazy excited about this project. Here's what I know so far: it'll be published next year; the setting for the story is a house party; I'm stealing one of the characters from my crazy NaNoWriMo novel because I hearted her so much and decided she deserves to see the light of day instead of being banished to the shadowy depths of my hard drive until the end of time.

3. Going on tour! I visited a number of schools in and around London in February. It was awesome and exhausting.

4. Going to New York! I visited a number of shops and restaurants and spent a ridiculous amount of money I don't have. I bought these boots:

Aren't they amaaaaazing? I also met up with Nova Ren Suma and Victoria Schwab and Barry Goldblatt. It was officially Good Times.

5. Seeing The Hunger Games. I may have been a little over-excited about this (to the extent that I said 'OMG' out loud while sitting at a restaurant table all by myself). I saw it on an IMAX screen, so even tiny Peeta looked huge. I liked the film a lot, but loved the book MOAR. My thoughts: Jennifer Lawrence is spectacularly good; Lenny Kravitz is nothing like the Cinna in my head; Rue may well be the cutest person I have ever seen with my eyes; I wish the film was at least fifteen minutes longer; Stanley Tucci makes everything approximately 57% better.

I think that just about brings us up to date. I trust you are all well? If there's anyone out there still interested in what I have to say, that is...

Things

noreply@blogger.com (Cat Clarke) — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 19:40:00 +0000

Yeah, I know, I'm a bad blogger. I'm sorry. But I have a really good excuse for not posting more regularly. I haz been writing. OK, it's not *that* good an excuse, since that's what writers are supposed to do, and plenty of them seem to manage to write novels and be all clever and funny on Twitter AND produce insightful/witty/moving blog posts. Alas, I am not one of them.

I'm staring down the barrel of a scary deadline, wrestling with book three (it's like an alligator, only more slippery). This writing malarkey can be hard sometimes, and now is one of those times. Of course, this is when my procrastination skills really come in handy, so there's been a lot of...

1. Watching DVD box sets
2. Rearranging my bookshelves
3. Daydreaming
4. Reading other people's blogs
5. Thinking about book four
6. Hanging out with friends and talking about how hard writing is
7. Making playlists on Spotify
8. Online clothes shopping
9. Telling my puppy how handsome he is
10. Walking on the beach and pretending I'm a Home & Away character being all thinky and stuff

So you can see how busy I am. And I'm sure you now understand why the blog has been sadly neglected. It may well remain neglected until the deadline of hideousness is well and truly behind me, but one day (maybe) I'll be a better blogger.

In the meantime, there's the TORN launch party this week, a schools tour coming up AND a sneaky trip to NYC. Oh yeah, and book three to finish. Sigh. I hope YOU are keeping well, though?

WINNER!

noreply@blogger.com (Cat Clarke) — Thu, 29 Dec 2011 10:29:00 +0000

Hey folks, hope you're enjoying the festive season. I am mostly enjoying it by being ILL. Urgh. Still, it means I'm getting a lot of reading done, which is good, since you lot have added heaps of books to be TBR pile with your awesome recommendations.

I picked a winner at random (full disclosure: my pup picked the winner at random) and I'm delighted to announce that TRISHA LEIGH wins a copy of IMAGINARY GIRLS. WOOT!

Here's what she had to say about her favourite YA book of 2011:

Mine is DARK INSIDE by Jeyn Roberts. It's a story that takes places during the apocalypse and it truly terrifying. The reasons it stands out for me are, first, the 5 POVs, one of which is philosophical and sad and scary all at once. The second reason is that even though the book did scare me, it also had something to say about human nature, and about the things in our very real (read:not paranormal) world that SHOULD scare the bejesus out if every single day. I don't know what I was expecting when I opened this book, but safe to say it blew my mind out the back of my skull and left me thinking about it for day's. First book in a while that, if there had been a sequel available, I would have run right out and bought it.

I will definitely be getting my hands on this one - sounds exactly my cup of tea. Also? Five POVs? Impressive. So, Trisha, please get in touch with your address so I can send you Nova Ren Suma's bloomin' amazing book.

So what are you reading at the moment? I'm reading THE WOMAN IN WHITE, by Wilkie Collins. It is masterful.

PUBLICATION DAY! WOOT! AND A CONTEST! DOUBLE WOOT!

noreply@blogger.com (Cat Clarke) — Thu, 22 Dec 2011 06:42:00 +0000

My book comes out today. My SECOND book. I can no longer call myself a debut author. Sad times. But the silver lining is that my book comes out today!

I'm kind of proud of this one. Writing it was not easy, but it turned out pretty much exactly like I wanted it to. I do hope you like it.

To celebrate the occasion, I'm giving away a copy of my favourite YA book of the year. It's this little beauty...

To be in with a chance of winning the unbelievably awesome IMAGINARY GIRLS, just leave a comment telling me your favourite YA book of the year, and tell me WHY it's your favourite. I'll pick a winner at midday on the 27th. The contest is open worldwide.

I'm muchly looking forward to picking up some recommendations to add to my somewhat intimidating TBR pile.

I suppose I'd best get on with the celebrating then. This morning it involves drinking tea and taking Griffpup for a walk. Exciting times, yes?

Two days to go... and a contest winner in a pear tree

noreply@blogger.com (Cat Clarke) — Tue, 20 Dec 2011 06:44:00 +0000

It's Tuesday. TORN comes out on Thursday. Clearly watching panda videos on YouTube is a valuable use of my time.

So we have a winner in the guilty secret contest. There were a lot of awesome entries. Quite frankly, you lot have shocked me. I'd never have guessed my 'lovely' blog readers were such a shady lot. The winning entry jumped out at my straight away, mostly because I immediately thought That's something I would SO do. Also, the addition of a smiley face at the end of the confession made me laugh. Smiley faces negate evil deeds, don't you know?

Here's the winning entry in all its glory:

It's Christmas themed as well, we lie to our respective families every year & tell them my husband is on call for the hotel he manages & we can't go to Christmas dinner with either of our huge families in a stuffy restaurant. Then we stay in our pj's & have beef Wellington for dinner then go for a walk. Aaah. Even better, his boss is in on it & covers for us every year :-)

Congratulations to Sarah Writes! Please get in touch with your address so I can send you a signed copy of TORN. Enjoy that beef wellington, and don't let the bitter taste of guilt taint your enjoyment in ANY way.

Now, back to those panda videos.

ONE WEEK TO GO... THE CONTEST

noreply@blogger.com (Cat Clarke) — Thu, 15 Dec 2011 06:31:00 +0000

One week. Eek. Also, that means Christmas is crazy soon, and I am nowhere near ready. (And if I hear one more person who says they finished all their Christmas shopping in September I may punch something).

So in honour of my little book coming out next week, I thought I'd host a little contest. The first contest anywhere in the world in which you can win a shiny finished copy of TORN. It's a proper book! With the exact right words in it!

1. Contest is open internationally.
2. Contest closes midday Monday, UK time.
3. If you spead the word, you won't necessarily be more likely to win, but the karma alone will make it TOTES worth it.

To enter, just answer the following question in the comments below...

WHAT'S YOUR GUILTY SECRET?*

*See what I did there? TORN is all about guilt and secrets and guilty secrets and secret guilt... CLEVER.

TWO-WEEK WARNING!

noreply@blogger.com (Cat Clarke) — Thu, 08 Dec 2011 15:29:00 +0000

So there's this book coming out in TWO FREAKIN' WEEKS and I've heard all kinds of good things about it, including (but not limited to) the fact that it has PAGES and WORDS and a cute guitar-wielding boy and a black cocker spaniel and a very mean girl. Whaddya reckon? I think I would probably buy it, if I were you. If you don't fancy reading it, you could always use it as a frisbee or to shield your new hairstyle from an unexpected shower of rain.

MONDAYS ARE RED blog tour... The Guilt Edition

noreply@blogger.com (Cat Clarke) — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 07:30:00 +0000

I'm thrilled to bits to be hosting a stop on Nicola Morgan's blog tour. If you don't know Nicola, I can assure you that she is a) lovely (not in the least bit crabbit) and b) an incredible writer. MONDAYS ARE RED was Nicola’s debut YA novel, published in 2002. Nicola is now delighted to be producing the ebook herself, with a new cover and extra material, including creative writing by school pupils inspired by the book. For details about how to buy (price around £1.99 until the end of January), have a look here. Also, you can go follow Nicola on Twitter here.

About the book
When Luke wakes from a coma, his world has altered. Synaesthesia confuses his senses and a sinister creature called Dreeg inhabits his mind. Dreeg offers him limitless power – even the power to fly – and the temptations are huge, but the price is high. Who will pay? His mysteriously perfect girlfriend, with hair as long as the sound of honey? His detested sister, Laura, with the wasps in her hair? When Laura goes missing, Luke realizes the terrible truth about himself and his power. His decision is a matter of life and death, and he will have to run faster than fire.

Hello, Cat and thank you for letting me invade your blog today! You’ve asked me to talk about the theme of guilt in MONDAYS ARE RED. Yes, it’s a major theme. But then I thought about my other books and realised that guilt is a pretty major theme in most of them! Yikes. I’d better keep the psychoanalysts away… Oh, and to be clear: I’m talking about the emotion of guilt, not the factual aspect of whether an accused person is guilty of the crime. It’s the emotion that’s far more interesting.

In Mondays are Red, Luke’s feeling of guilt comes from the way he abuses the absolute power he develops after a coma, led into temptation by a devil-like creature in his mind. Once he discovers the nasty side of himself that he didn’t know existed, it rocks him. In WASTED, my latest novel, Jack’s guilt is surely undeserved. He has twice caused the death of his mother, but through pure bad luck, albeit that the deaths would not have occurred if he hadn’t been there. Subconsciously, he is altered by this guilt. In BRUTAL EYES, the novel I’m currently writing, Joe is guilty, in every sense – he’s killed a man. And he knows that he can only live with himself – or live at all – if he atones.

Why does guilt work so well in fiction? I think guilt is one of the most awful feelings. I assure you I haven’t done anything major to be ashamed of, but I have an imagination! I’d rather be victim than guilty party. Unless we’re perfect – and I’m far from it - we’ve all felt a bit ashamed, so we can imagine what huge shame must feel like. It would keep you awake at night, gnaw away at you, damage your self-esteem. So, there we’ve got an emotional pull for a novel – something that affects the main character and also makes us empathise with them. We’ve also got motivation for the character to do something stupid – because guilt can drive people to cover up, and that can have bad consequences. Or it can drive them to atone. So guilt can be a motivator for bad or good, and it’s such a powerful emotion that it can lead to extreme actions. Useful in a novel!

In Mondays are Red, Luke says, “However much of it was my fault, it didn’t matter any more because I had made it right in the end.” Joe in Brutal Eyes learns something different about guilt: you have to do more than pay for it; you have to let it change you. Luke and Joe discover that you can move on from anything. Luke says, “Grandpa told me that we have space in our brains to store some radioactive waste quite safely. Eventually it loses all its poison. You grow away from it, start again.”

It certainly provides great scope for novels. I’m sure everyone can think of novels with guilt as their core, but my favourite example is ATONEMENT by Ian McEwan. And TORN is about guilt, isn’t it? Which reminds me, must go and buy it…

Thank you for having me! I’d love to hear other readers or writers thoughts about guilt. (In fiction, I mean – no confessions please!)

Thanks for a fascinating post, Nicola! Guilt is one of my very favourite things to write about and to read about. So, lovely readers, what do you think about guilt? Any favourite guilt-ridden books you'd like to recommend?

One month to go

noreply@blogger.com (Cat Clarke) — Tue, 22 Nov 2011 08:54:00 +0000

ONE MONTH TO GO TILL THE PUBLICATION OF TORN?! How the heck did that happen? Blimey. If you feel like pre-ordering a copy, you can do so here.

Guess what? I've given up on NaNoWriMo! I hit 34,000 words ahead of schedule, realized my story was very nearly finished and was not going to reach 50,000 and decided there were several other, more important things that I should really be spending the last few days of November doing. There's a possible-not-definite-very-exciting project on the horizon that has got me all kinds of distracted.

Writing 34,000 words in 18 days has taught me some things:

1. I could write a whole novel really quickly if I really, really wanted to.
2. I could not write a good novel really quickly no matter how much I really, really wanted to.
3. It's fun writing something just for myself. Creative freedom FTW.
4. Eating cornflakes for nearly every meal gets old after approximately 18 days.
5. Lots of writing = disgustingly messy house.

So what have you learned this month? Any startling revelations?

NaNoWriMo ToMoRrow

noreply@blogger.com (Cat Clarke) — Mon, 31 Oct 2011 10:40:00 +0000

Eek. Erk. Gah. Remind me why I'm doing this? And remind me why I had to go and get all inspired this weekend, which resulted in me coming up with a brand new and definitely crazy idea?

The new idea involves girls and boys and Halloween and *coughs* stuff that I'll probably never be able to tell you about. This project is purely for fun. I don't think I'll let anyone read it... ever. I am crazy excited about writing something just for me. Hopefully this will give me the freedom to truly embrace the NaNoWriMo spirit, since I'm still slogging away at the WIP with the impending deadline.

I've never tried writing two things at once before. Have you? I hope I don't end up getting confused. That would be,,, not good.

Here's a song for you. Is it a clue about my NaNo project or is it a red herring? WHO CAN SAY?

Happy NaNoing to all you crazy people out there. As for the rest of you, good luck getting through the month without wanting to do violence to us annoying NaNoers.

NaNoWriMo

noreply@blogger.com (Cat Clarke) — Fri, 21 Oct 2011 11:16:00 +0000

Well I've only gone and signed up for NaNoWriMo, haven't I? How the heck did that happen? 50,000 words to write in the month of November? Easy peasy. Um... yeah.

I blame Twitter. People were talking about NaNo. I felt left out. I joined in. Simple. Trouble is, I have a pesky deadline looming. So I can't just start a shiny new project on November 1st and sack off the WIP (much as I'd like to... shhh... don't tell anyone). So here's the plan:

1. Write some words on the WIP every day. Try not to rush it and make it rubbish.
2. Write some words on SOMETHING ELSE every day. Rush it and try not to care if it's rubbish.
3. End up with 50,000 words by the end of November. The word count will be WIP words and SOMETHING ELSE words combined.

(N.B. SOMETHING ELSE will probably not be YA... Oooh!)

Now, NaNo experts among you will know that this is what's known as 'cheating'. Lucky for me, in NaNo world, 'cheating' is more commonly known as 'rebelling'. Yup, I will be a NaNo rebel (along with a few of my Twitter friends who introduced me to the concept). There's even a forum for us rebels... and that makes it official, like.

Somehow I've already managed to convince two friends to join me in this madness. Any chance I can convince you too? Or are you already signed up? Or would your rather lop off your left arm, nibble off all the flesh and then use the bones to bash yourself over the head?

NaNo? YesNo? Or HellNo?

My very first literary festival...

noreply@blogger.com (Cat Clarke) — Wed, 12 Oct 2011 08:09:00 +0000

... recounted using pictures of dubious quality. (Except none of the pics are of the actual literary bit. Sorry.)

A sign

Pre-festival breakfast... nom nom nom

A walk on windy, rainy Ilkley Moor (N.B. I was *not* dressed appropriately for this.)

A waterfall on windy, rainy Ilkley Moor

Wet leaves are slippy... who knew?!

A creepy path (N.B. It looked way creepier in real life, honest.)

Putting my feet up before the literary endeavours begin

Post-workshop reward: room service! Courgette risotto with crispy onions... and X Factor on the telly

In between the walking and the lounging and the eating, there were two workshops in Otley on Sunday and a workshop at Roundhay School in Leeds on Monday. I also met the very lovely David Logan (fellow Quercus author) and Martyn Bedford (author of FLIP, which looks... er... flippin' excellent).

My abiding memory of Ilkley? Bloody hilarious conversations with taxi drivers, which can not be recounted here. Rest assured they will be making an appearance in my writing one day.

What have YOU been up to, my lovely friends?

Jako v pavučině!

noreply@blogger.com (Cat Clarke) — Thu, 06 Oct 2011 11:54:00 +0000

Hey lovelies. My very first foreign edition will be published on Monday! ENTANGLED is going Czech! And here's the cover...

I *think* this translates as 'Like the web', but please feel free to correct me. So tell me... what do you think? Personally, I reckon my name has never looked cooler. Huge thanks to NAVA, my Czech publisher, and Caroline Hill-Trevor, Rights Ninja, for making this happen!

(I would have posted this on Monday, but I will be busy ~~terrorizing~~ visiting a school in Leeds. Please send me good luck vibes for that.)

Confession time

noreply@blogger.com (Cat Clarke) — Tue, 04 Oct 2011 08:45:00 +0000

OK, here's the thing. I'm a writer, right? But for the past few months I've been a writer who doesn't, y'know, write.

I think this little fella was partly to blame for this sad state of affairs...

But it's not exactly fair to blame a cute little pupster for me being crap. Because that's exactly what I've been: CRAP. The real reason is... I just haven't wanted to write. I got 50,000 words into the WIP and realized I had no earthly clue what should happen next. Instead of sitting down with a notepad and working it out, I decided to ignore the problem. Surprise, surprise, this wasn't the best solution.

Every time I even thought about opening the word document I would feel vaguely sick and massively uneasy. I would rather do ANYTHING than write - anything at all. But the thing is, when I don't write, I feel horrible. I mean, really, really horrible. I feel guilty and useless and pointless and blah. I was honestly starting to wonder if I'd ever finish this book. The deadline isn't getting any further away, and I already know this book's going to need some major rewrites (something I've never done before... eek). So everything was looking a bit rubbish, really. Apart from the puppy. Thank God for the puppy.

But then... but then... Something happened. I'm not sure what, exactly. But I started writing again this weekend. I still have no idea where the story is going, but now I really want to find out. And that ain't going to happen unless I write the bloomin' thing.

Thankfully, a few factors suddenly came together to make me want to write again...

There's this song...

And this one...

There's also a playlist that one of my very favourite people created for me (thanks, Fras!). And the encouragement and help kindly provided by another awesome friend (thank you, Lauren!). And not forgetting the sensible advice from the lovely Zoë Marriott and my favourite email buddy, Lara. All these things went into the pot and helped me serve up a big ol' bowl of writing stew this weekend. And I'm still going. I do hope I haven't jinxed it by telling you lot.

So I'd better get back to it, eh?

VERGISSDEINNICHT!

noreply@blogger.com (Cat Clarke) — Tue, 20 Sep 2011 08:22:00 +0000

That's German, in case you didn't know. It means (sort of) Forget-you-not. Pretty nifty title, eh?

And here's the cover.

The words in grey (which have come out way too faint here) are all lines from the book, and the letters of the title will be cut out and you'll see through to a purple flap behind. And 'roman' means 'novel'. My lovely German publisher, Lübbe, is going for a crossover audience with this cover and I FREAKING LOVE IT. I love the white, I love the purple, I love that my words are on there... and look how big my name is?! Eek.

Way back before I had a book deal, before I'd even finished the book, I used to daydream about what the cover would be like. And this is pretty damn close. I can't wait to see it in real life.

So what do you guys think? Pretty different from the UK version, yes?

Not cool

noreply@blogger.com (Cat Clarke) — Tue, 13 Sep 2011 07:42:00 +0000

So here's a link to a Publishers Weekly article by two YA writers who were offered representation... on the condition that they turned a gay character straight. Not cool, right?

Having worked in the publishing industry for a few years I feel I can quite confidently say that this kind of thing happens ALL the time. The agent in question may well have nothing against gay characters in a book, but they may think that editors will have a problem with it, and the editors may think that Sales & Marketing will have a problem with it, and Sales & Marketing may think that bookshop buyers will have a problem with it, and bookshop buyers may think that customers will have a problem with it. You see the issue here? Everyone trying to second guess everyone else. The status quo is maintained.

Here's my plea: ENOUGH WITH THE SECOND GUESSING. Give people a chance to make up their own minds. Simple.

I have a great deal of respect for the two authors in question for refusing to 'straighten' their gay character. I reckon a lot of writers would feel they HAD to, in order to sign with an agent.

So what about you? What would be your deal-breaker? What would you do if you were asked to change the sex/race/sexuality of a character in your manuscript?

Things I have done

noreply@blogger.com (Cat Clarke) — Tue, 30 Aug 2011 08:06:00 +0000

Been a busy bee the past couple of weeks. Here are some things I've done:

1. Went to a Neil Gaiman event at the Edinbugh Book Festival. He was about as awesome as you'd expect.

2. Cooked burgers for the very first time in my life. Served them up with crispy bacon, cheese, sour cream, lettuce, tomato, jalapenos and salsa. Again, about as awesome as you'd expect.

3. Attended the launch party for Gillian Philip's BLOODSTONE. Lovely lady, great party, perfect venue - the wonderful Edinburgh Bookshop. You should go there and buy some books.

4. Took Griffin to his first puppy class. There were a lot of CRAZY puppies there. Griffin was obviously the best one. Not biased at all, no siree.

5. Attended the fabulous Teen Titles party and got to talk to lots of cool people - including some teenagers I met at my very first school event back in February.

I think that's about it. I'm sure I've done some other things too - like working - but these were the highlights.

What have YOU been up to? Glad summer's nearly over?

Back to work

noreply@blogger.com (Cat Clarke) — Tue, 23 Aug 2011 07:33:00 +0000

Remember the lovely Scattered Laura, who won the very first ARC of TORN? Well, she's gone and written a review, which you can read it here if you so desire. I recommend you do... Not because it's a review of my book, but because Laura is hilarious!

Yesterday I was back at my desk for the first time post-pup. It's been impossible to work with the little bundle of trouble distracting me, but now I am officially BACK ON IT. Now, how does this writing malarkey work again? Maybe a cup of tea will help. And a biscuit. And maybe I should catch up on my blog reading first...

Gratuitous pup pic

SPOOKY!

noreply@blogger.com (Cat Clarke) — Mon, 15 Aug 2011 07:50:00 +0000

My dad's just read TORN. His verdict: better than ENTANGLED. So that's good. He phoned me one day while he was reading it and said, 'There's a cocker spaniel!' I'm ashamed to say that this was news to me. I hadn't looked at the text for well over six months and my memory is... ahem... poor.

It turns out I wrote a cocker spaniel into TORN way before I ever even considered getting a dog, let alone a cocker spaniel. SPOOKY, HUH?

The strange thing is, this isn't the first time this kind of thing's happened. When I was writing ENTANGLED, I randomly decided to give Grace a love of running. There was no real reason for it. I think I was probably just looking for something for her to do that wasn't moping around her bedroom. So I wrote a running scene. Now I'd never really run in my life, apart from the odd sprint for the bus and the obligatory cross-country hideousness at school (wearing nothing but a T-shirt and brown gym knickers... um... WTF?!). I imagined what it might feel like to run if you didn't hate running - if you loved it, in fact. Turns out it wasn't all that hard to imagine.

THEN I STARTED RUNNING! OK, this was maybe two or three years after I wrote that first running scene, but still! And the weird thing was, the feeling was exactly like I imagined it to be.

This has got me thinking... what's next? What am I writing into the current WIP (UNDONE) that will eventually come true? I'm tempted to write a character who wins the lottery. Reckon that'll work?

So how about you? Have you ever written something that's come true? Or written about something you'd never experienced before, only to find out your imagination was pretty spot-on?