I KNOW it’s been a long time since I updated my blog and I apologize profusely. I’m going to make it up to you with a lengthy post in the journal section. And when I’m feeling particularly brave, I will try and upload some of the videos I’ve been taking over the last few months.
Anyway, welcome back to all of you - it’s nice to chat after a prolonged silence.
I am extremely excited and honoured to tell you that the magical, awesome Beth Tweddle - Great Britain’s recently crowned World Champion gymnast - is currently reading Secrets. Not just in her spare time, mind. She was reading it in the preparation room just before she took to the floor to win a couple of weeks ago. She recommends reading as a way to focus and prepare and to block out the sound of the crowd. I am thrilled, flattered and humbled, Beth, and I know that all my readers will want to congratulate and thank you for your fantastic achievement (all the more awesome when you consider she is just a month off an op on her ankle). We are very proud of you! Roll on 2012, Ms Tweddle.
Many of you have been in touch asking whether I’ve written a short story for the infamous anthology just published, In Bed With….
It’s edited by my great friend, the marvellous Australian author (and so much more) Jessica Adams. I met Jessica whilst involved with the Girls Night In anthologies - she’s a remarkable woman - read her book I’m A Believer - it’s one of my all-time favourite reads!
Anyway, back to the matter in hand, no - I didn’t contribute a story to In Bed With… Partly because I was up to my neck writing Secrets, partly because I’ve always written pretty raunchy scenes (yes alright - downright dirty) in my mainstream novels and thus didn’t feel I needed an outlet in which to do so!
The In Bed With girls have written under larky pseudonyms that combine their first pet’s name/ the road in which they grew up. It’s a bit of fun and an excellent PR/ Sales angle - but I do wonder would they not have been proud to put their own names to their work? And I don’t use the word ‘work’ lightly - I find writing short stories excruciatingly difficult - I could write three or four chapters in the time it takes to write a short story - give me 140,000 words over 2,500 words any day!
The shortest story my poor Dad has read was a mere 21 words long… It was the opening of my first novel Sally… and because the 22nd word was, erm, risque he hasn’t read a single word I’ve written since - and I’m now 10 novels and 12 years down the road!
Well, my last post generated a lively response - thanks to all of you who gave a little time and shared your thoughts. Authors, readers, publishers, agents - even a QC - joined in the debate both on my website, on my facebook page and also the blog I wrote for thebookseller.com. Anyway, the upshot was… apparently I should be a nice, quiet lady-like author who doesn’t take to her soap-box… Read into that what you will!!
Slapped wrists aside, a lovely consequence of all the hoo-ha was other sites linking to this one. As you know, I’m new to blogging and at first all this blinkin’ linkin’ flummoxed me. However, I rather like it now - it makes the world a smaller place, a friendlier place and it makes cyber-space not such a scary place for yours truly. Following one such link, I discovered a really lovely website that champions women’s commercial fiction and has lots of interesting pages. And I’m loving the name: trashionista.com!
I’ve come across plenty of weirdy/ snidey/ fairly venomous blogspots which simply go out of their way to belitte and even attack the genre I write - so it was really great to discover such support out there. A hearty THANK YOU.
At some point soon, I will scramble back onto my high horse/ climb aboard my soapbox and have a good ol’ sound-off about those who denigrate (yeah yeah, author’s fancy word for ’slag off’) my type of fiction… but in the light of my last blog, I think I ought to keep this post nice and anodyne…
Tomorrow I’m off for a long weekend to Spain (if the snow holds off) as it’s half term. This trip, I’m perhaps more excited about the airport, than the destination - as it will be my first first chance to see Secrets in the airport bookshops. I want to tell you that for me, the thrill of seeing copies of my books is as strong now as it was for my very first novel, Sally. So - if there are any staff reading this who work at Luton - keep your eyes open for the mad woman craftily repositioning books… she may even approach you, all flushed and a bit hyper, squealing ‘I wrote it! Please can I sign it!’
A website I frequently visit to keep up to date with the latest publications is lovereading because it’s so much more than a standard online bookstore. I am taking with me Revolutionary Road (Richard Yates) and Mister Pip (Lloyd Jones) - two books I’ve long wanted to read.
I hasten to add that I will also be taking my copy of Grazia (a sacred weekly institution for me) - which I bought on Tuesday and have managed to not open since! Saving it for the plane, I am - the kids will no doubt run amock, up and down the aisle, while Mummy buries her nose in that glorious publication but hey, it’s only a two and a half hour flight to Malaga….and Monarch air-hostesses are famously fab.
One final thing: I was a question yesterday on the Weakest Link…but apparently, the silly chap’s answer was WRONG!
Well, you know you’ve made it when one of your novels is featured in a soap opera… Thanks so much to you eagle-eyed readers who spotted an original edition of ‘Polly‘ in Coronation Street! This honour has to rank as highly as being a question on the Weakest Link…and a clue in the Daily Mirror crossword (I still dine out on those to this day…)
So, Cheryl Cole is to write a series of ‘chick-lit’ novels… Hmmm, what do I think about that? (check out my comments on the Bookseller blog) Ms Cole is gorgeous and talented…as a singer and celebrity. But can she hack it as a novelist? Does she actually know what it entails? Where’s her track record of being able to write 100,000+ words of original fiction? And hold on… isn’t she a singer? Has she ever said “if I wasn’t in Girls Aloud, I’d love to be a novelist”? Did I miss an interview when she’s previously revealed “all I’ve ever wanted to do is write…”? The quote I read said she hadn’t previously thought of writing, but that she’s “come around to the idea”.
Tell me she isn’t going to have her very own secret ghost-writer? Tell me that her fine UK publisher won’t now reject and forfeit fine unpublished novelists because they’d prefer to spend a vulgar amount on Ms Cole’s advance?
An author’s life can be a lonely ol’ existence - my working days are spent almost entirely on my own, concentrating very hard, doing committed research, putting in the hours and crucial fastidiousness to ensure I write good fiction. Will Cheryl have the time necessary to do this? And will she mind the long periods away from the limelight while she knuckles down to write?
Writing a novel is not about ‘burning ambition’ - where ambition is solely about publication or money or fame. For a novel to be a good novel - and worthy of the kind readers who part with their cash to buy it - it can only arise from the author’s absolute desire to write that story out of their system - and being blessed with the necessary talent to do so.
