Zero Title Ideas

Hello, everyone! Just a quick one today to share a few things.

I'm over at the brilliant Author Allsorts blog, talking about what it's like after you get the coveted book deal.

The US edition of The Lost Girl made it into the top 100 Kindle bestsellers today! I still can't quite believe that. I keep looking at it just to make sure I haven't imagined it (and obviously I've saved a screenshot, because it won't last!)

Crime thriller fans? Karin Slaughter's Will Trent books are awesome. I started the first one last week and am now on the third. They're so addictive.

It's out there!

To those of you who follow my page on Facebook or who've seen this on Twitter, this may be old news. But I wanted to share it here anyway!

My book.

In a real bookshop.

On real shelves.

In a lot of ways, this was the moment I spent years waiting for. This was the moment it was supposed to, finally, feel real. And to be perfectly honest, there are few things - very few things - more exciting and squee-worthy than seeing your book on shelves. (It's also kind of embarrassing to stand there taking photographs while people stare, but we'll disregard that part.)

I loved it. But I also realized, when I saw it, that my book had already felt real. It had been real for a couple of months and it was only in hindsight that I realized that. I think it became real the moment I got my first email from a reader, from someone who didn't know me or my mother or my husband in the slightest, from someone who completely randomly picked up my book and loved it. It felt real then.

So seeing my book was brilliant. I will always, always treasure the moment I spotted it and spotted subsequent copies of it elsewhere. But getting your emails is even more brilliant. Thank you for that.

What are you excited about this week?


PS. I know the book's been out there in the US and plenty of other places for months, so this is probably in no way exciting for you guys, but this was the first time I got to go see it. So it was a win for me.

Cover Talk: interview with Bella Kotak

I am super, super excited today to introduce you guys to the totally awesome Bella Kotak. I managed to wrangle Bella into doing an interview with me (thanks, Bella!)

Bella is the cover model on the UK edition of The Lost Girl, which is now officially available - yep, that's her face below! - and she also happens to be the photographer too. Which seems twice as cool to me. I'm normally so intrigued by cover models, and the process behind designing book covers, so when my editors at Random House Children's Books told me about Bella, I jumped at the chance to find out more.

Hi, Bella! Can you tell us a little bit about yourself and what you do?

Hi Sangu! Alright, well my name is Bella and at the moment I work as both an architect and a photographer. 

Did you always want to work in photography? Or was it just something that happened?

Photography for me began really as a hobby. I'd always been interested in taking pictures and in 2006 discovered Flickr and the incredible amount of talent on that site. I came across a few people who were doing a 365 project ( a self portrait a day for a year) and that inspired me to pick up a camera and see what I could create. It was this project that really challenged and fuelled my passion and by the time I bought my first dSLR I was completely hooked. After that it really was a case of friends seeing my work and either hiring me or recommending me to new customers. I wouldn't have come as far as I have if it wasn't for their support.

The photo on the UK cover of THE LOST GIRL is a self-portrait, right? So you were the photographer and the cover model. Can you tell us what that was like?

Yes it's a self-portrait. Taking one is relatively straight forward, it's just a simple case of setting the camera up on a tripod and using a wireless remote to release the shutter. The edit is later done in photoshop.

I was given a synopsis of the book as well as several precedents of the style / look the publisher was going for. They'd already been through my work so were able to tell me what they liked and wanted me to provide expressions that was akin to the concept of feeling lost, watchfulness and so on. 

I provided them with a selection of images and we then began discussions.

What are some of your favourite books?

I guess anything with an element of fantasy and adventure. I love Wind-Up Bird Chronicle and South of the border, West of the sun both by Haruki Murakami and of course Harry Potter! I also love flicking through photography books, my favourite is Pictures, by Tim Walker. It's huge and bursting with creativity!

And finally: you're stranded on a desert island. What three things would you take with you?

Shampoo, ipad, hammock. If I had to be stranded at least I could be comfortable ;)


Isn't she fab? Hope you're all having a fantastic week!

Go Look at: the United States of YA

Okay, I'm officially terrible. One week into my new schedule and I'm already late! I'm sorry!

To anyone who may be struggling with Sandy, I hope you're all okay.

Today I want to show you this incredibly awesome map made by EpicReads.com and posted over at their blog. If you read any YA at all (or write it!) you'll really love this one. It's a map of the US in books! I'm reposting the picture below (and yes, I do know it's virtually indecipherable but consider it a teaser. I couldn't get it any bigger without making it too big for Blogger!), but the original is over at EpicReads.com so do pop over and take a proper look - and if you like it, show them your love.

 
They're also putting together a Planet YA map (and right now EpicGirl's got The Lost Girl earmarked for India, yay!) so head over if you have any suggestions for young adult fiction in any country!

What cool things have you discovered this week?

TLG Blogpalooza: A Little Bit Whimsical?

Happy Tuesday, everyone! I'm very pleased to say that we have over two hundred entries into the giveaway already. Many are multiples, of course, but it's still very cool!

Now onto today's post:

I get asked about the inspirations and influences behind THE LOST GIRL all the time, and I thought it was about time I talked about the latter. I've mentioned FRANKENSTEIN several times, which isn't surprising considering that's the story I stole the bones from and went on to add my own flesh (not literally) to. And, of course, as the book's inspiration, it's certainly influenced it. 

But I'm not going the FRANKENSTEIN route today. Instead, today's teaser is going to be me talking about what you can expect from the book; basically, talking about two people (well, their work) that influenced not what story is, but how it's told.

Tim Burton
I'm going to say this just once and then resist the urge to gush like a fangirl: I love Tim Burton. (I also love Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham Carter too, incidentally, so when you throw the three of them together (as they often are), it's like Christmas for me.) I love (almost) everything he's ever done. And when the first little twiglets of THE LOST GIRL started sprouting in my head, and Eva started talking to me, it was Tim Burton I thought of. 

Think about Edward Scissorhands (which probably owes a great deal to FRANKENSTEIN too!). A sad, lonely boy with scissors instead of hands, created almost from scratch by the man he considers his father? That's creepy, but cool. Whimsical. Eerie without being grisly. And think about Corpse Bride. An awkward young man accidentally marries a sweet dead girl. It's sad, touching, eerie. 

I guess that's what I wanted to create with THE LOST GIRL: something eerie, something sad, something whimsical. (I don't know about how well I succeeded, if at all. That's for you to tell me.)

Daphne du Maurier
I talk about her all the time, so if you're a frequent visitor to the blog, you may well be sick to death of be going on and on about how much I love some of her books. They're full of some of the most beautiful, lyrical, poignant, gorgeous writing I've ever read. I don't think I could never write as wonderfully as that, and truthfully I wouldn't want to copy anyone else's style, but I will say that that's where my love of reading (and writing) beautiful words has come from.

Also, almost all of her books (that I've read) have made me cry. I didn't deliberately set out to make anyone cry when I wrote THE LOST GIRL, but I did want readers to feel the way I felt when I read Frenchman's Creek or The King's General. I wanted them, quite simply, to feel.

TEASE OF THE DAY

No quotes today. Instead, the most beautiful things arrived last week, and we're two weeks from pub day, so I just had to show them off instead! 

 

Ahhh, Holmes

I've made no secret of the fact that I love Sherlock Holmes: some of the old TV shows, inspired-bys like House, the new BBC adaptation, and, obviously, the original stories. In fact, I'm obsessed with pretty much anything Holmesy, except for those hideous stains upon filmmaking (otherwise known as the Robert Downey Jr. movies: sorry, fans!)

So when The House of Silk came out, I was excited and very, very doubtful. Excited because, you know, it's a NEW Sherlock Holmes novel and I really like Anthony Horowitz. Doubtful because, deep down, I suspected it wouldn't be all that great.

I was wrong. It's awesome. 

I read an awful lot of YA, being a YA author and all that, but that doesn't mean I don't read and love plenty of adult fiction too, and I read and loved this. Seriously, it is hands down the best thing I've read in the last few months.

So, yeah. Go read The House of Silk.

Anyone read it already?

(Thanks for all the lovely comments on my German cover and reviews last week, everyone! And thank you to those of you who gave me book reccs: I have several more amazing-sounding books on my to-read pile now.)

Winners and, um, Way Cool Stuff

I'm really not having a good week with this whole alliteration thing. (I am a writer. Honest. But a poet, me is not.)

As promised, today I'm announcing the winners of my 300 Followers Contest/giveaway! A huge, huge thank you to all my new followers - and to all the old ones who tweeted/blogged about the contest and put the button in your sidebars. Thank you for all your support!

I put your names in one of those cool online number generator thingies and here we are. I didn't make it to the aforementioned 300 followers, but I got over halfway there and am excited enough about it to give prizes away anyway! So two winners get to pick one of the following

a query critique
a 20-page manuscript critique
a £10 Amazon UK voucher (or a $15 Amazon US voucher if you don't shop on the UK site)
a box of homemade cupcakes*

*but really, don't pick this one. Baking and me are not the best of friends.

And the winners are

Janet Johnson and

Alex (from Odd Socks and Pretty Frocks)

Hooray!

As for the 'way cool stuff', I've read quite a few great books lately and I thought I'd share some of my recent discoveries. Who doesn't love a good book recc, right? 

My Sister Lives on the Mantelpiece by Annabel Pitcher

This is my absolute favourite recent read. Narrated by ten-year-old Jamie, it's honest and funny and so not the soppy, grim, bleak thing it might have been in a different author's hands. Grab it. It's sad but you'll laugh. It's amazing.

Build a Man by Talli Roland

I've read all of Talli's novels (and her guide to London, but that's a whole other kettle of fish!) and this one was hands-down my favourite. I don't know why. Maybe I just loved main character Serenity's first-person narrative, maybe I loved how funny and sweet it was, maybe it was a lot of other things. But it's such a fun read. 

Wildwood by Colin Meloy and Carson Ellis

My editor Sara sent me this one (so maybe it's not officially out yet, I'm not sure) and I'm so glad she did because it's absolutely lovely. It's a mixture of fantasy and real-worldliness; I guess you could say it's a bit C.S. Lewis-y, only better (I never was a fan of the Narnia books, but that's just me).

Oh, and while I'm on the subject of way cool stuff, UK blog-readers? If you haven't had the Swiss cream bun at Greggs yet, get your hands on one now. I would commit criminal acts for them.

 

(Another) New Title! BUT THIS TIME IT'S FINAL!

I know it wasn't very long ago that I told you that the official title of my book, out next year, would be A TORRENT OF LIGHT. Well, sometimes titles change. Even official ones. Several people at my publishers' felt that the old title didn't say enough about the book and they know this business far better than I do... so as much as I loved and will miss TORRENT, I'm very happy to say we have an even more brand new and sparkly title - and this one is it.

THE LOST GIRL

Yay! It thrills me every time. THE LOST GIRL, by me. Keep your gogglers peeled for it, bloggy-friends.

Muddled

I feel like so many things are happening at once - and it's completely flung my carefully planned blog schedule out the window! Oh well.

Steve and I had our scan at the hospital and it looks like we're having a boy! I'd have been just as excited no matter what it was, but it's so much fun actually knowing and being able to refer to the baby as a 'he' and not 'it'.

I spent a fantastic day in London on Tuesday. I met UK agent Sarah Molloy, who is so lovely and funny, and then had lunch with Ruth Knowles and Natalie Doherty of Random House - they're both completely awesome, by the way. We went back to their offices after that to meet more of their team. (Oddly, before I first talk to or meet publishing people, I find that I'm terrified of them. I'm always convinced they'll be scary. I should really know better by now.) It was beyond cool getting to meet everybody in London.

I should really have taken a few photographs. I didn't.

I'm in the middle of a round of edits on TORRENT right now and though there are still some important things to figure out, I've finally hit my stride. Hooray!

And on a bloggy note, this guest post by Dan Holloway is fantastic - it's all about authors and physical appearances and whether or not we're expected to 'look good'. It also leads into the inevitable question of how much or how little the book itself matters.

Yep. This post is a muddle of things. Sorry. I'd try to make it more coherent, only I'm off to stare fondly at my ultrasound photo.

6 Unusual Things About Bangalore

I’d best point out that there are many unusual, strange, peculiar, wonderful and downright irritating things about Bangalore to behold if you're a visitor. If you've lived here most of your life and are back visiting your parents for a few weeks, you tend to find most of the aforementioned things fairly normal. But there are certain things that never get old - and never stop being strange!

1. Cows are an optical illusion. You will also find them standing in the middle of the street holding up traffic while they peacefully chew on the grass in the divider, but that's not a surprise to me anymore. What does astound me is their size. I have seen many a cow in my twenty-two and a half years, in India and in the UK and most likely in every other country I've been to as well. But not until yesterday did I fully realize that cows are an optical illusion.

See, from a few hundred feet away - even a few yards away - cows are ordinary, normal-sized creatures. A familiar sight to most of us, who probably see cows in fields or on farms (or streets!) every day. But it's only when they are right next to you - by which I mean they're headbutting your foot to get you to step off the particularly large and delicious leaf they want - that you realize how big they are.

Cows are huge. I'm serious. You don't realize the half of it when they're a fair distance away.

2. You are woken up at the crack of dawn by the sound of no less than three mosques sending out a call to prayer. This is what happens when your parents' house just happens to be in a part of town that happens to have a few mosques dotted around it. And boy, do they boom at five in the morning.

3. There are more restaurants/cafes/places to eat than there are people. Okay, so that's probably a wee bit of an exaggeration, but the sheer number of places offering you food is nevertheless startling. Really. Try to think of the most outlandish or exotic type of cuisine you can and there's an excellent chance Bangalore's got at least one place that serves it. (If you're visiting, I recommend Koshy's. Or Sunny's. Or the rooftop of UB City. Really. The list could go on.)

4. How much you pay an auto rickshaw driver is directly proportional to the amount of rainfall rocketing on the city at that precise moment. The harder it's raining, the more they'll charge you for a trip, knowing that when you're soaking wet and irritable, the last thing you want to do is hang around waiting for another auto to turn up. 

Unless you're me, in which case you occasionally tell an auto driver what to do with his exorbitant fare and march off to flag down the next one, uncaring of torrential thunderstorms cascading upon your head.

5. Graffiti is almost always of a romantic nature. Heaven forbid anybody scrawl or spraypaint religious, moral or philosophical views on bits of wall, fence and anything with a surface. No, the graffiti most often seen in Bangalore involves things like 'Rahul luvs Priya 4Ever' and 'Marry Me, Sunny'. 

On a related note, typos and mistakes on signs in Bangalore are invariably hilarious. Many a hairdressing salon will offer you 'a layered cut' and a 'boob cut', which seems terribly generous for the price they're charging.

On another related note, I discovered a shop a few days ago with a sign proudly proclaiming that the shop is called Traffic Jam. And what does it sell? Yep, that's right. Jam.

6. Where have all the monkeys gone? Bangalore used to be a hotbed of common brown monkeys. My brother's best story involves having a packet of chips stolen from him by a monkey. In fact, I so often tell Steve about the antics of Bangalore's monkeys that, when he visited last year (and this), he was most disappointed not to see a single monkey in the city. The only monkey he managed to see this time was five hours away from the city, a stone's throw from my dad's coffee estate. So that, to be, is a most unusual thing. 

So I put it to you, dear readers, in the hope that your explanations might enlighten and/or entertain me. Where have all the monkeys gone?

A Reflection on The Inbetweeners

Believe me, I never thought I'd write this post. In fact, even the thought of trying to be straight-faced about The Inbetweeners is enough to give me a jaw-ache.

Yet here I am.

Some of you may have heard of The Inbetweeners. Some of you may be fans who watch it religiously for the endless laughs. For those of you who have no idea what this is, in short, it's a British TV show about four teenage boys at the end of their high school lives. It's also about four teenage boys who swear, drink, and seem to talk almost constantly about sex. It's also a BAFTA award-winning show, which means somebody has found something to admire in it.

The most important thing you need to know about The Inbetweeners, though - and the thing that I notice most about it - is that there are no lines. The show doesn't take itself seriously. It's not supposed to be taken seriously. It's about silly fun, cheap laughs, and the odd moment of 'aw that was quite sweet' where the characters (sort of) redeem themselves. Just about every Naughty Word has been used in just about every episode. We have seen testicles. We have heard about a million different words for parts of the female (and indeed, male) anatomy. We've seen and heard about various bodily functions. We've seen, for Christ's sake, a squirrel being deliberately run over. And as someone who once watched her younger brother try and fail to save an injured squirrel that fell off our roof, I did not enjoy that.

The other thing you should probably know is that I'm not generally the blushing damsel type. I was raised by a family who didn't believe in censoring anything. I had aunts who loved to squabble (colourfully), an actor father who got me to run lines with him from scripts sometimes filled with profanity and sex, and a mother who is so liberal that the only thing she wouldn't let us read or watch was The Exorcist because she was afraid it would scare the tonsils out of us. Fair.

And when I was in high school, I was pretty much known to most of my friends as the one whose mind was in the gutter. Someone said 'long', I usually finished the sentence with a euphemism for boys' private parts. Someone said 'hard'... you get the idea.

Yet in spite of this upbringing and this high school career, I, Sangu Mandanna, Mind in the Gutter, spend most of The Inbetweeners episodes cringing. And blushing. And wincing.

Which goes to show you just how far the show goes.

I'm sure there are thousands of people who claim the show goes too far. Way, way too far. Sometimes, I even agree. Last week's squirrel-killing episode, for a start. I hated that bit. Steve, who derives immense amusement from the cheap laughs and the silly gags, didn't like it either. In fact, I wouldn't even call myself an Inbetweeners fan. I probably wouldn't notice missing an episode, and I certainly don't clear my day to watch it.

But for all that, I admire it. I admire the writers. The producers. The actors. Everyone who lets the show air exactly the way it is.

Why? Because The Inbetweeners is a rare example of something that's rapidly vanishing: the lack of boundaries. I might not agree with or enjoy everything I see in an episode, but I admire it all the same because there are no lines. In a world where books are being banned from libraries and TV channels censor out kissing (yes, this happens), I think a show like this is a nice, nice thing.

As someone who writes for young adults, whose YA novel is out on submission to publishers right now, I worry all the time. I find myself censoring myself when I write. Is this too politically incorrect? Will someone kick off if they read this line? And I wish I could stop doing that, because there's enough being cut out and chipped away out there already.

That's why I admire The Inbetweeners. It's a show about young adults that doesn't hold back. It airs late in the evening, so that children aren't unwittingly subjected to the swearing or sexuality, and it gives us a choice. If you find it offensive, don't watch it. If you like it, you can watch it, no holds barred and all that. We get to choose. And I love that. 

I'd love to know what you guys think.

Dear Readers, I am a Published Writer...

...at last.

Of sorts. I was recently hired to write articles for hilarious and often scathing entertainment blog Spiteful Critic. Where, I might add, I had my first experience with a proper editor who sent me comments on my article's second draft and politely demanded I make it better. Just as well he did, too, because it is by and large better now, and it's up on the site.

Woo!

So, does Disney fudge a few tales?

I hope you enjoy it, if you have a chance to look at it, and do let me know what you think in the comments!