On Blogging

A massive (and belated) thank you to everyone who sent me birthday wishes last month, commiserated with me on the whole TWO-FIVE thing, and promised to let me be 22 forever. Cheers!

Even if you don't follow this blog regularly, a quick glance at the post dates on this page alone will show you that I haven't been here much recently. I just wanted to pop in today and try to explain why.

1. Time

It's such a boring, annoying reason. But there's no getting around it. I'm back to looking after my toddler full-time, while also trying to work on a book. That leaves very little time for  ANYTHING else.

2. Content

Sometimes I have exciting news to share. Sometimes I want to talk about other authors' new releases. Sometimes I want to talk about a movie I've seen or a book I've just read that I LOVE. Sometimes I want to talk about other fun stuff. But sometimes... none of those things apply. I know I should think ahead and have a little list of fun things to fall back on when this happens, but I'm a spontaneous blogger. It's more fun and feels more real to me that way. So when I don't have anything I really want to say, I don't post. I'd rather be AWOL for a little while than churn out something half-hearted.

Which is all my way of saying I haven't abandoned the blog. I haven't lost interest. I still read your blogs and love your comments and am still very much around (try me on Twitter!) 

And I will definitely, definitely continue blogging. I just want to wait until there's something I simply HAVE to say.

One Year On

Sunday was my son's first birthday. And yes, I'm still recovering from the party and the cleaning up and the exuberance of a too-excited baby, but it's deeper than that. I'm struggling to process the basic fact of it. Jeremy has been around for a whole year. How is that possible?

You know how people tell you that you should make the most of every moment with your baby because it's over in the blink of an eye? It's true. I'd probably only add that it feels like an eternity while it's happening, but when you look back you're like WHERE DID ALL THAT TIME GO?!

So yeah. I am in possession of exactly one child. He is twelve months and two days old. He is now fully qualified as a baby.

ONE YEAR AGO

NOW

 

Hope everyone is having a wonderful week!

TLG Blogpalooza: Character Interview

It's the final LOST GIRL teaser post! Gosh, the last five weeks have flown by, haven't they? Next week will be release day and the day I announce the winner of the giveaway. Jump in and enter if you haven't already, it's not too late!

A character interview today. I decided to interview Matthew, one of the three Weavers. He wrote the encyclopaedia from this post. This isn't the first time I've tried to interview Matthew, by the way. The last time I did, it didn't go particularly well. Yet, for some reason, I chose to embroil myself in that mess all over again. Hoping, optimistically, that it would yield better results this time.

You'd think I would know better by now.


SANGU: Look, let's just get this over with, shall we? I want to be sleeping and you want to be off doing something clever and mysterious and probably criminal. So we needn't hang about longer than we have to.

MATTHEW: A wee bit snippy, are we? How delightful. I do so enjoy giving up my time for someone who hasn't even brushed her hair.

SANGU: That is not true! My hair is just... unruly. 

MATTHEW *snorts*

SANGU: I need teasers. Give me a teaser. Or two. Please. It's for the blog.

MATTHEW: Eva dies.

SANGU: I said teasers, not spoilers! And certainly not LIES!

MATTHEW: I don't believe in spoilers. I believe in knowledge. I know everything, you see, so I feel other people should at least come close to being similarly equipped. But very well. If you're going to be a tyrant, I will cease to spoil and to lie. Someone dies. Actually, two someones die. Is that good enough for you?

SANGU: Do those things happen because of you?

MATTHEW: Charming. Everything is always my fault, isn't it? No. Neither death is because of me. Well, actually, if we're going to be philosophical about it-

SANGU: We're not. So you can stop right there, Matthew.

MATTHEW: Sir Matthew.

SANGU: Don't start that with me.

MATTHEW: You're a real hoot today, aren't you? About as cheery as Adrian. That baby still keeping you awake at night? You know, you should have taken my advice about how to deal with the little-

SANGU: Yes, I should have. And then you and I would be in prison. Forever.

MATTHEW: You might be. I know people in high places.

SANGU: Keep this up and I'll put you in prison.

MATTHEW: You can't do that, love.

SANGU: I created you. I can do whatever I want.

MATTHEW: And yet it's unacceptable when I use that very same logic on precious Eva?

SANGU *shuts up very quickly*


Yeah. I really, really should have known better. But at least we got one thing out of it, specifically the

TEASE OF THE DAY

Two characters will die.

Perpetually Imbalanced

Happy Friday, everyone! Today I'm over at Dystopian Domination III, where Eva of THE LOST GIRL has answered some very cool questions, so do pop over there and have a look. Bonus: you could win bookmarks and a signed copy of the book!

I don't know about you, but I've never been one of those writers who has been able to just write. By which I mean I've never been able to devote a working day to writing, then switch off and be 'home' the rest of the evening and/or weekend. I have always had to balance writing with something else, or, more often than not, with many other things. Writing and high school. Writing and a family holiday. Writing and university. Writing and looking for a job to pay the bills. For me, it's always been a quest to find the perfect balance.

I've never found it.

These days, more often than not, it's writing and my seven-month-old creature/baby. And for the first time, writing has been losing. Seriously, in the past I was the kind of person who stared off into space during dinner with my parents (who learned to ignore that look and pretend I wasn't there until I was ready to return to the real world). Or who left a university essay to the last minute because I had one more page of my newest book that I wanted to write. Or whose husband came home, kissed me on the head, said hello and went on with his life, only to have me turn around twenty minutes later and yelp 'STEVE! When did you get home?'

Now I find that writing is the thing I normally do only after I've dealt with everything my baby needs, wants or does. Which is sad, but I don't really regret it, because he's going to be this little only so long, and I really should appreciate what he is before these moments vanish.

So, no. I have never found a balance. In fact, I've paused in writing this three times because the first time, my son crawled into a door (oops); the second, he started chewing on the dust cover of my printer (egad) and the third, he started chewing on my toe (ouch).

I wish I could say, this is how I do it and it works. I wish I had a magic trick that meant I gave everything my undivided time in perfect, even slots. I wish I could spend time with my baby without thinking 'but I have so much work to do!' or could write my book without thinking 'am I neglecting Jeremy?' I wish I wasn't often so tired that I find myself struggling to enjoy any of the things I'm trying to balance.

But I can't, unfortunately, and I don't think it's realistic to expect myself to be able to. 

I don't think true balance is possible. You can't give everything your all, every single minute of the day. You can't do everything and still enjoy all of it. You can't be perfect.

I think, instead, it's about finding a balance within the imbalance. To give yourself a break, for the love of Heathcliff. To find a way to enjoy the things I do do and not fret about the things I don't, to enjoy a little bit of every single day instead of finding everything too full and stressful, to appreciate my crawling, toe-chewing child and love the moments I have with my much-loved new book.

I'm not quite there yet. I haven't yet found the right balance within my perpetual imbalance. But I'm not far away.

Anyone struggle with the same imbalance? How do you juggle everything in your life?

New Title!!!!

Many of my regular readers will have heard me yammer on about my debut novel. For those of you who are new or who missed those posts, my YA debut will be published next year by Balzer + Bray/HarperCollins.

Obviously, this is the most exciting thing for me! But to add to that awesomeness is this - the novel now has an official title. When I first wrote it, it was called ECHOES. Then it was called WOVEN when my agent sent it out to editors. And now it has a brand new and super-shiny real title.

It's called A Torrent of Light.

But wait! It's not just a title. It's from a quote.

Life and death appeared to me ideal bounds, which I should first break through, and pour a torrent of light into our dark world.

-Mary Shelley, Frankenstein

I love that quote. It captures so much of the mood and essence of both novels. A TORRENT OF LIGHT revolves around the concept of stitching life from scratch, creating clone-like beings called echoes - and it was rereading Frankenstein at university that first sparked off the idea. So it's doubly special for me to have a title with part of that quote in it.

And as if all of this isn't enough, the book deal is now up on Publishers Marketplace too.

Just a Quick Hello

I think the title says it all, really. Would you believe that this is the first time I've even scrounged together a few spare sane moments to write up a blog post? 

Since Steve and I arrived in Bangalore about nine days ago, it's been crazy! We've been whisked just about everywhere - the pitfalls of having a large extended family - and we've been eating, seeing people and looking for elephants almost constantly. Luckily, the elephant quest has now ended - Steve finally managed to touch one, so he's happy. Photos and details soon!

There have been loads of other exciting things happening, most of them writing-related, and I hope to be able to tell you all about it soon. Once things settle down. Once I don't feel so much like a whirlwind-with-a-headache. 

I miss reading everyone's blogs, and I hope you're all having a great weekend!
 

time, where hast thou gone?

i am in a tizzy. i'm in such a tizzy, in fact, that i'm forgetting my capital letters. why, you may wonder? why this catastrophic departure from good writerly grammar? well, the fact is, i'm leaving for bangalore in less than 48 hours and i

Have twenty-three things left on my To-Do list, none of which have even been touched yet

Know there's something important we're supposed to be picking up at Asda before we leave, but for the life of me I can't remember it, and I'm sure it will be vitally important to my survival

Can't distract myself with writing. Time constraints have never stopped me from writing ferociously before, but wouldn't you know it, I've run dry? Every time I try to sit down to write, my mind goes magically blank and then fills up with a running commentary of the aforementioned twenty-three things left on my To-Do list and asks why aren't you doing them, Sangu, why?! which, you know, would drive the sanest of individuals into a tizzy

Wanted very badly to participate in Brenda Drake's blogfest, but have completely run out of time and ideas, so I'm so sorry about that!

And there are simply no cakes left in the house, which means I have resorted to biting my lip and fingers in lieu of heavenly sweet goodness.

it's not a good state of affairs, folks. it's a capital-letter-dropping, tizzy-wallowing, running-around-getting-stressed state of affairs.