Bye-Bye, 2013!

This year has been awesome in a lot of ways, but also kind of shitty in others and I can therefore say quite emphatically that I'm looking forward to 2014! 

But. This is not a post that will dwell on the rubbish parts. So here's me looking back at the best bits of my 2013. (And yes, I'll probably remember in a couple days that there were other best bits that I've forgotten to include. Oh, well.)

1. My son turned two this year. TWO. He might as well be twenty. Where does the time go?!

2. I rewatched pretty much all my favourite episodes of Doctor Who this year. That's a good forty episodes or so. At least twice. Which means my toddler is now a fan too. He can identify all the Doctors and comes running the moment he hears David Tennant's regeneration music; he only recently learned to say "please" and "thank you", but he's been able to say "Doctor" for months. (Yes, I am that parent who lets her child watch the Doctor change faces so that she can write her book. I AM NOT ASHAMED.)

3. Favourite book I read this year? I don't know! I've read so much great stuff this year and the problem is I'm quite fickle, which means the most favourite books that pop into my head are the ones I read and loved most recently and not necessarily the ones I loved the absolute most. But I'll have a stab at it and name a few: Sarah Rees Brennan's Untold, Elizabeth Wein's Code Name Verity (or did I read that one late last year? Damn it.) and both of Jenny Colgan's Rosie Hopkins sweetshop books (if you haven't read them, DO IT. They're so fuzzy and funny and awesome.) There are definitely others I've loved as much, but I just can't think of them right now!

4. I wrote a book. I started it in November of 2012, but it's very much my 2013 book. I've worked on it literally all year and am working on it even now. And I discovered today, on the very last day of the year (thanks, Wendy and Soumi!), that it's up on Goodreads. Yay! 

I have no confirmed title, cover or pub date to share with you yet, but I'm going to copy in the teaser here because hey, what a great way to bring in 2014!

To those who don't know better, Greymaren is a glittering city of order and great invention, its skyline spiked with spires and its shadows playing host to enchanted, dangerous markets where anything may be bought for the right price.

But beneath the city's surface is a much older and darker place: a city where the bitter winters can kill, where witches sometimes have the answers, where memories can be bought and sold and stolen, where mad mothers are locked away - and where Elizabeth Graves is about to risk everything to punish a thief.

Happy New Year, everyone!

Merry Christmas!

So it's Christmas Eve (how exactly did it come round so fast?) and I just wanted to pop in to say I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas - or equivalent holiday season - and a fantastic New Year.

How to Survive the Apocalypse, YA Style

Exactly what it says on the tin. Here's what I've learned from YA dystopian, apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic novels (mostly quite general, but there are a couple of specific books noted next to the lesson or example they inspired.)

1. The whole "safety in numbers" thing is a myth. If you're going to follow the YA Survival Guide, it would seem it's very, very unwise to hang around with more than a couple of other people. You'll start fighting for control (This is Not a Test by Courtney Summers), at least one of you is bound to be a lunatic, and - the clincher - it's so much easier to hide and go unnoticed when there are only a couple of you (The Outside by Laura Bickle)

2. But that's not to say all of you will survive anyway. Nope. Always remember that: even if there are only two or three of you, one of you is bound to be eaten/shot/killed in some other dramatic way (The Outside). So make sure it isn't you. Betray everyone around you if you have to and shoot innocent people if they're in your way. (Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins)

3. Go shopping. (Life as We Knew It by Susan Pfeffer) The instant you get a whiff that something's up, be it from the news or because the moon's changed position or because you saw your formerly dead neighbour get up and start munching on a squirrel, go stock up on everything non-perishable. Tins, cans, bottles, you name it. Don't forget tons of bottled water and batteries for flashlights. Water and electric supplies inevitably go on the fritz when the apocalypse arrives. It's probably a good idea to keep a few weapons handy too. Apparently the apocalypse turns previously nice human beings into thieving, murdering scum and you're going to want to defend yourself.

4. Barricade yourself somewhere safe(ish). Supermarket, house with an awesome security system, wherever. Find a spot, take all the supplies you can possibly find with you, and lock yourself in. Waiting out the apocalypse seems to result in a lot less drama and a lot more survival than wandering the streets.

5. And once you've done that, don't let strangers in. I know, I know. Do you want to turn into that person? The horrible one in all the stories that doesn't let the intrepid and bleeding hero/heroine in? Probably not. But do you want to be the one who sweetly and trustingly lets the bleeding stranger in, only to then be killed and robbed? There is no such thing as an unpunished good deed in post-apocalyptic YA.

There you go: how to survive the apocalypse, with or without your conscience intact.

You're welcome.

9 Weeks of Reading

As promised last week, this post is going to be devoted to the books I read (and loved) while the Internet was away with the fairies. There's not actually as many as I thought there were, mostly because an awful lot of the books I read haven't made this list; I'm not going to list the books I didn't like or didn't finish.

So in no particular order...


Code Name Verity by Elizabeth Wein
I love this book and nothing I say could adequately describe how I feel about it, so I'm just going to leave it at: clever, startling, heartbreaking.

Unspoken by Sarah Rees Brennan
This is quite a dark book in some ways, and quite a sad book in others, but I spent most of it laughing out loud because Sarah Rees Brennan is just so. Very. Funny.

A Little Princess by Frances Hodgson Burnett
This wasn't the first time I read it, but I loved it all over again. Definitely a book full of awful things and really sad bits, but also all the warm fuzzies.

Forever Princess by Meg Cabot
It'd been years since I read a Princess Diaries book and it suddenly occurred to me that I never found out how it all ended! So I went and got it. Awww. It ended just the way I would have liked it to!

The Gargoyle by Andrew Davidson
Weird as anything, but also weirdly addictive. I couldn't stop. I had to know!

Chime by Franny Billingsley
I love this book so much. It's dark and magical and twisty and features a complicated heroine I absolutely adore.

If You Find Me by Emily Murdoch
I couldn't put this down. It's another dark, twisty story and incredibly sad in parts. But it's also incredibly hopeful and ends with a lovely sense that the wrongs things have been put right.

Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card
I know, I know. Why did it take me so long? I wouldn't say I totally and absolutely loved it, because more often than not I was either a little lost with all the sciencey stuff or my wimpy little heart was breaking for how tiny these children were and how much Ender loved Valentine and all that, BUT. That. Twist. Is. Awesome.

ACID by Emma Pass
I can't actually remember if I read this right before the Great Internet Black Hole or during, but either way: it's an action-packed thriller. Normally I don't even like action-packed thrillers, but I couldn't stop reading this. I had to know how it would end. I had to know what would happen. I also love Emma's writing style.

Just One Day by Gayle Forman
I would have expected nothing less from the author who broke my heart twice with If I Stay and Where She Went. This is less devastating, but is nevertheless romantic and sweet and sad.


There we go! I'm sure I've left something out and forgotten about something else, but oh well. Have you read any of these books? Do you have any favourite recent reads to recommend?

Five Things for February

It's time for that... irregular?... feature again! I think I did it in November, and then kind of neglected it in December and January, and now here it is again and it kind of covers December, January and the little we've seen of February too.


1. I watched the 2009 BBC miniseries adaptation of Emma a week ago and I LOVED it. I always thought the version with Kate Beckinsale was the best adaptation, but this one beats it by a mile. For one thing there's more of it. Four hours of it. For another I really, really like Romola Garai. For yet another, Jonny Lee Miller is eye candy. There's no two ways about it. It's funny, it's touching, it's really great. If you're an Austen fan and haven't yet seen this one, go watch it!

2. We're moving house. Again. Three moves in about three years. It's a big fat pain in my rear end. (On the bright side, if we get the house we want - and there's no telling whether or not we will - it's a lovely house.)

3. I love Grey's Anatomy. And especially Chandra Wilson, Sandra Oh and Kevin McKidd in it. I have been a huge fan for a long time but I don't think I've ever said so on here. Or maybe I have. Either way, I love it. In fact, I love it so much I sometimes dream about it. You know something's got its claws into you when that happens.

4. Massive website redesign! My old one was driving me crazy. I didn't really like the way it looked anymore, but it was also a huge, huge trial to update. Literally took me twenty minutes to get in there and change or add, like, a sentence. Which meant, of course, that it put me off updating the darn thing and what's the point of a website if you're not going to share new and current stuff?

5. And this. Because it's cute.

What have you been up to recently? Are you a fan of Emma or Grey's Anatomy or babies? Moving sometime soon? (If the latter is a yes, I feel your pain.)

A Day in the Life (Part Two)

I am completely run off my feet today, so I'm just going to point you to my guest post over at the Random House blog. I'm their Author in Residence this month, which is totally cool, so do pop over and have a look!

I wrote about a day in my writing life a couple of years ago and so much has changed since then (book out, baby out, moving house) that I thought I ought to take stock again. That guest post is the result. Here are tiny extracts from both posts to compare:

Then

3.50 PM: Notice that I received a text message half an hour ago. Odd. Why didn't I hear that? Hmm. Forget to reply to text message because brain is fully lost in book-world. 

4.10 PM: Realize I'm hungry. Even odder. Have I not eaten today? Oh. Why didn't I? Hmm. Forget to eat because brain is fully lost in book-world. 

5 PM: Brain aches. Eat a plum.

Now 

10.30AM – 12.30PM Baby asleep. Put baby very gingerly down in cot and race like a maniac to laptop. Write one blog post, two pages of book and answer interview questions for blogger. Start writing a third page of book. Consider eating. Baby wakes up and interrupts.

It's amazing how much difference a tiny baby can make! (And also how some things don't change at all...)

Hope you're all having a fantastic week.

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!

Hello, 2013!

Happy New Year, everyone!

I hope you've all had a fantastic Christmas, New Year and general holiday season. My parents and brother came to visit so, for the first time in about five years, we were all together on Christmas Day. I have the baby to thank for that (yeah, they weren't going to make the effort for me) so... thanks, Jem!

I have a lot to look forward to in 2013. The UK edition of The Lost Girl is out on Thursday, I'm working on exciting new projects, the baby is healthy and (when he gets his way) happy and is growing more fun to watch every day, and I HAVE A MACBOOK AIR. I'm a kid, an instant-gratification kind of girl, so as excited as I am about everything I've just mentioned, I kind of have to admit the thing I am really and truly looking forward to doing first in 2013 is playing with my Mac. 

I think I may be addicted to expensive electronics...

As for you guys, I have a lot of cool stuff planned for you too! I'm going to have a contest soon, because it's been yonks since my last one; I'm hoping to finish some new Lost Girl extras and snippets and share them in the near future; I've putting together some writing-related sketches and drawings for those of you who might like to see more of the book, its world and my other writing; I... well, actually, that's all I can think of right now, but I promise this will be a fun year!

What are you looking forward to in 2013?

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!

Book of the Year

I know the year's not over yet, but I feel like this is the time I look back and think about everything I've read this year and narrow in on one particular book that really shone for me. And it's hard this year. There are a lot of great possibilities, like Maggie Stiefvater's The Scorpio Races (actually, I may have read that late last year, but I can't quite remember... either way it's fantastic) and This Is Not A Test by Courtney Summers; there were a lot of exciting second or third installments in series I love; quite frankly, I read a ton of good books this year.

But I've managed, somehow, to pick one. And here it is, my book of the year.

Tell the Wolves I'm Home

by Carol Rifka Brunt

1987. There’s only one person who has ever truly understood fourteen-year-old June Elbus, and that’s her uncle, the renowned painter Finn Weiss. Shy at school and distant from her older sister, June can only be herself in Finn’s company; he is her godfather, confidant, and best friend. So when he dies, far too young, of a mysterious illness her mother can barely speak about, June’s world is turned upside down. But Finn’s death brings a surprise acquaintance into June’s life—someone who will help her to heal, and to question what she thinks she knows about Finn, her family, and even her own heart.

At Finn’s funeral, June notices a strange man lingering just beyond the crowd. A few days later, she receives a package in the mail. Inside is a beautiful teapot she recognizes from Finn’s apartment, and a note from Toby, the stranger, asking for an opportunity to meet. As the two begin to spend time together, June realizes she’s not the only one who misses Finn, and if she can bring herself to trust this unexpected friend, he just might be the one she needs the most.

An emotionally charged coming-of-age novel, Tell the Wolves I’m Home is a tender story of love lost and found, an unforgettable portrait of the way compassion can make us whole again.

(Summary from Goodreads)

If you haven't read this, please do. I don't think I've ever loved and hated a protagonist in such equal measure. I bawled my eyes out. Just sayin'. 

Did you read anything this year that really sparkled for you?

My Top Writing Apps and Tools

There are a lot of 'Best Apps' posts out there, and a lot of those posts are devoted to the best apps and digital tools for writers, specifically, but I thought I'd have a go at making one of my own anyway. Partly because a few of my best-loved apps never seem to feature on any of these other lists, partly because I get a silly giddy feeling when I download a cool new writing/bookish app and I want to share, share, share!

I won't make an exhaustive list here, because I'll just run on forever, but here are some of my favourite apps and tools for writing and/or bookish people.


1. iA Writer

App. I love, love, love this app. I wrote virtually the entire first draft of my most recent synopsis using this. This seems to be Apple/iOS only. Its beauty is in its simplicity. There's no messing about with fonts or settings or formatting. There are no options. You open it and you write. That's it. For someone as obsessive-compulsive about fonts and how things look as I am, it's remarkably restful to be forced to just get on with it.


2. Scrivener

Tool. There is, alas, no iOS or Android version of this yet. 

I tried this out for the first time only recently. And promptly wondered how I'd ever done without it. You can use this to write, but I use it to outline. Much as I love notebooks and pens, I'm also a sucker for Post Its, corkboards, pinning things to corkboards, and visual representations of my notes, and Scrivener gives me all those things (minus the tactile pleasure, of course, but honestly I hardly miss it!). I can make character sketches, create little corkboard notes for places and chapters, move things around and have my actual content move around too, and probably a whole host of other things that I haven't quite gotten to grips with yet! It's amazing. 

Note: you do have to pay for it, but you can try it out for free for 30 days and, if you don't like it, can export all your content before the trial expires.
 

3. Dropbox

App and tool. This is like having a suitcase hovering above you, weightless, unnoticeable and unobtrusive, but it's there when you need it and you can dip into anywhere. It's a handy-dandy way to store and back up all your important files and, most importantly, to be able to open them on any other device on which you've downloaded and installed the Dropbox app. You have an account, you can access it from virtually any computer as long as you're connected to the internet, and all the content stored in your account syncs across all your computers, phones, iPads, iBrains (I'm pretty sure we'll have those instead of real brains one day...)


4. Evernote

App and tool. It took me a while to get Evernote, mostly because I had a bunch of other apps and notepads that did separate, individual things like allow me to make voice notes, checklists, take photos and label them, etc. Evernote kind of makes those other apps redundant. It does it all. Record ideas like a voice memo, take photos, tag locations, make checklists, write notes, file everything in themed digital notebooks - it's all there. And, like Dropbox, you can use and sync your content across all kinds of platforms and devices. 


5. ColorNote
App. I don't use this anymore, because there doesn't seem to be an iOS version of this (at least not last I checked), but I loved this app when I had an Android phone. It's a little like Scrivener and, while it doesn't have most of the tool's cool features, you can use this app on your phone. If you love sticky notes, as I do, you'll love this. It arranges all your notes via color-coded Post Its. You can create notes with plain writing or have checklists. And - my favourite bit of all - you can add one of your notes or lists to your phone's home screen (I used to do this with my To Do list) and it looks just like a little sticky note stuck to a surface!


Do you use or love any of these tools? Do you have any favourites to share? Tell me about them!

Me, Elswhere. And Cats...

Life and writing have once again got on top of me, so just a quick one today. I'm very excited to be part of Michelle Sedeño's blog feature celebrating debut authors of 2012 (that's me! Yes! I'm one of them!). Her interview with me is up here, so go check it and the other author interviews out - we're giving stuff away!

(Side note: I'm alone at home right now. At least, I think I am. But I'm hearing mysterious noises. Creaks. And scrapes. It's most peculiar. If I were imaginative I'd say a half-destroyed zombie was dragging itself across the floorboards in the hallway...

...lucky I don't have an imagination, eh?)

And books! On the one hand I feel like I have tons of books in my reading queue. On the other I feel like there's nothing I feel like reading right now. Anyone have any great recommendations to share?

(PS. So, the noises. Not a zombie. A cat got in. I rescued it and sent it home.)

(PPS. OH MY GOD. Speaking of cats! Have you seen this live stream of a family of kittens? GO! GO SEE!)

Five Random Things for November

1. Is anyone else watching The Mentalist this season? And is anyone else growing extremely weary of the fact that in four and something seasons they still haven't got hold of Red flippin' John? Just get rid of the loony, please. There's only so many melodramatic twists and dead daughters and we-killed-him-whoops-it-wasn't-him-oh-noes moments I can put myself through.

And I'm still angry about the fact that the show does not do red herrings well. A good red herring tricks you and when you realize you were wrong, you're like oh, I see. On The Mentalist, a red herring is sly, and slips in, and makes you think aha and when you find out what's really going, it leaves you with no explanation whatsoever. (Yeah. I still want to know why, two seasons ago, Bertram was quoting the same William Blake poem Red John did - and why that potentially OMG moment turned into nothing.)

(If you know nothing about The Mentalist, none of the above will make any sense to you. It's okay. A lot of it makes no sense to me, either, and I've watched pretty much every episode.)

2. On the bus the other day, I overheard this

BOY: You know how girls wear knickers, right?
GIRL: What, you don't wear underwear?
BOY: Yeah, but yours are tight-fitting. You know? So do you think they're supposed to be, like, a bra for your bum?

3. I saw Skyfall at the cinema last night. So, so good. (And just as good was getting a babysitter and getting out of the house, just my husband and me, without the baby for a while! We really don't do that often enough...)

4. The weather is ***t. Really. And much as I get the dismals on a dreary day, in some ways it sometimes feels worse when there's a bright day. It's like you look out of the window and it's all sunny and bright and shiny, and you think hooray, the sun's out and it looks so gloriously warm and I can almost feel it on my skin, and then you go out in a T-shirt, and you practically die on the spot. Because it's effing freezing.

Yeah. The sun lies.

5. And speaking of good red herrings, I really do love Agatha Christie.

Anyone else seen Skyfall recently? Are there other frustrated used-to-be-Mentalist fans out there?

And most importantly of all, do you think underwear is just a bra for your bum?

Where I Live

It occurred to me a couple of weeks ago that I moved here two and a half years ago and I still haven't written a post about where I live! So here's that post.

I live in Norwich (which is pronounced Norritch and is in the county of Norfolk, for those of you who don't know the UK). It's tucked away into the eastern bumpy part of a map of the England. It's a city, which means almost everything you'd want or need is right here, but it's also a small city, which means it never feels like I'm about to be smothered by crowds or crushed underfoot on public transport. It's old, which means plenty of lovely cobbled alleys, medieval streets, and ancient bridges, and it's only a forty-minute drive to the sea in three different directions. 

Sometimes it does feel like I'm far away from a lot of things (for instance there are only a couple of theatres and it's not often I want to go see whatever is on; and it's two hours on the train any time I want to visit my UK-based agent or editor in London), and that not much happens here, but most of the time I love being here!

And the thing I love best about Norwich is that it's beautiful. Plenty of parks and rivers tiny hills and woods in the city, and gorgeous countryside just outside it.

Our house kind of overlooks this. Envy me.

The city is also due to become England's first UNESCO City of Literature, is home to the University of East Anglia and the reason I mention this is because the university can boast some impressive (literary!) alumni. Tracy Chevalier (Girl with a Pearl Earring), Kazuo Ishiguro (Never Let Me Go) and Ian McEwan (Atonement) have all been and studied here, which I think is pretty cool and totally justifies me hoping that I'll absorb some bookish talent from the air. (Seriously. I moved here out of convenience. And turns out the city is literary! Freaky, right?) 

(Actors Matt Smith (Doctor Who), John Rhys-Davies (Indiana Jones, The Lord of the Rings) and Jack Davenport (Pirates of the Caribbean, Coupling) also went to UEA, and I love them, so WIN!)

So there you go. This is where I live. And before I leave you, here's one of the best places in the city.

That's the Forum. It has a lovely little cafe, BBC East, a Pizza Express... and my favourite library.

(Note: I was about to post this when my husband, who loves football, somewhat irately reminded me that just because I'm not into sports does not mean they don't exist. Sorry, Steve (and other football fans!). Norwich is also home to Norwich City, a Premier League football club. Which I knew. Obviously. I just... kind of forgot to mention it.)

What do you love most about where you live?

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?

I've been gone a long time...

Well, that blog holiday was practically a gap year. I'm not going to go into why I've been away for weeks and weeks, because it's all long-winded and dismal and boring, but I will say I'm now back (yay!) and have lots of exciting things to talk about in the next few weeks. Plenty of amazing books to recommend, movies and TV to force down your throats, and maybe I'll scrounge around for the odd cute baby photo or two. Because we could all do with a little more cuteness in our lives.

I'm also going to start posting here once a week (on Tuesdays) unless I have something special or exciting to say. It's not that I don't love blogging, but I feel like I'm not doing it as well as I'd like to and I'm hoping that giving myself one post a week will make that one post a better one.

And so, to tide you over till next Tuesday, here are a couple of movies I've recently seen and loved... 

What to Expect When You're Expecting 
I was always going to watch this, given I was pregnant and had a baby not all that long ago, but it's surprisingly and refreshingly fun!

Harry Brown 
Gritty and dark. And it's got a vigilante Michael Caine. (I know! Alfred gets to be the superhero!) What's not to love?

And this isn't a movie, but I recently started watching ITV's Doc Martin. I'm most of the way through the five seasons already. It's absolutely brilliant.

Seen anything good recently?

...and the winner is

At last! Today I announce the winner of the TLG Blogpalooza and the bag of LOST GIRL goodies. YAY!

Just to remind you, here's what the winner gets

Which is

a signed, annotated copy of THE LOST GIRL
THE LOST GIRL bookmarks
a set of Eva's Post-It notes
stickers with the Mark on them
temporary tattoos of the Mark (maybe)
a Sangu pen
a copy of FRANKENSTEIN
and a little wooden elephant,
all bundled up into that bag.

So I added up all the entries, punched numbers into random.org, and and the winner is

!! JULIANNA HELMS !!

Congratulations, Julianna!

Happy Friday, everyone! And thank you all, again, for all your enthusiasm and support over the last few weeks. I wish I could pick tons of winners.

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.

TLG Blogpalooza: Thank You for the Music

ONE WEEK TO GO!

So, that title. Yeah. I am cringing, if you were wondering. Quoting ABBA in a blog post title has to be my lowest point thus far.

And can you kneel before the king

And say 'I'm clean, I'm clean'?

-Mumford and Sons, 'White Blank Page' 

I've never made a secret of the fact that I need music to write. It's like a magic wand, music: it can set a mood, define a scene, inspire a whole emotion. Sometimes I use instrumental, movie-soundtracky stuff. Sometimes it's a pop song. It varies and THE LOST GIRL's playlist was no exception. Some songs define a character's relationship with someone else (usually Eva with someone else). Some songs fit a character's thoughts at that point in the story. Some songs kind of even tell you what's going on (like the lyrics I used above this paragraph). Well, they do a little. Whatever they do, they all have one thing in common: they helped me shape this book.

I've had the playlist posted on my website for a while now, so that's nothing new. But I'm going to repost it here today because, like Friday's word cloud, it teases.

1. Francois-Paul Aiche – Chimerical Dream
2. Michael Jackson – Beat It
3. Plumb – In My Arms
   
4. Coldplay – Fix You
5. Fleetwood Mac – Go Your Own Way
6. Florence and the Machine – Rabbit Heart
7. Snow Patrol featuring Martha Wainwright – Set the Fire to the Third Bar
8. Madonna – This Used to Be My Playground
9. Lenka – Trouble is a Friend
10. AFI – This Time Imperfect
11. Damien Rice – 9 Crimes
12. Adele – Set Fire to the Rain
13. Declan Flynn – Ease My Pain
14. Death Cab for Cutie – Soul Meets Body
15. Oasis – Stop Crying Your Heart Out
16. White Lies – Farewell to the Fairground
17. Trading Yesterday – For You Only
18. Jessie J – Nobody’s Perfect
19. Snow Patrol – Run
20. Mumford & Sons – White Blank Page
21. Adele – Someone Like You

 
If you know any of these songs, you're already one spoiler up! They're arranged in order, to match the book, so it's almost like a story in songs. Oh, they won't give a whole lot away, but they will give you hints about relationships, about the mood, and about what may or may not be happening at that point of the book. Hopefully it'll drive you crazy trying to figure out what each one really means.

TEASE OF THE DAY

“Where are you?” I ask her. “You haven’t really gone, have you? I had this idea that I might be free if you were dead. But I’m not free, you’ve managed to trap me anyway. I’ve got to live your life and be you better than you ever were. Are you laughing? You’ve done it, you’ve died but you’ve stayed. You must be laughing. . . .”

-THE LOST GIRL 

And, just in case you missed it before:  

ONE WEEK TO GO!