It's been too long...

Hola! Holla!

I know I've been absent from this blog for a while. I wish I could tell you that I was doing all sorts of glamorous things, but sadly the truth is that my adsl has been wonky for weeks. In fact it's been one of those months where I should have taken to my bed and refused to move.

There's been flooding (my washing machine,) fire (someone set my fully laden recycling bin on fire so I had several firemen hosing it down at 2.30 in the morning,) a mouse (now sadly demised, I'm afraid,) taxes and other fun things. But it's nearly July and the sun is shining so nothing else matters.

I'm currently just finishing up some revisions on the next teen book, Nobody's Girl and am well under way with the second grown-up book, which is currently untitled. Or it did have a title but now it needs a new one so back to my iTunes shuffle I go.

Unsticky has been out for about six weeks now and it's selling very respectably considering that we're in a recession and we're all going to hell in a handbasket, blah blah, blah, repeat to fade! Thanks to everyone whose left reviews on Amazon or commented here or on my Twitter about what you thought of the book. I know I may come across as a little hard-hearted but it really means the world to me. (By the way, feel free to follow me on Twitter. I'm pretty good at replying to tweets.)

I leave you with links of some stuff that I've done recently:

A piece I wrote for the Dove website on body image.

An interview I did for the lovely Lisa Clark's Sassy Minx website

And some added value Unsticky bits and bobs for Hachette's Readers' Circle.

Anyway I'm off to the flicks to see a film about the legendary Joe Meek. I promise I won't leave it so long between posts again.

Live on


Sarra x

Unsticky out today in paperback!

Hullo!

Finally, the day is come when the paperback of Unsticky goes on sale in the UK! Hurrah! It is my first grown-up book and not wholly suitable for under sixteens but YMMV.

And I've just finished and delivered my next teen book, Nobody's Girl, so that will be out in February 2010.

Now, run, don't walk... in fact, don't even run but sprint full pelt to your nearest bookshop and buy a copy of Unsticky.

Live on

Sarra x

Mostly housekeeping...

Sunny salutations, sweet readers

Nothing much to report from round these parts. I'm a mere handful of days away from delivering my next teen book, Nobody's Girl, and am actually writing the first three chapters of my teen book after that, as inspiration has struck and I don't want to forget it all. But I will be writing my second adult book first.

I got my first proper paperback copy of Unsticky in the post today. It's out on May 14th from all good bookshops (and probably from some bad ones) and I'm hoping for some news on foreign deals soon. Again, Unsticky is a book for grown-up girls, 16+ and upwards, I would say. But that's between you and your conscience.

I'd also like to gently remind you that all the content on this blog is tagged. So if you're looking for writing tips or wanting to know when there will be a fourth book in the Diary Of A Crush series (that would be some time like never), then you just need to click on the right tag and the relevant posts will come up.

It's also worth bigging up my Twitter again. I have no time to reply to emails, but if you send me a Tweet, you're more or less likely to get a reply as it's quick, easy and I only have 140 characters to play with! You also get all the real time info you could possibly want about my drab, humdrum life.

One last thing: Rosie/Redheads rock - can you leave me your email addy? I screen comments so no one else will see it. Thanks!

Sorry to post and dash but Microsoft Word awaits...

Live on

Sarra x

This is not a test...

Bonsoir mes amis

I bring you news. Exciting news from London town. I have just finished the first draft of my next teen opus and it will be published in February of next year in the UK. It's also going to be called Nobody's Girl. Well, it is at the moment. I'm not sure that I love that title but have yet to come up with anything better. I'm not sure if I nabbed it from one of your shuffle selections or one of my own. If it was your's, please do let me know.

Some of you are very interested in my writing process so I will tell you what I plan to do with my first draft.

1. I read it as a hard copy. That is, as a paper print out rather than on screen.

2. As I read, I mark it up with corrections, crossing-outs, bits I want to add in and things I've changed my mind on. Like, for instance at the moment my main boy was studying Philosophy and has just done his finals. Now he's studying Anthropology and has only just finished his second year. I don't bother with spelling mistakes and typos as I usually do them as I go along and really concentrate on them for the third draft.

3. I will go through at least three red fibre tip pens from Muji as I do this.

4. I also scrawl big notes on a White Board that's propped up by my desk. This is for major stuff like developing characters and fixing whopping great plot holes.

5. As I start working on version two on screen, I add in a lot of new stuff that occurs to be as I'm doing it that I haven't marked up. For me the second draft is about making the story come alive, rather than just telling it. I call this process "sprinkling on the magic dust." I'm hoping to have a big delivery of the magic dust by Monday.

6. I'll also let you in on the fact that the first draft is a gargantuan 114,722 words. I'll be looking to cut about 25,000 words as I go. I know a lot of you freak out about how long stuff should be, but my books tend to be pretty long for teen fic (apart from the sparkly vampire books.) And I over-write. Boy, do I ever! I can take 2000 words just to describe my heroine's bedroom.

In other news, Unsticky is available for pre-order on Amazon now. I will state again, that I don't think it's necessarily suitable reading for under 16's but then I think of what I was reading when I was under 16 and it was all sorts of stuff that wasn't necessarily suitable! Luckily, my parents never minded about my reading material, though I'm not sure they knew exactly what I was reading. I will say that if you plan to pre-order it, get the paperback that comes out in May rather than the much more expensive hardback and trade paperback that come out in April.


I am also Twittering like a maniac. You'll see that I've started to show my tweets on this blog. (Look to the left hand side of the page.) I just don't have time to reply to emails or even send my standard bounce back email these days, so if you have a question to ask me or just generally want to represent (as you kids say), then sending me a Tweet is a good idea. It doesn't take me long to reply as I only have 140 characters to play with! Also, Twitter is the new Facebook (hate the redesign) so come and join me and find out what I'm doing in real time. Mostly eating fistfuls of muesli and railing about how crap fashion is at the moment. Harem pants? Bitch, please!

Also, I am obsessed with the She And Him (that would be Zooey Deschanel and M Ward) album, Volume One. Seriously, I'm listening to it as least five times a day. It's bloody gorgeous.

Live on


Sarra x

First look at the Unsticky cover...

Sunday salutations

I've been very quiet of late, I know. I have some family stuff that's taking up a lot of my time right now, but I am twittering frequently and you can follow my tweets right here.

I am still hard at work on my next teen opus and still mulling over titles, but mostly I'm gearing up for the publication of my grown-up book, Unsticky, which comes out in April in hardback and in May in paperback. Only a UK release so far, but I hope to have some foreign sales soon and will keep you posted.

Anyway, I wanted to show you my lovely cover:




And here's the back cover blurb:

STATE OF GRACE

Money makes the world go round – that’s what twenty-something Grace Reeves is learning. Stuck in a grind where everyone’s ahead apart from her, she’s partied-out, disillusioned, and a large five-figure sum in debt. If she’s dumped by another rock-band wannabe, squashed by anyone else at her cut-throat fashion job, or chased by any more bailiffs, Grace suspects she’ll fall apart..


GRACE UNDER PRESSURE

So when older, sexy and above all, wealthy art-dealer Vaughn appears, she’s intrigued against her will. Could she handle being a sugar-daddy’s arm-candy?


SAVING GRACE


Soon Grace is thrown into a world of money and privilege, at Vaughn’s beck and call in return for thousands of pounds in luxurious gifts, priceless clothes – and cash. She’s out of her depth. Where’s the line between acting the trophy girlfriend, and selling yourself for money? And, more importantly: whatever happened to love?


High fashion, high art, high expectations – this is Pretty Woman for the twenty-first century

This is definitely one for my readers aged sixteen and above, but, like I say, I'm working on the teen stuff every spare hour of every spare day!

Live on

Sarra x

All Manning, all of the time...

My ladyfingerlings

Thank you so, so, so much for all your shuffle suggestions. I am blown away by the response and also in awe of your eclectic and deeply cool song stylings. There are a couple I'm quite taken with and a couple I came up with all my by very own. I will keep you posted. And you know how I said that my new teen book (they very one, which I don't have a title for!) would be out next September? Er, apparently not. More like Spring 2010. I know! I know! I have very little control over these decisions.

What I really wanted to say is that I'm now on Twitter. If my infrequent blog posts aren't enough Manning for y'all, you can now follow my very drab, very humdrum life 24/7. Or like maybe 16/7 'cause I need to sleep and stuff.

You can find me HERE Please do 'follow' me, or whatever the approved twitter speak is for adding me to the list of people whose tweets you read.

But even if you dodn't twitter me, I'll be back here soon enough.

Live on


Sarra x

Competition winners and reader-generated content!

May I introduce you to the two winners of my Chrismukkah quiz? All hail Ella McBride from Blighty and Kathryn Piekkala in Australia, which is going to cost me a small fortune in postage!

Ella and Kathryn won because they had the most right answers, I liked their tie-breaker answers and they also went above and beyond in getting round blogger's maximum wordage in comments rules.

Ella's tie-breaker answer:

QUESTION If you could be any character in any one of Sarra's books, who would you be and why?

I found this a really tough question because you have created so many amazing characters in your books, and I see elements of who I'd like to be in lots of them. I think the character I identify the most with is probably Edie, because I think she's the girl I really want to be. I just love her entire style, the way she thinks, the way she can be shallow and deep, how she wears her heart on her sleeve despite having it broken, and always throws herself back into the world, each time a little stronger. Plus she has awesome hair ! I would choose Edie from the second book, Kiss And Make Up, because I feel this was her darkest hour, and she still came through. I really empathised with her all the way through the book and I really loved the festival, especially Veronique in a pit of poo =]. Ooh! And those hotel scenes ! They really made me smile, my favourite bit was "When Artboys Attack" :)

Kathryn's tie-breaker answer:

If you could be any character in any one of Sarra's books, who would you be and why?

I think that of all the characters in your books I was most envious of Edie and Brie. I love the way you create your characters with such depth and I felt that Edie (more specifically toward the end of the diary of a crush trilogy) and Brie both had the lighthearted personality I don’t share. I relate more to Isabel in the way that she reserves her trust for a select few and keeps her emotions bottled up inside until it’s impossible not to explode. I would much prefer their characteristics over my own however having said that...you always want what you don’t have and if I was like that I would probably want it back the other way. I love the unintentional humor of Edie and just Brie in general.

Apart from that......I have always wanted to live in London and work in a cafe and be in a band and go on a roadtrip and definitely have a Dylan. =D


I may be a bit sparse with the updates at the moment - I have some personal stuff that's all consuming and I'm beavering away of my next teen opus, due out in the UK in September. Except I don't have a title and I'm this close to putting my iTunes on shuffle and choosing the fifth song that comes up as the name of my book. Seriously!


Live on

Sarra x


EDITED TO ADD: Kind and attentive regular, Koko has just left me a comment, which has inspired me. Readers, friends of mine, people, run to your iTunes, stick it on shuffle and tell me what the fifth song is. It might well be the title of my next book! Me? I'm off to rummage through Serge Gainsbourg's back catalogue and see if anything there will do at a pinch.