I spent over four years writing Diary Of A Crush as a column (and three cover-mounted books) for the fantastic and now sadly departed J17 magazine.
I fell totally in love with Dylan and Edie and loved living in their world and getting to tell their story and watch them grow up. The column led to some great things for me; mainly my book deal. I was also so pleased when I finally got to rework the series slightly and have it on sale in bookshops.
It's slightly strange to me that a lot of the letters I get about the trilogy all ask when I'm going to write the next book in the series because they want to know what happens to Dylan and Edie. I'm like, you've already had three books. That's your lot! The series finished at a definite cutting-off point with Edie and Dylan as a couple who were moving in different directions but staying together. And as I've said so many times that I think the words might be stuck on my forehead, it's a teen series and writing about a pair of 20-somethings is moving DOAC somewhere that it shouldn't go.
For a long time I didn't even own the copyright to DOAC, which meant that if the copyright owners had got someone else in to write more books there wouldn't have been anything I could have done about it. I do now own the copyright but I still feel very strongly that I have nothing left to write about Edie and Dylan and there are other stories that I want to tell more. If I did to write some more books in the Crush 'verse as I call it, they certainly wouldn't have Edie and Dylan in the starring roles. And more books would only happen if the trilogy does amazingly well when it gets released in the States next year.
So when I get asked if Dylan and Edie are still together or if they got married, I'm not really sure how to answer. To me, they're frozen in time on Camden Road, Dylan's head stuck out of the window as Edie runs after the car until it's a little speck in the distance. I know people love happy endings, I don't. I like slightly messy, ambiguous endings. Edie and Dylan got their happy ending and what happened next is as much up to you guys and the little daydreams you have about them, like I have my little daydreams about what happened after the credits started rolling at the end of Lost In Translation.
Don't get me wrong, I love, love, love that Diary Of A Crush has had such an amazing effect on the people who've read it. Dylan and Edie are hugely important to me, but their moment has passed. And being ornery and difficult, when I get emails telling me that if I "fob" you off with any more "excuses" about why I won't write any more DOAC books and that you'll write to my publishers and complain about me, it has the opposite effect.
So, to sum up. No more Edie and Dylan. Maybe some more Diary Of A Crush in the dim and distant future. Don't hurt my feelings with really aggressive emails. And stop sending me chain and spam emails before the back of my head explodes!
Love
Sarra x
Thursday, July 28, 2005
Wednesday, July 20, 2005
A lazy girl writes
Hello Ladies
Sorry for being such a lame slacker and not posting for a while. I've been really busy - not with the book writing but with work stuff. Sadly, I still have to work for living! At the moment I'm doing some freelance shifts at Grazia magazine as well as writing a column for Elle UK and doing my first piece for The Guardian. Then it's a month doing some development work on a new magazine. Luckily I'm taking most of September off so I can have two holidays because I'm greedy. A week in Devon with my Dad who'll let me hog the car CD player and doesn't get angry if I want to read a book instead of talking to him and then nearly a fortnight in New York City where I'll be popping in to see my publishers but also doing lots of shopping and hanging out with some of my best friends. Roll on September.
I'm waiting for page proofs of Let's Get Lost to come back from the copy editor and if I can work out how to do it, I'll give you a sneak preview of the UK cover next time I post. It's by Ray Smith who did the UK cover of Pretty Things, which you should be able to see on this page, and it's so beautiful it makes me want to cry.
Finally, can I just put on my stern hat for a moment? I love getting your emails and I do read them all. I also love getting the comments that you post. But I don't love getting spam emails about software doodads or chain letters or getting added to IM buddy lists. So, please don't send them to me! There, lecture over.
And now I have to go and empty all the pots and pans out of my kitchen cupboard so I can mend the carousel which collapsed last night. My life is decidedly lacking in excitement.
Love
Sarra x
Sorry for being such a lame slacker and not posting for a while. I've been really busy - not with the book writing but with work stuff. Sadly, I still have to work for living! At the moment I'm doing some freelance shifts at Grazia magazine as well as writing a column for Elle UK and doing my first piece for The Guardian. Then it's a month doing some development work on a new magazine. Luckily I'm taking most of September off so I can have two holidays because I'm greedy. A week in Devon with my Dad who'll let me hog the car CD player and doesn't get angry if I want to read a book instead of talking to him and then nearly a fortnight in New York City where I'll be popping in to see my publishers but also doing lots of shopping and hanging out with some of my best friends. Roll on September.
I'm waiting for page proofs of Let's Get Lost to come back from the copy editor and if I can work out how to do it, I'll give you a sneak preview of the UK cover next time I post. It's by Ray Smith who did the UK cover of Pretty Things, which you should be able to see on this page, and it's so beautiful it makes me want to cry.
Finally, can I just put on my stern hat for a moment? I love getting your emails and I do read them all. I also love getting the comments that you post. But I don't love getting spam emails about software doodads or chain letters or getting added to IM buddy lists. So, please don't send them to me! There, lecture over.
And now I have to go and empty all the pots and pans out of my kitchen cupboard so I can mend the carousel which collapsed last night. My life is decidedly lacking in excitement.
Love
Sarra x
Friday, July 08, 2005
London calling...
Hey pop kids
I hope everyone's well after the awful tragedy of yesterday. I had a very slow journey into work on the bus as the tube station was closed, saw lots of ambulances and police cars outside University College Hospital on Gower Street but didn't discover what had happened until I got to the office and watched it unfold on the TV.
It was shocking to see familiar scenes of the city I've lived in all my life wrecked by bombs and panic. I hope all of you and your loved ones are safe. I spent the entire day phoning and emailing my friends, and getting a ton of emails back especially as friends in America woke up to the news. Then a long trek home. Got a lift, walked a mile or so and then got another lift from my sister who'd driven six miles in from the suburbs so she could take me back to my house.
I love London more than anything. My family came here as immigrants from Eastern Europe at the turn of the 20th century to escape persecution and I feel the city flowing through my veins. It's where my family live, where most of my friends are and it inspires me. Now that Let's Get Lost is finally finished I'm working on my first grown-up book and it's all about my London from the Camden clubs of my wild teenage years to the Soho drinking dens of my early 20's and beyond to right now where I live in a beautiful part of North London, a few miles from where I grew up and on a summer's day I can look out and see the whole city laid out before me, sun glinting off the buildings, red brick Edwardian houses all lined up but beautiful woods five minutes away.
And being a Londoner is to be special. To be unflappable and practical in the face of whatever anyone wants to throw at us and to never lose that dry sense of humour that sees us through the bad times. I love London...
I hope everyone's well after the awful tragedy of yesterday. I had a very slow journey into work on the bus as the tube station was closed, saw lots of ambulances and police cars outside University College Hospital on Gower Street but didn't discover what had happened until I got to the office and watched it unfold on the TV.
It was shocking to see familiar scenes of the city I've lived in all my life wrecked by bombs and panic. I hope all of you and your loved ones are safe. I spent the entire day phoning and emailing my friends, and getting a ton of emails back especially as friends in America woke up to the news. Then a long trek home. Got a lift, walked a mile or so and then got another lift from my sister who'd driven six miles in from the suburbs so she could take me back to my house.
I love London more than anything. My family came here as immigrants from Eastern Europe at the turn of the 20th century to escape persecution and I feel the city flowing through my veins. It's where my family live, where most of my friends are and it inspires me. Now that Let's Get Lost is finally finished I'm working on my first grown-up book and it's all about my London from the Camden clubs of my wild teenage years to the Soho drinking dens of my early 20's and beyond to right now where I live in a beautiful part of North London, a few miles from where I grew up and on a summer's day I can look out and see the whole city laid out before me, sun glinting off the buildings, red brick Edwardian houses all lined up but beautiful woods five minutes away.
And being a Londoner is to be special. To be unflappable and practical in the face of whatever anyone wants to throw at us and to never lose that dry sense of humour that sees us through the bad times. I love London...
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