Saturday, July 29, 2006

A room with a view...

I managed not to update last week, mainly because I was buried under freelance commissions that had to be in for Monday morning. Being a writer is one of those jobs where inevitably you always have to hand something in on Monday morning and can never shake that 'back to school' feeling on a Sunday night.

I've started the second book in my four book sequential series and that's ticking along in a fun way. I love having a character mapped, the plot all figured out and then when you start writing, the girl you've created decides that she's in charge and does and says things you never imagined. So I'm busy with that and while it's early days with the second book, I am doing quite a few pieces for various magazines, mostly British ELLE because we have a mutal love thing going on.

So, I've also been looking at the comments you've left and I feel the need for some numbered points:

1. There is NEVER going to be a fourth Diary Of A Crush book. I've explained the reasons why in a couple of posts and I'm sorry but I have nothing new to add! The last book ended where it was meant to end, and I honestly believe that I left Edie and Dylan in a good place. I will add that it was left wide open for Grace to pick up the Diary torch but that's because DOAC started as a column in a teen magazine and for the last year or so, Grace actually took over the Diary Of A Crush column. But that doesn't mean that there's going to be a Grace DOAC book. I have so many other stories that I want to tell!

2. Lots of people are asking for writing help and tips.

I have made a few posts on this topic but I think this one is probably the most helpful.

What I plan to do over the next month or so is compile a writing FAQ and post it at my official microsite, so I'll let you know when it goes up.

3. I'm afraid that I no longer put my email address in books and don't personally answer emails anymore. What you will get is a very long, very detailed email answering the most common questions I get and advising you to visit either my blogspot page or myspace. I just don't have the time to answer letters any more and have had so many bad experiences, from people being very abusive about not getting a personalised reply to being added to address books and getting tons of junk email and spam email.
I also don't ever use IM in any shape or form. I don't belong to BeBo or any of the other network sites, apart from MySpace so please don't send me invites to join them.

Christ, I sound like such a curmudgeon! Time for a change of pace so I thought it might be fun to post pictures of my study so you can see the room where I write my books and spend most of my time.


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The Place Where The Clutter Lives

The library, the study, the office - call it what you will; this is the messiest room in the house and also where I probably spend the most time. I like being surrounded by over three decades worth of books, records, magazines, videos and huge amounts of paper. You can just see my polka dot Marc Jacobs bag by my chair!


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Starfleet Command

The very desk that I'm sitting at now. Note the heaps of stuff on the printer and scanner, which have never been operational. Plus the pink Post-It notes liberally scattered everywhere so I don't forget those occasional flashes of inspiration.
The actual desk is a 50's kitchen table I found in a junk shop and over the chair is my favourite cardigan. There is now a picture on the wall (The Great Bear by Simon Patterson) but this is pretty much it.

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Music And Bags

This is the CD part of the room, plus a mound of bags on the floor; you can just make out an Orla Kiely nestling on top. Plus loads of mess piled on the filing cabinet. That's my favourite red cardigan. It exactly matches my lippy!

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Ladder Of Success

Videos in the foreground and to the left, my DVDs, plus a general melange of folders, medicines and crap I don't know what to do with. Oh, yes and a ladder, How else do you think I reach the very top shelves?

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Books, Books And More Books

Most of the study is covered in these purpose built shelves I had a posh lady carpenter make to my specific requirements. This is part of the book section with a stoopid cardboard vampire standing watch over them.

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And There's More...

Even more books. Plus my collection of metal lunchboxes and cocktail accoutrements.


So, don't believe anyone when they tell you that mess gets in the way of the creative process. It just isn't true!

Anyway, I'm off to watch Big Brother now...


Live on

Sarra x


(Crossposted to http://blog.myspace.com/sarramanning)

3 comments:

Julianne said...

My room's about a zillion times more messy than that, I don't have enough shelves so I've got a lovely box of magazines and various crap I brought back from uni. I can never throw out magazines. I'm trying to discipline myself to take out all the pages I want to keep and use the rest for papier-mache but it's hard when I've got so many. I don't even buy magazines, I just keep rescuing other people's before they get thrown into the bin. Anyway, I ramble.

miss_s- I rarely get the word verification right first time!

kels- it's drawer :)

MrsSethCohenKT said...

U no i do get y u dnt want a 4th DOAC book cs i felt like u finished it in the best place that it could have bin finished. When i finished the 3rd book i was satisfied with the ending, i dunno mayb it ws cs it ws kinda left open and unfinished for the reader to kind of think of all the possibilities that could happen. But u no the one book of urs that im still longing for a sequel to (u so no which 1 im gonna say) after years now is Guitar Girl. I think its cs theres soo much more Molly has to give to teen girls and she hs soo much more to say to Dean! and all the other band mates too.

Well u probs have ur reasons but neway if u ever find urselves with absolutely no obligations at all (which is unlikely im sure) and u need some light relief that doent require brain cells check out my blog cs u r like the only person that has read it...lol

On the flip Side SM
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sfas said...

Hi Sarra !

I'm writing to tell you how much I adore your books. I come from Singapore in Asia and there isn't a great variety of your books here, but I read Guitar Girl a few years back and I loved it instantaneouly.

I'm 15 now and I've probably read Guitar Girl more times than my age, and it's still amazing each and every time. Its not like one of those dime-a-dozen chick-lit books that line the floor to celling of bookstores but a moving and inspirational Comming-of-Age story, one that every teenage girl truly needs.

So heres a big THANK YOU for being such an inspiration to me and to my friends who recieved copies of the book from me. :D

You're amazing, Sarra. You truly are.