Nobody's Girl synopsis and cover news

Just to let you know that the Nobody's Girl cover that's up on Waterstones and Amazon and the blogs is an early, rough version of the cover and not the finished product.

As soon as I get a jpeg of the right cover, I'll post it here! But here is the full synopsis:

Bea thinks she's the most boring seventeen-year-old in the world. She's not pretty or popular or funny, unlike her mother who had Bea when she was 17. The only glamorous thing about Bea is the French father who left before she was born and lives in Paris. She yearns for la vie Parisienne every moment of her dull existence.

So when Ruby Davies, the leader of her school's most elite clique picks Bea as her new best friend and asks her to go on holiday with them, she's wary but delighted. If nothing else it's two weeks away from her over-protective mother.

But when the gang arrive in Spain, Bea is crushed to realise that Ruby and her posse have simply been using her. Bea wreaks vengeance on her so-called friends, and plans to decamp to Paris to find her father. But when she falls asleep on the train and wakes up in Bilbao, she meets a group of American students who are backpacking around Europe and bonds with them straight away, especially the gorgeous Toph, who helps heal Bea's hurting heart.

And though Bea has a shock in store when they finally get to Paris, the 'City of Lovers' really works it magic on Bea and Toph, who spend a week wandering the sun-dappled streets of Paris, talking, holding hands and falling in love. When it comes time to go home to confront her Mum about her mysterious father, the new version of Bea is determined that she 'll never go back to her old, boring way of life - she's no longer Nobody's Girl; she belongs to herself and to Toph... But with an ocean between them, will he wait for her?

And the title is...

Peeps,

I can exclusively reveal that the title of my second grown-up novel will be:

You Don't Have To Say You Love Me

Yes, after the Dusty Springfield song because Dusty makes everything better.

On the teen front, the synopsis for Nobody's Girl is now up on Amazon.co.uk

Also, if you are a serious producer interested in the film rights to any of my novels, you need to get in touch with my film and TV agent, Joe Phillips at Curtis Brown.

Sorry for the fly-by but word quotas need to be achieved.

Live on


Sarra x

So, how have you been?

You know you're long overdue a blog post when people are leaving gentle reminders on my Twitter asking me when I'm going to update. Ooops!

Anyway, here I am with a few snippets of news and links and some stuff for you to look at. I'm deep in the first draft hinterlands for my second grown-up book, which is not going to be called Lightweight anymore. It's going to be called something else but I need to check that TPTB are completely happy with the new title, before you guys can be the first to know what it is. I'm on a very tight deadline for this book so my whole world has shrunk down to chapter outline, whiteboard and word count.

Here's a picture of my lovely whiteboard, with the next few chapter sketched out. Main plot in blue marker pen, sub-plot in green, purposely taken from a long distance so I don't give away any secrets:



And here is my lovely word count envelope. Every day when I open up Microsoft Word, I look at my word count and then scribble the number down on the back of an envelope. I don't know why I can't just use a pristine piece of paper, it always seems to be the back of an envelope. You can see that some days are more productive than others.



Apart from frantic book writing, I'm getting the next teen book, Nobody's Girl, oven-ready. Just waiting for the copy-edited proofs to come in and the latest version of the cover - I can say no more than that, otherwise I'll probably start crying. And I'm percolating the teen book after that and the third grown-up novel. It's very busy in my head right now. But rest assured, there will be both teen and grown-up books in my future. As long as people want to publish them, I'll keep writing them.

Talking of which, I wanted to show you the French covers for Fashionistas: Laura and Fashionistas: Hadley.




Tres jolie, mais non?

There are also Brazilian editions of Fashionistas to come and Italian Diary Of A Crushes. There are no plans for foreign editions of Unsticky just yet, though the English edition is on sale in Australia, New Zealand and India. Global recession, don't you know. Let's not talk about that but move on to happier things like links!

An interview I did for the Australian magazine and website, Mindfood.

A lovely girl called Lucy made a trailer for Pretty Things using the characters from the show, Almost Famous. Yes, there's a bit of artistic license (never a bad thing in my book) but I think she did a fantastic job.

And as ever, I am on Twitter. I update far too much during the course of a day and this is the only place where you can get in touch with me and have a good chance of getting a reply. Though if it's to ask for sequels of anything or writing tips, then I will just direct you to the tags on the left hand side of this here blog, because there's only so much a girl can say in 140 characters.

One of these days I need to make a proper website with an FAQ but we're talking time, money and technical skills, none of which I have!

OK, I think that was everything I needed to tell you. Sorry I've been such a slacker of late but I'm all tunnel vision girl with writing the second grown-up book at the moment and nursing the big toe on my right foot. Had to have the toenail removed after too much working out at the gym, then stubbing my toe so hard that the nail lifted up. Hurt like a beeyacth, let me tell you!

If I haven't updated in a couple of weeks, nag me. I respond very well to the right kind of pressure.

Live on

Sarra x

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.

The Great Big, It's Fricking Chrismukkah Quiz...

DEADLINE EXTENDED UNTIL JANUARY 12TH - COME ON LADIES, IT TOOK ME TWO DAYS TO WRITE THAT QUIZ! AT LEAST HAVE A BASH AT IT...


Sweetlings,

I promised a surprise and here it is! It's a quiz. A very special quiz with a very special prize. Fifty questions all about my books and one lucky winner will get signed set of the newly re-jacketed Diary Of A Crush books. (That's them at the top of the page and that is the Arc de Triomphe on French Kiss - it was meant to be the Eiffel Tower, but let's not go there or else I will start to cry tears of impotent rage!) If more than one person gets all (or the same number) of questions right and I like what you do with the tie-breaker, I'll be sending out more than one signed set of the Diary Of A Crush books.

* Just put your answers in a comment WITH YOUR EMAIL ADDRESS! I screen my blog comments so your email addy will be safe with me and there's no way anyone can cheat and look up the answers.

* The closing date for the competition is January 10th so you have time to re-read all the books and/or go out and buy the ones you've missed.

* I know Fashionistas is not readily available in the States, apart from on amazon.com but it would have been too hard to do fifty questions and not include Fashionistas. I do apologise, but read my last post to see that there are compensations to being an American Sarra Manning reader.

On with the quiz...

THE GREAT BIG, IT'S FRICKING CHRISMUKKAH QUIZ!

EASY PEASY

1. In Guitar Girl, what is the name of Molly's band?
2. What city is Diary Of A Crush set in?
3. How old is Isabel in Let's Get Lost?
4. Name the four main characters in Pretty Things.
5. Who's Edie's crush object?
6. Which part of London is the Fashionista flat?
7. What's Hadley Fashionista's surname?
8. What's the name of Isabel's little brother?
9. Name all three books in the Diary Of A Crush trilogy.
10. What is Walker's nickname?


FAIR TO MIDDLING

1. The second time they meet, Smith and Isabel swap which items of high tech gadgetry?
2. Who are David and Bette Careless?
3. Which Shakespeare play is performed in Pretty Things?
4. And name our quartet's drama tutor/director.
5. What is the first thing that Dylan ever says to Edie?
6. Where is Hadley's dad?
7. At the end of Guitar Girl, what does Molly get given by her heroine, Ruby X?
8. Laura and Irina compete to become the face of which perfume?
9. What's Edie and Poppy's band called?
10. What does Isabel's dad do for a living?


ARE YOU SMARTER THAN THE AVERAGE READER?

1. What is Carter's first name?
2. Why does Dean walk Molly home after they've been out for a Christmas drink?
3. Name the pub that Walker and Daisy hole up in and where they end up spending the night?
4. What is the dish that Isabel orders in the Chinese restaurant in Camden?
5. Who's the female host of Make Me A Model?
6. When Hadley was the subject of a tabloid kiss 'n' tell, what new surname did the newspapers give her?
7. Which fizzy drink rarely leaves Brie's side?
8. What's the name of the hotel that Edie and pals stay in when they go to Paris?
9. What song becomes The Hormones' only number one record?
10. Where does Alfie hold his fashion show?


COME AND HAVE A GO IF YOU THINK YOU'RE HARD ENOUGH

1. Who illustrated the covers of Let's Let Lost, Pretty Things and the four Fashionista titles?
2. Isabel is named after Isabel Archer, the heroine of a Henry James' novel called _________ __ _ ____?
3. In which town in Mississippi did Dylan abandon Edie on their road trip?
4. Which fancy designer store was Irina caught shoplifting from?
5. Which cassette was stuck in the tape player in Walker's Mum's car?
6. Name the three other members of Isabel's Trio Of Evil.
7. In Let's Get Lost, what is the name of Molly's new band?
8. Whas was the theme tune of Hadley's TV show called?
9. Why did Candy Careless go to Shanghai?
10. What's Dylan's surname?



N0W YOU'RE JUST SHOWING OFF!

1. Laura's friends have a video footage of her singing which song at Karaoke?
2. Which famous New York club (now closed) did The Hormones play their showcase gig at?
3. What word did Charlie (in Pretty Things) have on his t-shirt?
4. Who designed the size eight dress that Laura nicked from Irina?
5. What's the name of Isabel's guidance counsellor?
6. When Candy goes round to Alfie's house, what does his Mum make for dinner? (A extra point if you include pudding too?)
7. We all know Molly (and Jane) guest stars in Let's Get Lost but someone else from Guitar Girl also gets a mention, who is it?
8. Name all of Irina's siblings.
9. What were the three Diary Of A Books called when they were originally given away with J-17 magazine?
10. Sarra has written one other novel not mentioned in this quiz or anywhere on her blog. What is it called? (And no, it's not Unsticky!)


TIE BREAKER QUESTION

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

Does this blog post make me look fat?

Happy Holidays, readers!

In the next couple of days I'll be posting an extra special thing that will thrill, delight and astound you. That's the general plan, anyway!

But in the meantime, I just wanted to shout out to my North American readers, that includes you kooky Canucks, to let you know I have a short story, Some Girls Are Bigger Than Others, in a wonderful collection called Does This Book Make Me Look Fat? I'm in the company of some amazing writers like Megan McCaffery, Ellen Hopkins and Jaclyn Moriarty. It's out on December 29th.

Sadly, it's not currently available on amazon.co.uk, but maybe by the time the paperback comes out later in the year, that may change. And my poor American readers never got a US release of Fashionistas (I'm hoping that the new year may rectify that) so it's all swings and roundabouts.

Anyway, make sure you visit this blog regularly in the next few days so you don't miss my surprise.

Live on

Sarra x

Tis the season...

Greetings to one and all!

Winter is upon us, Chrismukkah is just around the corner and I still haven't sent off my mammoth Amazon order to ensure that all my presents will arrive in a timely fashion and I don't have to slip IOU's into my cards.

This is the season for many things:

* Norwegian formula hand cream

* Long-sleeved black thermal vests under everything I wear

* Home-made soup

* Suddenly having masses of work that needs to be finished in the run-up to the holidays. This year it's a 900 page copy-edited manuscript of the adult book that needs to be checked like yesterday.

* Phil Spector's Christmas album. Darlene Love's Christmas (Baby Please Come Home) is my all-time favourite Christmas song, closely followed by Hello Saferide's iPod X-Mas.

* Mince pies - this is a British thing, right? 'Cause they don't have actual mince in them but a delightful confection of raisins, apples and other sweet stuff that makes a delightful brown, sticky paste. Don't like the ones with the candied peel though. Urgh!

* Thick black woolly tights - though actually not wool because I'm allergic. Thinking of branching out into coloured tights this year, possibly a muted teal blue or a cranberry colour.

* Freezing my arse off at bus-stops long past midnight.

* Furry hot water bottles.

Alas, this is also the season when my American readers are all told by their English teachers to do book reports that feature an interview with an author. I've had 15 requests this week so far (and it's only Wednesday) to answer questions but I'm afraid it's just not possible. Lord, I'd never get any other work done! But, if you look through the tags and links on this here blog, I can pretty much guarantee you that you'll find all the information you need on me, my books and my writing process. Hope I don't seem like an old curmudgeon and one day I hope to have a proper, pretty website with an FAQ and things arranged for optimum ease of use. One day...

Check back here in the next few days for my annual Christmas surprise. It might be a sneak preview of something or a little DVD extra-style thing to do with one of my books, or even a competition.

And remember, books by Sarra Manning make excellent gifts!

Live on

Sarra x

The beast, it wakes!

Photo by Sandra Löv.



Sayonora, sweetlings!

I'm back! I have survived the the mammoth revisions of the grown-up book and can say no more about the experience because it's too traumatising. I've also been doing a ton of magazine-y stuff, which I'll let you know about as and when it's out - though actually I think I have a piece in the new Grazia out tomorrow. But I feel liberated from the yoke of rewriting and can go out now and be social. I also need to get back to the new teen novel, which I cruelly abandoned and I'm looking forward to re-reading the first few chapters, then diving back in.

By the way, I dimly recall a couple of people asking me questions about writing stuff. Namely, how long a book should be? Well, it's actually NaNoWriMo (National Write A Novel In A Month) and their rules state that a novel is 75,000 words, but I tend to way over write. Even turning in a teen book under 100,000 words is an effort and the adult book is currently 175,000 words but that's just me! It really depends on doing your chapter outline and writing as many words as you need to tell your story.

Someone also asked me what font or typeface I write in. I tend to go for something quite plain and unfiddly like Geneva or Helvetica, though I do have a soft spot for the old skool Courier too.

In other news, I think a list of my current popular culture faves is long overdue:

I'm currently listening to

Hello Saferide - More Modern Short Stories From...

I had to order this from Sweden but I got a signed copy so that was rather neat, but it is available on iTunes. I love the title of this album as I always think of her songs as like mini novellas. She manages to say in three verses and a chorus what it takes me a whole book to do. My favourite tracks are X Telling Me About the Loss Of Something Dear, At Age 16, which is about a girl losing her virginity and closing her eyes and thinking of dancers. Then there's I Wonder Who Is Like This One, which is about how people are like songs and the people who are like God Only Knows are keepers. (I wish I was a God Only Knows Person.) I also like Lund, which is another snippet into the mind of a teenage girl singing about two brothers who come to visit her and look down on her because "I was too young, not interesting at all" and I linked to the single, Anna on my last post. I really do love Hello Saferide and if and when they play London, I will be there with knobs on, possibly singing along and crying at the same times.

The Priscillas - 10,000 Volts

This is my friend Kate's band so I have a special advance copy of their new album, which is really rather shockingly good. The next single is All The Way To Holloway, which I can appreciate being North London born and bred and just so you know, Amy Winehouse totally stole their look and now they've had to retire their beehives.

Jenny Lewis - Acid Tongue

Not loving it quite so much as Rabbit Fur Coat, but I think it's a grower.

I'm currently reading

Or rather I've just read an out-of-print Virgao Modern Classic, The Brontes Went To Woolworths by Rachel Ferguson, a story about a rock 'n' roll band and kidnapping kangaroos and a complaint call centre called You Don't Love Me Yet by Jonathan Lethem and have just started Jay McInerney's Brightness Falls. But I also read The Dud Avocado by Elaine Dundy, which I recced on my summer reading lists. Did anyone else read it? Did you love it as much as I did>

I'm currently watching

Lots of things, all American, which I acquire by illegal means so probably best not to discuss them here.

I'm currently wasting time

Playing far too much Scramble on Facebook. I think I need a 12-step programme.


So, that's about it for now. I promise to update much more regularly from now on, unless I have more copious novel revisions in my very near future.

Live on

Sarra x

She could have been a sweetheart but with punk rock manners...

Dearlings,

I am alive. But very busy doing hideous rewrites and edits on grown-up books and as much freelance work as I can get my hands on because, oh my God, credit crunch!

I will be back soon enough, in the meantime, here's a song to fall in love with.


Live on

Sarra x


(I should point out that I don't actually resemble the photo above when I'm working. The smile alone should make that obvious, though I am wearing a nice vintage dress today to put myself in a work frame of mind. Hmmm, not sure if it's really helping though!)

Weeps softly

Greetings!

I am still alive. Just. Though it's been so long without sunshine in Blighty that I feel like taking to my bed and staying there for a while.

And then I read this on the interpipes. I'm definitely taking to my bed now, possibly with an eau de cologne-soaked handkerchief draped decoratively over my forehead.

Really not much to report except I'm well under way with my new teen opus.Like, 10,000 words in and rather taken with my heroine. I don't have a title as yet but I want it to be lovely and evocative and magical. Not much to ask from a title really.

Oh yes, and you can still vote for me in the Queen Of Teen thingy. Or else you could all wait until Lauren Conrad has her first novel out and vote for her instead. See if I care!

Summer Reading List (Part Three - Odds and sods and odd sods)

Hola Senoritas!

Since last we talked I've become a platinum blonde (I went from black to brassy blonde a couple of months ago,) had a birthday and started my next teen opus. It only has a working title but it's a standalone and I'm very excited about it. I love my heroine and it feels so good to write in the first person again. Also, not to be writing a series, because I'm never doing one of them again. Not ever. You hear me? Not ever!

Anyways, here's the last lot of recommended reads for your viewing pleasure. These are some of my favourite books that I've come back to again and again. Old friends, if you will.

1. The Secret History by Donna Tartt

I've lost count of the number of times I've read this book, but every time I do, I get something completely different from it. It's the story of six Classic students at a small college in Vermont who, when they're not immersing themselves in the book learning, accidentally murder someone. This sets them on a path of more murder and mayhem as they try to cover their tracks. It's not so much a thriller as a wonderfully written study of six really diverse people. I'm not explaining it so well, but it's one of those books that drags you into its world and doesn't let you go until it's good and ready. But I would say maybe not suitable for under 16's, not because it's really rude but you might not get it. I could be wrong though - I usually am!

2. Girlfriend In A Coma by Douglas Coupland

Douglas Coupland is one of my favourite writers. I've read all of his books but he can be a bit patchy so some of them I love (it was a toss up between this and Microserfs) and some of them, I'm all like, "Oh Douglas, you can do so much better than this!" Not only is Girlfriend In A Coma named after a Smith's song, it's another book that imprints itself into your psyche while you're reading it. The book is narrated by a boy whose pregnant teenage girlfriend slips into a mysterious coma and doesn't come out of it for many years later to a world that's changed beyond all recognition. I guess loosely it's sci-fi but actually I hate sci-fi so there's no robots or spaceships or vampires that sparkle in sunlight. The first time I read this book, I dreamt about it every night and that's not to be underestimated!

3. The Time Traveller's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger

The first time I read this book as soon as I finished it, I started re-reading it. Yup, it's really that good. I nearly didn't buy it because I can't be doing with time travel and I do really hate sci-fi but it was nothing like that at all. The Time Travellers has some weirdy genetic mutation that hurtles him in and out of hs own timeline so he first meets his wife when she's a little girl and he's married to her in the future. It's really sad because you know what's going to happen to him but the people around him don't. And FYI, time travel isn't much fun when you hurtle through the time space continuum and arrive at some unspecified place in the future or the past butt naked and bruised. God, this is such a bloody good book!

4. The Wolves Of Willoughby Chase by Joan Aiken

Yes, I know this is a book for little kids but if you haven't read it, you must. Now. Right away! Run to your nearest bookshop! This had all my bulletproof kinks when I was a kidlet. The heroine is an orphan. There are really wicked villains who get right up in her grill like the evil Miss Slighcarp. It's set in a boarding school. And there's triumph over adversity in the end. Y'know, all the good stuff!

5. The Dud Avocado by Elaine Dundy

I thought I'd finish with something a little different so this is a book I haven't actually read but it's on my teetering pile of books I want to read. It's about a flighty, funny, fiercely witty American girl who goes to Paris in the 50's so she can drink brandy in Left Bank cafes and meet unsuitable men. What's not to love?


This isn't a complete list. There are books I love that are out of print, or that I couldn't tell you to read in good conscience because they're not suitable for teenagers (not that that ever stopped me!) or because even though I love them it's because of where and when I was in my life at the time and they probably wouldn't mean as much to anyone else.

And there are also much loved books I've already recced
here and here
and here
And for some really amazing old skool teen books (or YA fiction as you Americans call it), I heartily recommend Jezebel.com's Fine Lines feature on a Friday afternoon. Actually, I just love Jezebel.com because it reminds me of Sassy and Jane when it was really good and all the things I loved about writing for magazines in the days when we were pretty much allowed to do what we wanted. Sigh. You can find all of Jezebl's Fine Lines columns here. As they would say, I'm not afraid to be service-y!

OK, that's all from me for now. And yes, you can still vote me for in the Queen Of Teen competition if you so desire.

Live on

Sarra x

Summer Reading List (Part Two - Difficult women)

Is anyone even reading my humble blog offerings anymore or are you all sunning yourself in foreign climes?

Anyways, on Friday I delivered my first grown-up book, except today I decided there were at least two chapters that needed to be completely rewritten. But mostly it's done and as Dusty once sang, I just don't know what to do with myself. Tomorrow I will probably start my next teen book as I don't believe in taking writing breaks; it's a heady combination of an over-developed work ethic, credit crunch hysteria and Jewish guilt. Be very glad you're not me!

So, I finally have time to post the second part of my reading recs. There will be other parts to come, but this time I wanted to focus on my favourite female writers. In fact, with a few notable exceptions, all my favourite writers are women. People can be quite sniffy about writing for women and the themes women writers explore, but I want to read about relationships, shopping, food, sex, friendships, clothes and life and death and everything in between. I don't like reading about people blowing each other up, anything too sci-fi-ish or fantasy and crime. But that's just a personal preference and really? The only difference between female writing and male writing is that they're written by different sexes. Neither one is less or more than the other, but the writers I mostly come back to are stubborn, difficult women who write about other stubborn, difficult women, because I am one. So, here we go:

1. The Collected Dorothy Parker

Dorothy Parker was a noted wit in the 1920's, who was thwarted in love, drank too much and hung out with the likes of F Scott Fitzgerald. She never wrote a full-length novel, but all her short stories, poems and book reviews are gathered in this compendium. You probably already know of her as she wrote the famous epiphet, "Men never makes passes/At girls in glasses," but she's so much more than that. Her stories are always funny, but have this black edge running through them and actually the New York of her 1920's in very similar to the New York of Gossip Girl in that underneath all the style and shallowness, there's something sad and unhappy lurking underneath. God, Blair Waldorf is the spiritual great-grand-daughter of Dottie P!

2. The Pursuit Of Love and Love In A Cold Climate by Nancy Mitford

I'm absolutely obsessed with the Mitford Sisters, six debutantes who shocked England with their antics. Though I have no time for Unity Mitford, who was in love with Hitler, or Diana Mitford, who married Oswald Moseley leader of the British fascists. But I love Jessica Mitford who eloped with her Communist cousin when she was 17 and I adore Nancy who wrote two of my favourite novels, The Pursuit Of Love and Love In A Cold Climate. These are not sappy romances, but mannered, elegant stories about love and the upper classes and are full of wit and acid observations but, as usual, have this core of hopeful sadness running through them.

3. Rebecca by Daphne Du Maurier

A shy, timid slip of a girl meets a much older, rich man and marries him, as you do. He takes her back to his big, creepy house, Manderlay, which is managed by his equally creepy housekeeper, Mrs Danvers, and the second Mrs De Winter (we never discover her first name!) starts to piece together how his first wife, Rebecca died. You should also check out the film, directed by Alfred Hitchcock, which is just as spooky and atmospheric as this book.

4. Edie: An American Biography by Jean Stein

When I was 17, I was besotted with Edie Sedgwick, a superstar created by pop artist, Andy Warhol. Edie came from a really wealthy, completely bonkers East Coast family, did a spell in a psychiatric hospital and came to New York. She cut and died her hair silver to match Andy Warhol's, starred in his pretentious movies, had an affair with Bob Dylan (his album Blonde On Blonde is rumoured to be about Edie)and did copious amounts of drugs. She was a doomed, tragic little girl lost and I thought she was wonderful! This biography tells the story of Edie's life through the anecdotes and
memories of the people who knew her. And let's not mention the film, Factory Girl, OK?


There may be more. I'm sure there's more, but my brain currently feels like blancmange (it's been a rather erm, alcoholic weekend!) so I'm going to post and be damned and maybe come back to this in a day or so.

And don't forget to vote for me in the Queen Of Teen thingy.


Live on

S x

Vote for me!

As some of you know, I'm on the shortlist for the Book People's Queen Of Teen award.
If you're 18 or under you can vote for me here

I'm in some pretty illustrious, best-selling company, but still it would be nice to get upgraded from princess to queen! There could even be a tiara involved and I've always wanted one of them.

Thanking you in advance

Sarra x

Summer reading list (Part One - The Classics)

Finally, in the downtime between the second and third drafts of the grown up book and filing my business taxes (because being a writer is dead glamorous), I have found an hour to compile some book recs. It will be a part work, because there are so damn many of them.

So, I'm starting with the classics. Those books of yore that you might even have to study at school and always end up on those 100 Books That Everyone Should Read lists - there's a reason for that; it's because they're magical, life-changing books. But here's my take on them.

1. I Capture The Castle by Dodie Smith"

Ignore the fact that she also wrote 101 Dalmations, which actually I love, and the terrible film they made of this book, I Capture The Castle is one of the most poignant coming of age books. Which means the main character, Cassandra, is dreamy and insular and given to flights of fancy to escape her life of genteel poverty, unrequited love and a beautiful older sister. The last paragraph makes me cry every time I read this book and I've probably read it about ten times.

2. To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee

I actually did this book for GCSE English when I was but a mere slip of a girl even that wasn't enough to ruin it for me! And of course you all know that I love it as one Atticus Smith from Let's Get Lost was named for Atticus Finch, the lawyer pa of Scout who defends a black man in 1930's Alabama against charges that he raped a white woman. Not only is it a really powerful story about civil rights, or the lack of them, it's about being a kid on long, hot days when the summer stretches out before you but by the time the first leaves fall from the tree, you've lost some of your childhood innocence as you realise what an ugly place the world can be. It always reminds me of that line from The Breakfast Club, "When you grow up, your heart dies."

3. The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath

I went through a huge Plath phase during my turbulent teen years. Like, always carrying her Collected Poems with me, going on pilgrimages to Chalcot Square, hating on Ted Hughes, writing my own sub-par Plath-esque poetry and, on one occasion, dragging a poor friend to a really bad play about La Plath at a theatre in a pub. Lord, I was one pretentious little bitch! That said, it's been years since I read The Bell Jar but it should be compulsory reading for all teenage girls with writerly aspirations. Basically, Esther Greenwood (but really Plath herself) wins a magazine writing contest and spends a summer in New York interning for them, with 11 other girls. She almost gets date-raped in a car park, has a really bad experience losing her virginity, then has a nervous breakdown. Why, it's a laugh on every page! Except, it's not but you should probably read it, because all us moody girls who like to wear too much black should.

4. The Catcher In The Rye

I always think of The Catcher In The Rye as a companion book to The Bell Jar, or the boy version of The Bell Jar. Holden Caulfield is one of the most biting, angry voices I've ever read. Holden is a deeply troubled teenager, scarred by the death of his perfect older brother and bumming around New York for a couple of days after geting kicked out of his expensive boarding school. It occurs to me that so many of these books are about disaffected youths who get stuck as they make the transition to a scary, grown-up world. Like, the loss of innocence that makes you an adult is a catastrophe for them. Holden moves through life as if the top layer of his skin has been shaved off so he feels everything too deeply, while at the same time he's almost numb. Or actually obsessed with the phoniness he sees in the people around him. I loved The Catcher In The Rye when I was going through adolescence but as I got older, Salinger's other books about The Glass family (Raise High The Roof Beam Carpenters and Franny And Zooey) are the ones I come back to time after time.

5. Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen

Not my favourite Austen, which would either be Emma or Pride And Prejudice but this was Miss Austen's first novel and I think it's a good place to start for anyone who's a bit wary of books written in Ye Olden Dayes. Catherine Moreland is a 17-year-old girl obsessed with gothic romance novels. No, not like Twilight! Well, actually, yes exactly like Twilight but in Miss Austen's day these were melodramatic novels about haunted houses and heroines with heaving bosoms tormented by the ghosts of evil landowners and doomed lovers. Catherine has to separate fantasy from reality in her own search for love, which is something I've never managed to do. Now, in life I think you're either a Bronte fan or an Austen fan and I'm Austen all the way. I can't be doing with all that mopping and mowing about the moors and orphanages and madwomen in attics. Whereas with Miss Austen's novels, there's a lightness and elegance to them and I think her heroines are truly modern young women refusing to give up their dreams and settling for anything less than what they truly deserve. In fact, you can still relate to all her characters some three hundred years later, apart from Fanny Price in Mansfield Park who's stuck-up little prig. Please don't be put off by the language. The secret is to get into the rhythm of her writing and it doesn't matter if you don't perfectly understand each sentence, because all of a sudden you just get caught up and lifted away by the story and woah, you're an Austen girl. Welcome to our club. Another three members and I get the toaster oven.

6. Bonjour Tristesse by Francois Sagan


Literally translated as Hello Sadness. A story about une jeune fille de France just as a change of pace. Again, a crazy teenage girl going through crazy teenage things but she's French so it's all the more crazy and sophisticated. Oh la la!

7. Breakfast At Tiffany's by Truman Capote

Much, much darker than the film, Holly Golightly is a little girl lost in the Big Apple, running from her past and trying to find solace in a world of parties and rich men. Which never ends well.


Well, that's enough to be getting on with. I shall be back with more fabulous books for you to read and fall in love with. But right now, I have to write a letter to my accountant...

Live on


Sarra x