So good we covered it twice!

Hallo, hallo, hallo!

It's two days to go until the publication of my second grown-up novel You Don't Have To Say You Love Me, so I just wanted to give you a heads up that there are two different covers. Yes, two! Because I am special like that.



This is the petals cover, which will be sold in supermarkets.



And this is the lips cover, which will be sold everywhere else. I would love to know which cover you prefer. And of course, I'm dying to know what you think of the book as the story and my heroine, Neve, are very close to my heart as you'll know if you read my recent piece for Stella magazine. I've also got a piece in the March issue of Red magazine and I'll be in the News Of The World's Fabulous magazine this Sunday (February 6th.)

In fact, there is so much news but the biggest piece of gossip is that this blog will soon be amalgamated into my brand spanking new website. Not a microsite but a proper website, which will go live in mere days. For now, I just wanted to let you know that I'll be taking part in a live webchat on 24th February, which you can register for here.

So, to recap the important thing, You Don't Have To Say You Love Me is out on February 3rd, which is also the closing date for my Chrismukkah competition.

See you very soon

Live on

Sarra x

Belated Annual Chrismukkah Contest...

Happy New Year, readers! Or I should say Bonne Annee, mes amis, as I've just come back from Paris where I consumed huge quantities of cheese and wine and did some book research. But mostly, I just consumed huge quantities of cheese and wine.

Because I was elbow deep in finishing a draft of my third grown-up book and then disappearing off to Paris, I wasn't able to post details of my Annual Chrismukkah Contest. But better very late than never.

Regular readers will know that I expect a high degree of participation in my contests and this year is no exception. My new adult book, You Don't Have To Say You Love Me is out on February 3rd (available to pre-order NOW from Amazon and Waterstones) so I thought to myself why not kill two birds with one stone. Give something back to my readers, like the nice author I am, and combine it with a little publicity for my new book? Sounds like a plan!

So, in the comments leave me a question, WITH YOUR NAME, EMAIL ADDRESS AND AGE, and I will post and answer the best questions on this blog to coincide with the release of the book. The best questions will receive a signed copy of You Don't Have To Say You Love Me, or a signed copy of one of my teen books if you're under 16. I'm not going to limit the number of prizes, but everyone who gets a question answered will receive a little something something from me.

* Try to make your questions original (if they're about You Don't Have To Say You Love Me, even better!) and not just 'Why won't you write a sequel to DOAC/Guitar Girl/Unsticky etc. Ask me anything, as long as it's not age or earnings-related!

* I won't publish your comments so rest assured your email addresses will not be posted on the interpipe for all to see.

* Bear in mind, that You Don't Have To Say You Love Me is an adult book with full-on dirty bits so in good conscience, I can't send out copies to under-16-year-olds, though I guess that's really between you and your parents! But still...

* Closing date for entries is February 3rd.

So there, you have it. If I've left out any important details, drop me a comment and I'll amend this post accordingly.

And because it is, or well, it was Christmas, a little gift for you all, or well, for those of you on Spotify. This is my Songs IPodded in 2010, though not a comprehensive list as I mostly listened to Northern Soul and old punk girl groups but they were book playlists and I'll post them in due course. Here's the link.

Live on

Sarra x

PS: Also, every day until publication, I am tweeting an excerpt from You Don't Have to Say You Love Me on my Twitter, so follow me there, if you don't already. Use the hashtag #ydhtsylm to find the ones you've missed.

That's so Adorkable...

Holla!

I'm just going to jump into the great big news I have.

I have a new publisher for my YA (teen) fic, who are the lovely people at Atom Books, the UK publishers for the Twilight series, among many other things. This doesn't mean I'm going to start writing about vampires. What I am going to write is a novel called Adorkable. It won't be out until Spring 2012 though. Yup, that's right, 2012, people, so don't be rushing off to pre-order just yet! But you can follow Jeane, the heroine of Adorkable, on Twitter here

I am absolutely thrilled about this new chapter in my YA career and can't wait to put my teenage head on again and start writing about uppity girls, vintage dresses, Roller Derby, cupcakes and boys who need to buy a one-way ticket to board the clue train.

You can read the official statement from my new publishers here.

Right now though, I need to take OFF my teenage head and go back to writing my third grown-up novel, which is due in a very frighteningly short amount of time.

My second grown-up book, You Don't Have To Say You Love Me, is out on February 3rd. I'd love to show you the cover art, but which cover art do I show you, hmmm? Cryptic, much! All will be revealed in the next few weeks.

And I will be running my annual Chrismukkah competition soon too. So, I know I'm a lazy blogger, but keep checking back. Or else you could just follow me on Twitter.

Last event of the year!

Yo, yo, yo!

I forgot to tell you that next Tuesday, 5th October, I'll be doing an event in Blackpool as part of the Wordpool Literary Festival. I'll be in conversation with Alexandra Heminsley (author of Ex In The City) and we'll be talking about books, writing and all manner of related things. I'm bound to drop the f-bomb at least once, because I just can't help myself. The event is at Blackpool Sixth Form College, Blackpool Old Road, Blackpool. It starts at 6.30 and it's for over-16s only. Also, it's free to get in! This is my last event of the year, unless I get booked to do supper club in Las Vegas.

My other big news is that Nobody's Girl is on the shortlist for The BookTrust Teenage Prize 2010, which I'm thrilled about. The winner will be announced on November 1st - I'm already thinking about my outfit options.

And a quick reminder that my second adult book, You Dont Have To say You Love Me will be published by Corgi on February 3rd, 2011. It's available for pre-order on Amazon. As soon as I'm allowed to show you the lovely cover, you'll see it here first.

And that's all I have to tell you right now.

Live on

Sarra x

Your mission over the bank holiday weekend...

... should you choose to accept it, is to vote me for in The Queen Of Teen Awards. Closing date is 31st August, so step to it, dear readers.

I'm heading off to Edinburgh to do an event with Cathy Forde on Monday on how we use music as part of our writing process. I'll be posting our setlist (man, like, we're in a band or something) on Spotify once the event is done. EDITED TO ADD: Here is the Spotify playlist lovingly compiled by Cathy Forde and myself. (You need to belong to Soptify or blag an invite code to access it.)

And I should also be doing something as part of the Worldpool Literary Festival in Blackpool at the beginning of October. More news when I have it. And I also have some very exciting news which I can apost in a couple of weeks time - though it may be only exciting to me. Sometimes it's hard to judge these things.

Wordwise, I'm waiting for the page proofs of You Don't Have To Say You Love Me to wing their way to me, am currently writing third grown-up book and yes, I am also working on a teen thing.

And that is about all I have to tell you. I fear I save my best words for Twitter these days. Come follow me and thrill to the pictures of cute puppies I post when I should be working!

So, have a great bank holiday weekend and don't forget to vote for me. 'Cause I know where you live. Yup, even YOU...

Live on

Sarra x

Queen of Teen. Vote for me! Again!

Salut!

Head like a sieve these days. Forgot to tell you that I've made the shortlist of the Queen of Teen awards and y'all need to vote for me. Which you can do here


Someone has to represent for the older, snarkier, sexier end of the teen fic world and that someone could be me. My fate is in your hands. Tell all your friends. Post the link on Facebook etc etc. Lather, rinse repeat.

In other news, my second grown-up book, You Don't Have To Say You Love Me, is now with the copy editor, I've started my third grown-up book and I am working on a teen thing, but don't have a publisher as yet so it might not see the light of day for a while. In the meantime, if I were you, I'd check out this amazing blog.

Back to the coalface of literature...

Live on

Sarra x

Final call! Final call!

Last reminder that I'll be doing my only London event this year (probably) tomorrow evening at Dulwich Library. Appearing with other teen fiction authors, Simmone Howell, Luisa Plaja and Keris Stainton at an event to celebrate Chicklish's fourth anniversary. Come if you can!