Hey pop kids
I realise I haven't updated in an age. I wish I could report that I've been off doing all manner of impossibly glamorous things, but sadly that's not the case.
What I have been doing is writing so much that I'm surprised my fingers aren't little bloody stumps. The third book in the Fashionistas series, Irina, has been delivered but its release has been put back to May 2008 because of some snarl ups with the cover. And I'm in the middle of writing Candy, which is the first book that I've ever delivered late. I'm usually very conscientious when it comes to deadlines but, quite frankly, if she's done by the end of the year, it will be a freaking miracle on the scale of the loaves and the fishes!
The Fashionistas series is available in Australia and New Zealand - all my UK releases are automatically published in the Antipodes. I've also secured some foreign rights deals and so the series will be published in France, Germany, The Netherlands and Denmark. I've also just heard that Diary Of A Crush is going to be translated into Italian, which I'm very excited about. What I'm not so excited about is that I still have no news to report on a US release of Fashionistas. Currently, I don't have an American publisher so I don't forsee this situation being resolved quickly. However, Fashionistas Laura and Hadley are available on amazon.com and would make wonderful Chrismukkah gifts!
And in a weird series of events, I do have something coming out next year that will only be available in the US. It's not actually a book and I can't give you any details at the moment, but I haven't forgotten my US fanbase.
I've also been doing a lot of freelance writing for ELLE and, more recently, Grazia. If you get the current issue with Jennifer Aniston on the cover, there's an interview I did with the wonderful Kate Nash, who I have such a girl crush on. All this busy-ness means that I have a huge backlog of MySpace messages that I doubt I'm going to get a chance to reply to. As ever, my blogs on blogspot and MySpace are the best way to get all my news and most of your questions have already been answered if you have a look at the tags on the blogspot blog.
Of course, I'd probably be a lot more efficient if I didn't play so much Scrabulous on Facebook. Talking of which, I pretty much friend everyone back on MySpace but Facebook is the little corner of the interweb that I use for people who I know in real life so please don't be offended if I don't friend you back on there.
And now, since I went on a six mile (what was I thinking?!) walk this morning, I'm going to tuck into a completely guilt-free Belgian chocolate brownie. And ain't nothing on earth gonna stop me!
Live on
Sarra x
Showing posts with label MySpace. Show all posts
Showing posts with label MySpace. Show all posts
Sunday, October 07, 2007
Saturday, May 12, 2007
Welcome to the Rockalypse...
Happy Eurovision Day readers
Tonight I will be going to a Eurovision Song Contest Party, as is my wont to do. There's going to be a Sweepstake though I will pick the country that only get a measly un point from the Slovakian jury. But I think you can either turn up your nose and be too cool for skool about Eurovision or you can embrace the cheese. I embrace it with both arms!
I also just want to remind you that I do have a MySpace and that also I've just bought a 50's clock from a charity shop, which ticks so loudly I can barely hear the TV. I just felt the need to share that.
But for now, I thought I'd post an author's questionnaire I just complete for my publishers in the run-up to the release of the first Fashionista's Book, Laura on July 17th. Be warned! I ramble on and on and on and on and on...
1. Do you consider yourself a Fashionista?
I consider myself a Fashionista of epic proportions. I love clothes and accessories. In fact, two hours before I wrote this questionnaire, I was racing round the new Primark in London's swinging Oxford Street on a seek and destroy mission for a black, broderie anglaise summer frock.
I love how clothes can transform you, how you can be whoever you want to be depending on your outfit. I'm not a diehard fashion victim, I have my own look (which I call The Lipstick Librarian) but I like adding new pieces (a lot of new pieces!) each season to bring my style up to date. And I have little truck with fashion rules, like curvy girls shouldn't wear horizontal stripes. Fashion to me is just another way of expressing myself creatively and my fashion rules are that there are no rules!
My most beloved items in my closet are a vintage fitted dress with lurex stripes and a skirt that foofs out in a delightful manner and my limited edition Marc Jacobs multi-pocket bag in peacock blue with red top-stitching. It was so expensive that I had a panic attack five seconds after I signed the credit card slip!
2. Which character in your books do you identify with the most?
I identify the most with whichever character I happen to be writing at the time. I think that there is a common thread running through all my girls of people trying to figure out who the hell they want to be and how they're going to achieve that without losing part of themselves in the process. That's how I felt when I was a teenager. I knew I wanted to be a writer and I knew that I wasn't like a lot of other girls my age because of the way I looked and the music I listened to, the books I read and the things I liked to do. When I stopped kicking against that and realised that it was OK to be different, I became a lot happier in myself. So I guess I could really identify with Isabel from Let's Get Lost – not just because my mother passed away just before I started the book, but because I was so prickly and defensive when adolescence began to kick in.
3. How did you become a "Teen Queen Extraordinaire"? Was it always your dream to be a writer?
I have no idea how I became a Teen Queen Extraordinaire! Just luck, I guess! Certainly when I was a teenager, apart from loving Just Seventeen magazine (which I went on to write for), I shunned teen culture. But as I got older, I found myself obsessed and excited with things like old skool Sassy magazine and the TV show, My So-Called Life. My theory is that I made such a hash of being a teenager first time around, that I'm trying over and over again to get it right. I still feel the same away as I did when I was 17 – still trying to figure out all the big, heavy stuff and maybe that's why it feels very natural to write from the point of view of a teenage girl.
And I've always wanted to be a writer. Ever since I learnt the alphabet and suddenly realised that you could make words out of the letters. Certainly there are people who knew me when I was eight who can remember me announcing that I was going to be a writer – though I had a brief flirtation with wanting to be in a band but as I have no musical talent whatsoever, it was a very brief flirtation!
4. What is your favourite book?
I refuse to pick just one! The books that I re-read over and over again are Girl by Blake Nelson, Fabulous Nobodies by Lee Tulloch, The Pursuit Of Love and Love In A Cold Climate by Nancy Mitford, all of the Jane Austens (apart from Mansfield Park because I think Fanny Price is a stuck-up little prig) and Vladimir Nabokov's Lolita. Though I do read other stuff – anything and everything from Edith Wharton to Mills & Boon to biographies on Madame de Pompadour!
5. Who are your heroes?
Diana Vreeland who was a marvellous, idiosyncratic, eccentric woman who was editor in chief of US Vogue. I love the way she wrote about fashion and the wilful way she lived her life.
Coco Chanel because she liberated women by raising hem lengths so they no longer needed help crossing the road.
Courtney Love because she inspired me so much when I was younger. No matter what crazy stuff she pulls, there's something about Courtney and what she used to be that means I'll always be a little bit in love with her.
And Joss Whedon because he gave me Buffy and I'm probably more inspired by good TV writing than books.
I wish I had a few people in here who'd helped find a cure for cancer or campaigned for world peace, but I'm a very shallow person.
6. Are your characters ever based on people you know?
Not really. Usually it's people that I don't really know but there's something intriguing about them or what they're doing and I file them in my head and drag them out at a later date for a vignette or an incidental character. It sounds vague but for instance, I was in New York last November at a really cool restaurant called Bette's waiting for the loo next to this louche girl with the most sooty eyelashes I've ever seen and she was so full of ennui because she was beautiful that I thought, "Oh, you are so going into a book of mine!"
7. How do you get your ideas? Are they ever based on real life experiences?
They just happen. Diary Of A Crush was inspired by the two years that I spent at college after my school asked me not to go back to do A-levels. It was a time when I was changing and blossoming and that was what Edie was going through too – though I never had a Dylan. Let's Get Lost was directly inspired by losing my mother and thinking to myself how much worse it would be to lose a parent when you were a teenager and in the middle of that process of pushing your parents away so you can learn to be your own person. But Fashionistas, my new series, is inspired by everything that's going on around me in the world; from America's Next Top Model to car-crash celebrities to New York to the size zero debate to reality TV stars to Project Runway to walking past shops selling Saris to internet It girls to Agyness Deyn to post-Communist Russia! Everything inspires me and causes my imagination to almost implode and I wouldn't have it any other way.
8. What is your favourite band? Does music ever inspire your writing?
The bands I never, ever get bored of are Belle And Sebastian, Saint Etienne, Velvet Underground, Hello Saferide (a new addition but she's a keeper) and my Growin' Up Too Fast 60's girl group collection. At the moment I'm listening to a lot of Swedish bands and old French pop – I'm very Continental!
Music is a huge part of my writing process. Sometimes one song becomes a theme for a book (like Broken Social Scene's Anthems For A Seventeen Year Old Girl was for Let's Get Lost) but I always make a playlist for my main character and listen to it while I'm writing. It's hard at the moment as I'm writing Irina, the third book in the Fashionistas, and she's a Russian girl who listens to rap music, which I don't know much about.
9. Do you have any regrets?
Yes, but it's for the things I didn't do, not the things I did. Which is just how it should be!
Tonight I will be going to a Eurovision Song Contest Party, as is my wont to do. There's going to be a Sweepstake though I will pick the country that only get a measly un point from the Slovakian jury. But I think you can either turn up your nose and be too cool for skool about Eurovision or you can embrace the cheese. I embrace it with both arms!
I also just want to remind you that I do have a MySpace and that also I've just bought a 50's clock from a charity shop, which ticks so loudly I can barely hear the TV. I just felt the need to share that.
But for now, I thought I'd post an author's questionnaire I just complete for my publishers in the run-up to the release of the first Fashionista's Book, Laura on July 17th. Be warned! I ramble on and on and on and on and on...
1. Do you consider yourself a Fashionista?
I consider myself a Fashionista of epic proportions. I love clothes and accessories. In fact, two hours before I wrote this questionnaire, I was racing round the new Primark in London's swinging Oxford Street on a seek and destroy mission for a black, broderie anglaise summer frock.
I love how clothes can transform you, how you can be whoever you want to be depending on your outfit. I'm not a diehard fashion victim, I have my own look (which I call The Lipstick Librarian) but I like adding new pieces (a lot of new pieces!) each season to bring my style up to date. And I have little truck with fashion rules, like curvy girls shouldn't wear horizontal stripes. Fashion to me is just another way of expressing myself creatively and my fashion rules are that there are no rules!
My most beloved items in my closet are a vintage fitted dress with lurex stripes and a skirt that foofs out in a delightful manner and my limited edition Marc Jacobs multi-pocket bag in peacock blue with red top-stitching. It was so expensive that I had a panic attack five seconds after I signed the credit card slip!
2. Which character in your books do you identify with the most?
I identify the most with whichever character I happen to be writing at the time. I think that there is a common thread running through all my girls of people trying to figure out who the hell they want to be and how they're going to achieve that without losing part of themselves in the process. That's how I felt when I was a teenager. I knew I wanted to be a writer and I knew that I wasn't like a lot of other girls my age because of the way I looked and the music I listened to, the books I read and the things I liked to do. When I stopped kicking against that and realised that it was OK to be different, I became a lot happier in myself. So I guess I could really identify with Isabel from Let's Get Lost – not just because my mother passed away just before I started the book, but because I was so prickly and defensive when adolescence began to kick in.
3. How did you become a "Teen Queen Extraordinaire"? Was it always your dream to be a writer?
I have no idea how I became a Teen Queen Extraordinaire! Just luck, I guess! Certainly when I was a teenager, apart from loving Just Seventeen magazine (which I went on to write for), I shunned teen culture. But as I got older, I found myself obsessed and excited with things like old skool Sassy magazine and the TV show, My So-Called Life. My theory is that I made such a hash of being a teenager first time around, that I'm trying over and over again to get it right. I still feel the same away as I did when I was 17 – still trying to figure out all the big, heavy stuff and maybe that's why it feels very natural to write from the point of view of a teenage girl.
And I've always wanted to be a writer. Ever since I learnt the alphabet and suddenly realised that you could make words out of the letters. Certainly there are people who knew me when I was eight who can remember me announcing that I was going to be a writer – though I had a brief flirtation with wanting to be in a band but as I have no musical talent whatsoever, it was a very brief flirtation!
4. What is your favourite book?
I refuse to pick just one! The books that I re-read over and over again are Girl by Blake Nelson, Fabulous Nobodies by Lee Tulloch, The Pursuit Of Love and Love In A Cold Climate by Nancy Mitford, all of the Jane Austens (apart from Mansfield Park because I think Fanny Price is a stuck-up little prig) and Vladimir Nabokov's Lolita. Though I do read other stuff – anything and everything from Edith Wharton to Mills & Boon to biographies on Madame de Pompadour!
5. Who are your heroes?
Diana Vreeland who was a marvellous, idiosyncratic, eccentric woman who was editor in chief of US Vogue. I love the way she wrote about fashion and the wilful way she lived her life.
Coco Chanel because she liberated women by raising hem lengths so they no longer needed help crossing the road.
Courtney Love because she inspired me so much when I was younger. No matter what crazy stuff she pulls, there's something about Courtney and what she used to be that means I'll always be a little bit in love with her.
And Joss Whedon because he gave me Buffy and I'm probably more inspired by good TV writing than books.
I wish I had a few people in here who'd helped find a cure for cancer or campaigned for world peace, but I'm a very shallow person.
6. Are your characters ever based on people you know?
Not really. Usually it's people that I don't really know but there's something intriguing about them or what they're doing and I file them in my head and drag them out at a later date for a vignette or an incidental character. It sounds vague but for instance, I was in New York last November at a really cool restaurant called Bette's waiting for the loo next to this louche girl with the most sooty eyelashes I've ever seen and she was so full of ennui because she was beautiful that I thought, "Oh, you are so going into a book of mine!"
7. How do you get your ideas? Are they ever based on real life experiences?
They just happen. Diary Of A Crush was inspired by the two years that I spent at college after my school asked me not to go back to do A-levels. It was a time when I was changing and blossoming and that was what Edie was going through too – though I never had a Dylan. Let's Get Lost was directly inspired by losing my mother and thinking to myself how much worse it would be to lose a parent when you were a teenager and in the middle of that process of pushing your parents away so you can learn to be your own person. But Fashionistas, my new series, is inspired by everything that's going on around me in the world; from America's Next Top Model to car-crash celebrities to New York to the size zero debate to reality TV stars to Project Runway to walking past shops selling Saris to internet It girls to Agyness Deyn to post-Communist Russia! Everything inspires me and causes my imagination to almost implode and I wouldn't have it any other way.
8. What is your favourite band? Does music ever inspire your writing?
The bands I never, ever get bored of are Belle And Sebastian, Saint Etienne, Velvet Underground, Hello Saferide (a new addition but she's a keeper) and my Growin' Up Too Fast 60's girl group collection. At the moment I'm listening to a lot of Swedish bands and old French pop – I'm very Continental!
Music is a huge part of my writing process. Sometimes one song becomes a theme for a book (like Broken Social Scene's Anthems For A Seventeen Year Old Girl was for Let's Get Lost) but I always make a playlist for my main character and listen to it while I'm writing. It's hard at the moment as I'm writing Irina, the third book in the Fashionistas, and she's a Russian girl who listens to rap music, which I don't know much about.
9. Do you have any regrets?
Yes, but it's for the things I didn't do, not the things I did. Which is just how it should be!
Sunday, March 04, 2007
Research 101
Happy Sunday to you my little darlings
It's very soggy, chilled and grey here in London. I wish Spring would just hurry up and sprung already.
As ever, thanks for all your comments, particularly about my new series Fashionistas. I can't wait for you to read the first book when it comes out in June. Or is it July? I never can remember! And thanks for all your other comments, though I have to remind you that leaving a comment here or at MySpace is the best way to contact me. If you do manage to dig out my email addy, I send back a pre-written email, which is a bit of a FAQ and also a reminder that this blog or MySpace are the official ways to contact me. While I'm on a reminding tip, there are a list of tags on this blog that will direct you to previous posts on writing tips, why there will never be a sequel to Diary Of A Crush and all sorts of other exciting topics. And links to all my interviews on the interpipe.
So at the moment I'm hard at work on the third book in the Fashionstas series, Irina, all about a surly Russian model, which is proving a great way to channel my aggression as I stick to my 2500 daily word quota.
It occurs to me that I haven't talked about the writing process for ages so I thought I'd do a post about research and how important it is to a writer. Being neither Russian or a model (and in this case, never having visited Japan which takes up a significant few chapters), to write this book and make it convincing meant that I had to do a lot of research. In an ideal world, I'd make enough money and have such great connections that I could just jump on a plane to Moscow or Tokyo or call Kate Moss for a little chat, but I don't so here are the less glam tricks of my trade.
Interviews
I'm really lucky that I have a lot of contacts in the fashion industry so I've been going out for coffee with people who know more about this stuff than I do. (A little tip, I bought this little gizmo that I stick into my iPod, which turns it into a voice recorder.) My good friend Jill Wanless gave me loads of great stuff about modelling and what happens behind the scenes on fashion shoots. I was shocked that all the dramatic scenes I came up with weren't half as outlandish as some of the things that actually go on. I'm also incredibly lucky to know Iain R Webb, a really influentilal fashion writer and living legend. Iain actually worked for Russian Vogue and has visited Moscow so could give me a first hand account that I just couldn't get from my Rough Guide To Moscow. It's also been really helpful to be able to phone Jill up and ask inane questions like, "Is there anything that models usually take to go-sees?" Or "Could a size 10 girl realistically be a successful model?" I have to say that all my years of workong on fashion magazines and being bored stupid at photo shoots were also invaluable as I could use tons of things that actually happened that I've been saving up for ages.
Internet
I love the internet. You're all too young to remember life before it but it involved going to libraries and wading through card indexes or using cuttings agencies and still not finding what you were looking for. Google is a writer's best friend. Thanks to Google I could find out the time difference between here and Russia and how long the flight takes. Where the Prada in Moscow is and what does the street look like? Even what MacDonalds tastes like in Tokyo! I have to confess I get a bit eye-rolly when I get emails and messages, usually on book reports, asking me tons of questions and usually ending with the words, "I couldn't find anything about you on the internet!" In a fraction of the time, they could have put "sarra manning" in a google search and found out everything they neded to know, which is what I tell them to do when I reply!
My favourite two research webby tools are Wikipedia, which pretty much has the facts on anything and everything. Someone's even Wiki-ed me! My other must-have is the bookmark site delicious. When I find a site or an online article (even a cookie recipe) that I know I'll need at a later date, I just click on the del.icio.us button I've installed on my toolbar and bookmark the site, but I can also organise all my bookmarks into tags like 'Russia' or 'Fashionistas'.
Media
I think peple can be really up themselves about research. It can be fun too! Fr'instance I got to re-watch Lost In Translation to actually see what Tokyo was like and watched the special 'making of' feature on the DVD too. Hey, it gave me lots of colour that I could put into the book as well so who's to say that it's not proper research? I also watched a way dark film called Lilya 4 ever, which was a great insight into the seedy side of post-Soviet Russia. What's weird is that all of a sudden everything you watch is relevant. Like, this week's episode of UK teen drama Skins saw them going off on a school visit to Russia, while there's that really annoying Russian girl on the new series of ANTM! When I was writing the second book, Hadley, about a former child star turned partying club kid, there were bits of gossip I read on celeb blogs that went straight into the book, including the fantastic quote, "Urgh, don't talk to me like I'm a normal person!" I guess Hadley is based on a composite of maybe three or four different celebrities and the crazy shit that they got up to while I was working on the book was absolute writer's gold.
Something else I've always done is have a big stack of magazine articles in a folder - for the last 18 months that I've been writing Fashionstas, I've kept every interview I've found with a model, or a feature on the fashion industry, or the New York club scene or 'internet It girl' Cory Kennedy. Though I've stopped reading pieces on the size zero debate because, hello, so over it.
Joke
I've also been listening to The Research a lot! But I think the two things may be unconnected.
Love Sarra x
It's very soggy, chilled and grey here in London. I wish Spring would just hurry up and sprung already.
As ever, thanks for all your comments, particularly about my new series Fashionistas. I can't wait for you to read the first book when it comes out in June. Or is it July? I never can remember! And thanks for all your other comments, though I have to remind you that leaving a comment here or at MySpace is the best way to contact me. If you do manage to dig out my email addy, I send back a pre-written email, which is a bit of a FAQ and also a reminder that this blog or MySpace are the official ways to contact me. While I'm on a reminding tip, there are a list of tags on this blog that will direct you to previous posts on writing tips, why there will never be a sequel to Diary Of A Crush and all sorts of other exciting topics. And links to all my interviews on the interpipe.
So at the moment I'm hard at work on the third book in the Fashionstas series, Irina, all about a surly Russian model, which is proving a great way to channel my aggression as I stick to my 2500 daily word quota.
It occurs to me that I haven't talked about the writing process for ages so I thought I'd do a post about research and how important it is to a writer. Being neither Russian or a model (and in this case, never having visited Japan which takes up a significant few chapters), to write this book and make it convincing meant that I had to do a lot of research. In an ideal world, I'd make enough money and have such great connections that I could just jump on a plane to Moscow or Tokyo or call Kate Moss for a little chat, but I don't so here are the less glam tricks of my trade.
Interviews
I'm really lucky that I have a lot of contacts in the fashion industry so I've been going out for coffee with people who know more about this stuff than I do. (A little tip, I bought this little gizmo that I stick into my iPod, which turns it into a voice recorder.) My good friend Jill Wanless gave me loads of great stuff about modelling and what happens behind the scenes on fashion shoots. I was shocked that all the dramatic scenes I came up with weren't half as outlandish as some of the things that actually go on. I'm also incredibly lucky to know Iain R Webb, a really influentilal fashion writer and living legend. Iain actually worked for Russian Vogue and has visited Moscow so could give me a first hand account that I just couldn't get from my Rough Guide To Moscow. It's also been really helpful to be able to phone Jill up and ask inane questions like, "Is there anything that models usually take to go-sees?" Or "Could a size 10 girl realistically be a successful model?" I have to say that all my years of workong on fashion magazines and being bored stupid at photo shoots were also invaluable as I could use tons of things that actually happened that I've been saving up for ages.
Internet
I love the internet. You're all too young to remember life before it but it involved going to libraries and wading through card indexes or using cuttings agencies and still not finding what you were looking for. Google is a writer's best friend. Thanks to Google I could find out the time difference between here and Russia and how long the flight takes. Where the Prada in Moscow is and what does the street look like? Even what MacDonalds tastes like in Tokyo! I have to confess I get a bit eye-rolly when I get emails and messages, usually on book reports, asking me tons of questions and usually ending with the words, "I couldn't find anything about you on the internet!" In a fraction of the time, they could have put "sarra manning" in a google search and found out everything they neded to know, which is what I tell them to do when I reply!
My favourite two research webby tools are Wikipedia, which pretty much has the facts on anything and everything. Someone's even Wiki-ed me! My other must-have is the bookmark site delicious. When I find a site or an online article (even a cookie recipe) that I know I'll need at a later date, I just click on the del.icio.us button I've installed on my toolbar and bookmark the site, but I can also organise all my bookmarks into tags like 'Russia' or 'Fashionistas'.
Media
I think peple can be really up themselves about research. It can be fun too! Fr'instance I got to re-watch Lost In Translation to actually see what Tokyo was like and watched the special 'making of' feature on the DVD too. Hey, it gave me lots of colour that I could put into the book as well so who's to say that it's not proper research? I also watched a way dark film called Lilya 4 ever, which was a great insight into the seedy side of post-Soviet Russia. What's weird is that all of a sudden everything you watch is relevant. Like, this week's episode of UK teen drama Skins saw them going off on a school visit to Russia, while there's that really annoying Russian girl on the new series of ANTM! When I was writing the second book, Hadley, about a former child star turned partying club kid, there were bits of gossip I read on celeb blogs that went straight into the book, including the fantastic quote, "Urgh, don't talk to me like I'm a normal person!" I guess Hadley is based on a composite of maybe three or four different celebrities and the crazy shit that they got up to while I was working on the book was absolute writer's gold.
Something else I've always done is have a big stack of magazine articles in a folder - for the last 18 months that I've been writing Fashionstas, I've kept every interview I've found with a model, or a feature on the fashion industry, or the New York club scene or 'internet It girl' Cory Kennedy. Though I've stopped reading pieces on the size zero debate because, hello, so over it.
Joke
I've also been listening to The Research a lot! But I think the two things may be unconnected.
Love Sarra x
Saturday, December 02, 2006
Burning the candle at both ends...
Buenos dias, my sweet ones
I'm a little hurty today as I've been going out too much and possibly drinking too much as well. Last night, I saw my good friend Kate Kannibal (possibly not her real last name) and her wonderful band, The Priscillas, play their Christmas show. And very wonderful it was, plus there was spectacular fake snow that got everywhere.
I'm meant to be going out tonight but the thought of curling up on the sofa in my pyjamas and watching DVDs is looking more and more tempting by the second. Especially as the coming week promises bowling and/or karaoke plus going to see my favourite new band Lucky Soul. Then a cocktail party and more bowling. Everyone I know seems to have a birthday right about now. Including the baby Jesus.
When I haven't been drinking and getting the 134 bus home at some ungodly hour in the morning, I've been wading through the second draft of the second book in my new series. I've made a rash promise to deliver it before Christmas. I'm crazy like that.
I'm still thrilled with all your comments about Let's Get Lost, especially as it seems to be more than just a good read, but a book that stays with you after you've read it and makes you cry. Tears are good. Tears are what I wanted. And the other thing I love is when art and life collide and something in one of my books slots right into what's happening with you. Fr'instance, onewtown08 is moving to Bossier City which is namechecked in Sealed With A Kiss and Dannie has been to Bailey's Fish 'n' Chip shop in Southend, which gets a mention in Pretty Things. Actually, Dannie since you told me that I've had a terrible hankering fro haddock and chips from Toff's, my local award-winning chippie, but I'm trying to be strong and eat lots of vegetables instead.
But there are two points of business I need to clear up. I've mentioned them before but no one took any notice! If you are writing a book report or essay on me, then all the info you need is already online. All you need to do is google my name (in speechmarks) and you'll find everything you want, except my age and marital status because heck, a girl has to retain some mystery. I'm kinda bemused when told that people haven't been to find anything on the interpipe, or maybe they just didn't look! And the other thing is that if you send me a message on MySpace, then I can't reply to you if you'r settings won't accept messages from people you haven't Friended. And I can't Friend you if your settings only accept 'adds' from people who know your last name or your email addy. I'm not ignoring you!
And finally, no one seems to want an end of year mix CD from me. The offer still stands. Two lucky people will get my annual Songs That Have Changed My Life This Year CD that I send out with my Crimbo cards. All you have to do is send me a Christmas message from one of the characters in any one of my books. Make them, funny, thoughtful, creative, whatever and remember to leave your email addy.
Cross-posted at http://blog.myspace.com/sarramanning
I'm a little hurty today as I've been going out too much and possibly drinking too much as well. Last night, I saw my good friend Kate Kannibal (possibly not her real last name) and her wonderful band, The Priscillas, play their Christmas show. And very wonderful it was, plus there was spectacular fake snow that got everywhere.
I'm meant to be going out tonight but the thought of curling up on the sofa in my pyjamas and watching DVDs is looking more and more tempting by the second. Especially as the coming week promises bowling and/or karaoke plus going to see my favourite new band Lucky Soul. Then a cocktail party and more bowling. Everyone I know seems to have a birthday right about now. Including the baby Jesus.
When I haven't been drinking and getting the 134 bus home at some ungodly hour in the morning, I've been wading through the second draft of the second book in my new series. I've made a rash promise to deliver it before Christmas. I'm crazy like that.
I'm still thrilled with all your comments about Let's Get Lost, especially as it seems to be more than just a good read, but a book that stays with you after you've read it and makes you cry. Tears are good. Tears are what I wanted. And the other thing I love is when art and life collide and something in one of my books slots right into what's happening with you. Fr'instance, onewtown08 is moving to Bossier City which is namechecked in Sealed With A Kiss and Dannie has been to Bailey's Fish 'n' Chip shop in Southend, which gets a mention in Pretty Things. Actually, Dannie since you told me that I've had a terrible hankering fro haddock and chips from Toff's, my local award-winning chippie, but I'm trying to be strong and eat lots of vegetables instead.
But there are two points of business I need to clear up. I've mentioned them before but no one took any notice! If you are writing a book report or essay on me, then all the info you need is already online. All you need to do is google my name (in speechmarks) and you'll find everything you want, except my age and marital status because heck, a girl has to retain some mystery. I'm kinda bemused when told that people haven't been to find anything on the interpipe, or maybe they just didn't look! And the other thing is that if you send me a message on MySpace, then I can't reply to you if you'r settings won't accept messages from people you haven't Friended. And I can't Friend you if your settings only accept 'adds' from people who know your last name or your email addy. I'm not ignoring you!
And finally, no one seems to want an end of year mix CD from me. The offer still stands. Two lucky people will get my annual Songs That Have Changed My Life This Year CD that I send out with my Crimbo cards. All you have to do is send me a Christmas message from one of the characters in any one of my books. Make them, funny, thoughtful, creative, whatever and remember to leave your email addy.
Cross-posted at http://blog.myspace.com/sarramanning
Wednesday, September 27, 2006
I'm alive! Alive, I tell you!
Oh, people
I'm so elusive these days, I know. Apart from a delightful trip to Florence to try on clothes in Zara, rather than looking at paintings of naked cherubim, and eating yummy fruit the size of my head, I haven't been up to much. But alas, my interpipe connection is extremely poorly, nay in a critical condition, and swapping to a new ISP is going to take about a month.
In the meantime a huge backlog of emails and messages are building up and it's all very vexing. But some not so good news, I've just found out that my new new book, the first volume in a four part series, won't be out in the UK until July 2007. Ignore what it says on UK Amazon. Let's Get Lost is still out in the US and Canada at the end of this October and you can pre-order it on Amazon and at Barnes & Noble.
One last thing before I'm cruelly cut off. Katie on MySpace I did get your message but then it disappeared and I completely agree with you about the DOAC thing but don't tell anyone that I did. And also, MySpace peeps, if you send me a message I can't reply to it or add you to my friends list if your MySpace is set up so you don't accept messages or adds from people who aren't your friends. Just so you know!
And yes, I did enjoy Little Miss Sunshine (didn't love it, but I'm all about the beauty pageants!)
Live on
Sarra x
(cross-posted to http://blog.myspace.com/sarramanning)
I'm so elusive these days, I know. Apart from a delightful trip to Florence to try on clothes in Zara, rather than looking at paintings of naked cherubim, and eating yummy fruit the size of my head, I haven't been up to much. But alas, my interpipe connection is extremely poorly, nay in a critical condition, and swapping to a new ISP is going to take about a month.
In the meantime a huge backlog of emails and messages are building up and it's all very vexing. But some not so good news, I've just found out that my new new book, the first volume in a four part series, won't be out in the UK until July 2007. Ignore what it says on UK Amazon. Let's Get Lost is still out in the US and Canada at the end of this October and you can pre-order it on Amazon and at Barnes & Noble.
One last thing before I'm cruelly cut off. Katie on MySpace I did get your message but then it disappeared and I completely agree with you about the DOAC thing but don't tell anyone that I did. And also, MySpace peeps, if you send me a message I can't reply to it or add you to my friends list if your MySpace is set up so you don't accept messages or adds from people who aren't your friends. Just so you know!
And yes, I did enjoy Little Miss Sunshine (didn't love it, but I'm all about the beauty pageants!)
Live on
Sarra x
(cross-posted to http://blog.myspace.com/sarramanning)
Wednesday, March 29, 2006
Because Friendster is so three years ago...
http://myspace.com/sarramanning
Yes, my friends I've given into the evil lure of My Space! I had a huge batch of emails forwarded to me by my publishers and I realise that some of you are replying to posts I've made here, and even entering some of the competitions I've run, by email to the books with bite addy. That doesn't actually work so well. If you've received my long 'bounce-back' email you'll know that I can't reply to emails for a variety of reasons.
But I am aware that blogspot can be a bit problematic. Because I was getting so much comment spam, I had to set up this blog so that only people with blogspot membership could reply. Now I'm passionate about blogging but I realise that some of you aren't but it also means that I can't leave comments on your blogs because you've already deleted them.
So, my cunning solution to all of this is to have a My Space page. I'm guessing that a lot of you are on there too and it's much easier to leave comments and Friend people. All the entries I make here will now be cross-posted to My Space and I would love, love, love it if you could come and Friend me and I will Friend you back. The MySpace blog will only be open to people who are on my Friends Space but I think it's a much cooler, user-friendly place than maybe blogspot is.
So, come on. I have to get more Friends that my RL friends, some of whom are in bands!
In other business, I'm sorry but there are no plans for me to travel around the country doing book signings. I'm way low down on the famous author's ladder and it would cost more to stick me on a train, then the booksellers would get back from people buying books for me to sign. It's a sad but true state of affairs. I will be doing a whole day at the Birmingham Young Readers Week on Tuesday 23rd, so if you're from Brum and your school wants to know if you're interested in any events going on, sign up! I'm taking part in a debate about text speak (so very against it!) in the morning and then in the afternoon I'm giving a talk about what inspires me. Y'know, the usual, The OC blah blah blah, My So-Called Life blah blah blah. You can pretty much guess what I'll say!
Also, illnevertell, I might be able to do an interview via email. Possibly. Have you got an URL for the e-zine?
And now I need to get back to that difficult chapter four.
Laters!
Love
Sarra
Yes, my friends I've given into the evil lure of My Space! I had a huge batch of emails forwarded to me by my publishers and I realise that some of you are replying to posts I've made here, and even entering some of the competitions I've run, by email to the books with bite addy. That doesn't actually work so well. If you've received my long 'bounce-back' email you'll know that I can't reply to emails for a variety of reasons.
But I am aware that blogspot can be a bit problematic. Because I was getting so much comment spam, I had to set up this blog so that only people with blogspot membership could reply. Now I'm passionate about blogging but I realise that some of you aren't but it also means that I can't leave comments on your blogs because you've already deleted them.
So, my cunning solution to all of this is to have a My Space page. I'm guessing that a lot of you are on there too and it's much easier to leave comments and Friend people. All the entries I make here will now be cross-posted to My Space and I would love, love, love it if you could come and Friend me and I will Friend you back. The MySpace blog will only be open to people who are on my Friends Space but I think it's a much cooler, user-friendly place than maybe blogspot is.
So, come on. I have to get more Friends that my RL friends, some of whom are in bands!
In other business, I'm sorry but there are no plans for me to travel around the country doing book signings. I'm way low down on the famous author's ladder and it would cost more to stick me on a train, then the booksellers would get back from people buying books for me to sign. It's a sad but true state of affairs. I will be doing a whole day at the Birmingham Young Readers Week on Tuesday 23rd, so if you're from Brum and your school wants to know if you're interested in any events going on, sign up! I'm taking part in a debate about text speak (so very against it!) in the morning and then in the afternoon I'm giving a talk about what inspires me. Y'know, the usual, The OC blah blah blah, My So-Called Life blah blah blah. You can pretty much guess what I'll say!
Also, illnevertell, I might be able to do an interview via email. Possibly. Have you got an URL for the e-zine?
And now I need to get back to that difficult chapter four.
Laters!
Love
Sarra
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