It’s official publication day for the paperbacks of Soul Beach – and I hope you’ll agree with the kitten that it’s every bit as stunning as the hardback!
New kitty has been with us for seven weeks and is fitting in very well. All writers need a cat, in my opinion, and so when we had to say goodbye to our beloved first cat, who died at the grand old age of sixteen, we went to the RSPCA to find a new furry friend. We debated waiting, but there was a fuzzy gap where a cat should have been.
There wasn’t a single meow on the way home in the car: perhaps she’d had enough of her two boring brothers. She was incredibly confident and curious right from the start, though her attempts to climb the wisteria have been nipped in the bud (I am not posting a picture of my poor scratched forearms: this cat has very sharp claws).
So I am cracking on with the third and final book in the Soul Beach trilogy – when I’m not playing hunting games with Ms Pointy Whiskers. You so do NOT want to be a ping-pong ball in our house. Actually, I must say her devastating killer instinct is proving quite helpful as Alice and the murderer play the deadliest game of cat and mouse.
I am also mulling an idea I am very excited about for my next ‘adult’ book – though it’s not that kind of adult book. I’m just not a Shades of Grey kinda girl (except when it comes to tabby cats).
There’s been a lot of negativity lately about the ‘death of books’ or ‘the end of reading’ – the theory goes that we’re all too distracted by Facebook or games to get lost in a great book.
As a reader- and a writer – I hope that’s not true. So I decided to find out more about what we’re reading, via this new survey.
I’m working with the Romantic Novelists Association (www.rna-uk.org), whose members write an astonishing variety of novels, including many that might not strike you as immediately ‘romantic’. What we have in common is the love of story-telling, whether it involves vampires,vamps or Victorian heroines.
We’d really like to hear your views – and your answers will help authors, booksellers and publishers to understand how your choices and tastes are changing.
Do forward the survey to any of your book-loving friends or family members.I’ll post the results this summer.
It’s here – and I love it, I must admit! The cover for Soul Fire, the second in the Soul Beach trilogy, will be published in the UK in July 2012. As the cover says, it’s getting hotter on the Beach – and as Alice looks for her sister’s killer, she ends up in a firestorm of her own.
The book’s now being copy-edited, to make sure I haven’t got my dates muddled up. Really looking forward to seeing the real thing… and in the meantime, I am plotting the third and final part of the trilogy which is thrilling and nerve-wracking in equal measure. I know how it ends – but there’s still plenty to work out!
I also need to do some extremely vital beach-related research: more details to follow!
My Boot Camp book is now with my editor, and I am mulling what adult book to write next. But in the mean time, I’ve been doing some crystal-ball gazing.
… is a project asking people to imagine what life will be like in 2025 – and how technology could damage or benefit us. I’ve written a specially commissioned short story, called The Last Ladybird, which will be available to download soon on the official website.
It was great fun to imagine how life might be in fifteen years: the good and the bad. And if you fancy doing the same, there’ll also be a short story competition to enter, so do keep checking the site.
As part of my research, I’ve been getting to know Britain’s 46 different species of ladybirds. Fascinating stuff. My personal favourite? Our only vegetarian ladybird, the pale and interesting Subcoccinella 24-punctata:
How does he feature in my story? You’ll have to wait and see.
I don’t know how 2011 was for you, but it felt like seriously hard work from where I am sitting (at my desk, watching cats chase seagulls off a roof, now you come to mention it). Yes, January 1 is just another day, but I do still like the whole ‘out with the old, in with the new’ business.
For the first time this year I went to the Burning of the Clocks parade in Brighton, where people make lanterns to be burned, process through town onto the beach for a huge bonfire and firework display. It’s held on the night of the winter solstice and was a truly magical experience.
I was burning the midnight oil over the ‘holidays’ with two deadlines looming large for 2012: For Soul Fire, the second in the Soul Beach trilogy, and for The Boot Camp, my next adult novel, which is also due to be published this year. I can’t seem to manage writing two different styles of book simultaneously, so I juggled a lot. But thankfully, I got both sent to their respective editors by the second week in January. Now I must wait for the verdict…
I’ve also seen covers for both books and am really excited by both – but it’s a bit early to share them. More soon!
There was some great news about Soul Beach – it’s been long-listed for the Branford Boase Award for debut children’s novels! This is a fantastic award that recognises both authors and the work their editors put in to shape the books (and careers) of the story-tellers they work with. So my fab editor Amber Caraveo is with Soul Beach on the long list. I gather it is rather a long long-list – it hasn’t been published yet but I am looking forward to seeing (and reading) the other titles on the list.
I hope your year is shaping up well so far! I’ll be back with cover news before too long.
Quite a few people have popped up on the site lately after Googling ‘Secret Shopper Order’ (yes, I can tell what people have been Googling to get here – in many cases, you do NOT want to know).
Anyway, it made me realise it’s not at all obvious which order you should read the books in, if you want to treat yourself (!) to the entire Secret Shopper experience. So please listen to the following information to make your journey more comfortable and enjoyable:
Book Number 1: The Secret Shopper’s Revenge
Book Number 2: The Secret Shopper Unwrapped
And Book Number 3: The Secret Shopper Affair
I know they don’t match. But they are all very pretty, right?
That’s the end of my Secret Shopper in-flight safety briefing. Thank you for your attention and enjoy the ride.
How on earth can it be paperback publication day for The Secret Shopper Affair already? And half-way through October. This year is going at super-warp speed.
I’ve written before about Post-Pub-Day blues. And the world is full of gloom and recessionary talk and stories about the death of the book.
But you know what? When I answered a knock at the door today and was handed some gorgeous publication day flowers, I realised yet again how lucky I am to be a writer. There is nothing better than being paid to make stuff up – and whatever happens to the format of books, human beings will always need stories in form or another.
So I am going back to my edits on the second Soul Beach with a spring in my step. Hope you’re having a happy autumn, too.
Still August (just) but autumn’s already knocking on the door, and doesn’t it feel that way, too?
I’ve been looking forward to 1 September ever since I found out it was the publication date for Soul Beach. And now it’s almost here!
This is both the most exciting – and the scariest time for an author. There is nothing more to be done to the book, though there’s plenty to be done on the marketing front. But now it fundamentally comes down to two things: enthusiastic readers, and good luck.
I am hoping for plenty of both!
In the meantime, the best solution for any writer suffering Pre Publication Tension is to Keep Calm and Write On. I’ve spent lots of time this summer dealing with the endless admin involved in moving house, but it’s time for that clean sweep/new broom before a (hopefully) productive autumn. I have two sets of editorial notes due any day, and a great line-up of events.
And I have a peculiar fondness for September. October, not so much. And November is too cold to be in any way likeable. But September still brings random blessings of blissful warm days, juicy apples, and that bittersweet ‘going back to school’ feeling of new beginnings. Along with a good excuse to start snuggling up and hunkering down in warm socks and The Killing-style patterned jumpers.
In the right hand corner of my little picture you can just see the chimney sweep’s broom coming out of our chimney pot – and pretty soon we should be warming our toes and maybe our jacket potatoes on the heat from a wood burning stove.
I plan to embrace the shorter evenings, and my edits (!), and also enjoy the publication moment.
There’ve been lots of changes on Planet Harrison lately. New website, new house, and a brand new book about to be published.
It’s fair to say that the feline member of the household – she’s sixteen, which in cat years works out at about a hundred, I think – doesn’t respond terribly well to new places and new people (or new cats, come to think of it).
In contrast, I do like to shake things up a bit, but there’s been too much even for me recently. I love our new home but we’ve moved three times in the last couple of years (including to a different country and back) and have had enough of boxing things up and unpacking them.
The whole effort of working out where the scissors are, which kitchen cabinet should take the mugs, and how the washing machine works, seems to sap the energy I need for writing. But luckily the move has coincided with a writing hiatus, while my two fab editors consider my two latest manuscripts: My Big Fat Boot Camp, and Soul Beach Book 2. I suspect I will be getting the editorial notes on both of those very soon so I’d better got those cupboards sorted in doublt-quick time.
Other changes are afoot, including publication of Soul Beach in less than two weeks – I am nervously awaiting the reactions, but there’ve been some very positive reviews on the blogs so I hope they’ll continue. Plus, I also have a new cover look for the paperback of The Secret Shopper Affair.
Welcome to my new, freshly baked website: I know, I know, it’s been a long time coming!
The last few months have been absolutely crazy. I guess it’s something to do with moving countries, trying to buy a house, trying to write two novels in parallel, learning cake decorating secrets from a true artist, Rachel Mount – oh, and giving my website a long overdue makeover.
So – here it is! Do take a look around and let me know what you think – and whether there are other things you’d like to see.
And – as the advertisers always say – much, much more.
In the meantime, I guess I should stop fiddling with the site, and get back to the work(s)-in-progress – Soul Beach 2 and Last Chance Boot Camp will not write themselves (if anyone ever finds a software package that will do that first draft for you, please get in touch immediately to let me know).
Hasta pronto!
Kate x
