So . . . this is what I have been working on . . .

WHO RUNS THE WORLD?

Welcome to the Matriarchy.

“Sixty years after a virus has wiped out almost all the men on the planet, things are pretty much just as you would imagine a world run by women might be: war has ended; greed is not tolerated; the ecological needs of the planet are always put first. In two generations, the female population has grieved, pulled together and moved on, and life really is pretty good – if you’re a girl. It’s not so great if you’re a boy, but fourteen-year-old River wouldn’t know that. Until she met Mason, she thought they were extinct.”

This is the proof copy, to be sent out for review, so the final cover will look different . . . and maybe some of the text might be different too! (You know me: I’ll keep tinkering right up until it goes to the printers.)

It’s not out until June 1st 2017, but if you’re keen to pre-order it’s already online at my publishers, Macmillan.

Yeah . . . it’s a question, isn’t it? Who does run the world?

I don’t know how I missed this one!

It’s Regnen – the Danish edition of The Rain, translated by Randi Bjerre Høfring.

Mange tak, Turbine!

Very quiet. Now working with industrial ear-defenders on (my neighbourhood can be a little noisy at times) to get THE NEW BOOK finished.

Meantime, The Storm has been published in paperback by Sourcebooks Fire in the US:

And LA LLUVIA has been published by Planeta de Libros México:

I’m way behind schedule on THE NEW BOOK. Am I panicking? YES.

Onwards . . .

I was speechless at North Oxfordshire Academy. That’s the post pic: first time I met ‘Darius Spratt’.

(Thank you so much, student ‘C’! I was AMAZED.)

Superb cosplay – and I never even knew what that was until The Rain was published. Then I went to YALC at the London Film and Comic Con. I found out.

But . . . I have gone quiet. Writing new book. New book tricky. First draft deadline April 29^th.

I’m concentrating.

Send help. Tea, biscuits, housekeeper, sink-mender (IT’S STILL LEAKING!) . . . that kind of thing.

See you later . . .

Vx

WORLD BOOK DAY TEEN FEST 2-3rd March

‘WBD TeenFest will combine live chats with your favourite YA authors, exclusive author blogs, DIY videos, fabulous competitions, fun deskies and shelfies PLUS our rapid-fire Bumper Book Quiz! We just can’t wait.’

And nor can I! I’ll be blogging it on the WBD Teen Fest website, heading out for events at North Oxfordshire Academy (Banbury), Didcot Girls’ School and Bruton School for Girls and quizzing it on a video for Macmillan South Africa (pics to come) . . .

JOIN US.

CHAOS! APOLOGIES! SO LATE!

2015 was an astonishing year for me and that Ruby Morris.

So grateful to readers – and to schools, book awards, YALC and Macmillan for opportunities to get out there.

If you write, you know how it is: you spend your life in a small room imagining (and typing and deleting and typing again).

In 2015, I had to LEAVE THE KEYBOARD.

Always had a terrible fear of public speaking. I had to get out and get over it – and myself! – and learn that it’s really a pleasure and a privilege to TALK TO PEOPLE.

Previous posts describe many goings-on, all too too lovely to pick a highlight, but here’s the ones I missed in the end-of-year scramble:

Clevedon School! This should have been my disaster of the year! Books on the Hill (fantastic new Somerset booksellers: SUPPORT THEM!) and I didn’t know . . . if you’re not a HUGE name, no one – not even teachers! – will come to an after-school gig. FOUR students turned up . . . and it was BRILLIANT. The 4 Johns (you had to be there), I salute you.

The Sheffield Book Award! Shucks, The Rain didn’t win, but I got to meet hundreds of young readers in The Crucible theatre, followed by a presentation at All Saints High School. (Had never spoken in an open-plan classroom before – didn’t even know they existed! – so to those students: THANK YOU! I couldn’t have done that without you!)

Swindon Youth Festival of Literature! Nova Hreod Academy?! STARS!!! Super-atmospheric rainy day for a presentation or two – and a storm of questions and comments to follow. I grew up near Swindon and I have to confess it gives me the shivers to be back on home ground – in a good way. (The best part of getting published is being able to support young readers and writers.)

King’s School, Bruton, Somerset! Thank you! I was poorly and thought I needed a mike – and it was better without! Included my first Year 9 group . . . and we rocked it. Excellent Q&A. Excellent! First time I’ve been stumped: can you synthesise water? (The student who asked the question took the time and the trouble to find out: you can, but it’d be pricey . . . )

Queensbridge School, Birmingham!  Great school, great welcome and –  first ever workshops . . . possible only with massive support from the excellent librarians and teaching staff. (And I do mean massive support – thank you!) I used to teach English to Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL), so I reckoned I knew my way around a lesson plan – but I’d never done classes with Year 7’s before. Wow! The ENERGY. The IDEAS. The ENTHUSIASM.
Also thank you to The National Literacy Trust; visit funded by the Premier League Reading Stars scheme.

Cambridge Writers! THANK YOU! Last gig of the year . . . I felt like I’d come home. I spent years in writing groups, small and large, focusing on this and that. Sharing, feeling vulnerable, sometimes indignant and misunderstood – but always learning . . . including learning how to respect your own voice and style. Lots of diverse voices in Cambridge Writers. You made me feel so welcome! (I didn’t want to leave.)

That’s about it.

Thank you to everyone I met, and to all those who read. Chuffed. Honoured.

Oh, and I’ve moved back to Bristol.

Me, I’m working on a new book now. 😉

As you know, The Rain didn’t win at the Oxfordshire Book Awards (it came 3rd!), but I went along to the ceremony anyway. Had to: I come from Abingdon – and I was so very pleased and delighted that Ruby’s story got shortlisted.

I’m glad I went along! Fantastic welcome from the students at Oxford High School, great to see Mark from Mostly Books in Abingdon again and . . . I got to meet so many of the young people who’d been involved in the awards. I signed books . . . and programmes, slips of paper, two mobile phones, a ‘Books Are My Bag’ carrier bag and a stars-and-galaxies printed rucksack. You had to be there.

Top day . . . except . . . there was no cake left! (Book cakes pic: Sue Heap and Teresa Heapy (Best Picture Book), Robin Stevens (Best Primary) and Jo Cotterill (Highly Commended Secondary))

So I went for a cup of tea with my guest for the day, Michele Paule. I’ve known her since I was five. We’re both Abingdon gals, and we had a great chat about where we’re at (it had been 30+ years since we last saw each other!), how we got there, and what we think about . . . reading, schools, communities, single mothers, social housing, discrimination, education, representation, equality and . . .

TRANSPORTATION?! Gnyah!  I tried to get home and got stuck in a traffic jam.

Peachtree Roundabout . . . some things don’t change . . .

Do teens go to lit fests? Yes – and no. It might cost money, it might be after school . . . it might just seem like a lit fest isn’t a teen kind of thing . . .

I’ve got to hand it to Sherborne Literary Society; they bring the lit fest to the teens.

Sher Lit Soc Schools Liaison organiser Lucy Beney arranged for me to go along to Sherborne Girls and The Gryphon School as part of the festival – just one small part (last year, they reached around 900 young people through youth events!) . . . and it was sooooooooo good!

In fact, it was SO sooooooooo good, ace indie bookseller Winstone’s ran out of books and so I went back to The Gryphon a few days later to sign . . .

. . . and to meet young writers.

Yup, whenever you go to a school, there are always writers about. I think that’s what was happening in this pic; I’d been given a short story to read. (It was very, very good.)

Thank you to everyone – most especially to Lucy Beney and the fabulous Julie Hoskins at The Gryphon School. Both amazing champions of young people’s reading.

And the young people I met? Thank you – and, hey, we did a lit fest. Vx

It happened – and it’s still happening, until Sunday 4th October. Go see the website: Bath Kids Lit Fest

I went early on Saturday night to hear Patrick (ooo I like his writing so much!) Ness, and stayed late on Sunday to hear Hayley Long and James Dawson talk Girl and Boy with secret ‘ask anything you like’ questions from the audience, and in between . . .

Festival director Gill McLay chaired a conversation with writers Sarah Benwell, Sarah Crossan and . . . me.

I read the ‘panda in the mirror’ scene from The Storm.

And . . . it was the first time I’ve done an event when I haven’t been completely sick with nerves. I was just averagely sick with nerves. (RESULT!)

For why? Because it was a smaller audience (about 100!) and because it was SO interesting. As always, audience questions were the best, from ‘Did you have to do a lot of research?’ to ‘Do you self-censor?’ . . . and I had one I particularly loved about ‘What will Ruby do when make-up runs out?’

The answer turned out to be as complicated as I think Ruby is! (And I asked a question back: ‘Do readers and writers want characters to be role models?’)

Bath. My first lit fest. Huge thanks to everyone who came along!

(And special thanks to Luna for mid-reading pic!)

Fantastisch #2! More German reviews of Rain! Vielen danke!

“Realistische Darstellung eines düsteren Weltuntergangs-Szenarios – authentisch und fesselnd.” (test-bericht.info)

Karin Hahn Rezensionen

Yvonnes Bücherecke

Vanessas Büchrecke

und . . . Bücher Kinder