The aesthetics of The Last Beginning

It’s exactly a month today until The Last Beginning is released….so here’s an aesthetics post! Here’s what you can expect from the book: historical gays, proud parents, knitting, time travel & rivers.

Bonus:

Sources (x) (x) (x) (x) (x) (x) (x) (x) (x)

The Last Beginning will be published by Walker Books in the UK and Australia on 6th October 2016. It will be released in the US in Fall 2017 by Sky Pony Press.

Amazon UK | Book Depository | Waterstones | Foyles  | Hive 

You can add the book on Goodreads or subscribe to my mailing list for updates, or read the prologue on Wattpad.

My most nerdy dorkdoms

I recently read and loved this blog post by the Reading Rambo, where she lists her four most nerdy interests: the things she could talk about uninterrupted for hours at a time. I’m gonna steal her idea (which she stole from a podcast called The Dork Forest!) and write about my four most TERRIBLY EMBARRASSINGLY NERDY NICHE INTERESTS. Let’s go.

(Also: I’m gonna go ahead and tag this as my July favourites, because it’s nearly September and I have not done that yet. So….this counts.)

ONE. Fandom Culture

Listen. Whenever I’m ill, I do three things: read some fic, order sweets on Amazon Prime, and spend eight hours in the #babygate tag on Tumblr. It’s my guiltiest of guilty pleasures. I’m not really a big ‘shipper’ of real life people like Louis and Harry or Taylor and Karlie or Dan and Phil, but I’m freaking obsessed with the mindsets of shippers.

They are so immersed in every aspect of their interest, to the point of delusion. They invest endless time and energy meticulously analysing every detail of the political, economical and social details of their celebrity’s life/relationship, and ignore the moral grey areas that it involves (like keeping tabs on the social media accounts of celebrities’ young family members for any accidental slips of information).

Fans are the worst and best kinds of spies, and I have so much respect for that level of obsession about anything – but the intersection of obsession and celebrity particularly interests me. Like, read this post, where a Larry blogger explains why they do not, in fact, ship Larry. There is an incredible amount of information about that person to unpack there. I will one day write a novel from the point of view of a tumblr conspiracy theorist shipper. tumblr_nn4jtidFbG1u019nmo1_500.jpg

Other connected interests: fanfic as a genre (which I discuss a little here) and really old school  LiveJournal drama, such as the Harry Potter BNFs intrigues of the early 00’s. I could literally talk about this (and I do) for hoursandhoursanddays.

TWO. Arrested Development 

I will watch and adore any zany, meta/intertextual American comedy. But Arrested Development holds a special place in my heart.  I have goalsandaspirations to be a screenwriter one day, and I want to write a show like Arrested Development: weird and clever and rewarding of obsession.

I rewatch the entire series once a year, minimum. All of the characters are problematic and awful and I adore every single terrible one of them, from Gob to the Perfect Michael to Lucille to Maebe to – oh god, I’m getting all emotional – George Michael.

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Listen. If you’ve never watched this show (or anything similar like Community) give it a go. It may change everything you thought you knew about what clever writing can do. It perfects the art of foreshadowing, the art of comedy, the art of character development and character unravel-ment, the art of sly and knowing narration, the art of just being super super amazing in general. If you need a quick introduction, my tag on tumblr is a good place to start.

I adore Arrested Development. I’ve adored other tv shows in my time, like Hannibal and Doctor Who and Brooklyn Nine Nine and Broad City and Jekyll, but my love for other things wanes and flows depending on how recently I watched it (or who the current showrunner is). My love for Arrested Development is constant and eternal and pure and utterly forgiving (even during the last season, which was….not the best.) It deserves a place on this list because I can’t see that ever changing.

THREE. The Raven Cycle

I limited myself to only one book on this list, because otherwise all four of them would have been, like, HP, HDM, JS&MN etc. So….here’s my One Book Choice. It was a tough one, but in the end I went with my most recent and hardhitting obsession.

I read a lot of books. Like, a lot. But none of them have got me hooked so much and so quickly as Stiefvater’s quartet since I was a kid. I’m so obsessed with this series that I forced all my friends to reread the series and have monthly discussion meetings in the run up to the release of The Raven King. They were good sports about it.

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Art by cassandrajp

Thinking about these characters literally makes my heart hurt. I love them all, Ronan and Adam and Gansey and Noah and lovely, fiesty, underappreciated Blue. I want to be friends with them. I would love to read the strange, magical prose of more books about the rest of their lives. It’s an art to get readers to care so deeply about characters, and Stiefvater has pulled it off. She’s also the queen of foreshadowing.

While I do have a lot of opinions about the end of the series, the fact that I care so deeply that I have such strong opinions is a sign of a true obsession. On the list it goes.

FOUR. My Characters

Like, obviously. COME ON. I’m a writer! Of course i’m obsessed with my babies! From Kate and Matt to Clove and Ella, and the ones you haven’t met yet, like Romy and Leah and Rima and Felix and Harriet……sigh. I could talk about them for the rest of my life without pause (luckily I get paid to do just that!).

It’s a strange kind of obsession, since they literally came from myself, but once a character is created they are their own being, and I want to know every single thing about them. I love the act of creation and the depth of feeling I can conjure up for these fictional people, and that feeling is addictive. I am obsessed.

BONUS, obsessions that I considered adding to this list: My dogs. The website The Toast. Leonard ‘Bones’ McCoy. This article about mozzarella sticks. Vampire Weekend. Dinosaur Comics. Sterek fic. Annie Edison. Selling things on eBay. Casey Neistat. UKYA. Stationary. Jillian Holtzmann. Oscar Isaac’s chopsticks. Hannibal. Stoker. Tumblr user “sashayed”. The Hamilton soundtrack. My mum’s garden. Hark! A Vagrant. The Shoebox Project. My bookshelves. Baking recipes. Jenny Slate & Chris Evans. Pride & Prejudice. We have always lived in the castle. Rey. Jean-Ralphio Saperstein. This recap of the Back to the Future Novelisation. And, as of now, making lists of my obsessions.

FINALLY: I persuaded my mate Sarah to do this blog post too, because if there’s anyone who can get truly obsessed about things it’s her. I don’t know what she’s gonna pick, but my guesses are Animorphs, Hamilton, Hannibal and books (her blog is called SarahLikesBooks, so I feel like this one is a pretty safe bet.) You can check here to see if I was right.

In other news: I’m doing an event this Thursday at Waterstones Piccadilly at 6.30pm! Come along!

The Czech cover of TNT was revealed!

https://twitter.com/CooBoo_redakce/status/765626316104302592

Eek!

Summary of my week:

Last week I also turned 24, and celebrated by going to see The Phantom of the Opera, The Lion King, Aladdin and Harry Potter and the Cursed Child at the West End. It was intense. I cried more times than I am willing to admit.

Creator versus Fandom – Authors on Social Media

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At YALC this weekend, I gave a seminar on Social media with the wonderful Alice Oseman. This blog post is adapted from that seminar, for anyone who missed the workshop.

Alice and I have both been using social media since we were kids. However, since we’ve become authors, we’ve noticed a difference between our place online. It’s very different interacting in an online space as an author and as a fan.

The author’s place online is a difficult one to navigate. Often, people love seeing their favourite authors online because they might share small snippets about their favourite characters. But sometimes even this can be received badly. J K Rowling frequently releases canon details about the Harry Potter series, nearly a decade after the release of the books. Fans often react badly to this, as it feels like she’s ‘messing with their childhood’ unnecessarily.

John Green was also accused of being too present in fandom and on social media sites like Tumblr by some of his fans, even though his YouTube channel was where he began his career, and helped launch his books into success. Does the level of interaction authors can have with fans change as authors grow from a debut unknown into a bestseller?

Fandom is a wonderful place for fans to share their love. But how much should the author be involved in this? For example, should authors be involved in the book blogging community, especially in a community that are reviewing their own books?

Understandably, authors can be hurt by bad reviews of their books, which are very personal and important to them. It can be hard for them to see people write negatively about their creations – especially when entering the Goodreads culture, where reviewers posting gif-laden over-exaggerated reviews.

Sometimes authors feel they have the right to defend themselves against reviewers because it’s hard to separate a book from the author, especially for a debut. Sometimes, this leads to authors commenting on reviews of their books, which can be a minor embarrassment for everyone involved. Occasionally it can lead to more extreme reactions.

In 2014, YA author Kathleen Hale stalked a blogger who left negative reviews of her debut. She looked up census reports, paid for a background check and drove to her address to confront her for using a false name online. Kiera Cass and her agent also left nasty anonymous comments on a 1* review on Goodreads in 2012, and called the reviewer a bitch on Twitter.

Obviously these are extreme examples of what not to do, but should authors read reviews at all? Even if it might help improve their writing to read criticism?

As an author, I had to decide months before my book was released whether I was going to read reviews of The Next Together. I found very quickly that positive comments are easily forgotten, but bad reviews are remembered for a long time – even if the good reviews far outnumber the bad. Personally, Alice and I only read reviews that we are tagged in on Twitter – and even then, only positive ones!

But should bloggers tag authors in negative reviews? While it is important for bloggers to remember there’s a real person behind the brand, we should also point out that reviewers do not have a responsibility to try to make sure they don’t hurt an author’s feelings. Reviewers are unpaid and unbiased and reviews are not for authors.

 Authors (should!) understand that their books aren’t for everyone. Authors (should!) encourage reviewing and bloggers – they are huge parts of this community and personally, as authors, Alice and I are very grateful for their hard work.

It should also be noted that the current social media sites we use are all still very new. The rules and social etiquette can vary from site to site, with different interactions expected on Goodreads, Twitter and Tumblr. Goodreads has only been popular for four years. It’s very likely that the way in which we use these sites will develop over time.

People – authors and readers alike – also need to remember that books are pieces of art, and are therefore SUBJECTIVE. There’s no official mark scheme to assess how ‘good’ books are – you can’t really call books good and bad, because there’s too much variety to compare them to.

As author Beth Revis says, “Got [a favourite] book in mind? Now go to Goodreads. Look the book up. Filter the reviews for 1-stars (because I promise you, it does have one stars). And smile. Because if people can rate your favouritest book in the whole world with one star, then of course people can rate your book that way, too.”

Another negative part of the reviewer community is book piracy. I have a google alert set up about my book, and I’m sent at least one link a week to a PDF download of my book. Bloggers often share links to pirated copies of books with their friends without guilt. They see it as growing a fandom for a book, so it’s free publicity for the author.

However, pirating books is different from downloading films, which effect only a big multi-million-pound industry. Book piracy effects only one person – the author. It’s important to remember that an author’s popularity is not a sign of their commercial success. Twitter followers do not equal sales.

Author Maggie Stiefvater has said “If 500 people pirate that book instead of buying it, that could mean the difference between the publisher taking on book 2 in the series or telling her no, the series didn’t do well enough to go on. Pirating can kill a budding career, especially at a smaller publishing house.”

Maggie has said that several of her book series haven’t been continued in some countries as translations because too many people pirate them. The Raven King sold out within the first day of its release, because the publishers didn’t order a large enough print run. They didn’t realise how large the fandom for the Raven Cycle was. Most fans read PDF copies of the books which they’d found on Tumblr. An author’s career is directing impacted by piracy, and can often be cut short because of it.

It should be noted that if you want to read a book and can’t afford it, authors receive the same royalty from a library loan as a book purchase. And libraries are free!

Another big part of fandom is fanfiction. Firstly, we should point out that writing fanfiction is not an inferior creative pursuit. Many authors get their start in fandom and it gives them ‘training’ for later careers – for example, Simon Pegg started out as a Star Trek nerd during his childhood, and went on to act in and write the new film Star Trek Beyond. Lots of USYA authors are writing superhero novels which will be published over the next few years, after starting out as fans of Batman and Superman instead of writers.

Fandom is a very intelligent, creative community. However, the fact that so much creative energy is being put into a subject for free can be taken advantage of. There can sometimes be a manipulative relationship between writers and fandoms.

Cassandra Clare’s career started in the HP fandom in 2001, where she was a Big Name Fan who wrote (often controversial) novel-length fics. Her first novel CITY OF BONES sold 4 years later, and is said to have been reworked from a Draco/Ginny fic. E L James changed the names of a Twilight fic and published it as 50 SHADES OF GREY and Anna Todd changed a One Direction fanfiction and published it under the name AFTER, both to great success.

These fics were written based on collaborative ideas and plots developed collectively in fandom, and built off of existing fics by other authors. A member of the Twilight fandom has said about E L James: “As she posted a new chapter every week. We reviewed every week. As much as she fed us, we fed her with our comments AND suggestions in how far she could or couldn’t take the story.”

 These authors are profiting from things they didn’t personally create, while also taking advantage of the free editing services that members of fandom offer.

There are alternatives for writers looking to develop their skills – Alice put an early draft of Solitaire on a (now-defunct) site called Authonomy, which was a peer review community founded on constructive, kind criticism. This worked extremely well in getting feedback from people interested in helping develop her work. A similar site which is still running is Wattpad – however, this is focussed mainly on reading for fun, instead of feedback.

While directly changing fanfiction into original fiction is a moral grey area – especially as it’s based on an author’s world and characters, as well as taking advantage of fandom – there are other ways in which fanfiction is affecting literature.

Fic is ‘mainstream’ now and is crossing over into published works more and more frequently. People love fan fiction, and are increasingly utilising the ‘fic’ styles, something which is instantly recognisable, in original works – for example, Carry On by Rainbow Rowell. Fanfiction is becoming a new genre of literature.

It can also be argued that an awareness of fandom tropes making better books. There has been a huge increase in LGBT YA literature since the advent of social media. The demand online for better and more respectful diversity has encouraged more publishers to buy diverse books.

However, sometimes this can be done in a less informed way. The fetishisation of m/m relationships, as it often is in fanfiction, is appearing more and more in mainstream fiction. Does inaccurate representation still count as representation?

There was a huge social media backlash called #buryyourgays this year after the TV show The 100 killed off a much beloved gay character, which led to a drop in views and ratings of the show. Now there’s a huge uproar any time this happens. YA authors have also been called out for killing off gay characters.

People engage critically with the media they consume, and they feel that it’s the author responsibility to educate themselves about these social issues. Long term fandoms can feel especially betrayed by writers – especially if they’re writing about characters which they didn’t create themselves, for example, Joss Whedon’s characterisation of Black Widow in the latest Avengers film, or the whitewashing in Dr Strange and other book-to-film adaptations.

Fandom feels that writers have a debt to fandom to do right by these characters, but this can often be misinterpreted as fan entitlement – especially as there is a vocal minority who make their complaints clear in less careful ways. There is a huge difference between asking Disney to #GiveElsaAGirlfriend and attacking actor Leslie Jones on Twitter over the all-female Ghostbusters reboot.

It is also becoming clear that social justice campaigns by fandoms actually do cause a change in authors’ works. Publishers are now offering BAME (Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic) internships due to complaints on twitter about the lack of opportunities available for minority candidates in publishing. The We Need Diverse Books campaign now offers scholarships for #ownvoices authors. Publishers do listen!

The book community online can do both good and bad things – but overall it’s a positive force. Our community is on the forefront of change. Things happen more rapidly and collaboratively here than anywhere else. Online communities have power – socially, economically and emotionally.

As authors, Alice and I think it’s our responsibility to listen very carefully to what fandom tells us. YA authors write things which children read, things which can shape their views for life. Fandom is a huge educational resource which can help us to get that right.

In other news:  My upcoming book The Last Beginning was featured in the August issue of Diva Magazine, to my enormous delight.
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It was also in the Bookseller:

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Things are ramping up to release day!

Speaking of TLB, Alice drew my characters Clove and Ella:

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Reblog here

This is based on this section of the book:

ella clove

Alice got it SPOT ON. honestly this has hit me right in the heart! i feel personally attacked by this!!! LOOK AT THEIR DUMB LOVED UP BABY FACES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I’ve got my phone background sorted for life.

Even more excitingly, someone DREW FANART OF ALICE’S FANART. LIKE INCEPTION. FOR A BOOK THAT ISN’T EVEN OUT YET!

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By alwayslostinotherworlds

So basically I’m in heaven. The actual book is out in October, and you can add it on Goodreads here. All you need to know about the plot of The Last Beginning is that my publishers decided to include this on the copyright page: 😈

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In yet more Alice-related news (she’s gr8 back off), I filmed a video with Alice where I give her book recs based on her favourite films! 📽➡📚

Part two will be up next week, where she gives me film recs based on my favourite books. 📚➡📽

I gave some writing advice in this amazing video made with lots of authors at YALC. I also  recommended one (okay, three) perfect summer songs for a Buzzfeed playlist.

The US hardback edition of The Next Together is now up for preorder! It’s out on 4th April – preorder at B&N or Amazon US if you wish. TNT was also spotted recently by some eagle-eyed readers in on Zoella’s shelves. Eek!

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In event news, I’m chairing a panel at again this year! I’m so excited to talk sci fi with Kat Ellis and SF Said.

I’m also on a panel at Waterstones Piccadilly with Non Pratt, Holly Bourne and Harriet Reuter Hapgood on September 1st. Tickets here. (I interviewed Non here about her new and amazing book UNBOXED!)

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Okay, phew! That’s it for this week, folks!

June Favourites

It’s time for another one of these! They’re still my favourite blog posts to write, so enjoy.

I spent most of June backpacking around Cambodia and a bit of Thailand. It was tiring but brilliant and I’m so glad I went. I think next time that I’ll choose a nice hotel over hostels though, at times it was a bit…….rural. Hah.

Anyway here’s me doing some cool stuff there:

Okay, now you’re suitably jealous, here’s my faves.

Play: Harry Potter and the Cursed Child

tumblr_o9l3vwLkqd1qa24muo1_400.jpgYES, I’VE SEEN IT. IT WAS SO GOOD. INCANDESCENTLY GOOD!! I’ll probably talk about it more after the script is released because #keepthesecrets, but: Scorpius is my favourite, Rose is too good for him, Albus needs a good long hug, grown-up Harry is smoking hot (my friend Madi spent the whole show whispering #DATASS in my ear), HERMIONE!!!!!!!!!!!

It’s just so magical and lovingly created and I have NO idea how they did some of the magic special effects. And the ending!! It’s so JKR! It’s literally the eighth novel, and anyone who’s bracing themselves for disappointment does not have to worry at all.

(But I would recommend waiting to see it live, if you can avoid reading the script. I KNOW THAT’S IMPOSSIBLE. But it will make the experience about 1000% better. Trust me.)

Book: The Yellow Room by Jess Vallance

27809137.jpgSixteen-year-old Anna receives a letter from her father’s girlfriend telling her he has died and asking to meet. Anna is drawn to Edie: her warmth, her character, her ability to rustle up delicious meals, all of which her own mother is seemingly incapable of . . .
and the way she can tell Edie the secret that is buried inside her.

A tautly told, compelling tale about mothers and daughters and the lengths that some will go to, to make their dreams come true.

I read this in one sitting. It’s another incredibly dark story of obsession, revenge and love. Jess Vallance is one of the most underrated UKYA authors and she’s an auto-read for me.

 

TV Show: Gilmore Girls

This has just gone on Netflix, and I’m watching it for the first time. I’m already on series 2. Luke and Lorelai just need to kiss already, obviously. And I’m unashamed to say I’m wholeheartedly shipping Rory/Paris. #noregrets

(Also, Dean is the official Worst. And I love Emily. I HAVE SO MANY GILMORE GIRLS FEELINGS, HELP ME.)

Blog Post: ON THE SLOW PURSUIT OF OVERNIGHT SUCCESS by Victoria Schwab

This post hit me hard in my deepest fears, and it really calmed them a lot. It’s very inspirational to learn that the worst things that can happen to an author – having your series cancelled, not selling enough books – never mean it’s the end. As long as you keep writing good books, they will get published. And one day you might be Victoria Schwab!

At 25, I was scarred, terrified that my career was over, because I’d given something everything I had, and it wasn’t enough, and I didn’t understand how or why or what I was supposed to do next, and part of me wished I’d walked away back when that first book didn’t sell, but I didn’t. I couldn’t. And my anger, my frustration, my stubborn resolve was louder than my fear, so I sat down and wrote something else.

It was a book for me. A book to restore my joy, to remind me why I did this masochistic thing. And it was a secret, a sheltering of the creative process so that that no publisher could take away what the writing of it gave me.

 

Film: Ghostbusters

Okay, this only came out in July, but I cAN’T STOP THINKING ABOUT IT, so it’s going in my faves this month. I watched the whole thing in wide eyed amazement. Four strong women, who aren’t objectified or body shamed! Three of whom are SCIENTISTS! The other of whom is a historian! A loving, feminist sense of humour what doesn’t mock anyone! Fake geek guy Chris Hemsworth! KATE MCKINNON.

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I JUST WANT TO WATCH IT EVERY DAY FOR THE REST OF MY LIFE. BEST FILM EVER.

In other news: I did a really emotional interview over at Siobhan Curham’s brilliant new website – check it out here at the blog.

I also did a short radio interview over at the Gateway YA Book club here: https://gatewayyabookclub.tumblr.com/post/147852145393/

My big giveaway, where I’m offering query critiques and signed annotated copies of TNT, is open here until the 6th August.

I’m going to be staying in London for all of August. I’m so excited, and I’m going to see ALL THE MUSICALS. If you have any suggestions for cool things I should do, or you’re going to be around and want to hang out, hmu!!

A reminder about some of my upcoming events: I’m going to be at YALC ON Sat 30th, doing a workshop with Alice Oseman at 2pm on ‘Fandom Vs Creator: Authors on social media’, with a signing afterwards. I’ll be around for the rest of the day too, and I’d love to see you all if you come along! (Related: Alice posted her uni dissertation on her blog! It’s so good, you should read it if you’re at all interested in something called “Words were different when they lived inside of you’: Queering Genre in Young Adult Fiction”.

I’ve also got an event at Waterstones Oxford on August 14th at 4pm. It’s a Historical Fiction panel with Rhian Ivory, Katherine Woodfine, Emma Carroll and Helen Maslin.

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My …. writing process. Whatever that means.

So I was sent this ask on tumblr.

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I’m about due a blog post, so I thought I’d answer it here. (I owe you a June Favourites too – it’s coming, I promise.)

I don’t think I’d do a vlog like Alice (she’s is a lot better at that stuff than me) but I do give semi-regular writing updates here on my blog, so I thought I’d go back and compile them all and see if it gave any insight into my “writing process”.

A bit of background: I’m currently writing an un-contracted book which I’m tagging ghost house on tumblr. It’s a gamble to write a book out of contract, but I had the time and I couldn’t get the idea out of my head, so I’m doing it anyway. My publisher have said they want my books to be high concept sci-fi, so I don’t think they’ll be interested in it (it’s kind of satirical fantasy, or something – I pitched it to my agent as MISFITS meets SPACED.) but you never know! We’ll see what happens when I’ve finished it.

I started #ghost house in January, after I pitched it to my agent and she said she liked the idea. Here’s what I had to say:

January: 

January was a month of lots of writing for me, and lots of waiting. In publishing, you have to play the long game, and I’m definitely coming to realise that. I’m full of feelings about stuff I’m working on, but I’m not allowed to share any details about it for at least a few more months. BUT THERE’S LOTS OF EXCITING STUFF COMING UP, GUYS. I can say that, at least.**

(**Some of that exciting stuff was Another Together, my eNovella. Some of it is still to be announced, whooo!)

I started doing some research into early-90s internet use, which I posted about here.

February/March:

I spent most of February/March writing the first draft of Book 4, and I’ve just hit 25,000 words. It’s the most fun I’ve ever had writing a novel, and I can’t wait to tell you all about it! Twitter even got involved in naming one of the characters!

However much I love writing novels, though (which I really do) I wish I could pay someone to get the first 20k out of the way for me. It’s always AGONY. It’s so infuriating, because I know exactly what is going to happen, down to the minute, but I haven’t worked out how to TELL it yet. I have to write and rewrite and rewrite trying to adjust it until the right format and structure makes itself known.

It’s like chipping away at marble, then realising what you really need is a shard you chipped off, and having to glue it back together. FOR EVERY WORD. Basically: I’ve spent a lot of this month writing the same scenes five different times over, and I’m probably about to do it again. Wish me luck!

I also made a fancast of the ghost house characters here.cast.PNG

April:

I hit the halfway point in writing my fourth book this week too – hurray! I always get convinced I’ve forgotten how to finish a story about 20k words in, so I’m relieved to have remembered how it all works. It’s (hopefully) all easy going from here.

I’m so into it and it’s so intense and the characters are really being stretched more than any I’ve written before and I’M VERY HAPPY. I went through a couple of weeks where I couldn’t write at all because of stress/anxiety but I’ve got over it finally. Now I’m racing through it!! And I wish I could tell you what its abouuuuuut!

I let a few people read the manuscript when I reached the halfway point (my mum, my brother, and my friends Sarah, Alice and Cat).

I also posted a book playlist here:

  • Red Right Hand – Arctic Monkeys
  • 400 Lux – Lorde
  • Born to die – Lana Del Ray
  • Changing – Paloma Faith
  • Monsters – Ruelle
  • The Whip – Locksley
  • Don’t Lie – Vampire Weekend
  • House Party – Sam Hunt
  • Fantasy – MS MR
  • Conqueror – Aurora
  • Walkashame – Meghan Trainor
  • Renegades – X Ambassadors

May/June:

Ghost House is going on the backburner for a bit while I work on other projects, like the copyedits for TLB. I’m hoping to get back into it in mid-September.

July: 

I got some feedback on Ghost House from my agent, who read the partial manuscript at 40,000 words. She said that the pace is wrong (I’ve focused a lot on character development instead of plot) so in a spare few days between other projects I went back and cut out about 10k, and shifted around a lot of stuff to make it read faster.

It’s now down to 31k, which sounds like backwards progress, but it reads a lot better, so I’m happy. I can’t wait to finish my other projects so I can really put my head down and finish the book! When I actually have some time I think I’ll get it done in a few weeks, because I know exactly what’s going to happen, and I always write the second half of books at about three times the speed of the first half.

And that’s it for now! You can see how I do in the future by following my word count updates on myWriteClub, if you want. Wish me luck.

Grand giveaway! (Open INT)

So… it’s exactly three months today until The Last Beginning is released. Whaaaaat. NO, WHAT? Can you believe The Next Together came out ten months ago?! Time travel is definitely involved. Probably.

ANYWAY. To celebrate the imminent publication of my second novel, I’m holding a GRAND GIVEAWAY.

Three prizes, for the three months until The Last Beginning comes out. And it’s open internationally!

Here are the prizes:

RUNNER UP:

A signed and embossed copy of The Next Together + A signed postcard + A signed bookmark 

I will send you ALL OF THE FREE THINGS. ALL OF THEM. Plus a signed copy of TNT, also embossed using my special press.

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AND THIS IS JUST THE RUNNER UP PRIZE.

SECOND PLACE:

A query or first chapter critique + A signed postcard 

If you’re an aspiring writer, I will read and give feedback on a query letter or the first chapter of your novel. I’ll also send you a signed postcard. (If you win this prize and you’re not a writer, I’ll send you a signed copy of TNT instead.)

GRAND PRIZE:

A query or first chapter critique + An exclusive annotated, signed and embossed copy of The Next Together + A signed postcard + A signed bookmark

All of the previous prizes, PLUS this signed copy will also include annotated notes on the pages, such as behind the scenes details about Katherine and Matthew, little doodles and (hilarious, obv) jokes. One of only two to exist in the world!

HOW DOES ALL OF THAT SOUND? PRETTY GOOD, RIGHT? RIGHT? OKAY, LET’S GET TO IT. LEMME SHOW YOU HOW TO ENTER.

To enter:

  1. Leave a review of The Next Together or Another Together on Goodreads, Amazon, Waterstones, iTunes, your blog and any other retailer site of your choice.
  2. Send link(s) for the review to thenexttogether@gmail.com.

Each site that the review is posted on counts as one entry. The same review can be posted on multiple sites. Pre-existing reviews can be used.

Reviewing a book, good or bad, continues to be the best way to support authors. And as Another Together is a free novella, anyone can enter this competition, regardless of whether they own a copy of The Next Together. It’s free! Download it and read away!

Open Internationally.

The three winners will be chosen at random on 6th August 2016.

You have a month to enter. GOOD LUCK.

This giveaway has now closed and the winners are…

The runner up winner is……………. Abbey Jones! (I’ll send all the winners an email!)

The second place winner is………Meghna Aggarwal!

And the winner of the first prize is………. Alexandra Perchanidou!

 

The Next Together: Amazon UK | Waterstones | Amazon US | The Book Depository |Wordery | Foyles | Kobo | iBooks | WHSmith | Goodreads 

Another Together: Goodreads | Amazon Kindle  | Kobo | iTunes | Amazon US | Amazon ANZ | Amazon DE 

 

May Favourites | Aesop | Casey Neistat | Peaky Blinders

Again, this is a scheduled post as I’m currently travelling around Cambodia and Thailand on my backpacking adventures. You can keep up with me on Snapchat at flossiepots – or wait until my June Favourites, which I’m sure will be completely obsessed with my travels!

Here’s some of the things I was into in May.

Book: The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet by Becky Chambers

Somewhere within our crowded sky, a crew of wormhole 24956528builders hops from planet to planet, on their way to the job of a lifetime. To the galaxy at large, humanity is a minor species, and one patched-up construction vessel is a mere speck on the starchart. This is an everyday sort of ship, just trying to get from here to there.

But all voyages leave their mark, and even the most ordinary of people have stories worth telling. A young Martian woman, hoping the vastness of space will put some distance between herself and the life she‘s left behind. An alien pilot, navigating life without her own kind. A pacifist captain, awaiting the return of a loved one at war. 

Damn do I wish I’d written this. Life-changingly good. The best look at what social and gender politics might be like thousands of years in the future. I especially liked the idea of the human race splitting and evolving separately, because two groups have been apart for so long. The rich humans evacuate a destroyed earth to Mars, and the poor humans have to just set out for space in spaceships. These two groups, based completely on class, become two different species.

Runner up position is my own short story, because ANOTHER TOGETHER is still free to read! It won’t always be, so download it now if you’re interested. I’m pretty proud of it. :’)

Make up: Jouer Long-Wear Lip Crème Liquid Lipstickjou064_jouer_long-wearlipcremeliquidlipstick_4_1560x1960-rxx6b.jpg
This lipstick is amazing! I’ve got Petale de rose and Watermelon Mermaid. They are both a lovely matte colour which lasts for ages. It rubs off quite easily on my fingers, but if I don’t touch my lips then absolutely nothing gets rid of it.

And people have said they like my lipstick when I wear it, which never usually happens! It’s doing something right.

 

Youtuber: Casey Neistat

 

I had an interesting month in May, because I’ve basically consumed no media. I was ill, and then catching up on work from being ill, so I’ve not done much reading or tv.

HOWEVER, I have been watching a lot of this guy’s vlogs. He’s completely wild and does some insane thing every day – I’m pretty sure he’s the exact opposite of me as a person. It’s both stressful and fun to watch. Watch him losing a drone on top of an NYC skyscraper, and then try to get it back.

TV Show: Peaky Blinders

The one thing I did struggle to find time to watch was Peaky Blinders. You all already watch this. The series has just finished and it was intense.

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Toiletries: Aesop Tea Tree Leaf Facial Exfoliant

aesop-online-skin-tea-tree-leaf-facial-exfoliant-30g-c_2.pngThis an expensive but excellent facial scrub. It’s not a gel – you have to add your own gel to the dry scrub, which I love because it lets me control the thickness, and how rough I want it to be. Really refreshing – and it feels so natural, as it’s made of walnuts and tea tree.

Thing: Embossing press

This is a niche one. I saw some Bookstagramers use an embossing press to mark their books with a little stamp saying ‘EX LIBRIS [NAME]’, and I was immediately like I COULD USE THAT FOR BOOK SIGNINGS!!

So I got a press which I can use to add a little extra detail when I’m signing books – it says ‘SIGNED BY LAUREN JAMES’. It’s so cute! Everyone always goes OOOOH when I pull it out. Best investment ever. Here’s mine.

 

Okay, I’m gonna go back to lazing on the beach now (hopefully that’s what I’m doing when this posts!). HAVE A GOOD JUNE.

Previously: April | May | June | July | August | September |October | November |December |January |February | March | April

My favourite books of 2016 (so far)

Note: As of when this posts, I’ll be halfway through a 20 hour flight to Cambodia, where I’m going backpacking across Asia! See you when I get back! I’ll be snapchatting my adventures at 👻flossiepots👻.

It’s the mid-June, so we’re now halfway through 2016. Last year I did a post of the books I wanted to read in the rest of 2015 halfway through the year, and I’m gonna do it again now. You can’t stop me.

The books I liked the best this year

5) The Dark Days Club by Alison Goodman

27074515.jpgLondon, April 1812. Eighteen-year-old Lady Helen Wrexhall is on the eve of her debut presentation to the Queen. Her life should be about gowns and dancing, and securing a suitable marriage. Instead, when one of her family’s housemaids goes missing, Lady Helen is drawn to the shadows of Regency London.

There, she finds William, the Earl of Carlston. He has noticed the disappearance, too, and is one of the few who can stop the perpetrators: a cabal of powerful demons that has infiltrated every level of society. But Lady Helen’s curiosity is the last thing Carlston wants—especially when he sees the searching intelligence behind her fluttering fan. Should Helen trust a man whose reputation is almost as black as his lingering eyes? And will her headstrong sense of justice lead them both into a death trap?

The perfect mix of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell. This is a really fun adventure, with a great male lead. I would have enjoyed a little more diversity, but as this is a trilogy I’m hoping that will improve in the next book (which I’m DESPERATE to read, oh my god.)

4) King’s Rising by C. S. Pacat

25810368Damianos of Akielos has returned. His identity now revealed, Damen must face his master Prince Laurent as Damianos of Akielos, the man Laurent has sworn to kill.

On the brink of a momentous battle, the future of both their countries hangs in the balance. In the south, Kastor’s forces are massing. In the north, the Regent’s armies are mobilising for war. Damen’s only hope of reclaiming his throne is to fight together with Laurent against their usurpers.

Forced into an uneasy alliance the two princes journey deep into Akielos, where they face their most dangerous opposition yet. But even if the fragile trust they have built survives the revelation of Damen’s identity – can it stand against the Regent’s final, deadly play for the throne?

This is the final book in a trilogy – and I’ve been following this series since it was posted on livejournal in 2008. Almost a decade! It was definitely worth the wait, and I have so. many. feelings. HELP.

3) Eligible by Curtis Sittenfeld

25805776A Modern Retelling of Pride and Prejudice. This version of the Bennet family—and Mr. Darcy—is one that you have and haven’t met before: Liz is a magazine writer in her late thirties who, like her yoga instructor older sister, Jane, lives in New York City. When their father has a health scare, they return to their childhood home in Cincinnati to help—and discover that the sprawling Tudor they grew up in is crumbling and the family is in disarray.

Enter Chip Bingley, a handsome new-in-town doctor who recently appeared on the juggernaut reality TV dating show Eligible. At a Fourth of July barbecue, Chip takes an immediate interest in Jane, but Chip’s friend neurosurgeon Fitzwilliam Darcy reveals himself to Liz to be much less charming. . . .
And yet, first impressions can be deceiving.

Five and a half million stars!!!! I read this in one sitting, staying up until 6am(!) because I just couldn’t stop. It was just so, so wonderful. The other books in the Austen project were mediocrely disappointing, but this one just….it got everything right. I’m just so happy that Sittenfeld was given P&P to do, and I wish she was writing every Austen book set in modern day Cincinnati, because I never wish to read anything else, ever again.

2) The Raven King by Maggie Stiefvater
17378527Nothing living is safe. Nothing dead is to be trusted.

For years, Gansey has been on a quest to find a lost king. One by one, he’s drawn others into this quest: Ronan, who steals from dreams; Adam, whose life is no longer his own; Noah, whose life is no longer a lie; and Blue, who loves Gansey… and is certain she is destined to kill him.

Now the endgame has begun. Dreams and nightmares are converging. Love and loss are inseparable. And the quest refuses to be pinned to a path.

 

Just perfect. Completely perfect. It’s been a month and I still have no other words.

1) The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet by Becky Chambers

Somewhere within our crowded sky, a crew of wormhole 24956528builders hops from planet to planet, on their way to the job of a lifetime. To the galaxy at large, humanity is a minor species, and one patched-up construction vessel is a mere speck on the starchart. This is an everyday sort of ship, just trying to get from here to there.

But all voyages leave their mark, and even the most ordinary of people have stories worth telling. A young Martian woman, hoping the vastness of space will put some distance between herself and the life she‘s left behind. An alien pilot, navigating life without her own kind. A pacifist captain, awaiting the return of a loved one at war. 

Damn do I wish I’d written this. Life-changingly good. The best look at what social and gender politics might be like thousands of years in the future. I especially liked the idea of the human race splitting and evolving separately, because two groups have been apart for so long. The rich humans evacuate a destroyed earth to Mars, and the poor humans have to just set out for space in spaceships. These two groups, based completely on class, become two different species.

Special mention goes to Radio Silence and Inferno, written by my writing partners Alice and Cat. So incredibly proud of these ladies. ❤

The books I want to read next this year. ASAP.

5) The Thousandth Floor by Katharine McGee

24921954A hundred years in the future, New York is a city of innovation and dreams. But people never change: everyone here wants something…and everyone has something to lose.

Leda Cole’s flawless exterior belies a secret addiction—to a drug she never should have tried and a boy she never should have touched. Eris Dodd-Radson’s beautiful, carefree life falls to pieces when a heartbreaking betrayal tears her family apart. Rylin Myers’s job on one of the highest floors sweeps her into a world—and a romance—she never imagined…but will her new life cost Rylin her old one? Watt Bakradi is a tech genius with a secret: he knows everything about everyone. But when he’s hired to spy by an upper-floor girl, he finds himself caught up in a complicated web of lies.

And living above everyone else on the thousandth floor is Avery Fuller, the girl genetically designed to be perfect. The girl who seems to have it all—yet is tormented by the one thing she can never have.

How deliciously scandalous does this sound?! I need it. Now.

4) As I Descended by Robin Talley 

28218948.jpgMaria Lyon and Lily Boiten are their school’s ultimate power couple—even if no one knows it but them. Only one thing stands between them and their perfect future: campus superstar Delilah Dufrey.

Golden child Delilah is a legend at the exclusive Acheron Academy, and the presumptive winner of the distinguished Cawdor Kingsley Prize. She runs the school, and if she chose, she could blow up Maria and Lily’s whole world with a pointed look, or a carefully placed word.

But what Delilah doesn’t know is that Lily and Maria are willing to do anything—absolutely anything—to make their dreams come true. And the first step is unseating Delilah for the Kingsley Prize. The full scholarship, awarded to Maria, will lock in her attendance at Stanford―and four more years in a shared dorm room with Lily.

Maria and Lily will stop at nothing to ensure their victory—including harnessing the dark power long rumored to be present on the former plantation that houses their school. But when feuds turn to fatalities, and madness begins to blur the distinction between what’s real and what is imagined, the girls must decide where they draw the line.

From acclaimed author Robin Talley comes a Shakespeare-inspired story of revenge and redemption, where fair is foul, and foul is fair.

This is just so completely my jam in every single way.

3) Vinegar Girl by Anne Tyler

28961937‘You can’t get around Kate Battista as easily as all that’

Kate Battista is feeling stuck. How did she end up running house and home for her eccentric scientist father and uppity, pretty younger sister Bunny? Plus, she’s always in trouble at work – her pre-school charges adore her, but the adults don’t always appreciate her unusual opinions and forthright manner.

Dr Battista has other problems. After years out in the academic wilderness, he is on the verge of a breakthrough. His research could help millions. There’s only one problem: his brilliant young lab assistant, Pyotr, is about to be deported. And without Pyotr…

When Dr Battista cooks up an outrageous plan that will enable Pyotr to stay in the country, he’s relying – as usual – on Kate to help him. Kate is furious: this time he’s really asking too much. But will she be able to resist the two men’s touchingly ludicrous campaign to win her round?

Anne Tyler’s retelling of The Taming of the Shrew asks whether a thoroughly modern, independent woman like Kate would ever sacrifice herself for a man. The answer is as individual, off-beat and funny as Kate herself.

Everyone who’s received an early copy of this has said it’s perfect, and a brilliant holiday read. With such a eminent author as Anne Tyler, it’s sure to be incredible. I can’t wait.

2) A Closed and Common Orbit by Becky Chambers

28478957Lovelace was once merely a ship’s artificial intelligence. When she wakes up in an new body, following a total system shut-down and reboot, she has no memory of what came before. As Lovelace learns to negotiate the universe and discover who she is, she makes friends with Pepper, an excitable engineer, who’s determined to help her learn and grow.

Together, Pepper and Lovey will discover that no matter how vast space is, two people can fill it together.

A Closed and Common Orbit is the stand-alone sequel to Becky Chambers’ beloved debut novel The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet and is perfect for fans of Firefly, Joss Whedon, Mass Effect and Star Wars.

This is a standalone, but I’m really hoping the characters from the first book make an appearance, because I love them all. So ready for this.

1) Goldenhand by Garth Nix

912FS3ETJmL.jpg

Lirael is no longer a shy Second Assistant Librarian. She is the Abhorsen-in-Waiting, with Dead creatures to battle and Free Magic entities to bind. She’s also a Remembrancer, wielder of the Dark Mirror. Lirael lost one of her hands in the binding of Orannis, but now she has a new hand, one of gilded steel and Charter Magic.

When Lirael finds Nicholas Sayre lying unconscious after being attacked by a hideous Free Magic creature, she uses her powers to save him. But Nicholas is deeply tainted with Free Magic. Fearing it will escape the Charter mark that seals it within his flesh and bones, Lirael seeks help for Nick at her childhood home, the Clayr’s Glacier.

But even as Lirael and Nick return to the Clayr, a young woman named Ferin from the distant North braves the elements and many enemies in a desperate attempt to deliver a message to Lirael from her long-dead mother, Arielle. Ferin brings a dire warning about the Witch with No Face. But who is the Witch, and what is she planning?
Once more a great danger threatens the Old Kingdom, and it must be forestalled not only in the living world, but also in the cold, remorseless river of Death.

Goldenhand is the long-awaited fifth installment of Garth Nix’s New York Times bestselling Old Kingdom series.

Lirael is the character I related to most as a kid – she just ran around a library with her dog, reading books and fighting secret ancient library monsters and wanting to be alone. Literally a decade later, the second half of her story is finally being released. And I can’t freakin’ wait.

 

Researching Bletchley Park

Lots of you have already read my short story Another Together and said how much you enjoyed it. Thank you so much! If you want to read it, it’s free on amazon here. On the day it was released, it got to #200 in the Amazon rankings! Wow guys!

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In case you missed it, last week I wrote a blog post about why I decided it was worth releasing a free eBook. It gets into the finances of being an author, so it was very scary to post, but I think there should be more honesty about money in the publishing community.

Today I’m talking about the process of researching the story. As I was writing the story in a gap between other projects, I didn’t have much time, so for a week I dived straight in and immersed myself in everything Bletchley. Here’s what I got up to.

Visiting Bletchley Park

When I was announcing Another Together, I posted a lot of pictures of Bletchley Park. Those were taken during a research trip I took to the park in February, the week before I started writing the story. It’s an hour’s train ride from where I live, and it was a really fun day out.

One of my favourite things about Bletchley were the signs. On every wall were signs warning the workers to keep everything a secret (like they could forget?!) in the form of the classic KEEP CALM AND CARRY ON sign. They were really cool!

The desks of the workers were also very interesting. They’d spent a lot of time gathering authentic artefacts, so they felt as if they’d been abandoned after World War II and left there ever since.

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And here’s a room in Bletchley town where the codebreakers like Kitty and Matthew stayed.

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It really brought everything to life for me, so I could get into the heads of Kitty and Matthew and what life at Bletchley would have been like for them.

The visit was also a nice source of inspiration, as it showed me things I’d never thought about before. For example, in the story, Kitty and Matthew are ice skating on the lake when they discover a corpse.

Kitty crouched down, staring at the ice. All of the colour had drained from her face, which had been a lovely wind-chafed pink.

“There’s a hand,” she said.

“You need a hand?” Matthew carefully skated back to her. “Have you got yourself stuck?”

“No, Matthew. There appears to be a hand. Frozen in the ice.”

That was inspired by this picture, on a display by the lake.

Fictional adaptations 

There are only a few films set at Bletchley, but I watched THE IMITATION GAME with Benedict Cumberbatch and Kiera Knightley. Whilst I’d heard that some of the representation is slightly problematic, especially in terms of Alan Turing’s story, I thought it was worth watching to get a better picture in my head of the place and clothes. It was filmed at Bletchley, so I think that helped.

I also watched the first episode of the TV series THE BLETCHLEY CIRCLE – but it mainly takes place after the women have finished working at Bletchley, so that wasn’t much help!

I read a few non-fiction books by Sinclair McKay, which were also really useful.

First person accounts

When writing The Next Together, the most useful thing by far was the primary sources I found from 1745 and 1854. They really helped me get an idea of real life in those times, and there’s always fun anecodes which I like using.

I read a lot of interviews with people who worked at Bletchley. The best thing I heard during my research was that even after WWII ended, everything that had happened at Bletchley was still a secret. It was classified in case there was another war, so the British would still have access to codebreaking information that other countries didn’t know they had. When it was finally declassified in the seventies, apparently married couples would find out that both of them had worked at Bletchley – and had kept the secret so well afterwards that they hadn’t told their spouse of 30+ years! That kind of dedication to secrecy for King and country is incredible.

Annoyingly, I found out after the story was released that my old form tutor’s mother actually worked at Bletchley Park – and my teacher spent the first 6 years of her life living there! It was a bit too late to ask her to proofread the story for accuracy for me, so I was cursing myself. I’m sure she would have been able to give me some wonderful stories to add!

And that’s it! As always, I underestimated how much work is involved in writing a piece of historical fiction. It’s about 60% research and 40% actual writing! But it’s always, always worth the effect.

This week I’ve been reblogging lots of pictures about Bletchley, so head over to my tumblr to see more, in the tag here.

In other news: On Wednesday I’m going to be part of an amazing panel at Waterstones Birmingham.

https://twitter.com/WaterstonesBham/status/738781297036820481

 

 The schedule for YALC 2016 has been released, and I’m going to be running a workshop with Alice Oseman at 1pm on Saturday 30th July called ‘Creator vs. Fandom: Authors on Social Media’. We got to choose the topic, and I hope we’ve come up with something that we’ll all really be able to sink our teeth into. Alice wrote the perfect summary, so I’m just going to steal hers: “We’ll be talking about how authors and readers behave online, how to avoid internet drama, how to be empathetic and supportive and kind online, and we’ll definitely be discussing some of the most infamous examples of author/reader clashes…. all that sweet tea.”

The Next Together is also going to be the June read for two different book clubs: the YA Shot Book Club (you can join LaChouett and the group here on Goodreads) and the #readUKYA Book Club run by Lucy Powrie, for its inaugural month, alongside THE GIRL OF INK AND STARS. I’m so overjoyed by this, and I’ve already bought my copy of INK AND STARS. Whoo!

To finish, some shameless friend plugs – a month ago I had a ridiculous dream where my mate Sarah wrote a blog post comparing Hamilton songs to YA books (because we have joint custody of an obsession with Hamilton) (and I like telling her what to blog about so I don’t have to). And SHE ONLY WENT AND DID IT! What a hero. Sarah, your next mission: the Hannibal/Hamilton crossover the world needs. (Also, related: I finished my copyedits yesterday and did a Hamilton singalong in celebration. #noregrets)

Also:

Yess Cat! You go girl!!

Free e-novella ANOTHER TOGETHER released + a money chat

Happy Thursday! And happy Another Together publication day!

This is a complete 10,000 word (50 page) short story, released on Kindle and eBook. It can be read without having read The Next Together – and it’s free, so you’ve got no excuse not to dive in!

The prologue of The Last Beginning is also included at the end (You’ll get to meet Clove! Eek!).

tumblr_inline_o6ay7fRZVL1rr0642_540
I can only express my joy through the purest of forms – the Ron Swanson celebration.

Here’s the blurb:

Another Together_short story_ by Lauren James_publishing 2 June 2016“Perfect for holidays” – Marie Claire

“Are you absolutely certain this is safe?” Matthew Galloway asked.

A short story of intrigue and murder set in the world of The Next Together series.

Winter, 1940: there is a murderer on the loose at Bletchley Park, the headquarters of Britain’s most daring codebreaking operation against the Nazis. Can two young codebreakers Kitty and Matthew catch the killer?

This standalone short story can be enjoyed by new readers and existing fans of Lauren James’s The Next Together series.

Goodreads | Amazon Kindle  | Kobo | iTunes

It’s also out on iTunes, Kobo etc, and it’s available on various Amazons around the world – check your country to see if it’s up. Here’s some sites where I’ve found it so far: Amazon US | Amazon ANZ | Amazon DE 

Here’s some extras:

I can’t wait to see what you guys think! Look out over the next month for some more Behind the Scenes stuff too – including a blog post by the cover designer Jack, competitions to win signed copies and more!

And, if I can just have a moment of soppiness – I just want to talk a bit about what today means to me personally as an author. As of right now, June 2016, I have been a full time writer for exactly two years. I’ve written three novels and a novella in that time, done countless public speaking events and published my debut novel. It’s been a busy time.

I was lucky enough to get a book deal while I was at university, so I graduated aged 21 with a job  – kind of. I still couldn’t believe being a writer was an option for me, so I called it a ‘gap year’ at first, to justify why I was taking the risk. Everything you read tells you that for a new author in the 21st century, it’s not possible to support yourself by writing. And it isn’t. Not at first.

I was in a very privileged position by having the family backing that let me take that gamble. (Mainly because my parents let me live at home. I could definitely NOT be an author without them. Thanks mum and dad!) But I made very little money that first year – far below minimum wage.

For a while, I thought that being an author wasn’t possible for me, at this time in my life. The finances just weren’t going to work out. Unless you’re a bestseller (which I am definitely not), I didn’t think it was possible to make enough money to live on by writing. I resigned myself to getting a job after my ‘gap year’ was over. But….somehow, it has worked out.

Last year I got an Arts Council grant which kept me going while my debut was published. (I owe Arts Council England a life debt. No joke.) This year, when I resigned myself once again to having to get a ‘real’ job, I got more funding just when I needed it (but more on that soon, hopefully!).

So as I enter my third year of writing full time, I am very, very grateful. Every year I still get to do this, I feel unbelievably lucky. It’s the best gift. I don’t know if I’ll be able to do this forever sustainably, or whether in a few years I’ll have to get another job and write in my spare time – which would be near impossible, seeing as I work way-more-than-full-time now, but I’d try and make it work.

But I do know that, for now, writing is the best and greatest gift I have ever been given. I’m paid to do what I love. I write things I’ve dreamt up in my head and people pay to read them. It’s impossibly wonderful and I still feel like I’ve tricked someone into giving me this life.

This eBook, written and released for free, is a present to say thank you for that, with all my heart. You, the people who support my writing by buying my books (and at the last count there’s something like 10,000 of you – that’s 37 people a day!), are the ones that make that happen.

And, just as a reminder – if you can’t afford to buy my books, please don’t pirate them. Please borrow them from a library instead. 

It’s so painful to see links to download my book illegally, and it really does impact an author’s career. It’s free to use libraries, and in the UK authors get paid approximately the same amount if you borrow a book as if you buy it. Public Lending Rights are 7.7 pence per library loan, and royalties are usually around 10% per copy purchased – in paperback that’s 7.9 pence. 

Finally, if you enjoy reading Another Together, the best way to thank an author, always, is to leave them a review. Good or bad, it doesn’t matter. It all helps. Thank you. ❤

I really hope you enjoy Katherine and Matthew’s latest adventure.

L xx