writing posts – Page 2

Everything You Believe Is Wrong (or, why I thought I couldn’t be a writer)

So, I used to love writing as a kid. I wrote stories about my dogs (something I think every author does, as a kid. Right?). I wrote stories about my local park’s war memorial actually being a time machine space ship for vampire shapeshifter alien snakes (that old cliché, urgh). But when I was aboutContinue reading “Everything You Believe Is Wrong (or, why I thought I couldn’t be a writer)”

Writing the dreaded Second Novel

My next novel, THE LAST BEGINNING, is a sequel to THE NEXT TOGETHER, and comes out in Autumn 2016. I never even knew that THE NEXT TOGETHER would have a sequel until I wrote the last chapter. Then I suddenly realised that there was this whole other story I hadn’t told. I couldn’t bear toContinue reading “Writing the dreaded Second Novel”

Let’s talk about ‘strong female characters’.

I’m currently writing a book with a very emotionally vulnerable female character. She’s powerless, easily influenced, subject to frequent panic attacks, sensitive and lacks self confidence. She’s weak in almost every way you can name: emotionally, mentally and physically. Despite that, she’s the strongest female character I’ve ever written. Why? Because I believe that she’s theContinue reading “Let’s talk about ‘strong female characters’.”

Behind the Book: Editor Annalie Grainger

My guilty pleasure YA tropes

Back in May, I made a post about my least favourite tropes in YA. I thought it was only right to balance the scales by also making a list of my favourite, most ridiculously indulgent tropes too. These aren’t the ones which never happen, which I would love to see more of….. these are the ones IContinue reading “My guilty pleasure YA tropes”

I wrote an article for The Toast!

I’m a huge fan of the feminist humour website The Toast, and my super secret personal goal for 2015 was to write an article for them. I’m happy to say that I managed it! Here is my first ever freelance article, written on the topic of (of course) Harry Potter. I also put my chemistry degree to (debatably) goodContinue reading “I wrote an article for The Toast!”

Writing a query letter

Before we begin, an announcement. If you preordered my book, firstly: THANK YOU. Secondly, you can get a free signed bookmark! All the details are here. Again, THANK YOU. I get a lot of tumblr asks with questions about how to write a good query letter, so I thought I’d make a blog post withContinue reading “Writing a query letter”

How my reading habits have changed since becoming an author

It’s now been over two years since I signed with an agent and started thinking of myself as an author of books, instead of (or rather, as well as) a reader of books. In that time, my reading habits have changed very drastically.

My YA wishlist

I was recently asked on tumblr what things I would like to see more and less of in YA books, and I really enjoyed answering it, so I thought I’d post it here too. These are all my personal preference, based on the kind of things I like to read, and what I think aboutContinue reading “My YA wishlist”

Should there be diverse, explicit sex scenes in YA?

Yesterday the wonderful Lucy, Queen of UKYA, hosted another #UKYAchat on twitter. This time the topic was LGBT representation in Young Adult novels, and it was a really interesting discussion including a lot of authors and publishing professionals who I really admire. It’s worth taking a look through the hashtag here. There were several partsContinue reading “Should there be diverse, explicit sex scenes in YA?”