The end of a new book...

Okay, so I'm playing catch-up a little with my blog posts here after a lot of domestic reshuffling, and finally...sound trumpets, please...completing my latest book before it went off to my editor for her first sight of it.

Every book is different to write and sometimes I feel a bit sad when they're done, as if I'm losing a friend, because we've spent a lot of time together. I was really glad to get to the end of this one though as it's been tricksy with me all the way through. The timeline/plot is quite complex and that made it fairly difficult to write a first draft. It also meant that the second draft needed more work than I'd normally expect to do as I had to make some structural changes and speed up the pace in the first half. My normal 'it's a total train wreck!' reaction that generally lasts for the first third of the book went on until almost the end this time. It was only on the third draft that I thought 'hey, this is actually not bad at all.'

...I swear if books could snigger this one did at that point...

Foreign Rights News

I'm delighted to share that the German language rights for SKIN DEEP were sold to Dressler over the summer and that my agents have had an offer for the Thai language rights recently. The book is due out in the UK in under three months now and I'm starting to get excited but I have to say the thought of it being read by kids in Thailand really blows my mind. It's great to see your book in print, especially when it's going out in other countries like Australia and Germany, but I think it was the Thai offer that made me really sit up and drop my mouth open - it's such a very different culture to the UK and I love the idea of the book being read over there. So forgive me for getting a bit over-excited and squeeing - I have to do this:
SQUEEEEEEEEEEE!!!