I was hugely excited on Friday night when a friend tweeted me to tell me that there was a picture of one of my books on the BBC Radio 2 website. Being held by Chris Evans, no less! You can see the hands on the Scattering Like Light cover in the picture above.

The website page, which you can find here, is promoting a competition to write a great story in 500 words or less. And one of my books ended up in the pile which they are using to show what you can win – Chris’s height in books! That would take a while to read.

Why don’t you enter?

When I was young I lived in a house full of books which seemed to be mostly for adults or directed towards boys (I have two brothers). I read everything I could lay my hands on, but when I first went to my local library I thought I had died and gone to heaven. Racks and racks of books for girls, my own library cards and no-one to tell me what to pick. Every Saturday morning I took the bus into town clutching my three books, handed them in and got back my three little orange cards. I then sniffed along the shelves until I found something which caught my fancy. Half the time the three books wouldn’t last me through the weekend. I pleaded with the librarian to be allowed to take out more, but those were the rules. Even so, in a few years I must have read half the library.

When I moved up to senior school there was a small fiction library to explore, so I was able to take out books from there too. As I got older I started to get my own books and borrow from friends (there’s nothing quite like having a rummage through someone else’s bookshelf). And I also bought my own, enjoying the thrill of a nice, crisp paperback which may or may not in time turn into a soft, well-worn favourite.

One of the most exciting things about writing my own books has been knowing that they are sitting on the shelf in libraries, where a whole new generation of girls can find them, and that makes me hugely proud. Go and join your local library today!

I’ve been doing school visits again over the last few weeks, supporting the launch of Scattering Like Light. It’s part of my role as a writer which I enjoy enormously, meeting all the readers and getting feedback. Today’s talk, in Tunbridge Wells, was particularly exciting because we actually sold out of books! Every copy of Small Blue Thing went as members of an enthusiastic audience raced to get a signed edition. My crate was much lighter on the way home.

Lots of the pupils at the school had already read the first two books and were keen to get their hands on the final part of the trilogy. I’m hoping that they will write up some reviews on the Reviews & Buzz page and let me know what they think of the end.

I also met a girl who said that she was my Number One fan. Thanks Francesca!

Thursday was the launch of Scattering Like Light, and on Friday I was invited to talk about the books on BBC Radio Kent, on the Pat Marsh Show. I’d never done a radio interview before, and the fact that it was going out live made it even worse! I was incredibly nervous but everyone at the BBC and Dom (Publicity for Nosy Crow) did their best to keep me calm. But knowing that I was going to be talking for 15 minutes live on air was more terrifying than talking to hundreds of students and parents which I did last week at my old school’s Speech Day. Or it was until I started. Then it became just like a conversation, and Pat was great, asking me all the right questions. I didn’t want it to end.

If you want to listen, you can find the recording here.

It’s the 12^th January 2012, and it’s finally publication day for the last book, Scattering Like Light. Spookily, it’s almost exactly a year since the first book in the trilogy was published – that came out on the 13^th January last year, and even more weirdly it’s exactly, to the day, two years since I first met Kate Wilson, who now owns and runs Nosy Crow. On the 12^th of January 2010 Kate made me realise that dreams can come true when she offered me, a first-time author, a publishing deal with her not-yet-formed new company. Then she made it even better by offering me a three book deal, and the story of Alex and Callum got the chance to continue. I really hope you like it – let me know!

(The picture above shows the books with the bracelet which we had made and which was photographed for the covers. Isn’t it lovely?)

 So, 2012 is finally here, and it’s just days now until Scattering Like Light is on the shelves. It’s an exciting moment and hopefully will mark the start of another fantastic year. It will be hard to beat 2011 though, which was one of my best:  Small Blue Thing was published in January, I did my first school visits in February, Perfectly Reflected was published in June and in July we got our chocolate Labrador puppy (who I wasn’t allowed to call Beesley, because she is a girl). The puppy has no respect for books, as you can see from the picture above where she is destroying a proof of the Scattering Like Light cover. Throughout the year I was writing and editing and proofing the new book, and talking to lots and lots of you both here on the website and on school visits. Meeting you all has been brilliant, and I look forward to meeting more of you in next few months. I’m really keen to hear what you all think about the end of the story!

Have a happy 2012.

Just the week before Christmas the copies of Scattering Like Light were printed, and I got sent a few copies to give away as special presents. The first one went to Ellie (obviously!), and then I gave some to my nieces, Julia and Beth. Here’s a picture of Julia and Ellie with their books. I may have another to give away so keep checking and I’ll post a competition in the next few days!

Hi,

This is a very quick post to let you know that there is a fabulous book giveaway over on the Girls Heart Books website – 10 copies each of Small Blue Thing and Perfectly Reflected! Go and see if you can win – I bet you all know the answer to the question they are asking!

http://girlsheartbooks.com/

A part of my job which I really enjoy is school visits. I talk to year groups about how I wrote my books, what they are about and where I get my inspiration. They are always a lot of fun and I am constantly amazed at the range of questions which come up.

A few months ago I did a whole day of visits in Somerset at the Churchill Community School and the Broadoak Mathematics and Computing College at Weston-Super-Mare (the picture shows me there in the library, signing some books). It was a brilliant, if exhausting, day, giving four presentations to some very diverse groups. The librarian at Broadoak, Frances, told me that the Year 8 English class were going to be running a competition to write the first chapter of their own ‘Small Blue Thing’ story.  I promised that when this blog was up and running I would post the winning entry for you all to enjoy.

It’s taken a little longer than I expected, but we are finally able to post Samuel’s thrilling opening chapter, an entirely different take on a ‘Small Blue Thing’. Read it below.  Thanks Samuel!

Small Blue Thing,

by Samuel, Yr 8

Secrets.

The things you share, keep and are dying to let out. Even if they bring the worst of consequences.

Secrets can be dark like the night and dangerous like a wild fire; but none can be as dark and dangerous as the secret that Rhys Nightman held.

The night was cold, dark and creepy. All the streets were empty and silent. Nothing could be heard, nothing but footsteps. The street lamps flickered constantly, briefly giving bursts of light just before the darkness swallowed them up again. Rhys Nightman always kept to the shadows and quickly moved through the eerie light of the street lamps. He came up to a small red post box and quickly stopped to drop in a small package; then he rushed away still keeping close to the shadows.

Rhys lived in a little house on a hill in Wales, just off the coast. In fact it was right on the cliff edge and below the rumbling waves smashed into the cliff making a terrific noise, which could be heard all night. The house was made of wood, which over the years had rotted, making the structure a bit weak. The timbers supported the entire roof. The house itself was a cube shape with a slanted roof, much like the typical house. It had two stories, each with four rooms and a small attic space at the top. There was no opening except for a front door. It was a little shabby and the black paint was very rusted. Rhys walked up to it and fitted a small brass key in the lock. When he opened it a creak sounded throughout the house.

Rhys walked in and closed the door behind him, cutting the creak short. The door opened into a small front room, which was illuminated by several candles. The room was square and painted red. The candles hung from iron chains on opposite walls. Rhys walked over to the left hand wall and opened a section of the wall by pulling on the pulling the nearest candle chain to the right. It revealed a huge iron safe. He fitted in the same small key into the lock and twisted it right. Rhys opened it. The safe enclosed various papers and files. Rhys reached into his pocket and withdrew a golden heart locket. Rhys placed the locket into the safe and closed the safe door again.

No sooner, however, had he locked it and stepped away, the door was kicked down and two men shrouded in black cloaks and fine suits entered the house. Their black hats and sunglasses hid most of their facial features from Rhys.

“Where is it?” asked the first of the two men.

“Where is what?” replied Rhys giving away no reaction to the sudden out-burst.

“Don’t play games Mr Nightman. Where is your small blue thing?”

Rhys smiled, humiliating the man. “You’re too late, it’s gone and you’re never ever, ever going to get it back.”

“Well then…” the man smiled. “You give me no choice.” He reached into his back holster and drew out a pistol. Rhys didn’t move.

“You’ve failed Rex, you’ll never get it.” Rhys taunted.

Rex smiled again, “We’ll see.” And he raised the barrel and pulled the trigger.

Before I started writing I had given very little thought to the process that a book has to go through after it leaves my laptop and before it gets to you.  Sure, someone has to edit it, check the grammar and the continuity, but that’s all, surely?

How wrong I was.  I happened to notice in an email I was re-reading today that I finished the first draft of Scattering Like Light back in March. It’s now November and the final changes have just gone back again, and all this time you’ve been waiting. This is what’s been happening:

First draft – that goes off to the editor and she/he reads it though and makes any big suggestions which are needed, such as moving chapters around or introducing more characters.

Second/Next draft – the manuscript goes back and forth between you and the editor, and the changes (hopefully) get smaller each time. Scattering Like Light went to four drafts, but you can have LOTS more!

Copy Edit – Once you and the editor are pretty happy with the draft it goes off to the copy editor. This is someone who hasn’t seen it before so can more easily spot inconsistencies or over-use of particular words.

Proofreading – The proof reader is the last line of defence – they are the last ones to go through line by line and check that every inverted comma and speech mark is in the right place.

Typesetting – The typesetter lays out the book exactly as it will be printed, and makes sure that chapters don’t end with just a few words on one page, and that the dedications and acknowledgements are in the right place.  They also have to fit the book onto a fixed number of pages because of the printing process.

And finally to print.

At every one of the last few stages the author gets to have another look, double check and double check again. You end up reading the story dozens of times and hopefully not making too many last minute revisions (the editors get a bit cheesed off if you do too much of that!). You really want to avoid leaving errors in because it gets in the way of the reading process, but it’s astonishing how many you find at each stage which you missed before.

The picture above is of the Scattering Like Light manuscript on my kitchen table after checking through the copy edit. Let me know if you’ve found anything wrong which has slipped through in either of the first two!