I’m on tour, how Rock and Roll!

Well not really, but this is fun and a welcome break from the usual farm/children/writing madness so thanks Nicky Schmidt for inviting me. Nicky has a fab blog over at Absolute Vanilla  so when she asked me if I’d join in the blog tour I had to say yes. Below are my answers to the four blog tour questions – you can read Nicky’s on her page and at the bottom of this page are my nominees to for the next leg of the tour…exciting isn’t it?

What am I working on?

Why thank you for asking Nicky. I’m editing my  teen  novel More of Me.  It’s a tiny bit strange so I think the best thing is to let Teva, my main character,  explain what it’s all about:

 I’ve got this condition that doesn’t even have a name but, eventually, it’ll rob me of my future. Imagine all your friends growing up, moving on, and you being stuck in one year of your life while another version of you takes over. A new you,  while you stay behind, a shadow of your self  but still breathing, thinking , being…That’s the life of my former selves, and that’s  my future if I don’t find a way to change it…

I’m not sure I want to tell you anymore than that just yet, it’s about to go to my agent and an editor is waiting for it so I’m still at the stage of being a little  bit precious with it. And I’m nearly done – about a third of the script still to edit and then I can send it off and have a large glass of wine.

How does my work differ from others of its genre?

I’m not even sure what genre I fit in. That’s terrible isn’t it? For young adults I write contemporary fiction based in reality but always with a twist of something odd, a spoon full of  ‘High Concept’  that tips things up a little…what genre is that?  High Concept Realism? I think I just made that up….let’s try what do I think makes my writing work?  I’m pretty good at nailing my characters and I think  my writing style is distinctive. I write with colour and imagery but I can’t do the literary thing, it’s much chattier than that – like lazy girl’s literary. That’s another thing I made up. This is why I need my agent, Sophie Hicks, at  Sophie Hicks Agency she sums it all up for me, I just do the writing bit.

Why do I write what I do?

Uh oh – the truth? I have issues and I’m willing to abuse them.  That’s flippant but it’s true really.  My own mother died when I was little and there’s often a lost parent being sought  in my stories.  The story I’m writing now comes from a feeling of not wanting to grow up and feeling kind of distanced from the child I was, like she was someone I met, not someone I was. That makes me sound a bit crackers, I know.

How’s about this then: Like most writers I have a lot of  ‘what ifs’ dancing in my head, I write to get them out before they send me mad. That’s true too.

How does my writing process work?

My current work-in-progress  has been different to anything else I’ve written. I have a  very busy life running a farm and a family –  I work about 14 hours a day pretty much seven days a week so writing usually takes a while. I’d write a bit,  go back and edit a bit, then carry on and write some more. This book has been such a change, in November I set myself a deadline of having it written by March and ready to go my agent by the end of April. I wrote like a wild thing, forcing myself not to edit as I went. I use Scrivener so I just made notes on the side when I knew there were outstanding things to be addressed rather than picking over them as I went. I got it written by the third week of March and am now loving the edit process ( though my end of April deadline is looming).  It’s been a really clean way of writing and I think this is what I’ll do in future. Get it writ, then get it right!

So that’s my answers to the four touring questions – thanks for dropping in.  I chose two writers to hand on to but one of them is up to his neck in something that’s quite probably very creepy, possibly involving dead things,  so I’ve written him a sick note . He may  not be taking part in the blog tour but  you should check out his blog anyway because it’s brilliant.

Chris Priestley is a writer, illustrator and painter. He had his first book published in 2000 and has had at least one published every year since. He grew up with a love of the uncanny and the macabre and that has been reflected in his output of the last few years. He sometimes jabbers about this stuff on his blog when he gets a chance.

He’s especially going to do some blog dusting just for you so go check him out here:

chrispriestley.blogspot.co.uk

My second author wrote a series of book that I absolutely ADORE.  I’ve just got hold of book four of the Rebel Angel series and am so excited I feel faintly sick. She’s done some dreadful things to characters I love but I forgive her because the books are just brilliant. Actually, I haven’t quite forgiven her for what she did to…no, let’s not go down that path.  Let me just introduce you or I’ll get upset all over again *sniffle*.

Gillian Philip is a full time author and ghostwriter for young adults and children. She writes in whatever genre grabs her, including contemporary crime, historical and urban fantasy, horror, and dystopian science fiction. Her books include Crossing the Line, Bad Faith, The Opposite of Amber and the Rebel Angels series – Firebrand, Bloodstone, Wolfsbane and Icefall. She has written Darke Academy as Gabriella Poole, the Survivors series as Erin Hunter, and two Beast Quest instalments as Adam Blade.

 

Gillian was born in Glasgow, lived in Barbados for twelve years and now lives in the north-east Highlands of Scotland with her husband, twins Jamie and Lucy, three dogs, two cats, a fluctuating population of chickens and many nervous fish.

Please go and seek her out here:   www.verybadwolf.com 

You can find her on facebook too:  www.facebook.com/gillianphilipauthor