And so the year turns a full circle...

Happy Holidays, gentle readersI hope you all have a stress-free Crimbo, get tons of wonderful gifts and eat as much as you like without feeling bilious.I'm going to my Dad, who lives about six miles away, and will be cooking Christmas dinner for him and my sister, nieces, maybe my brother and anyone else who's around. Note to self: Remember to pick up the turkey you ordered from M & S.It's been a

Well, it must be Saturday...

I'm actually remembering to update in a timely, every seven days fashion this week. I could be looking at tiles in a big bathroom shop on the Holloway Road (my shower cubicle is on the verge of imminent collapse) but instead I'm munching toast and staying indoors where it's warm and I can rip some tunes (currently Snow Patrol) on to my iPod. Actually I've just come back from the gym and I have

Stop, look and listen...

Obviously my vow to be more diligent about posting here went horribly wrong. But it's late Saturday afternoon, the central heating's toasty, I'm in my Old Navy micro-fleece PJ bottoms and the most wild thing I'm going to do this evening is order a Chinese even though I didn't go to the gym today. It's like emo never happened!If that sounds terribly unglam, I did go to LA a couple of weeks ago to

So, tonight that I might see...

Hello LadiesNot much has been happening chez Manning. I'm wading through proofs of Diary Of A Crush to get them ready for US publication next summer. The three books look so cute! They'll totally rock any bookshelf!Mostly I've been trying to ignore the loud bang of fireworks and squinting a lot. I've started this new Ortho K treament to correct my blind as a batness because I was riskng life and

Things that go ker-thump in the night

Happy Halloween, gentle readers.Instead of doing anything constructive I thought I'd post a list of things that scare the living crap out of me. (Yes, I do contain language that some people might find offensive!)1. Anything with mustard, sunflower seeds or poppy seeds in them. Violently allergic, you see.2. Poltergeists. Writing in blood on people's walls and moving the furniture round is not

The wanderer returns...

Greetings, girlsI am a bad blogger, or an infrequent one. Either way I haven't been updating this as regularly as I should. But I solemnly promise to do better. Especially as I'm finishing up a work thing early this week and will then be at home on a "writing vacation." I'm taking the rest of the year off from full-time work to make a start on my grown-up book, get an agent (I don't have one of

Strictly filler...

Hello pop tartsY'know, I realised I hadn't posted here for a while and now I'm staring at a blank screen and can't think of anything interesting to tell you.Hmmm, well, Diary Of A Crush is being prepared for its US debut. The three books will be coming out in, I think, July 2006, just after Pretty Things is being released in paperback. You've probably read me answering questions about the Crush

The Return - Part II

Yeah, the blog is making another comeback attempt. The Krog Blog, as some in the punditry have dubbed it, will start it's third life off as a food blog, summarizing all the things I've consumed on the American Idol audition tour. Yeah, I'm a food snob now. It fits.

First up! San Francisco!

Oh, the things I have seen...

Back from my travels to NYC now. And though I'm barely lucid, I wanted to do a quick post. Firstly to thank Eve, the one reader who actually turned up to the signing that never was (loved your legwarmers) and secondly to give you a heads up that I'm doing a workshop on magazine (and maybe tawdry teen fiction) writing at the Cheltenham Literary Festival on October 8th. I can't work out for the

Are we there yet?

Just emerging from packing hell (where is my huge fold-out wash bag that I bought specifically for this kind of occasion?) to remind you that I'll be at Books Of Wonder on West 18th Street, NYC between 12 am and 2pm this Saturday (September 17th) to a brief talk, a question and answer session and signing. Please, come along if you're in town. Bring your friends! Go to www.booksofwonder.net for

See you on the other side...

Urgh! Getting up early on a Sunday sucks. But I'm guzzling coffee, should be making sandwiches and waiting for my Dad to come and pick me up as we're going on our annual jaunt to Devon.I know that going on holiday with your Dad sounds uncool but for a week I get to channel my inner Seth Cohen and live like a pensioner for a week. Long drives, regular rest breaks, a bit of Scrabble. Though last

Well, I'm softer than my face would suggest...

Hello pop kidsFirstly, any US readers in the vicinity of Hurricane Katrina, I hope you guys and your families are all well and safe. After a very soggy summer, we've had two glorious days of sunshine in London. Yet, I'm sitting at home on this Bank Holiday Monday, trying desperately to clear up some freelance work. I've just recently started writing a column for ELLE UK called "I wish I didn't...

My turn to spam!

Please tell ten friends to tell ten today! The Breast Cancer site is having trouble getting enough people to click on their site daily to meet their quota of donating at least one free mammogram a day to an underprivileged woman. It takes less than a minute to go to their site and click on "donating a mammogram" for free (pink window in the middle). This doesn't cost you a thing. Their corporate

I love you but I've chosen dorkness...

Haven't been around much, have I? My current freelance work is keeping me busy and I've just a bit of a giddy social whirl of a week as it was my birthday.I'm still getting too many spam and chain emails from readers who've added my addresses to their address books (not to mention hysterical emails when I call them on it) so I've had to make the unwelcome decision to stop including my email

Diary Of A Crush - I gave you the best years of my life...

I spent over four years writing Diary Of A Crush as a column (and three cover-mounted books) for the fantastic and now sadly departed J17 magazine.I fell totally in love with Dylan and Edie and loved living in their world and getting to tell their story and watch them grow up. The column led to some great things for me; mainly my book deal. I was also so pleased when I finally got to rework the

A lazy girl writes

Hello LadiesSorry for being such a lame slacker and not posting for a while. I've been really busy - not with the book writing but with work stuff. Sadly, I still have to work for living! At the moment I'm doing some freelance shifts at Grazia magazine as well as writing a column for Elle UK and doing my first piece for The Guardian. Then it's a month doing some development work on a new magazine

London calling...

Hey pop kidsI hope everyone's well after the awful tragedy of yesterday. I had a very slow journey into work on the bus as the tube station was closed, saw lots of ambulances and police cars outside University College Hospital on Gower Street but didn't discover what had happened until I got to the office and watched it unfold on the TV.It was shocking to see familiar scenes of the city I've

Post and run...

A real quickie while I guzzle down some coffee as I'm doing some part-time work on a magazine at the moment. The early mornings are not pretty when I've got used to getting up at 9.30 every day. Oh dear...Anyway, someone (very sorry but I can't remember your name) asked if Diary Of A Crush was available in the States. Well, you can buy it on import from Amazon.com but it is actually going to be

Nothing short of total procrastination...

If I put my mind to it, I'll have finished the final draft of Let's Get Lost tomorrow and can spend Sunday doing fun things like going to the cinema. Instead I'm sitting here and staring out of the window at a grey sky as it tries really hard to thunderstorm and realise that I've just spent two hours faffing about now 5 minutes actually working on the book. That's not a good work/faffing about

Happy Father's Day!

Hello pop kidsI guess, like most of you, I'm going to be celebrating Father's Day with my Dad, and the rest of my family. We'll eat some food, share some stories and probably have at least one argument before we part company. It's kinda what families do. Though I'll be having a dad/daughter movie and meal bonding event later on in the week, when it's just the two of us. But right now I must get

Things that make my heart go pitter patter

* First cup of coffee of the day.* Being in the pool on a sunny day and swimming right under the skylight where the water's sun-dappled.* Being all clean and post-showered with just-shaved legs and then sliding into a freshly laundered bed and snuggling down with a good book as the rain pelts against the Velux windows.* Hanging out with good friends and giggling at whatever DVD we're watching

Drive-by posting...

Just a quickie because I have to hand in a big article first thing tomorrow morning for a magazine and I need to get back to it - though actually being a writer is one of those jobs where you never shake that Sunday afternoon feeling of having too much homework!I forgot to mention for anyone here from the US or Canada that Pretty Things is now available to buy in the shops or on the interpipe.

A devastating observation

Coldplay is the Goo Goo Dolls of this decade. An "alternative" band that's safe and bland enough for office managers and housewives to listen to. They can feel like they're on the cutting edge without upsetting the car pool.

I mean, they're not terrible or anything, but let's calm the fuck down, shall we? Gwyneth Paltrow could've married Robb Thomas and never noticed the difference.

So go ahead, keep loving Coldplay. Just know that you're a douchebag and we all see right through you.

"Comedy" night

I recently (not actually recent, but right in the middle of my blog hiatus) attended a comedy show at Miyagi's on Sunset. If you're from Los Angeles, you might recognize Miyagi's everybody goes when they first come to town. Some move on because they realize being on the Strip sucks. And some move on because they realize there are more shallow places farther down the Strip. And some don't go anywhere.

Anyway, it's a comedy night. Allegedly, at least. Next to the stage is "Honest John", who turns out to be about 60, with gray hair and big, bushy gray beard. Oh, he talked like Eminem. Now, this was confusing to me, since the only white people I know that talk this way are my age or younger and grew up listening to hip hop. I know white hipsters in the old days would say "cat" and whatnot, but I can't imagine any white people in the '70s talking like John Shaft, no matter how much they loved Funkadelic. So, at some point in the last 15 years, "Honest John" said to himself, "You know, I think I'm going to start talking black. F'real. Yeahhhh, boyyyyyy!"

So "Honest John" is doing his set, and in his defense, he is pretty honest. For instance, he never once hid his desires to "Fuck some pussy." And if he brought up a particular subject, like Kobe Bryant, say, whereas a less honest person would say, 'Well, you know, he plays hard.", "Honest John" came right at you with, "Mannnnn, fuck Kobe. I ain't playin' either!"

But the clear highlight of the night for me was when this girl behind me said, with complete joyful amazement, as if she couldn't believe what she was hearing, "Damn, this motherfucker's dirty!" It was the only thing I laughed at all set.

Back. Not better than everybody.

You think YOU can take a hiatus from your blog? Try six fucking months off! Yeah. Yeah.

From your head to the page...

HelloIt's a glorious sunny day in London. I've just been for a walk through Highgate Woods with a friend and now I'm back at my desk getting ready to hunker down for the afternoon with the manuscript for Let's Get Lost. Really though, I want to go outside and play!Time to answer a question though. SweetSugarRush asked: I write stories, well try to, and i have great plots for them in my head but

Books Written For Girls - part one

Hey ladiesSorry I haven't been around for a few days. I have quite severe food allergies and had a bad attack on Friday morning, which kinda knocked the stuffing out of me. I'm fine now - in fact, I've just finished lying on my living room floor doing a Pilates workout and before I head back to book revisions, Josie posted that: ive read all the books i own and im stuck for a new one to read, as

Dagbook

I was woken up by the postman today who delivered five copies of the Swedish edition of Diary of A Crush or as they call it, Edies Dagbook. If you happen to be holidaying in Stockholm, you should go into a bookshop and check out the cover!I just have time to answer a question from Josie who wanted to know: if you could tell us what Lets Get Lost is about?Well, I don't want to give away too much

Happy Bank Holiday!

Just popping in to wish you all a Happy Bank/Memorial Day (delete where applicable) and commiserations if you didn't get today off.I'm a very lazy writer so I have spent most of the day playing the time-sucking demon that is Snood (www.snood.com) but I have started the rewrite on Let's Get Lost. I always love having the chance to go back and rip out all those awful sentences I shoved in first

Is this thing on?

Hello! Hola! Greetings!Yes, this is really Sarra Manning, author of Guitar Girl, Pretty Things and the Diary Of A Crush trilogy. I wanted to have a blog so I can let you know what I'm up to, what I'm into and have a chance to meet some of my readers and answer your questions on my books and anything else you want to know about. I've had so many emails that I've been too snowed under to answer so