Your mission over the bank holiday weekend...

... should you choose to accept it, is to vote me for in The Queen Of Teen Awards. Closing date is 31st August, so step to it, dear readers.I'm heading off to Edinburgh to do an event with Cathy Forde on Monday on how we use music as part of our writing process. I'll be posting our setlist (man, like, we're in a band or something) on Spotify once the event is done. EDITED TO ADD: Here is the

Haven't done this for ages...

No, I don't mean updating my blog, though it has been an age, but doing one of those posts where I blather on about all the stuff I've been loving of late. First, a little catch up.While I'm waiting for my editor to get back to me with her notes for my second grown-up book, You Don't Have To Say You Love Me (which will be out Jan/Feb 2011, no matter what it might say on Amazon,) I'm working on my

Nobody's Girl officially released in the UK today

Morning!Nobody's Girl officially goes on sale in the UK today. Available from all good bookshops and Amazon.Bea thinks she's the most boring seventeen-year-old in the world. She's not pretty or popular or funny, unlike her mother who had Bea when she was 17. The only glamorous thing about Bea is the French father who left before she was born and lives in Paris. She yearns for la vie Parisienne

Internet goodies for all!

I said, brr, it's cold in here. There must be some Toros in the atmosphere.Ahem, don't know what came over me then. Anyways, hi! Hello! Greetings! How have you been?Well, that's enough about you, let's talk about me. Although the official UK release date is February 4th, I think it would be fair to say that Nobody's Girl is out now. You can buy it on Amazon and it seems to be in the shops - even

Nobody's Girl synopsis and cover news

Just to let you know that the Nobody's Girl cover that's up on Waterstones and Amazon and the blogs is an early, rough version of the cover and not the finished product.As soon as I get a jpeg of the right cover, I'll post it here! But here is the full synopsis:Bea thinks she's the most boring seventeen-year-old in the world. She's not pretty or popular or funny, unlike her mother who had Bea

And the title is...

Peeps,I can exclusively reveal that the title of my second grown-up novel will be: You Don't Have To Say You Love MeYes, after the Dusty Springfield song because Dusty makes everything better.On the teen front, the synopsis for Nobody's Girl is now up on Amazon.co.ukAlso, if you are a serious producer interested in the film rights to any of my novels, you need to get in touch with my film and TV

So, how have you been?

You know you're long overdue a blog post when people are leaving gentle reminders on my Twitter asking me when I'm going to update. Ooops!Anyway, here I am with a few snippets of news and links and some stuff for you to look at. I'm deep in the first draft hinterlands for my second grown-up book, which is not going to be called Lightweight anymore. It's going to be called something else but I

It's been too long...

Hola! Holla!I know I've been absent from this blog for a while. I wish I could tell you that I was doing all sorts of glamorous things, but sadly the truth is that my adsl has been wonky for weeks. In fact it's been one of those months where I should have taken to my bed and refused to move.There's been flooding (my washing machine,) fire (someone set my fully laden recycling bin on fire so I had

Unsticky out today in paperback!

Hullo!Finally, the day is come when the paperback of Unsticky goes on sale in the UK! Hurrah! It is my first grown-up book and not wholly suitable for under sixteens but YMMV.And I've just finished and delivered my next teen book, Nobody's Girl, so that will be out in February 2010. Now, run, don't walk... in fact, don't even run but sprint full pelt to your nearest bookshop and buy a copy of

Mostly housekeeping...

Sunny salutations, sweet readersNothing much to report from round these parts. I'm a mere handful of days away from delivering my next teen book, Nobody's Girl, and am actually writing the first three chapters of my teen book after that, as inspiration has struck and I don't want to forget it all. But I will be writing my second adult book first.I got my first proper paperback copy of Unsticky in

This is not a test...

Bonsoir mes amisI bring you news. Exciting news from London town. I have just finished the first draft of my next teen opus and it will be published in February of next year in the UK. It's also going to be called Nobody's Girl. Well, it is at the moment. I'm not sure that I love that title but have yet to come up with anything better. I'm not sure if I nabbed it from one of your shuffle

First look at the Unsticky cover...

Sunday salutationsI've been very quiet of late, I know. I have some family stuff that's taking up a lot of my time right now, but I am twittering frequently and you can follow my tweets right here.I am still hard at work on my next teen opus and still mulling over titles, but mostly I'm gearing up for the publication of my grown-up book, Unsticky, which comes out in April in hardback and in May

All Manning, all of the time...

My ladyfingerlingsThank you so, so, so much for all your shuffle suggestions. I am blown away by the response and also in awe of your eclectic and deeply cool song stylings. There are a couple I'm quite taken with and a couple I came up with all my by very own. I will keep you posted. And you know how I said that my new teen book (they very one, which I don't have a title for!) would be out next

Competition winners and reader-generated content!

May I introduce you to the two winners of my Chrismukkah quiz? All hail Ella McBride from Blighty and Kathryn Piekkala in Australia, which is going to cost me a small fortune in postage!Ella and Kathryn won because they had the most right answers, I liked their tie-breaker answers and they also went above and beyond in getting round blogger's maximum wordage in comments rules. Ella's tie-breaker

Does this blog post make me look fat?

Happy Holidays, readers!In the next couple of days I'll be posting an extra special thing that will thrill, delight and astound you. That's the general plan, anyway!But in the meantime, I just wanted to shout out to my North American readers, that includes you kooky Canucks, to let you know I have a short story, Some Girls Are Bigger Than Others, in a wonderful collection called Does This Book

Weeps softly

Greetings!I am still alive. Just. Though it's been so long without sunshine in Blighty that I feel like taking to my bed and staying there for a while.And then I read this on the interpipes. I'm definitely taking to my bed now, possibly with an eau de cologne-soaked handkerchief draped decoratively over my forehead.Really not much to report except I'm well under way with my new teen opus.Like,

Accept no substitutes

So, with the recent UK release of Candy, I have no new teen books coming out for a while, as I work on my first grown-up book Unsticky. And it's grown-up in that I'd be kinda horrified if anyone under 16 read it, though I guess the content is no more racy than you might find in an episode of, like, Sex And The City. And I guess you all watch that...Anyways, there will be new teen-friendly fare

I've been less and I've been more...

I know. I know! I haven't updated in ages. Mostly because I've been working flat-out on the final book in the Fashionistas series, Candy. I finished the first draft yesterday (I don't get to have the weekends off) and now I'm just about to start re-writing the whole thing and hoping that I can deliver it in time for the final deadline. Ho hum!Apart from that my life has become incredibly boring.

The loneliness of the long distance writer...

Hey pop kidsI realise I haven't updated in an age. I wish I could report that I've been off doing all manner of impossibly glamorous things, but sadly that's not the case.What I have been doing is writing so much that I'm surprised my fingers aren't little bloody stumps. The third book in the Fashionistas series, Irina, has been delivered but its release has been put back to May 2008 because of

NOW CLOSED!!!!!!!!!!Win an advance copy of Fashionistas, book one!

EDITED TO ADD: THAT COMMENTING HAS BEEN TURNED OFF AS THIS COMPETITION IS NOW CLOSED! THANKS TO EVERYONE WHO ENTERED - WINNERS WILL BE NOTIFIED BY EMAIL.Do you want me to bang on about how busy I am? Or repeat for the gazillionth time that there are no plans to ever write any more Diary Of A Crush books (for reasons explained in the tags to your left?) Or shall I just get on with the competition