5th December - Random House Christmas Party

I must write it all down before I forget! On Thursday I went to my first RH Children's Books Christmas Party. Funnily enough, when I was asking other authors their opinions on RH, many of them mentioned the Christmas party as a definite plus! So I was very much looking forward to it, and had bought a lovely new Karen Millen dress along with Dune shoes (sooo cute!) so that I could begin making my impression as a Trendy Young Author (!!).

The party was held at the lovely Dartmouth House, which is in Mayfair and looks like it should have its own country estate. It has several rooms, so you walk through and get to meet different people in different places, which is rather fun and slightly more friendly than all being in one enormous hall. There was wine a-plenty, and some very tasty canapes, of which I ate copious amounts to try to avoid getting too drunk. In the toilets I saw Jacqueline Wilson, but I thought it probably wasn't a good moment to ask for a photograph...

Terry Pratchett was unwell and couldn't come, but I did spot Dee Shulman and Nick Sharratt and several other authors and illustrators whose names I know well. I got to have a good chinwag with friends Linda Chapman, Dave Gatward, Tabitha Suzuma, Candy Gourlay, Lee Weatherly and John Dougherty as well as meeting Luisa Plaja, Steve Cole , Sam Enthoven and Anthony McGowan and catching up with my agent Penny Holroyde. I also met the lovely Deborah Brown and Kathy Bacovitch who recommended their picture book Follow That String! for Jemima - I have placed it on my wishlist already!

Of course as well as talking to other authors it was a great opportunity to talk more to the RHCB team: Annie Eaton, the two Ruths, the two Sarahs, Margaret Hope, Maeve, Trish, Charlotte, Alex...oh dear, I'm sure I've forgotten some people! Apologies if so, I did have several glasses of wine...! Thank goodness for name badges, otherwise I wouldn't remember the ones I've just listed either! But it was so lovely to be able to meet some more people that are part of the team - and they were all so sweet about my books. Margaret even went and got me yet another glass of wine when she heard I was giving up my job to be a full time writer! So THANK YOU to the RHCB team for making me feel so welcome and for adding to my already swollen head! I can't wait for next year's party!

 

26th November - Running on the spot

STAR CROSSED has now been through editing and I have re-written it following my editor's suggestions (which were almost without exception very good). Thankfully she likes my re-write enough to pass it straight to copy-editing without my having to do any more work on it for now. Which is good, because I am starting to feel as though I am running on the spot just to stay in the same place.

Proofs of OUT, my book about homosexuality for Barrington Stoke, have just come to me, and I have given proof corrections, author note, comments on illustrations etc etc. I am really pleased with it - it was such a hard story to write and I am proud of the final version. I'm not sure when it's scheduled for publication, but early-ish next year, I think.

TAKE TWO, my new book for Barrington Stoke under their 'Solo' strand, has now been satisfactorily completed. It's been tricky because it's a new style of writing for me for a lower reading age than I'm used to. It's about two best friends who are both asked to the school prom by the same boy. I rewrote it a couple of times and then ended up with far too many words, so had to do some serious pruning! But it is finally in a decent shape and the editor at Barrington Stoke, Vicki, has been very patient with me. Again, not sure when that one is published but I suspect something like summer next year.

All of the above (along with a week's holiday in Cornwall and Jemima getting two nasty infections in five weeks) has meant that work on STRICTLY FRIENDS? had halted completely and I am only now getting back to it. I had big concerns about what I'd already written (around 7k words, the first three chapters) because I thought it was dragging terribly. Having read it through again, I think it's not so bad as I feared, and some serious cutting will help the pace. I already like the heroine, Megan - she's more feisty than Fliss, the girl in STAR CROSSED. Fliss is very very sweet but she doesn't like standing up for herself, so she's in danger of being walked over by people. Megan won't let that happen to her - or at least she thinks she won't! But then she falls in love with a bad boy...

Ahem. I seem to be writing the blurb already!

The best news of all is that my school has found a replacement teacher, and so from 17th December, I shall be A Writer Only! I am so grateful and thrilled for this opportunity and I thank my lucky stars over and over again. It will seem much more real when I've waded through the last three weeks of term, marking essays and trying desperately to complete tasks on schedule before the last day!

And, so that I end on a cheerful note, here's a recent pic of Jemima in her Halloween costume:

 

 

14th October - Series name and Serious Writing!

I went up to see the team at RH Children's Books last Friday and had a really lovely meeting with lots of them (including a designer, how wonderful!). We all thought very hard about what the series should be called and I can now reveal...SWEET HEARTS! I am very pleased with this as I feel it really encapsulates the innocent nature of the books (which I see as a Good Thing) whilst hinting at romance and all that.

We also decided that each book will have a two word title. Book 1 will be published in June 2010 and will be called STAR CROSSED, followed by STRICTLY FRIENDS? in September, followed by ICE DREAMS in January 2011. We have also agreed 'themes' for the next four books, which is fab because it means I can now start working out how the characters move from one story to another and complicated things like that. For example, a minor character in Book 1 is going to pop up in Book 2, and so on.

Of course, you may have spotted the flaw in my writing schedule in that I have actually written Books 1 and 3 now, and we are less than a year away from publication of Book 2, which I only started yesterday! Never mind, I'm sure once I'm into the flow of it, it will tick along nicely.

As I said last time, I am going to write under the name Cotterill rather than Kenrick. I feel it's important to separate this series from my other books simply because of the controversial subject matter of RED TEARS and SCREWED. I don't want ten-year-olds putting my name into Google and buying books that aren't suitable for them. Plus I feel this is a completely different style for me, and I would like to be given a fresh look by press/publicity people who might have associated my name with 'gritty' YA fiction. I did wonder about using a pen-name, but several people pointed out that using my real name would be a lot simpler all round, and having talked it over with friends and family, I have agreed. So there you go - eight months till the launch of SWEET HEARTS: STAR CROSSED by Jo Cotterill! How utterly utterly thrilling!

 

2nd October - at last! The Big Reveal! 

WELL, a LOT has happened since I last wrote, but I couldn't say anything until the deal was finally done, so now hurrah! I can at last reveal that my series HEARTBEATS has been accepted by Random House! Of course, it's no use you making a mental note of the series name, as it's going to change anyway, but that's what it's been called up to now. And the first book was called LOVE ON THE ICE but that's going to change too, so don't remember it!

I don't even know where to start, but basically it's all been VERY exciting and I went to meet the team at Random House (RH) a few weeks ago and they had strawberries and pink fairy cakes on the table and everything! I thought they were all lovely, and they were SO enthusiastic about my series, it was lovely. And it's going to get a marketing budget!! (unless you're a fellow writer you won't appreciate just how rare this is!)

So I went home from the meeting on cloud nine, and felt even more over the moon (are there clouds over the moon? Hmm) when the details of the offer came through - they have commissioned SIX BOOKS!! And that's just for starters! This means - you may need to sit down - that I can actually become a Full Time Writer - OMG! Sadly, this means I have to give up teaching, but then my heart has been with writing for several years and this is too good an opportunity to miss. I have given in my notice at school (if anyone wants a lovely job teaching two days a week at a very nice school in Oxford, email me!) and will probably leave at the end of this term, assuming they have found someone to fill my shoes.

But it's all so very very exciting and I am really thrilled by the whole thing. RH wants to publish the first book in summer 2010, which is EXTREMELY quick, and of course they didn't want Book 1 (LOVE ON THE ICE) to go first since it's not really a summer theme, so could I finish Book 2 really quickly so that it could be Book 1? (are you keeping up?) Fortunately, I have now finished the manuscript for Book 2 (worked mega-hard on it in all spare minutes) and Book 3 (which is actually now going to be Book 2 - never mind) is due at the end of January, though I expect that actually they might want it a bit earlier than that since it's being published in September 2010!

It's all far too complicated to explain, but I am working very hard now and will be making another trip up to London next week to discuss series title/book titles and all that. Oh, and I've decided I shall write the series under my married name - Jo Cotterill. So that will be different again! (will explain why another time).

Must go - husband is cooking celebratory meal and it smells divine!

 

25th August - still waiting!

Book 2 is half-written now, and a girl who helped me with some of my skating questions has now read Book 1 and liked it very much, so let's hope that's a good omen!

I read the very fantastic Troy by Adele Geras last week - a really satisfyingly good read, with quite a cast of characters but no confusion at all. Some very sad bits in it though, so don't read if you're easily upset! Adele is so clever - the Greek gods pop up all the time to show how much they are influencing events, but the characters never remember the encounters afterwards - brilliant! I am only angry on Adele's behalf about the reader review on Amazon that proclaims the story 'very boring and hard to understand' - !!! I couldn't disagree more!

 

11th August - new Barrington Stoke and the waiting game

Vicki from Barrington Stoke got in touch a few weeks ago and asked if I'd like to write a story for their new strand called SOLO which is for 10-14s with a reading age of 6.5 - and she wanted a story for GIRLS, hoorah! Which made a nice change, because so far most of the books I've done for their gr8reads series have been heavy issue-based stories for boys (with the exception of PERFECT). So I have put together a story called TAKE TWO which is about two best friends who are asked to the school prom by the same boy - what a rat! I have just emailed it to Vicki today so fingers crossed it doesn't need too much work. It was good fun writing something so fluffy!

The first book in the teen series (notice I haven't told you what the book or the series is called yet because I don't want to jinx it!) went to publishers at the very end of July, so now I am just waiting for responses. I am well stuck in to book 2 now, and we have decided that Jemima will go to nursery for a third day a week from September, so that I can have a whole day at home to write. This way I think I might actually get the series books written! Though not, obviously, if I spend all my time writing on my website and reading Facebook...

 

23rd July - the longest I have been AWOL and why!

OK, well, so juggling three careers (writing, teaching and motherhood) proved even more time- and energy-consuming than I expected, so I do apologies for my long silence.

An update on the previous things: I did the teachers' notes for Barrington Stoke and they are now available to buy and download on their site. Sadly, Hothouse rejected my sample chapter in the end, but I did get down to the last two, and they were very positive about my writing for them in the future.

I finished the first book in my new teen series and Penny is submitting ASAP which is very exciting. I am trying not to get my hopes up too much but it sounds almost as though this could be the series that enables me to become a full-time writer...eek eeek! Lalalala trying to think about something else.

Jemima turned one at the end of June and had started walking a full month before then, so she now thinks she is the bees' knees. She is obsessed with the washing machine at the moment - putting things in and taking them out. Only sometimes she forgets to take them out, so today I washed two fridge magnets along with the towels - oops! At least it wasn't the TV remote control.

School finished on 8th July (so early this year!) and I have been feeling really rather burned out, especially with the final push to get the novel finished. I missed my own deadline because I was busy writing my first ever TV script for a CBBC competition. Sadly, no joy there, but maybe that's just as well because Penny seems to think that this teen series will require a minimum of three books a year - yikes!! When am I going to do all of this?!

 

4th May - I go back to work, and the Oxford Literary Festival

I helped out again at this year's Oxford Literary Festival (not speaking this time) and really enjoyed it. Lots of networking with other authors and an opportunity to meet some really great people. I hosted events for Penny Dolan, Helena Pielichaty, Emma Chichester Clark, Titania Woods and Malorie Blackman (we are not worthy!) and came within touching distance of John Humphries, Ed Vaisey, AS Byatt and Lord Wedgewood. But the most memorable moment was when Michael Morpurgo told me he'd heard of me!! I nearly fell over with excitement!

On 20th April I went back to school. The week before hadn't gone at all as planned because Jemima came down with tonsillitis, so I didn't get any of those lovely spare days to prepare for school or do any writing. She's much better now, thank goodness, and in the end it wasn't too difficult to catch up with school stuff. I am enjoying teaching again; I felt very ready to get back to work and it's nice to be back with such good colleagues and nice classes. Oh - and HELLO to my Year 10s if you're reading this - I gather you've been checking out this website! Now get back to your prep, LOL!

Barrington Stoke have asked me to write teachers' notes for their six new plays (including my three PERFECT, BABYFATHER and MINDSET) and I am still wating to hear back from Hothouse about my sample chapters. I have been ploughing on with the first book in the teen series, which I am really enjoying. I'm about half-way thorugh now, but there is a certain amount of pressure because Penny wants to submit it this summer, which only gives me about another month to finish the first book - erk! Only 25k words to go...

 

3rd April - All Change!

Barrington Stoke likes OUT, hurrah! And Phew. So that's good. The bad news is that Unicorn Friends and the picture book have been turned down by enough people to convince Penny they're not viable at the moment. So that was a waste of two months' work...

However, in March I met up with some lovely members of the Scattered Authors' Society for our annual seminar in Coventry - and I was galvanised by a speech by Beverley Birch, Commissioning Editor for Hodder and herself an author. I should point out that her speech wasn't particularly encouraging for authors - in fact, one might say downright DIScouraging from some points of view - but by enunciating the current market problems so clearly, I found myself sitting there going, 'So THAT'S what I've been doing wrong!'

I came home with three ideas, and ran them all past Penny, who expressed some excitement at one of them, a series for teens. I am also quietly excited myself, as I have found writing for the younger market so difficult, and this is far more up my street. So I have plotted the whole of the first book and am now well stuck into the first few chapters.

I also wrote a sample chapter for a company called 'Hothouse' which they liked and have asked me to do a couple more chapters. I won't say more at the moment in case it comes to nothing, but although it wouldn't be a big earner or even under my own name, it would be fun to do and would give me some valuable experience in the 7-10 market.

I don't know quite how much time I will have to write when school starts next term, because I am returning to teaching after my maternity leave. So I am trying to get as much done as I can in the next couple of weeks, as Jemima has started nursery (sob! she's so grown up!) and so will be out of the house for two days a week from now on - on Thursday afternoon I came home and went to sleep for an hour - wonderful! But she is quite delightful, and here is a little piccie of her recently (she's smiling because she's watching CBeebies):

 

8th March 2009 - A Great Relief

The new copies of MINE arrived, and they look stunning; I'm so pleased with them. And, to my great relief, I have finally finished OUT, my next Barrington Stoke story about homosexuality. My goodness, it's been so hard to write! I think I wrote three completely different versions in the end; I just wasn't happy with it. But then I figured out that I was writing it from the wrong point of view, so instead of being from the gay boy's POV it's now from his best (girl)friend's, who has just realised she's falling in love with him. And suddenly the book has a lot more heart and emotion - and I'm very pleased with it. It was emailed to BS last week, so hopefully they'll like it too.

It's as if a weight has been lifted - I don't think I'd realised quite how stressful I was finding that story, and to keep getting it wrong...anyway, it's done now and I can move on to Other Things. I wrote a short story for the 9-11 market called 'Prawns on the Pavement' which my agent is trying to flog at the moment (no news on Unicorn Friends or the picture book, sadly) and now I can get back to my mistaken-identity-kidnap story, which is silly and fun.

 

11th February 2009 - Bits and Pieces

Goodness, I seem to have missed out January altogether...! I did keep meaning to write, but you know how it is - LIFE and all that.

Jemima is now seven months and just lovely - more and more so as the weeks go by. So that's good ;-)

Writing-wise, I have just done the proof edits on the three plays for Barrington Stoke, PERFECT, BABYFATHER and MINDSET, which are out in April. In only a week or so, MINE should be published (pic below) which is great because I was really pleased with the story, and I think the cover's very striking.

I am trying to add it to the 'Short Teenage Stories' section but the formatting keeps playing up, so the image and text are all messy. When am I going to find time to sort that, I wonder..?!

My unicorn series (first two books of six) are doing the publisher rounds (two rejections so far, that I know of), as is my funny picture book text about poo, so fingers crossed something may find a home soon.

I am well stuck in to my next reluctant reader story for Barrington Stoke, and I am also trundling on with my middle-range novel about a mistaken identity kidnapping. It's my 'hobby' story though, so it's not top priority at the moment! Otherwise, there's not much happening in terms of new projects, but I have made enquiries about writing a play for a Children's Theatre Company. Would I have time to write it? I'm sure I would if they said they were interested...

And Barrington Stoke is doing a feature on my books in their next newsletter for schools, so I had a lovely telephone interview the other day with the editor.

But...but...I go back to work in only a couple of months!! I mean teaching, that is - my other job. So what's going to happen to my writing when that happens, goodness knows. I'm sure it will keep going in some form or another!