So, news …
I’ve just handed in the first round of rewrites of the new book. It started life as THIS IS NOT A LOVE SONG, then became HEART OF GLASS, and now it’s LOVE SONG, (or possibly (This is not a) LOVE SONG). There will be more rewrites to come, but it has a beginning, middle, end, and no obvious gaps in between, so YAY! Bring on 2016.
And also, I was mentioned in the Guardian today as a signatory to an open letter to the Education Secretary about teaching good creative writing in schools. Which means not forcing children to use the longest words they can think of all the time, but teaching them to write clearly and to appreciate the value of simplicity. That’s what they’ll need in later life. I’m always sad when one of my children comes home with a list of long adjectives to squeeze into his prose, as if he ever writes professionally he’ll be taking most of them out again …
I blogged about it, and about Tanya Landeman winning the Carnegie Medal, on Girls Heart Books today. I’ll be speaking at a Carnegie event on Friday, so if you’re a Wandsworth student and you’re coming to that event, I’ll see you there.
Meanwhile, more stories are bubbling up, now the current one is (temporarily) with my editor and out of my head. So it’s back to plot, and character, and thinking up new stuff. My favourite part!