Books – music – YA Shot – illustrations

In the month that Bob Dylan was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature (not that he seems to have accepted it) I’m glad to be doing lots of things that celebrate music with writing.

Tomorrow, I’ll be hosting The Sound of Music panel at YA Shot in Hillington, West London, with fellow writers Chris Russell, Marianne Levy and Eleanor Wood. Come and see us, and hear about our favourite festival mishaps and teenage heartthrobs, as well as why we love to write about bands.

Yesterday, I had the surprise of my life, when a copy of one of my books arrived in a language I couldn’t even place in the world, never mind understand – and I’m good at languages. It turned out to be Finnish. (The Finns have been named as one of the best countries in the world for education, by the way. They have great taste in books. Hem hem.)

I loved the cover (despite its pinkness) because it represents all the girls in the Manic Pixie Dream Girls faithfully. But then … It got better and better.

Because there were illustrations.

Good ones.

Quite a few.

Accurately representing my characters and my story, and truly bringing it to life, just as the books I read as a pre-teen did for me. The only thing out was that one of the judging panel, in my mind, was a black musician, but the text didn’t state this explicitly. Otherwise, they’ve all been caught just as I imagined them.

The publisher is Girl:IT. So very happy with this book. And it’s lovely to be reminded of Sasha and her girl band again.

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