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Yay! The banner for my UK blog tour for You Don’t Know Me has arrived. And it’s awesome!

Thank you, Laura and Tina at Chicken House. And thank you to all the UK YA bloggers who’ve agreed to host me. (I begged.) Here they are …

There is a moment in a writer’s life when you’re reminded that it’s not just you, sitting alone in the shed: it takes a whole team of people to  turn what you wrote on your laptop into an actual, printed book. And you can never picture exactly what it’s going to be like – even though you’ve talked endlessly with your publisher about covers and blurbs, and done the proof edit, and squeed over the idea of the sprayed page edges. Until you actually have it in your hot little hands, it’s just an idea for a book. Then something pops through the letterbox – or, even better, a courier arrives armed with a big cardboard box – and suddenly … there it is.

You Don’t Know Me arrived yesterday. Or the day before. I can’t remember exactly. I’ve been really really busy getting the first draft of the next book ready to show people and organising You Don’t Know Me’s blog tour, and the competition (landing here soon – so look out) and time is just FLYING. Anyway, I took a picture to mark the moment, which was this.

It’s even lovelier than I thought. Loving the page edges, and my name in foil, in the same font as it was for The Look, so people will hopefully notice the two books are related. Inside, it’s awash with photography and illustrations and cute chapter headings (I did the words, Chicken House did the font). When it was sent out to reviewers and bloggers, it even, apparently, arrived in a matching blue foil envelope. *impressed face*

I was sitting in bed last night, writing the new one (I’ve just discovered Focus View on Word for Mac, by the way, which is sheer genius – little black icon in the bottom left hand corner if you need to know), when I was joined by my six year-old for a cuddle. He loves reading from my screen. I explained that this would be the next book. He thought for a moment and his eyes went wide. He collected my copy of You Don’t Know Me and said ‘so you mean it goes from that’ – pointing at my screen – ‘to this?’ His face was full of wonder.

‘Yes,’ I said, still feeling the same sense of magic I first felt in 2009, when I beheld my first printed copy of Threads. ‘Yes it does.’

(You Don’t Know Me comes out on 2nd May. You can admire the awesomeness of those sprayed page edges then. You can also enter to win a signed copy via Goodreads.)

This month, I have an article in Writers’ Forum magazine, about how I did my research for The Look, and why I think it’s important to get the details right, but too much research can be a bad thing. If you want to find out more about it, you can check out the magazine here, or look out for it in WH Smith.

I’d like to say a big thank you to everyone in Poland who’s supporting the launch of The Look there (I think it comes out next month). It’s so exciting to see a new audience discover a book.

Go Egmont, who are being wonderful publishers, highlighting many of the modelling issues in the story. Thank you all.

And Happy Easter – to Polish readers, and readers everywhere!

I’m pleased to announce that The Look will be touring the US in early March, and I’ll be doing guest posts and Q&As with some lovely bloggers round the country.

Thanks for hosting me, everyone!

1st March

Extract – Supernatural Snark

2nd March

Q&A – My Not So Real Life

3rd March

Guest post and giveaway – Rather Be Reading

4th March

Guest post- Once Upon a Prologue

14th March

Extract and guest post – Xpresso Reads

TBA

Guest Post – Dreaming In Books

Well, it’s on Amazon now, so I guess I can share it.

Ta dah!

My new book is due to come out next summer, as long as I can get the editing finished in time. It’s going to be called ‘You Don’t Know Me’ and we’re still working on the blurb (short description), so here’s my best effort at describing what it’s about.

Four friends love singing cheesy music together. But when they get the chance to go through to the finals of an online competition, one of them makes a terrible mistake. She ends up betraying her best friend, in front of millions. And she discovers a new kind of online fame that is scary, and painful, and personal. The question is, with the whole world seemingly hating her, can she ever explain the truth?

My main characters are Sasha Bayley and Rose Ireland. But look out for a boy called Elliot in this book. What he does isn’t always entirely open, or entirely legal. Sometimes, it’s the rulebreakers who are the most fun characters to write.