21st December 2006

RED TEARS front cover added to the Teenage Novels section!

 

16th December 2006

I hadn't realised it had been so long since I last added to this section. I guess I've just been even busier than usual. School finished this week, so the last two weeks have been a frenzied round of marking exams and writing reports for my pupils. I don't know anyone who likes writing reports - it's so difficult unless the pupil is either outstanding or awful! 'Your child is making good progress. Keep it up' is really uninspiring to read, but you do tend to run out of inspiration after a while. Never mind, they were all done in the end, and we had a great staff dinner on the last Friday of term.

Book-wise, I had a very interesting visit to The Newspaper I mentioned in my last entry. I'm not going to tell you which one yet because articles and features can be dropped at the last minute, but suffice it to say that it's a Really Good Paper and lots and lots of people read it, so I am very excited that they have asked me to write an article about self-harm. Although of course they might decide it's all rubbish and then write it themselves... So for the first time in YEARS I am trying to write a formal piece of 2000 words - which is a lot, I can tell you. I am rather out of practice at this kind of thing, but many of the people who helped me with my research for RED TEARS have come up trumps again and provided me with all sorts of useful material. Now I just have to write the damn thing!

Other Book News - RED TEARS has apparently been chosen as a Best Read for March by a panel in the Bookseller magazine. This is EXCELLENT news and I am really chuffed!

I edited BABYFATHER over the phone on Thursday and found it a very positive experience, just as it was on PERFECT. I do hope Barrington Stoke asks me to write some more stories for them. It's so great to hear that kids who hate reading are enjoying my books.

Penny has got back to me about my latest novel and, as I suspected, has found all sorts of problems with it. Sigh. It's what I wanted her to do, obviously, but now I have to re-write it - pants! But she did like it overall, so at least it's salvageable. No news yet about my picture book texts, but I don't suppose there will be until way after Christmas now. I had a lovely lunch with her after I visited The Newspaper and we talked about all sorts of random things. Tonight I am going to the Writers in Oxford Christmas party. I have been to one similar gathering before but these things are always a bit scary when you go on your own. I'm sure it will be a lovely occasion though.

 

29th November 2006

Front cover of BABYFATHER added to the 'Short Teenage Stories' section.

I wrote a couple more picture book texts over the last few days. I find them frustrating to write because unless I get a really good idea, they're a terrible slog. Plus, when they're finished, I can never tell if they're any good. Picture books are so short, and so hit-and-miss, that I find them really unrewarding. Of course though, I do hope that one or two of the new ones find a home, because I love having my stories illustrated by someone who really knows how to draw! Seeing the illustrations for MOONDANCE was the most exciting part of the whole publishing process! So, fingers crossed. Penny quite likes them so we'll see if any publishers agree with her!

I'm off to London again on Friday to meet up with a Newspaper about possibly doing a Feature about self-harm and my book...all very exciting!

 

26th November 2006

My five proof copies of RED TEARS arrived last weekend, so I am carefully compiling a short list of people who might usefully read it. Of course, the first copy went to my parents, ha! The lovely Helena from Faber publicity contacted me to say they've had quite a bit of interest from newspapers and magazines about PR coverage in March, which is excellent news. More about that as/when it happens!

Barrington Stoke has sent the proof pages of PERFECT, and I was pleasantly surprised to see rough line drawings included! I had completely forgotten that the Gr8reads! all have black and white illustrations. I have just spent a couple of hours poring over the pages and making notes of any changes or suggestions. Deadline is this Tuesday, so I can't leave it for long.

I have sent the manuscript of my newest novel to Penny, who has promised to cast her eye over it when she has a moment. Of course the minute I posted it I thought 'oh no, why didn't I spend more time revising it? She's going to think it's rubbish' but I think it would be useless for me to revise it further without someone else's input.

Last Saturday I went to my first Scattered Authors Society meeting - all right, it was lunch! The SAS (the other one!) is a group of authors who don't live in London - and there are loads who live in Oxfordshire, so it was really great to spend some time with them. Everyone made me feel very welcome, and I hope to go to lots more lunches - I mean meetings - soon...

 

16th November 2006

Well, yesterday I went up to London to meet with Susan and Helena in the Faber publicity department. And WOW is it exciting! The first exciting moment was when I signed in at Reception - right underneath the names of Alan Bennett and Andrew Motion, who had been there the day before!! I felt very humble (and, in a small way, a complete fake - you know, when you secretly suspect that you don't deserve to be there at all, and that at any moment someone will turn round and say 'You? You're not a real author, what are you doing here?'). Then (as I was a little early) I sat down and flicked through the catalogue for March-April next year, to discover my name EMBLAZONED across page 34 (that's 34, folks) along with a picture of the rather fantastic front cover and the words EXTENSIVE PR FEATURE COVERAGE EXPECTED. Oh yes! So I got over-excited again...

Then I met Susan, who is lovely and brought me a cup of coffee, and we sat in someone else's office (since all the meeting rooms were full - Wednesday is MEETINGS DAY apparently) and talked about flyers for the book. We're going to send out flyers around the time of publication to self-harmers and to mental health charities and other organisations, and so we had to discuss what should go on the flyers. I am all for something simple and straightforward - a picture of the front cover, the website address, and something short about the book itself. Susan suggested reproducing the Prologue from the book, which I think is a great idea. Although, thinking about it more, it might be a little too in-your-face. Hmm. Anyway, nothing will happen about flyers until January anyway since there's no point sending them out months in advance of publication.

Then the lovely Helena took me out to lunch (yum) and we talked about publicity for the book - newspapers and magazines and radio and TV and all that. We also discussed possibly getting a celebrity involved to raise the profile of self-harm, and the various 'angles' needed for the different media. For example, I could offer to write a bit about self-harm for the Times Educational Supplement, which would obviously want me to focus on self-harm in schools; whereas a glossy magazine would almost certainly want to hear a 'personal story' from a self-harmer if they were to feature the book. So there are lots and lots of different approaches we can make, and I am also planning to do a couple of educational resources that could be downloaded from my website and used in school PSHE lessons (Personal, Social and Health Education, for those not in the know - it's the sex ed, drugs and bullying lessons basically) or even English lessons on personal writing. Of course, I shall need to read up on the National Curriculum for PSHE before writing anything for those lessons, although the English ones I can do quite easily because of my own teaching experience. Helena and I also talked about school visits, although we didn't decide anything firm about them. I am reluctant to go into schools to talk about self-harm, because of the effect that could have on pupils who are already self-harming. More thought needed on that one.

After I had made Helena VERY late for her next meeting, I dashed down the road to have a quick drink with my lovely agent Penny, who has had her hair cut and looks FAB. She was quite tired and trying to gather some energy for a publishing party later that evening. We had a brief chat about The Future, and I told her about my next book (the one I've written but needs serious editing) and she got quite excited about it.

THEN when I got home I discovered that Barrington Stoke had sent through the latest cover design for BABYFATHER which I think is BRILLIANT and I shall ask them if I can post in on this site asap.

All in all, an excellent day. Hurrah for business lunches and people who know Johnny Depp (yes, really!!! They're even going to send him a copy of my book - HOW AMAZING IS THAT?!)

 

8th November 2006

I heard from Faber's publicity department yesterday and they have review copies in the office! So I am travelling up to London next week to discuss marketing ideas, flyers and suchlike. All very exciting - and I shall ask them if I can put up the image of the front cover on my websites too.

I've started editing the new novel, and it's not going too badly, but RED TEARS publicity ideas are taking priority at the moment - and it's a very busy week at school too. Hopefully this weekend I might be able to do a bit more.

 

1st November 2006

Well, I finished the first draft of the new novel over half term, but, as I feared, it's going to need some serious editing. I didn't manage to write as much as I hoped over half term, but that's always the way with holidays, isn't it? Still haven't seen bound proofs of RED TEARS yet but I had a lovely email conversation with the cover designer Sarah J Coleman last week. I'm so pleased Faber asked her to draw it - if you want to find out more about her amazing designs and beautiful calligraphy, check out her website at www.inkymole.com

 

15th October 2006

I am nearing the end of the first draft of my new novel, hurrah! I don't know if it's any good yet; I think there are some good sections but the book as a whole feels rather disjointed, so I think it'll need some serious editing. However, I shall just be delighted when I get to the end - it's always such a relief when you complete a draft!

Bound proofs of RED TEARS are due in the next week or so, and I'm really excited about seeing them. I do hope that I'll have some flyers before too long to send out to people. And I'd love to put the final version of the front cover up on the RED TEARS website - check out www.red-tears.com for future updates. You can also read the first chapter of the novel on there.

 

27th September 2006

I have re-named the 'reluctant reader' section 'Short Teenage Stories' because it occurred to me that perhaps teenagers would not AT ALL like to think of themselves as 'reluctant readers' or to read a book that might be seen to be 'easier' than their peers are reading. As an author, I'm delighted if someone who doesn't much like reading enjoys one of my stories, but I can see that if you are a teenager you probably won't like being 'labelled' in that way and so I thought 'Short Teenage Stories' would be friendlier.

 

22nd September 2006

I'm at that nasty stage of my new novel where I believe that it's rubbish. It hit me half-way through RED TEARS too - there's a point when you've written over 20,000 words and you start to wonder whether it's worth finishing it because suddenly it all seems rather boring and tedious. And you have to force your characters to do something because they'd be quite happy sitting back and having banal conversations for another 20,000 words. This is one of the things people don't understand about writing - that actually, it's not always fun or even enjoyable. But it's a stage you have to slog through, because otherwise you'll never reach the end and it'll become on of those projects that you left unfinished...

So I shall keep going, but I suspect that this manuscript will need a lot more revision than RED TEARS did. Urgh!

Speaking of RED TEARS, we now have a front cover design, but I can't show it to you yet because we're still tweaking colours etc. I want a black background but I have a feeling I might have to back down! The design itself however is FANTASTIC and I'm really pleased with it. Very striking and contemporary - just what I wanted.

Having decided that the reluctant reader about the boy with a pregnant girlfriend would be called EXPECTING, Barrington Stoke now think they might like to change it again. So I'm trying to think up yet more ideas.

PERFECT has now been through the editing stage with Barrington Stoke and it was absolutely fascinating. I had a two-hour phone conversation with the editor, who had collated the feedback from the panel of kids who read it. It's really interesting to see what words are simply too difficult to cope with: 'shouldn't' is apparently too hard, but 'should' is OK. 'Confusion' is out, but 'puzzled' is fine. When you look at every word that closely, I can see why certain words are better than others. The audience is teenagers with a reading age of BELOW eight, which is, when you think about it, an enormous gap of comprehension and decoding skills. However, the general feedback about the book as a whole was that they really enjoyed reading it, and I was so pleased to hear that!

UPDATE 5pm EXPECTING will now be called BABYFATHER. Much better all round, I feel :)

 

2nd September 2006

I frequent several writers' forums and came across a thread this morning asking 'Why do you write YA (young adult fiction)?' I thought it was a really interesting question, and one that I hadn't asked myself before. This is how I replied:

1. I prefer reading YA to adult books. They are gripping, tightly written, and I understand them (I sometimes feel very stupid for disliking a highly praised adult novel because it's supposed to be a great classic' and I just found it boring)

2. I find children more interesting than adults. Adults have their barriers well in place, where as children are still building them. I find that fascinating - to be able to glimpse the 'real' person before it is hidden.

3. I now have far mroe empathy for teenagers than I did when I was one. I am a more compassionate person and I can appreciate two sides of a problem. I like to write books that show the reasons behind someone's actions rather than condemning them.

I am interested in my own response - until I thought about it properly I hadn't realised how strongly I feel about writing for the teenage market. Interesting. By the way, I have started a new novel that could be a follow-up to RED TEARS...no, NOT a sequel, but a similar kind of book with the same kind of tone, and another controversial issue...I'm finding the words simply pouring out of my fingers at the moment, but school starts next week (I teach part time) so I shall have to find short slots here and there in order to add to the story! Oh, to be able to write full time!

1st September 2006

The second reluctant reader accepted by Barrington Stoke (the one about the teenage pregnancy) will be called EXPECTING.
Faber & Faber has asked an illustrator to design a typographical front cover for RED TEARS so we'll see what she comes up with - I've seen her website, which is beautiful! I have also proof-read the typeset (with the help of my dad!) so we should be on the way to doing some review copies.

15th August 2006

Image of the front cover of PERFECT added to the 'reluctant readers' section!

10th August 2006

Progress on RED TEARS continues - I have seen an idea for a front cover, but it's not quite right, so we're still working on that.

Barrington Stoke have accepted a second 'reluctant reader' story from me, which is fantastic. This one's about a fifteen-year-old boy who gets his fifteen-year-old girlfriend pregnant and doesn't know what to do. I wrote it because it seemed to me that there were several books out there told from the girl's point of view of a teenage pregnancy, but none from the boy's. It did have a working title of UP THE DUFFbut apparently some people find that offensive so we're having to come up with something else!

I have seen the front cover for PERFECT - it looks great! Hopefully I shall be able to add the image to my site in the next couple of weeks.

 

7th July 2006

Last night I went to the Faber summer party in London. I love the idea of going to a publisher's party, but the enthusiasm of the concept is usually overshadowed by the terror on arrival - 'Oh God, I don't know ANYONE apart from my editor and surely she'll have far too many demands on her time to hang around with me all night.' Besides, I'm a grown woman, surely it can't be that hard just to walk up to people and say 'Hi, I'm Jo Kenrick and I've just signed for a teenage novel with Faber. Who are you?' But yes, it is that hard. When you walk into the room of strangers with nothing but a glass of Pimms to arm you, the confidence ebbs away and you stand helplessly in your own circle of emptiness, hoping someone will rescue you. Fortunately, Julia (my lovely editor) heard my silent cry and did indeed rescue me. She introduced me to a few people and I had some really interesting conversations.

I love people at publishing parties. You KNOW that you all simply love books - and so you can talk about books for hours. Which makes for a great ice-breaker. I was also glad that I'm perused the Faber catalogue before I went, so that when I was introduced to Philip Ardagh and Steve Voake, I knew who they were and what they'd written. Also met a lovely author called Sam Mills, who's written a teenage novel with a FAB cover and a great title A NICER WAY TO DIE- so I must get hold of a copy. Steve Voake used to be a headmaster, so we chatted a bit about teaching (I teach English part time at a secondary school). I have also resolved to read his book THE DREAMWALKER'S CHILD even though it's about giant insects (which doesn't fill me with enthusiasm, having once been bitten by a horsefly). Philip Ardagh is so very very tall that I was overtaken with the urge to say 'gosh, aren't you tall?' but, aware this was likely to be something he heard ALL the time, I contented myself by saying 'gosh, suddenly I feel very short'. And then wanted to bite my own hand off.

I also met a man who introduced himself to me with 'I'm Foyles'. Now, Foyles is a huge independent bookshop in London, and it's all family-run, so it was really quite exciting to meet a man with an Empire. We had a really lovely chat, and he told me I should come into Foyles and sign some copies of RED TEARS when it's published. Which was rather exciting. He told me that Foyles is even bigger than Blackwells in Oxford - so I MUST go at some point because Blackwells is absolutely ENORMOUS and the thought of an even BIGGER bookshop fills me with envy, so I shall probably have to take a day trip there...

After standing up for two hours I was ready to drop, so I got back on the Tube, the train and my car and eventually home to Oxfordshire, where I fell into a deep coma for eight hours. I was sorry I couldn't stay longer, because I met some really, really lovely and interesting people. Plus, I heard a rumour that Harry Hill was coming, and I'm gutted I didn't get a chance to see if he turned up. Never mind, maybe at the next party...?

PS. I have been reading Marian Keyes in the loo so the above diary entry may well be tinged with a slight Irish Bridget Jones feel.

16th June 2006

The RED TEARS website is now up and running and I have already had a couple of emails through it, which is all very exciting. I have finished the edit and luckily the lovely people at Faber like it, which is a relief! Good to know that it is as strong as it can possibly be. I am waiting on a cover design, which I belive will be fairly soon now.

Yesterday I received the formatted version of PERFECT from Barrington Stoke, along with a note telling me it's now been sent out to their 'consultants'. I'm really excited about this part of the process, as Barrington Stoke asks 'real life' reluctant readers to read and comment on the books they are about to publish. The kids can make suggestions and also say whether they think the book is a thrilling/engaging enough read or not. I really like the way Barrington Stoke asks their target audience directly - and then thanks them in the acknowledgements section of the book. Very respectful, and surely can only improve these kids' belief in their own reading abilities.

In the meantime, I am working on something Very Different that my agent suggested to me. It's not really my kind of thing, but it could turn into quite a series, so I am trying to make it 'my thing'! Because, folks, despite what you may think, most authors don't make much money from their books. However, a series has more potential to make a profit because people ar eager to buy the next one and find out what happens to all their favourite characters. I've found it hard to get going, and it may come to nothing, but it's been keeping me busy for the moment, particularly what with England's so far lacklustre performance in the World Cup...come on, boys, let's see some enthusiasm out there!

20th May 2006

It's been an exciting couple of months as I have had two more books accepted:

PERFECT is a reluctant reader for teenagers and will be published by Barrington Stoke on their Gr8reads! list next year.

RED TEARS is a teenage novel about a girl who starts to self-harm and then realises she can't stop. It's not always cheerful reading but I hope people will find hope in it, as there is a positive message. I am thrilled that it is going to be published by Faber & Faber early next year to coincide with National Self-Injury Awareness Day on March 1st. I am busy with the editing process at the moment (always tricky!) and then I shall get to see designs for the book cover and exciting things like that. I am in the process of setting up the website at www.red-tears.com