August has been a busy month with the launch of my Welsh Giants, Ghosts and Goblins, and a very tight writing deadline for my next book.
One of the ghost stories in the book is set in Bookish in Crickhowell (a fabulous independent bookshop that is apparently haunted by a ghost called Muriel) so it was the obvious place for the launch party.
Preparations started well in advance. My friend made me a charm bookmark to celebrate my previous book and I liked it so much I commissioned her to make a batch of themed bookmarks to give away on the night.
I'd never had a launch party where the shop sold tickets before so I was worried nobody would come, but I shouldn't have worried. A week before the event, we were sold out.
Inspired by the drama workshop at Folly Farm last year, I turned part of a story into a script and roped in some friends for a bit of amateur dramatics. my husband was on hand to capture the result on film.
It's nice to do something interactive at an events, and I've always loved making story postcards - the book cover on one side, a writing prompt on the other. This time, Firefly Press went one step better with a colour-in book cover.
My DIY ghost story on the back has produced a surprising variety of stories. I've used it in every event so far, for adults and children.
And of course, there had to be cake.
All in all, it's been a fantastic launch month. Now back to writing!
My latest thriller - Ready or Not - was published this month with an in-person launch.
This blog is a short one in praise of writing friends. (Spoiler alert* There will be Oscar-speech-style gushing).
We all know there are highs and lows with this author life. The last couple of years has been difficult for all of us. To have a team of cheerleading, sympathising, 'been there, done that, got the T shirt' friends behind you whether you're celebrating a book launch with fizz or weeping over a low point, is key.
Fabulous, proud-looking editor behind me!
SCBWIs hanging by the cake stand
So here's a shoutout to my lovely agent, my crit groups, Write30 gang and MA buddies, the Teaspooners, Edge-of-the-Seat thriller writers, UKYA group, my SASSIES and SCBWI friends and, finally, all those without an acronym.
Lovely agent Jo Williamson
You know who you are and I owe you all a cupcake.
Tracy Darnton is the author of YA thrillers. Her latest book, Ready or Not, was immortalised in rather delicious cupcakes.
I had been warned. So many people had told me: 'Don't be surprised if at some point on your publication day, you stop and think I'm really unhappy.'
I had been warned, and I was prepared. I spent a large portion of the week in the run up to the publication of my debut novel, utterly miserable. Get into the right frame of mind early, I told myself, then you won't be disappointed on the day. A friend invited me out on a socially distanced walk, where I moaned to her the whole time. When the Whatsapp group I'd set up months previously excitedly asked what our plans were for a Zoom launch party, I half-heartedly passed on the organisation to my husband. I fretted that my best friend had suddenly become less available to chat, now, in my time of need.
In short, I was awful.
The day arrived. I attempted normality: toddler up, milk given, ready for nursery. I was watering the garden when the doorbell rang.
'Something for Holly!' the DPD driver chirped, indicating a flat parcel on the porch. Inside: a silver box, beautifully illustrated. Inside that, an array of chocolates, each one delicately iced with flowers and letters: 'MIDNIGHT'S TWINS BY HOLLY RACE'. The card told me it was from a scriptwriter who I've never met in person. We have been working together remotely since the start of the year, and I was starting to think of her as a friend, but this - this was beyond normal six-month friendship. But she knew how much the book meant to me, and being a writer herself knew how much of one's soul you can pour into your work. I message her effusions. Her response: 'I'm just glad they didn't forget the apostrophe.'
Then my husband approaches. 'You know that parcel from Germany that arrived the other day?'
'The one I teased you about being even more camera equipment you didn't need?' I say.
'Yeah.' He hands the box to me. Inside is a heavy, enamelled pen. Engraved on the lid: today's date. 'For all the book signings you're going to do.'
I'm already welling up a bit, so I cover and show husband my thanks in the form of several badly decorated cupcakes. I'm interrupted in my baking by a socially distanced visit from my parents, who have gently supported my writing hobby since I, aged five, wrote 'The Mirror Girl', about a girl called Holly whose reflection stepped out of the mirror and caused havoc in her name. They bring that story with them now, and hand me an envelope containing a sketch of a horse - horses are an important feature of my book - by a prominent artist.
So many instances of kindness and generosity. I realise, once my parents have left, that I have only felt warm joy today, my anticipated disappointment balmed by my loved ones' excitement.
I spend my afternoon cycling to my nearest friends to give them the aforementioned questionably decorated cupcakes. When I get home we order takeaway and, in anticipation of tonight's Zoom party, I brush my hair for the first time in three days. I like to make an effort.
When the time comes to open Zoom, I am expecting to see a small but lovely gathering of familiar faces. As it happens, not everyone will fit onto our screen. Fifty friends and family members have turned up. It's more people than I've seen in one place since my sixth form leaver's do, let alone since lockdown.
That's when things start to get weird. My tech-savvy husband begins tinkering with the laptop - in itself this is not unusual, but when combined with the expectant silence of my friends, my spidey senses are tingling. Husband presses 'play' and suddenly my best friend's unavailability over the last couple of weeks is explained. He had been making this:
When the video ends, I'm directed towards the doormat. Lying there is a copy of my book, filled with messages from friends and family across the country. Alongside it: a package containing a necklace that appears in Midnight's Twins and an enormous chocolate cake, complete with a fondant copy of my book, decorated in painstaking detail.
Over the course of the next few hours, as I get gradually merrier on elderflower champagne, the logistics of how they did this are explained to me. That walk I took with my friend? Engineered so that my best friend and husband could finish the video. Socially distanced meet ups in a Cambridge park, with friends driving in from the Fens to leave a message in the book. A drive around London, carrying not only the book but hand sanitiser and masks to ensure Coronavirus safety. And so many postcards and messages sent in from further afield to be slotted into the pages. I don't let myself read all the messages in front of my friends, because I know I'll end up a blubbering mess.
Later that night, when everyone else has gone to bed, I open it up and read the messages in private. Half my friends barely read at all, most of them are not particularly interested in young adult stories. This is true friendship, of the kind I never thought I'd have and certainly don't deserve - not if my behaviour over the last week is anything to go by, at least.
Over the next few days, friends visit my garden to help me eat the chocolate cake. The chocolates sent by the writer friend dwindle; iced flowers first, then the ones bearing letters. I put the necklace away, to be worn when I see people or take book-related photos. But nothing will ever replace the gooey knowledge of how my friends and family turned what was set to be an anti-climactic lockdown publication into one of the best days of my life.
My YA thriller The
Truth About Lies is being published shortly. As a newbie novelist, I worked hard at maintaining
suspense, hiding clues, keeping up the subplots and exploring the theme of
memory. But it turns out I should also have been thinking ahead to
the book launch.
My main comment these days on friends’ finished manuscripts
is: ‘Yes it’s a masterpiece but what are you going to eat at the launch?’ Because you
need to reference it somewhere in your book from the start. And not just any
old food. Preferably food which is quirky, tasty, cheap and not at all greasy
to avoid any damage to Waterstones’ stock. Wotsits and kebabs are out. Picture book
writers have it much easier than YA authors. Their books are full of pineapples
and sandwich tea parties and chocolate.
Memory, on the other hand, is a terrifically rich theme to
write about but not visual enough as a good party theme. Brains generally do
not appear on T-shirts, napkins, paper plates or indeed (aside from the
obvious) food. I know because I have perused strange websites worldwide to no
avail. I have finally sourced jellied brains, which I first saw in a jar of
replacement body parts at the Wellcome Collection and, er, that’s it so far.
Very boring madeleines
I began to realise my error when I made a list of the food in
the book. A noxious green punch with floating jelly eyeballs and a bowl of
Monster Munch feature at the party at the pub and later a spag bol that makes
someone ill. What was I thinking? No one wants to eat any of that, least of all
me. The only sophisticated food reference is to a madeleine cake as a nod to a
Proustian moment of remembering. But a) who has actually read Proust? and b)
madeleine cakes are pale and boring and need to be dunked in a cup of tea (as
even Proust knew).
So, as I was in Scotland at
the time, I started planning the next book which I’m writing now. Smoked salmon
(ready for delicate cocktail blinis), shortbread and Caramel Wafers have made
their appearance along with repeated, yet subtle, references to those lovely
chocolate marshmallowy tea cakes wrapped in foil, such as ‘My name’s Steve and
I’m a Tunnock’s tea cakes addict’ (chapter 7).
Yummy Scottish treats
However, I was disturbed to hear from author Joanna Cannon at
a recent Bath Festival event that she was fed Angel Delight by well-meaning
booksellers for 18 months in homage to her book The Trouble with Goats and Sheep set in 1976. (For the young,
dessert in the seventies was always synthetic weird blancmange and/or tinned
peaches). She is having similar issues with Battenburg cake in relation to Three Things About Elsie. I’m starting to wonder whether even with
Tunnock’s tea cakes you can have too much of a good thing.
Sometimes a cover design can offer a
solution. The Truth About Lies cover
is marvellously striking but of a mosaic swimming pool. So other than
chlorinated water, no major food stuff. My son helpfully suggested I give
‘bazuka that verruca’ samples away with the jellied brains.
Plus, I now have something new to fret about: my editor made
it very clear at the cover reveal that she will not be coming in a swimsuit. I
confess I now worry whether anyone attending the launch will be disappointed if I’m not
decked out in at least a frilly swimming hat, nose clips and goggles. But maybe
that’s why they’re coming...
What’s
the weirdest food you’ve ever seen at a launch or book event?
Tracy
Darnton’s The Truth About Lies will
be published by Stripes on 12th July 2018.
Follow Tracy on Twitter @TracyDarnton #thetruthaboutlies
This month, I’m delighted to be interviewing
Sarah Driver about the launch of her brilliant novel for 8-12 year olds, The Huntress: Sea, and what her first month has been like as a published
children’s author.
Hi
Sarah. Your debut, The Huntress: Sea, was officially released on April 6th but it was spotted in Waterstones all throughout March. Can you tell us more?
The book isn’t *technically* out until April
6th, but was released early, exclusively atWaterstones, due to being selected
for March Children’s Book of the Month! This amazing opportunity made my
publishing journey even more of a wild ride than ever. I’m blown away by
Waterstones’ support, and I’m still pinching myself.
That’s wonderful! What were some
highlights of being Book of the Month?
Throughout March I visited eleven Waterstones
shops (Deep breath – Haywards Heath, Lewes, Brighton, Worthing, Hastings,
Eastbourne, Rye, Piccadilly, Islington, Gower Street and Charing Cross) signed
stacks of books (hooray for justified growth of Sharpie collection!) and met
lots of lovely booksellers. Here I am with fellow Egmontee Lisa Heathfield,
during the first leg of our Sussex signing tour!
I had my first bookshop event in Portsmouth (appropriate,
as it’s home to the Mary Rose, one of my favourite
research destinations!) where I read chapter one of Sea to a fantastic
group of young readers.
The booksellers dressed up (wearing, amongst other
wonders, splotches of silver ‘glitter’ – aka MOONSPRITE DUST!) made gorgeous
displays and there were even cupcakes with icing whales!
I wish I’d had
time to visit every single store during my Book of the Month slot, because LOOK
at some of these gorgeous displays…
Waterstones
Gloucester:
Ipswitch:
Brighton:
They’re beautiful! Can you tell us about your
official book launch?
The book launch itself was last week, at
the Book Nook in Hove. If you’ve never visited this gorgeous gem of a
specialist kid’s indie bookshop, you really should. They have a beautifully
curated collection of children’s books, a pirate ship play area and a cafe, and
they’re only a short walk from the beach.
The launch was the best celebration with family and friends I could
ever have imagined. The publicity team at Egmont did the most fantastic
job of making it a wonderful evening (check out the book cover cupcakes!) as
did my editor Ali with her magical speech.
We were joined by friends from as far as California in the west and
Prague in the east. But perhaps the most honoured guest of all was the amazing
nine-year-old reader who sent me my first ever fan letter!
Sounds fantastic! What are some of the other
things about being an author you’re excited about?
The start of the Huntress school tour. I’m so excited to be getting out
there and meeting more young readers.
Thanks, Sarah!
To see more about Sarah, follow her on twitter @SarahDriver10 or visit her website sarahdriver.com
By Jess Butterworth, author of Running on the Roof of the World, out June 1st.
I’m very, very excited today (so excited, in fact, that I
have saved the blog I was going to post today for another time so I could share
this instead!) Here’s why…
Waterstones Hampstead have just – today – made the
announcement that they are holding a public launch event for my first YA novel,
Read Me Like A Book.
Regular followers of this blog will know what this book
means to me. For those who don’t, you could have a quick catch up by checking out this blog…or just read on.
Read Me Like A Book was the first novel I wrote. But
somewhere in the middle of writing it, I also started thinking up a children’s
story about a girl who becomes a mermaid when she goes in water. The girl was
Emily Windsnap, and her series is swimming nicely in waters all around the
world. On the other hand, nobody wanted to publish Read Me Like A Book. The
book was about a seventeen-year-old girl coming out, and LGBT issues were not
de rigueur back then. A nasty little law known as Section 28 was still in
place, and many people – publishers, teachers, librarians etc etc – were kept
firmly in place by its instruction not to ‘promote homosexuality.’
But let’s not dwell on that right now, because today we’re
EXCITED. So let’s skip forward a decade or so and briefly glance at my mobile
phone from a day in November 2013. I’ve just had a very special lunch where my
wonderful agent has told my lovely publisher that we want to publish the book.
Too many things had been happening that had made me want to stop sitting idly
by, and instead want be part of the movement that was telling young people it is OK to
be whoever you are.
Following the meeting, my phone beeps. It’s my publisher.
The text says: ‘Looking forward to reading the manuscript again. Times have changed
and we are ready to move with them.’
That text pretty much kept me warm all winter.
Skip forward again. To early-ish this year. The book is due
out in May. Proofs are out and about. People are talking about it. A couple of HUGE names
in the book world have read it and given me quotes for the cover. The Bookseller's Charlotte Eyre mentions it in passing on Radio Four's Open Book! People are TALKING ABOUT IT!
Even though this is going to be my fifteenth book to be
published, I feel like a debut author. And in a way, I am. Because this was –
and always will be – the first novel I wrote. It is also the first YA book I
have published. Perhaps it is the first big risk I’ve taken in my career. It’s
certainly the first time I have put something out there that feels quite so
important and personal for me. See, the mermaids and the fairies and the time
travel books – they came from me, they have things in them that are deeply
important to me. They are like my babies, all of them. But to write a book
about a girl discovering her lesbian identity, when you have recently come out
publicly yourself – that takes the excitement, the risk, the nerves to a
WHOOOOOOOOOOOOOLE new level!
So let’s get to the point.
The point is that today,
Waterstones in Hampstead have announced the event that they are hosting to
launch my special baby out into the world. It is a public event, which means
a) it is open to anyone and everyone and b) it is ticketed. Tickets are £5 (or
£3 with a Waterstones card). However, I think they’re quite good value, because
as well as listening to me talk about the book, you also get a glass of
Prosecco and £2 off the book on the night!
And if all of this wasn’t exciting enough (it isn’t. Read
on) we have got the most wonderful special guest taking part.
I don’t know about you, but I am practically
hyperventilating with excitement about all of this. (OK, some of it is nerves –
but mostly excitement. And I am probably more excited than you are, to be fair.)
The date of the launch (and publication of the book) is May
14th. It's at 6.45 pm. And you are ALL INVITED!!!! If you want to come, get in touch
with Yael Tishchler from Waterstones, who is organising the event. Here’s how
you can do that:
Call her on: 0207 794 1098
Tweet her via @WaterstonesNW3 or @TischforTat
Or use some other old-fangled way of getting in touch with
her at Waterstones Hampstead.
Hope to see you there - and thank you for letting me shout about this today. (I might have burst otherwise.)
I opted for a couple of weeks after the publication date for two reasons, because things have been known to not run smoothly at the printing stage, and because if I left it too long I'd lose the high that seeing the spines of your new book produces. I can never imagine people wanting to come at the end of the week when they could have a wild night out, so I picked a Tuesday.
Venue
Previous launches had been at Borders (such a shame it disappeared), and View Art Gallery in Bristol. This time I thought it would be more businesslike to go back to a bookstore so I chose Foyles in Cabot Circus. Robb, the events organiser, is also a drag queen so if you want a rather fabulous intro, he's the go-to man.
Invites
Invitations aren't my job. Luckily I live with clever people. Guest list was my job - I invited friends, teenagers aplenty, librarians, and every teacher I know. I didn't count the replies because I didn't want to set my expectations high and be disappointed. This is a head-in-the-sand approach. Robb asked me how many people were coming so he could order the stock. I answered with a well-considered lie.
Food and drink
I don't like messy food and books - it doesn't seem right. Majestic delivered red and white wine, fizzy pop and ice to the shop. I brought Maltesers and Flying Saucers (because there are drones in my book).
What to wear
Charity shops are the answer to everything. I invested £5 in a wee silver skirt.
THE TALK
There's something tricky, for me, about an audience of all ages, some that know you really well as a friend, and others that have met you briefly as an author. I was a bit nervous, despite being in the middle of a tour of secondary schools with audiences of up to 250 teenagers. Adopting the usual head-in-the-sand, I scribbled some notes at two in the afternoon, and arrived at Foyles at five with a postcard of drivel.
How did it go?
Like a wedding, in a blur, but there were lots of people, lots of books sold and a satisfying level of laughter. By half-past seven the crowds had thinned and a group of us headed over to Giraffe for something with chips.
Was it worth it?
I know not everyone has a launch, but I think the arrival of a book, knowing the ups and downs of the process, is something worth celebrating, but that's not to say I'm not pleased when it's over.
