It’s April and that’s when my new book hits the shops. Which is exciting and scary. (Scary for me, not anyone who reads it!)
The book is called Sugar Sugar and it’s something very different for me. It’s my first book for a young adult audience. It’s also not set in ancient times. It is, however, set in the past….1972, so I think I’ll still call it a historical novel!
Here’s the blurb:
Jackie has left Australia with a psychedelic suitcase and a dream to become a world-famous fashion designer. She knows exactly where she’s going and how she’s going to get there. So how does a weekend in Paris send her spinning off course? How does she end up somewhere she couldn’t find on a map?
Here’s the cover.
This is the book I was writing when I wrote the blogs about my writing process.
You can read more about the book here.
hi carole,
i really loved ‘sugar sugar’ and have passed it on to friends and family. i also reviewed it on my blog (bean there, read that). it has made me very hungry for travelling. plus – set in the early 70s?!? i’ve really got to fix my time machine one of these days.
kate
Kate,
Yours is my first Sugar Sugar blog comment! I am very nervous about the reception the book will receive, especially as it is aimed at an older audience than my usual readership, so I was very pleased to hear that you liked it and that you wrote such a great blog about it. With pictures too! Thanks.
My friend has the book and has requested that i bye it!
Meg
Meg,
Thats great. I like people buying my books, but why can’t she lend you hers?
Carole,
I just finished reading Sugar, Sugar, all of 2 minutes ago and I loved it!! It was a book I randomly picked up off the shelf because I didn’t have one for english class (whoops). I am very, very glad that I picked it up and it is now my favorite book! I live in NZ and the fact that you had two characters in there from NZ was awesome! I have also made myself a travel plan and Istanbul sounds like the highlight! I love traveling but have not traveled very far abroad and so now my dreams are filled up of visiting all the countries that Jackie visited. I myself really love creative writing and would really like to write my own book one day. I am in the process of writing a children’s book for a project for one of my classes. Do you have any writing tips for me? Picture book wise and novel wise. Any tips on how to start and get a great story line?
Thank you so much,
Whitney =)
Whitney
Thanks for the comment. Glad you enjoyed Sugar Sugar. I have some writing tips on my FAQs page and there is a link to a series of detailed blogs I wrote last year about how I go about writing.
Coming up with a story is something you have to do solo. Look around, keep your ears open. Remember that a story doesn’t have to come to you in one big hit. It might start with a small idea that you then have to spend some time developing. Tips on how to start: sit down with the blank page/screen in front of you and start writing. You may throw away those first words, but the only way to start (at the risk of sounding like an ad for a sports shoe company) is to just do it! Once the page is no longer blank, I find it isn’t so hard.
Good luck.