A Few Events

I’ve got quite a busy period coming up.  Apart from being a student again and reading some ludicrously long books*, I’ve got a few public book  events approaching on the calendar.  Events are always nice because:

      a) they get me out of my house and away from my computer

  and 

b) I have a chance to chat to people about books. 

Who knows!  Maybe I’ll get the chance to chat to YOU?    :)

Anyway, here’s where I’m at:

On Sunday 27^th September, I’ll be at the Bath Children’s Literature Festival.  James Dawson and I will be talking about ALL THE TEEN STUFF that goes along with BEING A GIRL or BEING A BOY.  Find James and I at the Guildhall at 5.30 pm.  We’ll even be passing around THE ANONYMOUS QUESTION BOX – so that you can ask your ANONYMOUS QUESTIONS ABOUT ANYTHING.

On Thursday 1^st October, I’ll be at Leeds Waterstones talking about Issues of Identity.  I’ll be in good company too because I’ll be with Annabel Pitcher, Zoe Marriott, Martyn Bedford and Kim Slater.  I’m excited about that. 

On Saturday 10^th October, I’ll be in the beautiful Norwich Guildhall as part of the Day of the Girl celebrations.  I’ll be talking about my book BEING A GIRL.  I don’t have all the event details yet but will twitface more news when I receive it.  Also, keep an eye on the news page of my website.  If you’re in Norwich or near Norwich, please come along because we probably know each other anyway and it’d be nice to see you.  Come along even if you don't know me and you aren’t a girl.

On Friday 16^th October at 6pm, I’ll be at Gateshead Library with author Dan Smith.  We’ll talk about books and writing and pretty much anything you like.  I’ve never been to the North East before.  So if you live there, come and see me and say, ‘Hey, what kept you?  The North East is brilliant.’

So there we are then.  I’d be so glad to see you at any one of these gaffs.  I reckon they’ll all be ace.

By the way, my bonanza ‘Sophie Someone’ blog giveaway was won by Coleen who is over in Ireland.

And oh yeah.  SOPHIE SOMEONE IS AVAILABLE NOW.  It’s waiting patiently for you to read it.  And if you have read it and liked it – please feel free to make some noise.**  That would make me very  happy.  Ta x

* I'm doing an MA in American Literature and I opted this time for a nineteenth century module – I should’ve thought the practicalities of this through a little more.
**Of course you can make some noise if you didn’t too.  It’s just that, if you don’t mind, I’ll stick my headphones on.    

Hello 2015...

...And you’re already a cracker!

2015 began with Mister and I watching fireworks in the skies above Palma de Majorca.  It was a pretty spectacular way to see out the old year and see in a new one.  And it felt right to mark that dividing line properly.  2014 was a fair old shake-up for me.  It was the year I packed in my English teaching job and began an MA course in American fiction; the year I said hello to a fab new literary agent [same agency] and a fab new publisher [still Coolio Iglesias with the old one] and also the first year in quite a few that I haven’t had a new book out – not counting four very lovely new editions.  So at times it felt a bit...um...  discombobulating. 

But really it was just the year that I quietly got on with things and did what felt right.  

In 2014 I may not have had new books to promote but I was busy.  Very busy.  I wrote my first non-fiction book and also the crucial 49^th and 50^th drafts – or thereabouts - of my next novel.  

And I’m so massively excited about both books.  ‘Being a Girl’ is out in June.  It’s the sister volume to James Dawson’s stupendous ‘Being a Boy’ and has fantastic little drawings throughout by that brilliant pug-loving doodler Gemma Correll.  I’ve recently been working on the final drafts/proofs/page-layouts [I’m not very good with technical jargon – but I’m talking about last orders stuff] and I’m so chuffed with how it’s all looking.  IMHO, the words aren’t bad at all but Gemma’s gorgeous drawings turn the book into something else.  I think she’s given it a degree of added Specialocity.      

And then in September, ‘Sophie Someone’ my next novel comes out.  It may seem like a slightly different direction from my other novels but it’s not such a drastic departure that it won’t seem like me.  I mean, it’s not ’Fifty Shades of Sex’ or 'American Psycho' or anything like that.  It’s still my sort of teen fiction.  There’s a first person narrator.  She’s a girl.  Um... a lot of pigeons are involved.  There are a few maniacs.... one or two bozos... an old wombat who lives in Norfolk.... I can’t say too much more than that at the moment.  But I promise you that I put my heater and soul into the writing of it and I’m massively chuffed that it’s arriving in bookshops this year.

And my immediate priority is to bash some new words out.  I made a (very) small start on a new novel just before Christmas.  Now I need to barge onwards.  I’m not someone who enjoys the muse and lets the words just flow from me in a state of creative ecstasy.  I find first drafts really hard.  But I’ve got an idea.  And that’s the start.  The next step is to writewritewritewriteandfillupthepagesandIGNOREANYDOUBTS.

Follow your heart.  Ignore your head. 

This is the way I write anyway. 

:)

Hope you’re all having a good new year.

PS  That box of books went to Gateshead Library. 

PPS The picture is of me at the Majorcan home of the writer and war poet, Robert Graves.  It was taken on the second day of this year and I’ve chosen it as my blog picture because that man’s home was BEAUTIFICAL AND UTTERLY UTTERLY LUSH.  His domestic arrangements were something else though.  Graves lived there with his wife, their children and whatever girlfriend was inspiring him to write.  [INSERT RAISED EYEBROWS.]  

Bless my Cotton Socks, I’ve Got Some NEWWWWWS!

Loads of news in fact - about my next books.  And there’ll be two of them – both out next year and both with the very marvellous HOT KEY BOOKS.

First up, in June, there’ll be this.

It’s the companion book to James Dawson’s very very funny but also very wise, helpful and informative Being a Boy.  Now, I’m not about to tell you that I’ve also been funny, wise, helpful and informative because that would be HIDEOUSLY IMMODEST.  So I promise you nothing other than my assurance that I’ve worked very hard on it, done shedloads of research and now know loads of things I wish I’d known when I was thirteen.  Oh, and I can also promise you that it most definitely will have VERY FUNNY ILLUSTRATIONS in it - by none other than my fellow Ipswich-born Norwichian, the brilliant Gemma Correll.  She’s the one who loves pugs but not drugs.*

Then...

[BIG DRUM ROLL]

... next September, I will have a

BRAND NEW NOVEL. 

And it’s called....

[ANOTHER BIG DRUM ROLL]

Sophie Someone.

I’ve been quietly writing this for a fair while because... well... that’s how long it’s taken me.  Sometimes, the slowly-slowly-catchy-monkey approach is needed.  Trust me, words can be slippery little devils if you allow them to be....

I can’t show you a cover for this book yet because it’s too early for that bit.  But if you want to read more about what Sophie Someone is about and what I said about it and what Emma Matthewson, my Hot Key editor, said about it, than please click here to read the press release.

So, yes, I’m ever so slightly, massively excited.

In fact, I look pretty much like this at the moment.

And despite this month's Troubling Haircut, that’s really not a bad look to be rocking.  

Before I go, please can I ask again that you click on my new website www.hayleylong.org 

I'm currently on page 4 of Google, see, and ideally I need to be right there, slap bang, number one hit. Thank you, you are kind.  By the way, I MADE THAT WEBSITE MYSELF.

*Wise Woman