I'm taking the plunge - I'm definitely bringing Art History out as a book to buy from my website. This is the fourth book in the Diving In series, about Coll and Art's stormy relationship. It never got published because my then-publishers hated Art - it's written from his viewpoint and tells you if they ultimately make it together or not.
I'm also going to publish Breaking Up, a novel I wrote a few years ago about a teenager dealing with the messy divorce of her mum and dad - how it affects her emotionally and screws up her new relationship. Breaking Up didn't have long on the shelves as its publisher went under, but it got some great reviews. So now I'm embroiled in all the practicalities, the costings, the print runs. I've got a talented young artist to do the covers. And of course I can sign these books for you ...
After deciding to stop whingeing about book shops only stocking vampire books and try to actively create a buzz on the Web for my own books (with real boys in them, that you have to work things out with and can actually get hold of ...!) I'm feeling a little dazed. There is SO MUCH out there - so many blogs, so much twitter, so many reviews and comments .... Of course it's wonderful, it's allowing real people to use the newly powerful platforms available to them to discuss and comment and exchange views, but it's easy for an author to feel overwhelmed by it all, by the sense that her own books will get lost among it all. I think you just have to keep focussed on what you're doing - on what you want to say in your book.
And anyway - too long spent on line can leave you longing to take a walk outside and feel the wind on your skin and talk to someone you can maybe reach out and touch ....
Still stalemate on my proposed new book, Witch Crag.. Still hoping to write it as I believe in it - a dystopian world where warrior men are afraid of female power. I also think witches have been a bit too cuddly and nice recently. I think they're barbaric, and cruel, and powerful, and you want to make sure you're on their side if it comes to a fight .... So right now I'm concentrating on writing a Grown Up book , on what happens when the kids leave home ....