What do writers do when they're not writing? They wait. My second draft is with my agent and soon she will be in touch with feedback. She must be a brilliant agent, because she emailed me today to let me know she'd be in touch soon and she didn't want me to spend the weekend feeling anxious! I could have kissed her for the kindness. But really, after the hard work, I am glad of this period of rest.
And finally, I've been mourning. There's a cherry tree at the bottom of my garden and I found out this week that it's become unstable and needs to be cut down. The tree surgeon thinks this beauty is 60-70 years old. I am very sad. I can see in the photos that it is a hairy mad wild thing, but it is my hairy mad wild thing. I've lived in this street for ten years and seen several trees cut down; it's such a shame to say goodbye to another one. But new things can be planted, and I'm sure I shall enjoy watching them grow. If I keep telling myself that, I might start to believe it.
So what have I been doing on the writerly front? First of all, stroking advance copies of the Beast Quest book I recently contributed to. Amictus is published this month. I hope it entertains young boy readers as much as the other books in this ongoing series. Orchard have done a great job of publishing Beast Quest and I think their approach is a template for other publishers on how to handle series fiction.
I've also been reading blogs, including this wonderful entry from a Zimbabwean writer who lives in New Zealand, and is being published in 2011 by Random House UK. (Keeping up?) Andrea blogs beautifully, and her latest entry was a really thought-provoking and inspirational take on the childish and grown-up parts of a writer's brain. Her blog really should encourage every writer to pull their toys back out of the toy cupboard!
The SCBWI-UK have been in touch, and I've agreed to attend their November conference to feed back to writers on extracts from their manuscripts. I can't wait for this event - not only to meet others in the industry, but to hear some fairly spectacular people speak, including Meg Rosoff whose latest novel, The Bride's Farewell, I am currently reading.
Can you remember that I blogged about the SCBWI's Undiscovered Voices competition earlier this year? The results are out! Stand back for the mad scramble of agents knocking on authors' doors. The first Undiscovered Voices anthology, as published last year, was what I think people call a 'slow burn'. It started very quietly. Strong writing came through. Industry professionals began to sit up and take notice. Now editors and agents are crawling all over Undiscovered Voices. I think that with this competition a small group of people have made an incredible difference to the contemporary children's publishing scene. And in a time of recession, that is no mean feat.
And finally, I've been mourning. There's a cherry tree at the bottom of my garden and I found out this week that it's become unstable and needs to be cut down. The tree surgeon thinks this beauty is 60-70 years old. I am very sad. I can see in the photos that it is a hairy mad wild thing, but it is my hairy mad wild thing. I've lived in this street for ten years and seen several trees cut down; it's such a shame to say goodbye to another one. But new things can be planted, and I'm sure I shall enjoy watching them grow. If I keep telling myself that, I might start to believe it.
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