Notes on a Reader

Once again it is Friday and the sun is shining! It's been an exciting week, we have a new royal baby, George, and a new JK Rowling book!

I'm going to talk about the latter this week as the revelation of JK Rowling's latest book 'The Cuckoo's Calling' under the pseudonym Robert Galbraith took the publishing and media world by storm.

Rowling says that she sold 8,500 copies across all media in the few months of release as Robert Galbraith, although the Bookseller claims only 500 hardback copies were sold - but within 24 hours of the leak the book was at #1 of the Amazon.com charts and between 14 and 20 July, 17,662 copies were sold compared to the 43 copies the week before.

Rowling claims that it was not an elaborate marketing/PR scheme to boost sales and would've liked it to have been kept secret a little longer. I can see why she used a pseudonym - when The Casual Vacancy was published sales were phenomenal, but I couldn't help but feel like these sales were purely because of who she was and her success with Harry Potter. Not that she couldn't write necessarily, but she was so famous for the Harry Potter series as a children's genre, I wasn't quite sure if she could cross over to adult fiction. I went to a Q&A with Anthony Horowitz at the LBF'12 and he said one of the hardest things for a children's author is to cross over to adult and he had tried many times. It was almost like she managed to skip the queue with her adult fiction, she was guaranteed sales from day 1. Now with The Cuckoo's Calling she gave herself that freedom to give her work the chance it deserves for the writing itself, not just her name. For a little while anyway...

But what makes me just a little bit sceptical over her claim of no PR plan, is that being who she is and the success of her previous work, she knew one day that it would be revealed... She wouldn't be able to get away with Robert Galbraith forever, and I doubt she'd want to - she claims she wanted to keep it quiet for a little bit longer, which suggests that she wanted to reveal it eventually, so somewhere, sometime there was a plan to push sales and give it the credit of her name that it is due.

What do you think about it all? Do you think it's all a media stunt or is using a pseudonym a great way for famous people to write anonymously? Have you got yourselves a copy yet or plan to?
Let me know, I'd love to hear all your reviews of it all!

Stay tuned next week for your summer reads and maybe even a summer competition....

Confessions of an Almost Girlfriend - Is it right to be angry?

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Confessions of an Almost Girlfriend is the second in the series following on from Confessions of an Angry Girl, following the journey of Rose through the start of high school.

I would tell you more but Louise Rozett has made a fab video and tells us herself what it is about:

As author videos go, I think Louise's is possibly one of the best, such fun!
I was thinking about what she said about her inspiration for the book and how she thinks that girls aren't encouraged to be angry and express their anger. Do you think this is true?

Rose is going through a tough time, she's in the midst of teen-hood, she's trying to cope with the loss of her dad and the start of high school doesnt quite run as smoothly as expected. She has reason to be angry, everytime she tries to do something good and helpful, it backfires on her!

Are there any other books out there that actually encourage young girls to let their anger out? Imagine if some of the well-known, well-loved books changed their female protagonist to let her anger out... it would certainly put the likes of Jane Austen's characters in a different light!

Do you think that it possibly makes the story more realistic? There's certainly no sugar coating to situations in Rose's life, things go wrong, time gets tough and she can't hold it in for much longer. And I found reading both Confessions of an Angry Girl and of an Almost Girlfriend that I was angry too - it was just one thing after another and I was angry for Rose, wanting her to have a little piece of happy after, but also relieved that she could express herself, even if the other characters didn't appreciate it, as the reader I did. I think I was definitely on her side for the majority of both books!

What's your opinion on it all, whether you've read both, either or none? Do we have enough YA fiction that allows girls to express their anger with life? Is there anything you're angry about that you would love to read about?

Intrigued? Read Confessions of an Almost Girlfriend and let me know what you thought! You can get a copy here

Dare You To Blog Tour

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Today I'm honoured to be the first stop on the Dare You To blog tour! Dare You To has been out for a week now, so if you haven't read it yet, you have no excuse!

For those that need reminding, this is Katie McGarry's second novel, following on from the amazing Pushing the Limits, and focuses on Beth Risk and the journey she takes with starting a new life, whilst not being able to quite let go of her past one, until she meets Ryan and he turns her life upside down...

Here's the trailer to give you a taster of what to expect:

Intrigued yet?

Get your copy of Dare You To here to find out what happened: http://amzn.to/13zlsx6

As an added extra, we've managed to get a Q&A out of Katie to give a bit more insight into the story behind the book:

What inspired you to write Dare You To?

In high school, my best friend and I would spend our evenings riding around in her car with the windows rolled down and music turned up. At some point, we would always find our- selves at a late night fast food restaurant. Some of the most interesting things in my life happened between bites of greasy food. Those memories pushed me to write the opening scene of Dare You To and, from there, Beth and Ryan became full- fledged characters who demanded their story be told.

Your first book, Pushing the Limits, takes place in an urban/ suburban setting. What made you decide to set a majority of Dare You To in a rural environment?

I grew up in a fringe neighborhood south of a large city. While we had a city zip code and all the conveniences of a larger population area, we would run into farm land if we traveled a few miles south. Because of that, I grew up with a mixture of friends. I knew people who owned low rider cars with hydraulics along with guys whose tires on their four-wheel drive trucks were almost as tall as me. Beth was definitely a city girl and I liked the idea of shaking up her world by placing her somewhere different. Ryan was then born!

What type of research did you do while writing Dare You To?

Ever since I've known my husband, I've spent a good majority of my Friday nights during the summer up at the ball field watching him play. It’s amazing to see how a group of guys work, and sometimes don’t work, together on the field. I knew immediately that Ryan would play baseball and while I learned quite a bit from my husband, I wanted to understand baseball in the context of a teenager chasing a pro career and/or an athletic scholarship. I visited an indoor base- ball training facility and was able to talk to trainers there. I also spoke with teens and parents of teens in similar circumstances as Ryan. Everyone was extremely helpful and their answers and experiences helped shape the situations that Ryan faced.

I think this is one of the most vital questions that is on everyone's lips who have followed Beth from Pushing the Limits:

Why did you choose not to have Isaiah and Beth end up together?

What if I told you that when I wrote Pushing the Limits, where they appear as secondary characters, I did see them together? I’m sure no one would be shocked by that answer. When I began to examine Beth and Isaiah closely, I realized that in order for them to find peace they needed to be challenged by someone else. Beth and Isaiah are very similar and Isaiah completely enables Beth’s behavior. The two of them had a lot to work through, and as I began plotting, I realized they couldn't grow as individuals as long as they were together. I love Beth and Isaiah as if they are real live people and I truly want them to be happy. Unfortunately, I just didn't think they could find true happiness as a romantic couple. Ryan, on the other hand, is Beth’s perfect match. Beth doesn't see who she really is and because Ryan has no history with her, he’s able to see her very clearly. He falls hard for the wonderful person buried deep inside of her. Beth holds onto a past she can’t change and Ryan helps her learn how to let the past go and look toward the future. Now, one of the many wonderful chain reactions that stemmed from writing Beth with Ryan was the joy of writing Isaiah’s story, Crash Into You. My heart broke several times for Isaiah while writing Dare You To and I can’t tell you how excited I am for my readers to see who Isaiah ends up with and how this will change his life forever. I promise—you won’t be disappointed!

All I will say to this is do not let it put you off that Isaiah & Beth don't get their happy ending together - read it and let Ryan convince you he's the perfect match!

Follow the Dare You To blog tour to find out what other bloggers thought of it! The details are on the banner at the top of the page!

Find out more about Katie McGarry:

Katie was a teenager during the age of grunge and boy bands and remembers those years as the best and worst of her life. She is a lover of music, happy endings, reality television, and is a secret University of Kentucky basketball fan. Writing has given Katie an excuse to pursue her passions. Research for her books has provided her with the amazing opportunity to train with baseball players, ride along in a drag car at ninety-six miles per hour and experience boxing and mixed martial arts.

Katie is the author of the full-length Young Adult novels PUSHING THE LIMITS and DARE YOU TO, and the e-novella CROSSING THE LINE. Her debut novel, PUSHING THE LIMITS, is a 2012 Goodreads Choice Finalist for YA Fiction. Katie’s next novel CRASH INTO YOU will published by Mira Ink in December 2013.

Katie would love to hear from her readers - contact her via Twitter @KatieMcGarry

Happy Friday!

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Happy Friday!
The sun is almost out (it's trying!) and it's starting to feel abit more summer like (dare I speak too soon) and one of the things I absolutely love about the summer season is all the festivals, but specifically literature festivals!
What could be better than a summer festival, in the sun all about books, reading and writing?

At the moment, so much of my twitter feed is full of publishers, authors and readers talking about Hay Festival and I'm gutted that I couldn't make it this year (although I am determined to go next year) so I thought I'd do a little post around the festivals.

Hay on Wye Festival is obviously the biggest fest of the year in the book community. Everyone gets together in the town of books to talk about all things literature. This year they've had some really great YA line ups (which makes me even more sad I couldn't make it!). Some of the biggest YA events included Malorie Blackman doing a YA Q&A with Melvin Burgess; Patrick Ness talks about the appeal of YA and a sneak peak at his new book and Sally Gardner and Nick Lake discussing whether YA needs happy endings.

I think the whole festival has such a great atmosphere and you know that you are surrounded by people just like you who love reading, writing and books in general! What I also love about Hay, is as well as the festival you have a town that is full of bookshops and fully embrace the festival spirit:

Here are some of my favourite tweets from across the week:

@CastleJohnF I love @hayfestival. You can ask a stranger what they’re reading and they don’t look at you like you’re an alien!

@discojunk I once met Ian McEwan at the #hayfestival I was pregnant and he signed ‘child in time’ to unborn baby, love that book

@gazpachodragon I’m so very in love with #hayfestival. It’s like another world. A cleverer, quainter, more hopeful world.

You can read more on their blog here!

Bath Festival is another big hit for the reading folk, taking place each year run by The Independant and has a range of both literary discussion events and those to cater for the younger audiences.

I think one of the highlights for this year was definiely J K Rowling talking about her transition from Harry Potter to the Casual Vacancy.

If you missed it, watch the interview here! or read the Independant article about here.

Stokey Newington Festival is next week and they have a great eclectic range of events on their programme for this year - almost worth bunking off work for?

They've got a talk on the rising state of Independant publishing, everything you need to know about Doctor Who (okay, so that's not strictly YA but it's still worth mentioning!) and a 'Literary Death Match' where a selection of writers compete against eachother with their tales and fight to the death (metaphorically, I hope!) - now if that isn't something new and exciting, I don't know what is!

Are there any festival or book events that you've been to this year, or would like to go to?

I was thinking about what it would be like to have a YA specific festival, getting together loads of YA authors - big names as well as small ones to talk about all things Young Adult. I think it would make for some interesting events, don't you think? Especially with the rise of New Adult as well as the massive community of bloggers, there could be lots of opportunity for discussions and Q&As. What do you think? Who would you have at this kind of festival if you could?

Have a great weekend!

Emily x