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(Question from Kevin on Facebook, you too can )

Everyone asks me that and I have to say that I think it is one of the most evil questions ever because I love books. How can I have a favorite/favourite? Maybe this is why I only have one kid…because I could never choose.

I quite possibly briefly lost my mind last month when a fellow writer was asking for volunteers to participate in The Poeming: a found poetry project featuring the works of Stephen King. See, they were having issues finding someone to cover RAGE, one of the Bachman Books (King wrote some novels/novellas under a pseudonym way back when), because it is out of print. Well, I happen to own a copy.

Sure, I said, I’ll do it!

Because certainly October isn’t already busy enough and I have time to write a found poem every day. Totes possible.

Anyway, so here I am in October and The Poeming has started. You can find all of my RAGE found poetry at over on Tumblr.

It’s an interesting experiment. I decided, since the novel has roughly 31 chapters, that I would base each poem on one chapter. And, after I started, I decided (rather arbitrarily) that I would start at the end; that is, each poem starts with the last line of the chapter (or at least part of the last line).

I wasn’t sure when I started what I was going to explore. I didn’t want to do a re-hash of the book itself. I think what it is turning into is a twirl into madness through one person’s eyes. Maybe not exactly the Charlie Decker (the protagonist) of the book, but someone teetering on the edge.

I think they’ll be best read going from the Chapter One poem on to the end, but feel free to pop over any time and let me know what you think.

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I love it. There’s no other city like it. If I could go back in time and tell my horrible Dick Van Dyke British Accent teenage self that I’d wind up living here, I’d probably faint dead away (no knock on Mr. Van Dyke because he’s still totally awesomesauce but even he’d admit his accent was atrocious). It’s also very interesting being an American abroad. You get a perspective on your home country that you’d never get otherwise. I highly recommend travel. But mostly I love Europe in general: the markets, the diversity, the history…I could go on and on.

(Question from Jeff on Facebook. You too can .)

Yes, I do**. I have to say that I absolutely had the most amazing time��getting to chat��to Clive Barker on the telephone for around an hour or so. I was a bit starstruck, I have to admit, but he was incredibly lovely and nice. We talked a bit about art and painting and storytelling and life. Most of the interviews I did were via email and Clive was one of the few that I actually spoke to on the phone, so perhaps that was part of the difference.

As a funny aside to that, I got to tell him the story of how my husband and I are partly together because of Hellraiser. See, my husband and his roommate in college decided that they were going to meet ALL the girls in our dorm. They spent a week helping girls move in, carrying their stuff up flights of stairs, etc., etc. (somehow they missed helping me with my mini fridge though��). Anyway, at the end of all that, they invited every single girl they had met to a movie night. They rented a VCR (yes, this was a long time ago), which was no easy thing when you were a new college student with no credit card) and a stack of movies.

The Hellraiser movies.

This is the part of their plan that was a bit faulty, I think. Anyway, so there they are, two guys and probably about 20 or 30 girls, having a Hellraiser movie night. I wound up sitting in front of my now-hubby and we’ve been together ever since.

**For those that don’t know, I was the founder of YA Books Central, one of the largest (and pretty much the first) teen lit sites on the Internet. I ran it for over ten years before turning it over to other capable hands (as I was moving to the UK). It’s still going strong, currently under the leadership of C.J. Redwine, who is awesome.

(Question from Samantha on Facebook…go ahead, you can )

That’s a good question. In some ways, not at all. I wrote while living here and that book is set in Florida, where I (mostly) grew up. It was a bit odd to be writing about the oppressive muggy heat of Florida while shivering in a pub in London, but I managed. On the other hand, I’m hoping to launch my next book (a middle grade fantasy) here in the UK and am consequently attempting to use more British-style spellings and phrases. It’s been interesting and a bit of a challenge (all the extra u’s!), especially since I can’t for the life of me make Microsoft Word stick to the English UK dictionary! But, in a general sense, traveling and living new places provides you with the opportunity to broaden your horizons, so it is always a good thing.

The short answer: YES. I have always written. I still have my notebooks from when I was a teen/tween (back before they ever labeled you as a “tween��). Writing is what kept me sane. It still does (sort of).

The long answer: Well, yeah, though I also wanted to do a lot of other things. I grew up in a rather non-traditional house as both of my parents were artists of a sort and traveled around to art shows for a living (my mother painted and my father did woodwork). As a teen, I craved a bit more stability and normalcy so I had this idea that I wanted to grow up and have a “normal�� job with a steady paycheck and things like that. It didn’t stop me from being an English major at University (and yes, I’ve heard that “Do you want fries with that?�� joke many times) but once I graduated I held a series of normal, boring jobs (I worked for a lot of big companies like Ernst & Young, IBM, and AT&T Labs).

I kind of hated it.

When I got the chance to write full time, I jumped on it. So, in some ways, I feel a bit like I’ve come full circle.

Actually, it’s a brand new website. On a brand new host (not that that makes a bit of difference to you, O reader).

Basically, this new site is SO new that there’s not really much of anything here at the moment. I’m working on that. I’m also finishing up my final edits on my new book (before it goes off into the ether to my agent) so there might not be loads of interesting things on here for quite some time. I’ll do my best.

In the meantime, hiya! How are you?

Out and about today for some shopping at the shopping center (they aren’t called malls over here) but brought my laptop so I could get some writing done as well.



Kept thinking of lots of things for the book all night so trying to get them down before I forget. And so I can hopefully sleep better tonight

When you’re young, time seems to pass so slowly. Summers took forever. A school day? Eons. Sitting for an exam? A lifetime in an hour. But the older you get, the faster time goes by.

Case in point…it’s November. Dude. When did that happen? Oh, I know what happened. I generally take summers off (basically, if Max is off school, I am spending my time with him and not in front of my laptop) and then there’s the madness of getting ready for school time again and…and, you know, all the things.

There are always things. Stuff to do. Days bleed into one another to where you can’t remember where one ends and another begins. The hardest thing in the world to do is to remember to stop and appreciate where you are and be in the moment (I know that sounds all New age-y, forgive me).

This past month I have been taking a breath, stopping and looking around and fitting myself back into the world. And I’m really excited, for the first time in ages.

Me and , one of my writing buddies, at our “office�� today at the National Theatre along Southbank. Yes, I would have worn more makeup if I’d realised I was going to take a picture. And yes, we are fueled on caffeine.

Firstly…I’ve given up on the adult crime fiction book. It was killing me. You know that old saying about how writing is like pouring your own blood on the page? I was drained dry. A starving vampire would have walked right by me without a second look. That’s not to say I’ve given up on that character or that story. I’ve just realised (look at me using the UK spellings!!) that my voice is quite firmly fixed in Young Adult (or Middle Grade), maybe up to New Adult. After some time away, I’m planning on re-working it with a younger (still very snarky) version of my anti-heroine.

Secondly, I’ve picked up one of my middle grade ideas and I’m working on it (code name: Maxtorious). And, for the first time in months and months, the writing isn’t painful. I’m having fun again.

It’s a fantasy. There are Imaginary Friends. And pet dust mice. And, somehow, chocolate is going to help save the day. Seriously, you guys, I’m excited to be writing again and doubly so because this is a book my little man Max will be able to read. In fact, the main character is named after him. He’s quite chuffed, as they say here.

Thirdly, other exciting things that I am not able to talk about at all yet. So plllbbbbbt. You’ll have to wait and see.

That’s a very good question. What have I been up to? I’ve being essentially holding radio silence (which is such a dated reference, but hey…I’m old) here on my blog. That’s not to say that I haven’t been busy. A lot of days I don’t know where the time goes (okay, let’s be honest…EVERY day is like that).

Max, who is now seven (SEVEN!!!!), takes up a goodly chunk of my time, and rightly so. He’ll only be the him that he is now, right now.

Don’t think about that sentence too much. I think you know what I mean.

I’ve also been working on a book for adults. Crime Fiction. Female Hit Man. Hit Woman? Snarky. Bloody. Etc. It’s coming along. Slower than I’d like, but I’ve also thrown more words out on this book than I have on any other book. Ever. Hopefully that means it’ll also be the best one so far. Crossing my fingers on that.

Have also been creating. Like magical Harry Potter-style wands. Funky Steampunk guns and stuff. Things to decorate your hair. I’ve even opened an ��called (well, I’m trying it out…no sales yet, but giving it a shot because a) I love to create things and b) I need money to buy more paint. Ahem.) Also jewellery, though I’m not quite ready to share pictures of that yet (but they are cool!).

I hadn’t realised how much I’ve missed painting. I used to paint quite a bit. There’s a story in that, actually…growing up, my parents traveled around to arts & craft shows. My mom painted and my dad did wood work. As a teenager, more than anything I wanted a “normal�� job with steady income and stability. And I had that for a number of years after university…and realised that it didn’t make me happy. Not at all. In fact, quite the opposite. And so I quit to write and kissed a steady income goodbye but became a lot happier. I don’t make even a fraction of what I used to make before but I am loads happier. And now I find myself picking up old hobbies (i.e. more things I enjoy but that don’t actually earn any income) again. I suppose I’ve come full circle. I’m happiest when I am making things. Though I would like to sell enough to support the habit, I suppose (that goes with books too). Please do check out my Etsy shop or follow me on . It makes me happy when people like the stuff I make (Max and I are SO going to have awesome costumes for this year’s Comic Con!).

Back to the writing stuff…I have also been thinking about the future of the Sucks to Be Me series…specifically of book three. Have nearly reached a decision on that, so stay tuned. And thank you to everyone who keeps asking about what’s going on with Mina. I ��really appreciate that you guys love her so much and want to know how her story ends up.

And…now Summer is about to start (it’s year-round school over here in the UK, but Max gets out tomorrow and won’t be going back until September), so there will soon be lots of craziness going around. Epic craziness, as I’m sure Max would say.

I will try to be better about posting here. There’s been reasons and all that, but no excuses, I will make more of an effort to keep this site up to date. Promise. Pinky promise.