Look at that – I shouted in the subject line, how rude. But guess what??? The release month for SUMMER SKIN has been confirmed. To celebrate, I’ve put it in my tag cloud. Massive plot hint: it’s incredibly apt that it sits next to ‘sex’ in aforementioned tag cloud.
(Come to think of it, I don’t think I ever formally announced the title anywhere here – I did that over on Steph Bowe’s blog, because I like her place better. So in case you missed it, that’s what the next book is called. The Next Book. I have one. Raise the roof.)
It will be out February 2016. The awesome team at Allen & Unwin will be bringing it.
Of course, by then I won’t be shouting. I’ll be all vulnerable and shit. Kicking the dirt. Actually, probably not. Why? Because I had to write it. It wasn’t really a choice, more a compulsion. I wrote it for the same reason I always write things: to learn something, to make sense of things I’m seeing in the world. Not to moralise – I always think moralising is the refuge of the power monger. It’s the easy answer, rarely the most intelligent one, and my Reader is way too smart for that shit. I expect my Reader will probably want to argue the point with me on this book. My Reader kicks arse.
The other reason I’m not feeling as scared as I should be is because the characters set me free. They helped me, which I know sounds insane because arguably they came from my head. It never feels like that, though. To me, they are peeps in their own right. I just get to hang with them for a while.
The one thing I wanted them to be was HONEST. In a story like this, they have to be. What I didn’t expect was that they would show me a really good time while they were at it. They will show you one too, if you choose to get on the bus and go for a ride with them. (Just to be clear here – that’s a metaphorical bus, okay? There is no bus in the story, so don’t be emailing me afterward asking where the bus was. HOWEVER, no fucks given + freedom does sum up a certain something in the pages.)
But that’s all in February. For now … back to the copy edit.
Okay. I’m posting this remotely (more on that later). Fingers crossed it works. Hope things are humming for you!
K xo