Anne Cassidy Fiction Writer

Sadly, my book, LOOKING FOR JJ, did not win the children's category in the Whitbread Award. This means I shall not be able to go to the awards ceremony this evening. It will be a posh do and there will probably be lots of Big Writers there as well as a sprinkling of celebrities. And, I see, Hugh Grant will be there. Blast! My only chance to rub shoulders with the Beautiful Ones and it has been scuppered! I shall sit by the TV, looking depressed, wearing my slipper sox, cuddling a glass of red wine. Meanwhile in The Brewery, glasses of champagne will tinkle in the night and sequins will sparkle and stiletto heels will spike out below long dresses. Everyone will be thrilled to be there and the five shortlisted writers will have their acceptance speeches folded up in their pockets ready to whip out at a moment's notice. Bravo! I truly wish them all the best of luck. I will sit and wait for a fairy godmother. Or failing that I will get on with the next chapter in my next book.

A new year, a new start. Things have to change.

1. I will blog more often.
2. I will write in a more determined manner. I will not finish a paragraph and slide off onto the internet to see what's happening.
3. I will stop seeing the internet as a place, like Blue Water for example. That means I can no longer picture myself on train ( like the docklands light railway) with stops like Achuka, The BookTrust, Cool Reads etc. It's sad but I must face it. The internet does not exist. It lives in everybody's computers and disappears when they shut down. Or maybe, like the brain, it dreams all night....
4. I will alter my image of google as thousands of small people in fast forward mode, looking through tomes of books, newspapers, web sites for my name.
5. I will not weep if my book, JJ, does not win the Whitbread.
6. I will visit more schools because meeting students and talking to them about stories reminds me of why I write. I am an entertainer without the jokes.
7. I will not change the name of a major character half way through a book. It's not clever.
8. I will not stalk teenagers in WHSmiths to see if they're looking at my books.
9. I will write for longer than twenty minutes at a time. I will not stop to see what's happening on daytime TV.... ......Back again. Daytime TV is not so bad and anyway it's important to keep a finger on the pulse the mainstream culture (and one day I may need to make a flower arrangement from a pineapple and some garden twigs)
10. I will definitely not weep if JJ does not win the Whitbread.

That's all for now. I'm going back to my book The Fast Lane and I'm a bit concerned about the main character's name. It's Jane at the moment but would it be better if it was Penelope or Julia or Priscilla...........

Last Saturday I attended a conference on young adult fiction. It was a great day with over two hundred people. The sessions were informative, thought provoking and funny. What is Young Adult Fiction??? Answers on a postcard, please. It was peopled with writers, librarians, publishers, journalists and just people who love teen books and care about this tiny and much unappreciated branch of publishing. I felt invigorated by the day. Hats off to Dave Belbin who organised it.

Last Saturday I attended a conference on young adult fiction. It was a great day with over two hundred people. The sessions were informative, thought provoking and funny. What is Young Adult Fiction??? Answers on a postcard, please. It was peopled with writers, librarians, publishers, journalists and just people who love teen books and care about this tiny and much unappreciated branch of publishing. I felt invigorated by the day. Hats off to Dave Belbin who organised it.

I'm embarrassed to write this because it's so long since I've blogged. I have no excuses and intend to be more regular with my entries.
A lot has happened.
My book LOOKING FOR JJ has won the Booktrust Teenage Book Award and has also been shortlisted for the Whitbread Children's Book Award.
I am in a state of shock. There is no other way to describe it. The most thrilling thing of all is to think that many people will read JJ's story. As I'm writing this now, someone, somewhere, might be opening the covers of the book and settling down to read.
I hope they like it!

School visits can be wonderful. They can also be awful. Here are some points to bear in mind.

1. I meet real students
2. They talk about the books they read
3. They give me immediate feedback on my books and ideas for stories
4. They laugh at bits that are meant to be funny
5. They are shocked at some of my story lines
6. They are full of enthusiasm for my books which makes me feel grrrreat!
7. They give me info on the latest mobile phones
8. They gossip about Eastenders
9. They want my autograph which makes me feel like Jackie Wilson
10. They look lovingly at my books which makes me think they're going to rush out and buy them!

Bad Things

1. It's awful when you turn up and a teacher says, I've never actually read any of your books...
2. When you drive to a school and can't actually get into their car park for security reasons.
3. When you arrive and announce yourself at reception to be told to take a seat and someone will be along soon. Fifteen minutes later you're still sitting there.
4. When you get stranded in a corridor between lessons. It's only just safer than being abandoned on a lane of the motorway in the rush hour.
5. When you're led in and introduced to the students and you hear Who? I thought we were having JKRowling...
6. School dinners.
7. The library had no idea you were coming ( and have never heard of you anyway)
8. There is no library.
9. You tell the students you have some books for sale and there are loud guffaws of laughter.
10. You ask the students about he last book they've read and there is a heavy silence.

So.. it's not all plain sailing. Why do I do school visits? Apart from it just getting me out of the house?

I like them!

I can't believe it's so long since I blogged. I've been ill and busy in equal measure. I visited South London twice (very brave for a North Londoner like myself) and met many students who showed real enthusiasm for writing and books in general. I'm just about to go on holiday in North Yorkshire (taking a fleece) and then, when I come back, am going to start a new book called The Fast Lane. More about that the next time I blog.

Probably one of the most important traits for a writer to have is patience. Never mind about the determination, the ability to work for long hours on your own, the huge file of stories stored somewhere in your head. These things are important. Patience though is probably near the top of the list.
When you first write a book you send it off to various publishers and hope, fingers crossed, that they will read it/ love it/buy it. When you actually post it you put a first class stamp because you don't want it hanging around the sorting office. You give it a week and then wait for a reply every day. After three months you feel desperate. After six you decide that you'll never write another line as long as you live and it will serve them right. When a grubby reply eventually appears saying thanks but no thanks you act like a rejected contestant on Pop Idol for a few days but then you send it off somewhere else.
Once you're a published writer you think the waiting has ended. It has not!
You have a great idea for a book. You may even have a climatic scene in your head where all is revealed or where your characters lives collide chaotically. You start to write. You know, in the back of your head, that you won't write that scene for maybe six months or more. It's like a journey on a slow moving train. You watch the scenery going by but you can't wait to get to your destination. You have to be patient.
When the book is finished you wait. It has to be edited and checked by your publisher. It needs a cover and a sales strategy.You wait. It can take a year or more before you see it on the shelves of a bookshop. You hope for reviews. You fall on the newspaper as it comes into the house and search frantically. Then you wait for another week, another month, another quarterly.
You have an idea for a new book. You put it down on paper and send it to your publisher.
Then you wait for their answer. It can take a while. You twiddle your thumbs or go shopping at Marks and Spencers. You write a blog for your website.
Then you go on waiting.........