Gemini Falling Out

Gemini Falling is out today!

Here's what you might like to know:

• It's a novella.  This means it's really short compared to a full-length book (although it's longer than a short story).  I think it came out at around 11,000 words.
• I really enjoyed writing it.  Part of this was related to the point above - it felt quite liberating to be able to tell a story without worrying about filling a whole book.
• It tells the story from the point of view of Amie and Lexy, characters from my original novel Gemini Rising.  It was great to look at events from a totally different perspective - if you have read the first book, you may remember that Amie and Lexy were the supposed 'mean girls'.  They were characters that intrigued me, but it's nice to get to show them in 3D.
• The events of Gemini Falling run parallel to the first book (i.e. they take place in the same timeframe).  A few lingering mysteries are cleared up.
• It's basically a stand-alone title.  You don't have to have read the first book to read this novella, but you might enjoy it more if you have.
• Although this is a totally different set-up, I was really inspired by Lauren Oliver and the different short stories and perspectives she explored around her amazing Delirium saga.
• You can find out more (or buy it) here.

Gemini Falling

Some actual news from ECW HQ!

I have written a novella (i.e. it's quite short) called Gemini Falling and it is going to be published by Harlequin/Carina on 29th October.

As you may have gathered from the title, it's a companion piece to my original novel, Gemini Rising.  The action runs parallel to the first book, and this time is told from the point of view of Amie and Lexy - the supposed 'mean girls' of the first story, according to Sorana.

It clears up a few lingering mysteries and further explores the theme that you can never presume to know what another person might be going through behind closed doors.  In Gemini Rising, Sorana was convinced that 'The A-Team' had it easy compared to her - but we all know that perception (particularly in teenage years?) can be a very subjective thing.  I was left fascinated by Amie and Lexy, having seen them only through Sorana's eyes before, and I loved giving them voices of their own.

In fact, I adored pretty much everything about writing Gemini Falling - to be honest, it was kind of a treat (as well as, in some ways, a challenge) to write something with a shorter wordcount than usual.  The result is kind of a snapshot but - I like to think - an illuminating one.

For a proper synopsis and a look at the gorgeous cover, you can have a look here:
http://www.carinauk.com/gemini-falling

Pop is a subjective term.

Writing recently about how everyone seems to say that Gemini Rising is 'weird' or 'different', when I thought that I had written a pretty normal book, I was reminded of one of my all-time favourite albums.

Now, I wouldn't dare to compare myself to PJ Harvey - god, that woman is so incredible I'm not convinced she is even human - but I was reminded of something she once said (sadly, not in person on a rooftop in Brooklyn at one in the morning...).  When she made her album Stories from the City, Stories from the Sea, she set out to make a 'shiny, shimmery, pretty' pop album.  She wanted to make it as pop, as un-difficult, as she possibly could.

The result was, in my opinion, one of the top-five most beautiful albums of all time.  It's debatably her 'easiest' album, but it's still hardly easy listening.  'Pop' is a subjective term - it's certainly not pop music as a lot of people know it.  But, to her, it's her pop album.  To me, by book is very, very normal.

Gemini

It’s funny.  I’m working on a new thing and something jumped out at me just now.  In every story I’ve ever written, the main character is based on (or at least comes from some element of) myself.  You know, it’s like psychoanalysis – everyone in the dream is you.

Here’s the funny bit: they are all really different.  They are all like me, but they are all different from each other.

Probably no coincidence that I wrote a book called Gemini Rising.

Weirdo

I would just like to say: I did not set out to write a weird book.  I hope nobody does.  It sounds contrived, like when I used to wear a bindi and silver lipstick when I was 15.  I had the excuse of being 15 then, at least.

Nearly everyone who has read my book (Gemini Rising, in case you missed it) has commented on the fact that it’s ‘weird’, ‘different’, ‘like nothing else I have ever read’.  Opinion has been split – some five-star reviews saying this is a great thing and it’s like I read their (weird?) mind; quite a few three-star reviews saying it’s ‘weird’/annoying/infuriating/too slow/they don’t get it.  Then there was that one who said it was ‘shocking’ and ‘a terrible influence on teenagers’.  Also, the critical ones tend to say that the main character is unlikeable – which kind of indicates that we don’t have a lot in common, since she is pretty much based on me (or elements of me).

I don’t expect everyone to like me or everything I write.  I’m not everyone’s cup of tea; a lot of people in real life don’t like me one bit.  I suppose, when it comes down to it, I’d rather inspire a strong reaction than everyone just saying it’s ‘OK’.

I’m getting used to my work being out in the world and not caring what people think.  I’m trying and, in many ways, I’m much more relaxed about it than I ever thought I’d be.  But I never expected to be ‘weird’ – that’s been a surprise.  I thought I’d written a pretty normal book.  I honestly did.

I’m working on a new one right now, and I’m trying not to let it influence me.  If anything, I’m just working on the assumption that I probably need to embrace the weirdness rather than try to be something I’m not.  I’ll never be like you, no matter how hard I try.

Anyway, it’s none of my business what anyone thinks of me.  I put the book out there; it’s yours to decide what to do with it.

Gemini Round-up

So, my little book has been out for a week today and I have probably banged on about it quite enough now.

I have had some lovely messages and reviews, both from people I know and don’t know.

I have been in touch with some amazing bloggers who are doing really cool things.

I have learned that, if I ever do this again (fingers crossed), I should take the publication day off work and do something wonderful – not end up sitting at my desk, doing nothing useful, having lunch alone and secretly climbing the walls with over-excitement.  (However, this was duly made up for over the following weekend with pizza/wine/forcing my boyfriend to see the Liberace movie/a wonderful lunch with my dad in a restaurant in which newly-published authors are apparently given free Champagne!)

Here is a little link round-up of everything Gemini Rising so far:

Read about my journey to publication on my publisher’s website.

Check out the ‘Musical Moments’ of the book.

Read a particularly lovely and thoughtful review, along with a Q&A that I really enjoyed doing.

Buy the book!

Normal service resumes here.  Thank you for your kind attention/patience.

Gemini Rising: Bookshelf

I’ve written (and thought and chattered) a lot about the music and films that inspired Gemini Rising.  Talking about the books seems a bit scarier, somehow – in a way it seems much more direct, but then at the same time it’s more subtle (like, every book I’ve ever read and/or loved has probably been an influence in some way).  Also, inviting comparisons seems a bit dangerous – to pull two random examples from the air, I adore both Lauren Oliver and Esther Freud, but their writing makes me want to kneel down and weep with inadequacy, so it seems a bit presumptuous to say they’ve ‘influenced’ me.

Anyway, as usual, this probably makes no sense – so here are the books that I’ve loved that maybe have had the biggest influence.  I’m bound to have forgotten some and will kick myself later.

When I started writing YA, it was with the idea of writing something that was spooky and exciting, but NOT actually supernatural.  I wanted it to be very much rooted in reality, but telling the story of girls who had grown up with all those supernatural influences.  Kind of giving a nod and a wink to the epic, supernatural stuff that has been around so much, but with that same everyday, suburban tone that so many of the books I loved as a young teen had: Paula Danziger, Judy Blume, et al.

I also wanted it to be contemporary and full of pop culture, with a smart voice –like my favourite books by writers like Emma Forrest and Blake Nelson.

With the themes of female friendship and a very insular school, I adore books that really get across that feeling of claustrophobia and a hint of menace, which I definitely tried to recreate – chiefly, My Summer of Love by Helen Cross.  Plus, I should probably also state that my favourite girls’ school book was (is) Heidi Grows Up.

Another big deal in Gemini Rising is the books that Sorana herself reads, which becomes kind of a running theme.  I used this basically just as a fun way to talk about some of the books I loved at that age; but also, they are a little window into Sorana’s moods and, most of all, how she is trying to define herself – through Sylvia Plath, Bret Easton Ellis, the Beat poets, Douglas Coupland – all my favourites then and now.

Mean Girls & My Old School: Gemini Rising

I should start this off by saying that I didn’t write the current blurb for Gemini Rising.  This is A Very Good Thing, as the original blurb that I wrote was a bit weird and rambling (funny, that) and included at least one quote from a Smiths song.*

However, as the clever blurb writers chez my publisher inserted phrases such as ‘posh’ and ‘exclusive private school’ into the description of the setting, it makes what I am about to say sound a bit odd.

Yes, the all-girls school in Gemini Rising – the ‘weird, small, semi-religious’ St Therese’s, nicknamed ‘the Virgin Megastore’ by the wittiest local boys – is based very much on my old school.  The characters are different, and (luckily for me) no storylines even remotely like that in the book ever occurred, but the setting is pretty much the same.

I went to a tiny all-girls school in a suburb outside of west London.  There were sixteen girls in my year.  Like Sorana in the book, I was there on a scholarship.  I believe it has changed quite a lot since I went there, but in those days it was pretty insular.

Sorana whinges quite a lot about her school – the lack of boys, the hideous uniform, the pressure of the tiny class sizes – but then she is quite whingey by nature, I feel.  However, I very strongly believe that one day Sorana – like me – will realise that she was, in fact, incredibly lucky.

I kind of think that people who say things like ‘schooldays are the best days of your lives’ are probably losers.  However, I do feel pretty grateful for my school experience.  For one, I probably wouldn’t have lasted more than five minutes in a ‘normal’ school without getting beaten up.

Then there’s the fact that my teachers knew me really well, so I was encouraged in the things I was good at from a very young age (and they *kind of* let it slide that I couldn’t do hockey or long division without giving me too much hassle).  My best friend from school is now a successful actress, and we often discuss this – we were a couple of proper little weirdos, but we were able to be confident in our roles as ‘actress’ and ‘writer’ from the age of about 12, which is really a gift.

This brings me to the fact that most of the people who I considered my best friends at school are still some of my best friends today.  They are awesome human beings, which I’m sure must have been helped along by our education.  The girls I wasn’t particularly friendly with, or I lost touch with, I still always think of fondly and – judging by my newfound love for Facebook – they look to be a generally happy and thriving little bunch.

Of course, there was bitching.  And, in a class that small, it was bad news if everyone decided for a week that they didn’t like you (which was known to happen).  There were fights and there was (quite a lot of) crying.  However, there was nothing so bad that I feel bitter about it – and I hope that comes across in the book.

One thing I wanted to convey also came from a conversation with my best school friend: she asked me if I remembered a nasty little incident from our shared schooldays, which centred around her; ‘I remember so clearly that I went home and cried all night,’ she added.  To my shame, I had literally no recollection of this.  Then I realised that this was probably the point: we all attach great importance to our own experiences as a teenager, but a lot of the time we’re a bit too self-involved to be properly tuned into anyone else’s.  Another still-good friend from school remains convinced that I ‘bullied’ her in our youth, whereas I genuinely believe the opposite to be true – of course, we’re both right.  In fact, I pretty much based the whole dynamic between Sorana and Shimmi on the two of us.

That’s the point, too: I know none of us is perfect, particularly when we’re still growing up and feeling insecure about ourselves.  I very much know I wasn’t.  There was a definite pecking order and, like Sorana, I was somewhere in the middle – and I sometimes behaved in ways I’m not proud of in retrospect.  Still I think (hope?!) that everyone feels like this and I was… kind of OK.

In fact, if you want to sum this up far more succinctly and hilariously than I could ever hope to do: just go away now and watch Romy and Michelle’s High School Reunion.  Not only is it One Of The Greatest Films Of All Time, but keep your eyes on Heather Mooney, as played by Janeane Garofalo, for an accurate snapshot of how I felt at school, at pretty much all times – so busy feeling angsty and put-upon that she didn’t realise people could be a bit scared of her.

Another good one is, obviously, Mean Girls.  This brings me to a final point I would like to mention here: after writing the book, I read an interview with the amazing Tina Fey, in which the amazing Oprah asked who in life she would most like to apologise to and why.

She answered: ‘Well you know, when I wrote Mean Girls, I had some archetypes in my head—like the prettiest girl and the most popular girl. And as I was working on the script, I threw in some names of real people from high school and mixed them up with other random names. I later heard from a friend who went to my high school reunion that some of my former classmates weren't pleased. When they saw the movie, they were like, "What did I do to her?". I was inadvertently hurtful. So I apologize to the women whose names I used.’

This quote struck total fear into my heart because I have done the exact same thing.   I didn’t even have archetypes in my head; I just chucked in a load of names from school that I liked the sound of, simply for my own amusement.  Now I’m worried that people may be offended.

So, if you are reading this and were at school with me, please be assured (and I really, genuinely mean this, whoever you are) that I think of you fondly and wish you well.  And, for everything, I am sorry.

* ‘spending warm summer days indoors…’ from the sublime Ask – although sadly I couldn’t find a place in which to shoehorn the next line, ‘writing frightening verse/to a buck-toothed girl in Luxembourg’…

Gemini Rising films.

I really wanted to get across that feeling of watching horror films at sleepovers, so films were pretty important to me while I was writing Gemini Rising.  We all know that films are way scarier when watched on someone else’s floor, in a sleeping bag, with the lights out and your best friend shrieking next to you.

Also, there were films in my teens that I became almost as obsessed with as I was bands and books.  Number one: The Craft.  I went to see it at the cinema with my friends Rachael, Nadia and Vicki when I was 15.  When I was 18, I still loved it so much that I dressed up as Nancy for Hallowe’en.  Since then, not much has changed.  I still think it’s a brilliant movie.

The only film to rival it in the obsession stakes was The Crow – for similar reasons of aesthetic over plot.  And, slightly more tenuously, its sequel The Crow 2: City of Angels.  Seriously.  Closely followed by Heathers, which is still a classic – I love the teen movie as much as I do the horror movie, and this combined elements of the two with tongue firmly in cheek.  (See also: John Waters, with whom I remain obsessed, after watching Serial Mom for the first time during this era.)

Sorana’s education in classic horror films is lifted from my own life.  When I was growing up, I would rent a horror film from Blockbuster pretty much every Saturday night.  I progressed from Hitchcock to Elm Street, via Michael Myers.  I diligently worked my way through, from black and white classics right up to the self-referential genius of the Scream movies.

It’s weird: I’ve become more fearful as I’ve got older.  I have nightmares more.  But I still love watching the classics; I am delighted every time a new horror movie comes out that I think equals or even tops them, rare as it is (hello, Paranormal Activity).  Lately I have been investigating some obscure Hammer Horror gems.  I still love a Saturday night horror film like nothing else.