Eight Ways Writing a Novel Can Broaden Your Horizons - a guest post at the Office of Letters and Light!

In between Adventures in Dress Shopping, Adventures in Sleeping, and Adventures in The Ill-Advised  Art of Cooking Things, I'm afraid I rather lost track of the time in which I planned to write a blog post today.

Luckily, I can point you to something far more awesome.

Eight Ways Writing a Novel Can Broaden Your Horizons

I approached the lovely people over at the Office of Letters and Light - to those who don't know, these are the incredible breed that run NaNoWriMo, Script Frenzy, and the Young Writers' Program, among other things - about a month ago with a tentative proposition of writing a blog post for them.

And, lovely people that they, are, they said yes. So now you can see Miriam and I, in all our hive-mind-y glory, giving the top eight things that writing novels has taught us. Or, rather, top eight things that are useful in more than simply grounding us very well in the how-to of breaking limbs and correctly specifying the horrors of the Black Death.

Enjoy!

~ Charley R

Charley R - A Radio Interview with BBC Solent

Alternative Title: In which Charley reveals her true identity as Poshy McPoshPants, Graduate of Posh University with First Degree of Utmost Poshery, Poshville, United Kingdoms of Posh.

Or sounds like it, anyway.

In other news, for those uninterested in hearing me mutilating extracts from St Mallory's Forever! perhaps I can mollify your ire by telling you this:

Paperback copies of St Mallory's Forever! are available, in print-on-demand paperback, worldwide* from Amazon!

* - UK, US, and other mainstream Amazon sites confirmed. Others may possibly, but not probably, be slower on the uptake.

Want your very own copy of St Mall's to grace your bookshelf, so you can point it out to relatives and say "I know the authors - mad as fish both of them"? Or are you one of the sadly deprived few who, without access to an e-reader, have not yet experienced the joys of the story?

Well, now you can.

Enjoy, everyone! And please do feel free to leave me creative descriptions of how hard my accent makes you laugh.

~ Charley R

St Mallory's Forever! - ON SALE NOW

St Mallory's Forever! is live and ready for purchase

Get your ebook now at:

AMAZON (UK)

AMAZON (US)

I can hardly believe I'm typing it. It's been nearly two years since those first emails were sent, with the first haphazard chapters attached. Now, nearly two years later, it's here and ready for your enjoyment.

In the words of a certain very famous musical: the time is now, the day is here!

So go on, go and see what all my blood, sweat, tears and exciteable keyboard smashing has led up to. We've got an updated blurb, a wonderful Foreword, and, of course, a whole book's worth of hilarity and hi-jinx for you to enjoy.

Enjoy!

~ Charley R

"St Mallory's Forever!" Blog Tour

Release date is imminent, repeat, release date is imminent!

And by "imminent" I mean within the week. Almost certainly. Unless something disastrous happens and we're all abducted by aliens. 

In fact, I'm thinking sometime tomorrow. Rest assured you'll know the minute it is!

It's been a busy few weeks' run-up to the Big Day, though, not in the least because Miriam and I have been skittering all over the blogosphere doing what I like to think of as a sort of Mini Blog Tour.

Curious? I hope so.

Because, if you'd care to know, there's a pretty wicked Interview With the Notebook Sisters, which is full of all sorts of tasty tidbits that I didn't tell you about in the process.

Not long after, I wrote a Post for Pure Grace, which is likewise full of wonderful goodies. And there's a puppy in it too!

While not specifically on the tour itself, Saffi's Promo Post is worth a look. Not in the least because you'll get to meet our lovely publishers and experience their awesomeness firsthand!

Random Writing Rants were also very kind to step up, and my equally wonderful co-author Miriam has done a wicked post for them on the how and why St Mall's came to be. She's also much better at explaining things than I am, so you should totally go and check her out.

If I may, I'd like to take a moment to say the WORLD'S MOST ENORMOUS THANK-YOUS to all the blogs who kindly allowed us a slot in their timetables. It means the absolute world to us, especially as we've both been looking forward to this moment since we first picked up our pens at the year dot.

Of course, if anyone else would like to give us a spot, there's no reason this list shouldn't get a little longer yet!

In the meantime, I will leave another HUGE BARRAGE OF THANK-YOUS to the readers of this blog. You guys have stuck with me through just about every piece of nonsense I can throw at you, and the lovely comments you leave me really do make my day.

The moment St Mallory's Forever! is live and fit for purchase, you lot will be the first to know.

~ Charley R

If You Believe. . .

Within the week, St Mallory's Forever! will be hitting the world in ebook form. Within the next two days, I'm going to be begging my photographically-inclined friend to help me take my author picture, chew my nails over last-minute edits and do a lot of frightened running in circles.

Of course, I'm not bemoaning the process in the slightest - I'm having a fantastic time! The book is awesome, if I do say so myself - many of the jokes have provoked some very . . . surprising . . . noises from me. And half of my panic is due to the fact that this is it. I am going to be a proper author.

And it's hard, and I am worried and I am scared and, in my darkest moments, I've questioned the decision. I don't know if I'm ready. I don't know if I can do it.

I went on a run today, you know. I joined up with the "running club" for my Thursday afternoon sports activity. Being allergic to anything involving a stick and a ball, and deciding I'd rather be outside than cooped up in the gym, I pushed my reluctant (read: lazy) self out to the sports centre . . . only to discover I would be running alone. I'm a fairly strong, if not terribly speedy, runner, so it was just me and one of the staff, who would be doing a longer route to the others, who were all beginners.

I would like to point out that this member of staff seems to enjoy hills.

I do not.

There's a large hill to the south of my little Dorset village, with an old Bronze Age "castle" mound at the top. Up that hill we went, traffic roaring past on the right and a drop into a muddy field on the left.

The field looked incredibly inviting by about halfway up. My legs were sceaming, my lungs felt like they were filling up with marbles, and I don't even want to think about what my calf muscles would have said to me if they were capable of verbal communication.

It was hard, and I was worried and, in my darkest moment, I questioned the decision to sign up. I didn't know if I could do it.

And you know what? I did. I got up that hill, gasping and sweaty and cursing oxygen for its thin-ness. But I got up. And I kept going. I ran for the next half an hour, up another hill, across a busy junction, and all the way back up the stairs to my room.

And you know what? I'm not worried any more. Well, I am, but not in a silly way. I'm grouching at myself for my inability to write decent author biographies and my procrastination getting the better of me when it comes to doing some of the guest posts you lovely people have agreed to let me do.

But I believe in the book, and now I believe in myself too.

For a newbie, the publishing process is scary. It's technical, it's demanding, and you'll want to bludgeon yourself with all the errant commas you're running over.

But once you get up that hill and you can see the publication date in sight . . .

It'll all be worth it. I know it.

And, whether it be sooner or later, you guys will too. Trust me on that.

~ Charley R

St Mallory's Forever! - Official Promo Video

Video compiled by Miriam Joy

Special thanks from me to my not-so-little brother, for his valiant attempts at impersonating a tripod.

Editing Hobbits on Skis

3D glasses are swiftly gaining on lumpy matresses in the Great List of Thing I Want To Jump Up And Down On. Not in the least because these ones were slimy. And my hair stuck to them.

Not that I really noticed. I was too busy trying to contain my inner fangirl in front of a theatre full of people.

To all who haven't seen it yet: The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey is incredible. See it as soon as you can because, believe me, it will be worth it.

To all those who have: I want a giant elk. Moose. Whatever that thing is. You know what I mean.

I really shouldn't have been reading The Silmarillion that morning, either. Picked up on so many references. Peter Jackson, I salute you. Charley's dignity, farewell.

Yes. Sorry. Squeaking over now.

Hope you all had a wonderful Christmas time - I'm betting several of you had a situation similar to me, which constituted the arrival of multiple family members, copious amounts of food, and such a wonderful time that you didn't even open up your laptop for several days.

This is usually the point where I would say "and now we're back with our regularly scheduled funtimes!". Regretably, it will not be.

Because I'm going skiing. Tomorrow. For a week.

And it's going to be awesome. I promise I'll bring back what pictures I can get, and I apologise profusely for lack of things like reviews and Writerly Tips (I promise I'll get back onto those very soon!). Life distracted me far more than I thought it would. Sorry.

But let's finish on a very very good note: the first 25 chapters of St Mallory's Forever! are open on my screen, and we're going through what we hope might be our final edits. Miriam and I like the idea of January the 22nd for a release date, and I will do my best to ensure it is so. We'll both keep you posted on that.

In the meantime, enjoy your New Year, and all the best from me!

~ Charley R

St Mallory's Cover Reveal, and Charley's Weekend Missions

Weekends are every teenager's hallowed days - even if we do live at school. Though we do have classes on Saturday morning (three 55 minute periods, though it depends whether you have a lesson in all of them), we are still left with a day and a half to clear up the things that have been buried beneath our ever-mounting piles of unfinished homework, unsent letters to home, and laundry that hasn't quite found its way to the washing machine.

And so, this weekend, I've made it my mission to sort out all the little things that have been biting at my toes. It's bad enough that my Father's Day card is going to arrive late, but I'll bash myself over the head with a damp fish if I let anything else go awry this early in the last half of term.

Thus, my mission list runs as follows:

• Send Father's Day card.
• Raid university prospectuses and online sites to choose the final university that I will be applying to this summer.
• Get multiple forms signed by the appropriate authority figures.
• Further research for my Extended Essay.
• Get to work on the poem and one-act play that I need to conjure up in order to enter a pair of competitions.
• Fill in UCAS account and start work on Personal Statment in order not to make a mess of the aforementioned university applications.
• Watch Thor with my housemates. Do best not to sob too much.

It's hardly an arduous list, I know, but after digging my way throught half the internet looking for symbolic meaning in a portrait of Elizabeth I for history - unsuccessfully, I might add - I know I've got to get them done before anything else creeps up behind me.

Also, before I go, you may note that the topmost image on the right-hand sidebar of this blog has changed. Although Miriam and I are both still embroiled in school, her GCSE exams will soon be over and that means we can finally make the last push to finish off St Mallory's Forever! , edit it up and get it sent out to all you lovely people! 

Clicking on the image will take you through to St Malls' official blog, where you can find out all about the authors, a bit of story background, and several informative posts by Miriam and myself about boarding school, progress on the novel, and an attack by a marauding Norse god.

Oh, and here's a picture of the cover in big version. So you can all dribble and make excited noises appropriately.

Fare thee well, readers! I shall see you on Tuesday - have a lovely weekend!

~ Charley R