I'm just back from my media presentation at Puffin. It didn't go quite according to plan.
I had this speech planned, practised and commented on. It had been fine-tuned but seemed informal enough to appear off the cuff.
But then...
I realised it didn't mean anything.
Hi, I'm Sarwat. I've written a book called DEVIL'S KISS blah blah blah.
Instead I discussed how I came to write this particular story. Why, when you have no hope left and the worst that can happen has happened, there is only one answer.
Deus Vult.
God Wills It.
To write horror you have to write what terrifies you. For any parent there is only one true horror and that is your child dying and you not being able to do anything about it. That is the premise of DEVIL'S KISS. Children die. They die because bad things happen. They die because they were unlucky. They die because they are small, fragile things.
But if you believe in the divine, God in whatever shape, name or form He might come in, they die because He Wills It.
Some may take comfort in 'these things happen for a reason' but some may not.
This is a story about those who believe that 'God is on their side' and the misery such certainty always brings.
The Savage Fortress -US Edition
Available on Amazon now!
Devil's Kiss -US Edition
Ash Mistry -UK Edition
The Ash Mistry Chronicles start here!
Dark Goddess -UK Edition
About Me
- SarwatC
- Writer of Young Adult fiction and general house-spouse. I did some engineering in an earlier life and worked on the Channel Tunnel. That may be why I always take the ferry. My first book, DEVIL'S KISS, is out in the US, UK, Netherlands, Germany and Japan. The sequel, Dark Goddess, came out in the UK in July. Keep your eyes peeled!
Visit my websites: www.SarwatChadda.com www.DevilsKiss.co.uk www.DevilsKissbook.com
Buy my book! It's available in the UK and in the US
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5 comments:
Wow - I thought I had problems because I've got a little Ofsted Inspection tomorrow! (Hope the despair didn't come from anything personal)
So just how... "heavy" does Devil's Kiss get, Sarwat?
Gareth
PS - well done on getting through your media presentation - was it tough?
It is interesting what creeps underneath the stories we write. Sometimes you don't even realise until you've written it! So were they videoing you or recording it or both? What does the media presentation do?
Gareth,
Nothing that terrible has happened to me, thank God! Don't think I could write about it if it had. I'll tell you the full story face to face.
Media presentation was tough, I lost my head. Should have stuck with the programme. Won't make that mistake again. The key problem was I had a message to deliver and I didn't deliver it.
It's tough trying to get a message across - particularly a complex, multi-strand one. I've been teaching teenagers for nearly 20 years (hell, I'm old!) but I still need a basic plan and notes/keywords to come back to.
I think sticking with the program is good, you can deviate off for a couple of minutes but you've always got a thread to come back to... then again, I reckon I'm somewhere on the OCD spectrum!
Just read your interview on "Tall Tales..." http://talltalesandshortstories.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default . I think it's excellent - good detail and feeling, no glib/standard answers. You shouldn't have any trouble with the media world.
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