Skip to main content

2018 - BEST YEAR EVER! (so far)


So we made it! Praise be to God as so many people didn't. What an amazing year it's been. I can say hand on heart that this has been the best year of my life. Every month something significant happened. I knew that this year would be all about my career and God really showed up. The Author School grew and we did more events and one-to-ones. Hashtag Press turned 1 years old and we've published our 10th book. Yay! At The Lil' Author Skool, we published The Originals and found our next bunch of young writers to be published next year. The Lil' Author Skool is my passion project but it's done so well with very little put into it so next year I'm going to run it how I run my businesses and I want to see how big it can get. Emily Knight I am...Awakened has done so good and is nominated for 2 book awards. My third book, Beats, Love and high top trainers has 7 publishers interested (well now 6 as one couldn't deal with all the black girl magic. Ha!). My career has just soared especially after winning the Trailblazer Award and I mean, my year started of with being interviewed by Cosmopolitan magazine and ended with visuals for my movie pitch.  I'm just getting started.

I found that this year I really felt whole in myself. I saw people's characters whether that be in business and personal and it was a real eye opener. I met so many influential people this year and even though I struggled with feeling like 'should I be here?' I realised damn straight I should be here! The stuff I didn't get this year has been aligned in a way that it will happen even better next year! I'm excited. The whole year has been a highlight but here they are any way :)

- Cosmopolitan interview
- Black Panther. I never thought I would see an African Marvel superhero on screen!!
- World Book Day school tour
- Winning the Trailblazer Award 2018 and getting to go to all the fancy dinners and events. I was the first black person to win!
- All the amazing concerts I got to see - Kendrick Lamar, Bruno Mars, Lauryn Hill, Britney Spears, On The Run 2, Kevin Hart. I'll even throw in the mess of Wireless Festival because I did get to see some good acts
- I did the most interviews and panels this year such as the Trailblazer panel at The London Book Fair and SYP Autumn Conference
- The London Book Fair and being there for 3 days straight and seeing my face everywhere. Unforgettable.
- Discovering Narcos and How To Get Away With Murder (I know I was late on this train)
- SYP mentor
- Joining the BookBrunch Committee
- Everything to do with The Author School
- Hashtag Press turning 1 and all the gorgeous books we published
- Multiple publishers interested in Beats
- Witnessing March For Our Lives and Emma Gonzalez epic speech
- Publishing The Originals and having it featured in The Bookseller and InTo Magazine
- The Knights pop up blog and Lox being drawn with the best tattoos I have seen on a character
- Walking into Pages of Hackney bookstore and being asked to sign my books on the shelves and just seeing my books in various bookstores including Waterstones
- The World Cup and Nigeria's epic kit
- Beychella
- A black lady marrying into the Royal Family. Gwarn Meghan!
- The Hate U Give. Meeting Angie Thomas and watching the movie at an exclusive screening at the BFI. Sucked that I missed my tickets to the premiere
- Me and Helen's diversity blog and speaking up about the nonsense in publishing
- Talking to Malorie Blackman
- Meeting with a director at HarperCollins
- Free entry into Comic Con and meeting Jason Momoa
- MY WAKANDA 30TH BDAY PARTY AND THAT CAKE!!
- Youth Takeover show which was legendary
- Jamilah and Sam's wedding
- The gorgeous Bookstagram pics of my books
- Misty the show. So good I had to see it twice
- Hashtag Press books all over the gaff and in flagship stores!
- My pic of black books for Black History month that went viral amongst the Book gram
- MJ Off the Wall exhibition
- Publishing 10 books and our first picture book
- Emily Knight I am...Awakened being nominated for the Carnegie Medal 2019 and shortlisted for London's Big Read 2019
- Getting Spice Girls tickets for me and Lola. I CANNOT WAIT!
- John Boyega tweeting at me and Helen
- Talking on London Live about my book
- Yolanda Adams commenting on my dance video
- Roasted marshmallows. I totally get it
- Getting a new literary agent and having NYC agents approach me
- 36 years of marriage - Mama and Dad
- Securing all my authors for book 2 via The Lil' Author Skool
- The hottest summer in years

As is life, there have been some negatives. The Florida shooting really freaked me out and just how someone can get in a space to murder people so causally. The way the survivors rose up to make a change is the most inspiring thing I have seen.
Fergie went missing for almost 2 days which actually broke my heart.
R.I.P the legend that is Stan Lee.
The CLPE report of 1% of books published in 2017 had a lead ethnic character and 4% featured ethnic characters. Then you get publishers like the one interested in Beats who thought there was too much colour in the book. Makes me so mad. I will keep talking and writing about diversity until there is a massive change.
Going Bournemouth during the heat wave and all we got was a bloody storm.
Fucking Brexit.

2019 is going to be HUGE. A game changing year. Let's go!

Happy New Year!!

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

In the words of Carrie Bradshaw and just like that I was a YA author

It feels like the right time but this will be my last entry. I know! I've been writing in this blog for TEN YEARS but this year it just felt off. I couldn't pinpoint why that was but the other day I realised I started this blog because I was a dancer who was trying to understand the publishing world. I also was so scared of anyone reading my work hence why I started a blog. Ten years later I have fulfilled my goals! Back in May I had finished my first YA book, a love story based around a Black owned bookshop in Stoke Newington. How I wrote this book when I was heartbroken I have no idea. I vaguely remember sitting on the couch with headphones on playing O Holy Night on repeat at 3am writing. I made my deadline and I wasn't sure if the book was good. My first round of submission for another book had very conflicting feedback and honestly I didn't have it in me to experience that again. I just wanted a deal. Fast forward to September 21st and my book was sent on submissio

I have a new book out!

That's right book 4 is out! This is my first anthology and it's absolutely gorgeous. I was asked to be part of The Very Merry Murder Club maybe a few weeks after my dad and I remember just thinking why is this opportunity coming now?! And it's with Farshore and imprint of HarperCollins. There's no way I can do it. I literally couldn't write. My agent Gemma spoke to me and the editors knew what had happened to me so it was really up to me. I prayed on it and God said to me you're not going to feel this way in October so I said yes. I won't lie I was worried that I really couldn't write this book but thank God for his strength and amazing agent and now it's here!  I've been ill all week but I saw loads of pic on social and my copy hasn't come yet so I dragged myself to Waterstones Islington to take pics of the book on the shelves. The booksellers were looking at me like are you going to buy this book. HA!  The amazing thing is I have even more

My meal was £22 and it was so small I ate it in 3 mouthfuls.

Happy World Afro Day! I had no idea this was even a day so yes for us! How gorgeous is this? I can't remember what country it's in but I saw it some weeks ago on Twitter. Getting into the swing of writing these blogs is harder than I thought. I'm not sure why I'm finding it tricky to stay on top of it and I know I'll regret it especially when I read back over it at the end of the year.  I turned another year older and despite it being a year that is turning out to be unpredictable I'm thankful that I'm here to see another birthday. It's always hard planning what to do, something that I know won't cost an arm and a leg. In the end I spent it eating lol. Helen and I went to this amazing Creole restaurant, literally a hidden gem that had the most amazing food and drinks that were even too strong for Helen!  I have no idea why it rained on my birthday! In the middle of summer!! Honestly sometimes I can't deal with this country. Then I got changed for