Skip to main content

Apparently Adele is dating Skepta which makes this the best Nigerian news ever!


Happy October! I swear I blinked and we're here. I'm currently on annual leave—forced to take by Helen. I feel like I just need a day or two off, she said, “Take a week. Book a holiday!” I am trying very very hard to not work but it I am finding it difficult. Usually on my birthday I feel well rested during August but this August just seemed full on for some reason and I didn't feel like work slowed down at all. So I'll try to enjoy my time off.

I have a title for my third Emily Knight book. Are you ready? It's Emily Knight I am...Becoming. Yay!!!!! And I got my editors notes back and I dread editors notes. The email actually said 'Don't dread the notes. This manuscript is so strong.' Ya'll I almost fainted. I was reading through them and it's stuff that at the back of my mind I did think have I said enough about this? Should I have more on this character? And basically my thoughts were right. For once I'm excited to work though the notes but not quite yet ;) after some chill time. EK 3 is out September 2020 and you can pre-order your signed copy here 

I've been working on a new fantasy story. I won't say much until it's done but very much loving it. I think it's going to be more of a teen book but if I say so myself, it's a very cool idea.

I'm going to be honest about this blog. I did try to blog weekly or every other week and to be honest it's just not me! I prefer bundling a months worth of info into one post so that's what I'm gonna do. I don't have the time to do this weekly stuff. I tried, I failed and I'm okay with that.

Happy Nigerian Independence Day. Apparently Adele is dating Skepta which makes this the best Nigerian news ever!


I had my last birthday present at the beginning of September. I FINALLY went to see Magic Mike curtesy of Ebru. She thought it was a magic show! I cannot deal!!! I'm not sure why she thought I would be so excited to see a magic show. She asked me if I knew what the show was about and I said yeah, it's a strip show. She was like what????? Looool and she has never seen Magic Mike which is crazy! I said watch the second one, the first one is missable.
It was really good but it wasn't as sexy as I wanted it to be. Like I wanted a Jada Pinkett-Smith type person to be hosting it but instead it was a Scouser who was more the funny friend, which did kill the vibe. The guys were good and the dancing was good. Some of the music choices was a little bit odd. A guy I know is in the show and I had no idea. At one point he was doing this solo on the stage and one of the dancers came over to where I was sitting and was trying to catch my eye, then the girl near me who was soooo drunk, shouted in his face, “I WANT A LAP DANCE!” So he took her with him and I assumed it was because he was going to dance but it was actually the dancer that I knew! He put her on the table and it was a lot. He put some cream on her boobs (she had a low top and thinking of it, so did I so that's probs why he was going to pick me) and then licked it off, then made her to do it to him which she looked very happy about. I would of died of embarrassment if I had to do it to him. I did get 3 lap dances and they made it rain on me, which was fab.



Thank you LoveReading4Kids for making Emily Knight I am...Awakened your weekly staff pick. You can read the amazing review here  and can you believe that EK 2 is 2 years old! This book has honestly done me so proud. Amazing reviews, Carnegie nominated and winner of London's Big Read. My girl has done so good!

I got to speak to BBC Radio Derby about Hashtag BLAK and we are still looking for Black British authors so submit to info@hashtagblak.co.uk

I'm still dancing! And still loving it. I posted a vid of me in action on my social media and it got so much love. Really encouraged me. Then I got a message from Kloe asking me to come back and do the 10 year anniversary for Myself in November. I was very hesitant, mainly because I'm just having fun, so adding rehearsals and a million girls didn't sound like it would be super fun. In the end I figured let me do it and see how it goes. It will be good to see the girls I danced with and hopefully we'll actually be dancing together! I went to Kloe's class just to get back into her style and she was going through Hip-Hop grooves before the routine. Why did my body feel so awkward doing it?!


Gen Alpha-Z is almost here and the short stories are INCREDIBLE! Thank you to Egmont for all the amazing books and sponsoring this round of The little BIG Book Comp. You can pre-order Gen Alpha-Z here 

I was lucky enough to do two panel talks this month. One was bringing back my Girls Can Do Anything panel to host Sara'a book launch for Ticking off Breast Cancer (you have to buy this book. Plus it's Breast Cancer Awareness Month). The night was just something else. Leanne and Caroline Jones were also on the panel and just to hear from these ladies about cancer and how it has affected them was honestly one of a kind. Then Helen and I got to host an SYP event all about non-traditional ways to get into publishing and it was in Hachette. First of all they have the best publishing house office that I've seen so far. It's so creative. It was really cool talking to all these people who wanted to get into publishing and just showing them that really if Helen and I can do it, you for sure can!



How good was Top Boy??? I binge watched that in like two days and Jamie is so fine. I was fully rooting for him to be Top Boy. I just loved his relationship with his little brothers and obvs his face. Dave's character was so good. I wished they did more with him though.

Then I was watching the Mercury Music Prize which Dave won best album and then it hit me. Dave is 21 years old and has a successful career. He is focused on making music. Now I know books take much longer to make than music but sometimes my focus is on so many different things when it just needs to stay on writing books. I'll get distracted by this event, social media, deals.  I have released 3 books and each time I have done, it comes with all these blessings and opportunities. None of what I'm doing now wouldn't have happened if I wasn't a writer. So I had to remind myself keep your work focus on writing books and everything else will fall into place as it has done.








Comments

Popular posts from this blog

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

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

My meeting with an agent

Those of you who have been following this blog from the beginning will know that I've been trying for years to get an agent. Well I have the best news...I HAVE A LITERARY AGENT!!!!!!!! Omg I was in so much shock when they responded and it wasn't the rejection letter I was used too. You're probably wondering how did this happen right? Remember when I went to The London Book Fair? My PR told me to go through the exhibition directory and message all the literary agents for a meeting. Whilst I was doing that, most of them had links to their sites so I figured why not submit for the thousandth time, you never know. The directory is super long so I got bored doing it and Helen (PR) kept emailing 'Have you finished it?' All I can say is thank Jesus that she did that because that's when I submitted to Raimondi and Campbell. I got a response to read the whole of the novel. Now I've been at this position before and it usually ends there, so I sent the book in. Th