life of a street dancer

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...

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 ...

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...

Did anyone else blink and it's June? I can't even believe 6 months has gone and just so much has happened. Apart from my dad it's been a great year so far and for that I'm grateful. I'll honestly take any good news I can get at this point.  I hit a career highlight. I got to chair a panel for The London Book Fair! Now to do this you usually have to pitch and I'm sure I've pitched before but this time the amazing Bec, who was organising it asked me to do it! It was so much fun and I wish it was longer but it made me look at my LBF journey and honestly wow. I went from no one talking to me, to winning Trailblazers to chairing LBF. What's so funny is I've always wanted to chair Waterstones events cause they look like loads of fun so hopefully now I'll get asked :). I was asked to do another LBF event - who am I even? Lol. I had to do a Q and A with Yomi Adegoke, co-author of Slay In Your Lane. So glad that I'm getting these fun opportunities. Ca...

Hello...it's been a while. I found it hard to write in this blog because this is almost like an online diary. It's way more personal to me than social media. As you may have heard my dad passed away in January very suddenly with no illness. Yes very random. It's been almost like a rollercoaster of emotions and just all the stuff you have to do when someone passes on. No one tells you about that. Then burying someone in another faith was alot but it was beautiful and Dad would be proud. I don't think I've had a moment to just sit down since it all happened and I'm still dealing with the admin work. I'm so private so sharing the news on social media was not my idea. My mum wanted me to because my dad knew so many people and she wanted to make sure they knew and also could get in touch about the Zoom.  My dad lived in amazing life and achieved everything he wanted to. It's still weird like it will hit me sometimes and I'll randomly say, “I can't bel...

I managed to get through the whole of the year without getting sick (well except the suspected heart attack. It wasn't by the way) but now I'm recovering from a cold and yeah it sucks. Plus it's so cold that even with the heating on, it still feels freezing.  2020 was a year and a half. I actually had a pretty good year when I think about it but I just found it mentally exhausting. I am not a home body so lockdown was brutal. Not being able to see my first nephew for the first 4 months of his birth because of COVID was shit. Actually the beginning of the year was really shit that's why I didn't blog in January. I remember I quit my own company! Having a book out this year was interesting. YALC got cancelled, no school visits, no launch party in a bookshop. So many deaths from Kobe Bryant and his daughter, Chadwick Boseman, George Floyd, Naya Rivera, Nicole Thea and so many more. Then COVID stole the lives of thousands of people.  The Black Lives Matter Movement was ...

We're almost at the end of 2020 and I realised this is my last blog before I do my annual year review blog! I'm finally in the Christmas spirit and ready to eat all that food. The amount of chocolate goods in my house is very disturbing and the fact more is coming today is...anyway let's not get into that! It's weird because it doesn't feel like Christmas and I think it's because I haven't been out loads and been around the Christmas lights and my Starbucks Gingerbread Latte, which I heard isn't even around this year. What is going on?! We're now in Tier 4 which is just lockdown, so God knows why they don't just say lockdown *rolls eyes* but luckily I'm not really affected because where am I going anyway?  I'm on the last season of Orange is the New Black and this famous shit season, I thought was pretty good! I randomly was watching this Arianna Grande doc on Netflix. I have no idea why but I didn't hate it. I've gone pink! I...

It's almost Christmas!!!!!!!!! I don't think I've been this excited about Christmas since I was a kid. The fact that I can sit down, eat, watch Netflix and all my movies, read books and NOT HAVE TO WORK, I can't actually wait.  I met this kid in Tesco and I ended up talking to him and his mum about my book. He asked me to tell him what my book was about and I said, “If Harry Potter, X-Men and Dragon Ball Z were rolled into one person it would be Emily Knight.” He told his mum to buy the book for Xmas!  I'm praying that 2021 is a better year for everyone and just less dramatic. That presidential campaign got me all kinds of stressed and I don't even live in the States. But there is a female vice president. The first ever and she's Black/Indian—I just love that so much. I think we all need some calm so Lord please bring calmness. A few weeks ago I felt so stressed and was trying so hard to keep it together. Last week was shit as well. Our Christmas book got ca...

Hello! Yes I know I didn't blog in September. So sorry but I literally didn't have any time. I thought October was my window to relax but it's looking more like December  :( as I still have 2 books to publish by the end of the year. I. AM. EXHAUSTED. There is a never ending amount of stuff to do and unfortunately it's nothing I can pass on to others so I really have to suck it up and just get it done. Lord give me extra strength please.  I have been so stressed out for the past month and I'm so glad everything is starting to get back to normal. I  noticed that my tolerance for things was at a minus 1 and I just didn't care to talk. Every single little thing was irking me so much. I mean things still irk me but it's a lot better now. But I've been evaluating my boundaries. Boundaries is my biggest thing at the moment. I HATE when people email me, then WhatsApp me, then DM me the same conversation. Why??? Why do people do that? Especially when its work rel...

No one saw it coming. I woke up and it was the first thing I saw. I just kept saying, “What? What?” It took me a while to process it. I have nothing but respect for Chadwick Boseman. His grace and class especially with what he was going through. It's just amazing. I remember when Black Panther came out and just the excitement. We were getting a Marvel movie for the culture. Do you know how deep that is? Like I never thought I would see it. I took myself to the cinema because everyone was being long and the guy at the cinema upgraded my ticket for free and gave me free snacks. I remember he said, “Sis, you're gonna love it.” And I did. It was everything I wanted and more. Then the fact it's one of the top 10 highest  grossing movies EVER. We all wanted it to win an Oscar. On some level we knew it wouldn't  - come on we know how the Oscar's role but it should have. My 30th birthday was a Black Panther theme and it was the best party.  When the film came out, I read th...

Where is the year going? I know 2020 is on a maaaaaaad one but it literally is my birthday next week and I'm just like huh? Weren't we just put in lockdown? It feels weird celebrating a birthday in these circumstances. I'm the Queen of just being extra around this time but I just feel like blah. The world is so weird right now. I am currently sitting on my laptop, sweating like a crazy girl (it's 32 degrees) and trying to finish work so I can watch Black is King.  I have been BUSY. Now I'm always busy but this has been on another scale. Literally drowning in work. I'm so pleased that The Diverse Book Awards longlist is done!!!! I can't even believe we found the time to read all those books. Oh the relief is just on another level. It was a tough week getting everything together so we can drop the longlist today. Then a publisher had to pull out one of the kids books but the press release had already gone out. Le stress! The reactions to the longlist has been ...

Hey all! How weird is this year? First of all I can't even believe it's going to be JULY! My birthday is in a month and I don't even understand how it has come around so fast. I am literally like where can I even go on my birthday?? Can I have a launch party in September? I have no clue. One part of me wants to plan stuff and the other part is like just chill. This weekend would have been my epic summer weekend at British Summer Time Fest. All cancelled. YALC got booked for that. Cancelled. I've been doing various interviews about Black people in publishing. I really pray that these conversations aren't in vain and we see some real change for once. I'm tired from having these same conversations and I hope the narrative changes quickly. I have been seeing some dumb things. Someone posted 45 books to help children understand Black Lives Matter and put a book about a Chinese character. Another said white authors here to help Black authors. Oh don't worry I...