Sally Nicholls's Blog

As I’m sure you’ve seen on the internet, lots of writers and illustrators are producing free content for lockdown. I’m not very good at videos, so I’ve done something else […]

Eleven years ago, I was an MA student writing a book about a boy with leukaemia, which everyone thought was going to be a hard sell, because teenagers don’t want […]

So much news!

Lots of really exciting things have been happening to ‘An Island of Our Own’.

It has:

WON the Independent Booksellers Week Award

Been SHORTLISTED for the

Costa Book Award (children’s category)

Guardian Children’s Fiction Prize

Brilliant Book Award

Bolton Book Award

Calderdale Book of the Year

Been LONGLISTED for the

United Kingdom Literacy Association Book Award

and NOMINATED for the Carnegie Medal.

Phew!

It was also book of the week in the Sunday Times:

http://www.thesundaytimes.co.uk/sto/c...

And reviewed in the Guardian:

http://www.theguardian.com/books/2015...

The Guardian Children’s Fiction Prize judges called it:

A perfectly crafted book.

and said:

This is a joyful Treasure Island-style mystery for the Instagram generation. A loveable young pair don’t face pirates as they seek their late auntie’s buried hoard, but more contemporary devices – from crowdsourcing clues to metal detectors – winningly deployed in this funny and tender exploration of what makes a family.

The Costa Book Award judges said it was:

A very modern book which has the feel of a classic as well as heaps of heart.

Which was all very nice.

Basically, if you’re going to buy a Sally Nicholls book, you might want to buy this one.

Yes, yes, yes, my first news post in … um … months. But it’s an exciting one.

UKYA (young adult literature written by writers living in the united kingdom) is a wonderful world to inhabit. And today, you get the chance to find out some more about some of the authors who write it. And win dozens of free signed books, including some by me!

More eggs than you can eat, more books than you can read …

 

Welcome to the UKYA Easter Egg Hunt! One very lucky winner will win a huge grand prize of signed books by over thirty YA authors who write and live in the UK.

All you have to do is read this blog, count up how many UKYA branded Easter eggs you see in the blog, and follow the link at the end to the next blog. Keep going until you get back to the blog where you started, and add up how many eggs you’ve seen along the way.

Email your answer to: UKYA2015egghunt@gmail.com. A winner will be chosen at random from all correct entries, and contacted by email.

This closes at noon (UK time) on Sunday, 5th April, and is open internationally.

Good luck!

 

I do. One of my favourite authors is Hilary McKay.

Hello, egg-hunters! My name is Sally Nicholls and I’ve written a bunch of UKYA books, all very different – ‘Ways to Live Forever‘ (about a boy with leukaemia), ‘Season of Secrets‘ (which is more middle-grade really, about a girl who meets a wounded pagan god), ‘All Fall Down‘ (a historical apocalypse novel set in 1349 about the Black Death) and ‘Close Your Pretty Eyes‘, (about a girl who moves to a house haunted by the ghost of Victorian mass-murderess Amelia Dyer).

My new book is ‘An Island of Our Own’, which is out in a fortnight’s time, on April 2nd. It’s about three siblings who are raising themselves after the death of their mother, and who end up on a treasure hunt to find some jewellery left to them in a will. This is the first chapter:

My favourite UKYA is Dodie Smith’s ‘I Capture the Castle’. Love that book.

 

I told my brother Jonathan I was going to write a book about all the things that happened to us last year. About the home-made spaceships, and the lock-pickers, and the thermal lances, and the exploding dishwasher, and the island that was old when the Vikings came, and Auntie Irene’s treasure, and all the things that happened before we found it.

“It’s going to be brilliant!” I told him. “And I’ve already got a title. An Island of Our Own! Isn’t it great?”

“But we don’t have an island of our own,” said Jonathan. “People are going to pick it up and expect it to be Swallows and Amazons for rich people! And then they’ll read it and there’ll be no island and they’ll hate you! They’ll put grenades through your window!”

I told Jonathan that people didn’t put grenades through your window just because of what you called your book. But Jonathan said you shouldn’t underestimate the rage of a fandom.

“Look at Star Wars fans,” he said. “I would totally put a grenade through George Lucas’s window if I thought it would get him to take Jar Jar Binks out of The Phantom Menace.” Which seems a little harsh given how much Jonathan loves Star Wars, but Jonathan said you should never expect logic from a fanatic, which is probably true.

So I said I’d tell people at the beginning of the book that the title wasn’t about a real island, but a metaphorical one (although there is a real island in the story – several in fact), and also not to put grenades through my window, but send cake instead.

“There,” I said. “Satisfied? Can I start now?”

 For my top ten UKYA novels, go here.

For the next blog in the Easter Egg Hunt, go here. And good luck!

Close Your Pretty Eyes released today!

Eleven-year-old Olivia has been in care since she was five, and is just beginning her sixteenth placement. Her new home is a secluded farmhouse, centuries old, where she slowly bonds with her foster family. But the house holds dark secrets. Olivia discovers that it was once a notorious baby farm, where unwanted children were left to die. She becomes convinced that the place is haunted. She is desperate to save her new family from the ghosts. The danger is real - but does it come from the twisted mind of a very disturbed child?

Close Your Pretty Eyes is released today in the UK. It’s a creepy ghost story about real-life Victorian mass-murderess Amelia Dyer, but it’s also a story about an unusual family, and a girl who believes she’s never been loved. There are lots of real-life young people like Olivia, and I wanted to tell her story, and explore how hard it is to survive when you’ve never felt safe.

I talk about the book here. and here.

There’s an early review here. It also got a very nice review in The Times, but I can’t link to that as it’s behind the paywall. They said nice things, though.

And you can buy it from Amazon, Waterstones or Hive (where a % of your money will go to independent booksellers). Or from your local bookshop, of course. It’s also an ebook.

I’m planning to do a lot of school and bookshop visits to promote the book, so if you’re interested in having me come and talk, do send me an email.

All is well with me. I’ve written another Barrington Stoke book, Shadow Girl, which is about a troubled teenager and her friendship with another girl who doesn’t seem quite normal … I’m busy writing my next book, which currently has a working title of Stone, Paper, Ninjas, and is about a community who come together to help three orphans find buried treasure.

I hope you’re having a happy autumn, with lots of good books and friendly people and not too many cold toes.

Sally

I was trying to think of ways I could tell you about Close Your Pretty Eyes, and I thought it might be fun to do a blurb using gifs. I really enjoyed making this. I hope you enjoy it too.

Close Your Pretty Eyes is about a girl called Olivia.

Olivia has been told that she’s evil, all her life, until she doesn’t know how to believe anything else.

She’s been in foster care on and off since she was a baby, and she’s lived in fifteen different foster placements. None of them worked out.

Olivia has been rejected so many times that she doesn’t know how to trust anyone.

So now she figures that it’s safer to reject people before they reject her.

On the outside, she’s all:

But on the inside, she’s all:

At the start of Close Your Pretty Eyes, Olivia moves in with a new family. At first it’s great. They’re all:

But pretty soon Olivia starts to believe that there’s something wrong in the house.

That it’s haunted.

By the ghost of a Victorian mass-murderess.

A woman called Amelia Dyer.

Amelia Dyer killed about four hundred people over thirty years. And now she’s targeting Olivia. Olivia is convinced that she has a destructive purpose of own.

But her new family think Olivia is making her up.

Olivia does tell lies.

And sometimes she has memories and nightmares that are as powerful as things that are really there.

Olivia does everything she can think of. But Amelia keeps coming.

And Olivia grows more and more afraid.

As the haunting gets worse, Olivia is sure of one thing.

But who’s the real monster - Amelia Dyer, or Olivia herself?

And can Olivia find the courage to face her ghosts before she destroys her last chance at a family?

Buy Close Your Pretty Eyes here.

Hello, and apologies as ever for waiting so long to update the website! I’ve been very busy writing, but I have lots of exciting book and film news to share with you.

Ways to Live Forever

The Ways to Live Forever film is due to be released in America this spring. Hurrah! It’s getting great reviews, and you can follow the film on Facebook and Twitter to find out more about screenings near you. Still no news of a UK release, I’m afraid.

There is also a stage play of Ways to Live Forever, which is running in Vienna until March 19th 2013 (in German). Pictures and other details can be found here.

A Lily, A Rose

My very short book for Barrington Stoke will be released on the 1st of March 2013. It’s called A Lily, A Rose and it’s a sort of love story about a fourteenth-century girl who is horrified when her father tells her she has to marry a man who is nearly fifty. You can find out more about the book, and read the opening chapter, at the Books and Stories section of the website.

Close Your Pretty Eyes

The new Scholastic book is called Close Your Pretty Eyes. It’s a psychological ghost story with a ghost based on a real woman; Victorian murderer Amelia Dyer, who is believed to have killed around four hundred people in her thirty-year career. Close Your Pretty Eyes will be released in August 2013, but you can find out more about it at the Books and Stories section of this website.

All Fall Down

Thanks to everyone who’s bought and reviewed All Fall Down - it’s been so great to hear from readers who’ve enjoyed it. The paperback edition will be coming out in April 2013. All Fall Down has been doing well; and it’s been shortlisted and longlisted for a number of awards. Hurrah!

Shortlisted

Dudley Teen Book Award

Northern Ireland Book Award

Calderdale Book of the Year

Independent Booksellers Week Book Award

Yorkshire Coast Book Award

Coventry Inspiration Book Award

West Australian New Readers’ Book Award

Longlisted

UKLA Book Award

Carnegie Medal

Well, it’s been a while, so apologies for that as ever. A few of you have been asking about the film of Ways to Live Forever. The Spanish version is now out on DVD (please note that this is Spanish only and does not have an English version), as is the Taiwanese version. You can buy the film in English on DVD if you live in Australia or New Zealand, but sadly not yet in Britain.

If you live in America, however, then I’m thrilled to announce that the film has been bought by World Wide Motion Pictures, and should be in cinemas in early 2013. Hurrah! I hope you’ll be able to wait that long.

All Fall Down is out and seems to be doing nicely. I’ve also bought a house, which is very exciting - I’ve been busy painting walls, sanding floors and planting things, as well as working on the next two books.

My very short book for Barrington Stoke is finished - it’s called A Lily, A Rose and it’s another historical novel, set about twenty years before All Fall Down. It’s about a fourteen-year-old girl who is told one day that she has to marry a man in his forties, and what she decides to do about it. It should be out in spring 2013.

I also have a short story in the anthology, Next, edited by Keith Gray. Next is a collection of stories for teenagers about the afterlife. There are some big names in there, including Keith Gray, Frank Cottrell Boyce, Malorie Blackman, Jonathan Stroud, so it’s worth reading in its own right. You can read some more about my story on the Books and Stories section of the website.

This week is Independent Booksellers Week - hurrah! - and All Fall Down is shortlisted for the Independent Booksellers Week Award. You can vote for me, or for any of the other authors, in any participating independent bookshop. Do try and support local booksellers this week, and always. A thriving bookshop opens doors and changes lives, and without our support they will die.

I’m going to be appearing in several festivals this year. I’ll be at the Edinburgh Book Festival with Katheryn Erskine on the 25th of August (and in a school’s event with Keith Gray and Kate Harrison on the 24th August), the Cheltenham Literary Festival with Marie-Louise Jensen and Mary Hooper on 7th October and the Northern Children’s Book Festival in Stockton on 24th November. I hope to see some of you in the audience.

Phew! And now, if you’ll excuse me, I’d better get on with writing the next book …

Sally

Well, it's finally here.

After three long years (and if they've felt long to you, they've felt even longer to me), 'All Fall Down' is released into the world.

The official release date is World Book Day (which is next Thursday), but copies have been sighted in bookshops, it's available to buy on Amazon, and I know one or two of you at least have already got your hands on a copy. My mother's read it (and liked it). It's here.

All three of my novels are also being released as e-books on March 1st. I'm intrigued to see what happens with the e-book editions. Do teenagers buy e-books? (Do teenagers buy books at all? I read voraciously as a teenager, but I rarely bought books. I just forced my local library to order the complete works of Terry Pratchett and Anne McCaffrey in for me. Which they did. Go libraries!)

Also here are the new covers for 'Ways to Live Forever' and 'Season of Secrets'.

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I feel a bit sorry for my publishers. They really like the idea of giving all my books matching covers, and I keep confusing them by writing completely different books each time.

The book I'm writing at the moment is different again. Sorry, guys.

One of the nice things about having a book out is that you get invited to all sorts of interesting events. I'm going to be speaking at the Oxford Literary Festival on March 24th, alongside Patrick Ness, Tim Bowler and Moira [image error]Young. I'm also going to be doing two events at the Edinburgh Book Festival - a public talk on 'All Fall Down' and a schools event on 'Next?' an anthology about the afterlife which is coming out in June, and in which I have a story. Keep an eye on the Events page for dates.

This March, I'm a guest editor at www.lovereading4kids.co.uk. I'll be talking about some of my favourite books for young people (something I get asked about a lot). Please note that I'm only guest editor for March, so you won't be able to read my selection until March, and after that you'll have to hunt for me amongst the past editors.

If you live in America, you'll be pleased to hear that the Ways to Live Forever film has found an American distributor. Hurray! This means it should be showing in American cinemas - I'll let you know when I have an American release date.

Some of you may also have noticed that I now have a mailing list. You won't be bombarded with emails if you sign up. (Cue amused 'huh's from people who've noticed how often I update this website.) But I will try and put some EXCLUSIVE CONTENT in the emails as an incentive to sign up.

Happy World Book for Thursday. Why not celebrate by going into a bookshop and buying yourself a book?

Sally

Well, it's done. Finished. Handed in. Nearly two years after I first started working on it (when it was about a medieval boy called Nathaniel and a modern girl called Hazel), All Fall Down has finally been sent back to the publishers for good. It's an odd thing, reading the page proofs for the final time. Some parts are so much better than you remembered. Other parts still need a bit - more - work. Chapters that didn't bother you in the least while you were writing them surprise you by affecting you emotionally for the first time. And then there's the strange thing that happens when you see your words dressed in chapter headings and page numbers and all the other accoutrements of a Real Book. Something which up until then had been quite flexible and very definitely fictional, suddenly becomes a real story. Which - maybe - really happened. Very weird.

All Fall Down will be in shops on March 1st 2012. You can pre-order copies here and here. I hope you all like it.

It is a wonderful thing to be finished, not least because it means I can start proper work on the New Book. (I love New Books. They are so full of promise and hope, and nothing too major has gone wrong with them yet.) This New Book is about a girl called Olivia Brown, who I have been spending all day today getting to know. She likes James Bond, and chocolate éclairs, and Batman, and she's not afraid to punch you in the nose if she needs to. She's just moved into a new house, and she thinks it might be haunted …

My working title is The Winter Garden, but it will probably change. They usually do. Like all my books, it's really about family and loss, and young people trying to work out who they are.

My other exciting news is that as well as my usual books for Scholastic, I've been contracted to write two novels for the very wonderful people at Barrington Stoke. Barrington Stoke specialise in short, plotty novels by well-known authors. I love the idea of writing a book the length of a long-ish short story, and also of working with this fantastic company. The first book should be out in 2013, but watch this space.

I'm pretty happy about writing at the moment. I'm feeling positive about my new projects, and very happy (if slightly nervous) about having a new book out in 2012. I'm hoping to do a lot of school and bookshop visits in March and April to promote All Fall Down, so if you're interested in having me visit, do send me an email.

And happy Hallowe'en. Keep a look out for Holly King and the Wild Hunt, if you're out tonight.

Sally