A change is as good as a rest – the distraction project. Guest post at The Quivering Pen

I am so chuffed to be on The Quivering Pen books blog, the online hideout of Iraq War novelist David Abrams. I’ve been following it for years. I have shamelessly headhunted many of its guests for The Undercover Soundtrack (and yes, you’ll see David’s Soundtrack here soon).

David has a series called My First Time, where authors confess a virgin experience of writing and publishing life. I’m there today talking about distraction projects – creative stuff you do when you really should be doing something else. You probably all know my travel diary is one of those, but I’ve actually been far more distractible than that. In my time I’ve made recipe books and a music soundtrack for a series of illustrated books. All of which taught me surprising things when I returned to my proper work.

Anyway, do pop over. Especially if you really should be doing something more important.

Music for telling stories – guest spot on Kobo Writing Life

Yes, another guest post. But just for a change, it’s not about the characters book!

When I was Kobo’s Writer in Residence at the London Book Fair last month, they were fascinated to hear about my series The Undercover Soundtrack. Firstly because they’re keen on fostering innovative ways for writers to get together and make contact with readers. And second, because they were busily scribbling their own novels and were imagining what they’d say was on their soundtracks!

Anyway, they asked me to write an introductory piece for the Kobo Writing Life blog. If you’ve ever wondered what all those red posts are, here’s Undercover Soundtrack 101. I tried to mention as many past posts as possible – so if you’ve been one of my guests, hop over there and see if you’re starring on the Kobo blog…

‘Writers and songwriters can create memorable shared works’ – The Undercover Soundtrack inside out: SJ Tucker

‘The more writers and songwriters cross-pollinate and cross-promote our work, the more people will find out about us’

This weekend I’m celebrating the anniversary of the launch of My Memories of a Future Life. And since the story explores reincarnation in reverse, I thought I’d turn the Undercover Soundtrack inside out and talk to musicians who have been inspired by novels.

Today I’m hosting SJ Tucker, who has a long-running collaboration with award-winning fantasy novelist Catherynne M Valente. Their partnership goes way beyond a song for a book trailer; Cat writes song hints into her manuscripts for Sooj to find, and they tour together with their very own multimedia song and story circus. Sooj is talking about all that – and how she turns a novel into songs – today on the Red Blog.