Download a copy of my short story CATCHING SUKI. It’s FREE for a limited time AND you’ll be helping support an amazing charity that supports girl changemakers across the globe!

Here’s the blurb…

The Unit are closing in and Demos needs one of his team to go deep cover.

Enter Suki.

Fashion obsessed, boy-crazy and more than a little kooky, Suki is a mind reader with a special talent for buying shoes and for listening in on private conversations.

Tasked with infiltrating the enemy (namely Jack and Alex) Suki rises to the challenge, leaving a trail of chaos, destruction (and a large room service bill) in her wake.

A prequel to the events of Hunting Lila and including many of the characters from the book, this short story told through Suki’s eyes, will have you laughing out loud while gripping the edge of … Read More »

I’m in the midst of the FATED blog tour which has been so fun.

Here are some of the links in case you’ve missed them. Today Simon & Schuster are giving away 5 copies of FATED & HUNTING LILA. Click here to enter

24th January: Words on Paper - First Chapter Hosting
25th January: Novels on the Run - If you could control your Fate themed interview
26th January: Shiirleyy’s Bookshelf - Video review
27th January: Tales of the Inner Book Fanatic – Fated Top Trumps and Fated Cast Battle Off
28th January: She Known as Jess - Grazia-esque magazine interview with the Fated cast
29th January: Read Me, Bookmark Me, Love Me Giveaway – 5 copies of Lila and Fated with posters!
30st January: Book Probe Reviews - Host video message to Aussie fans from Sarah
31st January: Sarah Alderson live facebook chat on Read Me Love Me Share Me
1st … Read More »

I suck at editing. Thankfully I am lucky enough to have an editor AND a copy editor AND a proof reader. And I’m still having to blink in awe at that sentence.

I’m not a perfectionist so I really need all the help that I can get. I just finished a short story from Alex’s point of view, which is going in the back of Losing Lila and it took my agent to point out that I’d called one character by the wrong name for half the story.

My copy editor in particular picks up not so much the spelling and grammar errors but the continuity errors and repetitions. The places where I’ve said one thing on p.23 and then totally contradicted that on p.230. She also points out where references I’ve made to obscure 80s movies might go over the heads … Read More »

Today was an interesting day for me as a writer.

Last week I started writing two new books – simultaneously. I’m not sure what it is about me and upping the ante. With my penultimate book I challenged myself to write it in 30 days – just because. This time I’ve set myself 56 days to complete two books. Again – I’m not sure of the reason why. I just like having goals I suppose.

This means roughly writing 4000 words a day – about 2000 words on each manuscript. And I’m finding the exercise actually quite interesting. Those moments where I find myself losing attention or coming to a standstill on one I switch to the other and find myself fresh. So far it’s been easier to write two than to write one and to keep energised.

After writing my first two … Read More »

So far this year I have written three entire novels (each around 86,000 words). That makes six books in just over two years.

One I wrote in 30 days just because I wanted to see if I could do it. That was kind of crazy though.I am now ready to take a rest. I feel mentally exhausted.

If my brain is a sponge it is wrung completely dry. It’s manky and fraying and no longer something you’d want to keep lying next to the bath. I need to lay it in a swimming pool of valium diluted with vodka and after that when it’s good and fluffy again I want to read a thousand books, travel around the world one more time and let it soak up some further inspiration until that sponge is saturated to the max.

But having said that, all … Read More »

I hope the wonderful Maggie Stiefvater doesn’t mind me stealing her competition idea…

WIN AN EARLY SIGNED COPY OF FATED, my next book, personalized with a selection of my post-it notes (which I stick all over my walls and desk and which contain words of wisdom – not my own because I don’t claim wisdom as a trait – as well as ideas and quotes for Losing Lila and for Fated).

On your Facebook page or your blog (must be an actual blog from Blogger or WordPress – and not Shelfari or Goodreads etc) post the cover image of Hunting Lila and some words along the lines of OMG THIS BOOK ROCKED. IT’S SO FULL OF AWESOME. ORDER IT NOW! And then link to the Book Depository (Free Worldwide shipping): http://www.bookdepository.co.uk/Hunting-Lila-Sarah-Alderson/9780857071958?b=-3&t=-21#Reviews-21

Then come back to the Hunting Lila fan page on Facebook … Read More »

Hunting Lila’s birthday was yesterday. In the weeks running up to the launch I had an inkling of what Kate Middleton must have felt like before marrying Royalty. Not that I had to stand in front of the eyes of the world in a white dress and no one was bestowing any title on me but I honestly couldn’t eat, couldn’t sleep and was in a spiralling panic as the day came nearer. All those people looking at me – which given I used to act – wasn’t something I understood until I realised that publishing a book is a bit like standing naked in front of the world asking them to comment on your flaws.

So I did what any sensible girl would do in such a situation, I bought myself the most killer dress (Vivienne Westwood) which took all … Read More »

I’m right there on the table next to Stephenie Meyer and beneath the fantastic Divergent.

If the camera panned upwards you’d see my grinning like a loon. I’m on the table next to Stephenie Meyer.

My book.

Is on the table next to Breaking Dawn.

If you’d have told me this a year ago I would have laughed in your face at how ridiculous you were being. But look people – there it is. In Waterstones no less.

I signed my first copies in store. The staff in Waterstones were brilliant and invited me back to do a reading or signing. (The girl who works there looks just like Keira Knightley.)

I am still grinning like a loon. It’s particularly funny because Stephenie Meyer was the reason I started writing in the first place. I loved Twilight and then when I was struggling to think … Read More »

To celebrate the launch of Hunting Lila on August 4th, I’m giving away two signed copies!

If you’d like a chance to win one of them you can enter the competition here

Sx

The best thing about being an author, aside from the stupendousness of knowing that my ‘job’ requires me to plug myself into my imagination on a daily basis, stare vacantly into space, check out hot models on the internet and watch Buffy and Gossip Girl for um, research purposes, is obviously, the free books.

A year ago I met my editor and the team at Simon & Schuster for the very first time. I went with my agent to their office in London and the second I walked through the door my legs almost went from under me. Shaking hands, trembling stomach as butterflies started flurrying, it was like love at first sight.

I suddenly knew how Charlie felt when he stepped inside Willy Wonka’s chocolate factory. The place was literally held up … Read More »

I have a book coming out in January 2012 called Fated. Here’s the blurb.

What happens when you discover you aren’t who you thought you were? And that the person you love is the person who will betray you? If your fate is already determined, can you fight it?

When Evie Tremain discovers that she’s the last in a long line of Demon slayers and that she’s being hunted by an elite band of assassins –Shapeshifters, Vampires and Mixen demons amongst them – she knows she can’t run. They’ll find her wherever she goes. Instead she must learn to stand and fight.

But when the half-human, half-Shadow Warrior Lucas Gray – is sent to spy on Evie and then ordered to kill her before she can fulfil a dangerous prophecy, their fates become inextricably linked. The war that has raged for one thousand … Read More »

A couple of weeks ago I was sent the first proof of the cover for Hunting Lila.

My immediate reaction was to leap squealing from my seat. I loved it. I loved the sense of action and excitement conveyed, because the book is no mistakes a thriller – a paranormal thriller – but a thriller all the same, with murder, intrigue, plotting and enormous sexual tension to boot.

I wasn’t so sure about the shoes though at first – and as a friend on facebook pointed out – she’s not going to be able to run very far from the truth in them heels. The cover is actually a scene from the book – the crux scene where Lila discovers something awful about herself and the people she loves – and has to suddenly flee. And she is wearing a blue … Read More »