About the Author – My Crazy Unorthodox Life!

Continuing my trio of blog posts this afternoon (see The Author Package, and My Writer Package!) I’ve decided to answer the Apprentice Candidate question, and hopefully also add to my personal ‘Author Package’, by telling you about my crazy, somewhat unorthodox life.

Torres del Paine, Patagonia, Chile at sunrise

 I think the key thing about my life is that I’ve never seen boundaries in the same way other people do.  Running a marathon in another country isn’t a life-long pursuit for me, it’s something I’ll sign up to four weeks beforehand.  I spend my life writing emails, searching out opportunities, taking chances, and generally trying to fill my life with as much excitement as possible.

On the inside of my left wrist I have a tattoo of two words – Carpe Diem.  As a child ‘Dead Poet’s Society’ was my favourite film, and it’s a motto that I’ve tried to apply to my life every single day.  ‘Seize the Day’ insists the Latin translation, and to be honest, I’m one of those people who when I don’t seize it, and look back on what I consider a ‘wasted’ day, I get rather frustrated!

My ACTUAL real wrist! How’s that for sharing? 😉 

I was orphaned at nineteen, which definitely had a profound effect on my attitude to life, however I maintain that deep down I’ve always been this person, the situation with my parents simply amplified this attitude of mine. At primary school I was an over-achiever.  Too young to really understand it, I constantly demanded my teachers attention, resulting in a host of awards and prizes, but rather unflattering school reports like ‘Charlotte needs to learn she’s not the only pebble on the beach!’

Hmm … well, I’m pretty sure I’ve learnt that now, though I’d probably suggest my pebble looks rather different to the norm!

At secondary school I was an all-rounder.  I was still academic, scoring straight As and A*s throughout school, but for me life wasn’t just about studying.  I played various sports, for the school and for the county, won a coveted role as a DJ on a children-run radio station, presenting the Breakfast show, and was sent to Japan to represent Great Britain in an International Schools Forum.  I was chief prosecutor in the county Mock Trial competition, Prime Minister in Youth Parliament and a Millennium Volunteer.  Outside of school I volunteered as a helper with Beaver Scouts, Brownies, Cubs and Guides (organisations I still volunteer with, 15 years on).

I did my Gold Duke of Edinburgh climbing Mt Kilimanjaro, my Queen’s Scout in the Swiss Alps, and saved up for two years to do a World Challenge across Venezuela.  My parents weren’t wealthy at all, and my Dad was often out of work caring for my Mum, who was ill throughout my time at secondary school, so I did a series of part-time jobs, from as young as 13.  I always had an expedition or a trip to be saving for, and so I worked working as a waitress, bowling alley lane host, a children’s entertainer, and then a lifeguard.

Looking back, I was the kind of child who would probably annoy even me now!  I know one close friend of mine, who if they saw 16 year old me, would describe me as ‘that kind of girl!’ with a disparaging roll of the eye!  But all those things were character building, and the more I did, the more I wanted to do.

At nineteen, on my gap year, I took a job teaching English in the middle of nowhere in China.  At a time when the internet was a lot more dubious, I received a random email asking if I was still looking for a teaching job in China, having been turned down by a number of major schools and universities for being too young and inexperienced.  Huaihua College simply asked if I could speak English!  And so, with that requirement fulfilled, I set off for China with my best friend at the time.  We literally weren’t even sure anyone would meet us at Beijing Airport, and had agreed that if that was the case, we’d do two weeks in the capital and then just fly back home.  Someone did meet us, and we took a 27 hour journey to the middle of nowhere.  Huaihua had a population of hundreds of thousands, and yet together with a Canadian girl who was teaching in a local middle school, myself and my friend were two of only three white people in the entire city!  We were literally treated like film stars every time we walked down the street!  I taught in China for six months, before returning to England to take up my studies at Cambridge.

Receiving my Cosmopolitan ‘Fun Fearless Female’ Ultimate Family Girl Award in 2008 from Matt Di Angelo and Gethin Jones

(I didn’t realise I’d won so literally got ready 5 minutes beforehand!)

It was at the end of my first term at Cambridge when I became orphaned.  I lost both of my parents to cancer in 2003, literally starting the year with two ‘healthy’ parents, and ending it with neither of them.  As the oldest sibling, with very little extended family, responsibility fell on me to make funeral arrangements, sell our family home, and see that my younger sister was looked after properly.  Once all the admin had been done, I fell apart.  For about a term I was unrecognisable.  Lazy and uninspired, I had hit rock bottom.  And that was when I remember thinking, ‘are you honestly going to let this take you too?’.  My sister had lost a mother and a father.  It wasn’t right to throw away her sister too.  I ought to be the person my parents had brought me up to be.  The daughter they had known.  And so I guess I got myself back, but in overdrive.

As a child I had become interested in cricket.  At the time it was a sport very few women played, let alone girls, and when the local women’s team was ill-equipped to take on a nine year-old beginner, my Dad became heavily involved in the sport, so as to facilitate me playing.  He took coaching, umpiring and scoring courses, and set up clubs and even county teams simply so that girls my age could play the sport.  I had actually given up cricket at 15, discovering boys and part-time jobs, and other teenage distractions, but Dad’s death kick-started something in me, and I returned to the sport.  I trialed for the Cambridge team in my first year, becoming the only Fresher to play at the Varsity Match at Lord’s that year.  In my second year I became Vice-Captain, and in my third year, I retired from the sport after captaining Cambridge against Oxford at Lord’s, and changing the status of the women’s sport to Full Blue – a huge achievement at the time.

During my time at Cambridge I also became heavily involved in a number of other extra-curricular activities (often to the displeasure of my Director of Studies!).  I ski-raced for the University on dry slopes and snow, edited both my College Magazine, and the Cambridge University Law Review, ran the Paris Marathon, and after two years on the Ospreys Committee for University Sportswomen, held the coveted position of Ospreys President.  I was heavily involved in the Cambridge ‘Drinking Society’ scene (something similar to sororities and fraternities), despite ironically only ever drinking Diet Coke on nights out, and I was President of my College May Ball Committee – a two year position which saw me in charge of a £140,000 budget. I literally crammed my university experience with as much as I possibly could.

My aim was to have the most all-rounded experience I could, something probably best demonstrated in my first year when I took on the role of mascot for the college rugby team, and happily danced around the rugby pitch perimeter in a fluffy cat suit.  For me, university wasn’t just about grades, it was about seizing life and making the most of experiences, and in my four years at Cambridge, my time definitely wasn’t without those things.

Despite my extra-curricular distractions, and probably much to the surprise of my Director of Studies!, I graduated Cambridge with a good degree in Law.  At the time, Oxbridge graduates were being snapped up by Magic Circle Solicitor firms, however behind a desk was not how I saw myself.  The only thing that had every really appealed about the firms was their international offices, and the opportunity to travel, however this was something I now understood I could achieve without a legal job. Inspired by the Children’s TV Show Blue Peter, I decided to pursue a Masters in Broadcast Journalism at University of Westminster.

If I’m honest, the step away from the stringent requirements and administration at Cambridge made me rather carefree, and I found myself literally doing enough to get by in my course, whilst taking every opportunity to travel.  I designed projects for myself which took me to South Africa to report on AIDS orphans, and then to the Philippines to make a documentary about the recent murders of journalists on the island of Mindanao.

I also started my own YouTube Channel, called ‘Challenge Charly’, where I filmed myself doing a series of endurance and extreme sport challenges in Britain and around the world. During my Masters, I climbed to Everest Base Camp, ran the Rome Marathon, did a 42 mile hike in a day, a 100 mile cycle ride in a Day, the London to Brighton cycle ride, visited the jungles of Borneo, learnt to wake board, ice-climb, sail a yacht and fly a plane.  I did air acrobatics, a bushcraft course, several adventure races in the British Isles, and my Advanced Open Water scuba dive course.  I did the Three Peaks Challenge as part of my Queen’s Guide Award, cycled across Cambodia, and ran around London in a gorilla suit for charity.

Basically I spent the inheritance I received from selling our family home to have as many exciting experiences as I possibly could, and documented them all on video.

Inspired by the things I achieved during my Masters, I then decided to carry on traveling after my second graduation.  I fulfilled a life-long dream and booked a ‘Round The World’ plane ticket, to take me to Australia, New Zealand, Fiji and South and Central America.

My first sky dive – Mission Beach, Queensland, Australia

On my own, I spent two months in Australia, doing everything from volunteering on a Scout Camp, to scuba diving on the Great Barrier Reef and doing my first sky dive.  In New Zealand I hiked glaciers, faced my fear of heights doing a bungee jump, and read the Twilight series in four days.  It was actually getting so excited by a series of books which inspired me to put pen to paper and begin to write some of the stories I’d had in my head for years.

I spent eight months traveling from Patagonia up to Canada all by my self, and in that time I did some weird and wonderful stuff.  I worked for a month for board and lodging as a groom on a polo farm in Argentina, with about ten words of Spanish to my name!  I climbed Mt Aconcagua (the highest mountain in South America) all by myself – a foolish, foolish move! – and lived with people I met at bustops!  I took 28 hour after 28 hour-long overnight bus journeys and met some incredible people.  I did the Inca Trail, and the Lost City jungle trek, sailed from Colombia to Panama, and did every adventurous activity I had the chance to try along the way.  In Honduras I stopped on Utila, in the Bay Islands, and completed my PADI Rescue Diver.

And then, when I finally came home, a year later, I decided I needed to go away again, and just two weeks later headed to the ski resort of Whistler, Canada, to find a job to begin repaying all the debt I’d wracked up travelling!

Whistler ended up being my base for a year and a half.

I did two ski seasons there, qualifying as both a ski and snowboard instructor during that time, and I used the shoulder seasons (Spring and Autumn) to travel, completing my Dive Master and First Aid Instructor courses back on the island of Utila in Honduras. I came home two months ago, which I guess brings you up to where I am now. I guess the thing about me, is I’ve never seen the world in quite the same way other people do.  I see it as a playing field.  A place for adventures – ours for the taking.  And nothing will stand in my way to have those adventures (whether it’s my bank balance – hence the heaps of debt I then had to pay off!!!! or people’s assumptions of the ‘right career path.’)

Ok, so I have a Law Degree from Cambridge, but that doesn’t necessarily mean I have to be a lawyer.  I know it’s often frowned upon to jump off the bandwagon (trust me I’ve had some interesting comments from peers along the way!) but I just think your life is WHAT YOU MAKE OF IT! And the more I’ve achieved, the more I’ve done … the more I’ve wanted to do.

Anyone regularly reading this blog will know the past two months have been my idea of Hell.  I’ve been sitting around with nothing to do, waiting for a start date on a job.  I live my life for adventures and my list gets ever longer. I think that’s why I originally wanted to be a Blue Peter presenter.  They seemed to have the ideal job – trying every activity and going to every place imaginable – but then I realised those were things I could do alone.  Whilst obviously being a TV presenter is a career where you could do all those things and still be ‘working’, I realised that writing is also a job you can do ‘on the go’.   And that actually, all of this life experience – all of my strange and wacky work experience, and all the people I’ve met along the way, can actually be of use to me in my future career.

Because writing is about understanding.  Understanding people and understanding experiences.  Not everyone is going to run a marathon in their life, or hike up to the top of Mt.  Kilimanjaro, but as an author who HAS done those things, I can relive them for people.  I can help people have those experiences in their minds, and possibly even inspire them to go out and try some of the weird and wonderful things I’ve done – the initial reason for creating Challenge Charly.

I’m sorry this has turned out to be such a long blog post.  It’s not meant to be a CV, or a ‘wow aren’t I amazing’ piece, I’m just trying to explain why I maybe think slightly differently to your average writer, and why I’m so passionate about writing and travelling, and inspiring others.  It’s one of the reasons I most enjoy writing for a teenage audience, because they, in particular, are the ones deciding exactly what they want from life.

Your life is what you make of it!  And I really hope my life story is reams and reams longer than these couple of thousand words.  I hope I have many adventures left ahead of me, and I really hope that I’m writing along the way, and that one day I have the opportunity to share those adventures with thousands of people and hopefully inspire them to try something they currently see as outside the barriers of their own life.

Test the barriers.  Push them.  You’re the only one who put them there!

C-C xxx

Inspired ….

A number of your comments on this blog have thanked me for ‘inspiring’ you.

Which is lovely … and something I’m extremely proud of.

However, I have to admit to feeling increasingly uninspired in recent months.

Just to recap my situation for those of you who haven’t read my entire blog … I’m a 27 year-old Cambridge law graduate.  I passed up a career in law for a Masters in Broadcast Journalism, and then disappeared off around the world on a rather extended second gap ‘year’.  Two and a bit years later, and I’ve written three novels, got myself an agent … but am still not published.

Of my two and a half years away, I spent a year travelling across Australasia and South and Central America, all by myself, before installing myself in Whistler, Canada, where I have worked as a live-in and live-out nanny.

But that time is coming to an end … fast!

My plane ticket home is booked for April 27th, and whilst I’ve had an agent for over a year, getting signed to PFD feels like my last tangible writing achievement.  I finished my first novel Flicker almost two years ago.  I know it’s a slow process, and those two years haven’t been without major developments, but still … I’m a month from going home, and if I’m honest I guess I’d always imagined returning home with my first book deal firmly under my belt.

Flicker was sent to publishers last November.  And over half are yet to reply.  Whilst all of the rejections I’ve received so far, have been rather positive and encouraging … they were still rejections.  And I’m not feeling overly heartened by the fact that the other six publishers are in no rush to respond …

My second book, The Dream Navigator, will be sent to publishers in the next few days, but it’s hard not to feel despondent. after getting my hopes up when I heard Flicker was finally being sent off.

So … I’m returning home unsigned.  And unemployed!

Uninspired.

I’ve spent the past few weeks, wincing at job pages.  Trying to find a day job that inspires me, recognises my academic background, but that forgives my lack of professional expertise.  Easier said than done … And while I may have been happy working as a nanny on the other side of the world, being back home and babysitting for a living seems like selling myself short.

So there I was … uninspired, and panicking that my dreams of becoming a writer are all for nothing … Worrying that my only chance to make it as a writer involves making coffee for editors, and working eighty hour weeks for literally nothing … (more on that later!).

The problem with my background is that writing isn’t my only option.  Every now and again the sensible voice inside me reminds me that I don’t have to completely turn my back on my academic background … that the Magic Circle Law firms are still there, and that I have the gift of the gab to glaze over my four year ‘sabbatical’ ….

But I don’t want to be a lawyer!  I dismissed that career years ago … and found a vocation that I love … and truly believe I can succeed in.

I just have to keep working at it.  Like all of you, who have read my blog … I’m almost there … but not quite.  And I need to believe in myself to continue  on that path.

Where did my inspiration come from?  What was it that made me realise I’m not ready to give up on my dream just yet, and that just because I’m leaving the protective bubble of my gap year, and returning back into the harsh light of my ‘real world’, doesn’t mean I have to abandon the thing I’ve spent the past two years working towards?

Last night I watched the Adjustment Bureau.  Easily the best film I’ve watched since Inception.  I love films that make me think, and stretch my imagination.  Partly because that’s the kind of fiction I like to write.  And partly because I just love stories.  Stories are my life.  Whether books, movies, or trashy American TV … I love stories!  And as I sat in the cinema last night, watching an amazingly well-told and thought-provoking story, and at the same time watching the rest of the audience enjoying that story … I was inspired.  I wanted my stories to touch people like that!  I want to sit in a cinema, and know the story inspiring and captivating every member of the audience, started in my head!

I want to share stories with the world!  I like to write … whether fiction or non-fiction, a journal, a blog, a news article  … but it’s the stories that are my passion.  And I want to dedicate my life to telling those stories …  In novels, and screenplays … and maybe even in good old trashy American TV!

Nut the Adjustment Bureau inspired me for another reason.  The film focusses on the idea of destiny, and having a pre-ordained path in life.  And it’s message is a positive one of taking hold of your own life, and determining your own destiny with your own actions.  Truly writing your own story.

What better message for uninspired me, than to be told to take the reigns of my life, and make things happen?

Ok, so Flicker has been at publishers for a few months …  Who cares? It’s my first novel!  And not only did it get me signed to an agent, but she thought it was good enough to submit to some of the world’s biggest publishers!  And in not one of my rejection letters, did those publishers question why Lucy thought it good enough to send to them!

I’m 27 years young … as I observed in The Life/Writing Balance most authors are in their mid-thirties when they write their first novels.  The past two years haven’t been my writing career … they have been my first steps on a path which will hopefully last my entire life.  And I shouldn’t abandon that path just because the first steps are turning out to be a little tougher, or longer than my impatient excitement can handle!

So I am writing my own story, and determining my own destiny … by believing and investing in my ability.

I go home in a month’s time.  But that isn’t the end of my dream.  It’s the start of a new chapter.  Where to next?  Well I’m thinking a screen-writing course in the States so that I can turn My Ten Future Lives into a screenplay …  and hopefully one day sit in a cinema, and stare up at my own story.  And more importantly, stare around at the people touched and moved by that story!

C-C xx

 

 

 

The Life / Writing Balance

In my recent post ‘The Writers’ Network’ I explained how blogging can provide a new social network for writers.

Interestingly some of the comments on the post extended this new society to an actual social life.  As if talking to other writers online is the closest thing a writer might have to a life of her own.

The idea of a writer not having a real life of her own angers me.  As I explained in ‘Writing from the Heart’, it’s important to know and understand the things you write about.  So how can a writer convincingly write about the exciting lives of her characters, if she herself lives a rather mundane existence?

For me, becoming a good writer has meant understanding people.  And that involves communicating with, and engaging with, people from all different backgrounds and in all different situations.  In order to have the imagination to create a full range of characters, and empathise properly with those characters, I feel like I need to truly understand the world around me.  As a result I often feel like I’ve lived a hundred lives.  I’ve tried anything and everything … possibly one of the reasons why I’ve adapted so well going from Cambridge Law student to professional babysitter! Every adventure is two-fold.  Not only is it interesting and exciting for me as an individual, it’s also useful for me as a writer.  I’ve stood on both sides of the fence – the served and the server –  and as a result I understand life ‘upstairs’ and ‘downstairs’.

I’ve noticed that a lot of people write their first novel in their mid-thirties.  However I was 25 when I finally committed Flicker to paper, and I think the reason I did so at such a relatively young age, is because I feel I’ve had more than enough life experience.  The adventurous and constantly-changing way in which I live my life has equipped me with the knowledge and empathy to write from various different perspectives on a number of different subjects, which has proved particularly useful, particularly where books like ‘My Ten Future Lives’ where the characters’ situations change with every chapter.

In my opinion the traditional image of an author as a loner, trapped in a room, able only to socialise through her pen is out-dated and unrealistic.  Just because I can write, shouldn’t mean I can’t talk to people … and vice versa.

Personally I like to think of myself as a rather bubbly and sociable person, who also enjoys writing, and I hope that this personality shades my writing rather than hampering it.

The idea of the loner writer is a rather romantic one.  As if she puts her all into the book and has no time for a life of her own.  However, it is more than possible to have a life, and dedicate your time and energy to writing a book … it’s simply a question of understanding your writing.

As I explained in ‘The Author, The Journalist and The Blogger’, everyone writes differently depending on the nature of the task.  I also find that within each ‘discipline’ of writing, I work differently according to the task.

Take, for example, the administrative side of writing a novel.  As I will explain in more detail in a later post, it’s important as an author to present your work in a user-friendly manner.  And this involves headers, footers and page-numbers.  Compare this side of writing to expertly selecting the perfect words for the opening paragraph of your novel, and you can hopefully understand the different mental demands of various tasks.  Labeling my pages uses 2% of my brain power … finding the perfect words, maybe 92%.  And then there’s re-reading and editing.  The more often you have revised a piece of work, the less attention you need to pay it.

And so, with this all in mind … it’s actually possible to be rather sociable, and still find time to write!

When I’m writing prose, I know I need to be alone … whether that privacy is offered by four walls, or simply by my laptop headphones.  Similarly, I need to have relative focus when it comes to my initial edits.  I’ll perhaps play music I know well, or a tv show I’m not captivated with in the background.

But in the later edits, where I’m simply skim-reading for mistakes or repetition, and when it comes to numbering my pages and making everything look neat and tidy, I don’t need anywhere near my full attention on my computer.  And so these activities don’t require me to be a ‘loner’.  In the same way that I’m sitting writing this blog post whilst half-watching a movie with my boyfriend, and contributing (all but half-heartedly) to a conversation with him and one of our friends, a lot of writing tasks don’t require my full attention, and so I have adapted my life to include ‘laptop’ moments.

It’s not gospel, and probably wouldn’t work for everyone, but knowing when I can fulfil tasks in a sociable manner definitely helps me feel a lot less like a loner writer.

Finally, the other thing which keeps me sane is knowing when NOT to write.  As I mentioned in The Writers’ Network, I’m between books.  And three novels into my writing career, I understand my habits well enough to know that I need to take a decent break in between projects.  I need to switch character perspectives, in order to write convincingly from that new point of view … and whilst I’m not exactly lazy during the gaps (as perhaps best evidenced by this blog!!) I definitely take a proper break.  Which leaves more time for that life part of the life/writing balance …

Two years in, and it seems to be working for me … what about you?  Have you found the perfect balance?  Are your coping methods different to mine?  Or are you the stereotypical loner writer?

As ever … discuss!! That’s the whole point of the blog 🙂 Get social with the rest of the internet’s aspiring authors!

C-C xxx

The Travel(ling) Writer

The problem with starting a blog like this, and being Freshly Pressed on my third blog post, is that I can’t help but feel like I ought to be constantly churning out Class A non-fiction offerings.  And I definitely believe that my skills lie more in fictional works than in poignant social commentary!

The blog was originally planned as a showcase for some of my fiction work, and the ‘So am I an Author yet?!’ article was more of an apology for being brave enough to tag my own name with the word, rather than the start of a detailed blog about writing.

However, a lot of the comments which have appeared on the blog have inspired me to write about other aspects of writing.

One of the things I have been asked about are my inspirations.  As I discussed in Writing from the Heart, in my opinion the best ‘fiction’ is written when you are writing about something which is perhaps closer to your mind than to your heart.  You need to know about the topic, however at the same time, you need to be able to give that topic emotional distance.  I only realised this several months after writing my first draft of Flicker when I had personal closure on some of the events in my own life which had motivated me to write the book. And as a result, I feel the subsequent, rather different, drafts of the book were far stronger.

But finding that line between the things you know and the things you love, and treading it appropriately, can be an artistic tightrope.

Everyone needs inspirations which they are passionate about.

Which brings me on to my ‘safest’ inspiration.  Something which colours almost everything I write, envokes real passion in me, and yet isn’t something I’m emotionally attached to – like a romance or a bereavement.

Travel.

I’ve spoken before about my belief in role models for children.  It was the reason all those years ago why I wanted to become a Blue Peter presenter.

I believe children need to be inspired.  They need to be educated about all the amazing opportunities which the world has to offer, and shown things outside of the box, so that they can set their own perimeters for their own personal box.

As the child of a marriage  founded on travel (my English father met my Romanian mother whilst travelling across Europe) travel and languages played a heavy role in my upbringing, however I always knew that other children might not be as aware of the world around them as I was.

It is for this reason that travel features so heavily in all of my books.

I write for young adults, and I hope that my love for travel might possibly influence my young readers’ futures.

Flicker only came together as a full story when I was backpacking down the East coast of Australia.  The story itself takes place across Australia, New Zealand, and Fiji, with the sequel planned for South America, and future books in North America, Europe and Asia.

The Dream Navigator is set predominantly in Canada, Seattle and Los Angeles.

And even My Ten Future Life touches down in Sydney, Rio, Los Angeles, Texas and New York.

The world is a huge place.  It only seems right to me, to make the stage upon which my characters play out their own personal stories as wide and as exciting as possible.

If I can stage a dramatic showdown on a smoldering volcanic island, or have a chance encounter take place in a backpacker’s hostel on the other side of the world, and in doing so not only enhance the imagery of my story, but also inspire a reader to search out that island or that city, then I feel I’ve fulfilled two childhood dreams.

To be a real author … and to be a role model.

C-C xx

 

 

So am I an Author yet?!

It’s a question which plays on my mind every time I cross an international border …

An act which, the more you read this blog, you’ll understand happens rather a lot in my life!

Admittedly, these days the safest occupation to write on immigration forms seems to be ‘Student’, however every now and again I get the urge to fulfill my childhood dreams, and admit that my current occupation is a ‘Writer’ or even an ‘Author’.

But at what point can I genuinely say I’m a bona-fide author?

What exactly qualifies you to be an author?

Is it simply the act of writing a story?

Because in that case, I checked that box when I was eight years old!

The story was called ‘The Magician’s Mistake’ and was entered for my local village Eisteddfod.  It won second place.  I’m sure I wrote stories before that one, and I know that I won first prizes in later years, however it will always be that story which sticks out in my mind.

But whilst that story might have solidified my love of writing, and even classified me as a ‘writer’ on some level, it definitely didn’t make me an author.

So how about writing my first book?

I wrote my first novel ‘Flicker’ in five months and across ten different countries.  It was an idea which had been in my head for at least three years, but which only properly blossomed into a full story once I had travelled down the east coast of Australia, in December of 2008.  I finally put pen to electronic paper in New Zealand, in February 2009, and  was half a world away, in Ecuador in July 2009, when the story was finished.

I can remember sitting on the back of the buses, typing away for hours, and catching the attention of my fellow travellers.  Frequently they would ask what I was up to, and rather sheepishly I’d reply that I was writing a novel.  The reason I was sheepish was because I knew the question that would inevitably follow.  ‘Oh, so you’re an author?’  Hmm.. Well kind of??? I mean, I was writing a book.  But for all I knew, the only people to ever see that book would be the travellers peering over the bus seats for a glimpse at my glowing laptop screen!  Did that really make me an author?

Even once I had finished ‘Flicker’ and was busy hassling literary agents for the opportunity to be represented, I still didn’t feel like an author.  An ‘unsigned writer’ maybe … but surely writing 180,000 words, and sending out a few speculative emails didn’t warrant that mystical title just yet?

What about when I got an agent?

And so as an ‘unsigned writer’ I began my quest for representation.  I remember reading somewhere that these days, the writer’s search for an agent is akin to a search for a publisher in the old days.

Because these days, very few writers deal directly with the publishers.  And so the quest for an agent is the only time when a writer has to turn into a publicist, marketing herself and her work, so that someone else can take on that role.

In hindsight, my own quest for representation was relatively short and painless.  Admittedly I DID send out a lot of emails, and realise that persistence is definitely a virtue!  But within three months of finishing ‘Flicker’ I had attention from some of Britain’s largest agencies, and on my arrival back to the UK, in November 2009, I signed with Agent ‘S’, at Peters, Fraser & Dunlop.

I had an agent.  So clearly someone believed in me.  Someone believed in my story.

But did that validate me as an author?  Or simply change my status from unrepresented writer to a represented one?

There’s a very big difference between ‘having an agent’ and being represented by one.

And this was something which took me several months to truly understand.

I finished Flicker in July 2009, and was signed to PFD in November 2009.  At this point Flicker was 180,000 words long … warranting my first request from my new agent.

She asked me to cut it in half!

The advice was sensible.  These days teenage fiction is dramatically shorter than the epic later Potter novels.  Publishers ask for first books to be between 70,000 and 90,000 words.  Which meant, having spent five months coming up with 180,000 words … I now needed to cut out at least half of them!

This first edit took me around six weeks.  Aided mainly by my stubborn determination, and by my new job –  I had moved to the Canadian ski resort, Whistler, and had found my niche as a nanny.  Not necessarily a career I had ever seen myself writing on immigration forms (!) but one which allowed me to earn a living in a way which encouraged me to write.  I wasn’t really using my brain during the day, so I thrived at night.

After I edited the length of the novel, ‘S’ then asked me to edit its content.  She provided me with a list of  changes to be made, which took me around another six weeks.

My second, agent-driven, edit.  Completed February 2010.  If I’m honest, at this point  I was beginning to feel a bit like an author.  Someone was reading my work, and giving me feedback on it.  My writing experience was no longer an exclusive relationship between me and my own characters.  Someone else had entered the equation, and as a result, Flicker was transformed.

And then ‘S’ let me down.  Out of nowhere, following the second edit, she told me to give up!

Not writing altogether … but Flicker.

In a total turn-around from her attitude just four months beforehand, ‘S’ told me Flicker wasn’t the book to launch my career, and whilst I shouldn’t doubt my own writing, I ought to start a new project.

Which I did … though somewhat battered and jaded.  I wasn’t an author.  I was a spurned writer, with a newer, more bitter, bit between my teeth.  Because Flicker had been my story.  The book had become my life for a year.  And I had seen the story beyond the first book, and was looking forward to exploring it.

And then a few short weeks later, everything changed.

Peters, Fraser & Dunlop merged with MF Management, and Agent S was one of the casualties of the merger.

I was technically agent-less once again … however, what should have been a disaster actually became a godsend.

My account was transferred to ‘S”s former assistant.  The wonderful Lucy Dundas.

And with my new representation, came a new realization.

I finally discovered what you need in order to FEEL like a bonafide author.

You need someone who is genuinely passionate about your work.

You need a loyal reader!

I think Lucy officially became my new agent six months ago.  And of the past two years, I genuinely feel like those six months have been the most productive.

I have dramatically re-edited Flicker, and Lucy submitted it to thirteen of Britain’s most prolific publishing houses.

I completed  the ‘new project’ Agent S suggested I work on … The Dream Navigator.  And then, with Lucy’s guidance, doubled it in length.  I officially finished the novel last week, and it will hopefully be submitted to publishers in the very near future.

And finally, I experimented with a completely different genre of fiction.  Psychological women’s fiction.  Watch this space to find out where My Ten Future Lives might take me …

Right now, as I sit waiting to hear back from publishers, and crossing fingers and toes that my work might finally be given the opportunity to reach not just tens of readers, but thousands, I genuinely feel like an author.

I live and breathe writing.  All day my mind ticks with stories, and every night, no matter how late I get in, I find the time to commit them to Word documents.

And when I cross a border, or someone asks me casually what I do, I finally feel confident, and legitimate enough, to tell them that I’m an author.

Because I know I have a dedicated readership.

Even if, at present, it only consists of my wonderful agent, and the dear group of friends who willingly read every word I write!

C-C xx

 

Check out some of the blog responses to this blog post HERE!

Where do I start?

Well I guess, seeing as this is an ‘Author Blog’, I probably ought to start by telling you about the author.  About me 🙂

I write under the name C-C Lester, however, rather quickly, with the help of Google, you will realise my name (or the nickname I have always gone by) is Charly.  I’ll tell you later why I go by ‘C-C’ when I write, but for now let’s focus on the more biographical aspects of my life.

Where do I start?  How about with where I started?!

I actually wrote a mock-up ‘About the Author’ to go with my newest book – The Dream Navigator – just a few weeks ago, and it went something like this ….

‘If my Stage formed before the age of fifteen, it would definitely be The Oval cricket ground, back when it was known as the Fosters’ Oval.  My Library would look like the Sherlock Library at Catz.  My Control Room would be the Whistler Roundhouse, on a blue bird afternoon.  And deep within the Safe of my mind, you would find a simple wooden haberdashery basket, just like the one which sat at my side, as I watched TV as a child.  If the segments unfolded, amongst my other talents would be questionable Bikram yoga capabilities, kick-ass liquid eyeliner skills, and the ability to communicate rather vocally in Spanish without being able to use either the past or future tenses!’

Which, in terms of  Dream Navigation, actually tells you virtually everything about me!

However, seeing as The Dream Navigator is still in ‘unpublished, unsigned, final draft mode’ … I guess I ought to also describe myself in layman’s terms!

I’m a twenty-seven year old, female, British author.

My main focus is teenage fantasy fiction.  And I like to think it’s a genre which I address well.  My most recent ‘rejection’, from the very generous Simon Taylor at Transworld Publishers, had only one criticism.  That my writing was ’emphatically on the YA side of the adult/YA divide’.  Something which, whilst obviously very important to him, in my opinion, wasn’t even a criticism, more a recognition of my firm genre!

My path into writing, like most authors’, has been a convoluted one.

I majored in Law at Cambridge, more because it ‘sounded sensible’ than because I wanted to become a lawyer.

Of my chosen subjects, Media Law was the one which most inspired me, and having realised that the odds on becoming a Blue Peter presenter were far better than those on getting a Media law pupillage, I decided to focus on the former as a career option!

In 2008 I completed a Masters Degree in Broadcast Journalism at the University of Westminster.

During my year in London I was offered several opportunities.  I received a Cosmopolitan Woman of the Year Award that winter, and after receiving the award from none other than Gethin Jones, was actually offered work experience at Blue Peter! Unfortunately a TV work experience placement didn’t fit with the priorities of my course (don’t ask!!) and so I was forced to turn the offer down.

I did, however, go on to complete a month of work experience as a child presenter Mentor at Takeover Radio.  The placement was close to my heart, not only because when I was 14 I pioneered Children’s Radio by Children, as the Breakfast Show Host at Kiddz FM, but also because I have very strong views on role models for children, and being an inspiration to younger generations.

During my Masters I also made documentaries in South Africa, on AIDS orphans and the work of South Africans to combat HIV in their communities, and in the Philippines, on the culture of impunity towards the murder of journalists.

I loosely mentioned my Cosmopolitan Award.  The reason I was honoured with this award was because of my personal strength in the face of adversity. When I was 19 years old, I was orphaned.  It’s not a part of my life that I like to dwell on, however, it is a part of my life which has motivated and inspired me.

Losing my parents at such a young age made me realise how important it is to seize the day.  That there are so many opportunities and challenges that the world has to offer, and you only have one life, so you may as well take on those challenges.

The culmination of this attitude, of the tragic events behind it, and of all the things I learnt during my Masters was ‘Challenge Charly’, a YouTube Channel where I filmed myself completing different challenges around the world.  Very much in the style of my wannabe alma mater ‘Blue Peter’, I tried new sports, completed great feats of endurance, raised money for charity, and pushed myself to the limits of my own fears.  I bungee jumped, sky dived, ran marathons, cycled hundreds of miles, and climbed to Everest Base Camp, all in the name of Challenge Charly.

And so, with my MA firmly under my belt, I decided to take a year to travel the world, and expand both Challenge Charly’s, and my own, horizons.

 

 

I travelled to Australasia, and then on to Patagonia.  From the southern-most point of South America, I took eight months travelling all the way up to Los Angeles.  During this time, I spent countless hours on the back of overnight buses, with nothing but my laptop for company.

It was during these lonely, cramped hours, generally on the left-hand side of the rear of the cheapest ‘semi-cama’ (half-bed) buses, that I began to write my first novel Flicker ….

 

C-C xx