every day should be a susie day

… but the adults are useless!  This was the view from the author seats of the Kids’ Lit Quiz UK final in Oxford, where we all sadly realised that we might write children’s books, but we’ve forgotten about all the ones we’ve read.  The terrifyingly brainy teams had no such trouble – and for their pains got to hear a sneaky snippet from Charlie Higson’s next Young Bond book, courtesy of his chum Harry Enfield (who then ate it, as befitted a top secret document).  Huge props to Wheatley Park School for taking first place in such a closely-fought contest (and a special hello to Iona, Varshini, Skye and Flora from Mary Erskine in Edinburgh: well done, girls!).

Now to see if I can come up with a sensible reason to be in Edinburgh in August, when the World Final takes place…

  Peter Pan. For Very Important Reasons which will all be revealed.  (Unless I cut that bit out, in which case they won’t, and you’ll be left wondering what on earth I was on about. No change there then.)

  I’m not far off one third of the way through The Hilarious But Untitled Time-Travelling Teenage Adventures of A Girl Who Is Currently Called Poppy, Although That Might Change Too, You Never Can Tell With Time-Travel.  Woo!

Finally working out why this site was down all last week (oops) and plotting a revamp (ooer); becoming worryingly obsessed with Co-Op’s Wensleydale with cranberries; losing all my gym motivation – I think it’s wedged somewhere under my big, warm, cosy bed?

How lucky am I?  Not only do I get to write books about cake, but this week I got to have afternoon tea with one of the people who reads them!   The utterly lovely Paige won the Mizz magazine ‘Tea with Susie’ star prize, and she and her family joined me and a few of the divine Scholastic ladies at the Wallace Collection in London.  Much tea, cake, book-talk and giggling was had – not to mention cartwheels in the sunshine (confession: I left that bit to Paige).  Keep up the dancing, Paige, and I hope you’re all having a lovely summer holiday this week!

  Judy Blume, Meg Cabot, and, um, Margery Allingham.  Plus Justine Larbalastier’s original version of this blog post, expressing her frustration at Bloomsbury’s choice of a shockingly disingenous cover for her YA novel Liar.  I’m thrilled to see that sanity has prevailed – and have the utmost respect for her courage in speaking out.

  Ooh!  Aah!  I shall have to be infuriatingly vague (since at the moment it’s still at the back-of-an-envelope stage and I haven’t even decided on the main character’s name yet), but I’m about to start my next book.  (Well, I’m about to go on holiday and do no work on it at all, actually – but after that, workiness will ensue, I promise.)  For the ultra-curious: think Groundhog Year.  Hmm… *plots*

  Frolicking around the Tower of London; building slightly less impressive towers for baby M to knock over; having pretty pictures taken for the My Invisible Boyfriend jacket by my super-talented friend Justa Mili; practising putting up my tent!

In honour of Heidi’s imaginary boyfriend in GIRL MEETS CAKE, here’s a challenge for you: why not make your own yummy gingerbread boyfriend? (Or girlfriend, or entirely platonic buddy who you might have a bit of a crush on…) Bake yourself a boy, decorate him in suitably delicious fashion, and send me a photo of the results – I’ll be putting up a gallery of your tastiest creations! Personally, I’m planning to make a Gingerbread Avon at my Publication Day tea party this weekend. Silver balls and black food colouring at the ready! Although now I think of it, a gingerbread Tenth Doctor might be quite cute…

Here’s my favourite Gingerbread Men recipe to get you started: they’re soft and bready, so cook them for a few extra minutes if you like them super-crunchy!

125g butter
100g brown sugar
125ml (half a cup) golden syrup (or half syrup, half black treacle)
1 egg yolk
375g plain flour
1-2 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp mixed spice
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda

Also needed: gingerbread man cookie cutter (or other shapes), rolling pin (I use a wine bottle!), baking sheets, wire rack for cooling – and whatever you’d like to use for decoration: icing, chocolate buttons, etc

• preheat the oven to 180°C/350°F
• beat butter and sugar together until pale and creamy
• add the syrup and the egg yolk, and beat together
• with a wooden spoon, stir in the flour, ginger, spice, and bicarb: then turn it onto a floured surface and knead until smooth
• roll out until about 7mm thick, then place on a greased baking tray
• cook for 7 minutes for soft gingerbread men, 10 minutes for dunk-them-in-tea-or-they’ll-break-your-teeth ones
• cool on a wire rack
• decorate! and don’t forget to snap a photo before he disappears! Email your photos to me here: susie at susieday.com

   I’m actually re-reading Virginia Woolf’s Orlando at the moment, which is covered in my studenty scribbles – but I didn’t get the chance to babble about MG Harris’ second Joshua Files book Ice Shock when I read the proof, and now it’s out! If you’ve been blinded by a neon yellow book cover lately, that’ll be the one – and the inside is every bit as striking. The first book, Invisible City, threw Josh into some uncomfy situations, but this time the sense of peril is relentless. After some very hairy moments locked in a cellar, Josh ends up hiding out back in Mexico with the magnificently unimpressable Ixchel, where he discovers that he might not just be in danger from the present, but the past as well. From night-time pursuits through freezing Oxford rivers to Lara Croft-style rock-hopping in a Mayan temple, all the way to the heartstopping ‘ice shock’ at the end, this is a top-notch thriller that is absolutely impossible to put down. Loved it!

Girl Meets Cake is officially out on Monday, wheee! So I’ve been rather busy giving susieday.com a cakey makeover (look! innit pretty!), and adding some new stuff for you lovely readery people. You’ll also see interviews with me popping up on a few YA sites soon (or you will, if I can whittle my answer to ‘What is your favourite cake?’ down to just the one paragraph). And in the meantime, I’m feeling increasingly gleeful about New Book, which is still just some ideas on a few bits of paper, but, you know, I think they might be good ideas…

watching Blake’s 7 (only the final episode to go, oh no!); inventing a new sandwich by accident (blue cheese on a cinnamon raisin bagel: somehow both disgusting and nice at the same time); loving In Bruges much more than I expected, and hating Watchmen much more than I expected; missing people who are far away.

I mentioned I was scrabbling around for a suitable ‘work-in-progress’ title for my next book, and now, alas, I seem to have one – although The Book That Someone Else Has Just Written And Will Be Published Next Year Sometime, Thus Making Your Effort A Bit Pointless might be more accurate.  Catchy, eh?  Yep, the one thing that can absolutely scupper a book has happened: someone else has got there first.

But if I can ignore the petrol-flavoured grey Slush Puppie currently dribbled all over Oxford’s pavements because it was lovely pristine crunchy white snow before that, I can continue to look on the bright side:

•  presumably it was quite a good idea for a book, then
• I’ve found out now (at the outline stage), not 50,000 words too late
• I get to read it, without the tiresome inconvenience of writing it first (and I don’t even know how this one ends!)
• tomorrow, I’m going to eat some cake while thinking up some daft new idea to play with

Anyone wishing to contribute an inspirational random word (or cake) to facilitate the latter activity, please comment away.  Otherwise I might run with the female Mexican wrestling team who are actually undercover teenage spies.  In space.  I’m fairly sure no one’s written that one yet.

  I’m adoring and envying The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman, to the point where I hardly dare pick it up again in case I accidentally finish it, and then it’ll be over.  Spooky, and funny, with a keen child’s-eye view for the peculiarities of the adult world (whether it’s peopled by the living or the dead).  And it just won the Newbery.  See, everyone else thinks you should read it too.  Go on, go on, go on…

  So, undercover wrestlers in space, right?  Meanwhile, Girl Meets Cake is still coming out in the UK in April, and apparently my US publishers are plotting… something. I like it when they do that.

  Devouring S1 of The Wire, which is every bit as remarkable as everyone has told you (grown-ups only, sorry); enjoying Slumdog Millionaire (though the first half is the best bit); perfecting my linguine gamberi; entertaining Extra Small Person and his lovely mummy, who should come back soon for more Pad Thai and learning how to roll over.

Surefire way to avoid the post-Christmas blues: go on holiday. OK, so the part where it was -7°C wasn't entirely part of the plan, but Paris in the snow turns out to be absurdly lovely. And it gives one an excellent excuse to drink the utterly decadent hot chocolate at Angelina while thawing...

  Georgette Heyer, wheeee! And Russell T. Davies' A Writer's Tale, which (being about both writing and Doctor Who) was clearly cooked up in the 'things which exist purely to please Susie' cauldron. TARDISes aside, Davies has been responsible for some of the most cheerfully thought-provoking telly of the last 10 years – and he's every bit as entertaining and insightful on the page as you'd hope. I'm finding his reluctant commitment to prevarication until utter terror forces him to start working deeply reassuring, though he's emphatically wary about assuming any writer's method as a template. Always have an ending in mind! Only write in the mornings! In pencil, on the backs of envelopes, while drinking nothing but squid ink! He's right: we all want to have our hands held, to believe there's a secret trick to it, but sometimes the best advice really is to ignore whatever anyone tells you and just get on with it. Though of course you'll have to take my word for that...

  Next Book* is at the vertiginous decision-making stage. There are so many ways to write this story: whether it works depends entirely on me picking the right one. Actually, that's rubbish. No decisions are final: sometimes you have to write it 'wrong' before you can see how to write it 'right'. (If you're me, anyway.) It does help if you can spot the 'right' early on, though: Girl Meets Cake got to 55,000 words of Mostly Wrong, which was a bit wearing to sort out. Speaking of which: look! OK, so you still can't have it until April – but magnificent cover, no?

* Next Book (ie not the Next Book for you lot, the one I haven't written yet but hopefully might come out in 2010) needs a 'Biscuits & Lies'-style working title.  It's got a working working title, but that tells you the whole plot in one go, so we can't have that.  Hmm...bear with me?

  Drinking gallons of tea from my Christmas Blake's 7 mug; seeing in the New Year with Spaniards and grapes (twelve of 'em); pondering the many ways in which The Other Boleyn Girl is terrible; plotting a Prisoner marathon in honour of the *sniffles* late, great McGoohan.