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Hi <<First Name>>,
Welcome to the November issue of Girl, Interrupting.
First, a quick note: I’ll be at WriteIdea Festival this month so do come and see me if you’re in London. (Free event, Sat 16th, 2.30pm, Idea Store Whitechapel.)
I’ve spent the last month hunkered down at home working towards the deadline for my next book (two weeks to go now… eeek). I did manage to fit in a research trip to London during which I spent a couple of days at Inner London Crown Court which I'm using as a location in the next novel.
I had a meeting with the barrister who served as an informal consultant on Take It Back and roped him into helping me with the next one. I also spent an afternoon at Harrow School as the next novel is set in a similarly elite boarding school. I have to say, it was a bit like stepping into a wonderland (Harrow currently has a Matisse in its school gallery(!) along with three Constables). The tour gave me a lot to go on.
Other than that, there have been small bits of press for Take It Back: interviews with Freedom and The New Arab; reviews in The Asian Review of Books and The Desi Woman Podcast (at 41m) and a short piece in The London Planner.
That pretty much sums up my month. Let’s get on to the November issue!
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Kindle Monthly Deal: £1.99
Amazon has chosen Take It Back for its November Kindle Monthly Deal. This means that it will be the teeny tiny price of £1.99 for the course of the month. If you haven’t yet bought a copy, now is the time!
If you have bought a copy, then please leave a review, even if it’s just a line or two. Amazon’s algorithm takes into account recent activity on a book, so new reviews are incredibly valuable.
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Gone girl: leaving the city of my seven siblings
November blog post
I am one of eight siblings – a fact I often use to explain away a range of flaws. For example, I don’t like sharing food. “Shall we get one of each and share?” is anathema to me. Tapas and mezes are tasty but after a childhood of splitting things into eight tiny portions, I will always prefer my own plate of food. I’m also deeply competitive and over-organised, two byproducts of a loud and lively home in which attention and structure were scarce.
Aside from my flaws, I also use my siblings as a shorthand for describing where I came from in terms of class. For better or worse, people make assumptions about large families (often poor, often disadvantaged). In my case those assumptions are true and saying that I have seven siblings seems an easier way to explain this than talking about period poverty for example.
Read the full post…
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What I'm currently...
Reading: I read Everything I Never Told You, the blockbuster debut by Celeste Ng. I didn’t love it as much as I loved her second novel Little Fires Everywhere (which was utterly sublime), but as debuts go, it’s pretty bloody marvellous. Celeste Ng has become one of those writers whose next book I’ll buy without even reading the back. I’m not sure I can give an author higher praise than that.
I also read If This Is A Man, Primo Levi’s seminal Holocaust memoir. I approached it warily, expecting it to be dense and cerebral, but Levi’s style is surprisingly accessible. He breaks down the horror of life in a concentration camp with astounding emotional restraint and a deeply affecting clarity that will stay with me for a long time. The critics are right: this is one of the most important books of its century.
Writing: Nothing other than the next book given that my deadline of 15th November is looming!
Worried about: My next dental appointment (scheduled the day before my deadline no less). I mentioned in the September issue that I'm having some treatment. It's ongoing and not exactly fun.
Trying not to get angry about: The fact that UK presenter Samira Ahmed has had to take the BBC to court over a “600% pay gap” between her and Jeremy Vine who fronts a comparable programme.
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Slayer
A short profile of a woman of colour who isn't taking prisoners
This month’s slayer is author and activist Winnie M Li.
I first mentioned Winnie in the June issue of Girl, Interrupting, specifically her novel Dark Chapter which presents a fictionalised account of her own rape at the hands of a 15-year-old boy.
I heard Winnie speak at Primadonna Festival where she had several people in floods of tears. I was lucky enough to meet her afterwards (and share a late night Nando’s with her) and found her to be incredibly smart and forthright.
As a novelist, she has won The Guardian’s Not The Booker Prize 2017, been nominated for the Edgar Award in the US for Best First Novel and shortlisted for The Author’s Club Best First Novel Award. Dark Chapter has been translated into 12 languages across six countries and been optioned for film and TV.
As an activist, Winnie runs Clear Lines Festival, the UK’s first-ever festival addressing sexual assault and consent through the arts and discussion. Winnie also maintains ongoing engagement with the media on issues around sexual assault.
Visit Winnie's website or follow her on Twitter and Instagram.
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In my Pocket
Five articles I saved to Pocket this month
I’ll be back in touch on 1st December. As ever, if you have friends who would enjoy Girl, Interrupting, please forward this email to them and tell them to sign up.
Kia x
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