May 2013
2 posts
Come see me and other people
So I am no longer slave to office cubicle or, as Douglas Coupland so rightly called it, the veal pen. I am now a full-time writer and freelancer of um…words. Yes, that’s it, Kerry Hudson: Word Freelancer. Catchy right? If only I hadn’t already ordered my business cards which say, enigmatically I like to think, only ‘Kerry Hudson’.
Anyway, as accustomed as I have...
Life, work and running
Life
April was incredible but it almost broke me. After a month of working full-time, including London Marathon my busiest day job event of the year, celebrating the selling of Thirst for a near full week, and shuttling up and down the country attending the Aye Write Festival, Fire Station Bookswap, Polari and two events at Liverpool Literary Festival, I took to my bed for a full day to sleep and...
April 2013
2 posts
Never let it be said I do not milk a celebration
I’m thrilled and delighted and bloody cock-a-hoop generally to say that Chatto and Windus will officially be publishing my second novel, Thirst. I have loved every minute of working with Chatto (and their paperback imprint Vintage) on Tony Hogan so I’m thrilled to do it all over again with my new book.
It seems I was actually doing something apart from cycling on my wee red bike,...
Never mind me what are you all up to?
Me? Working full-time again - on my commute I cocoon myself in a cave of music and dance on train platforms. Getting in my latest set of Thirst revisions in (yeehaa!) by the skin of my teeth, fueled by cake (porny picture thereof below) and Day Nurse and True Grit (yes, true grit my friends). Seeing some beautiful films like In the House (gorgeous cast and some fine acting) and The Late Quartet...
March 2013
3 posts
This is late because I am buried under a pile of...
Travel friendly at least.
Anyhow, I was dead chuffed to be on this list naming Alex Clarke’s 20 possible hopeful contenders for the every-decade-and-legendary Granta ‘20 Under 40 list’ Thank very much indeed Alex.
And it was in the proper paper and everything….
I was robbed (again (not really))
So on Tuesday day I went through the Southbank Sky Arts Awards looking glass and had one of the strangest and funnest days ever. My choices in advance were simple: succumb to the terror of of P.E.N. (Posh Event Nerves as coined by my fabulously glamorous agent and Awards side-kick) or just enjoy the fuck out of it. I chose the latter.
It was starry. Really, really starry. Julie Walters (one...
Kerry Hudson: Deposhing even the poshest of...
Hello. I am covered in toast crumbs trying to line my stomach before a 12 noon drinks reception.
I have a nice red manicure. I am moisturised to within an inch of my life. I am still wearing my pyjama bottoms and a hoodie.
In a wee while I’ll put on the black cocktail dress (that’s right people, I bought a cocktail dress) try on the 27 different shades of lipstick I’ve...
February 2013
2 posts
Not so much the underdog as the under-flea on the...
It was 1am and I was sitting on my rucksack on the gleaming floor of Bangkok airport. I had snacks (cashew nuts, a slightly bruised apple, a green tea latte from the 7-11) my feet were filthy, I had sunburned shins and too broke/tight to pay for an airport hotel I was waiting it out until my 9am flight when I got the news I’d been shortlisted for a Southbank Sky Arts Award for literature...
On monkeys, magpies and sleeping in airports
I am sleeping in Bangkok Airport tonight. I love airports, full of greetings and goodbyes, essentially full of stories and human intrigue. Tomorrow morning I’ll board my flight back to beautiful, bursting, brilliant London. Only for two weeks when I’ll reacquaint myself with Hackney and the people whose faces I’ve missed and spend a lot of time at the Southbank revising up a...
December 2012
4 posts
What Can I Say Except Thank You Very Fucking Much
Dear 2012,
You’ve been a blinding, brilliant one and I couldn’t have asked for anything more from you.
This year Tony Hogan came out and its publication brought more than I could ever have hoped for. I did interviews and got reviews. Tony Hogan made some short/end of year lists. I did some incredible events. I wrote stories for magazines and Sunday supplements. I traveled to...
It is like Top of the Pops here
Just a wee one. I am mostly busy eating an amazing The Cart (if you are in Hanoi hunt it out and live out all your sandwich dreams (I’m suddenly aware that maybe it is just me who has sandwich dreams)) pork and apple Banh Mi simultaneously writing a short story about Hanoi and urging novel-sized love along in Siberia.
Anyway, as a lady who loves lists I’m bloody delighted to be on a...
It Is Much Warmer in Hanoi When You Are Jigging...
I am taking a blogging break from my self-imposed editing prison sentence during which I sit at my desk for long hours by a very old Chinese electric bar heater that may see me expire in a towering inferno (good for book sales I imagine though?) while drinking gallons of fresh ginger and mint tea and munching my way through ‘healthy’ oatcakes make from, among other things, condensed...
Just when you thought I would stop banging on...
…here’s the paperback cover for Tony Hogan. It’s a corker an’ all…
November 2012
5 posts
I insist everyone gets legless on my behalf
I should be doing something tonight. That would mainly involve fretting about my skirt being too short and my saying the wrong thing after a glass too many at Guardian First Book Award ceremony. I would have so loved to have been there but I am still away in the land of many motorbikes, noodles and pyjamas as outerwear (which I wholeheartedly approve of obviously).
I should probably have...
Mostly spending my time in Hanoi...and Hackney and...
I don’t have a lot to report really. I am working on Thirst re-reading and editing clumsy sentences, strange words and inconsistencies. This is a gentle re-acquaintance with the Dave, Alena, Hackney and Siberia before I start on my editors notes.
Most of my days here comprise of a pic’n’mix of the following things:
Editing + cycling back-alleys and around the lakes + gym...
Isn't she lovely?
I’d like you to meet the new lady in my life: Betsy Spitfire. Isn’t she a beauty? She’s a Vietnamese Asmama and she rides like a dream. True, she is cheap and a little flimsy but that’s always something I’ve admired in a woman. Each day I weave her in and out of the Hanoi motorbike traffic (there are 6 million people in Hanoi and they are all on the roads ALL of the...
I know people say those things. Speechless or I didn’t think I had a chance or I can’t bloody believe it. People say them but I really mean it…I was just beyond thrilled to even make the Guardian First Book Award longlist.
I am relieved to spill the beans though…I found out Tony Hogan had been shortlisted for the award in a hot little room in a Bangkok guesthouse last...
green carnations in the sun
First things first…Tony Hogan is only on the bloody Green Carnation Prize shortlist. It is a strange but lovely thing getting news like that in the scorching heat of Laos and I couldn’t be happier. There are some very fancy authors on the list and I’m honoured to rub shoulders with them for a wee while. Thank you very much Green Carnation Prize…I wear it with pride.
Next...
October 2012
3 posts
I'm leaving on a jet plane...
Here I sit at Heathrow Terminal 4. Off I go back to Vietnam (via Thailand and Laos) to Make Things Up until next Spring. It’s bitter-sweet journey as I’ll miss so much about my London life though I’m excited to return to my Hanoi one.
My last supper? Mushroom soup with extra Panda (a stowaway gift from my godson). See you in Bangkok lovely folks…
i am unusually quiet - you lot should make the...
Hello you lot. I am sorry I’m so quiet…I am about to fly off to Vietnam for six months, I am wrapping up things in the day-job (or it is wrapping me up, one of the two) and I’m struggling to comprehend how my worldly possessions can equate to 120 books, 73 pairs of laddered tights and a plastic ring I got free in a packet of Japanese sweets…anyway! There’s also lovely...
Bottom shaking good news
I’m actually a little bashful to be back on here with yet more bloody wonderful news. I’m sorry, I’m sure something shit will happen soon and in the meantime, for those who rightly think too many good things have occurred for me lately, console yourself that I have tightest most inflexible hamstrings on the planet.*
So I am not so embarrassed to tell you more good news not to...
September 2012
3 posts
Mais oui & nhưng tất nhiên
Remember I said I was feeling very lucky indeed last post? Well I continue to feel giddily and enormously grateful for all the Good Things that have come to me this year.
Last year wasn’t bad either though - remember this time last year I ran away to join the jockeys at the Sultan of Oman’s Chateau in Paris? I ate cake and wandered the beautiful city streets and declared I would one...
august part 2: gypsy pancakes and mikes up skirts
So August was such a smorgasbord (yes, you read right, smorgasbord…) of good things that I’ve had to do a two-parter blog. I should warn you there’s a lot of my face in this post and for that I can only apologise and promise it won’t happen again (that soon…)
Gdansk isn’t just one of my August highlights but one of my year ones. As part of Once Upon a...
yipee ki-yay
It was in the paper (and podcast (5.40 in)) and everything so it must be true. I am pleased as bloody punch, over the moon, fucking thrilled and so on. It’s an amazing longlist and I am beyond delighted and honoured to be included. Ta very much Guardian!
August 2012
4 posts
August part 1...think bagpipes, curry, whisky &...
So it has been a unique, exhilarating, perplexing month for me as I’ve been hither and thither doing book type things and because I like things in neat little chunks, here is part 1 when I went with my ex-wife (we were never actually married and I should stop introducing her as that…people get very awkward) to Edinburgh International Book Festival:
Day 1: The train is full of...
irn-bru and scottish skies...take me home country...
That’s right you lot, I’m only off on my homecoming tour…or Edinburgh International Book Festival as others are calling it.
I am totally beside myself (and totally shitting myself…please God, don’t let me shame myself more than the usual amount in front of the fancy literary types) and I’m thrilled to be doing this on Monday and then this on Tuesday.
...
Tony hogan Blog tour winners...its you!
Well that was quite a blog tour! I had an ace time visiting a range of lovely folks who kindly welcomed me onto their blogs to launch Tony Hogan.
And then I had an ace time reading the comments of many, many lovely folks who left a comment on them. Thank you to the lot of you for making the blog tour such a success - you’re all smashing!
So I wrote out the name of each and every commenter...
July 2012
5 posts
All the way from notts - niki valentine on the...
So, I am very happy to welcome Niki Valentine on her Possessed blog tour. I met Niki in person recently when I went up to talk to her students at Nottingham University and she is properly very lovely indeed. Also, I’ve just started reading Possessed and I can already tell it’s going to be an addictive bastard that keeps me up all night.
Anyway, here are the questions Niki very kindly...
Ignore the typos just look at the time
So I am just nipping in to tell you I have an events page and a press and reviews page over at The Other Place. So if you’re curious about where I’ve been, where I’m going, what I’ve been babbling on about that’s the place (I’m using it to keep track myself).
I won’t lie and say that the last two and a half weeks haven’t been knackering or a bit...
Five, four, three, two...
Well here I sit at 7am, wearing the sweatshirt featuring animals in hats and ties, writing a blog before I’ve even had a sip of tea. It must be launch week then.
Thankfully, I’ve absolutely no time to scale the rock-face of mounting anxiety and self-doubt because I am so busy. Except for a brief thank you lunch with a friend I haven’t eaten sitting down in about a week and half....
June 2012
4 posts
the observer are watching
So I got my first bit of press and it is a lovely bit at that. It is true you can see up my skirt a bit in my author picture but I’ve been assured that, fittingly, I’m still leaving everything to the imagination.
There’s also a digital version for your perusal here…
this blog isn't called chatterbox for nothing
Hello, it is two weeks until you (or anyone) can buy Tony Hogan from all good book shops….are you guys enjoying my infernal counting-down as much as I am?…Ok, moving on.
So, over the last few days I did three interviews and a photo shoot. I was nervous (oh so inevitably) about the first one. We met at the St Pancras International Hotel and I was sure I was going to be stopped from...
Crumpets and other best bits
Things I didn’t know before this Monday:
You can buy crumpets with Marmite and a nice cup of tea for £3.20 in Nottingham and this is reason enough to move there as far I’m concerned
I find signing my book a strange and moderately mortifying experience - I’m guessing that gets easier
I can talk for two and a half hours on a single subject and actually really bloody enjoy it...
Not Fucking it all up (contains swears)
It is four weeks today until my book comes out. The Waterstones website helpfully tells me it is 28 days until publication. 28 days. Holy shite.
And things are going well. People who have read the book are liking it and then passing it onto other people who might also like it. The publicity side is going great guns. I’ve been invited to speak at events. Sometimes I’ll walk into a...
May 2012
3 posts
This is a slightly grainy picture of me reading my...
News (less flash) more tiny spark
So it has been a quietish week but I thought I’d do a little update all the same. Otherwise I’ll get that guilt thing and I’ll be thinking, Jesus, I better come up with something really good to blog about, I’ve been away for a while, maybe I should invent an injury? Say I eloped? Something to do with the Marshmallow Man… Anyway, I digress. I am a bit tired today...
I did it (twice)
So the April madness is behind me. I delivered my project in my day job finishing 17 days on the trot with a 75 hour week during which I did nothing but work, eat a microwaveable plastic box of pasta, sleep and do the same all over again. Day 5 into the 17 banned my colleagues from calling it ‘our £1 million project’ because the name was terrifying. Anyway, it all went well and...
April 2012
3 posts
Avert your eyes people it's a love in over here
Okay, so first I sent The Bookseller my ode of love and devotion and now they respond with this little doozie of a review. Bookseller, I think I’m ready to give you a drawer, maybe a few coat hangers, I’ll even let you join in with my carb Friday.*
Seriously (seriously though Bookseller, maybe we should go on a mini-break?), this is my first review of Tony Hogan and all the better...
Ode To The Bookseller: A Dream Come True
Earlier this week my friend and fellow writer Jessica (@jessicapatient - follow her!) sent me a picture of Tony Hogan in The Bookseller magazine. Even in my pre-project-delivery-phase-husk-of-my-former-self-state it absolutely made my day.
It is a little mention spread over two pages but genuinely it is a dream come true for me. Years ago, when I started writing short stories for competitions and...
Vintage Spring
So I have been quiet I know. I am working 50+ hour weeks until my project at work is delivered at the end of April. I got a bout of brutal flu. I am squeezing in the writing wherever I can. What’s that I hear squeaking away in the corner? The world’s smallest violin?
Alright, I’m alright and I’ll stop moaning. I’m getting a fair bit of satisfaction from the auld...
March 2012
3 posts
99 Reasons Why - In which I host an ending from...
The very charming Caroline Smailes has a new book out. If you buy it (you should) you get a choice of nine endings. But because she is indeed lovely she gave us this one for gratis. Enjoy.
99: the reason why I was only worth ninety-nine quid
It’s been six days since the little girl in the pink coat went missing and me Uncle Phil’s in me bedroom.
We’ve been watching the little girl in the...
In which I conquer disbelief
Yesterday, my wonderful agent (@julietpickering) tweeted the pictures of my proofs. When I got home that night my copies where waiting for me too. I stood on my doorsteep, in the drizzle and ripped open the padded envelope, turned the bound proof over in my hands, flicked the pages, smoothed my fingers across the cover. Genuinely, I can hardly believe it is actually happening. Bound proofs are...
The will, the way and carbohydrates
So I have started a new writing regime and it seems to be working. Though it is only in its second day so perhaps that’s a premature statement. Anyway, this isn’t really about the new regime but how writers, this writer at least, write when they also work full-time.
Like many I work full-time as well as writing novels. I’m lucky in the respect that I write fairly quickly by...
February 2012
3 posts
No longer naked...
Tony Hogan that is. So here we have it with its beautiful bold colours and graphic illustration. A wonderful set of clothes for my book. Almost ready to be seen out in the world…I love it.
The cover definitely pulls at the energy and humour of the book, the sweet parts of Janie and her family. But then there is the council estate in the background suggesting all the the things, good and...
3 tags
Oral amnesia - that's a thing
So today I recorded a little section for a Vintage podcast to be released in March. I woke early, painted my nails and managed to find a warm layered outfit that didn’t make me look like the Marshmallow Man.*
The Vintage podcasts are recorded at the Random House offices. I have never been to the offices without my heart puttering away in my chest because very time I go there I expect...
Proofs, Publicity and podcasts (love me some...
Proofs! I got beautiful page proofs. With my name under the title, pages all single spaced and numbered and laid out like a proper book. I spent quite a while just looking at them, thinking how funny it was that the change in format suddenly made it already something ‘not mine’ – how it already felt out in the world. Then I spent my evenings for a week hunched over bowls of noodles,...
January 2012
1 post
Just another new year post
Yesterday I finished my very last copy edits for Tony Hogan. I spent the day in the luscious hush of the British Library, having tea and cake while trying to work out how best to explain the layout of towerblock council flats and googling Chesney Hawkes lyrics.
Last year I travelled across Russia by train and I worked for a Sultan in a Paris Chateau. And, of course, I wrote Thirst. I continue to...
