So the story begins…
I never intended to write books, just like I didn’t imagine I would end up being a journalist. But you know what they say about life being what happens to you when you’re busy making other plans.
In October 2000, I had my first ever “writing trip” – I went to Edinburgh for four days and knocked out the first draft of Lucky, a stageplay to be performed at the following year’s Edinburgh Festival.
It was my fourth and final year producing a play at the festival, and it went really well. We got some good reviews, big audiences and a lot of media attention. The Advocate, an American magazine, ran a feature on the play.
So we did the play in August, and then in November I received an e-mail from David Levithan, an editor at Scholastic Inc in New York. David had read the article in The Advocate that summer, cut it out, and Googled me. This is all still in 2001.
David explained he was launching a new young adult imprint at Scholastic, called PUSH. The idea was to focus on stories about real teens, giving a voice to new, young writers. He thought Lucky could make a good YA novel. Who was I to disagree?
I had never ever considered writing prose before. I ended up concocting an entire first draft of Lucky before David, who was a great help in putting it together, got the approval from the powers at Scholastic Towers.
In October 2002 the confirmation came. I was going to be a published author. Much celebration on the streets of London. My friend Susie bought mini champagne bottles which we drank on the train. With straws. It was a high-class affair.
The book was published in February 2004. By then, I was already cracking on with Johnny Hazzard…..
Meeting the muse
It was the summer of 2003, and editor David was keen to work with me on another book. I had a few ideas knocking around, but I knew they were crap. Back in those days, I was a regular football player on Saturdays at Regent’s Park in central London. It was always a lot of fun to kick a ball about with whoever was down there – normally an assortment of people from all over the world, all of us very keen but not very talented.
This one Saturday, I was down with a group of friends. As usual, new people approached mid-game and asked to join in. This one kid swaggered up with confidence and was very happy to tell us all that he was from Texas, but that his family didn’t dig George W.
The following week, I turned up at the park with my ball. Although it was sunny, nobody else was playing. The only other person I saw was the Texan kid. We got talking as we kicked the ball about, and I decided here was my next story.
I saw him once more, the following week, when we played in a ten-aside match (and I scored a superb goal). Then off I went to start work on Johnny Hazzard and the guy had no idea that his situation had inspired a novel that was eventually published in summer 2005.
He had no idea until three years later, when I visited Austin to promote the book. An article in the Austin American Statesman about me and the book led to a surprise reunion with that kid from the football who had inadvertently become a muse. Mid-way through a book reading at Borders in north Austin, Josef, the football-crazy Texan strolled in.
Although Johnny Hazzard and Josef are two very different people, and the book is very much a work of fiction, meeting Josef inspired the idea of a young Texan living in London and facing up to post-9/11 anti-American sentiments.
So now, in 2007, I’m working on two new books – one fiction, and one non-fiction. There’s more about those in the About Ed-Write section.
But if you want to read bits of my published books, click here
If you want to buy Lucky click here
and if you want to buy Johnny Hazzard click here
