Guest Post: My Guilty Little Secret by Cat Clarke

I've been a huge fan of Cat Clarke's books since her debut Entangled was released back in 2011 so I'm chuffed to bits to have her on the blog today to celebrate the release of her new novel Girlhood. Today Cat is telling us all about her guilty little secret and the role guilt has to play in her books.

My Guilty Little Secret by Cat Clarke 

I tend to write so-called ‘dark’ books, often dealing with subjects like death, grief and depression. But something I keep coming back to again and again is guilt. It features in almost everything I’ve written, most notably in Torn and A Kiss in the Dark. My guilty little secret is my obsession with guilt.

In my latest book, Girlhood, Harper feels guilty about the death of her twin sister, Jenna. Her guilt is so deeply felt that it’s completely intertwined with her grief; it threatens to drown her. The guilt isolates her from her parents, who are too busy grieving to even realize. It isolates her from her best friends, since she’s never talked to them about the circumstances surrounding her sister’s death. When the new girl arrives, Harper finally feels like she’s found someone she can confide in. Of course, this is a story written by me, so things don’t quite work out as planned.

Lots of people feel guilty following the death of someone we care about. We feel we should have treated them better, told them we loved them. In extreme situations, we might even blame ourselves for the death. It would never have happened if… If only I’d…

‘If only’ is a very powerful thought. A pointless, toxic thought, but one that we all have from time to time, because all of us feel guilty about something. I think it helps to talk about guilt. To confess, if you prefer to look at it that way. If you choose the right person to talk to, chances are they’ll reassure you and help put things in perspective. If you can’t face confiding in someone, then imagine your best friend, or someone you love, confiding in you. You’d reassure them, wouldn’t you? (Unless you’re an evil monster, in which case, what are you doing reading Jess’s lovely blog? Be gone, monster!) It never ceases to amaze me that we’re so much harder on ourselves than we are on other people. Humans are weird like that.

Of course, being an evil author, what interests me most is what happens when you confide in the wrong person… And you can read Girlhood if you fancy finding out.

Thanks for stopping by the blog today Cat! 

For more from Cat you can follow her on Twitter @cat_clarke 

Girlhood is available to buy now in all good bookshops

The Lost and the Found Blog Tour: First Chapter and Giveaway!

Cat Clarke is one of my all time favourite authors and so I am thrilled to be the first stop on the blog tour for her new book The Lost and the Found today. I'm sharing the first chapter to read and giving away one copy of The Lost and the Found to one lucky reader!

 

Giveaway

Rules 

 To enter you have to fill in the Rafflecopter 

 Open to UK residents only 

 End date: Monday 6th July 2015 

 The winner will be drawn and contacted by email with 1 week to reply else another winner will be selected 

 Make sure you complete what the form asks of you - I do check! Any winner who has not completed an option will be disqualified 

a Rafflecopter giveaway 

Stop by Adventures With Words tomorrow for the next stop on the tour!

YALC Readathon Guest Post: My Big Fat Imaginary Production Company by Cat Clarke

I can't believe that this little readathon project that I've been plotting for months is nearly over! But fear not! We have a whole weekend of reading ahead of us and I intend to make the most of it.

I hope that by now you've all had chance to read some excellent books and that you'll be trying to squeeze in as many more pages as you can during this last leg of the readathon. No matter how much or how little you've read I hope that you've been having a lot of fun!

My YALC author guest today is Cat Clarke. With YALC taking place at London Film and Comic Con, Cat is going to be talking about which books she'd choose to adapt if she owned her own production company. I'm always casting actors as characters in my head as I read so it's nice to know that authors do this too with their own books and other peoples!

MY BIG FAT IMAGINARY PRODUCTION COMPANY by Cat Clarke 

I often get asked if I’m going to turn any of my books into a movie, and every time I get this question, I sigh a little wistful sigh. I wish it were that easy. I think most writers would love to see their books on the big screen, but unfortunately it’s completely, totally 100% outside of our control. But now that I’m in charge of an imaginary production company, the power is MINE, ALL MINE. MWAHAHAHAHA.

Obviously I’ll have to start by adapting one of my own books into a film. The first one that springs to mind is a novel that’s coming out next year, but that’s cheating, right? So I think I’m going to go with TORN. There are a couple of scenes in particular that I would love to see on film, but I’ll be vague to avoid spoilers: the scene in the cave and Tara’s demise (and immediate aftermath). Oh, and I’d love to see Jack on the big screen, mostly because he’s the most adorable character I’ve ever written.

OK, now that the TORN movie is in the works, there are a few YA books I’d like to tackle right away. Some of my favourites have already been/are already being made into movies (Grasshopper Jungle springs to mind), but there are some gems I’d love to get my hands on…

1.) THIS IS NOT A TEST – Courtney Summers. I recently saw Courtney describing this book as ‘The Walking Dead meets The Breakfast Club’. If that’s not enough to make you want to see this movie, I’m not sure we can be friends anymore.
2.) FIREBRAND – Gillian Philip. I reckon I’d need a big budget to do this one justice, but I think this could be the first in an epic fantasy series.
3.) CRUEL SUMMER – James Dawson. This movie would be a total riot. Definitely one for a raucous late night showing on a Friday. I suspect I’d also like to make a movie of SAY HER NAME, but I’ve yet to get my grubby little mitts on a copy so I can’t say for sure. I’ll definitely be nabbing this book at YALC.
4.) IMAGINARY GIRLS – Nova Ren Suma. Oh boy, this would be SUCH a cool film. Creepy as hell and achingly beautiful too.
5.) Every single Christopher Pike book ever written. Nuff said.

Would anybody like to volunteer to be my Imaginary Casting Director? Because if the casting were left to me, I’d somehow find a way to shoehorn the entire cast of Game of Thrones into every one of these movies. Joffrey (Jack Gleeson) as Jack in TORN, perhaps? (OK, don’t answer that.)

Sigh. Now I feel sad that my production company is just a figment of my imagination. If any high-powered, fancy-schmancy movie-making people happen to be reading this … PLEASE MAKE THESE MOVIES NOW! I promise I’ll come and watch every single one on their opening weekends.

Thanks for sharing Cat! Personally I would LOVE to see This Is Not a Test and Cruel Summer on the big screen. It's a real shame that we don't have ALL OF THE POWER and can't turn cinema into one big YA love-fest *sighs* maybe one day. I'm sure there's got to be *someone* we can talk to about this at YALC.

Cat will be appearing at YALC on Sunday 13th July 

Free this weekend? It's not too late to sign up for the YALC Readathon! Why not join us for the last two days and read some fantastic books? Sign up here!

Review for A Kiss in the Dark by Cat Clarke

A Kiss in the Dark by Cat Clarke 
Publisher: Quercus
Release: 3rd April 2014
Genre: YA, Contemporary, UKYA
Source: Received from the publisher in exchange for an honest review




Synopsis: 

"When Alex meets Kate the attraction is instant. Alex is funny, good-looking, and a little shy - everything that Kate wants in a boyfriend. Alex can't help falling for Kate, who is pretty, charming and maybe just a little naive... But one of them is hiding a secret, and as their love blossoms, it threatens to ruin not just their relationship, but their lives."

Review 
Cat Clarke has struck gold yet again with her latest book A Kiss in the Dark. Her stories feel like they come straight from teenager’s hearts and A Kiss in the Dark is no exception. The synopsis for this book is very vague not really giving anything away about this story so I’m unsure of how much to say in this review so I’m going to keep this short and sweet.

In a nutshell A Kiss in the Dark is a tale of first love gone wrong. It’s about love and hate, betrayal and revenge, secrets and lies, boy and girl and how they’re not all that different. They are each a side on the same coin and A Kiss in the Dark shows two sides to the same love story.

Reading A Kiss in the Dark is like watching a train wreck in slow motion. You know it isn’t going to end well for the characters and you’re on the edge of your seat waiting for the impact that is inevitable and will change the characters’ lives forever. Needless to say I couldn’t put this book down and read it in a few hours.

At its heart A Kiss in the Dark is a story about identity and loving blindly. It was such a beautiful and powerful read and yes I had a little cry over the ending. Alex and Kate’s story touched my heart; they are two characters whose journey will stay with me for a long time to come. Despite my brief review I hope I’ve said enough to get you interested in picking this book up. If you love complicated love stories that blur right and wrong I couldn’t recommend this book more.