The Year of Secret Assignments by Jaclyn Moriarty

On the other days, a babysitter comes for the afternoons and I write upstairs while they play downstairs. In fact, my trilogy has nothing to do with the musical instrument, but I pretend to myself that this is research. So, I'm working on a trilogy about the Kingdom of Cello at the moment, and I'm reading a novel about a cellist. Now my baby's at preschool two days a week, and I start those days by walking to a café where I listen in to conversations, and read books that are connected to my current work. Then I had a baby and started writing whenever he slept. A lot of ideas came to me in the strange half-dreams of late morning. Used to be, I'd write into the night and sleep half the day. My writing schedule: It changes all the time. The book is nothing like a James Cameron film. I was awake most of the night while my mind raced through a filmscript, and tried to figure out how to get in touch with James.īut that was just the fever. And the other night, when I was sick with a feverish flu, I became convinced that James Cameron should make a movie of this book. I had a lot of fun writing it, partly because I ate rocky road and drank apple-and-cinnamon tea.

I got the idea for the book when the foundations of a convicts barracks and lunatic asylum were uncovered just behind my parents' house. Some characters from The Year of Secret Assignments have starring roles, but there are also two new characters: scholarship students named Amelia and Riley who have mysterious pasts. My latest book: The Ghosts of Ashbury High is part of a series of connected books but it also stands alone. Readergirlz kindly invited me to write something for this blog - maybe on my latest book, they said, or my writing schedule, or on the theme of courage. Jaclyn Moriarty's novel The Year of Secret Assignments is one of this month's recommended reads at readergirlz.

The Year of Secret Assignments by Jaclyn Moriarty