Day 6 - Debuts 2016 - Perdita and Honor Cargill

Day 6 already and I'm pleased to welcome this wonderful writing duo as they prepare to debut in 2016. Perdita and Honor Cargill.

Their book, Waiting For Callback is published this month by Simon and Schuster. 

Perdita took time out to let us know how they are both feeling. 

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How are you feeling about your debut this year?

Lucky, very lucky and delighted but as I’m writing this very close to our publication date (28th January 2016) I’m scared too. This is a good problem to have because it means it’s real and happening. I’d expected putting our work out there to be frightening (it is) but what surprises me is the extent to which I feel as if I’m putting myself out there. I have so much support, from Hon and from Jonathan (husband & father who has had generously to adopt all our characters into the family), from Hannah our agent (who I could call in the middle of the night if I needed to), the Simon & Schuster team (who don’t expect us to be superwomen, just to do our best) and other writers and book-y people (who all get it) so it will be fine *buys more Rescue Remedy. Honor being 17 is (probably overly) optimistic and chilled so we balance each other out but she’s had to get good at managing time, being professional and just working extremely hard because she’s been doing all this alongside school exams. She’s put her back into the book and I’m proud that she has. I don’t think it could have worked unless it had been so much fun and there had been so much laughter. 

What was your reaction when you knew your debut would be published? Who did you tell first about your book deal?

I’m going to cover two questions in one here: what was our reaction when we knew Waiting for Callback would be published and who did we tell first. The answer to both is pretty clear from this (not very good) photo… We’ve had an embarrassing amount of fun writing together and part of that has been sharing these mad moments. We’re eating cake sent over by Simon and Schuster (it spelled out ‘we’re waiting for our callback’) and we’ve just called them (well Hannah) back and we’re ecstatic. I don’t mean to suggest that we were swayed by cake (well not much), we were won over by their enthusiasm and commitment and even though everyone we met was genuinely just lovely we’re so happy that we did call S&S back. I keep reading about publishers not having time to do serious hard work on editing a book nowadays, Jane Griffiths made time and the book is so much stronger for it. 

What is your biggest fear about publication?

Hon and I had a good discussion about this one (thank you for the therapy!) and decided that our biggest fear is all muddled up with our strongest wish. We want Waiting for Callback to make readers laugh, we want them to hand it on to their best friend, we want them to read it in bed (or ideally a blanket fort) after a tough day at school and feel warmed by it or pass it around on holiday - we want it to be the kind of book you open up back home and sand falls out. If the book doesn’t deliver in that way then we’ll feel that we’ve failed our readers and that is our biggest fear about publication. 

Have you seen the cover and how did it make you feel?

Yes we have seen our cover and we absolutely adore it. Simon & Schuster kept us involved as the plans for the cover progressed with sneak peeks so we knew we’d like it but the final version is just perfect and we think it will appeal equally to readers over quite a wide age range. 

It’s a happy cover for a happy book and well, it made us feel happy (ok I’ll come clean, there was some dancing *jigging on the spot). 

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Thank you to Perdita for sharing her hopes and fears for publication day. Good luck to Perdita and Honor as they debut in 2016.