Books and the City

I’m very excited because this month sees the release of the first book I have written for Young Adults: The Accidental Life of Jessie Jefferson. This is the first in a series of novels about fifteen-year-old Jessie, who discovers that her dad is famous bad-boy rock star Johnny Jefferson. 

I first wrote about Johnny in Johnny Be Good, which sees my heroine, Meg, go to work for him as his PA. Three books later I followed up on their story (under some duress from you lot!) with the sequel, Baby Be Mine. When I was writing Baby, I had an idea to write about the twenty-something daughter Johnny never knew he had. This daughter – Jessie – finds out the truth about who her real dad is following the death of her mother, who was one of Johnny’s first groupies (you haven’t met Jessie’s mother in any of my adult books, for those of you wondering).

I write my books in real-time, so I would have had to wait a few years to write a story about a heroine in her twenties (Johnny is only in his mid-thirties himself). Then my friend and fellow author Ali Harris (who I’ve dedicated Jessie to) suggested that I write for Young Adults and I realised I could tell the tale of a teenage Jessie now – and, better still, turn her ordinary-girl-turned-rock-star-daughter adventures into a series. Now I will be releasing two books a year: my usual chick-lit, plus a book about Jessie. 

Hand on heart, I do believe my regular readers will enjoy The Accidental Life of Jessie Jefferson, if how much I loved writing it is anything to go by, and I’m dying to find out what they – and hopefully some new, younger readers – think. But, equally, I believe it’s important that my current readers know that Jessie is primarily aimed at Young Adults, and this is why I felt passionately about making sure the cover looked very different to my adult books. I hope the photographic (as opposed to illustrated) artwork prompts people to take a closer look at the synopsis so that they realise that Jessie is something a little bit different to the usual. My writing style is the same, but my protagonist is younger and the story length is slightly shorter, so I’d be disappointed to get negative feedback from people thinking they’re buying a full-length adult novel. I’d also hate any readers to think that I’m no longer writing for adults, because I am, and Thirteen Weddings, my eighth adult book, is coming out in May.

As I’ve said, I loved writing from Jessie’s perspective, but it was slightly strange writing about Meg in the third person. I was happy to have the chance to tell things from her side of the story in the eBook short story Johnny’s Girl, which came out in November 2013 and ends with Meg waiting to meet Jessie. I’m sure that won’t be the last you hear of Meg, though, and I’ve even thought about writing some of the chapters from The Accidental Life of Jessie Jefferson from Meg’s point of view. 

If you like the sound of this, make sure you stay tuned to www.paigetoon.com, Twitter (@PaigeToonAuthor) and Facebook.com/PaigeToonAuthor, where I’ll keep you up to date of any developments… Can’t wait to hear what you think of the book, so please let me know on Twitter and Facebook and in the on-line reviews that so many of you take the time to write – I’m so grateful!