Gemma Hurst, superstar
Yessssssssssssssssssssss or Yes!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Whichever is easier on the eye and least annoying but yesterday I posted Girls FC 9 to my editor and it’s such a brilliant feeling I wanted to share it with you in the only virtual way I know how – extreme punctuation.
I say it’s a brilliant feeling and it is but there’s always an element of doubt as I slide the manuscript into the envelope. Is it ready? Have I double- checked everything? Am I sure about that paragraph on page 46? Is the ending tight enough? Should I have added that twist? Used a different word for ‘shrugged’? Then I tell myself to get a grip before the Post Office closes. The thing is there will be faults and flaws in the story – there always are. Most times I can even predict where they’ll be but I posted it off anyway but experience told me that Gemma’s story had reached the stage where it was good enough to send and that it now needs the sharp eye of an editor to look at it.
I enjoyed writing Gemma’s story. Of all my characters I felt I knew her the least so it was interesting finding out about her. That might sound weird, seeing as I’m well over half way through the series and she’s been in it from day one, but it’s true. It’s only when I begin to write the character reveals him or herself to me, a little at a time. Gemma has always been enigmatic. Even by book 8 she’s given very little of herself away to her team-mates. All they know is that she goes to a private school with Amy Minter, after school club with Amy and Eve, she hates having her photo taken and -oh – that she’s a brilliant footballer. ‘It’s Hursty that’s got the edge, that innate talent,’ Holly’s dad tells Holly (in ‘Who Ate All the Pies’) when they’re discussing who’ll win the Players’ Player of the Season. And so she has but how will she use it? That is the question!
It’s another stunning cover from Sonia Leong, isn’t it? I based Gemma’s physical looks on England and Arsenal striker Rachel Yankey. Like Gemma, Rachel has a black dad and a white mum and I liked the way she wore her hair in one of the pictures I saw of her. ‘That’s my Gemma,’ I thought and posted it to Sonia.
I began Eve’s story this morning. Unlike the other books in the series that can be read as individual stories, Eve’s and Gemma’s are linked. Pity you’ll have to wait so long to find out why, huh?