Teenage One Direction fan fiction writer gets book deal
Sixteen-year-old Emily Baker's book Loving the Band will be published by Penguin.
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Your support makes all the difference.A One Direction fan has just been offered a book deal after her fan fiction was spotted online.
Emily Baker wrote a story about popular boy band One Direction that attracted more than 30,000 hits on movellas.com, the online writing community for young people.
Her work was later picked up by a fiction editor at Penguin, the publishers, who commissioned a new novel based on her work, entitled Loving the Band.
The new novel is about "what happens when you meet the boy band of every girl's dream - and not one but two of them fall for you".
The 16-year-old wrote the original story over two months, in between studying for her GCSEs.
"I just wrote it whenever I could, at night or at the weekend. I was cooped up in my room for a few weeks - but it was well worth it," Baker said.
"I am a big One Direction fan. I tried to get tickets for their gig for next year, but they are sold out."
"I was just writing it for the fun of it really. I couldn't believe it when I got the offer. I thought someone was joking!"
Lindsey Heaven, Senior Fiction Editor at Razorbill Books, a division of Penguin Group, said: "We are delighted to be publishing Loving the Band. Emily's novel completely taps into today's pop culture. Her love of a certain boy band is heartfelt and her passion feeds into every bit of her writing."
Extract from Loving the Band
"Come for a walk with me," I said impulsively. He looked at me with indecision clouding his eyes before sighing and seeming to give in to something inside.
"OK, but put this on," he said, pulling his jumper over my head. "It's getting chilly."
The sweater came down to my knees and smelled like a mixture of the salty sea air and Shaq's musky aftershave. I gently inhaled its scent and pulled it closer round me as the wind whipped up.
We spent the first few minutes walking side by side in silence, but it was a comfortable silence as the sound of water lapping up on the beach and the waves crashing together accompanied us. He kept himself between me and the sea, as if he was afraid the water could hurt me again.
I was the first one to break the silence. "Really, thank you."
Shaq looked down at me, confused.
"I-I mean thank you for saving my life," I stammered, wondering what he thought I might have been talking about. "You saved me when no one else could."
He stopped in his tracks and looked at me seriously, before pulling me to him. "You never need to question whether I'll be there for you, Jess. I'll always look after you. You need to know that."
My heart quickened at his words and his touch, but I ignored its insistent pace, confused by what he was saying.
"But you aren't, though, are you, Shaq?" I pushed him away, hurt. "In fact, you always feel so far away."
"You know why," he growled, head in hands. "Just as long as you're safe, though – that's everything that matters."
"Well, that's not everything to me," I said angrily.
Frustration and pain appeared in his eyes as he gently traced his finger down my jaw. "It's all that can be. I'm watching Riley fall in love with you, Jess."
Loving the Band is out in Ebook form on 1 November.
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