When Lyla signs up for a new reality TV show One Perfect Couple, she's expecting sun, sand, sea and a bit of competitive flirting. What she gets is much, much more deadly. Someone is playing this game for real - and the stakes are life or death.
Are you a survivor, or a traitor?
I just read an Amazon review (not for one of my books) that said "it feels like the author was just making it up as they went along" and I can't stop laughing. Like, dude, I hate to tell you this...
I'm muting this now as my notifications are overflowing and I need to do some work, aka make some stuff up as I go along 😆 - but I do know what the guy meant and it's a totally valid complaint - I just found the phrasing funny. So no shade to the reviewer, it just made me smile!
Here's the thing - a lot of Austen is funny, but Persuasion isn't. It's sad, wistful and full of regret. If Netflix want a funny regency novel for the Bridgerton treatment, why not go with Northanger Abbey? Or literally ANY Georgette Heyer who has about 7 million unadapted books?
EXCLUSIVE: Bestselling author Ruth Ware’s latest novel, Zero Days, has been optioned by Universal International Studios, a division of Universal Studio Group
Happy pub date to meeee! Zero Days is out into the world (in the US and Canada anyway) and I'm marking up my copy for my very first public readings. I hope you love Jack, Hel and Gabe as much as I do. I can't wait for you to meet them!
A thread of ten writing tips for anyone doing
#NaNoWriMo
(or anyone not doing
#NaNo
! You can write any time you want).
1) Have an ending in mind. This is the number one tip I give when asked for writing advice. You don't need to plot out the whole book (I don't) but having a
"The It Girl is yet another unputdownable novel from Ruth Ware",
@simonschusterUK
has signed a new book from
@RuthWareWriter
in a two-book deal, with The It Girl set to publish in August 2022. Discover more here:
@johnredwood
You do understand that when they refer to beds they're not literally referring to pieces of furniture, but to the staff capacity to look after patients? Staff which are in desperately short supply due to Brexit and historically low funding? Either you don't understand this in
I'm so thrilled that I can finally talk about this. It's been a complete joy to work alongside the brilliant and indefatigable planning committee and I promise Harrogate 2024 is going to be a BLAST
📢📢📢 This is not a drill! We have UK proof copies in the building. Bloggers and reviewers, they will be coming your way very soon...
Let the countdown begin...
Randomly remembered Past Times today - does anyone else remember those shops? They always smelled lovely - wax candles and little victorian soaps - and had soothing classical music playing, and were lit with a lovely golden glow that felt like permanent Christmas.
Exciting news! "Working Title Options Ruth Ware’s Haunted House Thriller ‘The Turn Of The Key’, Max Minghella & Jamie Bell To Write Script" via
@Deadline
I was really surprised by the replies on this thread saying, effectively, two years is ridiculous. Actually two years from signing the contract to publication is pretty standard.
Someone in the comments asked why publishing is so secretive about this - here's the thing 1/?
Toss up what drives me off this app first, Elon Musk or the CONTESTANT FUCKING BRA ADVERTS.
Twitter, I will not now or ever be buying a bra designed by an "elderly woman" that's "taking over the world" and will eliminate my "side boob". Please take this as my final decision.
Cover reveal klaxon!! 📢 The gorgeous, moody, tropical cover for my new book ONE PERFECT COUPLE.
I hope you love it as much as I do!
You can find out more and preorder over at
It's publication day for The It Girl and I'm overwhelmed by all the lovely messages! Thank you SO much, I'm sorry if I haven't replied - I'm on the road so typing is tricky, but look what we found at Myrtle Beach airport, literally RIGHT out of the box!
@GOVUK
I'm so fed up with having this spammed into my feed when no-one knows what the rules are yet! It's like being shouted at by a teacher for not completing your homework when they haven't set it yet.
I can't speak for other authors but for me the part of the publishing process I find the hardest is when the book is written but it's not yet published and you're waiting to hear if everyone loves - or hates - it.
Anyway I'm in that part at the moment which made it particularly
@mollymcghee
Normal for people to leave things on the stairs to be taken up, but in our house it's very much optional for anyone else to take it up - it's mainly left there until the person who put it there goes up.
Woke up today and it's a cool, grey morning with just a hint of a nip in the air - feels like autumn is coming, and I can't wait for long boots and hot chocolates and cosy knits. Who's with me?
Poor kids being set work on teams instead of having a proper snow day - didn't they suffer enough in the pandemic? Feel like schools could have looked the other way just this once...
Well, if Twitter follows through, today is my last day as a blue tick, so stay safe out there readers. I will never communicate from any other Twitter handle. I will never ask you for money, even if I *am* stranded in New York without my wallet. I will never try to sell you NFTs.
I know we were all joking about "book shortages! Stockpile now!" a few weeks ago, but folks, there really IS a looming supply chain crisis in books, so if you want to buy a loved one a book for Christmas, pre-order or buy it now.
I have not done a single useful thing today. Between election wtfery, impending lockdown and imminent UK publication of One by One, I'm just locked in a loop of stress-drinking coffee, scrolling twitter and internally screaming.
Does anyone else have to psych themselves up into writing? Every day I sit down at the desk at 9am and think "right, I'll get on with it." And every day I have to faff around for an hour before I actually do, in fact, get on with it. It's like my brain has to warm up.
@johnredwood
which case you shouldn't be allowed near public policy ever again, or you do understand this and you're deliberately mis-representing the crisis in order to dog whistle up hostility against the people trying desperately to keep the wheels on the NHS.
I'm signing off for Christmas now but I wish you all the happiest possible of holidays - and however you spend the day, I hope you get a few minutes peace and joy curled up with a book xxx
Folks, I have a UK cover for One Perfect Couple and I am in LOVE with it - and more than that - will you look at those SPREDGES!!!
The spredged editions will be strictly limited but you can pre-order here (and I'll sign them!)
Homework is stupid and this is the hill I will die on. I hated it as a kid and as an adult I think it's even more divisive and pointless.
1) if you understand a concept you don't need to wade through twenty more examples at home. And if you didn't understand it in class, it's
Completely THRILLED to reveal these beautiful new look covers from
@vintagebooks
, hitting the shops this June or brightening up your ebook reader right now.
Which is your favourite?
I'm not sure if the MPs opining "but everyone was breaking the rules" realise how extremely shit this argument appears to all the millions and millions and millions of us WHO DID NOT BREAK THE RULES.
The part of fancy online events you don't see - me jerry-rigging a laptop stand out of a chair, a suitcase, a bunch of towels, and my dressing gown cord (to stop the whole thing sliding apart). Reader - it worked!
Before antihistamines did everyone just die of snot every spring, or is hay fever a modern phenomenon? I feel like Shakespeare and Austen don't spend enough time on the state of everyone's sinuses.
In response to some reader queries, here is the official Ruth Ware Scare-ometer of my books (in my view. YMMV)
In a Dark Dark Wood 👻👻👻
The Woman in Cabin 10 👻👻
The Lying Game 👻
The Death of Mrs Westway 👻👻
The Turn of the Key 👻👻👻👻
One by One 👻👻
The It Girl 👻
Is it me or does talking about 2019 feel like about a hundred years ago? 2019. It sounds so OLD. Did we ride penny farthings and watch VHS films back then?
On behalf of authors and mathematicians everywhere, can I point out that by all mathematical rules, three and a half stars should be rounded UP, not down.
@MajimeKoala
@julesdoyle
It's a totally valid complaint and I know exactly what he meant - it was just a funny way to phrase it in the context of authors literally making stuff up as they go along, that's what made me laugh. Didn't expect this tweet to go quite as viral as it has 😆
That feeling when your characters take over and the book feels like it's writing itself, is there any better writerly feeling? It's like flying and being in love at the same time.
@Sathnam
My favourite fact about magnolias is that they evolved before bees did, so their flowers are adapted to be pollinated by beetles which is why they're so tough. So you know, if we kill the bees at least we'll have magnolias.
So apparently I really wanted to read
@RuthWareWriter
's book. So much so that I ordered 2 copies from 2 different places. Hopefully that was all of them that I ordered.
Well the cats presented with two dead rats, plus one live one for Mother's Day. They released the live rat in the living room then looked scared and wandered off leaving me to try and capture it (I trapped it in a Lego box and put it in the garden 💪) so how's your day going?
Shouting and swearing at your employees and belittling your juniors doesn't make you a "strong leader" no matter what your gender. It makes you a bad, bullying boss. Dressing this up as feminism is gross.
I think the solution is for Piers Morgan to step up and show us all how it's done, since it's apparently no biggie. Come on Piers, triple back flip off the vault - off you go!
As a life-long glasses wearer, it wearies me that to get a person-with-glasses emoji you have to search "nerd". If you search for "glasses" you get 😎 and 🥂. Now, there's nothing wrong with being a nerd. I am - separately - quite nerdy. But could we have some more diverse 🤓?
Today I woke up to the utterly brilliant news that The It Girl is nominated for the Theakstons Crime Novel of the Year Award.
It's always been a dream of mine to be shortlisted for this award so I'm going to throw pride to the wind and beg you to vote!
God I love summer storms - the way the temperature drops like a stone, and suddenly the darkness is filled with sheet lightning and slow, fat rain. Lying in bed, listening to the thunder rolling around the hills...
Y'all* I am in Nashville and it is SO COOL. The architecture is gorgeous. I love it!
*Have been in the South since Tuesday so am now basically southern 😆
Why is silver in the Olympics a huge achievement but losing a football final a broken dream? Seriously do not get it. England were amazing, lost to the best team in the one by ONE penalty, and gave everyone weeks of joy and one of the most charismatic, inspiring teams ever.
Eating lunch, I randomly remembered the first time someone used an emoji in an email to me and how shocked and disapproving I was. It was a work email and they ended ;) and I was like... do we not use our WORDS any more? Now, my emails are like ☺️🤪😡😟😳👽💅👈😿🎃🤖😺👺😼🙏👨🍳
Soooo excited to reveal the gorgeous golden US cover of The It Girl, out July 2022 from
@ScoutPressBooks
.
If you can't wait that long, read an exclusive excerpt over at
@EW
or preorder your copy at
Let me know what you think!
I think there should be a law that if you have more than two bank holidays in one month, one gets bumped to the next month.
It's simply ridiculous that we have three BHs in May and none in June.
The Woman in the House Across the Street etc etc was very funny (with some genuinely good twists!) and any Woman in Cabin 10 fans will enjoy the final episode 😆 Sequel please,
@netflix
! Also if
@KristenBell
wants to play Lo I would be A-OK with that.
Employees increasingly feel like they have to be "on" 24/7, answering emails, doing work in the evenings. And this isn't ok. We need a society where ring-fenced time off is seen as the norm, not an eccentricity. That should start with schools.
End of rant.
Book research is great. I now know how to phish your passwords and read your tarot cards. Maybe at the same time. Who said an English degree wouldn't lead to career opportunities.
My exceedingly annoying cat brought a mouse into the bedroom last night and it's taken refuge in a hole in the skirting board where there used to be a radiator and is refusing to come out. I've tried gently tugging its tail but it just digs its claws in. What to do?!
An app which centralises all your media subscriptions (netflix, prime, spotify etc) in one place and lets you pause and resume subscriptions from a single interface.
Who's with me?
I'm trying an experiment in drinking more water. So for the next [however many days until I forget] every time I have a cup of coffee, I'm going to match it with an equal size cup of water. More news as we have it.
@ukhomeoffice
@SuellaBraverman
You know what would stop the boats? A UK processing centre in France and a safe, legal route to claim asylum. So why won't you establish one?
So in a few weeks I'll be travelling to Savannah for the Savannah literary festival and I'm very excited to try the FOOD. You can't really get southern cuisine in the UK - aside from KFC and I'm not sure that counts as cuisine - so what should I make sure to try while I'm over?
So many exhausting covid dreams. Dreamt last night that I was in a crowded shop and had forgotten my mask. Is this going to be the new "school without your clothes on" anxiety dream for the next twenty years?