Fractured is here! Book Two Trials, Tribulations, and Celebrations

by Teri Terry

Today is the official UK publication date for Fractured, book 2 of the Slated trilogy! And I'm celebrating in true writer style: I've bought a new desk chair. In fact, I'm writing this as I wait for it to be delivered. And reflecting on what got me into the chair (assuming it ever arrives)...

Actually 'into the chair' kind of fits the journey.


Slated was a dream to write. Literally and all the rest of it. It started with a dream, and ended with one when it got published. But once I decided to go for it, it was also one of those stories that rushed to write itself, that insisted on its own pace and structure. I used to think writers were mad when they said that characters can take over: Kyla did just that.

Fractured, on the other hand, fought, kicked and screamed a lot of the way (come to think of it, so does Kyla in Fractured, but you'll have to read it to get more of the details).
Why the difference? 

My crystal ball wasn't working

When Fractured was finally finished, done, dusted, off to the printers, I was really happy with the end result. But I spent time I probably should have been spending writing book 3 thinking about what I went through to get there. I was scared to go through the same for the third book with less time, and thought if I could analyse 'what went wrong' I could have more control when I was writing the third one.

Good one, eh?

With Fractured, I think there was a part of it that was Book 2 Terrors. I've never had to write something to order with a deadline in place before, and I don't like the 'dead' in deadline.

US Fractured: out in September!

But sitting back with the benefit of hindsight, I can tell you why it went through all that agony before it sorted itself onto the page. It just had to. It was a different story to Slated, and it needed to go through a process that was different and unique to that story.

An interesting question at the end of it all, one that I've been asked a few times already, is this: which of the two am I happiest with? The book that dreamed itself into being, or the one I had to do battle to get out? In a way there is an enormous sense of satisfaction in the latter. Yet....Slated is my first, and will always hold a special place because of that. I can't choose.

To celebrate the launch of Fractured, I'm holding a special competition on my website teriterry.com: leave a comment there to have a chance to have a character named after you in book 3. Unlike book 3 itself, most of the characters in it have names, but a few need help.

Special MASSIVE thanks to my very patient editors on both sides of the pond: Megan Larkin and Rosie Turner at Orchard Books, and Nancy Paulsen and Sara Kreger at Nancy Paulsen Books.

Now time for some of this:

I'd put up a picture of my new chair, but it hasn't come yet.