tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26164109147700114382024-03-14T02:43:37.782-07:00Almost TrueA blog by Keren David, YA authorKeren Davidhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13121027210783177857noreply@blogger.comBlogger214125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2616410914770011438.post-51333422546155621062013-11-27T00:26:00.002-08:002013-11-27T00:26:52.733-08:00Moved!This blog has been very quiet in 2013, but it's not dead, it's just found a new home. From now on it'll be at <a href="http://kerendavid.com/">kerendavid.com</a> and I hope to see you there. Keren Davidhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13121027210783177857noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2616410914770011438.post-25364877070924448752013-07-31T15:39:00.001-07:002013-07-31T15:43:13.745-07:00Lia at the Bridewell - edited highlightsSo, here are the edited highlights of Lia's Guide at the Bridewell, performed by the wonderful students of the MTA.<br />
We're now going to work on rewrites, so I'm not sure when it will be on next - I'll keep you posted.<br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="270" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/EkrS8pLWtO8" width="480"></iframe>Keren Davidhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13121027210783177857noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2616410914770011438.post-69750168768579792632013-06-22T17:12:00.000-07:002013-06-23T03:07:21.318-07:00Lia's Guide at the Bridewell<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">As promised, some pictures from the production of Lia's Guide to Winning the Lottery which was on at the Bridewell Theatre June 12 to 15. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The production was pretty scary for me, as we haven't had long to work on Lia, and all my friends and family were lining up to see it, but luckily I was blessed with fabulous collaborators, creatives and cast, the audiences were enthusiastic and we sold out almost every performance. Special thanks to Paul Herbert, Andy Barnes and everyone at Perfect Pitch, Ryan McBryde who directed, and Lizzi Gee, the choreographer. The cast were the best advert possible for their college - <a href="http://www.themta.co.uk/">the MTA,</a> which offers the UK's first accelerated training scheme for musical theatre professionals</span>. <span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I hope Lia's Guide brings them the luck they deserve. Remember these names..got to be some stars of the future..</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">.<span style="font-size: xx-small;"><span style="font-size: small;">As for me, it's back to the rewrites..</span>.</span></span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Lia gets her cheque...and look who signed it</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Imogen Fowler as Lia</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Winner's advisers, Gilda and Kevin, played by Sian Watkins and Richard Watkins</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Ashton Charge as Raf - a vampire sings...</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Clark James and Pamela Wernham as Lia's mum and dad</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Shaz and Jack on the trail of Lia and Raf...amid the topiary of Primrose Hill</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Lia and mates go shopping</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Phoebe Rose White as Ball 23. You'll never see such glam lottery balls again</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2eyiTe-ORqwKgMZZKZlK4Troh86xRxMuFlzFrPv2eirMOMrOqzsXxdnR6CMT0UqhvI_nU4e6fMleI0rk-5-HOqNWw6HVrLRSjDpvrwZIRj30d-PtUueHLHp6wwM-pvAMzF1Q7nIqahes/s1600/970878_10151477556187409_1982512262_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2eyiTe-ORqwKgMZZKZlK4Troh86xRxMuFlzFrPv2eirMOMrOqzsXxdnR6CMT0UqhvI_nU4e6fMleI0rk-5-HOqNWw6HVrLRSjDpvrwZIRj30d-PtUueHLHp6wwM-pvAMzF1Q7nIqahes/s1600/970878_10151477556187409_1982512262_n.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Imogen Fowler as Lia</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The three bitches...Jade Jordan, Jenny Webster and RoxyHowells-Davis</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Lia and her supernatural crush, Raf</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWekV1dTOQPOso5iH-gsiO_kL6dXwIKTvae8BY9zKmV3N8j6HQgqgS_ZwX9ogyKJm76JIsjoSBvZGY9lg9VPLvQW11UMp5-rh0EGqdZY4COonpIS4gWZ2r1tesZDHZHEG4TOVI2UHrmcI/s1600/970190_10151477559547409_2137068218_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWekV1dTOQPOso5iH-gsiO_kL6dXwIKTvae8BY9zKmV3N8j6HQgqgS_ZwX9ogyKJm76JIsjoSBvZGY9lg9VPLvQW11UMp5-rh0EGqdZY4COonpIS4gWZ2r1tesZDHZHEG4TOVI2UHrmcI/s1600/970190_10151477559547409_2137068218_n.jpg" width="240" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Passion in the internet caf..</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Alice Ferreira and Joe Toland as Lia's mates, Shaz and Jack</td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYs19xFGUMcps7xW4dS1vgRgyGJLv8pWB9gTIpFhxWir-hzQmnW4yNPSd-iSSWCRRCV4aedtKNuidiD8BMKKU6TC7tqEjc9IBerK6xpbtB9q1M28IGpvoxaHmVUSRgiJPObLqs8PfhSUA/s1600/972008_10151477559172409_956236632_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYs19xFGUMcps7xW4dS1vgRgyGJLv8pWB9gTIpFhxWir-hzQmnW4yNPSd-iSSWCRRCV4aedtKNuidiD8BMKKU6TC7tqEjc9IBerK6xpbtB9q1M28IGpvoxaHmVUSRgiJPObLqs8PfhSUA/s1600/972008_10151477559172409_956236632_n.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The seven brilliant lottery balls: Laura Jane Cook, Becki Dobbin, Simone Murphy, hannah Shaw, Remy Moynes, Rose Shalloo and Phoebe Rose White</td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"> </td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;">(thanks to the MTA for the pics)</span></span><br />
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<br />Keren Davidhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13121027210783177857noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2616410914770011438.post-88668137967706355962013-06-13T09:09:00.000-07:002013-06-13T09:09:22.781-07:00Cover reveal: Salvage<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg16iQ9536QZEvs68HHiW6yrLIK7INecyk-GIyAZZ0im7f1W4-dUk5odUPU5ih_sQtpSbaaQZ_-G1rHVu5MiwipWCAoIQAcL9z4OzUT5byYm2pudDO0803eQPy88ZR2MRBFbfroshXZ_2U/s1600/Salvage-full-cover.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="262" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg16iQ9536QZEvs68HHiW6yrLIK7INecyk-GIyAZZ0im7f1W4-dUk5odUPU5ih_sQtpSbaaQZ_-G1rHVu5MiwipWCAoIQAcL9z4OzUT5byYm2pudDO0803eQPy88ZR2MRBFbfroshXZ_2U/s400/Salvage-full-cover.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
I'm very happy to be able to reveal the cover for my next book, Salvage, which will be published in hardback by Atom Books in January 2014 - only six months to wait!<br />
<br />
I adore this cover. It shows brother and sister Aidan and Cass, who haven't seen each other for twelve years, since Cass was adopted by a wealthy family. They meet again through fate and Facebook, long-buried secrets are uncovered and the reunion changes them both forever.<br />
I love the tension in Cass's shoulders, the vulnerability of Aidan's neck. I love the colour, the font and the clean uncluttered feel of it. And I love the way it is genderfree, in its assumptions about readers and writer. <br />
Thank you Atom! I promise to have my copy edits back with you very soon!<br />
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<em>(The first night of Lia the musical went very well - a report tomorrow)</em>Keren Davidhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13121027210783177857noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2616410914770011438.post-33933459572734222162013-06-11T23:34:00.002-07:002013-06-11T23:34:58.207-07:00First Night for Lia
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjYsEnTlbz5EA8ClVSfkE_RNDS3zUEDpK6R1eBaslmo-IADl6ZztI4WiyEzZ46zhVWtx7qwOkesjxag2g7yoW7VjJprXCzNimajZoybIS4WoiHjo0W2G-7HuFAayUa6048lr3WlvV9fw-g/s1600/BKQe8ZJCcAAGYbY.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjYsEnTlbz5EA8ClVSfkE_RNDS3zUEDpK6R1eBaslmo-IADl6ZztI4WiyEzZ46zhVWtx7qwOkesjxag2g7yoW7VjJprXCzNimajZoybIS4WoiHjo0W2G-7HuFAayUa6048lr3WlvV9fw-g/s1600/BKQe8ZJCcAAGYbY.jpg" height="283" width="400" /></a><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Some people get lucky on the lottery. I got lucky just over a year ago when I received an email from a guy called Andy Barnes. He runs <a href="http://www.perfectpitchmusicals.com/">Perfect Pitch</a>, a company devoted to creating and supporting new musicals. ‘We were
wondering if you’d ever thought of adapting your book <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Guide-Winning-Lottery-Keren-David/dp/1847801919/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1371018570&sr=8-1&keywords=lia%27s+guide">Lia’s Guide to Winning the Lottery</a> into a musical?’ he wrote.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Well, no, I have to admit that I’d never given it a minute’s
thought, my daydreams being more<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>about
Hollywood blockbusters. And, err, winning the lottery. But as soon as I read the email I had visions of a big department
store number with flying shopping bags and clashing stilettos.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I liked the idea even more when I met Andy
and the rest of the Perfect Pitch team and they shared their idea of singing
lottery balls. They showed me clips from a workshop they’d held with students
from the Musical Theatre Academy, a college in Islington. My characters, singing and dancing...it was like magic.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">I’d written <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Lia’s
Guide</i> in 2010, setting myself the challenge of making a book about personal
finance attractive to teenagers. It’s a book about chance and fortune, relative
values and valuing your relatives. It’s about being very rich and very poor.
Because <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>‘dark romance’<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>dominated teen fiction at the time, I added
in a moody, mysterious love interest, a boy who was almost definitely a
vampire, an angel or a lovely, fluffy werewolf. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">I’ve learned a lot in the last few months as we set about
turning the book into the show. I’ve learned to let go of characters who worked
fine on the page but are dull or peculiar on the stage. I’ve grappled with
lyrics, and learned to love stage directions. I’ve learned that writing a
musical is more like my previous existence as a news reporter than my current
one as an author of teen fiction (the team work, the brutal deadlines, the
swingeing cuts).</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">I am a print-media person. I work with words on paper, I work for readers. Learning to think about staging, about how words sound, how an actor will interpret them, how to get people on and off a stage - it doesn't always come easily. But it's exciting to feel as though you are learning, and to be trusted with the opportunity to have a go. I'm very lucky in that Perfect Pitch partnered me with Paul Herbert whose music is so wonderful that I've quite often wanted to cut all the dialogue so we can just have back-to-back songs, and I've also been privileged to work with brilliant directors Ryan McBryde and John Brant, and choreographer Lizzi Gee. </span></div>
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">Tonight is the first night of a run of performances of the show, performed by those talented students of the MTA, many of whom took part in that initial workshop. It's a developmental version - changes will happen afterwards, but it's come on a long way from the first version of the musical, put together
with the help of a valiant bunch of students in Carlisle who work shopped the
first stages of the script. I hope Lia brings them all the luck they deserve. I'm making a list of stars of the future, and will be boring people for years now with my tales of how I knew the big names of musical theatre when they were just starting out.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">It's on at the Bridewell Theatre, just off Fleet Street, just around the corner from where I started my career in journalism 32 years ago (I was a child reporter!). Fittingly, Lia the musical, even more than the book, is about journalism. It's about misunderstandings and misinterpretations, gossip and mis-reporting, the courage it takes to tell the truth. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">I've neglected this blog in recent months because I've been writing the musical, and two books as well. I hope that anyone who comes along will think it's been worthwhile! <a href="http://lotterywinner.eventbrite.co.uk/">Details here.</a></span></div>
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Keren Davidhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13121027210783177857noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2616410914770011438.post-26991023804230771682013-01-05T16:36:00.003-08:002013-01-05T16:55:51.536-08:00Don't throw the baby out with the Sick Lit <em> (This post contains spoilers for When I Was Joe and Lia's Guide to Winning the Lottery. Don't read it if you haven't read them!!!)</em> <br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiEmPNBXudW6YhahI5pwOrsouO-36HTofc_RtDztN0z6XCK_fGtSDtujR1lgJmy077wlo8HjHNuDFf1jkmZtV-HaqrMX3ma6cJZJ6Y9SktKCs3gNJlx9gGgLtUf4XAv2mYIieKxCJGEcYM/s1600/wonder.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="248" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiEmPNBXudW6YhahI5pwOrsouO-36HTofc_RtDztN0z6XCK_fGtSDtujR1lgJmy077wlo8HjHNuDFf1jkmZtV-HaqrMX3ma6cJZJ6Y9SktKCs3gNJlx9gGgLtUf4XAv2mYIieKxCJGEcYM/s1600/wonder.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: Arial;"> I followed the 'sick lit' debate this week with great interest. It started in the Daily Mail with <a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-2256356/The-sick-lit-books-aimed-children-Its-disturbing-phenomenon-Tales-teenage-cancer-self-harm-suicide-.html">this article</a> by Tanith Carey. Here's an extract: </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 1.2em;"><strong><em>While the Twilight series and its
imitators are clearly fantasy, these books don't spare any detail of the
harsh realities of terminal illness, depression and death. </em></strong></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 1.2em;"><strong><em>Most
are also liberally peppered with sex and swearing. The blurbs for 'teen
sick-lit' - as it's become known - trip over themselves to promise
their books will drive readers 'to tears' or leave them 'devastated'.</em></strong></span><br />
<em><span style="font-family: Arial;"></span></em><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial;">Carey seems to be suggesting that teenagers should be shielded from detailed 'harsh reality' including sex and swearing, and that authors and their publishers are exploiting their emotions, trying to make them cry. Furthermore:</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhAZV2y7tNzhr00kBJfYyulB-mpuBHof-0zESeN1WdFWzdrrAMD87mxxw2lBnYBeM7hCDvyHL9NzHT5MQeLwv-B2bSWA1oyxo5oJjfN6_N0QnVMC_Ngr3VJLSY8kelPb1g7PtJg7Nb8Gs8/s1600/11284898.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhAZV2y7tNzhr00kBJfYyulB-mpuBHof-0zESeN1WdFWzdrrAMD87mxxw2lBnYBeM7hCDvyHL9NzHT5MQeLwv-B2bSWA1oyxo5oJjfN6_N0QnVMC_Ngr3VJLSY8kelPb1g7PtJg7Nb8Gs8/s1600/11284898.jpg" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial;"><br />
<span style="font-size: 1.2em;"><br /><em>
<strong>Publishers set about commissioning a raft of morbid novels,
which all too often inadvertently glamorise shocking life-and-death
issues.</strong><strong></strong></em></span><strong></strong><br /><em>
<span style="font-size: 1.2em;"><strong>'When you write for
children, you have a moral and social responsibility,' says Amanda (Craig, children's book reviewer for The Times) . 'I
think there is a cavalier attitude towards this in the publishing
industry, especially as children as young as 11 are likely to be
reading these books. </strong></span><br />
<span style="font-size: 1.2em;"><strong>'They are aimed at young teens at the time when they are most likely to go through self-harm or experience suicidal thoughts.'</strong></span></em></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">So, added to the charge is a far more serious one, that these books can encourage or inspire self-harm or suicide.</span> <br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">There have been several responses to the original article.</span><a href="http://nosycrow.com/blog/sick-lit-and-other-challenging-books-for-children-and-teenagers-what-can-t-we-talk-about-in-books-for-children-and-teenagers"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> This one</span></a><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> by Kate Wilson of Nosy Crow makes many good points, including:</span><br />
<br />
<strong><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><em>Books that deal well with difficult topics can be a safe way for children to encounter those topics.</em></span></strong><br />
<strong></strong><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">And </span><a href="http://chaosmos-outofchaoscomesorder.blogspot.co.uk/2013/01/the-sick-lit-debate.html"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">this one</span></a><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> by Vanessa Harbour</span> points out that <br />
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<br />
<strong><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><em>Reading as a child/teenager is all part of working out who you are. It
is all part of the search for an identity. Books are a chance to try on
different voices and identities to see how they fit in the safe
environment of between the pages</em>.</span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="font-family: Arial;"></span></strong><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial;">Tanith Carey responds to Vanessa's post in the comments. She says: </span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEitHFwTQ3kLlv27PkvUW0PbOyZLz4xUZjtn8wR1pqOrZnk7OPEBY61z5DhF77PVJWV7-yKdQ1ECYGxePHZmVFwwKjCT57NZnNwu8tPjFW6i-Iik6Dw1ee7bIC3DQRmYcj25kFA8b5GxthY/s1600/The_Fault_in_Our_Stars.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEitHFwTQ3kLlv27PkvUW0PbOyZLz4xUZjtn8wR1pqOrZnk7OPEBY61z5DhF77PVJWV7-yKdQ1ECYGxePHZmVFwwKjCT57NZnNwu8tPjFW6i-Iik6Dw1ee7bIC3DQRmYcj25kFA8b5GxthY/s1600/The_Fault_in_Our_Stars.jpg" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: Arial;"><strong><em>The feature also suggests that if young children are going to read these books, they should have an adult to talk through such issues.<br />Also do please address the issue that the press no longer reports anything except the most broad facts of a suicide, even though they have all the details at inquests - for fear of inspiring copycats. <br />Yet books like By the Time You Read This I Will Be Dead centres on a 15 year old bullying victim using a suicide website to set herself a deadline to kill herself - and considering how best to do it.</em></strong></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial;"><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2013/jan/04/sick-lit-young-adult-fiction-mail">Michele Pauli in the Guardian</a> was scathing about the original Mail article, calling it 'daft' and saying:</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial;"></span><br />
<strong><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><em>Frankly, I'd be more worried about a teen who wasn't a little moist-eyed
after reading a well-written book in which the main character, whom
they've grown to know and love, dies at the end. Generation of
cold-hearted psychopaths, anyone?</em></span></strong><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial;">But in the comments, Meg Rosoff, one of our best YA writers says: </span><br />
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<strong><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><em>Sorry guys, I completely 100% agree with the Mail on this one. I hate
these books. I am sick to death (HA) of all these dead/dying teen books
that somehow make you cry without any of the sense of the actual
ugliness of cancer and death. In all the books mentioned there's a
definite sense of "well at least she lost her virginity first/fell in
love", allowing the reader to sigh with misery/pleasure at the outcome.
Kids dying is unbearably ugly and awful and doesn't allow you to sigh
and cry. And most dying kids aren't thinking about getting laid. Lord
knows, I don't hate gritty subjects for teens. The grittier the better
in my opinion. But not this faux-grit. For an honest book about death,
try Patrick Ness' A Monster Calls. Or Maurice Gleitzman's holocaust
books Once and Then.</em></span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="font-family: Arial;"><em></em></span></strong><br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: Arial;">And another top YA writer, Anthony McGowan joins in too: </span><br />
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<strong><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><em>The dying child has become an equally lazy trope in Y/A fiction - just
as formulaic and silly and the wizards and dragons. Judging by these
books you'd think that there's a 50-50 chance of any kid dying of
cancer. The field is ripe for satire ...</em></span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="font-family: Arial;"></span></strong><br />
<strong><span style="font-family: Arial;"></span></strong><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial;">There are now so many strands to this argument, that it's hard to know where to begin. It seems to me that these are the most important.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial;"> -<em> Is there something intrinsically more shocking/dangerous/upsetting about books which deal with strong emotions, death, sickness, and so on in a contemporary realist setting, as opposed to fantasy?</em></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial;">I think not. Many adults feel easier with children reading fantasy. Perhaps they feel there is a mutual understanding that it is 'only a story', that vampires don't exist, that the book will not be taken too seriously. But I believe that teenagers are able to understand that a contemporary story is as much a fiction as Harry Potter. Some of them prefer to read about the world about them. Others don't. It's a personal choice. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial;"><em> - Is there a trend towards mawkish and exploitative books about cancer and death?</em> </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial;">Maybe. I haven't read all of them. There are certainly a lot of them, and a cancer book won the Carnegie Medal last year (A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness) The ones I have read by John Green (The Fault in Our Stars), Sally Nicholls (Ways to Live Forever) and Sophia Bennett (The Look) are well-written and engaging. They include some medical details, and don't dodge uncomfortable and difficult emotions. In The Fault in Our Stars the boy had another girlfriend with cancer - and he didn't like her, because her cancer affected her moods and she was not nice to be with. This seems to me to be honest, unsentimental, interesting. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial;">I haven't come across a book which is written solely to be a <em>Love Story</em> type weepie, but I'm sure they exist. Of course you cry. A book about a child sick or dying would be a failure if it didn't move you to tears. That doesn't necessarily make it mawkish, sentimental or exploitative. Sometimes it is hard to cry about the things that actually matter in one's life. A book, a film, the death of a celebrity may provide catharsis. I remember weeping over the death announcements of strangers in the week after my mother-in-law's death. So a book might be sentimental, it might be shallow, but it might also help a teenager release difficult feelings.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial;">Tanith Carey in the Mail doesn't like 'harsh realities' and Meg thinks 'the grittier the better'. I think a book needs to be as gritty as the story and characters demand. I don't like fake emotions, I don't like feeling manipulated by an author or film maker (Spielberg, pah) but I don't like gratuitous gore either. Tell the story. Be honest. Think about the affect on your audience. A teen audience is different from an adult audience in that your book may be their introduction to important questions. So don't assume knowledge or cynicism in your reader, just give them enough detail to understand more, empathise more, care about the story they are being told. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial;"> </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial;"><em>Can books for teenagers about self-harm or suicide actually encourage vulnerable teens to try these things for themselves? </em></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial;"></span><br />
<em><span style="font-family: Arial;"></span></em><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial;">I think the answer to this has to be yes...a qualified yes. Teenagers can be vulnerable, volatile, emotional, self-destructive. They can seize on anything - a book, a film, a song lyric - and use it as an inspiration for terrible things. So there is, as Amanda Craig says, a huge moral responsibility for authors and editors when they write about any subject. In general they take that responsibility seriously. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial;">In the case of self-harm, I doubt that many teenagers will first hear about it from a novel. Sadly it is a common part of modern life. I first got the idea of making my character Claire in <em>When I Was Joe</em> a self-harmer when I read a news story saying how common it was for teenage girls to cut themselves. I immediately made the link with boys arming themselves with knives - a link also picked up by my former colleague David Aaronovitch in this column for <a href="http://www.martinfrost.ws/htmlfiles/july2008/david_aaronovich.html#stabbing">The Times</a>. I thought a lot about how to introduce this theme, and how my main character Ty would respond (he finds it sexually exciting, which disturbs him). I thought about how to convey this in a responsible way, with just enough detail, so it is realistic but not salacious or attractive.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial;"> I would never recommend <em>When I Was Joe</em> for a 10 year old, because of this aspect of the plot. The only child that I know of who tried to self-harm after reading When I Was Joe was primary school age - too young for the content, in my opinion. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial;"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial;">When writing the book I asked my daughter, then aged 12, what she knew about self-harming. She showed me an article in Sugar magazine offering advice on what to do if a friend is self-harming. The advice was to encourage the friend to talk about her feelings - no mention of talking to adults. So I mirrored this advice in the book - it doesn't work - and eventually it is made clear (I hope) that the appropriate action to take is to tell a parent or teacher. Claire's problems are not easily solved. I don't like books where a counsellor magically solves all the problems. I can see myself returning to her as a character in future books. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">It seems to me that it is possible that a child might get the idea of self-harming from a book - but that the book is never going to be the only cause of that self-harm. But books can also show you what to do and what not to do when you are supporting a self-harming friend. Or a friend threatening suicide. I have been involved in real life in advising teenagers what to do when their friend threatened suicide. It helped enormously to have thought and read about this in the past. I advised them to tell their school. Teens should not be bearing this sort of responsibility. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">It also seems to me that if a group of friends all start self-harming then the idea could come from a book, but also that there is something very wrong with their environment. It might be school, it might be home, it might be the friendship group itself. The book may be a trigger, it is unlikely to be the beginning and the end of the story.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">I've never read a book that set out how to commit suicide (and would think that inappropriate and irresponsible). I would also be concerned by books which suggest that suicide is a good way to escape one's troubles or take revenge on one's enemies. I have seen this once or twice in teen books, describing very extreme situations, and I found it worrying. Powerful but worrying. I would hope that teen books would emphasise the importance of life, of enduring and overcoming even the worst problems.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial;"> I just finished reading <em>The Storyteller</em> by Antonia Michaelis, a German YA book which would give the editor of the Daily Mail a heart attack. (spoiler alert!) In it a girl is raped - but she forgives her attacker, whose life is all too realistically grim. It's a book which features child abuse, male prostitution, drug addiction - and ends with a teen suicide. It's also lyrical and sensitive, as concerned with the power of words and metaphor as with the grittiness of the story. It's an extraordinary book. Not for ten-year-olds. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">Books like The Storyteller challenge teenage and adult readers. But some less ambitious books are, to my mind, almost more worrying. I mean those silly </span><span style="font-family: Arial;">'undead' books, paranormal books which suggest that death isn't really death, but actually a way of making yourself cooler, strong, more beautiful. Take the Beautiful Dead series by Eden Maguire:</span><br />
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<span id="freeText18138882478428331069"><em>Souls
in limbo, they have been chosen to return to the world to set right a
wrong linked to their deaths and bring about justice. Beautiful,
superhuman and powerful, they are marked by a 'death mark' - a small
tattoo of angel's wings. Phoenix tells her that the sound of invisible
wings beating are the millions of souls in limbo, desperate to return to
earth.Darina's mission is clear: she must help Jonas, Summer, Arizona,
and impossibly, her beloved Phoenix, right the wrong linked to their
deaths to set them free from limbo so that they can finally rest in
peace. Will love conquer death? And if it does, can Darina set it free?</em></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Now, this is clearly twaddle (I've never read the books, so I suppose they might be better than the blurb suggests) but does an unhappy and impressionable teen know that?</span> <br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Some of the dark romances, so popular in recent years, glamorised death, dangling prospects of sexy after-lifes. This was the trope that I set out to satirise in Lia's Guide by creating Raf, a boy with all the allure of a supernatural being - gorgeous, moody, friendless and mysterious, who turns out to be depressed and broke, survivor of a suicide attempt. 'All that time we thought <span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">he was one of the undead,' says Lia, 'and we never knew how near he'd been to just plain dead and gone. Ashes in the air or rotten flesh in the ground.'</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Times New Roman;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Lia's Guide confused some readers because it is a romantic comedy which has big themes - money, debt, sex, suicide. At the moment I am adapting it to be a musical, which means it is (hopefully) going to be even funnier. Re-working it has been an interesting experience. Quite often I have to remind myself why I thought a certain plot point was important, why Lia or Raf act as they do. I wanted to satirise the teen books which suggest that death is glamorous and desirable, that moodiness and stalking is attractive, that sex is more frightening than death. Some of these themes will be lost in the musical - they belong in the context of a teen novel. But my point is really that it's not just 'issue' books or 'sick lit' that tackle big, important subjects. A rom com can help kids to gain insight and understanding, using laughter not tears.</span></span><br />
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My worry when journalists, authors and experts start condemning some teen books as sentimental or shocking, is that there is a suggestion that some books are not worth reading. A good librarian, a sensitive parent, will find the right book for the right child, and be there to talk to if a book is upsetting. The mawkish, the sentimental, the grim even the dreary all have their place. The most important thing is that teenagers have access to books and the chance to make their own choices. They have moved into a different phase of childhood, one in which they are preparing to become adults. Over-protected teens become anxious and unready adults.<br />
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One of the most sentimental books that I read last year was a piece of sick-lit. Wonder by R J Palacio is a story of a boy with terrible facial deformities who starts school for the first time and - surprise! - eventually triumphs over bullies and prejudice. Simon Mason, reviewing it for the Guardian said: '<em>Wonder</em> certainly delivers what it promises – an emotional
roller-coaster ride in which tears, laughter and triumphant fist-pumping
are mandatory.' It is - in parts - mawkish. I found it strange and worrying that the principal kept on reassuring parents that the school was not going to take other disabled children. <br />
However, despite its flaws, Wonder is also heart-warming, engaging, tear-jerking and important - showing children their power to hurt and heal. Would I give it to kids to read? I certainly would. <br />
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<br />Keren Davidhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13121027210783177857noreply@blogger.com11tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2616410914770011438.post-83976129728343932012012-10-30T17:00:00.001-07:002012-10-30T17:00:20.969-07:00The Next Big ThingSo, this week I'm taking part in the Next Big Thing meme which has been going around various writer's blogs..and very interesting they've been too. I was tagged by <a href="http://dellasays.wordpress.com/2012/10/17/the-next-big-thing/">Keris Stainton</a> and <a href="http://www.rutheastham.com/the-next-big-thing/">Ruth Eastham</a> and you can read their posts by clicking on their names.<br />
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The idea is that we share a bit about the book we're working on, by answering some questions, which was actually quite hard for me. The thing is that I've written one book - first draft anyway - but now set it aside to work on another one, for which I have a looming deadline. And then there's the musical for <em>Lia's Guide to Winning the Lottery</em> which is taking quite a bit of my time. But this is the one I'm working on now, and this is the one I have a publication date for - all being well, January 2014. <br />
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<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><strong>What is the working title of your book?</strong></span><br />
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<strong>Salvage.</strong> I got the idea when I lost my kindle at a shopping centre and it was found by someone whose husband tracked me down by looking at the list of books and working out that Keren's kindle was probably something to do with the Keren David whose books were listed there. He owns something called the <a href="http://archive.homesandbargains.co.uk/outlet_week.php?id=92">Salvage Shop</a> in north London. The name chimed with my latest idea.<br />
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<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><strong>Where did the idea come from for the book?</strong></span><br />
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I read a news story ages ago about birth families contacting adopted children through Facebook, and then a social worker friend of mine said 'I know what you ought to write a book about!' and it turned out to be the same idea. <br />
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<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><strong>What genre does your book fall under?</strong></span><br />
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You could call it contemporary realism, but I like BritGrit. <br />
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<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><strong>Which actors would you choose to play your characters in a movie rendition? </strong></span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgvqIi1PlYw5NDeuL8EqS0bdc4QXfQCF8RpmUTen-msr4VxJ8Mi9_uoH55ZQ9bM5T6WZKG5GjW4LBjq_ASPcCCfXlFHS65ID7FKzQMT-jLC_lTHpgIUUh9jnmvJxoLHlGkFhms-LPrFOB0/s1600/nathan-misfits.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgvqIi1PlYw5NDeuL8EqS0bdc4QXfQCF8RpmUTen-msr4VxJ8Mi9_uoH55ZQ9bM5T6WZKG5GjW4LBjq_ASPcCCfXlFHS65ID7FKzQMT-jLC_lTHpgIUUh9jnmvJxoLHlGkFhms-LPrFOB0/s320/nathan-misfits.jpg" width="320" /></a>Robert Sheehan who played Nathan in Misfits would be good for Aidan, as long as he can lose his Irish accent and Kaya Scodelario who was Effie in Skins could work as Cass, his sister. Will, Cass's friend could be John Boyega who was in Attack the Block (lovely smile), but he'd have to grow his hair. <br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEho6fkOZCDcu32mg6f7mQT1MJZnpd1UJdM9MIoyNLw_W3y3mbCPrMAWHbEGQRKCLHFOVkzUAYC43PqnLYY9JVfGzpKRITVnY8HmfQ6ogQbqDMLs7RD_HheQdeKxwAc4aVEYrV069VTByXQ/s1600/Effy-Stonem-skins-girls-27649244-1600-900.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEho6fkOZCDcu32mg6f7mQT1MJZnpd1UJdM9MIoyNLw_W3y3mbCPrMAWHbEGQRKCLHFOVkzUAYC43PqnLYY9JVfGzpKRITVnY8HmfQ6ogQbqDMLs7RD_HheQdeKxwAc4aVEYrV069VTByXQ/s320/Effy-Stonem-skins-girls-27649244-1600-900.jpg" width="320" /></a><span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><strong>What is the one-sentence synopsis of your book?</strong></span><br />
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When siblings Aidan and Cass are reunited through Facebook, painful memories can't be repressed.<br />
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<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><strong>Will your book be self-published or represented by an agency?</strong></span><br />
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It is represented by my agent, Jenny Savill of Andrew Nurnberg Associates and will be published in the UK by Atom Books. <br />
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<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><strong>How long did it take you to write the first draft of your manuscript?</strong></span><br />
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I'm still writing it! My deadline is December 15! Eek!<br />
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<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><strong>What other books would you compare this story to within your genre?</strong></span><br />
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It's a bit different from my other books - more of an emotional family story. Maybe Katie Dale's <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Someone-Elses-Life-Katie-Dale/dp/0857071416">Someone Else's Life.</a> <br />
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<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><strong>Who or what inspired you to write this book?</strong></span><br />
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My friend the social worker, and another friend who talked to me about her experience of adoption. <br />
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<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><strong>What else about your book might pique the reader’s interest?</strong></span> <br />
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It's possibly the darkest book I've written so far. <br />
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Now it's my turn to tag some other writers who'll be posting about their work in progress on their blogs next Wednesday. And they are:<br />
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<a href="http://saragrant.jimdo.com/">Sara Grant</a> - I can't wait to find out what Sara's working on, her <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Dark-Parties-Sara-Grant/dp/1780620195">Dark Parties</a> is one of the best teen dystopias around.<br />
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<a href="http://www.randomhouse.co.uk/authors/savita-kalhan">Savita Kalhan</a> - a writer prepared to go darker and deeper than most, her <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Long-Weekend-Savita-Kalhan/dp/1842708465/ref=sr_1_fkmr1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1351640702&sr=1-1-fkmr1">The Long Weekend</a> was one of the most terrifying teen thrillers I've read.<br />
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<a href="http://davecousins.blogspot.co.uk/">Dave Cousins</a> - author of the brilliant <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Fifteen-Days-Without-Head-Cousins/dp/0192732560/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1351640746&sr=1-1">Fifteen Days without a Head</a>, BritGrit at its finest<br />
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<a href="http://bryonypearce.wordpress.com/">Bryony Pearce</a> - who isn't scared to tackle the most difficult emotions and themes, as proved by her nail-biting debut <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Angels-Fury-Bryony-Pearce/dp/1405251352/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1351640785&sr=1-1">Angel's Fury</a> </div>
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Keren Davidhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13121027210783177857noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2616410914770011438.post-81209171719655817882012-10-27T00:00:00.000-07:002012-10-27T00:00:04.243-07:00A musical interlude...I was always being told off as a child for day-dreaming. It's not an activity that's valued, especially at school.<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjOB5GJ5XiVoRgFDyaz7kimuxxf-nTXZwdy8atGBratsHqT6Gy58X6QoedExyket2pCBybYLM08o6EiorSj7ysyxTjAquqPipN-qhQUJJIfGT-dXJ7mwkyAMFebABCahG9qG5tqZPAxTKg/s1600/lia.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjOB5GJ5XiVoRgFDyaz7kimuxxf-nTXZwdy8atGBratsHqT6Gy58X6QoedExyket2pCBybYLM08o6EiorSj7ysyxTjAquqPipN-qhQUJJIfGT-dXJ7mwkyAMFebABCahG9qG5tqZPAxTKg/s320/lia.jpg" width="199" /></a>How wrong they were. It turns out that day-dreaming is one of the most important elements in writing fiction. The more I can lose myself in my latest story, persuade myself that I am writing about real people, the better the writing goes. It's a strange process though - persuading yourself that imaginary people are real, capturing them on the page and then letting go of them again.<br />
So just think how surreal it was for me last week to find myself in a room surrounded by characters that I had invented. What's more, they were singing lyrics based on the words I'd written, and instead of the London accents I'd imagined they were speaking in broad Lancastrian/Scottish/Yorkshire. There were moments when I felt as though I'd strayed into a dream.<br />
In fact, I was in Carlisle, working with students on the University fo Cumbria's musical theatre course to develop the musical of my book <em>Lia's Guide to Winning the Lottery, </em> alongside director John Brant, choreographer Cressida Carre and Musical Director Harriet Oughton, and Andy and Wendy Barnes from Perfect Pitch, the organisation which is developing the musical.<br />
It was something completely new for me - I've never been involved in the theatre at all - but it's actually the culmination of an ambition that I'd completely forgotten about. When I was a teenager I loved musicals, and I longed to write a musical - but I had no idea how to go about it, and so - typically - never even gave it a go.<br />
We started with thedialogue from the book, and part of the week's work was to identify which characters translated quite easily to the stage - Jack, Lia's laddish friend, for example - and which ones needed considerable rewriting - Raf, Lia's mysterious crush. For me that involved a certain amount of analysis - what had I hoped to achieve by writing something in that way? How could I create the affect I wanted?<br />
I spent most of Tuesday in the Travelodge in Carlisle (a fantastic place for writing, by the way, large light rooms, no internet in the bedrooms and peace and quiet. If I ever disappear near deadline time that's where you'll find me). re-writing Act One. I had to leave before the end of the week, but it was a complete joy to watch John, Harriet and Cress working with the students, creating scenes based on the book and helping them develop their ideas and skills. As for the students - I can't wait to come up to Carlisle again and see how you've got on, you achieved so much in only three days.<br />
I'm writing two books at the moment - that's why you haven't heard much from me on this blog. One book is due mid-December. Another is finished - the first draft anyway - and I am itching to rework it second time around. Add to that the work I need to do on the musical, and organising my lovely son's barmitzvah (January), and you can understand why I feel a little stressed and occasionally overwhelmed.<br />
But there's something about musicals that lift your spirits and inject you with energy. The music for Lia's Guide that I've heard so far (composed by the very talented Paul Herbert) is gorgeous. I've been humming it all week. I can't wait to share it with more people.<br />
I haven't won the lottery yet. But this week I felt as though I had.Keren Davidhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13121027210783177857noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2616410914770011438.post-65457627335625537062012-09-06T15:59:00.002-07:002012-09-06T16:02:27.030-07:00Another Life is outI nearly missed it, but there's half an hour left of publication day for <i>Another Life.</i><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUnEBYLMRWOmISqdsDtjtOGuGyzngnf49TxXnCTboTxad_WStinFO4yHTFEGh7skR9YIHAVvfin9yzi36imDDPSFpwnmhyphenhyphen0XXNVCVgWHMvIL50mNF3Y0kQckrBYMBZdf4RyXPNS5uGpaY/s1600/Another_Life.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUnEBYLMRWOmISqdsDtjtOGuGyzngnf49TxXnCTboTxad_WStinFO4yHTFEGh7skR9YIHAVvfin9yzi36imDDPSFpwnmhyphenhyphen0XXNVCVgWHMvIL50mNF3Y0kQckrBYMBZdf4RyXPNS5uGpaY/s320/Another_Life.jpg" width="206" /></a>It's a very special book for me. To be given the chance to develop characters, themes and stories over three books is a real privilege. I have to thank everyone who championed the books - librarians, booksellers, reviewers and above all readers. Personal recommendation is the most powerful force in making a writer's career financially viable. Everyone who buys a copy of <i>Another Life</i> makes it more likely that I can afford to go on writing books in the future, so thank you.<br />
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I made quite a bold choice in <i>Another Life</i>, to change the narrator. Ty does have his own chapters, but the story is mostly told by Archie, his cousin. I hope readers won't mind the shift and willl find it interesting to look for their similarities and differences, as well as seeing Ty from the outside and considering how much they trust their view of him. The cousins are both capable of great stupidity and can be infuriatingly annoying (especially Archie) but I hope they are occasionally admirable and generally endearing. I'm very fond of them both, which is surprising as I specifically created Archie to be as irritating as possible.<br />
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I'm, also very fond of their dads, although Danny (Ty's dad) is generally hopeless (but learning fast) and I'm sure that my affection for David, Archie's fierce dad, won't be shared by any of my teen readers who are generally much tougher on parental figures than I am. Their grandfather, Patrick is possibly my favourite character in the entire series (although he's as flawed as any of them), and perhaps now is the time to admit that he was slightly based on our very own Prince Philip.<br />
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<i> Another Life</i> is a book about sons and fathers, crime and punishment, about rich and poor, and the inter-connectedness of Londoners despite the huge disparities in wealth. It was partly inspired by learning that children at my daughter's school, a big inner city comprehensive, attend assemblies aimed at preventing them getting involved in knife crime while pupils at a nearby private school are warned against drug-taking and a party lifestyle. <br />
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Some people have asked me if there will be any more books about Ty. I have to admit that I think it's unlikely, as I'm now changing publishers and looking forward to new projects. But it's possible they might make guest appearances in other books (I really wish I'd found a way of getting Archie into <i>Lia's Guide to Winning the Lottery </i>I could see them getting on very well) and I'm interested in the future for Ty's baby sister Alyssa. There's one huge question left at the end of Another Life, and it involves his friend Arron. So you never know.<br />
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I've been neglecting this blog recently, for which I'm sorry, but my life has been very hectic and somewhat stressful, full of anxiety and problems. I've been working like crazy to pull together one book, and now that I am nearly finished (tomorrow, I hope) need to move on to the next one with barely time to draw breath. I've got school visits next week, including one to Zurich International School - I'm working on the musical for <i>Lia's Guide, </i>it's been school holidays and I've just started a monthly newspaper column.Things should quieten down a bit by February...except there's another book I want to write then...<br />
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It's two minutes to midnight, so I'd better post this while it's still September 6. Thanks for reading! <br />
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<br />Keren Davidhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13121027210783177857noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2616410914770011438.post-7918130244442237602012-08-16T07:55:00.001-07:002012-08-16T07:56:02.103-07:00Atomised!<br />
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So, I can at last share with you my second bit of good news...which is most welcome following the sad news earlier in the year about the end of the children's fiction list at Frances Lincoln.</div>
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I have agreed a two-book deal with Atom!</div>
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The first book is Salvage, about Aidan and his sister Cass who haven't seen eachother for years because Cass was adopted by another family. They are reunited as teenagers, but it is a bittersweet reunion. </div>
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The second is still in development (that means ideas are buzzing around in my brain like a demented wasp).</div>
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I've been planning and thinking about Salvage for ages, because I'd thought it would be my next book for Frances Lincoln, so it's brilliant to be able to get on and write it. Atom's Editorial Director Samantha Smith really gets what I try and do, so I think it's a great home for my contemporary YA books. Atom published Twlight in the UK, and if you read Almost True or Lia's Guide you'll know that I'm ever so slightly obsessed.. And they also recently published Adorkable by Sarra Manning, one of my favourite books of 2012 so far.</div>
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While I've been waiting to find out what would happen with Salvage, I've been working on two other books...still no idea what will happen with them. It's been an interesting year so far, to put it mildly.</div>
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Here's the deal as reported in Book Brunch (an industry website)</div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><strong> </strong></span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><strong> Atom buys 'home-grown YA' from Keren</strong> <strong>David</strong></span></div>
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Atom Editorial Director Samantha Smith has acquired two
new "home-grown contemporary YA" novels by multi-award-winning author
Keren David, buying UK and Commonwealth rights from Jenny Savill of
Andrew Nurnberg Associates International Ltd.
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The first of the two stand-alone novels, <i>Salvage</i>
tells the story of two siblings from a neglectful home, who were
separated as young children when one was adopted by a middle-class
family. Now aged 16 and 18 they are reunited through Facebook, with none
of the preparation and support that social workers advise.</span><br />
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"Keren David treads that immensely difficult line between being
compulsively readable but not shying away from many of the real, and
heart-breaking, issues that teens face," says Smith. "We’re thrilled to
be bringing such a strong, British author onto the list and have big
plans for Keren in the future."<br />
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A former journalist, David made the transition to writing teen fiction with the publication of <i>When I Was Joe</i> in 2010. Her latest novel, <i>Lia’s Guide to Winning the Lottery</i>, was published in summer 2011 and is currently being made into a musical.<br />
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"I am thrilled to be working with Atom," says David. "I think there's a
growing audience in the UK for home-grown contemporary YA, and it's
great to get a vote of confidence from a leading publisher."<br />
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Atom - the Little, Brown Book Group’s children’s and young adult imprint - will publish <i>Salvage</i> in early 2014.
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Keren Davidhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13121027210783177857noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2616410914770011438.post-4941347254905014612012-08-01T14:15:00.003-07:002012-08-01T14:15:35.924-07:00Lia the Musical!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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I haven't posted much on this blog recently because I've been busy with all sorts of things, most of them secret. I've been writing and having meetings and writing some more, and I hope to have some news about some of that quite soon.</div>
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But in the meantime something has happened which I can talk about. Something, in fact, which I can sing about. LIA'S GUIDE TO WINNING THE LOTTERY IS GOING TO BE A MUSICAL!</div>
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I have to admit when I first got the email, I thought it was too exciting to be true. <a href="http://www.perfectpitchmusicals.com/">Perfect Pitch,</a> an Arts Council funded company which creates and supports new musical theatre and then licenses it for performance, had been researching the idea of a musical about a teenage lottery winner and came across my book. They read it, enjoyed it and thought it would work well as a musical. As Lia might say: SQUEEE!</div>
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I've never been involved in anything to do with musical theatre before, but when I was a teenager it was definitely an ambition of mine to write a musical (an ambition so deeply buried that I'd forgotten all about it until Perfect Pitch got in touch). And musicals must be in my blood -my maternal grandparents met when they co-starred in a youth club production of Glbert and Sullivan's Yeoman of the Guard.</div>
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Most amazingly of all, Perfect Pitch had already workshopped a few scenes with some drama students, so I was able to see my characters acting and singing - something that broguht tears to my eyes.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">The plan is to get on with the writing and staging quite quickly, in order to showcase the new musical to theatre compnaies next year. I can't wait to learn more about how a musical is put together. It's been the perfect mood-lifter during some tense and stressful months. I'll be reporting on our progress in the next few months. </span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxAp6KWrUr2Ap2xHzUV8DfyDhUJ20Mk47WJdap9Xt99bC7_oW7Nf7NvyQzLx21mc8pr8BRdA3C6-6CVZR1AqF3mYTluCJYwXxKwnptbGaSrBsRLMsuisaPtQ3Dses4mKYyasTjC59S4GM/s1600/die_letzte_aussage-9783423249560.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxAp6KWrUr2Ap2xHzUV8DfyDhUJ20Mk47WJdap9Xt99bC7_oW7Nf7NvyQzLx21mc8pr8BRdA3C6-6CVZR1AqF3mYTluCJYwXxKwnptbGaSrBsRLMsuisaPtQ3Dses4mKYyasTjC59S4GM/s1600/die_letzte_aussage-9783423249560.jpg" /></a></div>
<i style="color: black;"> <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">Some other news: My Brazilian publisher Novo Conceito is going to publish Another Life as well as When I Was Joe and Almost True. Lia's Guide is now on sale in the Netherlands, published as Wat te doen met acht milijoen?</span> <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">And my German publisher, dtv has revealed the cover for Almost True (published December</span>) <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;">The title means 'The Last Statement'.</span></i>Keren Davidhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13121027210783177857noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2616410914770011438.post-47695994976821582352012-07-07T04:56:00.000-07:002012-07-07T04:56:05.592-07:00The making of Another Life, the trailer<div style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
It's remarkably difficult to find a roof that you can jump off. Plus, it's been hard to find a day for filming when it wasn't pouring with rain. Add to that an award-winning film maker who's always rushing off to war zones, or to speak at the UN, and an author who couldn't remember which year her book was being published and you can see that it hasn't been altogether easy to make the trailer for <em>Another Life.</em></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Finlay in action<br />
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But here it is! Woo! For some reason blogger won't let me embed videos, so best to view it on <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WEDo-l4ypNQ">Youtube</a> <br />
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Anyway, the story of this trailer starts way back in the late 1980s when I worked for the Sunday Times in Glasgow. Our rival was the Observer's Scottish correspondent, one Callum Macrae. I vaguely remember him as a tall, fair, quiet bloke who I used to see in press conferences sometime. Naturally we sneered at his efforts, and he doubtless felt the same about ours.<br />
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And that was that until a few years ago when we met again and became friends through having kids at the same school. Callum now runs a television company, <a href="http://www.outsidertv.co.uk/contactus.html">Outsider Televison Production</a> which is mostly known for making stunningly good documentaries. His best known is the devastating <a href="http://www.outsidertv.co.uk/page56.html">Sri Lanka's Killing Fields</a><br />
which revealed the slaughter of civilians by Sri Lankan government forces, for this film Callum and his team were nominated for the <a href="http://www.thesundayleader.lk/2012/02/04/channel-4-video-nominated-for-nobel-prize/">Nobel Peace Prize</a> and for a BAFTA, and won an Amnesty award for best documentary.<br />
Outsider TV also make <a href="http://www.outsidertv.co.uk/evision.html">literary trailers,</a> and have worked with authors including Maggie O'Farrell, Sharon Dogar and Jed Rubenfeld. So naturally I was thrilled when Callum offered to make a trailer for me.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">New covers! These arrived this week.<br />
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Originally we were going to make a trailer for <em>Lia's Guide</em>, but Callum kept on flying off to warzones and the UN, and it never happened. So we started early with <em>Another Life</em>, and reckoned it would be a good way of drawing attention to the new covers for the whole trilogy.<br />
We brainstormed ideas for the trailer and came up with two - scenes from a boxing club, and a boy running and jumping his way along a roof. Callum actually had some footage from a boxing club, and a suitably aged teenage son, so all we had to do was find our roof.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Food from the Sky: not much room for running</td></tr>
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We called our local supermarket, the very wonderful Budgens in Crouch End because we knew there was access to their roof for the very impressive <a href="http://foodfromthesky.org.uk/">Food from the Sky</a> project, in which they grow fresh produce on the roof to sell in store. They were happy for us to come and visit. We climbed up the staircase to the roof and found a green haven of herbs, salads and vegetables, but no space at all for running and jumping, and a sensible but (for us) unhelpfully secure fence all the way around the garden.<br />
Next we tried Waitrose. The staff were very interested, but needed permission from head office - health and safety . We took the area manager's number and moved on.<br />
Further up the road the buildings are taller and older. We tried my hairdresser's - but the manager, who I know, was out. And then my opticians, the exceptionally wonderful <a href="http://www.aview.co.uk/contact.html">A View</a>. There we struck gold. Not only did they have builders working on their roof, but they were going to have to call Terry, owner of the top floor flat with access to the roof, and get him to leave work early and come home to allow the builders to climb out through his flat. What's more, when Terry arrived he turned out to be an amateur filmmaker, who was only too happy to allow us to run around on his roof. We were on! Filming set for the following week.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Terry helps get Finlay and equiptment up onto the roof<br />
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Luckily, the rain held off that weekend (surprisingly, because it's rained virtually every day since March). We arrived at Terry's flat and surveyed the scary ladder out to the roof. Did I mention that I'm scared of heights? So was Callum. Finlay, the runner and jumper, luckily was not, but as soon as we got out onto the roof and surveyed the sheer drops on either side, Callum and I spent the entire time taking deep breaths and saying 'Finlay! Be careful!' and 'Come away from the edge!'<br />
Finlay was very good-natured about the whole thing and ran and jumped brilliantly, despite gravel, nails, junk and people telling him not to go near the edge. <br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The edge! Scary!<br />
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And that was that. Callum and colleagues started editing and composing music, creating graphics and deciding along the way that we didn't need the boxing club footage. I waited. Eventually I got an email from Callum. It's done! Here's the link!<br />
Unfortunately we were away at the time, celebrating my husband's birthday at a hotel by the seaside (yes it rained, but we had a great time anyway). The link came through in the evening, when we'd had a nice meal and a few glasses of wine. It took ages to get an internet link, but eventually I did it. 'Wow!' I texted back to Callum 'I love it! It just needs one thing - a screen at the end with the name of the book,the publishers and the date of publication. September 2013.'<br />
Well, never ask an author for accurate information when she's a) had a few drinks and b) just seen the amazing trailer for her book. Yes, they added the end shot. No, the book is not published in 2013. It's published in 2012!!!! It took a remarkably long time to sort out that error.<br />
In the meantime I've been showing the trailer on school visits, and getting a good response. Some pupils have suggested that it'd make a great film. I think Callum's done an extraordinary job of getting inside Ty's head (or maybe this is Archie?) and encapsulating the essence of the book. Thank you, once again!<br />
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</tbody></table>Keren Davidhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13121027210783177857noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2616410914770011438.post-82281263910101753562012-05-07T09:52:00.001-07:002012-05-07T11:04:00.472-07:00What's your name?<div class="separator" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiFJmIWy7lPJ96zL0EfGO80LzMbc5BM-hFFBLA4LoGJJ8jgA1nRHsBjrELOK9PD2nwmJZLZkOcuQ0phaGbZgLEY8NQeinTmJqNrF3sNjb-K1KonuIumY0oWTqoo8UVnA0SKo9zlY1_SVRI/s1600/naming-1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; cssfloat: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" mea="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiFJmIWy7lPJ96zL0EfGO80LzMbc5BM-hFFBLA4LoGJJ8jgA1nRHsBjrELOK9PD2nwmJZLZkOcuQ0phaGbZgLEY8NQeinTmJqNrF3sNjb-K1KonuIumY0oWTqoo8UVnA0SKo9zlY1_SVRI/s320/naming-1.jpg" width="286" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">One of the things I thought would be the easiest things about writing books turns out to be one of the hardest. Why is it so difficult to name my characters?</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial;">It's not, as I fondly imagined, just a case of picking your favourite names and sprinkling them around. Naming characters is an intricate alchemy, part art, part science and the more books you write the more difficult it gets.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial;">Some things to consider:</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial;"> - your character's <strong>age</strong>. Which names work for someone of their age, class, nationality and with those particular parents? </span><span style="font-family: Arial;">Some authors make the mistake of thinking that the names of teenagers when they were teens (in my case Tracey, Susan, Dave, Gary) are still used for teens today. Others pick the names they'd give a baby now and apply it to a 16 year old. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial;"> - the names of <strong>other characters</strong> in your book. It's just too confusing to have Kieran, Kevin, Kerry and Karen in the same book. Oh how I wish I'd remembered that when I named Claire and Carl in <em>When I Was Joe.</em>I had to rename Edward in <em>Almost True</em> when Claire started wittering on about Twilight..it took me ages to find and love the name Patrick.</span><br />
<em><span style="font-family: Arial;"> </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">- </span></em><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">the names of your <strong>friends</strong>, your friends' children, your children's friends, your family. Claire in <em>When I Was Joe</em> was originally called Katie..but I have a good friend called Katie. When Katie's role grew, the weirdness of her being called Katie provoked a rethink, and she became Claire. My dad's name is Joseph, called Joe by non family members, but Joseph in the family. Quite a few people think I named my book after my dad.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial;"> - how to <strong>pronounce</strong> the names you've chosen. I got somewhat fed up with the number of people - my agent, my writing group - who called Raf (from <em>Lia's Guide</em>) Rafe. In the end I made a point of explaining it in the text.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> - How the name works <strong>internationally</strong>. Jack in <em>Lia's Guide</em> was going to be Jamie, until a friend told me it was a girls' name in America.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">Some people use baby name guides to find character names, I prefer Facebook (just find a connection of the right sort of age and look at their friend list). Another very useful tool is a<a href="http://names.darkgreener.com/"> new blog</a> which maps baby naming patterns for England and Wales since 1996. Want to know how many girls were called Champagne in 1996? This is where to find out (that it was zero, interestingly enough). </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">Sometimes people name characters after friends or colleagues or important people in the children's book industry. I have a plant in <em>Another Life</em> which, I am reliably informed, bears the same name as a plant owned by a Carnegie judge...which Carnegie judge I am not entirely certain...anyway it has to work, doesn't it?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">Sometimes I ask Twitter. People are only too happy to help, sometimes volunteering their own names, never mind the character. This is how my sometime colleague Marcus has ended up with TWO characters named after him - a whinging failed X Factor winner in <em>Lia's Guide</em> and a whinging stoner in <em>Another Life.</em>The real Marcus is nothing like either of his namesakes, I hasten to add.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">I've been asked by kids I know to put them in a book - which is fine, but it has to be the right kid and the right book. Keja, you made it into<em> Another Life -</em> but I changed the spelling to reflect how you pronounce your name. Sorry!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">Sometimes writers suffer retrospective naming regret once a book is in print, and can hardly bear to be reminded that they once thought that 'Graham' or 'Trevor' was a cool name for their hero. Others only realise after the book is published that Alistair is spelled Alastair for half of the book *whistles casually and walks away from the scene of the crime*.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">The problem is that often you're called upon to name a whole bunch of people all at once, so all the fun of picking names evaporates in the panic of finding the right names that all go together without losing the thread of what you want to say about them. Pick the wrong name and...it just sounds wrong. It spoils the character. It puts you off.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial;">I'm naming characters right now. I have a Sadie and a Hannah - two names I love, but both are the names of friends of my children, both will probably have to change. I have a Tom - feels wrong, may grow on me. And there's Emmy, who is perfect. For the moment.</span><br />
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<br />Keren Davidhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13121027210783177857noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2616410914770011438.post-85779298741693640002012-05-02T16:23:00.000-07:002012-05-02T16:24:51.914-07:00Sad news<div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhhqNFKjA_LntkBZu4-sUkOGYBSsk1REqcbxvIr3QMQK4z63ECZnqjZnKhLtHklbvtD7toZkqmSGbvYBC06GgrnSXE3XD5HzapLTzUY1a7CFlqQLlgli2_5rH4w_F3-PUV1z2gUbM0-vAM/s1600/Childrens_Catalogue-lr.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; cssfloat: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" mea="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhhqNFKjA_LntkBZu4-sUkOGYBSsk1REqcbxvIr3QMQK4z63ECZnqjZnKhLtHklbvtD7toZkqmSGbvYBC06GgrnSXE3XD5HzapLTzUY1a7CFlqQLlgli2_5rH4w_F3-PUV1z2gUbM0-vAM/s1600/Childrens_Catalogue-lr.jpg" /></a>Some of you may already know that my publisher, Frances Lincoln Children's Books are no longer going to be publishing Young Adult books. This decision has been taken by Quarto, the company that took over FLCB and parent company Frances Lincoln in August.</div>
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The decision to end the YA list, which only launched in 2010, has not been officially announced by Quarto, but it was widely discussed on Facebook today among writerly people, and I just saw it mentioned on Twitter. So I thought I'd better say my bit.</div>
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First, my next book <em>Another Life</em> will still be published as planned in September, and the new covers for <em>When I Was Joe</em> and <em>Almost True</em> will also go ahead. Frances Lincoln will continue to sell and market my books, including <em>Lia's Guide to Winning the Lottery. </em>I am relieved that this is the case, and happy that there will still be a dedicated sales and marketing team to work with.</div>
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I am, however, beyond sad to know that the brilliant editorial team will be broken up. Maurice Lyon, the editorial director was the person who saw the potential in <em>When I Was Joe,</em> when other publishers doubted the market for 'gritty realism'. Every award it has won (five), every nomination and short-listing it has achieved (a further 14) probably would not have happened without Maurice. He and I were jointly shortlisted for the Branford Boase award. <em>When I Was Joe</em> earned back its advance within a year, it has sold nearly 20,000 copies. I'm not saying any of this to boast, just to show that Maurice's instincts seem to have been proved right.<br />
<br />
Maurice and Emily are both great editors to work with, providing subtle guidance on the big stuff and keen-eyed attention to detail for the rest (not forgetting Yvonne, another member of the FL team whose eye for a misplaced comma is legendary). I'm certain that they will go on to great things at whichever publishing houses are lucky enough to employ them.<br />
The news is devastating for many other authors who were writing books for Frances Lincoln, authors who had seen the high production values in place and were delighted to work with such a wonderful team. To mention just one, Jane McLoughlin's book <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/At-Yellow-Lake-Jane-McLoughlin/dp/1847803601">At Yellow Lake</a> is due to be published in a few weeks' time. I read a preview copy and so did my 12-year-old son, we were both captivated by Jane's story. My son said it was the best book he'd read all year, and asked me to buy him a copy of the book when published - this is a boy who never re-reads anything. <br />
Britain at the moment feels like a place which is more about cuts and closures, pessimism and pratfalls, than optimism, imagination and investment. We're all learning that we can't depend on institutions- companies, government, the media - to make good or positive decisions. But we're all in charge of our own response to bad news, and, without sounding impossibly mawkish, mine is to face the future with a hopeful smile. And get writing. The stakes just got higher.Keren Davidhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13121027210783177857noreply@blogger.com28tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2616410914770011438.post-50876879783809504032012-04-19T15:36:00.001-07:002012-04-20T13:35:56.987-07:00Ty Italiano<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj5DdlqkZ_AiVzLa8U7f9ZOisnI5AHpMGG-W2DEAVL-InowwO-4xY1Xd9gLTS3XA7z6dErofiJ6dwRodclhRjtBIy6fXWh_DZ-xGbqj49CiyHZxD0DzLkwsuXYagGWLKytu3TjGpmMCjoQ/s1600/la_discesa_dei_luminosi.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj5DdlqkZ_AiVzLa8U7f9ZOisnI5AHpMGG-W2DEAVL-InowwO-4xY1Xd9gLTS3XA7z6dErofiJ6dwRodclhRjtBIy6fXWh_DZ-xGbqj49CiyHZxD0DzLkwsuXYagGWLKytu3TjGpmMCjoQ/s320/la_discesa_dei_luminosi.jpg" width="228" /></a></div>
<span class="" id="result_box" lang="en"><span title="La discesa dei luminosi che, come adulta, pur trattandosi di letteratura YA, mi incuriosisce maggiormente, tratta della ormai nota profezia dei Maya sulla fine del mondo nel 2012."> It's Ty! In Venice! What is he doing there?</span></span><br />
<span class="" id="result_box" lang="en"><span title="La discesa dei luminosi che, come adulta, pur trattandosi di letteratura YA, mi incuriosisce maggiormente, tratta della ormai nota profezia dei Maya sulla fine del mondo nel 2012."><br /></span></span><br />
<span class="" id="result_box" lang="en"><span title="La discesa dei luminosi che, come adulta, pur trattandosi di letteratura YA, mi incuriosisce maggiormente, tratta della ormai nota profezia dei Maya sulla fine del mondo nel 2012.">No, this is not a sneak peek at the plot of <i>Another Life.</i> It's an Italian YA book spotted by my eagle-eyed editor Emily Sharratt at the recent Bologna Children's Book Fair. </span></span><br />
<span class="" id="result_box" lang="en"><span title="La discesa dei luminosi che, come adulta, pur trattandosi di letteratura YA, mi incuriosisce maggiormente, tratta della ormai nota profezia dei Maya sulla fine del mondo nel 2012.">It's called The Descent of Light and according to <a href="http://www.booksblog.it/post/9125/la-discesa-dei-luminosi-e-damned-provenzi-loiacono-palumbo-esordienti-italiane-o-quasi-fantastico-ya-per-giunti-e-sperling-kupfer">this blog post</a>, it's a kind of Dan Brown meets the Mayans, SF/timeshift epic romance, set in Italy and Mexico. </span></span><br />
<span class="" id="result_box" lang="en"><span title="La discesa dei luminosi che, come adulta, pur trattandosi di letteratura YA, mi incuriosisce maggiormente, tratta della ormai nota profezia dei Maya sulla fine del mondo nel 2012.">I whipped the blog post into Google Translate and this is what I got:</span></span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjuWK5FQw8OJHjG7cdRb4JBqAEl1-bEtAh2zaiZt5giXubhw_01mVCRto4nYlB9GkxtuTXySLs7Xfi8hcF3lfuyu1SZhZY9j5LIDL8SeoPrQv5fQAXwQB54-RkqCgIMZNMuc64yADexoP8/s1600/almost_true_WIP.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjuWK5FQw8OJHjG7cdRb4JBqAEl1-bEtAh2zaiZt5giXubhw_01mVCRto4nYlB9GkxtuTXySLs7Xfi8hcF3lfuyu1SZhZY9j5LIDL8SeoPrQv5fQAXwQB54-RkqCgIMZNMuc64yADexoP8/s320/almost_true_WIP.jpg" width="208" /></a></div>
<span class="" id="result_box" lang="en"><span title="La discesa dei luminosi che, come adulta, pur trattandosi di letteratura YA, mi incuriosisce maggiormente, tratta della ormai nota profezia dei Maya sulla fine del mondo nel 2012."></span></span><i><span class="" id="result_box" lang="en"><span title="La discesa dei luminosi che, come adulta, pur trattandosi di letteratura YA, mi incuriosisce maggiormente, tratta della ormai nota profezia dei Maya sulla fine del mondo nel 2012.">'The Descent of Light that, as adults, although it is YA literature,
intrigues me most, is now known of the Mayan prophecy about the end of
the world in 2012. </span><span title="I luoghi in cui la vicenda si svolge sono ricchi di fascino e mistero: Venezia, le colline toscane, le rovine del Messico.">The places where the story takes place is full of charm and mystery of Venice, the Tuscan hills, the ruins of Mexico. </span><span title="I personaggi attraverso cui la seguiamo sono Jude e Viola.">The characters by which we follow are Jude and Viola.</span><span title="www.LibreriaUniversitaria.it Tutti i Libri Giunti a Catalogo Sconti e Sped. Gratuita oltre 20€."></span><span title="A Venezia giunge un ragazzo bellissimo (si vedano i secondi - e gli occhi - da 0.26 a 0.28 del booktrailer…).">In Venice comes a wonderful guy. </span><span title="Jude è stato incaricato dal padre di ritrovare un testo Maya, in grado di salvare l'umanità da quanto previsto dalla tremenda profezia apocalittica.">Jude
was instructed by his father to find a Maya text, that can save
humanity from the provisions of the awful apocalyptic prophecy. </span><span title="Durante le ricerche nella Biblioteca di Archeologia Jude conosce Viola, una studentessa che ha un legame drammatico proprio con il codice Maya che il ragazzo sta cercando.">During
the searches in the Library of Archaeology Jude knows Viola, a student
who has a bond with their dramatic Mayan code that the guy is trying.</span><span title="Dall'incontro dei due nascerà un amore, non voluto, ma travolgente, che dovrà sopravvivere agli eventi che a un certo punto si verificheranno e che li porteranno in Toscana e poi nel lontano Messico.">The
meeting of two born a love, not wanted, but overwhelming, that will
survive the events that occur at some point and that will take them in
Tuscany and then back in Mexico. </span><span title="Eventi che li faranno incontrare/scontrare con personaggi che, come loro, sono alla ricerca dell'importantissimo codice.">Events that they will meet / collide with characters who, like them, are seeking the all-important code.</span><span title="Ma la vicenda non è semplice come potrebbe sembrare.">But the story is not simple as it might seem. </span><span title="Non si tratta solo di una ricerca, di amici, nemici, amori, drammi e antiche vendette.">It is not just a search, friends, enemies, loves, tragedies and ancient vendettas. </span><span title="C'è un elemento che darà alla storia tutta un'altra prospettiva.">There is an element that gives the story a different perspective. </span><span title="Perchè Jude non è semplicemente un ragazzo bello come un Dio. Jude viene da lontano, molto lontano.">Why Jude is not simply a nice guy as a god by Jude is far, far away. </span><span title="Viene da un altro mondo, quello dei c.d.">It comes from another world, that of SO-CALLED </span><span title="Luminosi… (con tutte le implicazioni che, a parer mio, questo può comportare nell'ambito della passata storia della razza umana e dei suoi Dei… Ma sto solo ipotizzando…).">Bright
... (with all the implications, in my opinion, this can result in the
past history of the human race and its Gods ... But I'm just assuming
...). </span><span title="Enjoy!">Enjoy!</span></span></i><br />
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<span class="" id="result_box" lang="en"><span title="Enjoy!">Wow! </span></span><span class="" id="result_box" lang="en"><span title="Enjoy!">I am especially thrilled</span></span><span class="" id="result_box" lang="en"><span title="Enjoy!"> that Ty is called Jude, because that is my son's name</span></span><i><span class="" id="result_box" lang="en"><span title="Enjoy!">.</span></span></i><span class="" id="result_box" lang="en"><span title="Enjoy!"> And it is </span></span><span class="" id="result_box" lang="en"><span title="Enjoy!">great to see him in another guise. </span></span><span class="" id="result_box" lang="en"><span title="Enjoy!">He looks suitable moody and I think they've made his eyes very blue. </span></span><br />
<span class="" id="result_box" lang="en"><span title="Enjoy!">It's not surprising to find the same picture popping up on a different book, because the photo was sourced from a big photo library. I wonder if the original model knows about Ty and Jude. And I wonder what other uses have been made of his image. Someone once told me that'd seen Ty on a poster warning of STDs. I've never been able to find it, and I'm happy that way. </span></span>Keren Davidhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13121027210783177857noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2616410914770011438.post-46131797720761172792012-04-02T15:38:00.000-07:002012-04-02T15:38:17.925-07:00UKYA:a blog is born<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi23zZHd2Qak2zuyPpCwHGe-sy_Ubm83UZbRWDgae-40vwQUqZpuK6VCkubTMtZ3JBEUmlb8b5ewZPy3HhGWtNI5OkHrNvUlbQS-NiFdeosyxpQ1uH38zld6jPBJZBGwVjQgFR19KvFbsk/s1600/badge_1.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi23zZHd2Qak2zuyPpCwHGe-sy_Ubm83UZbRWDgae-40vwQUqZpuK6VCkubTMtZ3JBEUmlb8b5ewZPy3HhGWtNI5OkHrNvUlbQS-NiFdeosyxpQ1uH38zld6jPBJZBGwVjQgFR19KvFbsk/s1600/badge_1.png" /></a></div>It started, as so many things do, with a conversation on Twitter. A chat about the difference between teen books and Young Adult, which morphed into a wider debate about American and British books, and spawned a hashtag #UKYA.<br />
It crystallised a feeling that quite a few of us had, that American books for teens get a lot more attention than British ones, even in the UK. We go into bookshops and see special displays of imported YA books from the US. We see publicists for UK publishers promoting the latest transatlantic buy-in. And we suspect that YA is almost defined by that Mean Girls/Twilight High School feel, the proms, the basketball games, the road trips, so that reading about British kids doing GCSEs and watching EastEnders somehow feels all wrong.<br />
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Now, there's nothing wrong with American YA books, and indeed it is we British teen authors who enthusiastically rush to buy, read and praise writers like John Green. Meg Cabot and Maureen Johnson. <br />
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But then I stumbled across a group on Goodreads where American readers were asking for recommendations of British teen books, and coming up with little more than Harry Potter. And I kept on reading American YA books set in Britain, which came across as inauthentic as those awful episodes of <i>Friends</i> set in London. Or British characters in American YA books who sounded as British as Dick Van Dyke. And then I saw an internet query from an American family planning to travel to London with a teenager. Which books should they read to get them in the mood? Suggestions ranged from Oliver Twist to Swallows and Amazons. Oh and Harry Potter got a mention.<br />
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Well, there is more to UK YA than Harry Potter. To prove the point (and hopefully provide something on the internet for anyone in the world looking for authentically British books) we have set up a new blog, which should be a showcase for the best of British teen fiction. You can find it<a href="http://bit.ly/HIWCB1"> here </a>and I hope you'll follow, share and generally shout about it.<br />
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When I say we, the very wonderful Keris Stainton and Susie Day have done all the hard work (Hurray!). We'd love to get more blog posts, recommendations and comments. Please do get in touch if you'd like to be involved.<br />
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There have been moments when I've worried that our site is a bit Little Englandy - too parochial, too inwards looking and a bit unfriendly towards foreigners. But that's not the aim. We just want to celebrate the great fiction being written in Britain (not just by Brits either. Some of our best UKYA writers are in fact Americans, but they live here, so that's OK) and redress the balance a bit.<br />
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Right now the British children's best-selling lists are dominated by American Wimpy Kids and American dystopians . Sometimes I go into supermarkets or even bookshops and have to look hard to find an actual British teen book. I'd love to see Waterstones or WH Smith put on a Best of British teen book promotion. In the meantime, use that UKYA hashtag and start telling the world about our blog.Keren Davidhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13121027210783177857noreply@blogger.com21tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2616410914770011438.post-7486268012409111632012-03-29T03:12:00.000-07:002012-03-29T03:12:20.377-07:00Lia in America<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEij2RRPI7g1IUD9swn5-LziPrGJpeEAR48YUK6eENx68N3iqEUaP4kDzsr8XX6hCa6NPOrJsuHlZRKBVkolxFXjbnWJ77rxLcrDD1N5Z6RtTBKCE5yh4LEyh2GwefrrUM-UUaA0xtRPsNQ/s1600/lia.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; cssfloat: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" dea="true" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEij2RRPI7g1IUD9swn5-LziPrGJpeEAR48YUK6eENx68N3iqEUaP4kDzsr8XX6hCa6NPOrJsuHlZRKBVkolxFXjbnWJ77rxLcrDD1N5Z6RtTBKCE5yh4LEyh2GwefrrUM-UUaA0xtRPsNQ/s320/lia.jpg" width="199" /></a></div>This is the week that <em>Lia’s Guide to Winning the Lottery </em>was unleashed on the unsuspecting American and Canadian market, and my wonderful American publicists (oh how I love those words) have suggested that I wrote a blog post to mark the occasion. So, here we go. Some warnings for American readers. <br />
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1) Lia’s Guide is about a 16 year old girl. You may not like her very much. This is because I carried out extensive research into the ways of British girls (including being one myself, between 1976 and 1982) and discovered that they are mostly locked in battle with their mothers from the age of 14-16, they are self-centred, snarky and loudly assured of their own rightness. American girls may well not be like this. Anyway, stick with her, with a lot of money and some interesting experiences, she improves.<br />
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2) The book has not been translated into American. Lia walks on pavements, shops at Primark (cheap clothes, long queues), goes to the loo. Draw on your deep knowledge of British slang gained from reading Louise Rennison, Harry Potter and my other books. But don’t worry, Lia does not speak exactly like a London teenage does, because then her slang would date within minutes and no one would be able to understand her. So I have spared you sentences such as ‘That boy is bare butters,’ which means ‘That boy is very ugly’ - or it did last time I asked, anyway.<br />
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<div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">3) British culture is much more tolerant of drinking than you are in America. Binge-drinking is virtually a national sport. So it is relatively normal (although not desirable or sensible) for British teenagers to indulge in the sort of behaviour that most Americans don’t get round to until they are at college. </div><br />
<div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">4) However, a British teenager who drives and has their own car is extremely unusual. They don’t start learning to drive until they are at least 17, and the insurance payments for a teen driver are sky high. You’d have to win the lottery…oh, hang on…</div><br />
<div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">5) Lottery winners get the whole lot as a lump sum right away. There’s no question of having it paid out bit by bit as happens in your sensible nation. This system enables people like <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Carroll_%28lottery_winner%29">Michael Carroll</a> to spend his entire £9m jackpot in a matter of years. He provided lots of entertainment for the rest of us, not to mention the chance for eminent writers such as <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Lionel-Asbo-England-Martin-Amis/dp/0224096206/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1333014865&sr=1-1">Martin Amis</a> to moralise about how poor people are just too criminal and undeserving to be trusted with large amounts of money, therefore providing a powerful case for the good old British class system, designed to keep money and power in the hands of a privileged few....</div><br />
<div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">6) ..and the class system is alive and well in this book. The way people join the upper classes is by going to Public School, which is not at all the same as a public school in the US. In Britain Public Schools are very very expensive and attended by the aristocracy, the nouveau riche and foreigners. Be aware that Raf’s poshness makes him exotic and strange in an ordinary London school. Quite apart from all the other things that make him exotic, strange and possibly paranormal.</div><br />
7) I have adopted a revolutionary approach to sex in YA fiction, by portraying teen sexual encounters that MAY not end in pregnancy or disease. This is because I am fed up with books that suggest that sex is always disasterous/tacky/regrettable or described only in terms of the boy's plumbing. So, add your own health warnings. <br />
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8) American librarians, I can happily tell you that there are NO F-BOMBS in Lia's Guide. Not one. <br />
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9) You'll notice that Lia dreams of going to New York or San Francisco. So do I. Buy enough copies and may be I will...<br />
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</div>Keren Davidhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13121027210783177857noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2616410914770011438.post-81124802746468918172012-03-03T16:54:00.001-08:002012-03-03T16:55:36.854-08:00Silver linings<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVYnrHqBdw06rqU0FbLMrrh4upiOYuBq6db7q0LODKKEnJSgPB284vJ_WdmOsVq3W5P103fk_yFsYdukMoNqT_pxlgj9Nhr_N7cr02jWm1ro6ldhI_Eyp7qZ-ImRU-qkXra9vev1zOaUc/s1600/IMG00014-20120303-1630.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVYnrHqBdw06rqU0FbLMrrh4upiOYuBq6db7q0LODKKEnJSgPB284vJ_WdmOsVq3W5P103fk_yFsYdukMoNqT_pxlgj9Nhr_N7cr02jWm1ro6ldhI_Eyp7qZ-ImRU-qkXra9vev1zOaUc/s400/IMG00014-20120303-1630.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>This is a picture taken on my phone at the top of Parliament Hill today - if you've read Lia's Guide, it's the place where Lia and Raf go to fly her kite.<br />
<br />
I've had the sort of week when the grey storm clouds gather overhead, when life seems harsh and unfair, and full of worries. Even little disappointments sting, let alone the big ones.<br />
But still, good things happened last week. My mum's operation went well. Our car was smashed up - but no one was hurt. I had good feedback for new projects, I got a brilliant email from a reader, I visited two lovely schools. I'm loving the evening class I'm teaching at City University, and it's exciting to see students taking risks with their writing and imagining.<br />
So, this picture seemed to sum up my week. Let the silver linings shine, and the kites fly high. And it didn't rain at all.Keren Davidhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13121027210783177857noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2616410914770011438.post-33060027261248622442012-02-27T15:01:00.000-08:002012-02-27T15:01:56.775-08:00Protecting Witnesses<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjnpxKV9Y99CdRlWbLj3ti01Gq1TEfiDK9iIujK_yCnAat5EkLNJIOz6dGdaAflDPM0Q15pQq5n8d5CvZcFCkvE-tbgyWdklMsmi4EZFjwZalyVAb60FJzT6k29odkQepZLrlbM3lOHXfk/s1600/When_I_Was_Joe.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjnpxKV9Y99CdRlWbLj3ti01Gq1TEfiDK9iIujK_yCnAat5EkLNJIOz6dGdaAflDPM0Q15pQq5n8d5CvZcFCkvE-tbgyWdklMsmi4EZFjwZalyVAb60FJzT6k29odkQepZLrlbM3lOHXfk/s320/When_I_Was_Joe.jpg" width="208" /></a>Today the Leveson enquiry into press standards heard that the News of the World had details of people in witness protection. Read more about it <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2012/feb/27/leveson-inquiry-witness-protection-programme?newsfeed=true">here. </a><br />
<br />
This month, it was revealed that in 2008, the Metropolitan police paid out £550,000 to a teenage witness whose details were passed by prosecutors to the people he was testifying against. The boy and his family had to flee their home and go into witness protection. Read more about it<a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2012/feb/15/police-paid-600000-teenage-witness"> here.</a><br />
<br />
Earlier this month, a report by the Her Majesty's Crown Prosecution Service Inspectorate (HMCPSI) and Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary (HMIC) found that young witnesses were 'left to flounder' in the criminal justice system, with vulnerable young witnesses often denied the opportunity to testify by videolink. Read more about it<a href="http://www.google.com/hostednews/ukpress/article/ALeqM5iNTAKRr_s4qdpKkNGhMKZWjHsm-A?docId=N0371891328559593140A"> here.</a><br />
<br />
Changes to the legal aid system means that young witnesses put at risk like the one compensated in 2008, will no longer be funded to sue for compensation. His family say that he no longer trusts the criminal justice system and if he were to witness a crime today (he is now 24) he would not make a statement.<br />
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When I wrote When I Was Joe and Almost True, I wondered if I was being unfair to the police in making the witness protection scheme seem, well, not exactly 100% perfect. American readers have expressed their surprise to me that, as one librarian put it, 'the witness protection scheme is so flaky in the UK.' But I'd worked on a newsdesk and I'd talked to lawyers and I knew about shot witnesses, betrayed witnesses, dodgy mobile phone networks and suchlike.<br />
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The hardest question for me to anwer on school visits is the one which goes 'If you witnessed a crime, would you give evidence, even if it put your life at risk?' I know what I should say - but I don't know what I would do.Keren Davidhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13121027210783177857noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2616410914770011438.post-50672454998124501052012-01-29T14:54:00.000-08:002012-01-29T14:55:19.901-08:00If you enjoyed When I Was Joe...<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2-3AWb6O9-nkDbIZLFAQDcN4Lyw2ho2IqsMXdTwT8MgaLYZP_tFAclfc86ckML3Ghi121W4GWzQr8df-Rhhhpy5ecPe_kOBT5-lpK-MqnWgUJylOqo9pm0ir3OM4pIBGFKNKWQ_Ibc1M/s1600/51hNZu2P--L__AA160_.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2-3AWb6O9-nkDbIZLFAQDcN4Lyw2ho2IqsMXdTwT8MgaLYZP_tFAclfc86ckML3Ghi121W4GWzQr8df-Rhhhpy5ecPe_kOBT5-lpK-MqnWgUJylOqo9pm0ir3OM4pIBGFKNKWQ_Ibc1M/s320/51hNZu2P--L__AA160_.jpg" width="320" /></a>A few weeks ago I wrote a little<a href="http://www.wheniwasjoe.blogspot.com/2011/12/dear-kerenpart-2.html"> list </a>of book recommendations for readers who'd enjoyed <i>When I Was Joe</i> and <i>Almost True</i> and wanted something to read during the seven-month (sorry) wait for <i>Another Life</i>. <br />
Here are some more books that might appeal.<br />
If you liked reading about an ordinary boy with big problems - try <i>Fifteen Days without a Head</i> by Dave Cousins. Laurence's mum has a drink problem and has gone missing - but Laurence and his little brother can't tell anyone. Their story is funny, unexpected and heart-breaking - and really makes you think about what should happen in families where the parents aren't coping. By the end I was all set to call the social workers myself...except that's not the solution that Dave wrote. <br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiEco2qBBmvnGQMN9TS1nPWguSqAbvggdx9GeHdB4zN8RugEL5zIiKGlAK3aAdlK0HzRa7B6bNQmdHLL8lZjkKg733FL2UXbFA9yyO34GpA44KZfn0cP5kqPV3TlHMULiYFAcmKXbdvA3Q/s1600/51h13GBOwFL__SL500_AA300_.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiEco2qBBmvnGQMN9TS1nPWguSqAbvggdx9GeHdB4zN8RugEL5zIiKGlAK3aAdlK0HzRa7B6bNQmdHLL8lZjkKg733FL2UXbFA9yyO34GpA44KZfn0cP5kqPV3TlHMULiYFAcmKXbdvA3Q/s320/51h13GBOwFL__SL500_AA300_.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>If you're into grappling with thorny moral issues, read Katie Dale's <i>Someone Else's Life</i> (which, by the way has the most gorgeous cover). Rosie's mum has died of Huntingdon's disease, and she must decide whether to find out if she carries the disease herself - a devastating diagnosis if positive. But then Rosie discovers long-buried secrets which destroy everything she ever believed to be true. I've rarely read a book which gets you so involved in the lives of the characters - at times I'd have cheerfully throttled all of them, including Rosie's lovely Gran - or which twists and turns so fast and furiously. The dilemmas faced by Rosie and others - I don't want to give anything away - are so huge, that you're left pondering them for ages afterwards.<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgwy_NHgIsMeJNxh_SyNAXdzH_PYF8CLGUNc6TicEmjx9TT0PSRXc5qOmuNVhC0itl4ltZwE8ULor6i0qLOga84HkQAt2-tsBh_t2CcLm_4hjm2Fv3t0hSqt7u45cds_bMYFGpnhfepP4s/s1600/imagesCAOSG1JY.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgwy_NHgIsMeJNxh_SyNAXdzH_PYF8CLGUNc6TicEmjx9TT0PSRXc5qOmuNVhC0itl4ltZwE8ULor6i0qLOga84HkQAt2-tsBh_t2CcLm_4hjm2Fv3t0hSqt7u45cds_bMYFGpnhfepP4s/s320/imagesCAOSG1JY.jpg" width="208" /></a></div>If you're a fan of psychological thrillers - and especially if you liked the ghost/hallucination aspect of <i>Almost True</i>, not to mention the unreliable narrator of both <i>Joe</i> books - then Cat Clarke's <i>Torn</i> is a must-read. It starts off a bit Pretty Little Liars-ish with a motley crew of girls sharing a cabin in the wilderness, then things go seriously wrong when Alice, Cass, Polly and Rae decide to teach popular but bitchy Tara a lesson. <i>Torn</i> is scary, believable and utterly compelling and Cat is completely brilliant at getting inside the head of a teenage girl who lets insecurity and low self esteem lead her to disaster.Keren Davidhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13121027210783177857noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2616410914770011438.post-78270751382204875622012-01-23T09:47:00.000-08:002012-01-23T11:31:25.174-08:00New look<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div> <br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUnEBYLMRWOmISqdsDtjtOGuGyzngnf49TxXnCTboTxad_WStinFO4yHTFEGh7skR9YIHAVvfin9yzi36imDDPSFpwnmhyphenhyphen0XXNVCVgWHMvIL50mNF3Y0kQckrBYMBZdf4RyXPNS5uGpaY/s1600/Another_Life.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUnEBYLMRWOmISqdsDtjtOGuGyzngnf49TxXnCTboTxad_WStinFO4yHTFEGh7skR9YIHAVvfin9yzi36imDDPSFpwnmhyphenhyphen0XXNVCVgWHMvIL50mNF3Y0kQckrBYMBZdf4RyXPNS5uGpaY/s400/Another_Life.jpg" width="256" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Coming your way in September...</td></tr>
</tbody></table> I'm getting a new look! Or at least my books are. To coincide with the release of Another Life, in September, the first two books in the series, When I Was Joe and Almost True are getting new covers to match. <br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLJZ0qzleOpXwztU1Yrnp6qgf-BYhdTLwD5rIVSt2fdF9QCjgH9uzQ_dKljxBdbv4A-6Ryz7Ie_UFcpgSg0yU8VnE7MwlIAHVNVugZs1SBmpAcl7JUpl9KCLx_9kuHMwWmHou23e95_YE/s1600/Almost_True_Reissue.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLJZ0qzleOpXwztU1Yrnp6qgf-BYhdTLwD5rIVSt2fdF9QCjgH9uzQ_dKljxBdbv4A-6Ryz7Ie_UFcpgSg0yU8VnE7MwlIAHVNVugZs1SBmpAcl7JUpl9KCLx_9kuHMwWmHou23e95_YE/s400/Almost_True_Reissue.jpg" width="265" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Egg of Death in Danny's fridge</td></tr>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiqjitQbGuTZiZ5-yDRI8z74snKZm1PddBj-_LrAhgWTxHeZoEuSMQQDV0-FcYCiVJvCBjLUt39aYtYB17t6nS-JrDDDfZvUjVqjTjBLmI1oPeBjIfh8f_ClW26N95JCjH2XgHWLyTyzxk/s1600/When_I_Was_Joe_Reiss.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiqjitQbGuTZiZ5-yDRI8z74snKZm1PddBj-_LrAhgWTxHeZoEuSMQQDV0-FcYCiVJvCBjLUt39aYtYB17t6nS-JrDDDfZvUjVqjTjBLmI1oPeBjIfh8f_ClW26N95JCjH2XgHWLyTyzxk/s320/When_I_Was_Joe_Reiss.jpg" width="201" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Ty/Joe's brown/green eyes...</td></tr>
</tbody></table> The new look is bold, bright and eye-catching, the work of designer Arianna Osti, who also designed the cover for Lia's Guide to Winning the Lottery. People have been asking me about the inspiration for the covers, so I put a few questions to Arianna.<br />
<br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 36pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list 36.0pt; text-indent: -18pt;"><i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span><span dir="ltr">Tell us a bit about yourself and your career.</span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 18pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 18pt;">I was brought up with an artist in the family and a house full of books so it’s not surprising I chose a creative career.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 18pt;">After graduating from Camberwell College of Arts and training in a few design studios I started working at Frances Lincoln Publishers. I have always been interested in print design and I have a passion for typography so publishing feels like the perfect industry for me to be in.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 18pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 36pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list 36.0pt; text-indent: -18pt;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";"></span><i><span dir="ltr">What was the process of planning the new jackets? Did you have a completely free hand, or was there a discussion first about which direction to take? (NB The first I heard of the new covers was when they were all done and finished and my editor said 'I've got a surprise for you!')</span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 18pt;"><br />
In designing book covers there is usually a preliminary meeting with the Sales team to discuss the feel and the audience of a book. This is where we thought that, as we had a third book in the same series as <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">When I Was Joe</i> and <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Almost True</i>, it would be good to launch the third title, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Another Life</i>, with a brand new look, re-jacketing the previous titles to boost the series. After the success of the cover </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 18pt;">of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Lia’s Guide to Winning the Lottery</i> we thought it would be good to stick to a simple but bold cover style. So the direction to pursue was that of a striking graphic and typographic cover.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 18pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 18pt;"><i>Did you come up with other ideas and then reject them?</i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 18pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 18pt;">I did come up with a few different ideas.</div><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgM93MIj8ig8PE6hPqxF1skmvNvf8_ORABlNaGG2frM7ffcCVe3zStAq5jngmEmd3a3uI7sAfQP06R8ndVajM2EpS9DYvRNYrUWPDDlTfGbXkvp0zbobC4eEGKfOogseCMaeC4sc3kBNtk/s1600/11581.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgM93MIj8ig8PE6hPqxF1skmvNvf8_ORABlNaGG2frM7ffcCVe3zStAq5jngmEmd3a3uI7sAfQP06R8ndVajM2EpS9DYvRNYrUWPDDlTfGbXkvp0zbobC4eEGKfOogseCMaeC4sc3kBNtk/s1600/11581.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Ibarajo Road - out August 2012 <br />
and sounds brilliant</td></tr>
</tbody></table><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 18pt;">It is quite unusual that the first design idea for a cover ends up being the final cover. It can happen, and it did happen for example with <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Ibarajo Road</i>. However, generally you tend to come up with a few different ideas and then through discussions and meetings some of the ideas get rejected or approved. Some of the ideas I had seemed to work better on some titles rather than others, so they did get rejected, as the same design had to be applied to all three books in order for them to work as a series.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 18pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 36pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; tab-stops: list 36.0pt; text-indent: -18pt;"><i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span><span dir="ltr">How did you pick the colours?</span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 18pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 18pt;">The colours were partly dictated by the plot and by the graphic elements (eye, egg and knife) used on each of the books. The background colour came later, first it was Joe’s brown eyes, then the yellow of the egg yolk and the red of the bloody knife – all significant parts of the books. These were the obvious, realistic colours so for the background colours I had to try a combination that would work for each cover and then as a series of three. </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 18pt;">The colours are there to create a mood and to help communicate the feel of the book so muted colours seemed to work best for a dark, edgy thriller series.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 18pt;"><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhiMgpIl3zc-xKWDttm_KL__O5BwMclIQmCIfkfkU4lPxjNJG6F9uTT0zRAqtDKgx98BchgaGHrRe49s4BKMVVYRqWtH5jIHIjYhQi2XU6VxQWzbvC_BlxSoH87n0W5tfSIZQRjLGoZ7ZE/s1600/SaulBass-TheHumanFactor.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhiMgpIl3zc-xKWDttm_KL__O5BwMclIQmCIfkfkU4lPxjNJG6F9uTT0zRAqtDKgx98BchgaGHrRe49s4BKMVVYRqWtH5jIHIjYhQi2XU6VxQWzbvC_BlxSoH87n0W5tfSIZQRjLGoZ7ZE/s200/SaulBass-TheHumanFactor.jpg" width="142" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Saul Bass design</td></tr>
</tbody></table><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 18pt;"><i>Someone mentioned the iconic cover for Catch-22 was that an inspiration? Others mentioned 1950s film posters and pulp fiction paperbacks. What were your influences?</i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 18pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">I’m not sure the cover for Catch-22 ‘caught’ my eye as much as Saul Bass’ work.</div><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEho_fdakbOA10c2sjjyecL20yJROpNUvlbwSOuYZgy28WXwL8Tbhedhnrr7r_YHRIs23tZb-OJeo0bTQvlGAKcEa-yD3BPgaVy0F7kPQ_QagC0aU8cYxbLoGPro97taWrvp-E8qmBm5Q6Y/s1600/SaulBass-Exodus.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEho_fdakbOA10c2sjjyecL20yJROpNUvlbwSOuYZgy28WXwL8Tbhedhnrr7r_YHRIs23tZb-OJeo0bTQvlGAKcEa-yD3BPgaVy0F7kPQ_QagC0aU8cYxbLoGPro97taWrvp-E8qmBm5Q6Y/s200/SaulBass-Exodus.jpg" width="142" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Saul Bass again</td></tr>
</tbody></table>I<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="MsoNormal">He was a graphic-designer and filmmaker best know for his title sequences and film posters – so yes, in that respect 1950s film posters and typefaces have been an influence. I was also inspired by Agatha Christie’s paperback covers with hand-lettered type for the author’s name. But Saul Bass’ use of type and his concise, powerful and clever illustrations influenced me to create covers with strong type and </div><br />
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhSzom-jF3MF7164wB-D9O3h3F8UkrkAb8ATIhBRld31XPFAsIwvjvRoccmHNM4_0RZJv4yWnQSh0HcQ_kUxl_uHoPkYaw22x6zEsjqh4IvJyG9KQRP-5UkARZC05__M6UKeSL7QRJFjxI/s1600/agatha+christie.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhSzom-jF3MF7164wB-D9O3h3F8UkrkAb8ATIhBRld31XPFAsIwvjvRoccmHNM4_0RZJv4yWnQSh0HcQ_kUxl_uHoPkYaw22x6zEsjqh4IvJyG9KQRP-5UkARZC05__M6UKeSL7QRJFjxI/s320/agatha+christie.jpg" width="240" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Iconic byline</td></tr>
</tbody></table><div class="MsoNormal">a simple graphic icon. </div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgO4UFnfwPeo9XyM9LmhlqTbl-T5qjdcBSR8q1yntee4NyUBNfxIX0zXJUZqol-KYj24K74ASE2Zmjm3lqcv8HSqHnpE3nqwQEUUZX6P3XCpZWwDYKEqJqqBgm1LAclJPs9rSqd8pQdngg/s1600/saulbass.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgO4UFnfwPeo9XyM9LmhlqTbl-T5qjdcBSR8q1yntee4NyUBNfxIX0zXJUZqol-KYj24K74ASE2Zmjm3lqcv8HSqHnpE3nqwQEUUZX6P3XCpZWwDYKEqJqqBgm1LAclJPs9rSqd8pQdngg/s200/saulbass.jpg" width="149" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Saul Bass poster - <br />
I love this film</td></tr>
</tbody></table><i>You also designed the cover for Lia’s Guide to Winning the Lottery. What was the thinking behind that one?</i></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">It’s a sharp, sassy fiction story that deals with girls and the problems arising after winning the lottery – including the art of shopping. So we wanted something bold and striking, but feminine and sophisticated. While thinking about shopping, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Devil Wears Prada</i> came to mind – that was the starting point. Immediately the red stiletto shoe communicates power, sex and elegance. Then the type says girlie, light-hearted and funny.</div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjOB5GJ5XiVoRgFDyaz7kimuxxf-nTXZwdy8atGBratsHqT6Gy58X6QoedExyket2pCBybYLM08o6EiorSj7ysyxTjAquqPipN-qhQUJJIfGT-dXJ7mwkyAMFebABCahG9qG5tqZPAxTKg/s1600/lia.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjOB5GJ5XiVoRgFDyaz7kimuxxf-nTXZwdy8atGBratsHqT6Gy58X6QoedExyket2pCBybYLM08o6EiorSj7ysyxTjAquqPipN-qhQUJJIfGT-dXJ7mwkyAMFebABCahG9qG5tqZPAxTKg/s200/lia.jpg" width="124" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Power, sex and elegance!</td></tr>
</tbody></table><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"> <i>How much do you think about the target audience when planning covers?</i></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal">The target audience is very important while designing covers as you have to communicate to the right people. It’s really the first thing to think about as you have to try and get into the mind of an 8 year-old, a 12 year-old or a 16 year-old.</div><div class="MsoNormal">I’ve been designing books for the adult market as well but the children’s audience is certainly more challenging.</div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"><i>What other covers (by you and other people) are your favourites?</i></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br />
</div><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi0KRlZ35ZhORqV2eZkBX1xst7ATjORG-PmewdPV5DCVz5RvZDxt6fgTncVNqP5dQ7igQ8mCvXyINIODgYqEDxCPiNnpOAAKfb1WW8l7dspH9nOkHfTaR74X1K6VaixLm7KJxFi2VCRGk8/s1600/greatloves10.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi0KRlZ35ZhORqV2eZkBX1xst7ATjORG-PmewdPV5DCVz5RvZDxt6fgTncVNqP5dQ7igQ8mCvXyINIODgYqEDxCPiNnpOAAKfb1WW8l7dspH9nOkHfTaR74X1K6VaixLm7KJxFi2VCRGk8/s200/greatloves10.jpg" width="123" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Designed by David Pearson</td></tr>
</tbody></table><div class="MsoNormal"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifZpOSXdzXFDEi-p85FMKrnmZS7J3f2fWEcXm71W_AQ1TyzJY8Yujern44qxm07M_Jj6hveYTbtRZueUu0FOLqVS6AHjfOWxM9RachjEsxhNaO5CupKIBAHvn0tcV7wsda_RoAqQ9E0LA/s1600/bug.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifZpOSXdzXFDEi-p85FMKrnmZS7J3f2fWEcXm71W_AQ1TyzJY8Yujern44qxm07M_Jj6hveYTbtRZueUu0FOLqVS6AHjfOWxM9RachjEsxhNaO5CupKIBAHvn0tcV7wsda_RoAqQ9E0LA/s200/bug.jpg" width="130" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRHXfGSwCM7NSJQTGT43ihvwHBu808PKOpLm8SaVP_rq5PgS2tb0Otb5PFEIZFWkvxvUN6xCy7e7cZERCkIHmtzleMy13lexjY5dxViULacfTOE70Ls0wsj9jOQEEcU_1VK_1YKBRaC88/s1600/cat.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRHXfGSwCM7NSJQTGT43ihvwHBu808PKOpLm8SaVP_rq5PgS2tb0Otb5PFEIZFWkvxvUN6xCy7e7cZERCkIHmtzleMy13lexjY5dxViULacfTOE70Ls0wsj9jOQEEcU_1VK_1YKBRaC88/s200/cat.jpg" width="129" /></a>I am very pleased with the poetry fiction covers I have designed for Janetta Otter-Barry Books such as <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">An Imaginary Menagerie</i>, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Language of Cat</i>, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Hey Little Bug</i> and <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Come Into this Poem</i>.</div><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt;">I am always looking at the competition, at other designer’s work and it’s always good to get inspiration from the masters of the past. My favourite book cover designs are by Gray318 (especially the Jonathan Safran Foer books) and </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: 12pt;">David Pearson. </span><br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJ1yKWtdTMh87b_5De9iWNH8YSzq6Q7Yy_TdLC-1cfI37zP3w7DfTrO-x8uMpf6yZq1qSEtLTTyB1qO9qTbo58f11AVU4e7IvwGkR13XY4rjAjhPdg7fvQhMKUWIF2vo0C3cSxakEv_Ro/s1600/extremely_loud_and_incredibly_close_large.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJ1yKWtdTMh87b_5De9iWNH8YSzq6Q7Yy_TdLC-1cfI37zP3w7DfTrO-x8uMpf6yZq1qSEtLTTyB1qO9qTbo58f11AVU4e7IvwGkR13XY4rjAjhPdg7fvQhMKUWIF2vo0C3cSxakEv_Ro/s200/extremely_loud_and_incredibly_close_large.jpg" width="130" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Designed by Gray318</td></tr>
</tbody></table>(You can contact Arianna at ianna84@yahoo.it)<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div>Keren Davidhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13121027210783177857noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2616410914770011438.post-25684336853000384922012-01-07T06:19:00.000-08:002012-01-07T10:43:46.838-08:00How to respond to bad reviews.<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhHn_nngMsADVBvXyEPVNb_m-5tH2RJBvYhXOvURLR8AVP38T4LpPY5DtiLdeVH4y082-nwMTLuCOJ9tU7Prd9rKqDgFa5wKtdXmYB3fgZpC6RtDWYlQzMvKgg9_Sp0fZXipirgSzcuyo/s1600/violet.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhHn_nngMsADVBvXyEPVNb_m-5tH2RJBvYhXOvURLR8AVP38T4LpPY5DtiLdeVH4y082-nwMTLuCOJ9tU7Prd9rKqDgFa5wKtdXmYB3fgZpC6RtDWYlQzMvKgg9_Sp0fZXipirgSzcuyo/s320/violet.jpg" width="260" /></a></div>Ignore them. It's as easy as that. But, funnily enough, not everyone does.<br />
Julie Halpern is a writer of YA books. I'd never heard of her before this week, when a blogging, twittering storm blew up because she wrote a foot-stamping, tantrumy, Violet Elizabath Bott of a response to a negative review that she found on the internet.<br />
Ms Halpern has now taken down her post, and the equally cringe-worthy 'poor little me' ones that followed. But you can read the original review<a href="http://theallureofbooks.com/2012/01/dont-stop-now-julie-halpern.html"> here </a>and the responses were all about how the author had poured her heart and sould and time into her work, while the blogger had just dashed off a piece of snark, and the author was in a higher place than the reviewer and no one should write negative reviews at all, because it might but readers off, and authors have feeling too, and google should create a negative review filter (I think she was employing hyperbole at some points, but the general hysterical nature of the thing made it hard to tell). <br />
It's blindingly obvious to most of us, I hope, that if an author thinks a review is unfair, offensive, wrong, sloppy or whatever, she should not take it personally, and should absolutely not attack the reviewer in public. Find someone to moan to who knows you are not an egotisical brat - or who knows that you are an egotisical brat, but loves you anyway.<br />
If you absolutely have to contact the reviewer, be humble. Thank her for spending time reading and reviewing your books, point out nicely that she's got the main character's name wrong, or misunderstood the central metaphor, or given a whacking great spoiler, say how much her good opinion matters to you. But truly it's best to maintain a certain authorly distance at these painful moments.<br />
A lot of people have told Ms Halpern this, and maybe she will now spend a lifetime lying awake in darkened rooms asking herself why...why....?<br />
But I have a further criticism of her rant.<br />
The reviewer didn't like her fake kidnap plotline - ('Can I just say – <i>uhhh</i>. The entire Penny debacle was kinda ridiculous.') Ms Halpern was shocked that anyone could doubt the premise because it had <i>actually happened </i>to a friend of hers ('Ugh! I didn't make it up, beyotch! I had a friend who faked her own kidnapping! Grrrr.').<br />
I've heard this defence before. I asked a writer about the baffling relationship of two people in her otherwise delightful book, and why on earth they didn't divorce - to be told that they were based on two people she <i>actually knew </i>and were therefore, well, true to life. I felt short-changed, and was none the wiser. A tiny hint at sexual obsession or financial complexity would have worked far better,<br />
Writers, it is not enough to base your characters and plots on real life and real people. You have to make them plausible to your reader.They are reading a work of fiction, not a memoir or a piece of journalism.<br />
Quite often I've had things happen to me that I regretfully realise would not work in a piece of fiction, because the coincidence is too unlikely or the story is almost too neat. It's fine to use real life events and people as inspiration, but it's not a justification or a defence when people don't believe it.<br />
Early on, I had a review for <i>When I Was Joe</i> which doubted that anything so extreme could happen in the UK ('From the onset it is particularly difficult to accept that the initial event really justifies the extreme of witness protection and this makes the attempt to create a sense of urgency and danger rather tenuous.') and went on to criticise the characters as obnoxious and unlikeable. For that reader, I'd failed to make the situation feel believable and I hadn't managed to connect wth their emotions either. That was my failing. Their opinion was perfectly valid. Luckily, not many other readers seem to feel the same way, but I try to take the view that I can learn as much, if not more, from negative reviews than from positive ones.<br />
Not that I like them, of course. Bring on that negative review Google filter.Keren Davidhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13121027210783177857noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2616410914770011438.post-2259183624093379912012-01-03T08:26:00.000-08:002012-01-03T08:31:05.303-08:00The murder of Stephen Lawrence<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7iGUlkqTtdPNXqzIp25PUNtAhy0HiEQ3Ce1WALYPGedQJiL0zuZ_RN69vCjsS9UkgTU3ncLuLU_4a4dOQR-8Ifbsxr6HvZCV3kLUwkpCDEhc743pmJlvJTG2JoajwrSJEv6sf4xZtBEw/s1600/stephen.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7iGUlkqTtdPNXqzIp25PUNtAhy0HiEQ3Ce1WALYPGedQJiL0zuZ_RN69vCjsS9UkgTU3ncLuLU_4a4dOQR-8Ifbsxr6HvZCV3kLUwkpCDEhc743pmJlvJTG2JoajwrSJEv6sf4xZtBEw/s1600/stephen.jpg" /></a></div>When I worked on the newsdesk at The Independent I dealt with dozens of reports every day. It's difficult to pick out individual stories, nearly twenty years later. The murder of Stephen Lawrence is an exception.<br />
<br />
I was working an afternoon shift, and the environment correspondent, Nick Schoon came up to talk to me. 'I've got a story for you,' he said, 'and it's a bit unusual. It's a crime story.' The story he outlined was terribly sad. A teenager, stabbed to death on a London street. Racist motivation suspected. It was the kind of story that I'd have thought of as suitable for a local rather than a national paper. It wasn't even that uncommon - as Nick's report stated, this was the second racist murder in the area in a matter of weeks.<br />
<br />
Nick was offering the story because Stephen's father Neville Lawrence had worked for him as a plasterer and had rung him the night of Stephen's death, in tears, asking him to write about his son's murder. His death did not make the front page of any national paper, and many did not run it at all. I asked Nick to write 400 words which I placed on page 4. <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/police-appeal-for-calm-after-racist-murder-third-teenager-killed-in-london-borough-1456991.html">This </a>was his report. I didn't expect to hear much about it again, perhaps a news-in-brief paragraph saying that someone had been charged and later convicted. (Nick's memories of his report are <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/a-shrunken-shattered-family-the-first-journalist-to-interview-the-lawrences-recalls-the-scene-6284423.html">here</a>)<br />
<br />
Well, I was wrong, and so was almost everyone else. The killing of Stephen Lawrence was described today by a senior police officer as 'one of the most significant cases of its time.' Two of Stephen's killers were finally convicted today - an extraordinary 18 years after his death. The Metropolitan Police's original investigation into his death was appallingly incompetent. Neville and Doreen Lawrence never ceased in their battle for justice for their son, backed by another paper, the Daily Mail, whose editor, Paul Dacre had also, I believe, employed Stephen's father. Their efforts eventually led to a public inquiry which revealed the Met's institutionalised racism - a racism that reached beyond the police and into wider society. The case changed the UK in many ways - summarised <a href="http://uk.ibtimes.com/articles/147787/20110518/stephen-lawrence-case-inquiry-murder-report-macpherson-report-double-jeopardy.htm">here </a>- but I believe that not enough has changed.<br />
<br />
In his recent book,<i> Out of the Ashes</i>, David Lammy, MP for Tottenham, recalls telling the then Prime Minister, Gordon Brown about mothers from his constituency, feeling helpless to stop their sons getting caught up in the violence. "What are we doing for these women?" he asked the Prime Minister. <br />
"Tax credits," replied Brown.<br />
Things haven't changed. In the aftermath of this summer's riots (riots which overwhelmingly targetted property, not people), the current Prime Minister David Cameron pledged £1.25 million to fight gangs in London. As Lammy pointed out, that sum wouldn't buy a house in many London neighbourhoods.<br />
The trial which has just ended was also notable for exposing the trauma of young people who witness murder. Stephen's friend Duwayne Brooks was quizzed about differences in his account in court and his original statement s to police. Mr Brooks - now a councillor - giving evidence just after the death of his father, explained that he had suffered post-traumatic stress disorder after Stephen's murder. From the BBC's court report: <br />
<i>Mr Brooks' original eyewitness statement was read back to him, and he was asked: "Did that actually happen?" </i><br />
<i> </i><i>He replied: "I made a statement some months after when I began to remember other parts of the incident which for some reason I couldn't remember because it was too distressing, it was too scary to remember and it was very upsetting."</i><br />
.<br />
Stephen Lawrence and his family got some justice today, but the slaughter of young men on the streets of London goes on, and the vast majority are black. Of course, not all are killed in racist attacks, but - as Stephen's mother pointed out this afternoon - some are. Others are victims of gang and random violence.<br />
<br />
Stephen's family have set up <a href="http://fostering%20positive%20community%20relationships,%20and%20enabling%20people%20to%20realise%20their%20potential.%20%20through%20creative%20methods%20the%20trust%20addresses%20the%20causes%20of%20urban%20decay/;%20youth%20disaffection%20and%20educational%20underachievement%20and%20supports%20young%20people%20by%20developing%20pathways%20into%20aspirational%20and%20sustainable%20employment.">a charity</a> in his name which works for criminal and social justice: ' <br />
fostering positive community relationships, and enabling people to realise their potential. Through creative methods the Trust addresses the causes of urban decay; youth disaffection and educational underachievement and supports young people by developing pathways into aspirational and sustainable employment.<br />
<br />
I do believe that if white, middle-class teenagers were being killed on our streets at the same rate as poorer black children are, far more would be done about it. Supporting the <a href="http://stephenlawrence.org.uk/">Stephen Lawrence Charitable Trust</a> is one place to start.Keren Davidhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13121027210783177857noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2616410914770011438.post-33718478646963655562011-12-30T17:28:00.000-08:002011-12-31T09:30:10.030-08:00A writer's year..So. 2011. It was the best of times, it was the worst of times. I can't remember much of it. Where's my trusty diary...I mean all writers have a diary, don't they? A journal of their literary life...a witty, erudite, insightful record of the year. I bet Marcus Sedgwick has a diary. I bet Jason Wallace...<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbq2cWEg6i8XrOkUyYFPqP8pz3Qf64ACy8HsBkf6q6VlJq2SwTnJY5LNuRTXvTsO4wO_GyId96IldQHXc9NVBk4pdjm1QcOrXtGbMBiAIjXxUiZ30J41tqM2bH-8NX0Wv6PbPWQZh6A1c/s1600/93387-the-royal-wedding.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="204" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbq2cWEg6i8XrOkUyYFPqP8pz3Qf64ACy8HsBkf6q6VlJq2SwTnJY5LNuRTXvTsO4wO_GyId96IldQHXc9NVBk4pdjm1QcOrXtGbMBiAIjXxUiZ30J41tqM2bH-8NX0Wv6PbPWQZh6A1c/s320/93387-the-royal-wedding.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Disaster of the year. I blame Richard Branson.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>Oh well, where's my Tesco Family Organiser? <br />
<br />
<b>January: </b><br />
<b> </b>I went to San Diego, to meet thousands of American librarians. San Diego! I hadn't been abroad for work since...hmmm... 1983 when I went to Spain for a conference<strike> and spent most of the time flirting and sunbathing </strike>. In San Diego, I was far too English to really push my book, but I did my best. At the booth next to me there was a charming lady promoting her debut book, which, she told me, was a murder mystery narrated by someone with Alzheimer's. I wasn't completely sure about that as a premise, but I bought a copy anyway. .<br />
Also in January, I went to Newcastle for the North East Teen Book Award, for which <i>When I Was Joe</i> was on a shortlist of six. We authors sat on a platform in front of about 200 teenagers. Behind us was a drop of about a foot. I spent the evening convinced that I was about to topple over backwards - and I very nearly did, when my book was announced as the winner. I gave a speech worthy of any tearful Oscar winner - I was shaking! - because I'd never, ever won anything before in my life. Afterwards, my lovely editor Emily bought champagne..and then there was some Baileys...Truly, an unforgettable <strike>hangover </strike>event.<br />
<br />
<b>February</b><br />
Dominated (according to the Family Organiser) by football training for the son, and transporting Freddie and Chester, our guinea pigs to and from the guinea pig hotel, where they enjoy literary soirees and manicures (you think I'm joking? See April) . Oh and I spoke at a school, where I realised five minutes before the speech that I had a massive hole in my trousers. I'd got up so early to get there, and got dressed in the dark, not realising until far too late, that I'd picked up the wrong clothes. I gave my entire speech, plus a question and answer session, with my legs clamped together. No one asked any awkward questions, so I think I got away with it. Or everyone I met that day was super-polite. No, I'm not telling which school it was.<br />
<div style="text-align: right;"></div>I started work in earnest on <i>Another Life</i>, the third book about Ty. Five chapters in I showed it to my husband, who told me what he thought was wrong with it. 'You know nothing,' I told him. 'You don't understand my Vision.' <br />
<b> </b><br />
<b>March </b><br />
<b></b>The page for March has disappeared from my Family Organiser. I remember nothing about it at all, except that on my birthday, my husband and I went to a barmitzvah party, for Asher, son of my old friends Nicky and David. During the speeches, Asher wished me a happy birthday, and the entire marquee of people said 'Who?' and then sang 'Happy Birthday Dear Karen', which was lovely but slightly embarrassing, because we didn't really know anyone there apart from Nicky and David. Then Asher presented me with a huge birthday cake. Again, this was lovely, but a little problematic to transport home with no cake box. In the end we put it in the boot, and drove home, imagining, with every bump or corner, the cake bouncing and somersaulting. But happily it survived intact. Not for long, though.<br />
<br />
<br />
<b>April</b><br />
Again, according to the Organiser, almost nothing happened in April. I worked diligently (ahem) on <i>Another Life.</i> The proprietor of the guinea pig hotel, the very wonderful and multi-talented Nicola Solomon became General Secretary of the Society of Authors.<br />
The highlight of the month was meant to be the Royal Wedding on the 29th. My daughter and I planned a girly day in front of our (chavtastically huge) television. We bought snacks. We encouraged the boys to leave us alone for the day. I organised a Tesco delivery, so I would not have to leave the sofa. We were primed for celebrity-spotting, funny hats and cooing over wedding dresses and men in uniforms.<br />
And then, disaster struck. The night before the Wedding of the Century, our television stopped working. Distraught, I phoned Virgin Media's call centre in India, where the workers are polite and charming, but utterly useless (not their fault, I am convinced they are not trained properly or given the correct information. I have had to phone them often in the last year.). 'I'll send someone on Monday,' said the man in Mumbai (or whereever). 'Monday???' I shrieked,'Don't you know we have a royal wedding tomorrow? This is an emergency!' But it was all no good, so we ended up watching at my sister's house, which was nice, but rather more crowded (and on a much smaller screen) than we had anticipated. So Richard Branson cheated us out of the Full Wedding Experience. I will never forgive him.<br />
Naturally the telly started working perfectly, once William and his bride were safely wed.<br />
<br />
<b>May </b><br />
May was a -may-zing.<i> When I Was Joe</i> won the Angus Book Award. After-win Baileys became a tradition. Then, at the end of the month, we were queuing to check in for a flight to Amsterdam, when I got a call telling me that <i>When I Was Joe</i> had also won the Lancashire Book of the Year award. I whooped and danced, my children moved away, told me I was being embarrassing and said, 'We're bored with you winning awards. Shut up.'<br />
<br />
<b>June </b><br />
June was busy, busy, busy. I spoke at the Hay Festival. I stood next to Meg Rosoff in a queue and she knew who I was (swoon). I spoke at various schools,and at the Lancashire Book of the Year award ceremony (at which I told the story of my dad and the banana..You had to be there). This was possibly also the month (the Organiser is mysteriously silent) when I had lunch with my agent and she told me that <i>Another Life</i> wasn't working at all, and it possibly needed completely reworking. Possibly. She seemed to agree with my husband about what needed to be done (see February), but I explained patiently that this was not part of my Vision.<br />
<b>July</b><br />
July was the month in which <i>When I was Joe</i> didn't win the Branford Boase Award, the UKLA award or the Redbridge Teen Book of the Year. Ho hum. Something extraordinarily funny (in all senses) happened on a train, but I am sworn to secrecy. And I reworked <i>Another Life</i> a bit ( in line with my Vision) and it began to work. My kind editors extended my deadline to the end of September.<br />
<b>August</b><br />
<em>Lia's Guide to Winning the Lottery</em> was published. Went on holiday. <i>Another Life </i>was nowhere near finished, and my computer power cord broke, the day before we left. So I loaded it onto my kindle, to read when I was there. Read it, and immediately saw what was wrong with it. Yes, my husband and agent were correct. ARGH! Spent the rest of the holiday working out how many extra chapters I'd need to write, where they would go, and how much would need to be deleted.<br />
<b>September</b><br />
Wrote and wrote and wrote and wrote. Completely forgot about various social events, very rudely failing to even let people know I'd forgotten.(sorry, so sorry, sorry). By some incredible miracle, managed to finish<i> Another Life</i> on September 23. Sent it to agent and then to editor. Awaited suggestions involving complete rewrites.<br />
<b>October</b><br />
Had lunch with<b> </b>lovely editors. They were almost completely happy with <i>Another Life. </i>No revisions. When I worked at the Jewish Chronicle we were banned from using the word 'miracle' in reports or headlines, unless we had definite proof of divine intervention. This may be the one. <i> </i><br />
<i>When I Was Joe </i>didn't win the Catalyst Book Award...but it did win the Wirral Paperback of the Year. Woo!<br />
<b>November</b><br />
Kicked off in spectacular style with Meg Rosoff's party for K M Peyton, author of the Flambards books and the Pennington trilogy, which I read and loved as a teen. Pennington, who tended to fight first, think afterwards, was definitely a sub-conscious inspiration for Ty. The room was full of writers, editors, librarians and booksellers, all united in admiration for Kathleen Peyton, who spoke with wit and vigour about her career as a very prolific, award-winning writer. It took me back to my teeange years, reading and loving her books, and many others, and reminded me again of why I love writing for children. It's not about money, or awards, or reviews or foreign deals. It's about reaching out to anyone who wants to read, and not knowing what they will make of what you've written.<br />
(And despite it not being about foreign deals or awards, it was very nice to hear that <i>Lia's Guide to Winning the Lottery</i> has been nominated for the Carnegie Medal, and has found publishers in Korea and the Netherlands.)<br />
Remember the lady in San Diego and her Alzheimer's murder mystery? In November she won the Wellcome Book Award, the first ever work of fiction to do so. The prize was £25,000 and the book is called <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2011/nov/22/alice-laplante-alzheimers-turn-of-mind">Turn of Mind </a>. Well done booth-mate, Alice La Plante! I promise to read your book soon!<br />
<b>December</b><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhIxSlGC17uWISS-bJIjavRbpCSvobA6NStmi0dPx6hY1mR3MGRdpVuu-VSGOPRg9Gnvwcg8t1qQgcZWfkdynHP2cDJ33CIgej22rlRaXMgV7DYVxuetHnOTryKAnqqMgHuX8AL0XUmOyk/s1600/proof+003.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhIxSlGC17uWISS-bJIjavRbpCSvobA6NStmi0dPx6hY1mR3MGRdpVuu-VSGOPRg9Gnvwcg8t1qQgcZWfkdynHP2cDJ33CIgej22rlRaXMgV7DYVxuetHnOTryKAnqqMgHuX8AL0XUmOyk/s320/proof+003.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Proof with adjusted Vision.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>Couldn't find address book. So all those people whose parties I ignored in September/October, didn;t get their apologetic Christmas cards (sorry again). So many social events. It's all a bit of a blur. But the proof for Another Life arrived. And I did manage to write a chapter of the (hopefully) new book. Showed it to daughter and husband. 'I'm not caring about the characters,' she said. 'It's a bit depressing to start with a suicide attempt,' he said. This time I'm listening. New start next week. Roll on 2013...oh, hang on, 2012...Keren Davidhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13121027210783177857noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2616410914770011438.post-44503179922495041872011-12-23T06:44:00.000-08:002011-12-23T06:45:14.391-08:00Dear Keren...(part 2)<em>Dear Keren</em><br />
<br />
<em>I really enjoyed your books When I Was Joe and Almost True. When is there going to be another book about Ty? What do you suggest I read in the meantime? </em><br />
<br />
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<div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhclndgjBcNep4lhXUsbp9cyF2sSsDoBWDGZPQsGchEsIKfi6vhex7FlEDGNFpuktWfT9RuK1jiv0xuiTfq1e1lDpv0zBO3aQoTYQzawgrRKEUp46UxmPX6u4dr6wjz3Q8THVO-GbeScIQ/s1600/FLIP.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; cssfloat: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" rea="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhclndgjBcNep4lhXUsbp9cyF2sSsDoBWDGZPQsGchEsIKfi6vhex7FlEDGNFpuktWfT9RuK1jiv0xuiTfq1e1lDpv0zBO3aQoTYQzawgrRKEUp46UxmPX6u4dr6wjz3Q8THVO-GbeScIQ/s320/FLIP.jpg" width="205" /></a>First of all, let me draw your attention to my third book <em><a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Guide-Winning-Lottery-Keren-David/dp/1847801919/ref=sr_1_fkmr1_3?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1324651106&sr=1-3-fkmr1">Lia's Guide to Winning the Lottery</a></em>. True, it is not obviously a 'boy' book, true it has both a handbag and a shoe on the cover. But I think that most people who liked WIWJ and AT would enjoy it. It is not just about money, sex and shopping - although those are elements - it also should make you think about about economics, and values (but in a good way) families, friendship and Facebook. There is some suspense and a twisty plot. The heroine gets nicer. Trust me. <br />
<br />
New book about Ty coming out in August 2012 in the UK, called Another Life. Covers and tasters coming soon on this blog.</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><br />
</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">OK, once you've bought <em>Lia's Guide</em>, it's hard for me to know what to recommend because I don't know what <em>aspect </em>of WIWJ and AT you enjoyed. Was it the crime element, the characters, or the lurve story? All I can do is point you to some books that I have enjoyed, and see how you go. Like WIWJ and AT, they feature messed-up, confused and far from perfect male protagonists.</div><br />
<div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Taking-Flight-Sheena-Wilkinson/dp/1848409494/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1324648743&sr=1-1"><em>Taking Flight</em></a> by Sheena Wilkinson. I can almost guarantee that anyone who likes my books will enjoy <em>Taking Flight,</em> which I have raved about ever since it came out in 2010. Even more reason to get your hands on it and read it now, because there will be a sequel<em> Grounded</em> coming out next year. In <em>Taking Flight</em> Sheena mixes urban grittiness with classic pony book, with a Northern Ireland setting and creates an exciting book where you care for each and every character, while competely recognising their many flaws. I've been lucky enough to read <em>Grounded</em>, and it's even better. Add to the travails of our hero Declan, the horse-mad boy from the wrong part of town, a neurotic horse called Folly and a mixed-up kid called Cian. There are truly shocking moments and I was enthralled throughout...and could hardly believe it had ended when it dod. More, please!</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><br />
</div><em><a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Flip-Martyn-Bedford/dp/1406329894/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1324648709&sr=1-1">Flip</a> </em>by Martyn Bedford. Some brilliant insights in this books about a boy who wakes up in another boy's body - I esepcially enjoyed the moment when he first takes a pee using someone else's equipment. It would have been easy to play it for laughs, but Martyn Bedford turns it into a moving story which examines the very basics of who we are.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none; clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEju-1rE51xxUxXmAA1gWfo2dL2crduAMPQn8NampTh0d8kLLATZxPa0VN3lfR1CJIU5cB5HjiVo_JBr-Brcv-tHXOfjj5j5Rf7d2TDmq1WO2hOujAJ0ZpAjNKuEB5zsgn4C0qWzarl-9-o/s1600/50_Cent-Playground.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; cssfloat: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" rea="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEju-1rE51xxUxXmAA1gWfo2dL2crduAMPQn8NampTh0d8kLLATZxPa0VN3lfR1CJIU5cB5HjiVo_JBr-Brcv-tHXOfjj5j5Rf7d2TDmq1WO2hOujAJ0ZpAjNKuEB5zsgn4C0qWzarl-9-o/s320/50_Cent-Playground.jpg" width="320" /></a></div> Paranormal isn't usually my thing, but I loved <em><a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/White-Cat-Curse-Workers-Book/dp/0575096721/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1324648489&sr=1-1">White Cat</a></em> and <em><a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Red-Glove-Holly-Black/dp/0575096764/ref=pd_sim_b_1">Red Glove</a></em> by Holly Black which is a clever twist on the usual tropes. Our hero Cassel comes with plenty of problems, part of a family of magic workers in a world where magic is illegal, he's living with the knowledge that he killed his best friend.<br />
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<div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Playground-50-Cent/dp/1780873301/ref=sr_1_3?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1324648837&sr=1-3">Playground </a>by 50 Cent. The usual growling prejudice against celebrities who decide to write children's books had to be suspended for this one, because I loved it. This is despite it being a 'therapy' book, which is a device I usually don't like. It's the story of Butterball, who starts off as an unpleasant bully who has violently attacked another boy. Without excusing or ignoring what he'd done, the reader gradually comes to hope for Butterball's redemption - something that seems impossible at the beginning when he's full of incoherent swagger. I was fascinated by the US setting - paying for your own social worker? Paying for private school if you're expelled from state school? - a long way from the anodyne view of American life served up by Disney Channel.The healing relationship between Butterball and his cousellor was truly moving, and might help readers understand what is missing in their own lives. I could not stop reading until I had found out Butterball's secrets. </div><br />
<div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhSZ63on2mlUlHEsACh6vcrjIju1dvdOgZqWdWDMU0fs_zfNJPSiFac2E7WocZLVTIAhK5eGQP_-faFa92bgCIMzKgHfGSyc8nqw46e5pcxgRcnoNB7IS9XrNDqO_4Ets1DwUc-MvH35HQ/s1600/bloodstone2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; cssfloat: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" rea="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhSZ63on2mlUlHEsACh6vcrjIju1dvdOgZqWdWDMU0fs_zfNJPSiFac2E7WocZLVTIAhK5eGQP_-faFa92bgCIMzKgHfGSyc8nqw46e5pcxgRcnoNB7IS9XrNDqO_4Ets1DwUc-MvH35HQ/s1600/bloodstone2.jpg" /></a>Last year's top fantasy read, Gillian Philip's superb <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Firebrand-Rebel-Angels-Gillian-Philip/dp/1905537190/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1324650534&sr=1-1">Firebrand </a>featured a truly warped anti-hero, the deliciously dark, sulky, misunderstood faery (but don't let that put you off) Seth. He returned this year in the sequel <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Bloodstone-Rebel-Angels-Gillian-Philip/dp/1905537239/ref=pd_sim_b_1">Bloodstone</a> , even more twisted than before, and there's another snarling, angry youth, Jed, who I instantly fell for. Do read <em>Firebrand</em> before <em>Bloodstone</em>, so that you have some sympathy for Seth (because he works hard to use it all up in <em>Bloodstone</em>). And if you want a taster for the series, Gillian's written a short ebook prequel <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/FROST-CHILD-Rebel-Angels-ebook/dp/B006NXYEBE/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1324650875&sr=1-1">Frost Child</a> about Seth's father, available for the bargain price of just 86p.</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><br />
</div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;">If you're looking for a laugh, forget the Wimpy Kid, read <a href="http://www.amazon.co.uk/Teenage-Years-Dark-Lord/dp/1408315114/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1324650340&sr=1-1">Dark Lord: The Teenage Years</a> by Jamie Thomson. It's one joke really, but a great one, can Dirk Lloyd. the mysterious boy found in a car park really be a banished Dark Lord stripped of his dastardly powers? </div><div style="border-bottom: medium none; border-left: medium none; border-right: medium none; border-top: medium none;"><br />
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</div>Keren Davidhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13121027210783177857noreply@blogger.com1