Almost True

New look

2012-01-23T09:47:00.000-08:00

Coming your way in September...

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.

The Egg of Death in Danny's fridge

Ty/Joe's brown/green eyes...

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.

Tell us a bit about yourself and your career.

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.

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.

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!')

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 When I Was Joe and Almost True, it would be good to launch the third title, Another Life, with a brand new look, re-jacketing the previous titles to boost the series. After the success of the cover

of Lia’s Guide to Winning the Lottery 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.

Did you come up with other ideas and then reject them?

I did come up with a few different ideas.

Ibarajo Road - out August 2012
and sounds brilliant

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 Ibarajo Road. 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.

How did you pick the colours?

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.

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.

Saul Bass design

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’m not sure the cover for Catch-22 ‘caught’ my eye as much as Saul Bass’ work.

Saul Bass again

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

Iconic byline

a simple graphic icon.

Saul Bass poster -
I love this film

You also designed the cover for Lia’s Guide to Winning the Lottery. What was the thinking behind that one?

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, The Devil Wears Prada 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.

Power, sex and elegance!

How much do you think about the target audience when planning covers?

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.

I’ve been designing books for the adult market as well but the children’s audience is certainly more challenging.

What other covers (by you and other people) are your favourites?

I am very pleased with the poetry fiction covers I have designed for Janetta Otter-Barry Books such as An Imaginary Menagerie, The Language of Cat, Hey Little Bug and Come Into this Poem.

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 David Pearson.

(You can contact Arianna at ianna84@yahoo.it)

How to respond to bad reviews.

2012-01-07T06:19:00.000-08:00

Ignore them. It's as easy as that. But, funnily enough, not everyone does.
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.
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 here 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).
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.
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.
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....?
But I have a further criticism of her rant.
The reviewer didn't like her fake kidnap plotline - ('Can I just say – uhhh. The entire Penny debacle was kinda ridiculous.') Ms Halpern was shocked that anyone could doubt the premise because it had actually happened to a friend of hers ('Ugh! I didn't make it up, beyotch! I had a friend who faked her own kidnapping! Grrrr.').
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 actually knew 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,
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.
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.
Early on, I had a review for When I Was Joe 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.
Not that I like them, of course. Bring on that negative review Google filter.

The murder of Stephen Lawrence

2012-01-03T08:26:00.000-08:00

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.

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.

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. This 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 here)

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 here - but I believe that not enough has changed.

In his recent book, Out of the Ashes, 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.
"Tax credits," replied Brown.
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.
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:
Mr Brooks' original eyewitness statement was read back to him, and he was asked: "Did that actually happen?"
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."
.
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.

Stephen's family have set up a charity in his name which works for criminal and social justice: '
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.

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 Stephen Lawrence Charitable Trust is one place to start.

A writer's year..

2011-12-30T17:28:00.000-08:00

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...

Disaster of the year. I blame Richard Branson.

Oh well, where's my Tesco Family Organiser?

January:
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 ~~and spent most of the time flirting and sunbathing~~ . 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. .
Also in January, I went to Newcastle for the North East Teen Book Award, for which When I Was Joe 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 ~~hangover~~ event.

February
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.

I started work in earnest on Another Life, 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.'

March
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.

April
Again, according to the Organiser, almost nothing happened in April. I worked diligently (ahem) on Another Life. The proprietor of the guinea pig hotel, the very wonderful and multi-talented Nicola Solomon became General Secretary of the Society of Authors.
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.
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.
Naturally the telly started working perfectly, once William and his bride were safely wed.

May
May was a -may-zing. When I Was Joe 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 When I Was Joe 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.'

June
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 Another Life 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.
July
July was the month in which When I was Joe 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 Another Life a bit ( in line with my Vision) and it began to work. My kind editors extended my deadline to the end of September.
August
Lia's Guide to Winning the Lottery was published. Went on holiday. Another Life 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.
September
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 Another Life on September 23. Sent it to agent and then to editor. Awaited suggestions involving complete rewrites.
October
Had lunch with lovely editors. They were almost completely happy with Another Life. 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.
When I Was Joe didn't win the Catalyst Book Award...but it did win the Wirral Paperback of the Year. Woo!
November
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.
(And despite it not being about foreign deals or awards, it was very nice to hear that Lia's Guide to Winning the Lottery has been nominated for the Carnegie Medal, and has found publishers in Korea and the Netherlands.)
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 Turn of Mind . Well done booth-mate, Alice La Plante! I promise to read your book soon!
December

Proof with adjusted Vision.

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...

Dear Keren...(part 2)

2011-12-23T06:44:00.000-08:00

Dear Keren

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?

First of all, let me draw your attention to my third book Lia's Guide to Winning the Lottery. 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.

New book about Ty coming out in August 2012 in the UK, called Another Life. Covers and tasters coming soon on this blog.

OK, once you've bought Lia's Guide, it's hard for me to know what to recommend because I don't know what aspect 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.

Taking Flight by Sheena Wilkinson. I can almost guarantee that anyone who likes my books will enjoy Taking Flight, 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 Grounded coming out next year. In Taking Flight 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 Grounded, 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!

Flip 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.

Paranormal isn't usually my thing, but I loved White Cat and Red Glove 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.

Playground 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.

Last year's top fantasy read, Gillian Philip's superb Firebrand 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 Bloodstone , even more twisted than before, and there's another snarling, angry youth, Jed, who I instantly fell for. Do read Firebrand before Bloodstone, so that you have some sympathy for Seth (because he works hard to use it all up in Bloodstone). And if you want a taster for the series, Gillian's written a short ebook prequel Frost Child about Seth's father, available for the bargain price of just 86p.

If you're looking for a laugh, forget the Wimpy Kid, read Dark Lord: The Teenage Years 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?

Ask Keren...(part one)

2011-12-22T07:34:00.000-08:00

I've been giving out quite a bit of advice recently, so I thought I'd have an agony aunt blog for a few days before Christmas. Starting with this..

Dear Keren,

You don't know me, but I was at the dental hygienist recently and I mentioned that I'd written a children's book and his cousin's wife works with someone who knew you from the parent and baby gym group you went to c 1997. Remember Jason and Mason? Them. Anyway, I've written a few books I'm really keen to get them published. One is for the 5-12 age group, about a boy wizard, and another is for older teens...it's a bit controversial and there's a lot of swearing, but I think it's all justified. Do you need an agent? I've done a bit of research and I've made a list of 179 possibles. Should I write to them all at once? Or should I write to publishers? Or is it best to self-publish?

Hello! Yes, I remember Jason and Mason well, especially when Mason bit...but never mind. Glad to try and help. Here are my orders....I mean, advice...

1) Check out this website. It is by Nicola Morgan,a children's writer who has been writing for much longer than I have and knows infinitely more about the subject. In fact why don't you...never mind...She has loads and loads of excellent advice about all aspects of writing for publication. There is also a book Write to be Published which is a fascinating and very useful read - basically the same stuff that's on the blog, but easier to navigate. Nicola knows it all. Another excellent website to read is Notes from the Slushpile. (Did I read these blogs before writing to agents, one day after finishing my first draft and without a title for the book? No, I was too impatient to do any research.)

2) Join the Society of Children's Writers and Illustrators Attend its annual conference which is in Winchester, mid November. There you will meet agents and editors, writers and artists and you can attend masterclasses and workshops on all aspects of writing for children. Even if you can't go to conference SCWBI holds regular events, masterclasses and the like, an agents' party in September and, every year publishes the Undiscovered Voices, an anthology which is compiled from a competition among un-agented writers. Being long or short-listed for UV is generally a fast track to being agented and published, and in several cases UV writers have gone on to win awards. (Did I join SCWBI and enter UV before looking for an agent? No, I thought I'd wait until I had a publishing deal because then the membership would be cheaper).

3) Start researching agents. Which children's authors do you like, and who represents them? Which writers have a similar style to you, and who represents them? Do you want an agent who will be very business-oriented, or one who is keen to be involved in giving you edtorial feedback? It's worth thinking about all of this before you approach people.

Agents will have submission guidelines on their websites. They will tell you what they want - not everyone wants three chapters. Also whether you should print it out, or send by email. Don't write to 179 agents at once. Let the rejections (or indeed offers) trickle through slowly. And don't bother agents if they haven't replied to you within a month. Especially if it is August. (Did I badger an agent mid-August because I hadn't heard from her three weeks after sending her my first chapter? Need you ask?)

4) Start researching the business. For example, a little bit of research will tell you that books aren't generally for 9-13 year olds - 8-12 is the usual age range. The more you know, the better you are able to present yourself to agents. (Unlike me, who though in a vague way that a book about a 14-year-old ought to appeal to 14 year-olds. And who had never heard of most YA writers and had no idea that anyone else might have written about knife crime..that was a nasty shock...)

5) When you do start approaching agents, get ready for rejection. You need to be tough. It is a hideous process. I was turned down by about ten agents - then offered representation by three. Then I was rejected by at least 25 publishers, before getting a two-book deal. It's really hard but try not to take it personally. (and drop that machete...it will do you no good...)

6) Self-publishing used to be a no-no..it screamed desperation, incompetence and sub-standard. You might as well put a big label 'Written by a Loser' on your book. But we are entering a new phase of self-publishingand everything is changing. It is easy-peasy to put your book on Amazon as an e-book, price it low and see what happens. Unlike conventional publishing, you will receive 75% of the cover price. Unlike conventional publishing you will not have to wait for a year to sell your book. The drawbacks - you have to do (or arrange) your own editing, cover design and marketing (but even with a conventional publisher, you have to do a certain amount of editing and marketing). Your book will not win awards, nor be bought by libraries or schools. You will not have lovely shiny copies of your book to hold.

Right now, I wouldn't advise self-publishing unless you've become completely jaded by attenpting the conventional route. Whether I'd give the same advice next year..I'm not so sure. And for authors who've had rights revert to them - go for it.

Tomorrow: What books do you recommend?

Group Dynamic

2011-12-13T11:50:00.000-08:00

Guinea pigs and gunmen, communists and criminal cats. Etiquette, incest, drug-taking and blood - lots of it. Careers, children and choir-singing. Yiddish, Norwegian, Spanish and Cockney.
I'm just trying to give you a flavour of one of our Writing Group meetings, where, with a rough brief of discussing our attempts to write for children - a brief that's constantly breached - we critique work, discuss our lives, and provide mutual comfort and support.
We've been meeting for a few years now, and we've seen eachother through setbacks and successes. Some ideas take shape, others get abandoned. Some are on slow-burn, others get written in a matter of weeks.

Sometimes one of us will get a job, or start a blog or do something exciting like move to Norway for a year. Sometimes people sign up with agents. But the most exciting thing is when a publisher likes one of the projects we've discussed. And that's been happening quite a lot recently.

This year our group leader Amanda Swift and group member Jennifer Gray worked together to create Guinea Pigs Online, a fabulously funny new series for the 5 plus age group. They signed a two-book deal with Quercus and both books will come out next year - Guinea Pigs Online in April and Guinea Pigs Online 2 - Furry Towers in November.

Do Amanda and Jennifer own guinea pigs? Well, no, they don't. But I do, and so did group member Becky Jones. So we were expert advisers for this project, although their fictional piggies are a little more...hmmm...active than real ones.

Here's the blurb for Guinea Pigs Online:

Fuzzy the guinea pig loves the Internet. He loves to cook too – ketchup and washing-up liquid soup … yum! Hutch-mate Coco is incredibly posh, and she does not care for computers.

But when Fuzzy goes missing and Micespace reveals that he could be in terrible danger, Coco has to get online to find out where he’s gone! Luckily, she’s got help from a crack team of fellow guinea-pigs: Terry the techno-whizz, Banoffee, mum of fourteen guinea-piglets and Eduardo, the heroic, handsome, freedom-fighting Peruvian!

Will the guinea pigs save Fuzzy and make it home alive?

What's more, Jennifer has also signed a contract with Faber for a three-book comedy series for 7 + about Atticus Claw - the world's greatest cat burglar. The first - Atticus Claw Breaks the Law - will be published in September 2012 with the others to follow in 2013.

While Amanda and Jennifer entertained us, Lydia Syson made us cry with her heart-stopping historical romance A Darker Shade of Red, which has been bought by new publisher Hot Key Books. Editor Sarah Odedina calls it "a fantastic, sweeping romance… With hints of Charlotte Gray and Atonement this is a novel that will thrill and satisfy any YA reader who likes adventure and big themes with their romance…." The setting is the Spanish Civil War, so the themes couldn't be much bigger. A Darker Shade of Red will be published in Autumn 2012, and I'd bet it'll end up on quite a few award shortlists.

Becky Jones, along with writing partner Clare Lewis, has already published two fabulous non-fiction books of adventure walks for families in and around London - details here.
Their next book, The Bumper Book of London, is coming out 7th April 2012, from Frances Lincoln, who are also my publishers, and it's certainly going to be my gift of choice for children for quite some time.
Here's the blurb: This entertaining and informative book includes every fact, figure, statistic and hidden secret of London that will be of interest to children. Mixing history with literature, listings with trivia, it opens windows on all areas of London's rich past and present. Here children will learn about London's art and architecture, landmarks, hidden places, ghosts, pearly kings and queens, festivals, street names, games, traditions, markets, football teams, and much, much more. Discover the oldest, the tallest, the silliest, the scariest and the smallest things in London. Shop till you drop at the Queen's favourite stores. Delve into London's murky past, see where notorious criminals were hanged, drawn and quartered, pirates were strung out to rot, heads were mounted on spikes and prisoners were tortured. Peer down London's oldest loo, chant with the crowds at London's first football club, and walk under the River Thames without getting wet. The Bumper Book of London will satisfy every child's appetite for facts and figures - as well as providing fodder for desperate parents who have run out of answers.
Add to that my book Another Life, which is nearly at the bound proof stage, and should be out in August. Our other two members Anna and Fenella, have both got new jobs.
So, one group, six books out in 2012 (admittedly, most of them written by Jennifer who has more ideas in an afternoon than I have in a year). We're virtually the Bloomsbury set!

Another Life - update

2011-11-27T04:29:00.000-08:00

Another Life - the third book about Ty - is pretty much finished. The copy edit is done,I've inserted a few jokes, made some things clearer. I rewrote chapter two to take account of advice from my barrister friend. The cover is designed, the blurb agreed. Around the end of December proof copies should be available.
It's a funny feeling. As far as I know this will be the last book about Ty (although, mind you, I said that at the end of Almost True). I'm sad to say goodbye. When you write three books about a character, he's like part of the family. One of the best things this year has been finding out that readers enjoy reading about Ty and care about him as much as I enjoy writing about him. My big challenge now is working out how to move on.
Anyway, I've made a word cloud of Another Life which you can see here It doesn't tell you much, although if you look carefully there are some new and revived character names.
The girls of Elizabeth Garrett Anderson School in Islington are holding a competition to design a cover for Another Life. They asked if the model on the cover could come along to the school for a photo shoot, nice try, girls. I've told them that all three books in the series are getting a new look. When their competition is done I hope to be able to share all three new covers with you.

Breaking free of the chains

2011-11-23T15:23:00.000-08:00

WH Smith: Half price on all our top 20 celebrity hardbacks!

One of the less enjoyable parts of being an author is meeting a lovely friend who has tried to buy your book in her local bookshop. She drove there specially, looked carefully, even asked a shop assistant.
Then she breaks the news to you.'I'm really sorry,' she says, 'WH Smith in Brent Cross/Wood Green/Luton Airport/the Arndale Centre didn't have your book.'
Argh! If only she'd checked first! I could have told her not to bother, guided her gently towards a lovely indie bookshop or Amazon. A debut author with a small publisher has to get very lucky indeed to get her book into the big chains, and my first book When I Was Joe, was not lucky enough.
In fact anyone who isn't a known best-seller, pretty much has to have a publisher able to pay large amounts to promote you, and a book which catches the eye of the buyers at supermarkets or chains, often because it is similar to other best-sellers. What was I thinking, writing a realistic 'gritty' (hate that word) thriller in 2009? Obviously, teens only wanted to read about vampires.

Waterstone's Islington promotes Almost True

Sometimes it seems that the main places where most people go to browse books (for indie bookshops are closing every day) are stocking a smaller and smaller range of books. Go into a smaller branch of WH Smith and you might be forgiven for thinking that the only people writing for children nowadays are Julia Donaldson, Jacqueline Wilson, Darren Shan, Stephenie Meyer, J K Rowling, Francesca Simon, Jeff Kinney and their imitators.
Doom and gloom abound. A received wisdom is growing up that without the big orders from the big chains, you don't stand a chance. You can't be a bestseller until you're already a best seller. Authors are all too often judged on their market performance in the first six months of their career - before they've had a chance to build up a readership through any other means than piling their books high in chains and supermarkets. And established authors are judged equally harshly, despite their past success.
So, hurray for this article in The Bookseller which challenges this notion.
'Publishers once bemoaned the passing of the backlist, yet now it is midlist titles they are concerned about as the focus is drawn ever closer to the bestseller charts.' writes Caroline Horn, quoting agents and publishers (notably Francesca Dow of Penguin) saying that there is less room in the market for a range of titles and writers. The news is particularly bad for those writing for 8-12 year-olds, pushed aside by all those teen paranormal clones.
HOWEVER - and rarely has a however been so welcome - Ms Horn does clever things with the figures to show that actually the children's market is growing and all is not as it seems.

'The frontrunners account for less of sales now than a decade ago....£62m for the top 10 authors compared with the market as a whole of £324m.'
She goes on to discuss different outlets stocking children's books, different formats selling well. And then - imagine my surprise! - she talks about my book

Publishers have to work much harder to achieve those sales, says Gail Lynch, sales and marketing director at Frances Lincoln. She cites Keren David's When I Was Joe as an example. This was published by Frances Lincoln on its fledgling YA list and while the title has not been supported by the major chains, sales have still reached nearly 10,000 copies, which Lynch attributes to the unflagging efforts of the author, sales reps, indies and the number of regional book awards it has featured in. But she adds that each and every sale has been "hard won".

Now, earlier in the article sales for another book of 3,700 were described as 'very modest', so the gap between success and disappointment seems to be pretty narrow, but it's still nice to be singled out as a good news story. I'd have added a big, fat, hopeful SO FAR after the figure of 10,000. Furthermore, When I Was Joe was always stocked by some, if not all, branches of Waterstone's, and I know several wonderful Waterstone's booksellers who have worked tirelessly to handsell my books (a particular thank you to Corinne in Islington, Gabriel in Thanet and Nicole at Piccadilly - and those are just the ones I know about). I very much hope that the move in Waterstone's to central ordering does not curb the impact of their enthusiastic booksellers who can make a real difference when they champion a book. There was a phase when it seemed that all the fan emails I received were from people who lived in or near Thanet.
And my third book, Lia's Guide to Winning the Lottery which manges to disguise its inner 'welcome grittiness' under a girly cover, is stocked by WH Smith and was on 3 for 2 at Waterstones, before that promotion was cancelled.
But yes, making any kind of impact was hard, and involved exceptionally hard work from the entire team at Frances Lincoln. I'm constantly impressed by the advantages to be found at this particular small publisher. Everyone cares about me and my book, everyone is interested in doing extra stuff which might just help sell a few copies here or there. They believe in growing sales slowly, they believe in a word-of-mouth ripple effect, they work and work to let people - librarians, reviewers, booksellers, teachers - know about me and about my books. They are wonderful and I owe them a lot.
As for me, what have I done to help my publisher sell books? I realised early on - before the book came out - that there were things that I could do that played on my strengths and were (apart from my time) completely free. I'm good with people and I'm an experienced journalist. So I blog. I facebook. I tweet. I make new friends, both virtual and real.
Some of the time I do this with a 'networking' hat on, and mostly I do it because it's fun and supportive and interesting and I meet wonderful people (only today I had lunch with a brilliant author who is also published by Frances Lincoln, Naima B Robert and I had been friends online for ages, but as she lives in Cairo and I'm in London this was our first actual meeting).
I do school visits, although not loads and loads. I try and say yes when I'm invited to speak at conferences and festivals. I've also worked hard to keep the books coming - four written in three and a half years. 'I do admire how you keep churning them out,' someone told me the other day, to the quiet sound of my grinding teeth.
I wish more people in the industry would take heed of Caroline Horn's article. Getting books into Tesco is not everything. Failing to get a Waterstone's promotion isn't the end of the world. Sometimes it's better to be patient than expect instant results. Trends are all very well, but good writing is more important.
The top ten children's authors are making an average £6m a year each. The rest of us - thousands of us - share the remaining £262 million. Our challenge is to earn a living from our writing. We can take some crumbs of hope from Caroline Horn's conclusion:

Where books are selling and how they are sold is changing, and the burgeoning internet and e-book markets will change this further. What hasn't changed, however, against all expectation, is that midlist and backlist titles, as well as the "quieter" new books, are selling—and they are selling even better than they did a decade ago.

Writing for Children

2011-10-30T03:34:00.000-07:00

In January 2008 I signed up for a course in writing for children at City University in London, taught by Amanda Swift. The course changed my life - it's where I started writing When I Was Joe.
Amanda's now giving up teaching the course, and I'm very honoured to have been asked to take over. It runs for ten weeks, starting January 17 or April 24; it will cover many aspects of writing for children, from picture books to Young Adult. It's for everyone, whether you're aiming for publication or just want to get out of the house on a Tuesday evening.
One of the most fun aspects of preparing for the course was thinking of a list of recommended books. There were so many I could have chosen, but in the end I picked the following:

Auslander - Paul Dowswell

Tall Story - Candy Gourlay

The Tiger Who Came to Tea Judith Kerr

The Cat Mummy Jacqueline Wilson

Charmed Life Diana Wynne Jones

How I Live Now Meg Rosoff

Showbiz Sensation: Showbiz Superstar (Stunt Bunny) Tamsyn Murray

There are so many other books I could have chosen, but this is a list with picture books and chapter books to YA, male and female protagonists, fantasy, historical, dystopia, realism, humour,

I'm excited about taking this new step - and a little nervous too. I've often thought I'd like to take the course again - never imagined this would be how. If you're interested in signing up, details are here.

The Shine/Chime Screw-up

2011-10-17T09:26:00.000-07:00

How could they? They being the judges and administrators of the National Book Awards in the US who mixed up books and authors and created a huge painful mess.

Shine - with an 's' and an 'n'

Last week the shortlist of five was announced for the Young People's book award. Shortly afterwards, consternation, embarrassment, disaster. They'd listed Lauren Myracle's book Shine, when they meant Chime by Frannie Billingsley.

Chime with a 'c'and an 'm'

At first, they clumsily added Myracle's book to the shortlist. Behind the scenes, pressure was put on her to withdraw. Today she did so, with enormous grace, saying: 'When I received the initial call about Shine being a finalist, I was humbled and honored to be in the company of such amazing authors. I was also deeply moved that in recognizing 'Shine,' the NBF was giving voice to the thousands of disenfranchised youth in America—particularly gay youth—who face massive discrimination and intimidation every day. So that something positive may come of their error, I have strongly suggested that the NBF donate to the Matthew Shepard Foundation [a charity focused on respecting human dignity among young people].”

The NBF have subsequently confirmed a $5,000 donation to the trust.
I felt pain on behalf of both Myracle and Billingsley when I read this story - goodness knows how bad they must feel. Thing is, you don't write books with awards in mind (well, I suppose some people may, but I don't and nor do most writers.) If and when the call comes that your book has been honoured, it's incredibly special. It's a lovely surprise, a bonus, a joy - but also a stressful experience, as you're suddenly part of a competition you hadn't expected.
Authors are not athletes, looking to stomp the opposition. We try and write the best book we can, for our own reasons. It's wonderful to win, it's less wonderful to come close. It's demoralising and disappointing to feel over-looked. But to think you're on a shortlist and then get taken off? To hear that your book has been mixed up with another one? That's an insult.
Awards for childrens' books aren't really about the authors. They exist to get children reading and reviewing, talking and thinking about what makes a good book. Some spark creativity (the Angus Book Award is a good example, with pupils creating book covers and films inspired by the shortlisted books). Others develop debating skills - the Lancashire Book of the Year judges even take over the council chamber for their deliberations.
The best awards make all the short and long-listed authors feel special and celebrated. They take care of the authors involved and remember that we are - well, some of us are - artists with delicate egos, not X Factor contestants. I've heard horror stories about awards which read out the books in descending order ('and in tenth place...') or tell the lucky winner beforehand, leaving the other shortlisters in anxious suspense.
It's not really that difficult to tell the difference between 'Shine' and 'Chime'. It's not really difficult to be sensitive, thoughtful and accurate. Lauren Myracle didn't deserve to be treated like this. Nor did Andy Mulligan when he got booted off the Blue Peter shortlist. I hope that the publicity boosted sales for both of them. And I hope it didn't spoil Frannie Billingsley's moment either. Perhaps they can combine to write about the experience. And call it 'Shame'.

Living the Metaphor

2011-10-09T15:23:00.000-07:00

My favourite view in Amsterdam, the Groenburgwal

When my son Daniel was stillborn in February 1998, someone sent me the following piece:

When you're going to have a baby, it's like planning a fabulous vacation trip - to Italy. You buy a bunch of guide books and make your wonderful plans. The Coliseum. The Michelangelo David. The gondolas in Venice. You may learn some handy phrases in Italian. It's all very exciting.

After months of eager anticipation, the day finally arrives. You pack your bags and off you go. Several hours later, the plane lands. The stewardess comes in and says, "Welcome to Holland."
"Holland?!?" you say. "What do you mean Holland?? I signed up for Italy! I'm supposed to be in Italy. All my life I've dreamed of going to Italy."
But there's been a change in the flight plan. They've landed in Holland and there you must stay.
The important thing is that they haven't taken you to a horrible, disgusting, filthy place, full of pestilence, famine and disease. It's just a different place.
So you must go out and buy new guide books. And you must learn a whole new language. And you will meet a whole new group of people you would never have met.
It’s just a different place. It's slower-paced than Italy, less flashy than Italy. But after you've been there for a while and you catch your breath, you look around.... and you begin to notice that Holland has windmills....and Holland has tulips. Holland even has Rembrandts.
But everyone you know is busy coming and going from Italy... and they're all bragging about what a wonderful time they had there. And for the rest of your life, you will say "Yes, that's where I was supposed to go. That's what I had planned."
And the pain of that will never, ever, ever, ever go away... because the loss of that dream is a very very significant loss.
But... if you spend your life mourning the fact that you didn't get to Italy, you may never be free to enjoy the very special, the very lovely things ... about Holland.

Now, at the time, this piece seemed neither relevant nor helpful, nor especially sensitive. It had, in fact, been written by Emily Perl Kingsley about the experience of bringing up a disabled child, and so it did not seem at all appropriate to us. 'Afghanistan,' I'd growl, whenever I thought of it. 'Or Siberia,. Or Hiroshima just after they'd dropped the bomb. Those would be more suitable metaphors. Not bloody Holland.'

And then - oh irony! oh coincidence! - just over a year later, we moved. To bloody Holland. And not at all at a time when I wanted to live there, or indeed live anywhere that wasn't my own home among my friends and family and people who spoke my language.

We were there for eight years. It was hard, and I was homesick, and depressed. I envied anyone who lived where they wanted to live. I found it hard to accept that I couldn't have that control over my life.

And then, you know what, there were windmills and glorious tulips and Rembrandts. There were Van Goghs and Mondriaans and wonderful new friends and beautiful parks. There was cycling and walking and picnics in the forest and many, many other lovely things. Amsterdam, it turned out, was a healing place.

I can never be as even-handed as Italy versus Holland when it comes to a child dying. I'm sure that many parents of disabled children would struggle with the concept as well. But truly, life without Daniel has not been as bleak or pointless as first we feared. Our lives took a different path, and that we learned a great deal along the way. It wasn't quite Italy/Holland - more like going to boot camp when you were expecting a spa break. It's not what you expect, and it's extremely hard and unfair - but in the end it's not a completely worthless experience.

I was reminded of this story last week, in synagogue for Kol Nidre, the service on the eve of the Day of Atonement. The rabbi read Emily Perl Kingsley's words and spoke about the consolations one can find in troubled times, whatever they may be. 'Living in Holland' was how he described it, and it was truly surreal as his rhetoric described my actual experience.

So, writers, be careful with your metaphors. Think them through. Someone may end up living them.

Memories of 9/11

2011-09-11T01:26:00.000-07:00

We were living in Amsterdam. My children were 1 and 5. My husband’s cousin had come to stay and I switched on the television so that the children could watch Tweenies while we had a cup of tea and a chat.The Tweenies weren’t there. Instead there was an office building, a blue sky. As we watched – irritated, the children whining for their programme – a plane smashed into the building.
What on earth? There was no sound, but a caption on screen said: ‘Pictures from the WTC.’ I only knew one WTC…the Amsterdam WTC, right next door to my husband’s office. I must have switched onto a Dutch channel, I panicked, this must be happening just down the road. What on earth? Was he OK?
Then the sound kicked in, and it was the BBC, and it was New York. And so my first feeling as I comprehended what was happening and where, was - momentarily - relief.
Ten years on, I still feel bad about those five seconds of relief.

What I did (and didn’t do) this summer.

2011-09-04T15:52:00.000-07:00

Soller, Mallorca

1) Just before school holidays begin. Take son to buy uniform for his new school. Bought everything huge and in duplicate, so we will never have to do it again. Massive bill. Unusual and transitory sense of being organised and in control.

2) School holidays begin. Lecture family about my need to write in peace and quiet, for at least a few hours every day. They will have to amuse themselves. Tough.

3) Son has reading list for new school. Ignore instruction saying he has to read one from each genre (five books) and tell him his challenge for the holiday is to read all 25. Then change that to 24 because I don’t like the sound of one of the authors.

4) Daughter has nothing to wear. Take her to mall and buy stuff for her. Slightly less massive bill. No bikinis take her fancy. Gnash teeth. Beg her to buy bikini because it is in sale, even though she hates it. She refuses. Buy school skirts. Suggest that she tries them on so that if necessary we can change them. ‘Later,’ she says.

5) Son starts cricket summer camp. Sun is shining, son is happy. Rush to Starbucks and write and write and write.

6) Day two of cricket camp. It is raining. Son gloomy and bored. Daughter has nothing to wear. Suggest she tries on school skirts. ‘Later,’ she says.

7) Inspiration. We spend rainy day visiting lovely grandparents. Leave daughter there overnight with instructions to grandma to take her to buy bikinis. Hand over cash.

8) Day three of cricket camp. It is sunny, son is delighted. Rush to Starbucks. Write and write and write. Daughter texts pictures of bikinis she has bought with grandma. Then texts picture of price tag showing they were cheaper than the sale bargain she rejected. Huh.

9) Day four of cricket camp. Rain. Drive to grandparents to pick up daughter and bikinis, taking computer, go to their local library, write and write and write. Happy memories of visiting this library every week throughout childhood. Notice that teen section is a measly two bookcases. Do they have my books? They do not.

10) Cricket camp week two. Son decides he’s not enjoying himself as much as last week. ‘I’m not sure if I want to go this week,’ he says. Gnash teeth. Drop him off. Go to Starbucks and write and write and write.

11) Cricket camp week two, day two. ‘I really don’t want to go today.’ Drop him off. Starbucks. Write and write and write.

12) No more cricket camp. Really not enjoying it. Tell him he has lots of books to read. Try and write at home. Concentration shot to pieces.

13) HOLIDAY! We are off to Mallorca. Decide to take laptop so I can get up early every day and keep writing.

14) Midnight before holiday. We are getting up at 4am to go to Mallorca. Power cable for laptop breaks. Gnash teeth. Decide to take lightweight Netbook instead, and download manuscript onto Kindle. Congratulate self at techno know-how and calm under pressure.

15) Arrive Mallorca. Gorgeous but hot. Very hot. Family shrivel and droop in the sunshine. ‘I hope you’re not going to be too pathetic to do some sight-seeing,’ says husband.

View from the pool

16) Too hot to write. Too hot to think. Sit in shade and admire view and read Caitlin Moran’s How to Be a Woman. ‘Stop laughing out loud,’ instruct children, ‘you’re embarrassing us.’

17) Day 2. Find shady spot and write and write. Son has made friends with other children at pool. Somehow we fail to notice that he has spent six hours in and out of the pool, only reapplying Factor 50 sun cream once.

18) Son has terrible sunburn. Plus he is vomiting (but has not got sunstroke, we check on internet). Spend day sitting in darkened room with him, reading teen romances (research!). Become obsessed with American book Anna and the French Kiss by Stephanie Perkins. Why does a boy with an English accent pronounce Anna ‘Ah’na’? Why does he talk about ‘transit systems’? Why has his mother never divorced her rich but abusive husband? Daughter advises me to get a life. I pre-order sequel.

19) Husband is bored with sitting around doing nothing except reading (possibly because he is reading serious books about Spain, and not teen romances). We go on a train to Palma. Palma extremely hot, but interesting. We wander around a big department store, and I take pictures in the book department of Spanish translations of books written by friend. ‘What are you doing?’ say children. ‘Stop! You’re being embarrassing!’ We visit English language bookshop. Ditto.

20) Next day. Husband still bored. Using son’s sunburn as excuse for another day trip. Today we go to Deia, beautiful village and former home of poet and author Robert Graves. It is very hot. ‘It’ll be really interesting,’ says husband.

21) Drive through Deia. Nowhere to park. Turn around and drive back. Just as I am declaring it completely impossible to park - we will have to abandon trip - a space comes up. Park. Walk through Deia. Children are hot and thirsty. Find a café, buy them drinks. Graves’ house is a fifteen minute walk down the road. Decide to leave grateful children in café (NB They are 15 and 11. We were not abandoning tots)

22) Walk to Graves’ house. It is midday. The sun beats down. Arrive at Graves’ house, feeling as though I have trekked through the Sahara desert. Discover there is large car park at Graves house.

Robert Graves' study.

23) Husband is correct. Graves’s house is interesting. Also air-conditioned. Learn about his love triangle, with several wives, lovers, others. Learn about his many children, some of them abandoned in London when Graves made his home in Deia. Contemplate his tranquil study, where everything was - is – just the way he wanted it. Learn that Graves liked to work in complete silence. Huh.

24) Persuade daughter to read manuscript of book-so-far on my kindle. Her verdict: ‘You’re a pervert.’

25) Transfer from hotel to villa. We have swimming pool in garden. We have short walk to beach. We have no internet connection though.

26) We have satellite televison. Husband and I watch interesting play set in WW2. Seems to be an experimental script in which a narrator described every action on the screen. After some time realise that this is not an experimental script at all, but we are on a channel which has a commentary for blind people.

27) Ask husband if he’d known that all the time. He thought it was an experimental script as well.

28) Satellite stops picking up a signal at the climax of the play. Does this every night of the holiday.

29) Decide on a strategy to make the most of holiday without suffering from the heat. We have to get up and do things early in the morning, then take a siesta, then do more things in the evening.

30) Next morning wake at 11am, as usual. Kindle battery is flat. No way to charge it.

31) A few lazy days, in which I read a lot and write a bit. Go to Irish pub to watch Manchester United play Spurs. A Chelsea fan says to my husband: 'I see you support Manchester United, I don;t expect you come from there.' 'Actually, I do,' he replies.

32) Visit Alcudia which has a bull ring and Roman remains. Complain loudly about having to walk (in searing heat) through fields for HOURS to see Roman theatre. Surprised to find on walk back that HOURS was only five minutes.

Red devil

33) Church of St Jaume, Alcudia. Find picture of St Michael trampling on Manchester United mascot, the red devil.

34) Holiday comes to an end all too soon. We agree that we had a brilliant time, we love Mallorca, the heat was no problem at all.

35) Back to England. Pouring rain greets us at Luton Airport. House smells musty and damp. ‘This is the way the house used to smell when we moved back in from Amsterdam!’ say the kids Hmm.

36) Go through post. Where are daughter’s exam results? Where is new electrical cable for laptop? It is a bank holiday, and we will have to wait two whole days for these things. On the other hand, a box of books has arrived from Amazon, the books my daughter wanted to take on holiday with her.

37) Try and email holiday writing from Netbook. Netbook’s internet server seems to be broken.

38) Shall we go and see The In-Betweeners Movie at the cinema or One Day? Daughter is horrified at the idea of us going to see the former. Manages to persuade husband that we will be thirty years older than anyone else there. So we see One Day. Hoot with laughter at Anne Hathaway’s accent, otherwise unimpressed. Two self-pitying people fall in love excruciatingly slowly, then..WHAM! And more self-pity. Nothing like as good as the book.

38a) Manchester United beat Arsenal 8-2. Family united in joyous celebrations (err...apart from my brother and nephew who support Arsenal).

39) Bank holiday over. Pick up power cable for laptop at post office. Charge up laptop, and try and load Netbook writing onto memory stick. Netbook does not seem to recognise memory stick. Hit head against wall.

40) Son is due to do watersports summer camp this week. Arrive at camp. Lady at reception points out that I have not booked the six hour day camp, but instead the two hour evening camp. ‘Come back at 4.30pm,’ she says. I protest that my booking letter said 10am. Go home. Booking letter says 4.30pm. Gnash, gnash.

41) Daughter and I set off to mall to buy dress that she spotted over the weekend - it was too big, so we ordered it in a smaller size. Halfway there, remember her exam results. Ring school in panic, they say we will have to come in and get them. Buy dress (and jumper, and jewellery, and other stuff that I have forgotten), eat sushi, rush to school. Hurray! Daughter has done very well in her sociology exam (half of GCSE). Very proud of her. Join queue to buy school uniform - which can only be bought from the school. After two minutes realise that we will be in queue for approx three hours, in order to buy one jumper and a tie. Abandon queue. Remember doing same thing last year. Gnash teeth.

42) Son loves evening class at watersports centre. I go to Sainsburys.

43) Next three days, son learns canoeing, kayaking and sailing. I write for one and a half hours each lesson in local café. Each day I rewrite the same chapter. Cannot move on without words trapped in Netbook.

44) Friday. There is a get-together planned for son’s new class at new school. They had one earlier in the holiday, and I enjoyed meeting the parents and getting a look at the kids. This time son and friend would rather play on the Wii. ‘We’re going to know these people for the next seven years,’ they say. ‘We've friended them on Facebook. We don’t have to go and spend time with them now.’

45) Weekend. Husband and I go and see The In-Betweeners. Notice with some relief that we are far from the oldest people there. Laugh hysterically throughout. All the way home husband shares reminiscences of teenage holiday to Fuengerola with best friends. Remarkable similarities.

46) Meet another parent whose child is going to son’s school. How many books has he read from the reading list, I enquire. ‘He’s read four out of five,’ he says. ‘How about your son?’ ‘He’s read 20.’ Later, Son: ‘Olly’s only read four of those books.’ Daughter: ‘You were conned. You’ll never hear anything about them again.’

47) First football match of the season for son’s team. It is pouring with rain. Goalie fails to turn up, so son is in goal for second half. He has no goalie gloves, but it doesn’t matter because he has no saves to make. His team wins 2-0.

48) Tomorrow is the last day of the school holidays. Our plans…I’m taking Netbook to be mended. Dropping off daughter and niece at the mall. And then son and I are going to the school uniform shop. Funnily enough, I forgot to buy sports shoes. ‘Last time I drove past there, they were queuing out onto the street,’ says my sister. Must remember to get daughter to try on school skirts.

49) Tuesday. Son starts new school. From now on he will leave the house at 7.10am and not return until 5pm. I will be able to write and write and write. But hang on, it’s daughter’s first day too. Or is it? ‘I’m just going in for an hour to pick up my timetable,’ she says. When is this hour? 2.10pm.

50) Wednesday September 7^th. Everyone back at school. I have until the end of the month to meet my deadline. Tick tock.

Me and my shadow...

2011-08-30T03:36:00.000-07:00

It's work! That's what I tell my family when I'm hunched over the computer 'networking' on Facebook, or staring into space, thinking about my plotline while ignoring them completely.

My shadow for the day

Even when I'm doing the actual arduous, gut-wrenching, creative job of actually writing, you don't see much, beyond a slightly demented looking woman staring at a screen, often mouthing words and occasionally pulling out her hair.

On the other hand, sometimes my work is much more visual. I do school visits. I take part in literary festivals. I have lunch with my agent. Sometimes I get to go to award ceremonies and applaud as Jason Wallace picks up another well-deserved prize....

When 13-year-old Hudi Charin asked if she could spend a day with me as part of her school's work experience scheme, it was a bit of a dilemma. Drum up a school visit to entertain her? Or let her sit and watch me mouthing at a screen? Here's Hudi's report of her day...with my comments in italics..

My school's work shadowing day was something we had all known was coming up in the last couple of weeks in July.

Some people were off with their parents, others going to places that they were not so interested in.

However, I was lucky enough to be able to spend my day work shadowing the author of some of my favourite books; When I was Joe; Almost True and most recently, Lia’s Guide to Winning the Lottery.

I have always wanted to be an author, since before I can remember really, and knowing that I would be shadowing a real one (hmmm...not sure that I always feel like a real one. Actually, maybe I should go and shadow a real author one day) was an amazing experience for me and truly generous of Keren to let me do so.

Keren showed me into her house, (argh! messy!) then packed up her laptop, telling me that she liked to sit down to write after a long (short) walk in the woods near where she lives. So off we went.

During the walk, I had a chance to ask her some questions...

ON BEING AN AUTHOR

What sort of things do you do in your job?

I write and edit, go to schools, attend award ceremonies and festivals... and lots of meetings.

What hours do you work?

At least two hours a day- but it all depends on the deadline.

How much annual leave do you get?

None!

What qualifications do you need for this job?

None- anyone can write- but I worked as a journalist which was very helpful.

What sort of training do you need to get into this job?

Basic language and writing skills.

What do you like most about your job?

I like to hear from my readers and the end result is very satisfying.

What do you like least about your job?

Rejection is tough. And so are days when the writing will not flow.

What chances of promotion are there?

Awards and selling books to Hollywood. Being a bestseller! With writing, the sky is the limit.

Are there any benefits that come with this job?

The freedom to run your own life and be creative. Seeing your name on a book. Hearing from readers who have enjoyed your book.

Have any of the following factors affected your job and, if so, how?

-Changing technology

The invention of the laptop has helped and of course the internet and online access to books has affected me.

-Overseas or local competition

There is loads of competition everywhere, it is an extremely competitive market.

-Economic recession

Yes. There are now smaller advances and more people are buying second hand books nowadays where authors do not get a profit at all.

-Changing company ownership

Not so far! (Funnily enough since Hudi spent her day with me, my publisherFrances Lincoln has been bought by Quarto.)

What advice would you give a young person preparing to enter the workplace?

For journalism- start small on a local newspaper and build your way up.

For writing books- don’t get put off by rejection, keep reading and writing. Try to analyse good books that you have enjoyed.

ON KEREN’S THREE GREAT BOOKS

What got you interested in writing for children?

I always enjoyed children's books and thought my style of writing would suit them.

When did you begin writing your first book, When I was Joe?

In April 2008.

How did you come up with the idea?

I saw a news report about a family who'd been involved in an armed robbery and had to go into witness protection.

How did you get into the mindset of a teenage boy?

I just thought a lot about what it was like to be Ty - all the pressures on him, all the changes in his life.

Did you always know that When I was Joe would lead on to a sequel?

No, I only started writing the sequel to amuse myself after I'd finished When I Was Joe and when I was looking for an agent to represent me.

After writing two books in the mindset of Ty, was it hard to write from the point of view of Lia in Lia’s Guide to Winning the Lottery?

Yes, much harder than I'd imagined it would be. I missed Ty a lot.

Lia has a very interesting personality that teenage girls can relate to but how do you relate to Lia?

She seemed to me to be a very typical teenage girl - lacking in self-awareness, and a bit self-centred, but basically a good person. I remember feeling very misunderstood when I was about her age.

Do you also relate a lot to your characters’ mothers too? When you characters are in an argument with their parents- how do you write from the character’s perspective?

I try and relate to all the characters, so I understand where they are coming from. That way the dialogue flows quite easily.

After our walk through the woods, Keren bumped into her friends (the perils of trying to work out of the house) and we sat down for coffee and cake (coffee for me. Cake for Hudi!) . Being an author was looking better and better to me!

I munched on a chocolate muffin while Keren worked on her next book- the sequel to When I was Joe and Almost True. I also had the great opportunity to read what Keren had written so far. (I was writing. But I was also watching Hudi read...seeing if she laughed at my jokes or not, seeing if she seemed to be enjoying herself. Felt very deflated when the huge manuscript I'd presented her with turned out to be so big because I'd printed the whole thing twice.) It is just as gripping and thrilling as the other two books in the series and it is not even finished! So, the minute it is published, go out and buy it! (this is assuming I ever get it finished...)

Just as I popped the last chocolate crumb into my mouth, Keren announced she had finished her writing for today.(I noticed that poor Hudi was shivering...and then I met another friend as we walked back through the woods...we went home and Hudi borrowed my daughter's hoodie...see what I did there?)

The huge stack...

It was now time to go off to the Frances Lincoln Children’s Books building to meet the team that works with Keren. When we got to the Frances Lincoln building, we were greeted by the people there... and a huge stack of 100 copies of Lia’s Guide to Winning the Lottery, brand new with the iconic red and white cover.

Keren got to work right away, while the woman who designed the cover of Keren’s latest book showed me around her department (thank you, Arianna!)which was also very inspiring to me as I’m interested in graphic design.

When we arrived back downstairs, I helped Keren box away all the freshly signed books and it was now time for my amazing day with Keren to end. (3pm. I had to stop being a real author..sigh...and rush off to pick up my son from school. I offered to take Hudi along, so she could see the way mums have to juggle work and family, but unsurprisingly she wasn't quite so interested in that side of things)

It was great for me to learn that a writer doesn’t just have to spend their time shut up in a room typing away and, like Keren, I now try and get out and about to do my writing.

Many many thanks to Keren for giving up her day to show me what writing is really like and giving me this incredible experience! (And thank you Hudi for not complaining that watching a writer write is actually very dull...not to mention watching a writer chat to random friends...and most of all for saying nice things about the work in progress. The perfect shadow!)

London riots

2011-08-11T16:58:00.000-07:00

It's been a strange and scary week in London.

Tottenham burns on Saturday night

A week in which rumours flew around on phones and in whispers.
A week of fire and smashed windows, destruction and looting.
A week of anger and excitement, and leaps to judgement and definition, distance and containment.
I've been reading newspapers, listening to the radio, unable to switch the television off until 1am. I've been staying in after 5pm, avoiding shops that I use all the time, asking my 15-year-old what she's seen on Facebook - where's going to be next? I've found myself seriously wondering if I'm safe to go for a walk in the park at 5pm on a sunny August evening.

I've listened to politicians, pundits, churchmen and columnists. I've heard a lot of good sense and a load of old rubbish.

And I've had a few thoughts.

There was a carnival atmosphere about the looting. It was as though people had responded to news reports about one riot and, instead of feeling horror and disgust, thought they were adverts for the summer sales. 'Come on down! Everything's free! Midsummer madness!' Why did people react in such an amoral way? Why did they lack feeling for the community - the shop-owners, the people living in burned out flats?
Perhaps it's something to do with the huge inequality in British society - after eight years in the Netherlands, it was the thing that shocked me most about reurning to London. It's not just the massive gap between rich and poor, and the horror that the haves feel about sharing with the have-nots; it's the lack of care and contact between the two groups. A mutual contempt seems to have grown between rich and poor, fostered by media and politicians.
Maybe it's something to do with the rule-bending, greed and hypocrisy on display from the British establishment? If people see that MPs were happy to help themselves to tax-payers' money by falsifying their expenses, or twisting the rules to their favour - and they could get away with it in most cases by paying back the money - then perhaps they might expect to be able to help themselves to free stuff, when the opportunity arises?
It could be that if people saw politicans take personal responsibility for mistakes by resigning, that they'd take more responsibility for their own morality. Not just politicans. Business leaders. Bankers. Church leaders who enabled the abuse of children. Journalists who hacked phone messages from murdered children. Saying sorry, tinkering with the system, blaming subordinates is not enough. Removing yourself from power and making amends by working for the good of others, is the way to set a good example (would anyone caught up in a scandal now react as John Profumo did?).
How about restoring a bit of respect to our society? Respect means making snobbery and stereotyping (of everyone from Eton to Essex) as unacceptable as racism is becoming - sadly, that battle's not won yet. Respect means less media intrusion and pointless gossip and finger-pointing. If Britain wants to restore its respectability, it needs to embrace respect.
I'm pleased that David Cameron is going to do more to tackle gangs - and he's right to look at the work of Strathclyde Police. I'm interested though that he didn't do more before now. Perhaps the scores of young men being murdered on city streets didn't matter enough.

I thought long and hard when I wrote When I Was Joe about what might make young people less likely to arm themselves with knives. Active policing, which enables police to build relationships with vulnerable youths was the best answer I came up with. Perhaps we'll get it now. I notice though that it's the neighbourhood officers who've already been cut in Mr Cameron's austerity measures.

I'm actually not interested in hearing from the rioters. I think it's pretty easy to understand the mentality which seeks to steal and destroy. They were stupid and dangerous and vile. They need something more drastic than mere punishment. I'd actually like to see some sort of national service brought back for these stupid jokers, so they could contribute something to our society and maybe learn a bit of discipline.

I'm much more interested in hearing from the kids who don't riot. The ones who work hard and become successful against the odds. The ones who stay honest and care about their communities. What makes them different from the rioters? Who helped them find their way? What can we learn from them? Boys like this one who reminds me a lot of Nathan in When I Was Joe and Almost True.

Some wonderful things have come out of this terrible week. I loved the jokes on Twitter, the English horror that Americans were tweeting #prayforLondon; the idea that the people of Crouch End (where I live) would respond to looters by pelting them with artisan sourdough loaves.
I loved OperationCupofTea on Facebook, which signed up people in their thousands to stay in and drink tea instead of rioting - and all the sweet tea-drinking pictures posted on its page.
I loved that people came together to clean up after the riots, and called themselves the Riotwombles after a much-loved children's book.
I loved my local supermarket - hurray for Budgens - which set up a collection point for contributions of clothes and bedding to help the people made homeless in the fires in nearby Tottenham.
I was impressed and awed by the courage and spirit of those people who'd lost everything - in Tottenham, Croydon, Clapham Junction as they contemplated their future. By the smile on the face of Asyraf Haziq Rosli, the Malaysian student attacked and robbed by rioters - as they pretended to help him - who was able to say that he still wanted to stay in Britain and he felt sorry for his attackers.
And above all by the immense dignity and wisdom shown by Tariq Jahan, father of Haroon, one of the men killed during riots in Birmingham, who calmed tensions in the city by speaking out just hours after his son's death. In the light of the Islamophobia which mars our society, it's worth pointing out that both Mr Jahan and Mr Rosli are shining examples of good Muslim role models for us all.

I fear that we won't learn the right lessons from the riots. Already tonight, going out to eat in a crowded restaurant, it seemed crazy that only two days ago I was too nervous to meet a friend for a drink after dark. But if we don't change and learn - all of us - then I'm certain of one thing. It'll happen again. And next time it will be worse.

PS I wrote this and then I read this. And I thought yes, yes, yes, yes, yes. And in the Telegraph too. Maybe there is hope.

Publication day!

2011-08-04T06:34:00.000-07:00

Woo! Today is the official publication day for Lia's Guide to Winning the Lottery!
There's no party (August is a bit useless for parties, but we might do something in September) but there is a chance to get your name into my next book (hurry! I'm writing it now!) by entering this competition. Read about what I'd have done if I'd won the lottery when I was 16 (not that there was a lottery in those far-off days) here and about how I created the character of Lia's friend Shazia here.
You can get Lia on your kindle here , if you live out of the UK here and in all good bookshops, here or here
Read an excerpt here.

Read an interview with me about Lia here
And see a silly interview with Fiona Dunbar, me and some sensible teenagers here

That's enough links...hope you enjoy Lia, and if you do, please tell your friends/review on Amazon/let me know!

The camisole and cream catastrophe

2011-07-28T14:59:00.000-07:00

The lovely couple

Twenty years ago today, July 28th 1991 was a beautiful day. I remember it well. Sizzling hot, clear blue sky, the perfect day for a wedding.
I was, to be honest, a little nervous about this particular wedding. I'd broken up with the bride's step-brother about a year beforehand, and although there was no particular animosity, it still felt a little weird to be going to a big family event. But the bride and groom (an ex flatmate) were both good friends of mine, not to mention the bride's brother (another ex-flatmate) and sister-in-law. Also my friend Laura (the fourth flatmate) had come over from America . It'd be fine, I reassured myself. I had a nice outfit, I'd know lots of people there. Laura and I could have a good catch-up.
I lived in Hammersmith in west London, the wedding was in Hertfordshire, north of London. Thinking about it now, the sensible thing would have been to go and stay with my parents (also Hertfordshire) and get ready there. But my brain didn't work like that. Instead I arranged to drive right across London, west to east, to Laura's parents' house in Woodford. We'd get ready together, then drive to the wedding.
It was the perfect plan, I thought, as I went out to my car, carefully hanging my outfit in the back of the car.
My outfit. It was great. I had a short black straight skirt, and a sheer black camisole. Over the top would go a silk jacket, patterned in red and blue and purple, a sale bargain from Monsoon. I loved it, shoulder pads and all. I was quietly confident. Never mind the old aunties clucking over me and my ex. I'd be the model independent single girl..who happened to work for The Independent. Go me!

The hair! The gardening top!

So I drove all the way to Woodford. It took about an hour. And it was great to see Laura. Here we were, just like old times, getting ready to go out to a party. There was just one problem. No camisole. A frantic phone call to my landlady later, and we worked out what had happened. It was lying on the dusty pavement, back in Hammersmith. It must have slipped off the hanger as I got into the car.

Disaster! Misery! Catastrophe! There was no time to go shopping (and I can't even remember if shops were open on Sundays back in 1991) Laura's mum had nothing suitable for me to borrow. 'There's nothing else for it,' said Laura. 'You'll have to wear this.'

This turned out to be a knitted black top. Luckily it was black and sleeveless, with (not so luckily) a plunging neckline. Unluckily she'd been wearing it all that hot and sticky day while she worked in her parents' garden. It was just a little moist and pungent. 'Never mind,' she said, peeling it off. 'Just spray yourself with a load of perfume, and no one will notice.'
So, when we arrived at the wedding, I was not feeling so confident, nor very fragrant or sophisticated. My hair was frizzy, my silk jacket wrapped firmly around me. Every now and again I realised that the neckline had slipped beyond the decent level, and had to give it a quick tug to get it back in place.
The ceremony was gorgeous, the perfect day for a romantic outdoor ceremony. The bride was beautiful, the bridesmaids lovely in flouncy lilac, the mothers of the happy couple, glorious in papal purple. The groom was dashing in a top hat. I hung onto my jacket and avoided my ex.
Naturally I took a quick glance at the table plan well before dinner. I moved some people around so that Laura and I could chat more easily. But there was a name I didn't recognise on my left hand side, and I left him where he was. You never knew. Maybe he'd be the man of my dreams.
Time for dinner, I sat down and glanced to my left. 'Aaw,' I thought. 'Not my type.' My type at the time was skinny, cynical, nervy and wise-cracking. Ideally working in the media. This man lacked that quality of nervous energy, plus I wasn't sure about his profile (oh, yes, I was that shallow. Forgive me). But, polite as always, I asked him how he knew Sylvia and Richard. 'I'm Sylvia's boss,' he said. 'I don't know anyone else here.'

Well! My protective nature took over. The poor man! He needed looking after! Plus I remembered Sylvia telling me that I should meet her boss. 'He's into books and films and he's got lots of lefty friends,' she said. At the time, I made polite excuses. I was a media snob and they worked for a toothpaste manufacturer. But he was, it turned out, a nice person to talk to.

So we continued chatting as the first course was served. And went on talking through the soup and the salmon (it may not have been salmon, I can't really remember. I'm just taking a wild guess here). And we were still talking through dessert. Once or twice my neglected friend Laura leaned over. 'Can you repeat that?' she asked him, 'I didn't quite catch it.' Startled, he did, and then we went on talking. And I forgot all about the camisole disaster, and the lurking ex, and just enjoyed myself.

Until, that is, the coffee was served. 'Would you like cream?' asked the waitress - and poured a jugful into my lap. All over my black skirt! I was mortified, but my new friend lent his napkin and mopped me up. And then he asked me to dance.
Well, it was no surprise when he asked for my number. And he called me a few days later, and we saw a Woody Allen film, and then we went out for dinner and talked and talked and talked (and he told me the 11 plus story). And we've been talking pretty much non stop for the last twenty years, although it took us three years to get around to getting married, because believe me, nothing makes my husband go at any pace except his own. Which is one of the many things that I love about him, even as I am infuriated.
One thing I didn't do at the wedding was take his picture (although I have one of the ex, hiding behind a fan). And I waited some time before telling him about the camisole catastrophe. 'Didn't you notice that I had a really low cleavage?' I asked. 'I liked it,' he replied.

The jacket, twenty years on.

I still have the jacket hanging up in my cupboard, I never liked to get rid of it. The shoulder pads are drooping now, but the silk still shimmers and glows. How lucky I was 20 years ago (not to mention how lucky he was), and how clever Sylvia and Richard were when they plotted their table plan. Happy anniversary!

(apologies for the poor quality of the pictures...my scanner wasn't working, so these are copies of prints)

PS I mis-remembered! Laura was actually over to get married herself! Happily the weddings were close enough together so she and husband Ian were able to attend Sylvia and Richard's wedding as well. And Ian's presence at the second wedding meant I wasn't neglecting Laura as much as it may appear...

Harry Potter and the Huge Pile of Dosh

2011-07-17T05:39:00.000-07:00

Gratuitous? Moi?

There's a fabulous scene at the beginning of the new Harry Potter film where the intrepid friends are in a vault at Gringotts, and the treasure starts to multiply. As they struggle not to be crushed by the pulsating pile of bling, it's tempting to see it as a metaphor for the stunning financial success achieved by JK Rowling. From a typically small advance for a first novel, she's grown a multi-million pound fortune - and one which looks set to grow even further, now that she's split with her agent, cut free from her publishers and launched her own Pottermore website through which she will sell her e-books excusively.
'You'll be the next J K Rowling!' is what everyone (believe me, everyone) says to children's authors, and it's as irritating as it is false. Even JK herself went through years of low or no income before her books took off. The week's Bookseller has a depressing story about the financial pain being suffered by children's authors in the current climate. Agent Caroline Sheldon estimated that fewer than half of the children's authors who previously made a living from writing five or 10 years ago are now doing so. She said: "The big things are getting bigger and the middle area is getting squeezed." Authors are getting fewer chances and less time to prove themselves, royalties are lower because children's books are cheaper than adult ones, commissions for children's non-fiction have been hard-hit by competition from the internet.
It is difficult to make a living from writing. I haven't cracked it yet, although I can see my income growing as I get more interest from foreign publishers and - crucially - manage to keep on producing books. If I compare it, though, to my career in journalism, I'm quite happy. Although I could earn considerably more with a staff job on a national newspaper (and they aren't any easier to come by than getting a book deal), my salary would be pretty much my limit. Whereas a book..well, anything could happen. It's possible for a book to earn for you again and again - a foreign sale here, a film deal there - while you're working on other stuff.
Once you're a published author, other sources of income open up to you. I earn money from school visits, and occasionally from selling my own books myself. I could possibly earn more if I critiqued manuscripts and ran creative writing workshops. If I developed this blog (or another) into something with loads of readers, I might sell advertising space. If I could think of clever things to sell associated with this blog (Lia's red shoes? handbags?) then I could do that too.
I love watching The Apprentice, and I can't wait to see who wins the final tonight (my money's on lovely but bumbling Tom, although it ought to be super-competent and equally lovely Helen). This year the contestants are competing for moneya nd backing to start their own businesses, rather than a job. Writing a book is a little bit like starting a business, to be honest. Gone is the security of a regular salary (but who has that security now?), the benefits, the chances of promotion. Instead you get a load of risk and hardship - but you've got more control and you're potentially playing for higher stakes. Hard work, tenacity, a good agent, and a willingness to do some self-promotion all help. After all, someone's got to be the next JK!

Lia's out!

2011-07-10T03:24:00.000-07:00

It's not due to be published until August 4th, but Lia's Guide to Winning the Lottery has taken me by surprise by bursting prematurely out of the warehouse and into the shops. It's in lots of Waterstone's branches and in stock at Amazon.
It's a very odd feeling...I'm not ready for this yet! Stand by for some Lia-related posts over the next few weeks. If you've read it, I'd love to hear what you think (err...unless you think harsh and horrible things, in which case keep them to yourself!)
The Awfully Big Blog Adventure is a group blog which I contribute to, and this weekend it's running the world's first online literary festival - details here. No tickets, no travelling, just lots of great authors talking about their books and book related stuff, plus competitions and give-aways and all sorts...And you don't have to miss a thing because it's all there forever.
My contribution will be online at 2.30pm this afternoon. (I'll add a link when it's posted) Fiona Dunbar and I decided to do something jointly about our new books - Fiona's is called Divine Freaks and it's the first in her new Kitty Slade series about a girl who can see ghosts and who solves mysteries, sometimes with the help of the ghosts and sometimes despite them. I love Kitty, she's feisty, down-to-earth and brave - and I can't wait to read the rest in the series.
Fiona and I decided that we wanted to try and make a vlog for the online festival - for the first time ever. We enlisted some teen readers and hijacked a house. Our plan was to just chat generally about the books...we weren't quite sure how the filming would work...we didn't write a script...
It should have been a disaster. But luckily our friend Candy Gourlay, author of the fabulous Tall Story, came along and took command of the filming and directing. So it's thanks to Candy that we produced something reasonably coherent and - we hope - entertaining.
Candy and I were two of the short-listed authors up for the Branford Boase award this week. It's an incredibly prestigious shortlist to be on, honouring debut authors writing for young people and the editors who gave them their chance. Neither Candy nor I won - congratulations to Jason Wallace and Charlie Sheppard who won for Out of Shadows, an extraordinary book about Zimbabwe in the 1980s, which has rightly been recognised already as winner of the Costa Children's Book of the Year, and (judging by the piles I saw on sale at the airport in Amsterdam) has already made the leap to become a crossover title which adults can enjoy just as much as younger readers. The powerful narrative and moral questions raised in Jason's book stay with you long after you've finished it.
Candy's blogged about the award ceremony here - which saves me the job! After the ceremony I went out to dinner with my fantastic editors from Frances Lincoln, Maurice Lyon and Emily Sharratt, and also Nicky Potter, the FL publicist; and J P Buxton, also short-listed for his book I am the Blade , an exciting retelling of the Arthurian legend, his family and editor Beverley Birch. Jamie Buxton and I got to make the speeches about our editors that we would have made if we'd won. Mine was slightly less sensible than it would have been earlier, thanks to some lovely New Zealand sauvignon blanc, but the gist of it was clear...Maurice is a magical editor who deserves to win every award going, and I can't thank him enough for saying yes to When I Was Joe.

Where June went...

2011-06-30T16:47:00.000-07:00

It seems to be July. How did that happen? I have sadly neglected this blog, sadly neglected my book and (they would claim) sadly neglected my children and husband.

In my defence, I have been busy. Here are just some of the things I've been doing.

Teenage judges with the shortlist for the Lancashire Book of the Year award. Pic by Sara Cuff, copyright LCC

1. The Lancashire Book of the Year Award.

The picture sums it up really - a fab event, really fun, where the teen readers and judges were centre stage, although we authors on the 10-book shortlist were treated like royalty. There was a swish award ceremony and a celebratory dinner, lots of speeches and very honest reviews.

The award works like this: publishers are invited to nominate books for consideration, they send in free copies which participating schools make available to Y9 pupils. This year, 84 books were nominated. Pupils read, review and assess the books, they score them and the ten with the top scores make it onto the shortlist. Two pupils from each of 12 participating schools, representing every district in Lancashire then read the shortlist and meet to decide a winner, with writer Adele Geras chairing the meeting. So the entire process is decided by teenagers.

At the dinner, some of the previous year's judges spoke about the self-confidence they had gained from being involved. This award, which has been running for 25 years, emphasises critical thinking, and debating skills. I'd definitely say that being involved in something like this trumps everything my daughter did in English in Y9.

Anyway, the shortlist contained some great books and I got to meet people like Keris Stainton, Sam Mills and Hilary Freeman, who'd previously just been two-dimensional virtual pals. And I won! Which meant a cheque for £1,000, a beautiful artwork by Hayley Welsh (a piece of multi-media built from a book), and ...well, I felt very proud and a little bit tearful.

I also had to make a speech, so I told various stories about my spiritual links with Lancashire including the rather spooky coincidence that I went out with two classmates from the same Lancashire school. Read a fuller version here.

2. I visited Weston Favell School in Northampton, where they have a brilliant librarian who couldn't do more to enthuse the kids about reading. And I got asked my favourite question ever, which was 'Which hair products do you use?'

3. I spoke at the Hay Festival. Oh my word. Once upon a time I used to work on the comment pages of The Independent and spent my days phoning up eminent people asking them to write for me (and the stories I could tell! But probably shouldn't) Anyway, the Hay Festival greenroom had so many good contacts in one place (Julian Assange! Howard Jacobson! Simon Schama!) that I felt like calling the Indy, asking for my old job back and scurrying around the room commissioning people.

Instead I sat back and listened to the fabulously ~~pretentious~~ interesting conversations going on around me.

Things got off to a bad start when I was so busy admiring the 'Artists Only' sign in the car park ('That's me! It's me!') that I stubbed my toe and fell flat on my face. Luckily my husband was at hand to haul me up and drag me away to a lovely cafe, where I bumped into Meg Rosoff, who actually knew who I was..cue sadly incoherent fan-girl burbling from me...then later, after she'd gone me to husband : 'That was Meg Rosoff! She knew my name!' Husband: 'Meg who?'

The actual event, with Peter Cocks author of the chilling London thriller Long Reach, went well. Reading Long Reach alongside When I Was Joe is a strange experience, because Peter and I had several similar ideas (teen takes new identity, teen gets involved with big gangster family) but we always veered off in different directions...so our books weirdly fill in eachother's gaps. Peter's especially great at the world of serious criminals..plus he used to write for Basil Brush. Respect.

4. I did an event at the Foundling Museum in London, for the Pop Up Festival. This is a new arrival in the world of children's books and I can only see it going from strength to strength. The main public events are taking place next weekend and the programme is here

The schools programme saw books distributed to schools, which then came to museums and other venues for events with the authors and education officers.

Tokens left with babies at the Foundling Hospital

The Foundling Museum tells the story of London's Foundling Hospital, founded in the eighteenth century by Thomas Coram, and home to thousands of children until it closed in the 1950s. It has extraordianry artefacts - a letter from a woman condemned to be burned to death begging that her child should be looked after; an enamel plague labelled 'ale' left with a child as a keepsake from its mother - that build up the story of these children.

At my event, Y8 pupils from the City of London Academy in Islington spent a day doing activities and then wrote letters ether from a foundling to the parent who had given them up, or from a parent to a child. The letters were extraordinarily good, inspired by the permanent exhibition and by the temporary one (which you shouldn't miss) which tells the stories of the last of the foundlings, children in the 1950s, now growing old. I wish that exhibition could be made permanent, the stories told are so strong, so emotional, so important.

I was not at all surprised to hear that Jacqueline Wilson had been inspired to write her story of a foundling, Hetty Feather after sitting in on a session run by the museum's inspiring Learning and Access Manager, Annette McCartney,I have rarely been to a more inspiring place. In fact there was so many links and echoes to When I was Joe and Almost True - from the new names given to foundlings, to the quotes about the stigma of illegitemacy on the wall - that I was thoroughly spooked..It felt as though I had been there before, been inspired by this place. The Pop Up organisers were responsible for matching writer, venue and school - they made a perfect match this time...and the audience even had one member who was a girl called Ellie, who used a wheelchair and loved sport - neither of us could believe the coincidence, when I told her about Ellie in When I Was Joe.

The Foundling Museum has now become one of my favourite London places ever, and I can see myself visiting there again and again for inspiration. 'This museum is all about empathy,' Annette told me - and it does it so well.

A box of books...slightly disturbing, all those severed limbs

So that was June - and of course there was lots of other stuff too - school strikes, festivals, parties and homework, birthdays and barmitzvahs, dentists and supermarkets. I was reunited with my best friend from primary school - yay for Facebook, once again - and my best friend from secondary school returned to live in London from California, hurray, hurray...

And right at the end of June the advance copies of Lia's Guide arrived, and I spent a whole evening signing copies for reviewers..they'll be posted today.

July's going to be busy too...three award ceremonies in two weeks; meeting my son's teachers at the secondary school he's starting in September, watching him and his classmates graduate from primary school.

I remember this time last year (last year? It feels like a decade ago) When I was Joe had come out six months before, it'd had a few reviews, I was working on the last edits of Almost True, struggling to finish Lia's Guide. I didn't feel I'd made much of an impact, I wondered if anyone was reading my book.

What a difference a year makes! But now ...sorry....I have another book to write. You may not hear much from me in July.

Too dark?

2011-06-09T04:06:00.000-07:00

Imagine a mother choosing a book as a present for her 13-year-old daughter. The shelves in front of her are full of gloom and misery, graphic descriptions of suffering, dystopian visions of violence and death.
So cast down is she, that not only does she fail to buy a book, but also pours her heart out to her friend, who happens to be a children's book reviewer for the Wall Street Journal. Her friend doesn't point her in the direction of writers such as Meg Cabot, Louise Rennison or Sarah Dessen. Instead she writes this article, in which she asks whether YA literature has become too dark.
'Teen fiction can be like a hall of fun-house mirrors, constantly reflecting back hideously distorted portrayals of what life is. There are of course exceptions, but a careless young reader—or one who seeks out depravity—will find himself surrounded by images not of joy or beauty but of damage, brutality and losses of the most horrendous kinds.' wrote Meghan Cox Gurden.
The angry response was articulate and immediate. Under the hashtag #yasaves, people tweeted about how they'd been helped by Young Adult fiction. Writers such as Maureen Johnson dissected and dismissed Ms Gurden's arguments here, accusing her of under-estimating teenage readers' ability to process stories, wishing to ban darker themes.'Those books you so glibly dismiss...that's fine. But that may be a book that changes or even saves someone's life.'
Now, as a writer, I'm mostly on Maureen Johnson's side.I don't believe that books for teenagers should be censored or sanitised; bad things happen to teenagers and should be part of their books. If one looks at their entire cultural experience - films and television included - then why should books be tame in comparison?
I do believe that teens might be helped by reading about people with problems, in particular they might have more ideas about how to help a friend who has problems. Books promote empathy and understanding. Reading is a completely safe experience - nothing could be safer - and a reader is free to stop reading if they find something distressing.
However. This is all to do with the writer's experience, and the reader's. What about the gatekeepers..the editors, librarians, teachers and parents? What is their role? Should they stand back and allow writers complete freedom? Or are there roles to play in guidance, protection, setting boundaries? This, it seems to me, is the question that Meghan Cox Gurden is asking, and she goes about it in a more subtle and nuanced way than her critics allow.
On Facebook recently I read a conversation about rude words in a book for ten year olds. Could the writer get away with 'crap' and 'shit'? Surely it was unrealistic and old-fashioned to expect that modern youngsters would react to a big shock with anything softer?
In an instant, my anti-censorship writer's hat came off and my mother-of-a primary-age-kid-hat came on. I do not want my son coming home from school with books full of swearing, thank you very much. That can wait until he is at secondary school. I battle at home to teach him that some words are appropriate and some are not, I expect those writing for his age group to back me up. If not...fine...I'm not buying their books.
Secondary school is different. By that age you know your child will hear and probably use swearwords all the time - in the playground. They won't hear them (one hopes) in the classroom. When I was writing When I Was Joe, I knew Ty would swear a lot, and I wondered how I could accurately reproduce his inner voice. In the end, I decided to imagine that he was telling his story to an adult he respected. The most taboo words would only slip through at times of great stress.
Some will be helped by graphic descriptions of - say - self harm. Others might be tempted to give it a go. Others - the majority, I imagine - will find it curiously interesting and even exciting to find out about something that is mostly secret. (This voyeurism is something I touch on in When I Was Joe). That's normal, I imagine. Self harm is part of life, and all too often part of teenage life. I've heard about people who haven't been able to read beyond this section of my book. I've even heard of someone who gave self-harming a go after reading it. I hope that neither reaction is widespread.
I completely accept that for some vulnerable teenagers, self-harming is probably not a great thing to read about. It may trigger an existing or dormant problem, it may be very upsetting, it may stir old memories. Those teens may encounter my book and others like it, and decide not to read it. Or they may be sensitively guided away by parents, librarians and teachers.That's what the gate-keepers are there for...not banning or censoring.
I'm less worried by graphic descriptions and profanity in YA than Meghan Cox Gurden. There are other things that worry me though, which she doesn't mention. I can't bear books which present death and an afterlife almost as lifestyle options, blurring the distinction between life and death with a range of cool 'undead' options. I don't like books which allow warnings about sex to obscure the fact that grls can enjoy a good sex and healthy sex life, which is not defined by men. Violence is a part of our lives - but how far should a writer go before that violence is excessive and gratuitous?
As a writer, I tackle these things in my books. As a mother, I try and read the books my children read and am prepared to discuss them. As both I am grateful for the help I recive from the 'gatekeepers' in discussing where lines - if any - should be drawn.
I'm also not so keen on traditional 'issue' books, in which one person has one problem, it is described and dissected, and eventually eliminated with the help of a wise counsellor. I fear that may serve to make kids feel as though most people are normal and only a few are 'suffering', and that help can only come from external and adult sources. My books try and reflect the muddle of 'issues' which make up life - and the diverse ways in which help may or may not arrive. Most of us are pretty resilient, and few meet the right cousellor at the right time.
Life as a teenager can be wonderful. It can also be tough beyond belief. Sometimes it's like a light, frothy romance, at other times the grittiest, gloomiest book cannot capture the sheer confusing screwed-up mess that teens can fall into. As a writer, I hope my books will help readers understand themselves, the world about them, and other people. As a mother buying a present for a daughter - well, sometimes I'd turn away from those dark, dystopian shelves.
The book I'm writing at the moment contains some scenes of drug-taking. My reading group were unsure about those scenes. Could they give this book to their children? Would they be seen as endorsing drugs? I'm not going to censor myself in response to their worries. But nor do I think they are necessarily wrong. I think I tend to write books which teens will find for themselves, rather than be given to them by a parent.
I met a publicist for Walker Books at the Hay festival last week and she's just sent me two very different books - Michelle Gayle's Pride and Premiership and Patrick Ness and Siobhan Dowd's A Monster Calls. One is light and funny and about the world of footballers' girlfriends. The other is a powerful, compelling modern-day fable about cancer, fear and loss. I'm delighted with both - thank you so much, Ruth - and I look forward to reading them. And I know exactly which one my daughter needs this particular week.

Just do it

2011-06-01T01:55:00.000-07:00

I was a bossy child. And I can be quite bossy now. My favourite job in journalism is news-editing, a job that legitimately allows you to boss around loads of people, including men and women far more talented and experienced than yourself. Oh, the joy of it. Four hundred words now, you lazy old hack, and if they are good enough I might put them in the paper.
According to my husband I am 'the world's softest parent', but my children know that if I say something loud and angrily, six or seven times, then I must be obeyed or something horrible will happen - cricket practice will be cancelled say, or Heat magazine confiscated.
Mostly I try and curb my bossy side when writing this blog. I believe in the subtle soft sell, rather than yelling 'Buy my books! Review them on Amazon! Tell all your friends!' at my lovely readers. But it's half term, I have a book to write, children at home, a load of washing and ironing to do before heading for the Hay Festival (I'm speaking on Saturday along with Peter Cocks, tickets here...is anyone going to be there? Not sure if I'm more nervous about a full auditorium or an empty one).
So, the mask has slipped. Today I'm being bossy and horrible and telling you what to do. Disobey me and...and...you won't be watching Britain's Got Talent. I'll tell the guy who manages the cricket team that you are not allowed to try out as wicket keeper.More importantly, you may never achieve your dreams.
Right, here are your instructions. If you're someone who thinks that maybe, someday, sooner or later you want to write a book and get it published, then buy Write to be Published by Nicola Morgan. Do it now. Click on this link and place your order.
Done it? Why not? Do it now. If you're looking for a present for someone who's an aspiring author, then buy it for them. And even if you've got no interest in being published (0.01% of the populations, as far as I can work out) then you may wish to buy it anyway, because it's an excellent read and you'll be able to throw it at anyone who tells you they're about to self-publish and become the next J K Rowling.
I can hear you muttering rebelliously (and that's quite enough of that cheeky behaviour). Why? Why should I buy this book just because you say so? It's written by one of your mates, isn't it?
Well now. Write to be Published is written with wit, wisdom and immense authority. Nicola was herself an aspiring writer for 21 years, and since her first book came out in 1996 she has had 90 books published. She was Chair of the Society of Authors in Scotland. She has a writing consultancy, a well-read blog with a fanatical following, she has spoken at many workshops and festivals, she knows editors and agents and writers. She is the expert's expert. She knows her stuff.
But why do I have to buy her book, you whine. Why can't I get it all for free on her blog? I mean...I hardly pay for anything any more...
The blog is great. Follow it now. But the book is a different experience. You've got everything in one place, ordered, easy to find, up-dated and clear. Plus, actually buying the book, investing just over £7 (or just over £10 to get a signed copy from Nicola herself) is a way of thanking Nicola for her generosity in sharing all this knowledge with you. There's a lot of misleading old rubbish out there on the internet, and Nicola's pure gold. She didn't have to give out good advice, she could have stamped on your dreams by telling you to write to agents in rhyme or send them toffees. She wants you to succeed. It's only fair enough to reciprocate.And you'd be daft to miss out.
Nicola cultivates a persona on her blog of beng a crabbit old bat - a nasty, bossy, haranguing sort of person, who will shout at silly people who make mistakes until they see where they are going wrong. A Miss Jean Brodie kind of blog (Nicola is one of those sensible English people who has chosen to live in Scotland). In real life she's not bossy and horrible at all. She's lovely. Unlike me. What are you waiting for? It's for your own good.

Double Vision...by Phil Earle.

2011-05-24T23:54:00.000-07:00

One of the best YA books I've read in a long time is Being Billy, Phil Earle's story of an angry boy trapped in the care system, seemingly rejected by everyone. It's heart-rending, without ever being sentimental, and Phil pulls off the trick of getting the reader to care desperately about Billy, while showing us how damaged and difficult he is.

One thing that interested me about Being Billy is that it's contremporary realism at its grittiest. As a writer of contemporary realism, I'm all too aware of how unfashionable it is at the moment (one day I will share with you the horror story of trying to get When I Was Joe published. Not yet. The scars are still raw). But of course, publishing is a business, and sales directors are right to make hard-headed business decisions about which books they think will turn a profit.

So how interesting, I thought, that Being Billy was written by the Sales Director of one of the UK's big publishers. Phil Earle works for Simon and Schuster, he knows the world of publishing inside out, and he's there in acquisitions meetings making decisions about what's in and what's out, all the time. What's he doing writing contemporary realism? Over to Phil....

Someone asked me the other week why I haven’t written a Paranormal Romance.

Why, when the vast majority of teen readers are desperate for tales of forbidden love between a girl and a vampire/werewolf/fallen angel/corpse* (*delete as appropriate), choose to write Being Billy - a novel about an angry, abusive kid stuck in the care system.

Bloomin’ good question that, one that I should’ve had an answer for. After all, I’m only too aware of what is floating the YA boat at the moment, as I’m lucky enough to work in kids publishing.

Once I’d stopped kicking myself, I realised that the answer is actually a simple one, a response you hear authors give at many school events – write about what you know, write what you’re passionate about.

I love the YA genre, it’s what I read out of choice as well as write for, so I knew there was no chance of me sitting for six months on the bus, using my free hour of the day, telling a story that I had absolutely no interest in. It just wouldn’t happen. I’d end up playing ‘Angry Birds’ or heaven forbid, reading the ‘Evening Standard’ instead. How depressing would that be?

It does create an interesting dynamic for me though, as my job as sales director at Simon and Schuster demands me to think commercially so much of the time. There’s not always time for a lot of sentiment - I have to think to some extent, is there a market for this book? And if not, should we be publishing at all?

It was a stark realisation when I tried to imagine my own book coming to one of our acquisition meetings. Would I have been intrigued by the plot, or just have passed it off as something too worthy or niche? Would I have told the author to turn the kid into a vampire to tick the boxes that the current trend demands?

I know I wouldn’t, even if I thought it momentarily…after all, look at the number of YA novels that have gone on to be bestsellers or cult classics, despite being a ‘difficult’ sell.

Mark Haddon’s ‘Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time’ for example takes autism into the mainstream in a way that few people could, and what about Louis Sachar’s ‘Holes’?

Imagine the conversation in that acquisition meeting…..

‘What’s it about?’ asks the cynical Sales Director.

*Pause from editor*

‘Well, er, it’s about a kid who steals some sneakers and ends up digging holes in the desert as his punishment…’

‘Could he not get bitten by a radioactive snake or something…?’ sighs the Sales Director. ‘Or discover the jail is made up of vampires hungry for his blood?’

*Editor quickly scribbles resignation letter*

But that’s the great thing about the kids' book industry that I know, as there are enough passionate editors, sales folk or marketers who are prepared to see beyond the initial synopsis, to the thing that is really important in the telling of stories, and that is the voice it’s written in.

You can have a concept that no-one has ever dreamed of before, or a fast cash-in to a trend that is setting new records, but if the story is badly told, or without heart, the reader will see straight through it. And they won’t come back for more, no matter how nicely you ask them.

And that’s why I write the books I do, even if they aren’t in vogue. It’s because I feel compelled to.

It would be lovely if they sold well.

Well enough to allow me to spend more time writing and talking about them.

But truthful, passionate writing comes first – it has to, and I promise to remember that in our next acquisition meeting too.

Spitting at the Evil Eye

2011-05-22T16:04:00.000-07:00

Sunny Angus..

Last week was an astoundingly good week for me. A week full of exciting news and slaps on the back. I’ve actually never had a week anything like it. So many good things happened that I’m wondering whether there’s anything in astrology – any other happy Pisceans out there?

It’s actually very difficult to know what to write about it, because I was brought up to be very aware that the Evil Eye, would trip up boasters and braggers. My grandmother would never praise or compliment any of us without a muttered ‘kenayna hara!’ a kind of Yiddish superinjuction against the Evil Eye, followed by a highly sylised ‘Pah! Pah! Pah!’ - her way of spitting in said eye. My mother does the same thing. And (silently) so do I. I'm not a very Yiddish person (extraordinary how three generations can reduce a language to a handful of words, and that those words are things like 'rag', 'mad religious person', and 'grudge relating to wedding invitations') but fear of the Evil Eye goes deep.

So – kenayna hara! – I am thrilled that When I Was Joe is on the shortlist for the Branford Boase award, especially because it's the one award which is shared between writer and editor. I am so happy to see Maurice’s contribution honoured in this way. He’s got a completely magic touch as an editor - able to guide a writer without ever telling her what to do. I've been extraordinarily lucky to work with him. I'm also delighted that my friend Candy Gourlay is on the shortlist too, for the superb Tall Story, which deserves to win every award going.

Four short-listed authors with the fab Angus organisers

And - Pah!Pah!Pah! – I was stunned and delighted that When I Was Joe won the Angus Book Award this week. The Angus Book Award was the first regional award to be chosen by teenager votes, and it is a shining example of what these awards can be. We four short-listed writers (the others were Nicola Morgan for Wasted, Paul Dowswell for Auslander and Robert Williams for Luke and Jon; all three books destined to become classics) were moved beyond words by the films made by pupils about our books; by the book reviews and alternative covers created, and by the way the Angus Book Award was obviously valued as something very special by the whole community. The whole event was fantastically well-organised, and we authors were cared for like kings. When the lovely lady who ran our hotel in Forfar gave me a hug goodbye, she summed up the special warmth of the occasion.

The award itself - modelled on a Pictish stone

Trying to write books for publication involves persistence and a thick skin. When lovely things happen, it goes a long way to heal the scars of rejection that inevitably come your way. I’ll probably never have another week like this one - I’ve been trying to just relax and enjoy it.

But of course, it never works quite like that. I’ve been worrying about my current work-in-progress – for which I wrote not one word last week - am I on target (no), is it any good (hmm), can I settle down and concentrate on it sometime (hope so)? I’ve been vaguely angsting about what comes next – can I even come up with more ideas? And as always I’ve been attempting to balance my writing life with the demands of family and other work. In fact (it's midnight) I must go and clean the kitchen.

This week won’t be full of awards and shortlists. It’ll be a week to immerse myself in the latest book, thinking about the characters, the way their stories weave together, the right words to choose. If it goes well, that’s the most exciting thing of all. Kenayna hara. Pah! Pah! Pah!

More than just a cover

2011-05-14T08:31:00.000-07:00

Ta -ra! Here is the cover for the German version of When I Was Joe. There's a new title too - Mehr als nur ein Zeuge, which translates as 'More than just a Witness' In English that would be a bit of a mouthful, I'm sure it works well in German.

Loving the HUGE byline

It means that the spine picks out the word Zeuge - witness, in a way I'd loved to have done in English. I thought and thought of possible titles for When I was Joe, but the most obvious - 'Witness' - I ruled out because of the 1985 film with the same name. Even though it was made years before my target audience was born, it's such a great film that I couldn't even consider using the same name.

In the end though, When I Was Joe has been a great title, partly because Joe is a popular name among teen boys and I suspect that loads of them get my book bought for them as a birthday or Christmas present. I mean you'd have to read it, wouldn't you?

It's a strange thing, seeing how a cover designer has interpreted one's book. It's the first time the book stops being a manuscript and starts being a real, three dimensional book. The cover artist creates something from your creation. If they get it right, it's like a first great review.

With the British version, I was keen that there shouldn't be a knife on the cover, for various reasons. I didn't want to glorify or cash in on the latest spate of knife murders, I didn;t want a cover that might distress victims or their relatives. I felt there had been quite a few recent knife image covers - including Anthony McGowan's The Knife that Killed Me and Patrick Ness's completely different The Knife of never Letting Go - both excellent books, and scary comparisons for a new author.

I felt it was a book as much about being a witness and identity, rather than knife crime. I was keen that girl readers shouldn't be put off - in fact I thought they'd like the book, so I wanted to attract them.

Gorgeous boy

The team at Frances Lincoln, my publishers, were nice enough to ask me if I'd had any thoughts about a cover. 'Put a gorgeous boy in a hoodie on the cover' was my idea. The cover went through various changes, and ended up nothing like I'd first imagined (I had a vision that was more black and white and frankly emo), but I loved it. (My children however have never been sure about the boy on the cover. 'I'm sorry Mum, no one will ever buy your book' was their verdict) There is a knife there, but it's so subtly done that you hardly notice it.

Generally there's been a good response to the cover, so hah! to my kids. The blood puts off some people, true, but I did have one reader tell me that she'd never been into a bookshop before, but when she saw the cover of WIWJ, she had to buy it.

With the German cover I had no input. I've been waiting to see what they come up with. And yes, there is a knife - but the context is different, and so is the market. Most importantly, there are the eyes. They symbolise so much about the book - the act of witnessing, which recurs again and again thoughtout the book. Their colour, which comes to stand for Ty's real identity. (I imagined, by the way, something more like a light olive green, rather than these emerald orbs, light olive being the exact colour of my eyes). And the feeling of being watched, judged, threatened, which is also an important theme.

From far away the cover also looks like someone hiding - it's only up close that you see that the eyes are reflected in a knife.

Lia's Guide - girls only?

Covers reflect more than the book itself. They also place a book into a genre. When I Was Joe and Mehr als nur ein Zeuge look like thrillers - does that mean that some people might be put off? I hardly ever read thrillers- would I pick up my own book in a German bookshop? (umm, assuming I'm a 14-year-old German boy, which is a bit of a stretch, admittedly). My next book, Lia's Guide to Winning the Lottery has a more chicklitty cover. Will the boys who've enjoyed When I Was Joe and Almost True be put off? Will that matter if new readers are attracted? Frankly I'm glad that these are questions for the publishers and not for me.

One of the disappointing things about owning a kindle - and I love my kindle - is the lack of covers. Are book covers going the way of album covers? Will the art work involved be reduced to a simple avatar? I really hope not. Seeing your book turned into art is a very special thing.

Bingo!

2011-04-20T07:45:00.000-07:00

Martin Amis - he of the unfortunate phrase – has pronounced again. He is shocked, appalled, depressed by the state of the nation. And he is writing a new novel, which reflects his disgust. According to the Guardian it’s ‘the story of a violent criminal, Lionel Asbo, who wins the lottery, it's "a metaphor which translates well, I think, our state of moral decrepitude: a huge reward for no effort".

Bingo! Join the party, Martin! My new book is about someone winning the lottery. It’s not a violent criminal called Lionel Asbo (Great name, Martin, Dickens would be proud), my winner is an ordinary schoolgirl called Lia Latimer. She wins £8 million and she’s thrilled to bits. Near enough, eh?

"You can have no talent, no ambition, and you win all the same. All young people dream of that. Young girls dream of becoming models. Celebrity is the new religion," said Amis. "So it's a book about the decline of my country, about the rage, the dissatisfaction, the bitterness, all unconscious, caused by this decline ... One can have the impression that life in London is pretty pleasant. But all is rotten inside."

Yes, indeed, Martin young people dream of winning the lottery, I'm really hoping that lots of them will buy my book. In fact many older people do as well. Actually I’d guess that the older you get and the more you realise that hard work and talent does not get you money, fame, security or recognition - and you see the tosspots who do get these things, often through having family money, private education and useful connections (I mention no names, Martin, but not everyone gets to waltz into first jobs on the Times Literary Supplement) - then you dream of winning the lottery all the more. Oh, and that bitterness you mention, is not all unconscious. Quite a lot of it is completely conscious.

I’d also guess that it’s the richer people - those who live in Hampstead and Notting Hill, Martin - who think that life in London is pretty pleasant. We celebrity-obsessed peasants know that mostly it’s crap. But ‘all is rotten inside’? All? All? That’s a bit harsh. Try walking through a London park, going to the theatre (pricey, I know, Mart, but I’m sure you can afford it), visiting our museums, art galleries. Try visiting London schools (not just the private ones) and meeting London kids. Truly Martin, all is not rotten, although the government are doing their best to shut lots of the good stuff down. Luckily there's a horrible old lottery to fund things like sport and the arts or we'd really be in trouble.

Oh, hang on, Martin admits that not all is bad about England. The people are ‘tolerant, full of good humour’ (Just the readers to appreciate your jokes, eh?) and Shakespeare is "an absolute giant". I’m sure he’ll be absolutely delighted to hear it. Oh and then there’s the UK's "very advanced" political system. "We had a revolution 100 years before France, and our civil war was not so horrible." Take heart, people of Egypt, Libya, Syria and Bahrain, it can be done, the not-so-horrible English way. (Just don’t mention Charles I)

Anyway, thrills, thrills, Martin and I have both written about the lottery. His book is about moral decrepitude. Mine is about gambling, risk-taking, growing up and the artificial legal limits attached to that process, finding meaning in life - and ambition - when you have nothing to gain in material terms, friendship and Facebook, religious values (Islam in particular) against the secular society, sex, drink, debt, motorbikes, university funding cuts and cake. And cosmetic surgery. And there’s a family of vampires. Or possibly werewolves.

Martin, I look forward to sharing a platform with you at various literary festivals. Lionel Asbo…damn, wish I’d thought of that. So subtle.

How to get noticed

2011-04-06T16:34:00.000-07:00

It’s who you know, isn’t it? The political debate currently rumbling about parental influence and unpaid internships has its echoes in the literary world too. Writing your first book is a lot of hard work for no money at all, and if you’ve got any kind of unearned income or someone to support you it is an enormous bonus.

And finding an agent is undoubtedly easier when you know people in the industry.

Take me, for example. When I started approaching agents I used every contact I had. Writer friends were generous enough to put me in touch with their agents. I also wrote cold to other agents.

Every agent who’d never heard of me turned me down flat - in fact I’m still waiting to hear from a few. Some of those with whom I had some sort of link made time to chat, but ultimately weren’t interested. (One promised to read my manuscript, but hadn’t got around to it by the time I had other definite offers. It later turned out that this lovely agent lived in my street. We both feel we had a lucky escape…I would have turned into a complete stalker, popping up as she put out the wheelie bins to find out if she’d sold the film rights)

But three of the personal contact agent were keen to represent me. And I met the friend-of-a-friend who eventually became my agent at - ahem, cliché alert – an Islington dinner party.

So, what about all those brilliant writers out there who don’t live in north London, work in the media and have writer friends? (I know, I know. In mitigation I point out that my parents had nothing at all to do with any of this, and have never been able to pull the slightest strand of string to aid my career, much as they would love to. My contacts are completely self-made which is one reason why I only got published in my forties. The other reason is that I never wrote anything before I got into my forties because I was too busy working in the media and making friends with writers and people in Islington.)

Luckily there’s another route to getting yourself noticed by agents and editors. The fabulous Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators runs loads of events at which aspiring writers and artists can meet commissioning editors and agents. There’s even an agents’ party - this year's will be on September 29, and regular slushpile competitions, judged by agents.

Best of all is the annual competition to be part of the Undiscovered Voices anthology. This is the third year the competition has run, and winning is a fast track to getting noticed by agents and editors. Thirteen of the 24 authors featured over the last two years now have book deals. They include Sarwat Chadda, Candy Gourlay and Harriet Godwin, already big names, and some who will soon be big names – I’m lucky enough to have read Sara Grant’s brilliant dystopian novel Dark Parties, and I’m looking forward to Bryony Pearce’s Angel's Fury and Katie Dale’s Someone Else’s Life. Undiscovered Voices is fast becoming the X Factor of children's writing in the UK - although the quality of its winners is much more reliable than some of the singing contest's stars.

Malorie Blackman is this year’s honorary chair and the list of judges is the stuff of an aspiring writer’s dreams: Rachel Boden, Commissioning Editor at Egmont; Jo Anne Cadiz, book buyer/seller for Foyles children’s books department; Amber Caraveo, Editorial Director at Orion Children’s Books; Julia Churchill, Greenhouse Literary Agency; Dagmar Gleditzsch, literary scout; Catherine Pellegrino, Rogers, Coleridge & White; Jasmine Richards, Senior Commissioning Editor at Oxford University Press; and my agent, Jenny Savill, Andrew Nurnberg Associates. Imagine that. All of them reading your work. It's making me want to enter, and I've got an agent and a publisher already (and, I hastily add, I am completely happy with them. It's just that I'm very competitive, and I didn't know about this competition until it was too late to enter it).

The competition is now open for submissions and remains open until June 1^st. Twelve authors will be chosen for the anthology, but another twelve also get honourary mentions, and many of them end up agented too. The success stories on the UV website are inspiring reading. What are you waiting for?

And Nick Clegg - want to find out how to spot talent and increase social mobility? Have a look at how Undiscovered Voices encourages talent to shine and get noticed by the people who matter. And then apply liberally to the entire nation.

Here he Goves again..

2011-04-02T06:29:00.000-07:00

What is it about Michael Gove, our blundering Education Secretary? His intentions are good, he wants the right things. It's just the way he acts...and the way he talks.When he tries to change things he generally gets it wrong. His frequent U turns and occasional apologies are almost funny - but education is too important to mess around with. There's a verb in the making - to Gove, meaning to screw up reasonable ideas. And now he's at it again.

Mr Gove has been to America. He's visited a charter school and been blown away by its policy on reading. Now he's back in the UK, enthusiastically damning the British education system for its low expectations and calling for a 50-book challenge to be introduced in British schools (as with many of Mr Gove's bright ideas the details are worryingly vague, leaving it unclear who will choose these books and how children are meant to obtain them).

I would completely agree with him that there should be more time for reading whole books in schools, more access to books, more expectation that children will read a wide range of books including the classics. A 50 book challenge will work well for many children (although it may also cause others so much stress and depression that they could be put off reading for life). My son (11) responded enthusiastically to the idea ('Will there be a prize?') but he probably reads 50 books a year anyway. My daughter, in the first year of her GCSEs asked how she was meant to read 50 books alongside her copious amounts of homework. I suspect that such a scheme would get both of them reading more, less television watched and a broader selection of books read. So far so good.

But Mr Gove had to spoil it. I would have expected him to start talking to, say, the School Libraries Association about how to implement such a scheme. Instead he rushed into print in the Daily Telegraph. You can read his article here. I have copied a few extracts (in italics) below and added my response.

In one school run by the charter chain KIPP, every child was expected to carry a book at all times, so they could fill every vacant minute. In another KIPP school, children were challenged to read 50 books a year. This played to both their competitive instincts and their restless curiosity. A love of reading was seen as a winner’s trait.

Funnily enough, when I googled KIPP and reading, I found a news report which read : 'Reading and math scores fall sharply at two KIPP Schools' Whether KiPP's scheme is a success or a failure, it runs its schools free of government interference, which Mr Gove will not allow even for the 'free' schools which he is setting up.

Were the 50 books read by KIPP's children their own choice, or a list provided for them? If the latter, it will have dampened their ‘restless curiosity’ which would be better served by allowing them to pick their own books. What about the kids who didn’t manage the challenge, who found it painfully impossible? Did they begin to associate reading with being losers?
Some big differences, by the way, between American schools and British ones - American schools do not require children to start to specialise at the age of 13, making life-changing choices about which subjects to take and which to drop. Nor do they expect children to take important external exams for three years running between the ages of 16 and 18. Nor (I expect) do they have completely daft ways of testing children such as expecting them to prepare extended essays, memorise them and then regurgitate them in exam conditions. I imagine there is more room in the American system for reading.

Across America, childhood reading has been encouraged in recent years by Drop Everything And Read Day on April 12, which asks children to stop whatever else they’re doing and get lost in a book. In many charter schools, every day is a DEAR day: reading for pleasure becomes as natural as breaking for lunch.

In the UK we have World Book Day, and many schools have book weeks. Reading for pleasure (which is not at all the same as reading for ‘winning’) is encouraged by regional and national book awards, reading groups, author visits and Carnegie shadowing groups. All of this and much more is done by knowledgeable and enthusiastic school librarians. Sadly the government’s cuts mean that many librarians are losing their budgets or their jobs. The government could make it a statutory duty that schools have a well-stocked library (as in prisons) but they haven't. Author visits and book-buying are all threatened by budget cuts.

The children I met were smart and lively. But they were also, overwhelmingly, from the most disadvantaged homes. That didn’t mean their teachers lowered the bar. Quite the opposite. They wanted to give those children a chance to enjoy the glittering prizes – so they set expectations high, fostering a culture of excellence and making clear that nothing is as enjoyable as getting to know what the finest minds of all time have thought and written.

If Michael Gove honestly believes that children’s authors are ‘the finest minds of all time’ (I doubt it) then he could start by looking at a campaign set up by some of the best British authors - the Campaign for the Book, which points out some areas he might tackle, to help disadvantaged British children enjoy the ‘glittering prizes’ that reading can bring. They are:
- public library closures - 60 last year and more planned
- a loss of professional library staff, down 13 per cent between 1995 and 2005
- more untrained volunteers instead of qualified library staff
- fewer books in schools, a 15 per cent reduction, while there has been a 28 per cent rise in education spending
- a shift from books to computer services
- the closure of school libraries to make way for IT suites
- the sacking or down-grading of public and school librarians
- the closure of school libraries
- the marginalisation of reading for pleasure and the reading of whole books in many schools as teaching to the test replaces the pleasure of acquiring knowledge for its own sake.

I want the same culture here. I want to take on the lowest-common-denominator ethos, the “let’s not be too demanding”, “all this smacks of targets”, “the poor dears can’t manage it”, “the idea of a canon is outmoded”, “it’s all on the internet anyway” culture which is anti-knowledge, anti-aspiration and antithetical to human flourishing.

Oh Mr Gove! Where to start?' Let’s not be too demanding' - then please, have a look at the SATs culture in schools and how they limit achievement. ‘All this smacks of targets’ – abolish league tables then. ‘The poor dears can’t manage it’ - agreed, don't patronise children, give them books to read in the National Curriculum, not extracts. And as for ‘it’s all on the internet anyway’..well, that’s the argument used by people who want to close libraries. You don't agree with them- so do something to save libraries.

This is why the Government is taking action to encourage wide reading, for pleasure, again. We’ve already extended the Booktrust programme to help disadvantaged children develop their love of reading. This week, a new report has set out plans to put a new emphasis on literacy. Next year, we’re introducing a new check at age six to make sure children are on the right path. And shortly I’ll be announcing plans to ensure that our exams work to encourage broad reading.

Far from extending the Booktrust programme, Mr Gove, you announced that its entire government funding was being removed, with no notice, just before Christmas. After an entirely predictable outcry (at Christmas, you moron, when there is no news and acres of white space in newspapers) you backed down, although you are still cutting the Booktrust grant. Don't tell us you are expanding it. Do you think we are 'poor dears' who can't remember back a few months?
And as for your age six check, Mr Gove, it focuses entirely on ‘decoding’ sounds phonetically, not on whether children understand anything that they are reading. The UK Literacy Association has been campaigning against this new test, and its objections are summed up in an Early day Motion put down by MP Annette Brooke
The motion reads: That this House endorses the views of many early years experts in calling for a rethink on the introduction of a phonics-based reading test for all 6 year olds; believes that phonics can play a crucial part in reading but that a simplistic exclusive focus on phonics can distort children's learning and limit the breadth of their experience; believes that reading should be enjoyable and that children need to look for meaning as they read in order to develop fluency and understanding; and further believes that young children need to have highly trained teachers with an understanding of child development and that such teachers are best placed to identify children who are not reading at an appropriate level for their age and level of development through appropriate monitoring and observation.

But we can’t just leave it to our teachers: we need to develop our own Drop Everything and Read initiative, and support competitions like the Fifty Book Challenge. This country has the best children’s writers in the world. But while we celebrate Pullman and Rowling, Morpurgo and Rosen, Horowitz and Higson, many of our young people are growing up in ignorance of their work. That’s unacceptable. It’s my mission to change what we expect of young people, and reverse the fashionable assumption of far too many in education that children shouldn’t be challenged to achieve far more. In particular, I want the next generation to grow up with a real sense of style – the elegant prose style of those who have made the English language the greatest source of beauty in our world.

No, we can’t just leave everything to our teachers - that’s why we need librarians as well. Talk to them, Mr Gove, ask their advice. Celebrate their expertise, learn from them. Find out what they are doing, what works well and give them funding to do more of it.

You may admire the ‘elegant prose style’ of JK Rowling, Charlie Higson and Anthony Horowitz, others may choose different writers to fete. But listen to what writers have to say as well. Anthony Horowitz, for example, here, calling for children to be given the resources and the time to read in a relaxed way. Not to be ‘winners’ necessarily. Not so they can win ‘glittering prizes’.(A bit of a cliche there, by the way, Mr Gove, you might want to read a bit more to improve the elegance of your prose)

You’re on the right track, Mr Gove, in seeing that too little is done in the UK education system to encourage reading. You’re all excited by your jaunt to America and you think you’ve found out all the answers there.
You're actually missing a big chance politically, by swiping at teachers. You could legitimately attack the former Labour government for failing to create a reading culture in schools. Just find out the facts first, listen to the experts and stop rushing into print and making a fool of yourself.
Yesterday Patrick Ness (heard of him, Mr Gove? Just as good as JK Rowling, I promise you) challenged you to be a champion of the libraries. There's still time to avoid Goveing it up.Not much time, but you're the man for the job. At the moment.

Advice for teenage writers

2011-03-31T03:55:00.000-07:00

I was not a teenage writer, if by writing you mean stories, poems and books. I was a teenage reporter. I started off writing reviews of children's books (and did I appreciate the power I wielded? No, I did not) and continued on to reporting on meetings, disputes, court cases, controversies...anything that might be considered news-worthy. I was published in a national newspaper every week. I took it completely for granted.
So I find it difficult when I am asked for advice by today's teen writers. I did write some long stories on my own when I was about 13 - one was about twin boys, I remember, one good and hard-working, the other misunderstood and always in trouble. Another was a girl's diary, about how she was solving all her problems. A teenage pre-emptor of Bridget Jones. But my writing fizzled out when I was about 14 (I wonder what happened to those notebooks?) and I became more interested in trying (and failing) to be cool, or at least invisible. I sat out the next few years in a daze of boredom, failed my A levels, got a job at 18 as a messenger girl on a newspaper. Which turned into an apprenticeship as a reporter. I was writing all the time. I just wasn't using my imagination.
I'm just back from two events where I was asked many times for advice from teenage writers. At Reddish Vale Technology College I ran a two hour workshop for year 9 writers. (Reddish Vale turns out to be one of those rare schools which encourages pupils to see beyond the curriculum and develope their writing for its own sake. Hurray for Miss Ogden, their inspirational teacher) We worked on finding plots from newspaper stories - I went armed with cuttings about pirates, snake-smuggling, bullying, ballet and face transplants, to name but a few. We talked about beginning a story and ending it - for some reason most of their plots ended in despair and suicide. We created characters, by answering questionnaires about their invention's secret shame and biggest dream.

Diana Wynne Jones

The next day at Beblington Library I met pupils from schools all over the Wirral along with authors David Miller (Shark Island), Leslie Wilson (Saving Rafael) and Paul Dowswell (Auslander). We talked about how we'd come up with the ideas for our books - a terrifying experience (David), family history (Leslie); how we researched them, created our characters. We talked about the themes they covered - especially interesting because Paul and Leslie were both talking about World War 2 books - and our own careers as writers. And we were asked for lots of advice from writers, possible writers and one boy who said 'I'm not a writer, but I did start writing a few books last summer just to keep myself going.'
So, here is some of the advice that I give.
1) Read these wonderful writing tips from one of the best children's writers ever, Diana Wynne Jones, who sadly died last week. If you haven't discovered her books, then do yourself a favour and read them. My favourites are The Ogre Downstairs and Charmed Life.
2) Write the book that you want to read, not the book that you think people will like.
3) Don't be too hard on yourself. Write something, allow it to be rubbish, do not delete it, put it away for a few weeks. Then go back to it and read it as if you had never read it before. Chances are it won't be as bad as you think and you can see what works and what doesn't.
4) Set yourself a target of x words a day, and try and stick to it.
5) Get used to sharing your work. www.figment.com is a great website for teenage writers to share their work and comment on others'.
6) Lots of people keep a writers' notebook - a place to stick in inspiring stories and pictures, try out new ideas, plan plots and sketch characters.
7) Don't worry too much about publication. Yes, some teens do get publishing contracts (Steph Bowe, for example and Hannah Moskewitz ) They are unusual though, so don't despair if you're not published instantly. Just concentrate on writing the best book you can.
8) Spelling does matter, also punctuation. The best way to improve your literacy is to read. So read, read, read, teenage books, adult books, books you know you'll like, books you expect to hate. Keep trying new things. But don't let the words of others stifle your own voice. Fan fiction is fun to write, but what makes your writing special is whatever makes you unique.
9) No one knows better than you what it feels like to be a teenager. That's valuable information. Use it in your writing, with honesty.
10) Don't throw anything away. If I'd kept my stories about the twins or the diary girl, who knows what use I could have made of them now. Hmm..I shall have to have a search in my parents' attic.

Authors for Japan - you can help!

2011-03-15T00:52:00.000-07:00

We've all watched the terrible scenes of devastation in Japan and felt desperate to help.
Well, author Keris Stainton wanted to do more than watch. She's set up an auction, where we can bid for a huge range of signed books, plus chances to win chapter critiques, name characters, have websites built..
The auction is here and kicks off at 8am. Last bids are in at 10pm Friday. All proceeds go to the Red Cross appeal for Japan.
My own contribution is here You get a chapter critique, a signed advance proof of Lia's Guide to Winning the Lottery and the chance to name a character in the third Ty book. If you want one thing and not - say - the chapter critique, I can be flexible. Just get those bids coming in...I'm now sweating about getting no bids at all...
I'll be banging on about this all week...can you all spread the word?

She wrote a book on her Blackberry...and got published

2011-03-14T02:29:00.000-07:00

One of the fun things about book promotion is getting the chance to listen to other authors at joint events. Over the last year I've heard some brilliant presentations - from the likes of Alex Scarrow, Paul Doweswell, Andy Lane, Jon Mayhew, Nicola Morgan, Gillian Cross and MG Harris. I know, lucky me.

But it's not often that another writer's talk makes you gasp out loud, as I did twice when Sue Ransom and I visited Highgate Wood School. Sue's cracking London-based paranormal romance Small Blue Thing was written on her Blackberry. And she didn't just get a contract directly from a publisher...her book persuaded the publisher to set up a company in order to publish it.

I had to ask Sue for her story. Here it is....

My day job is in London. I’m a headhunter and I work full time, commuting on the train into Waterloo every morning. For years I used the time to read, and I worked my way through my bookshelf several times. As my daughter, Ellie got older, some of the books she was reading caught my attention, and I borrowed a few to see what she was enjoying. What struck me immediately was how American most of them were, and how little she would understand the cultural references. I wondered if I could write a story for her that reflected her world. I decided to see if I could produce something as a birthday present for her.

Sue at Highgate Wood School

In February 2009 I started making notes, and used the time on my commute to write instead of read. I pulled together a plot, then using my BlackBerry I started to write. Every day on the commute I would read what I had written on the previous journey, then carry on, and at the end of each trip I emailed the file to myself. I managed about 300 words per journey, or roughly a page, plus a bit extra at the weekends. My only target was getting it done before my September deadline of Ellie's birthday, so I wasn't worried if it was 80K words or 90K.

My thumbs were fine - I have a touchscreen Blackberry with slightly bigger keys, so that made the whole thing easier. And I wasn't bothered by the environment. I find it really easy to blank things out on the train. Mostly the commuter trains are very quiet anyway. No-one wants to speak at that time of the morning! It's harder to write at home when people keep appearing to ask me things.

At the weekends I pieced the jigsaw together and edited. By July, most of the story was complete and I let my husband read it. He was very brave, telling me where he thought I had got things wrong! I got two copies of the final draft of Small Blue Thing bound up and gave them to my daughter for her birthday in early September. She loved it, and started lending it to her friends. They loved it too, so I was persuaded to send it to an agent who turned me down flat. I still don't have an agent.

A colleague at work then suggested that I get an opinion from someone he knew in the publishing industry, so he approached Kate Wilson, who had just left Headline, to see if she would mind reading the first few chapters and give me a few hints as to who to send it to first. I was hoping for an opinion as to whether it was publishable, and at best, a recommendation to an agent which might get it nearer the top of the slush pile.

What I got, much to my surprise, was a three book contract! Kate liked the book so much that it brought forward her plans to set up her own publishing company, and Small Blue Thing was the launch publication for Nosy Crow in January this year.

The second book, Perfectly Reflected, is due out in June 2011, and the final instalment will be on the shelves in January 2012. My life has been changed by using the time on my commute to do something different, and I’m really enjoying sharing my story with so many other girls.

Thanks Sue - to which, I would add, if you liked Twilight you'll love Small Blue Thing. Mysterious ghostlike creatures called Dirges who hang out at St Paul's Cathedral and steal happy memories, a girl battling with everyday traumas of schools, friends and boys - and then she finds a mysterious bracelet and meets the gorgeous Callum, who she can only see in her mirror... Brilliantly set up for the sequel too.

Update: Sue's offering a signed copy of Small Blue Thing, plus a chance to name a character in book 3 on the Authors for Japan auction until Friday March 18 . Bid here

Questions and Answers

2011-03-10T14:11:00.000-08:00

London Met University - one of my favourite London buildings

In the last week or so I've been doing more talking than writing - at schools, a university and - very sweetly - the synagogue in Welwyn Garden City, the town where I grew up.
I did my first school visit about a year ago (to St Aubyn's School in Woodford - thanks Becky for inviting me!) and I was incredibly nervous. I'd virtually written a speech beforehand, and I wasn't sure if anyone could hear what I had to say. Gradually it's become easier and easier, to the point where now I have to remember to do a little bit of preparation beforehand, and I can project my soft voice to fill a school hall (at least I think I can). I'm lucky because witness protection is a great subject to talk about, so I generally have lots of say. If I have an unruly class I tell them the stories of how I was nearly shot three times. That usually gets their attention.
At Immanuel College and Highgate Wood School last week I was talking about my books and about being a writer. At London Metropolitan University, I talked to students on the Young Adult Fiction course about how I came to write When I Was Joe and about things that I've experienced that are particularly relevant to the YA genre. At WGC shul I spoke to a roomful of people - many of whom had known me all my life - about my career in journalism and how I came to write a book.
My favourite bit always comes when I've finished my introduction and whatever reading I'm doing and it's time to take questions - the only time that's gone wrong was the school where every question was about the business side of publishing ('Who decides which books have a discount, Miss? Exactly how much money does the publisher get?'')
I've had some great questions this week, some of which I couldn't answer. What would you have said?

From a pupil at Highgate Wood School: How does it feel knowing that people are seeing into your imagination? I said that you just had to get over any embarrasment you felt, and it helped if people were reading your work as you went along. I wish I'd said that writing is like acting - no one knows how much of yourself you are revealing.
And another pupil at Highgate Wood: Who has inspired you in your writing? I wanted to say my children, but I didn't because one of them goes to that school and I was under strict orders not to embarrass her. So I erred and ummed and couldn't think of anyone.
From a pupil at Immanuel College: When do you find thinking time to plan your writing? I said 'I find that going for a walk or going to the gym are good times.' I thought: 'That's true! I must find time to go for a walk or go to the gym.'
Another pupil at Highgate Wood: 'Do you visit the places you write about?' Me: 'Err, I should but I never seem to have time (Thought bitterly about a talk Marcus Sedgwick gave at SCWBI conference where he described going to Sweden to research Revolver) So instead I write about places that I know. Then I told them how I'd transposed a park nearby, which they all knew, to Hackney in order to murder someone in it.
And also at Highgate Wood: 'What are the best and worst things about writing?' I said the best thing was getting emails and letters from people who enjoy your books, but then I was stuck for a worst thing - I must have been having a particularly good day, because afterwards I thought of two...the lack of money at the beginning of one's career (and who knows, possibly throughout one's career) and rejection.
At London Met: Is there anything you haven't been able to write about? This one threw me completely, and I'm still thinking about it. Are there things I've veered away from, without even realising it? Are there untouchable subjects? I said graphic sex scenes..but if I felt the need to go graphic, could I? I'm really not sure.
At Welwyn Garden City: Do you think you'll stay writing contemporary teen novels, or might you try different age groups, genres, styles? How much pressure is there to create a brand and stick to it? Answer: I really don't know. In writing Lia's Guide I hope I've showI can do something a little bit different. I have a few ideas for my next project, and one is definitely not a contemporary voice. So I will have to see how things develop.
So many great questions that I can't remember thm all. But the nicest one of all was the lady at Welwyn Garden City who said 'Well it's not really a question but as your auntie, I just want to say that I'm very proud of you...'
Now that doesn't happen on your average school visit.

Votes, splats and books

2011-02-18T06:50:00.000-08:00

I have just been listening to David Cameron explaining why we shouldn't change the voting system in the UK...because it could lead to a government that no one actually wanted. Hmmm.
Anyway, I am going to be shameless as any politician today and ask for your votes. The Coventry Inspiration Awards have been running for quite a few weeks now, with school pupils encouraged to read the books on a series of lengthy shortlists and vote for the ones they like best. Each week two books are eliminated, with a horrible splat obliterating the covers on the website.
In the Simply the Book category for 14+ readers, When I Was Joe is now into the final two! So vote,vote, vote for Joe, here . You don't have to be at school (just put N/A). You don't have to live in Coventry, or indeed the UK (just put your postcode, whatever it is). You can vote again and again (but you have to leave a bit of a space between votes.) The poll closes next Wednesday. It would be fantastic to win (err, although Helena Bonham Carter was right, it's not the winning that matters...ahem).
Nicola Morgan and I have formed an unofficial coalitian when it comes to begging for votes (Oooh, we are David and Nick! Or maybe NOT) Her wonderful exceptionally clever book Wasted is in the Read It or Else category. You can vote for Wasted here.
In the next age group down, my son is backing Frank Cottrell Boyce's Cosmic , a book which entertained and informed and did everything that good children's books should do superlatively well.
Getting to the last two of an award like this is fantastic - and winning would be even better, it is true. But there's also something strange about pitting books against eachother when reading is such a subjective process. I don't feel triumphant when I see that splat against other great books - I feel a bit bad. All of them are excellent reads, and these shortlists are perfect places to start if you're looking for something new to read. But beyond the splat factor is the knowledge that, thanks to the organisers of these and many other book award schemes, loads of kids are reading lots of books that they might never have otherwise learned about. The X Factor style website is just a part of it. Every book on that shortlist has been promoted, in Coventry and beyond, for the sheer love and importance of reading. There's more at stake here than a writer's ego.
Organising awards like this is just one of the valuable things that librarians do. The importance of libraries to children's reading was underlined today with the news that seven out of the ten most-borrowed authors in British libraries write for children. Shutting libraries, sacking librarians, building Learning Resource Centres for schools with no space for books - these are all an assault on children's right to read. Our government listened fast enough when the public spoke out about the proposed sell-off of forests. Libraries are another kind of shared space. They should be protected, developed and expanded not attacked. Vote for me if you want to, but raise your voice for our libraries as well.

Update: Thanks to all who voted - When I Was Joe came second...only mildly gutted, as being runner up is nothing to complain about. And hurray for Nicola Morgan's Wasted which won its category!

What's amiss with Amis

2011-02-16T05:29:00.000-08:00

'If I had a serious brain injury I might well write a children's book', but otherwise the idea of being conscious of who you're directing the story to is anathema to me, because, in my view, fiction is freedom and any restraints on that are intolerable."

Now then. I know that everyone’s had their say on Martin Amis’s comment above, and I know it’s a big insult and he’s an idiot to have said it.

However.

I know someone with a serious brain injury. My brother’s brain was starved of oxygen at birth and he was left with cerebal palsy. He has physical disabilities, which have made his life much harder than it should have been. It is not something that anyone would wish for.

Cerebal palsy has not affected his intelligence one little bit. In fact he is one of the cleverest people I know, and he has the qualifications to prove it. He has a First from Cambridge University and a PhD from Oxford University in English Literature. He has two Masters degrees, one in IT, the other in Philosophy. He won a scholarship to study at Harvard. He has a successful career and a demanding job.

So maybe…just maybe…when Martin Amis said ‘If I had a serious brain injury’, he had someone like my brother in mind. Maybe he actually meant ‘If I were clever and determined, hard-working and bloody-minded enough, if I were able to rise above the trials that life has sent me and tackle any challenge going, then I might well write a children’s book. Unfortunately I don’t possess enough of these attributes to take on that challenge.’

This charitable view of Martin Amis’s statement seems to be backed by his next statement. “…the idea of being conscious of who you're directing the story to is anathema to me, because, in my view, fiction is freedom and any restraints on that are intolerable.”

If a writer ignores all restrictions or awareness of potential readers, if he allows himself complete freedom in content, in vocabulary, in style, length or any other way, then he is making life much easier for himself. (I say 'he' and 'him' for reasons of my own which may well be construed as sexist, but which illustrate the joy of complete freedom of expression.)

Working within restrictions may be irksome, it may be difficult, but it does not necessarily produce work of lower quality. In fact, quite the opposite. The writer who takes on the challenge of writing for younger readers may not succeed in creating anything special - but when she does, it is perhaps even more remarkable than the work of an untrammelled artist such as Martin Amis, especially when he has admitted that he could not do such a thing.

So perhaps what he meant to say was: ‘I am incapable of imagining the effect my work will have on a particular reader, nor am I selfless enough to want to try. My writing skills are limited and I cannot cope with any restrictions at all.'

I think if he’d said it like that he might have had a more sympathetic hearing. But it’s difficult, isn’t it, admitting one’s shortcomings on television, especially in the context of a programme about heroes.

I have to admit that I used to share the view that Mr Amis may or may not hold, that the shorter and simpler the book, the easier it will be to write. Once I started thinking about actually writing a short, simple book for young children, I soon changed my mind. I started my course of evening classes in Writing for Children intending to write short books for 6 to 8 year olds. I ended up writing an 83,000 word book for teenagers. Quite frankly, I did it that way because it was an easier prospect.

It’s a long time since I’ve read a book by Martin Amis. His recent remarks haven’t put me off, on the contrary, I’m interested to see the effect of writing with complete unrestricted freedom, and whether it produces something as dull as it promises.In his hands, I doubt it. I remember him as a mischievous writer who delights in tricks and wordplay. In fact, he is exactly the sort of person who might one day be able to take on the biggest challenge of all - yes, a picture book text.

When he’s ready.

(Thanks to Fiona Dunbar for her help with this post.)

Sophia Bennett on writing series

2011-02-10T11:44:00.000-08:00

Today's post is written by the very wonderful Sophia Bennett, whose latest book Sequins, Stars and Spotlights is out this week - eagerly awaited by fans of the trilogy which started with the prize-winning Threads and continued with Beads, Boys and Bangles.

The books don't just give readers funny, heart-warming and believable stories, they also tell you everything you ever wanted to know about the fashion industry - from child labour to the lives of the supermodels.

Writing a series isn't as easy as it looks. As I embark on my third 'Ty' book I'm concerned about keeping the storyline going, without boring the readers or clogging up the narrative with too much backstory. So I thought I'd ask Sophia for some advice cleverly disguised as being part of her blog tour for Sequins, Stars and Spotlights. And, clever person that she is, she obligingly interviewed herself!

Hi Keren. Thanks so much for hosting this stage of the tour, and for suggesting the topic of series fiction. Nobody’s asked me about that before. I imagined this as a Q&A … which may give the impression that I talk to myself a lot. I do, so that’s probably no bad thing.

So, Sophia, what is the secret of a good series, do you think?

Six words: strong characters, strong characters, strong characters. Plots can be tiny or huge. If a reader loves the characters, she’ll follow them through.

What makes writing a series different from a single book?

Books for the age group I write for (tween and teen) have to be quite short, so there simply isn’t time to develop a character in many complex ways. My narrator, Nonie, doesn’t understand what’s going on as well as she thinks she does. Over the three books, she gets the chance to get things wrong about herself and other people, think she’s learned from her mistakes, get them wrong again and finally get them right. She’s a different girl by the end of the series, because her world is changing fast around her and she’s losing her hold on it. I couldn’t have packed all of that into one book, but it was great fun to develop it over time. Poor Nonie. (She’s all right in the end, though.)

Anything to avoid?

When you come up with your sheer genius title for book 1, make sure that you or your publisher will be able to think of associated sheer genius titles for books 2 and 3. We quickly rejected ‘Stitches’ and ‘Ribbons’ and probably spent longer thinking about titles than we did editing the books. I thought I had it cracked with ‘Beads Boys & Bangles’, but that meant I had to think of three more words for book 3. At one stage, it was going to be ‘Frills, Fame and Frappucinos’, I think. Good grief. And book 1 became ‘Sequins, Secrets and Silver Linings’ in America, so I have no idea what book 3 will be over there …

Anything else?

Sophia's suitably stylish...

Making the timescale in each book last up to two years can be a no-no. My timescales were based on Jenny’s acting career and the things I wanted her to achieve in each book. (Which is odd, because she was the last character I created and she was supposed to just fit in around the others and wear nice frocks occasionally, but she wasn’t having any of it …). But the problem is that after a mere three books, the older girls were 18 and leaving school already. How quickly they grow up! I have a successful writing friend who insists each book in her current series should last a maximum of 6 months. Very sensible. I’ll bear that in mind next time …

Another problem you just have to grapple with is the need to keep plot twists original. There were a few times when I thought – I know, that character can solve the problem by doing that. But he or she couldn’t, because they’d done something similar before. Oh, and blatant repetition. I think it’s inevitable. You need a beady-eyed editor to point out that the same girl made the same observation two books earlier.

This might suggest that I don’t enjoy doing it, which isn’t true at all. Because if you’ve created characters you enjoy writing about, there’s nothing nicer than living in their world for a couple of years, and having readers look forward to what they’re going to get up to next, too.

How do you plan your series?

I wrote ‘Threads’ as a one-off book. For nine-tenths of the writing process, I simply couldn’t imagine how anything could possibly follow after the final scene. And then … I knew my characters so well that I realised I did know what they did next. And it was kind of interesting. And there was another save-the-world issue that I really wanted to address: child labour. So by the time I had a contract for ‘Threads’, I’d already written 10,000 words of ‘Beads Boys & Bangles’. Of all the books, that was the easiest to write.

Anyway, by then I thought I had this series thing sorted. I needed another save-the-world issue and more great fashion heights for my girls to scale. Except, that’s not what happened at all. The issue I decided to write about was very local, and very personal. And on the fashion front, I wanted to write more about how you need to pace yourself, gain experience, and not do too much too soon. It took ages to make it all work in a way I was happy with.

So I suppose my answer is, there must be a successful way to plan a series, but I don’t know what it is yet. I suggest reading the Hunger Games trilogy and working it out from that. Or Harry Potter, obviously.

One thing I don’t like are series books that end on an obvious cliff-hanger, so you simply have to read the next book to find out what happened. I think each book should be self-contained. After all, the reader has paid for a complete story, and that’s what she deserves.

Will you always write series books?

I write what comes to me. At the moment, I don’t know if the book I’ve just handed in is part of a series or not. It depends on whether my publisher thinks the characters are strong enough, and whether more of their stories occur to me (mind you, the second book is already bubbling away …).

I do like series books. When I was in my early teens I adored series fiction and would happily read ten books about the same teen detective, ballet dancer or pony fanatic. My son is ten now, and as soon as he’s finished a book he loves, he wants the next one – Artemis Fowl, Skulduggery Pleasant, Percy Jackson ... I know lots of readers feel the same way.

I hope Threads isn’t my only series. Writing the books was a very happy, busy time for me.

(Keren again) Thanks Sophia! I learned a lot there...and I'm sure Threads will be the first series of many.

To Amanda Holden...

2011-02-06T14:52:00.000-08:00

...and any other woman who loses a baby in late pregancy.

You can survive this. You can and will. It may feel as though nothing in your life will ever be normal again, as though the pain is too much to bear, but it is possible to carry on. You will even laugh again. You will even feel happy again. Life will once again feel precious.
The shock will wear off (although it may muffle your life for weeks). The pain will get worse. This may even feel perversely comforting and necessary. The pain brings you closer to your baby. Don’t try and be brave. Work hard at being the opposite of brave.
You will cry unexpectedly. There will be conversations and situations that are impossible for you. This is not your fault, so don’t apologise. At least – always a silver lining – you, Amanda, will never have to explain to people why you are in tears in the middle of a crowded café (a sleeping baby, an over-inquisitive friend). The rest of us have to learn to say the words: my baby died. I can’t always cope. I need to go. I just need some air. Leave me alone. I don’t want to tell you that. I don’t want to talk. I need to talk. Let me tell you what happened to me. Let me tell you about my son.
You have not lost him completely. I hope you have pictures, a name, some memories. I can still see Daniel’s golden hair, his soft skin, his peaceful face. I have photos, which were no good, so I wrapped them in a baby blanket and put them away. I have a picture of him sketched by a friend. I have memories of his movements, when he moved. I have memories of his birth. Best of all, I have a feeling of his presence in my life, which has been with me for 13 years now. Sometimes I hear his voice. It is very real and it is a great comfort.
You are not the only one who has lost him. Your loss is shared by his father, his sister, his family. By your friends. People will forget and people will remember. His life touched them all. He will never be nothing. As long as you live, he will never be forgotten.
It was not your fault. Women treat their bodies far worse than anything you might have done, and their babies are born healthy and whole. You may never know why he died. We believe we are so advanced, so knowledgeable, but we are not. In some ways we are like medieval peasants. You may feel full of fury at the ignorance unveiled by your loss, but there is nothing that you can do, except to talk about it, raise money for research, do all you can to back the people trying to find out why babies die in the womb for no known reason. I discovered - three years or so on - that samples of Daniel’s body had been retained for use in medical experiments. I could have been angry - no permission has been granted – but I was not. I was comforted. Our loss, our son was helping to prevent others losing their children. It helped to know that. It helped to remember that scientific research marches on.
You and his father may mourn differently. It is a very lonely feeling. Some people will attempt to help by quoting scary figures about the large proportion of couples who split up after losing a child. Ignore them. Tell them this is not the sort of help you need. Allow him to grieve in his own way. He may not be the best person to support you at all times. Sometimes you will mourn together and sometimes apart. Don’t judge someone in extreme circumstances. And try and make your baby’s legacy one of love and understanding, however difficult that might be.
You are still allowed to be funny and laugh and be the person that you are. You do not have to laugh about his loss. But the small stuff - the gaffes, the misunderstandings, the strangeness - a robust sense of humour can help.
You may become hyper-sensitive. You may begin to hate people who call your loss a disappointment, a miscarriage (no less loss, by the way, but different), even meant to be. Not to be.You may tear up Christmas cards bearing pictures of other people’s babies. You may resent pregnant woman, women with babies, people who tell you your loss is not so great (yes, some people will tell you this). You must honour your feelings while acknowledging your lack of reason. You must be forgiving and unforgiving at the same time. It is not easy. It becomes easier. The first five years are the hardest.
You are part of a sisterhood. Lots of us go through this, we understand how it may feel. You will find us everywhere. We understand, we care, we are here for you and for all of us.
You may remember him with actions and symbols. With candles, flowers, trees. With tattoos and jewellery (see my ring, engraved with his name, the stone yellow as his hair). With fund-raising, befriending, marathons. With God or nature, in the stars, in heaven, on Earth. In the arms of a lost friend, or a grandmother. After a week, a month, a year. On his birthday. For ever and ever.
In time, he may give you more compassion, more wisdom, more patience. In time, his loss may make you a better person, a better actress, a better friend. He may transform you. Take strength from the knowledge that you are suffering as much as you can. So many things will feel easier to bear after this. After you have survived this. And you can survive this.

Amanda Holden is a British actress and judge on Britain's Got Talent whose son was stillborn this weekend at seven months gestation. Our second child, Daniel was inexplicably stillborn on February 10 1998, at 38 weeks. I wrote about his loss on this blog last year.

Fighting knife crime..

2011-02-02T05:52:00.000-08:00

Ben Kinsella

The government has announced an £18million package to fight knife crime among teengers, following a report from campaigner Brooke Kinsella, the Eastenders actress whose 16-year-old brother Ben was murdered in Islington in 2008.
The plans include educational material for schools, including primary schools, to make children think about why people carry knives and the harm they can do. The Fear and Fashion programme, which runs workshops in schools and youth clubs is singled out as an example of good practice.
I applaud Home Secretary Theresa May for finding the money to back these projects. I hope that other government spending plans - in particular the 20 per cent cut to the police budget, and the plan to fill gaps in policing by using volunteers - will not negate its good effect.
I also wonder about the effect of Justice Minister Ken Clarke's enlightened stand against short prison sentences, which led to the abandonment of David Cameron's election pledge to put everyone convicted of carrying a knife in jail. I wrote about that here.
My daughter is at school in north London, roughly equidistant from Ben Kinsella's school and from Park View Academy, which suffered the loss of a pupil, Kasey Gordon, a few weeks ago, stabbed to death in broad daylight as he walked home from school (a man has been charged). Her school has staged several anti-knife crime assemblies and programmes. The last one seemed very effective - the bereaved mother of a knife crime victim spoke, and then a doctor who deals with stabbings in a casualty unit. Girls cried, reported my daughter, and everyone paid attention.
So, it's good to hear about the funding for more anti-knife education. I hope these intiatives will succeed despite the other public spending cuts. And well done to Brooke Kinsella for finding such an active and positive way to commemorate her brother, so cruelly stolen from his family.

News round-up

2011-01-31T12:07:00.000-08:00

There are so many blog posts I want to write, and so little time to do so...so today I have a news round up for you. Normal blogging service will be resumed sometime.
1. Here is the cover for Lia's Guide to Winning the Lottery. It's published on August 4. You can (if you wish) pre-order and read the first chapter here .
2. When I was Joe won the North East Teenage Book Award! This was most exciting because it's an award voted for by 300 teenagers at schools in the North East of England, I have never won anything in my life before and the shortlist was packed full of fabulous books (Wasted by Nicola Morgan, which was Highly Commended, Auslander by Paul Doweswell, The Dead House by Anne Cassidy, Rowan the Strange by Julie Hearn and Savannah Grey by Cliff McNish). Still a bit shocked..but very happy...
3. Anne Cassidy and I, together with Gillian Philip and Linda Strachan have set up a new blog, called Crime Central to showcase crime fiction for teens. Take a look, follow, let us know what you think..
4. I'm going to write a new book about Ty. Provisionally entitled Another Life it will pick up Ty's story from the end of Almost True - but from another narrator's point of view. I'm starting work on it now, with a view to publication in 2012..so I won't have much time for blogging, Facebooking etc. I won't neglect this blog completely though.
5 This is a great speech by YA writer Sara Zarr, as reported by Candy Gourlay.

As I was saying...

2011-01-25T12:24:00.000-08:00

‘So,’ says Joe*, ‘Have you got any hints for writing dialogue? You know…making it sound as though the people in your books are real.’

‘Errr…I dunno really….’

‘When I write dialogue it never sounds real. Everyone is kind of one-dimensional. You know, flat. Dull. Lifeless.’

‘Oh, I'm sure that's not true.'

'It is! Tell me what to do!'

'Well, the main thing, when you're writing my sort of book, is is to listen out for good stuff you can pinch.’

‘What sort of stuff?’

‘Things people say. For example, the other day, I was in the car listening to the radio. It was a phone-in about undercover policemen and this guy called in to talk about going undercover with a gang of criminals.’

‘Sounds interesting,’

‘Yes it was. Anyway, he said something like “Things happened to me like getting beaten up and stabbed and other unpleasantness.” And I thought, wow, good quote, must use that sometime.’

‘Did you write it down?’

‘Well, no, I didn’t because I was driving along at the time and if I’d whipped out a notebook I might have got arrested. Sometimes I do write things down though. When I was in the sixth form at school I used to sit with a notebook and write down everything that everyone was saying in a kind of stream of consciousness – ’

‘OK..that’s a bit weird...’

‘ - and later on I became a reporter, so I learned shorthand and then I was paid to write down the exact words that people use. Because I’m a dinosaur, there weren’t any mini-recorders then, and anyway I find it incredibly boring to transcribe from a tape – ’

‘There weren’t any recorders? Oh my God! How old are you?’

‘Not that old. I was a teenage reporter. Very, very young. Anyway I learned a lot from doing that. I learned that people rarely speak with good grammar, that they sometimes rattle on for ages, and sometimes just stop. In mid-sentence. So you have to reflect that in the way you punctuate dialogue.’

‘Umm..punctuation’s a bit boring, isn’t it?’

‘Yes. It is. Talking about it is, anyway. So…moving swiftly on. A reporter is looking through the waffle for good quotes. Interesting phrases. Things that sum up an argument or a story. And that's more or less what I do in fiction too.'

'So..seek out good quotes,'

'Yes, and only use dialogue for the good stuff. The rest can be told in other ways.Keep dialogue punchy and to the point. Have things about your characters that you show through dialogue.’

‘Like what?’

‘Well..Ty for example, is someone who thinks a lot but doesn’t say as much. Archie in Almost True is the opposite. Nicki, Ty’s mum, is very aspirational, and wants Ty to speak like a television presenter, but when she loses her temper she forgets all about setting a good example.’

‘Oh…OK…I think I get it.’

‘And don’t overuse it. Know what you need to get across in the bit of dialogue, and finish it off. Stuff it full of good quotes. ’

‘OK. So your advice is to eavesdrop on people, write stuff down –'

'And listen out for really good quotes. The kind of thing people say and you remember and repeat. For example, when my daughter was six we were watching EastEnders and someone was talking about her abortion and my daughter said "I didn't know you could quit a baby" I still remembered it years later and it made its way into When I Was Joe.'

'Oh, right.'

‘And read dialogue out loud when you’ve written it, to see if it sounds real.’

‘So I have to eavesdrop...write down what people say...say it out loud? People will think I’m a nutter!’

‘That’s the price you have to pay…hang on! Where are you going? Come back! I've got more to say!’

*Joe in this instance is @UnashamedlyJoe on Twitter who asked me to write a blog post about writing dialogue. And who'd also like some more followers.

California dreaming

2011-01-16T14:06:00.000-08:00

San Diego sunshine

When I was 18, I went for my first ever job interview, to be a messenger girl on a newspaper, a job that could lead to an apprenticeship as a junior reporter. As far as I was concerned there could be no more exciting workplace than a newspaper office, but I realised that I must not say so. I didn’t want them to think that I had unrealistic expectations.

So when the paper’s Deputy Editor asked: ‘Why do you want to be a journalist?’ I told him that I knew journalism wasn’t glamorous or exciting, I knew it was very hard work, I knew much of it might be boring or routine. After listening to my earnest assurances, he grinned.

‘Actually,’ he said, ‘it’s not that bad.’
And likewise, becoming an author, I knew would mean hard work and rejection, disappointment and more hard work. And I was right. But, you know what, just like journalism, it’s not that bad. And sometimes it’s downright fabulous.

For example, last weekend I flew all the way to San Diego for the weekend. That’s California! For the weekend! If such a thing ever happens again then I’d have to say that being an author is turning out quite glam after all.

I think everyone does a double-take..

The Frances Lincoln 'booth'

The courtyard at the Horton Grand

Anyway, I was in San Diego for the American Library Association’s mid-winter conference, along with thousands of librarians, hundreds of publishing peeps and millions of books. There were hundreds of stalls (or booths as the Americans seemed to call them) all displaying mouth-watering (or indeed eye-watering, when you saw what a vast amount of competition there is for any one book to make its way) displays of books.

And there was loads of swag for the librarians to collect. Free books. Badges. Big shopping bags. Sweets. Pens. The conference hall filled up with librarians staggering under the weight of all the free stuff they could collect. One stall cleverly offered neck massages. Another sold insteps to massage your feet.

Some of the time there were important meetings going on where librarians decided which books to give awards to, or put on recommended lists. Sometimes there were presentations by publishers, or speeches from authors (OK, there was a Neil Gaiman event. And I couldn’t go to it. And that was disappointing. I’m over it though.)

I had to do a lot of selling over the weekend. I found out the things that worry librarians in Middle Schools – ‘Sex, violence and swearing,’ said one, counting them off on her fingers. ‘Mostly swearing. Are there any f-bombs in your book?’ Another wasn’t too worried about swearing or violence: ‘But our parent body is very concerned about sex.’

‘Why is your book outstanding?’ asked one stern librarian - didn’t she realise that English people are taught from birth that it is unseemly to blow their own trumpets? I stumbled out an answer, she pointed to the boy on the cover. ‘How old is he meant to be? He looks older than 14.’

Librarians laden with swag

Frances Lincoln, my publishers, hold an annual tea party at the midwinter conference, and the venue was the Horton Grand Hotel, a building with quite a few stories to tell. Assembled from the remains of two hotels, bought by the city for $1 each, the Horton is on the site of a former brothel - when it was raided by police in 1912, the Mayor of San Diego and three councilmen were found on the premises.

I collected badges for my son

Just some of the books I gathered

Anyway, the tea was a chance to tell around 50 lovely librarians a bit about me and my books, and how I came to write them, and try and appear relatively cool about the fact that…squee…here I was in California, and …double squeee….some of them had already read When I Was Joe and Almost True is going to be on sale in the US in April. I didn’t squee out loud, but I felt like it. They were the world’s nicest audience. They laughed at all my jokes. After a year of speaking to rooms full of teenagers, where joke-telling can be a bit hit and miss, this made me feel as witty as Victoria Wood.

One lady had already read When I Was Joe and although she assured me that she’d loved it, she didn’t want to read Almost True - in fact she was very cross about the sample chapter at the end of Joe. She didn’t want Ty to suffer any more, she said. I assured her that although Ty does suffer a bit more in Almost True, good things happen to him too. Then I tried to think whether that was true. Yes, it’s just about almost true.

Other great things about San Diego: meeting the wonderful people from Publishers Group West, distributors of Frances Lincoln books in the US and Canada, and as enthusiastic about the books as anyone in the UK. Spending time with Frances Lindoln’s Editorial Director Maurice Lyon and trying to persuade him that my mad new idea is actually a stroke of genius (Maurice is super-diplomatic, so I have no idea if he was truly persuaded or not. And I’m not sure if I can pull off my mad new idea. We shall have to wait and see).

Then there was walking in the sunshine. Sitting outside to eat in the sunshine. Sunshine. What a bonus in the middle of a cold, grey, freezing miserable London winter.

One of the interesting things about spending a slither of time in another culture is spotting the cultural differences. These were as small as the speed in which a waitress will clear your plate and bring the bill, to as huge as the response to the horrific shootings in Tucson, which took place while we were there.

While we Brits were amazed at the lack of debate over gun control, the way the gunman bought his ammunition from Walmart, Americans talked about the language of political discourse. ‘Words matter,’ said PBS correspondent Miles O’Brien. ‘If nothing else, if it removes the gun analogies from the discussion, the killing analogies, we’ve made some progress.’

It was simultaneously impressive to see a nation so concerned about the power of language and metaphor and shocking that people seemed infinitely less interested in the availability of lethal hardware. Similarly the healthcare debate seemed to be more about political theory - the role of the state - and less about the welfare of sick people. I came away with the feeling that the US is more engaged with abstract notions than we Europeans - a great strength and perhaps a weakness as well.

Sculpture on the San Diego seafront

Halfway home, as our plane flew from one time zone to another, a disc of glass fell out of nowhere and landed on my hand. No one knew what it was – could it be part of the plane? The steward took it to show the pilot...but when I came to change the time on my watch I realised that the glass front was missing…yes, my watch had spontaneously self-destructed in mid-air. It seemed a perfect metaphor for the exhausted jet-lag involved in flying thousands of miles for one weekend.

This week back in wintery, wet London, San Diego's sometimes felt a little like a dream - but then I realise my watch is missing, and I know I really did have my weekend in California.
Oh, and I almost forgot the best bit. In one of those meeting rooms, some of those librarians were picking a list of their favourite YA fiction of 2011. And When I Was Joe was on the list.

Three years on

2011-01-04T12:41:00.000-08:00

I count my life as an author in years from January 5th 2008. That's when we went to have lunch with our friends Anna and Philip and Anna suggested that I sign up for the course in writing for children at City University that she'd just taken. The course started nine days later, it still had places. I signed up.
One year later, I'd written a book, I had an agent. January 5th was the day - the mind-boggling, incredible day - that the editorial director of Frances Lincoln Children's Books wrote to my agent to express 'serious interest' in When I Was Joe. Serious interest took just over a month to turn into a deal.
When I Was Joe was published - not on January 5th 2010, somewhat to my disappointment, as I'd decided it was a magical day - but on the 2nd. I think the 5th might have been the first day I saw it for sale in an actual bookshop.
So, what's tomorrow going to bring? I'm going to see the bound proofs of Lia's Guide to Winning the Lottery for the first time! I might write the first bit of the first chapter of my fourth book (fourth? How did that happen?) And - most amazingly of all - I'm going to be packing up to fly to San Diego the following day to attend the American Librarians' Association mid-winter conference. My family have already banned me from even mentioning San Diego, because they're so fed up with my burbling excitement.
All in all, I'm delighted I took Anna's advice. She and I would never have believed it, if we'd been able to see three years into the future.
And I wonder what future Janaury 5ths will bring.

Back to Booktrust

2011-01-01T05:25:00.000-08:00

The spectacle of the government wriggling out of the Booktrust funding debacle was entertaining. It’s to be expected, I suppose, that after a long period of one-party government, the new boys won’t be too competent. To see them get it so wrong though - well, you have to laugh.

Anyway, since then a few right-wing commentators have started bleating in the newspapers about the decision. The points they made can be summarised thus:

- the government has given in to vested interests. Wealthy authors and publishers want their lush lifestyles to be subsidised by the tax-payer.Squillionaire novelists should fund the book-giving schemes.

- The government is weak, and accepts its orders from the chattering classes.

- it is ludicrous and unnecessary to give free books to middle class children. If free books are to be given at all, they should go to the proven poor.

- The government should not be involved in this kind of social experiment. It is the job of charity, and charity alone.

Taking these points in order. First, the vast majority of Booktrust’s funding comes from the publishing industry. Authors and publishers accept reduced royalties if their books are chosen for the scheme. The government’s funding is used to generate private contributions.

Most authors are far from wealthy. The average annual income for a children’s author is £5,000. Even the very few authors who are rich will most probably have spent years earning next to nothing before they achieve a reasonable income. And when they do, they pay their taxes.

This government and the last may be weak, but that comes from their lack of mandate and competence. They certainly do not accept their orders from the chattering classes. On the contrary, they seem to have very little interest in furthering the cause of reading among children. The Labour government installed a dull and unimaginative literacy programme in schools which raised extracts over real books. The Coalition is doing nothing to prevent the closure of many libraries. The government’s weakness in this case comes from its own ineptitude. If it had cut Booktrust’s funding by half and not allowed the news to dribble out just before Christmas, the impact of the outcry would have been decimated.

It may seem wasteful and unnecessary for state agents to hand free books to wealthy pampered middle class babies. Fine. If your health visitor offers you a free gift that you don’t need, just say no. Once those babies are starting secondary school however, their parents may well have lost their complacency about their reading habits. They think their child will keep their early love for books. They often find that they are wrong.

Actually, most parents I meet know diddly-squat about children and reading and still less about teens. Parents don’t know how to encourage their children to read, and they don’t know which books to buy for them. They employ tutors to encourage their children to read for pleasure - how strange is that? They didn’t grow up with the vast range of entertainment options that their children have, nor with the load of school work. Expect those smug columnists to be wringing their hands and begging for help weaning their child away from a screen in a few years’ time.

A universal gift of a free book at age 5 or 11 catches all those kids whose parents could buy them books but don’t, or those whose parents can’t afford to buy them books but don’t qualify for free school meals (I have been one of those parents and believe me, it is painful). Universality means there is no stigma attached to your free book, and it gets a classroom of children chatting about their choices. It introduces children to new authors, new genres, new ideas. If you believe in the nudge theory, as David Cameron is supposed to, it’s a nudge in the right direction.

How about the argument that the government should not be involved in schemes like this, that it is an initiative which should be purely funded by voluntary donations? If Cameron has a big idea, it is that the state should be rolled back to a few key functions. That ‘society’ should take its place. The burden on the taxpayer should be lifted, allowing people to choose where their money goes.

Is the government truly committed to rolling back state influence? It isn’t. When I read about civil servants at the Department of Education checking the curriculum choices of the new ‘free’ schools, or devising new phonics tests for the nation’s six-year-olds, I see the age-old hypocrisy at work.Ministers are all for cuts - unless it cuts their own influence.

I remember watching the party leaders debating before the election. I remember David Cameron saying that savings would be found from identifying wasteful practices in the system - massage suites for NHS managers was the example he offered. He did not stand for election with a message of ideologically based cuts to create a very different Britain. Nor was he elected with any kind of majority – thus the coalition. He is acting as though he won a landslide victory for his vision of government. He did not, and it is profoundly undemocratic to suggest that he does.

It may be that organisations such as Booktrust find they are better off operating without the interference of people like Cameron and Gove. That’s another question altogether.

Ten books which inspired me

2010-12-28T16:51:00.000-08:00

Candy Gourlay, wonderful author of Tall Story (what do you mean you haven't read it yet? Buy it now!) has written a fascinating post about the books which inspired her on her journey to becoming a children's author, a theme picked up by Nicky Schmidt and Kathryn Evans .

Thinking about what books I might choose brought on feelings of unworthiness. I had hardly read a contemporary YA book before I started to write one. I feel as though I've been on a big catch up in my reading ever since I got my publishing deal, but there are so many books I have still to read.

But still, there were books which encouraged, inspired and influenced me. Here are ten.

Three books from childhood

I was always a big fan of Noel Streatfeild's books, but Wintle's Wonders (now retitled Dancing Shoes) was my favourite. Not only did it have a great setting - a dancing school which trained children to take part in musical shows, but also a main character Rachel whose fierce love of her sister and loyalty to her dead mother were consistently misunderstood by the adults around her. I always felt misunderstood and I completely identified with Rachel. And I also loved the little glimpses of adult relationships given by the author, especially the seemingly mismatched artistic Uncle Tom and brassy Aunt Cora. Real people, real emotions, this book set my taste in fiction.

I've written elsewhere about my love of the books of Antonia Forest. The Marlow family series is my favourite series ever written and The Ready-Made Family my pick of the series. I still can't read it without amazed admiration of how much Forest does in one book - juggling lots of characters, a thrilling plot, intriguing relationships and making you believe you're reading about real people.

S E Hinton's The Outsiders was probably the first book I read about boys fighting each other. Loved it then, love it now. It was a million miles away from my staid Home Counties upbringing, and yet I felt it was a book about me. I'm still not sure why.

Dutch literature

I've been a journalist for my entire adult life, and I'm very confident about writing as a journalist. But somehow I'd got a notion into my head that writing a novel would be somewhat different, that I would have to write in a poetic, complicated way to be taken seriously as a novelist. Then I went to live in the Netherlands, and started to read as much Dutch literature in translation as I could. Much of it was sparse and unfussy compared to the British literary fiction I'd been reading - partly because Dutch is a very unfrilly language. It gave me the confidence to think that I could write my own kind of literary fiction, that short sentences and apparent simplicity could be enormously effective. Probably the Dutch book that made the most impact on me was The Assault by Harry Mulisch, a devastating tale of Holland in the Second World War. Harry Mulisch used to drink coffee in the cafe opposite our flat in Amsterdam, a tiny white-haired man with great style. He died in October 2010. Truly an inspiration.

Books by 'normal' people

How to put this? It was very helpful to read books that had been written by people whom I knew to be not so very different from me. It meant I couldn't hide behind the feeling/excuse I nurtured that novelists are somehow different...

First of all, the very talented Melissa Nathan. Melissa's brother is married to my sister. Melissa, like me, was a journalist. She became an immensely successful writer of books which are very funny and satisfyingly romantic. My favourite is The Waitress, because it's about a girl who doesn't know what to do with her life, a common state that doesn't get much attention. Melissa wrote The Waitress while she was having treatment for the cancer which cruelly killed her at just 37. I can't write about her without being gripped by sheer disbelief that she was taken so young. She wrote her last book knowing that she was unlikely to see it published. It's as bouncy and fun, hopeful and life-enhancing as the others. Melissa inspired me in many ways, but most of all for her pure professional stamina.

Amanda Swift was my tutor when I did an evening course in writing for children at City University, and she was my mentor and guide as I wrote When I Was Joe (and still is now). As part of the course she shared with us the process she'd been through in writing her book Anna/Bella - from outline to synopsis and beyond. She also worked with me on the original plot-planning exercise that became When I Was Joe and kindly donated her disabled athlete character who eventually became Ellie. It was only much, much later that it occurred to me that Anna/Bella is about a girl who swaps between names and identities - not so unlike When I was Joe as one might imagine, looking at the cover. Another teacher might have mentioned the overlap - Amanda never did.

Books which made me brave.

I knew I wanted to write about a boy. I wasn't sure I could do it. After all, I'd never been a boy. Then I thought 'What if JK Rowling hadn't written Harry Potter for the same reason? If she can write a boy, so can I.' And so I did.

I read Stephenie Meyer's Twilight in the spirit of enquiry, trying to find out what had captivated so many readers. I didn't like the writing style, the colourless heroine or the snickering hero. But I admired the feeling that Meyer had written from her heart, that she'd fearlessly poured her own emotions into her writing. I think that's what readers connect to. A better example of that kind of abandon is Emily Bronte's Wuthering Heights, which I devoured at the age of 13 and still love. I read a lot of books which are clever and beautifully written, but there's something missing unless I get a sense that the author is somehow in love with the story she or he is telling. These books made me brave enough to try and do the same.

The ultimate book

I suppose we all have a book which we'd love to have written. Mine is Anne Tyler's The Accidental Tourist. Virtually every line makes me want to laugh and cry at the same time. She takes the most difficult subject - how bereaved parents go on living after their only son is murdered - and makes it into something constantly unexpected yet utterly true. And funny - it's so funny.

I don't think I could ever write anything one-millionth as good. But I'll go on trying.

Booksnatching

2010-12-23T09:23:00.000-08:00

I'm sure Michael Gove, Britain's Education Secretary doesn't want to be known as the Booksnatcher.

Teaching Michael Gove about reading

I'm sure he passionately believes in supporting children and encouraging them to love books - regardless of family background or wealth. He's just got a strange way of showing it.
Unfortunately Mr Gove is part of a government which believes that huge spending cuts are the best way to assure this country's economic future. These cuts mean that local schools and councils are contemplating how to save millions from their budgets. Libraries are particularly vulnerable to these cuts, as they are seen as 'soft' targets. So libraries are closing, school and public librarians are sacked, and children lose a source of free books, the chance to spend time in a place dedicated to reading, the chance to meet and learn from people who know about books.
Michael Gove assures us that he does care about reading. He is spending our money to devise a new test for Y1 pupils, a phonics based test which will identify children who cannot 'decode' words at the level they are expected to. Mr Gove says: 'Parents want to know how their children are reading and this will tell them.'
No, Mr Gove, a phonics test will not tell parents very much. It will not tell them if their children understand the words they read. Still less will it tell them if they enjoy reading, if they pick up a book out of interest, if they care about stories. It may even be that being drilled in phonics might be stressful for some children, and it may put actually them off reading. One of the 12-year-old boys I help as a volunteer reading helper is great at sounding out difficult words - but he hasn't a clue what they mean, and the pronounciation isn't usually correct, despite his painstaking effort, because English doesn't work phonetically.
Nick Gibb, the Schools Minister says:'There is more to reading than phonics – but there is also a weight of evidence that systematic synthetic phonics, taught in the first years of a child’s education, gives children key building blocks they need to understand words, underpins children’s attainment of a good standard of reading and can inspire a lifetime love of reading.
'The Government is determined to raise the standard of reading in the first years of primary school so that children can master the basic decoding skills of reading early and then spend the rest of primary school reading to learn.
'The fact is that alternative methods have left too many young people with poor literacy levels, especially among children of more disadvantaged families, and we are determined that every child can read to their full potential.'
Well, leaving aside the question of how anyone can possibly say what a child's full reading potential is, one of the alternative methods the government seem to have decided is worthless, is the Booktrust's book giving scheme. Bookstart is a national programme that gives a free pack of books to babies, and guidance materials to parents and carers. Booktime promotes reading aloud with children, and Booked Up aims to give a free book to every child starting secondary school in England.£13million of government money is used to generate £56 million-worth of private sponsorship. Mr Gove didn't just decide to half the grant, or discuss the scheme's future with Booktrust. No, he informed Booktrust with no warning, just before Christmas, season of giving, that the government funding would entirely cease.
Ed Miliband.the new Labour leader, accused the Conservative government of 'knowing the price of everything and the value of nothing.' I think the current government is truly only interested in things they can measure. In this they follow Labour's lead - but in a far more brutal and philistine fashion.
Discussing this on Facebook this week, the writer Ellen Renner said:'They all view teaching children as some sort of factory system; managerialism gone mad .' It's not just managerialism gone mad - it's bad managerialism gone mad. It takes joy and pleasure and creativity out of learning and replaces it with decoding. It's a mindset which says that the humanities are useless and unworthy of funding. It makes 'culture' into something for a rich elite. It's profoundly un-British, I believe, and I don't think the government has a mandate to change our society like this.
Mr Gove might argue that the universality of the bookgiving scheme was wasteful - that children whose families could afford to buy them books end up with free ones. But he should listen to author MG Harris, whose book Invisible City was part of the Booked Up scheme this year. She met children in Derry and said :
'The universality was the appeal to many, who don't want to feel they are being singled out for being 'poor' or 'low achieving'. When I did the Booked Up launch event in Derry I had kids from posh grammars and from comprehensives in poor estates in the audience.But they all got excited about the free books.'
And he should listen to this little girl, reading her Bookstart book. The excitement in her voice isn't something that can be measured in a phonics test. But if I were her parent it would tell me what I needed to know.
What can we do about this decision? Get those squillionaire novelists to bridge the gap, is one suggestion I've seen, although I'd suggest that they do that by paying their taxes. It maybe that the enterprising people at Booktrust can find alternative funding. But why shouldn't taxes support a scheme like this? You can blog and tweet about the decision, using #bookgifting and @booktrust and @savebookstart. You can email Booktrust on bookgifting@booktrust.org.uk to support their efforts to keep the scheme going. You can write to Mr Gove and to your local MP.
Michael Gove has already had to make a significant U-turn when he threatened school sport funding. Perhaps he can be persuaded to think a little more about books.

Five books

2010-12-15T05:07:00.000-08:00

This is the time of year when newspapers are full of ‘Books of the Year’ round ups, generally derided as being full of the usual suspects, and old mates bigging each other up.
I can see the problemfrom the other side now. As a writer, one does acquire quite a lot of writerly mates, and they do write remarkably good books.
So I’m not even going to try to pick my books of the year (and to be completely honest, for 2010, I wrote my books of the year). Instead, here are some recent highlights.
Two YA books I loved so much that I reread them immediately.
Taking Flight by Sheena Wilkinson. Liam’s an under-achieving troubled teen from the backstreets of Belfast, his show-jumping cousin Vicky is spoiled and snobbish. When Liam has to go and stay with Vicky and her mum, and discovers a talent for and a love of horses, Vicky isn’t too pleased. I loved everything about this book, the people are so real and the story immensely satisfying. I loved the idea of splicing two genres – gritty crime and a pony book – and kudos to Sheena Wilkinson for the way she makes it work. It’s dramatic and funny, heart-warming and sad. I can’t wait to see what she comes up with next.

Firebrand by Gillian Philip. So, I’m Gillian Philip's biggest squeeingest fangirl anyway, and now she’s written a book so fab that everyone is raving about it and saying it’s the fantasy book of the year and it’s going to be the next big thing. And they are completely correct, because Firebrand is wonderful (and I don’t even especially like fantasy. So it must be good.) Set in the world of the Sidhe, Scottish faeries separated from the human word by a Veil, living for hundreds of years, Firebrand has a moody and irresistible anti-hero, the glorious Seth; a kind and noble hero, his half-brother Conal, and a story which is so compelling that I hardly stopped reading to breathe. First in a series, buy it for everyone.

Two sequels that are even better than the books they follow.

There are three of us who had very similar years last year. Ellen Renner, Tamsyn Murray and I all brought out our first books at the beginning of the year and the sequels in August/September. I loved their first two books and I thought both sequels were even better(I think Almost True is better than When I Was Joe as well, maybe there's something about sequels that give new authors a boost of confidence).

Tamsyn’s My So-called Haunting (a sequel to My So-Called Afterlife) is a sweet and funny romantic comedy, set in a world of ghosts, with a new main character, Skye, a teenage girl who has enough to worry about - new home, new school - without the additional complication of seeing the dead. And then there’s Nico, the tall, dark, handsome mysterious boy at school who definitely has something of the night about him. Tamsyn deftly blends comedy, suspense and romance,and there’s an especially funny ghost called Mary whose admonition ‘Thou resembleth a strumpet’ has become one of my catchphrases of the year.

Ellen Renner’s City of Thieves is a follow up to Castle of Shadows, set in an imagined nineteenth century almost-England, with a feisty young queen Charlie and a dastardly (but rather attractive) Prime Minister. In City of Thieves the focus shifts to Charlie’s ally and friend Tobias who suffers terrible trials, physical and emotional as he seeks to right a wrong, but is kidnapped by a family of thieves. Tobias, brave, defiant and impetuous, is just my sort of boy, and I loved Ellen’s positively Dickensian imagining of a thieves’ den complete with climbing wall and evil uncle. And that twisted, fascinating Alistair Windlass is back too.

And a great book for adults:

Dog Boy by Eva Hornung knocked me out. It’s about a six year old Russian boy who is adopted by a pack of feral dogs, it’s entirely believable, horrific and touching and upsetting. You think you're learning about the nature of dogs, and then you realise that Eva Hornung is teaching you about humans. It's extraordinary and deeply troubling. Anyone who’s into fluffy werewolf tales should read this for a reality check about pack life. Stunning.

Crime and punishment

2010-12-06T14:37:00.000-08:00

David Cameron with Brooke Kinsella, knife crime campaigner

Right at the end of When I Was Joe, Ty watches a television programme about knife crime. He sees a politician 'a posh one. The one my mum likes - he talks a lot of sense, she says.' A man with a 'smooth, certain face' who says that everyone who carries a knife should be locked up.
This makes Ty laugh out loud, as he imagines the hundreds and hundreds of prisons that would be needed. It was pretty much the response I had, when I heard David Cameron - yes, it was he - make this particular suggestion, which turned into an election pledge.
Anyway, now David Cameron is Prime Minister, thanks in part to people like Ty's mum (although thanks even more to Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg) and Ken Clarke is his Justice Secretary. And Ken Clarke has just been on the BBC news explaining that prison doesn't work, and it creates repeat offenders, and there needs to be other ways of punishing offenders. The BBC showed him debating the matter with prisoners, who thoroughly agreed with him. His green paper on sentencing is due to be published tomorrow.
In the last few years since I wrote When I Was Joe I've watched different policies used to try and counter knife crime in London. My daughter has come home from school telling me about films and speakers - the mother of a murdered boy, a police officer. All of the anti-knife education they have had has been underpinned by a strong message that carrying a knife is enough to put you in jail. Now it seems that message is far from the truth.
I'm not a supporter of the current government, but I agree with most of what Ken Clarke has to say about prisons. I believe prison sentences should address future offending, and try and help offenders reflect on their actions and prepare for a better life, an expensive over-crowded system isn't going to make this happen. Attempts to help addicted and mentally ill offenders make perfect sense.
But I wonder how I'd feel if a child of mine had been killed by a stupid boy armed with a knife? If I was part of the Kinsella family, whose son Ben was murdered by thugs for nothing, and who have campigned for knife attacks to be treated as seriously as gun crimes. I wonder if this new policy - coupled with savage cuts to policing - will make us feel safer? And why didn't the BBC suggest that Ken Clarke put his ideas to victims and their families?
I'm like Ty, I don't have any answers. Just a feeling of cynical confusion. And quite a lot of fear.
Update: Had Ken Clarke been filmed with the families of victims of crime, this is what he might have been told

Who uses libraries?

2010-12-03T07:46:00.000-08:00

People who are poor.

People who are rich
and lots in the middle, squeezed or not

People without computers, who don't know what the internet is,
People with laptops and wiis and Playstations and ipods.
People without homes.
People with second homes.
People without many books.
People with shelves overspilling.
People with lots of time and
too little time
with not much quiet
or too much quiet.
People whose homes are chilly
and lonely
and dull.
People.

Parents and carers and babies and toddlers.
Children who don't know what books are.
Children, magically turning letters into words and words into stories.
Children who want to read every book a particular author ever wrote. Because she wrote it just for them.
Or there's just one book they read again and again and again.
(I still remember my special book, the one that I read week after week after week, till it became part of who I am now and then and forever)

Children and adults who don't find it easy to learn by jumping
from website to website.
Children who want to find out what and why and how and when and who.
And read the ideas of others for real...
not bite-sized and bullet-pointed on websites and worksheets.
Teenagers with homework to do
Teenagers with nothing to do
Teenagers whose home is empty
Teenagers with no home at all

People who like to browse among books
People who like to discover new writers. Even if those writers were new years ago.
People who want the latest must-read best-selling hit.
Dan Brown, Jacqueline Wilson, the Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.
People who want something else
Something obscure and unpopular and - gasp - uncommercial.
People who don't like Horrid Henry
or horror
or Horowitz, and who don't find much else
in WH Smith.

People who hate vampires, werewolves and angels
People who dream
of a dark, dangerous stranger
with a loving, tortured soul
a strange, sweet scent
and gleaming, pointed, uncontrollable
fangs.

People who don't trust the internet
Who don't have a kindle, an iphone, an ipad.
Who like the feel and smell of a book, the print on the page, the pages turning
the pictures glowing.
People who want help
and advice
and recommendations from experts
(not volunteers, however well-meaning)
and company,
information
and education
and someone to notice that they're alive that day. Everyday.
Writing groups and
reading groups and
story-telling sessions and
slimming clubs and
visiting authors and
community noticeboards offering music and cleaning and clubs and anything you need.

Writers who can't work in a cafe, even though J K Rowling did.
Writers without a Room of their Own.
People who like to think.

Labour voters and
Conservative voters
Liberal Democrats
and people who don't know who the hell to vote for
because they're all as bad as each other.

People with a sense
of history
and the future,
of community
of a shared culture
of equality and opportunity hand in hand
of a Big-hearted Society -
where a homeless kid has the same access
to books and warmth, internet and silence as they do at
Eton
(just a random comparison there).
People who complain and mutter and might write a letter or two,
but don't riot.
Not about libraries.
Not about books.

But then there are
Government ministers who won't protect libraries
and local councillors trying to cut budgets
Because budgets are easier to cut than bankers' bonuses. And it's getting a bit fuzzy, isn't it? About who was to blame. For the mess we're all in together.
That's all of us.
But especially some of us.

And those who think that libraries are a soft target
and out-dated
and unpopular
and could easily be run by volunteers
- because, after all, there will be lots of people with time on their hands -
- not to mention the workshy -
- and the fake disabled, don't forget them.

And after all, libraries don't need to buy more books
because everything's available on the internet
and books are so cheap nowadays
and how much do you have to pay to rent books from a library anyway?
and where is the local library?
and why isn't it open when I need it to be open?
and why are there so few books?
and isn't it disgraceful how children leave school unable to read?
What they need are Phonics and Literacy and Extracts and
testing testing testing
testing testing testing
because the economy demands literate workers
who've studied relevant subjects
so they can earn money and pay
graduate taxes
because that's what Britain needs
Isn't it?

This is happening now.
Libraries are being closed and cut
Librarians are being sacked
In shires and cities and towns
Now.

If we allow it.

For more information see here and here and most importantly Alan Gibbons' Campaign for the Book here

Confessions of a Slut

2010-11-30T06:54:00.000-08:00

The fetishist and the slut

I’m not really a slut. No, I’m a happily married middle-aged mum living a life of blameless domesticity (if you’re a teenage boy reader of my books, then discount that, I’m 19 and as sluttish as you care to imagine).
However, in one arena, I have declared myself a total slut. At the SCBWI conference Candy Gourlay, Sarah McIntyre and I presented a session on social media networking for writers. Planning it over coffee beforehand we got a little giggly and decided to label ourselves ‘the experimentalist’ – Candy, because she tries everything – ‘the fetishist’ – Sarah, who has a distinctly weird preference for LiveJournal, and 'the slut'. And I’m proud to be that slut. But I thought perhaps I should explain my sluttish behaviour, and how you can be a happy slut too.
I’m promiscuous. On the internet that is. I blog, I facebook, I tweet. I do it a lot and I do it with a lot of people. I’m a whole lot less fussy about whom I friend and whom I follow and whom I have (social) intercourse with on the internet than I would be otherwise. I do it with strangers. I do it with acquaintances. I do it with distant relatives and old flames.
I’ve got a bit of a reputation. I became a slut in order to get that reputation. Just under two years ago I got a book deal and I realised that it'd help my publishers' sales team if I was a little bit visible. And also that it'd help me too. Sometimes I might say or do silly things, but mostly I think my reputation's a good thing. It's better than being utterly ladylike but completely invisible.
As for the actual (social) intercourse - it’s not serious and it’s not long-term and I don’t worry about it too much. I have to admit that I don’t take a huge amount of time writing blog posts or composing witty tweets. You take me as you find me. Hopefully you find me entertaining enough to want to read more. Even better, you might want to spend money getting to know me better.
I’m too subtle (just about) to be a total whore. I try very hard not to jump up and down shouting ‘Buy the books! Buy the books!’ I hope I know when enough is enough. I’ll repeat a compliment - a nice review, say, or a nomination – but not so often that it starts to grate. And I’m a lot nicer on the internet than I am in person. I spend a lot of time shouting about other people’s successes, telling my internet pals how wonderful everyone else is. I’m an internet tart with a heart of gold.
I know quite a few people who find the whole concept of internet slutdom distasteful and just too revealing . I used to feel like that too. But, now I’ve got used to it, I love it. I’ve made lots and lots of new friends - real friends, people I’ve met and like a lot and care about (that goes for some of the new friends I haven’t met yet as well). I never feel lonely. And I’m prepared to bet I’ve sold a fair number of books too.
There is a drawback with internet sluttiness. It’s time-consuming. It’s addictive. It can get in the way of serious long-term relationships, such as books to be written and children to be attended to. So at times I have to put aside my social media gladrags, and stay home with the boy(book)friend. But now – with Lia’s Guide to the Lottery written and edited, and new projects just getting started – is not that time. Let’s party!

Ten Things I learned at the SCBWI Conference

2010-11-15T07:36:00.000-08:00

The British bit of SCBWI celebrated its tenth birthday in Winchester this weekend, and a meme has sprung up - ten things I learned at SCBWI conference. You can read others here, here and here.
So..here are mine.

1. Those little avatars on Twitter? Those grinning boxes on Facebook? Real live three-dimensional people, I tell you. It is true. Although I was disappointed that @PoodlePowered had no poodles.

That's me...and me....

2. Such are the powers of persuasion of Candy Gourlay and Sarah McIntyre that I allowed myself to be branded an Internet Slut for our debate on Social Marketing – Curse or Blessing. So creative and prolific are they on the internet, that after we’d all introduced ourselves, we were left with three minutes for debating.

3. If you want to get published you should go to SCBWI conference. It is one of the best places for writers to meet and hear from people in the publishing industry. If you are published, or have no interest in being published - you should still go to SCBWI conference. There's something about being with so many creative people that just feels great.

4. If you tell a room of writers to dress ‘smart casual’ 98 per cent will wear black, blue or purple.

5. If you gather together three or four writers, hand them two newspaper cuttings and give them less than ten minutes discussion time, they can weave them together into perfectly plausible plots...even when they’re looking at the wrong side of the bit of newspaper.

6. If you are lucky enough to be chairing a panel on which the fab publisher David Fickling appears, sit him at the far end of the table so he can gesture enthusiastically without danger of knocking your glasses off. His natual projection means he won’t need a microphone either. He will enliven the entire debate, which covered industry matters such as gender stereotyping, government spending cuts, discounting, digital books and trends.

7. David Blanch, editor of Carousel children’s book review magazine thinks that crime might be the Next Big Thing. Hear that, vampires and angels? Crime. Oh hang on, my next book does feature vampires and angels. Damn.

8. ‘If you haven’t got a notebook for ideas - you’re not an author.’ Marcus Sedgewick. Hmmm. May have to visit Paperchase. Or the Ideas Shop.

9. Jon Mayhew , author of the fantastically creepy Mortlock, works four days a week, has four children, writes books and works tirelessly to promote his books at schools, shops, folk festivals. I haven’t met her, but my total respect to Mrs M.

10. SCBWI conference is an incredibly uplifting experience, full of the loveliest people. For me, Marcus Sedgewick's presentation on writing about places was the highlight of the weekend. You can join SCBWI here. (Don't worry if it looks all American, you'll join and then discover the British bit )

The Icing on the Cake

2010-11-14T10:45:00.000-08:00

You write a book and people publish it, buy it, read it. That's the cake.
You get nominated for some awards * and you think, that's the icing on the cake.
But you're wrong. Because this is the icing on the cake. Literally.

This magnificent cake - not so much a cake as a work of art - was created for the tenth birthday party of the British Isles chapter of the Society of Children's Books Writers and Illustrators in Winchester this weekend. At the party 17 books published by members in 2010 were celebrated. How did my book get to be immortalised (temporarily) in cake? The lovely organisers of the party picked two books to feature on the cake by pulling names out of a hat (the other is gorgous picture book Vern and Lettuce by Sarah McIntyre).
The party also honoured Margaret Carey, my cousin-in-law, for being a stalwart volunteer who has done so much to make SCWBI the fantastic organisation it is today. Hurray for Margaret! I'm new to SCWBI, and I'd recommend it to anyone who writes or makes art for children.
So...thank you SCWBI for the beautiful book cake! That was the best surprise in the world. I will blog about the rest of the conference later in the week.
*I don't like to show off, so I'm writing this small. In recent weeks,When I Was Joe has been nominated for the Carnegie Medal in the UK and for the William C Morris Award in the USA. It's also been nominated to be included on the American Library Association 2011 list of Best Fiction for Young Adults. It's shortlisted for the North East Teen Book Award and the Coventry Inspiration Awards, (votes and coments much appreciated) and long-listed for the Redbridge Book Awards, and the UK Literacy Association Book Award.

Update...

2010-10-26T01:22:00.000-07:00

In today's paper..how to stop homophobia in schools.

Saving lives with their stories

2010-10-23T03:21:00.000-07:00

Which word provokes the most agonised soul-searching when I’m writing teen fiction? Which subject worries me the most?

Dan Savage (right) and his partner Terry

It’s not a swear-word, nothing to do with violence, drugs, crime, self-harming or lying. Just one little word, yet it provoked heated debate in my writing group. It’s one of the biggest themes of When I Was Joe, yet no reviewer has picked up on it.
The word is ‘gay’.
In When I Was Joe (spoiler alert) Ty’s friend Arron bullies him, by calling him ‘gay’ and ‘pretty boy’. Ty worries about his own sexuality, although he can never quite bear to articulate his doubts and concerns. When he is with girls he is relieved to discover that he is - as he thinks - definitely not gay – yet his thoughts invariably turn to Arron. Gay thoughts and feelings are perceived by Arron and Ty as something to fear and hate, something that can be bullied out of existence. Arron maintains control over Ty by labelling all sorts of things as gay - foreign languages, for example. To become a man, according to Arron, all things gay must be reviled and avoided.
Now, in writing this I was reasonably sure that I was accurately portraying the harsh world of many teenagers, and the confusion that many boys feel about their own innermost feelings and sensations as they change from boys to men. I worried, however, that in reflecting this I would make gay teens feel worse.
In Lia’s Guide to Winning the Lottery, which I've just about finished, there’s a boy who is different. The question of whether he might be gay is again a subject for negative speculation (you'll have to wait until the summer to find out if he is or not) In reflecting the homophobia that I believe often exists amongst teens, could I make things worse?
I honestly don’t know the answer, but I hope that the books I write make readers think and reflect about these matters, as I do when I write. In the meantime I am moved beyond measure by the It Gets Better project. What a simple and clever idea – in response to the suicides of several gay teenagers in the US, writer Dan Savage set up a website where people can reassure bullied teens that their lives will change, that things will improve. The hope is that their stories willprevent other suicides, will bring hope and solace to scared and isolated teens.
The site contains moving testimony from adult survivors of bullying. Some are gay, some are lesbian. Some are bisexual or transgendered. Others are heterosexual, but they have been bullied themselves or know that their words will help and inspire. Barack Obama has made a video, so has Hillary Clinton. Ben Cohen, the English rugby player is big, butch and beautiful – he’s not gay himself, but he’s very happy to have a gay following, and he’s made his video for them. Dan Savage and his partner Terry talk on their video about being bullied at school, and how their families came to accept them. It’s a website with incredible power and beauty. It could and should change and save lives.
I know how it feels to be bullied by the culture. When I was growing up, ‘spastic’ was a playground term of abuse, thrown around thoughtlessly and regularly. Every time I heard it it was as though a knife had sliced through me. My brother - my sweet, clever, friendly, earnest, brave brother - suffers from cerebal palsy, and in those days people like him were called spastics. Today the phrase isn’t so common, but the bullying of the disabled is still part of the culture. There have been some horrendous cases reported recently of families with disabled members subject to abuse, some of which have culminated in murder or suicide.
And I’d go as far as to say that some of the actions of the current government in the name of saving money have institutionalised the bullying of disabled people. How can we reverse this? How can we create a society which accepts and supports every one of us?
It gets better. You have to believe it. And the more people who understand why it needs to get better, the better it will get.