Shaun Tan Interview

Extract from the end of a Lee Wind blog interview with Shaun Tan:

Lee:  As a writer, I'm familiar with the revision process for words. What's your revision process for images?

Shaun:  Very similar actually, like moving paragraphs around, rewording sentences, adding and subtracting here and there. For images, I tend to do equivalent visual adjustments by drawing over the top of previous draft sketches using a lightbox. I keep the bits I like - trace them off - and rework the bits I don't like. I'll sometimes use scissors and tape to cut out and rearrange parts; since working digitally, I can do a lot of this in Photoshop too. In fact, although almost all my final art is hand-made, there's a lot of digital editing that goes in in my preliminary sketches.

Lee:  That's fascinating! What have you learned over the course of your career so far that you wish you had known when you started?

Shaun:  I think to just relax and have more faith in my intuition. As a younger artist, I worried too much about where my work fit in, its significance and so on, not to mention the problems of generating income. Most of those issues resolved when I just trusted in my own ideas, beginning with a picture book 'The Rabbits', where I more or less thought, to hell with it, I'll just do whatever I want and not care if it all falls in a heap or even gets published. As it turns out, that book was the turning point in my career as an illustrator, doing something nobody else had really seen before (including me!).

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from the Telegraph:

A new literature prize is being launched today by Goldsmiths, University of London in association with the New Statesman. The Goldsmiths Prize, worth £10,000, aims to reward "boldly original fiction". This prize joins the new £40,000 Literature Prize, whose sponsor will be announced in February, and the relaunched £30,000 Women's Prize for Fiction, formerly the Orange Prize. Although the Goldsmiths Prize's award of £10, 000 may seem like small change, particularly when compared to the £50, 000 awarded to the Man Booker Prize winner, agents and authors - in this age of dwindling advances and royalties - will no doubt be delighted. Blake Morrison, poet, author and Professor of Creative & Life Writing at Goldsmiths, said: "As to the new Prize, we hope it will encourage more risk-taking among novelists, editors and agents alike. There's an idea that innovative and genre-busting books are bound to be inaccessible. We don't believe that's the case." The Goldsmiths Prize is open to novels published in 2013 and there is no limit to the number of titles that may be entered by a publisher or bona fide imprint, provided the works entered meet all other entry requirements. Publishers are invited to submit their entries from Friday 25 January 2013 to Friday 22 March 2013.

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Orion Acquires Twi Novels From Tania Unsworth

from The Bookseller:

Orion Children's Books has acquired two novels by Tania Unsworth, her first for children, with plans to publish in spring 2014 in the UK.
Managing director and publisher for Orion Children's Books Fiona Kennedy bought world rights, excluding USA, in Unsworth's novels from Rebecca Carter at Janklow and Nesbit.
The first title, The One Safe Place, is set in the near future, where the gulf between the technology-owning rich and the technology-lacking poor is immense.
Kennedy said: "The One Safe Place is one of those scripts that I really could not put down - a measured, beautifully imagined novel, rich and insightful. It has characters easy to warm to and care about, an extraordinary sense of place and a truly page turning plot. It's suspenseful, thrilling, disconcerting and uplifting. We are thrilled to be working with Tania and look forward to publishing her impressive children's debut."
Unsworth has previously published two novels for adults with Viking/Fig Tree, and is the daughter of the late author Barry Unsworth.

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Literary London - Jenny Valentine's Video Guide

Filmed in Daunt's Marlyebone High Street bookshop, Valentine grabs an armful of books set in London, including one by herself, and talks disarmingly about them.

Highly recommended.

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Teen Titles 55

The ACHUKA office recently took delivery of the new Teen Titles , now on edition #55.

Produced by the City of Edinburgh Council, this continues to be a fantastically colourful and salivating survey of all the latest teenage reading, with reviews written by teenage readers themselves (from Scottish schools).

In addition to the reviews each copy includes various features (in #55 these include an interview with Cassandra Clare, author of Mortal Instruments and Infernal Devices, and new Author Factfiles of, amongst others, M G Harris, Gill Lewis and Rosie Rushton.)

Another interview is with Georgina Merry, a former Teen Titles reviewer and now published novelist. The first part of a trilogy called The Devil's Light, Georgina's debut novel is The Ferryman's Wife, described as a "fast-paced and funny fantasy adventure novel" by one of its reviewers.

To find out how you can subscribe to Teen Titles, either as an individual, a school or a library, follow the link above.

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from Publishers Weekly:

Roughly a year after the Amazon Children's Publishing division launched, it has announced two new imprints. Two Lions will be home to picture books, chapter books and middle-grade fiction, and Skyscape will be devoted to titles for young adults, encompassing works from both established authors and new voices. Margery Cuyler is editorial manager for Two Lions, and Tim Ditlow is editorial manager for Skyscape. Amazon Children's Publishing's general manager is Amy Hosford; Larry Kirshbaum, publisher for Amazon Publishing, oversees the editorial leadership for the company's Seattle and New York adult imprints, as well as Amazon Children's Publishing.

Amazon Publishing acquired more than 450 titles from Marshall Cavendish Children's Books in late 2011 and Cuyler, who had been publisher of MCCB (and is also an author), retained her title when she joined Amazon at that time. Ditlow came on board as associate publisher of Amazon's children's publishing unit in January of last year.

The launch season for the two new imprints is spring 2013. Titles on the inaugural Two Lions list include Gandhi: A March to the Sea by Alice B. McGinty, illustrated by Thomas Gonzalez, a biography written in free-verse; and Poco Loco, a debut picture book about a mouse inventor by J.R. Krause, illustrated by Maria Chua. Titles under the Skyscape umbrella include You Know What You Have to Do by Bonnie Shimko, about a 15-year-old girl who hears voices in her head telling her to kill people; and Reason to Breathe, the first book in the Breathing Series trilogy by Rebecca Donovan, an initially self-published title that had already earned a dedicated readership.

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I Used To Think...

Ruth Symes and Five Misconceptions about Being A Writer

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The Book Corner

Nice straightforward Tumblr blog recommending picture books...
Also can be followed on Twitter @TheBookCornerUK

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Short Story Competition Longlist

Ali Smith, Toby Litt, Mark Haddon, Orange prize-winning Helen Dunmore, Adam Foulds, Sarah Hall and Booker Prize-winning Graham Swift, are among those in the running for the £30,000 Sunday Times EFG Private Bank Short Story Award - the richest prize in the world for an individual short story.

12 out of the 16 stories on the longlist come from UK- based authors. In its previous three years, the Award has not yet been won by a Briton, with the top prize going to New Zealand, the USA and Ireland so far.

From over 500 entries the judges have arrived at a longlist of 16 - six women and ten men.

The 16 longlisted writers and the titles of their short stories:

Caroline Adderson - 'Erection Man'   
Junot Diaz - 'Miss Lora' 
Helen Dunmore - 'Spotted Dick'
Adam Foulds - 'Tunnelling'
Mark Haddon - 'The Gun'
Sarah Hall - 'Evie'
Cynan Jones - 'The Dig'
Philomena Kearney Byrne - 'Honda Fifty'
Toby Litt - 'Call it "The Bug" Because I Have No Time to Think of a Better Title'
Belinda McKeon - 'Eyes on Me, Eyes on You'
Mark McNay - 'Ten Years Too Late'
C D Rose - 'Arkady Who Couldn't See and Artem Who Couldn't Hear'
Ali Smith - 'The Beholder'
Graham Swift - 'I Live Alone'
Claire Vaye Watkins - 'Rondine al Nido'
Samuel Wright - 'Best Friend'
 
The winner will receive £30,000, and the five other shortlisted writers will each receive £1,000. The shortlist will be announced in The Sunday Times on 24 February.

The winner will be announced at a gala dinner at The Sunday Times Oxford Literary Festival on 22 March.

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"Curiosity is one of the permanent and certain characteristics of a vigorous intellect."
Samuel Johnson said that.
So it was fitting that the "bold new imprint for children" should be launched at Dr Johnson's house in Gough Square, just off Fleet Street, last Thursday (17th January).

Miles Stevens-Hoare is the managing director and Catherine Clarke the publishing director.

The list has been a year in preparation. The result is that they are launching with a good mix of titles. Soul Shadows by Alex Woolf (publishing in April) looks as if it will be the one most to my taste.

There was a good buzz at the launch party.

Here are some photos from the event:

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Protest At Threatened Cut

Lucy Coats writes:

I found out at the beginning of this week that Newcastle City Council (NCC) are proposing to withdraw 100% of funding from this amazing resource. Just stop and think about that for a moment. I'll say it again, and even write it in big bold red letters. 100% Funding Cut Yep. You really did read that right.

Now, personally, I think that's a disgrace, especially coupled with the fact that the same NCC want to close ten of their city's eighteen libraries. What Seven Stories do is, quite literally, irreplaceable. The withdrawal of this funding would mean they lose 13% of their entire income. That, in real terms, means that they'd lose the ability to carry on with their very important outreach and learning work - work that benefits disadvantaged families, parents and children who might otherwise never even be touched by the world of reading.

While Seven Stories has had some generous benefactors in the past, and is currently a member of the Arts Council's Catalyst fund (which means that any donations they receive from the general public are matched), 13% of income is a still a significant amount to lose. If you agree with me, please click on THIS LINK, which will take you to the Seven Stories protest page where you can find information on how to help. It might be your letter or email which makes the difference, so PLEASE, if you can find the time to write to NCC, and also to spread the word via social media, then I know that Seven Stories will be very grateful.

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Chris Mould Exhibition

Children's author and illustrator Chris Mould will open an exhibition of his artwork at the Museum of Hartlepool. He will talk to visitors and sign books from 11am to 1pm on Saturday January 19. The exhibition, 'Spineless - Dissecting the Art of the Children's Book' will run from then until Sunday March 24.

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Kobo Sales Doubled Last Year

from Shelf Awareness:

Now three years old, Kobo doubled device sales last year and gained more than four million new customers within the last six months, to bring its total to more than 12 million registered users, the company said. Citing a recent DigiTimes report that Kobo has 20% of the global e-reader market, the company also noted that its E Ink e-reader sales were up nearly 150% in December, with Kobo users reading more than 22 million pages on Christmas Day...

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The ePub Digital Format And Where It's Headed In 2013

Video interview with Bill McCoy, Executive Director of the International Digital Publishing Forum, the organization that hosts the IDPF Digital Book event each year at BookExpo America.

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Quentin Blake video interview

Illustrator Sir Quentin Blake talks us through his new exhibition at Marlborough fine art gallery in Mayfair, central London. Sir Quentin, celebrated for his collaborations with Roald Dahl and more recently with David Walliams, also describes his drawing philosophy and the process of inventing stories on the page...

Highly recommended

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Edgar Award Nominess

follow the link for books in the adult categories

Best Juvenile

Fake Mustache: Or, How Jodie O'Rodeo and Her Wonder Horse (and Some Nerdy Kid) Saved the U.S. Presidential Election from a Mad Genius Criminal Mastermind by Tom Angleberger (Abrams - Amulet Books)

13 Hangmen by Art Corriveau (Abrams - Amulet Books)

The Quick Fix by Jack D. Ferraiolo (Abrams - Amulet Books)

Spy School by Stuart Gibbs (Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers)

Three Times Lucky by Sheila Turnage (Penguin Young Readers Group - Dial Books for Young Readers)

Young Adult

Emily's Dress and Other Missing Things by Kathryn Burak (Macmillan Children's Publishing Group - Roaring Brook Press)

The Edge of Nowhere by Elizabeth George (Penguin Young Readers Group - Viking)

Crusher by Niall Leonard (Random House Children's Books - Delacorte BFYR)

Amelia Anne is Dead and Gone by Kat Rosenfield (Penguin Young Readers Group - Dutton Children's Books)

Code Name Verity by Elizabeth Wein (Disney Publishing Worldwide - Hyperion)

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Dream Come True (In a Bookshop)

Nice story... Have just added this memoir to ACHUKA's biography page...

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Children's Books Market Becoming Word-of-Mouth Economy

from Publishers Weekly:

The growing complexity of the children's digital market was parsed by industry experts at the Publishers Launch Children's Publishing Goes Digital Conference in New York on January 15, as panelists and speakers agreed that the transition from print to digital will not be a clean, easy movement and that things are still very much in the experimentation stage. The day-long conference kicked off with the presentation of the findings from a recent study by Bowker that found that among children, there has been a marked decline in bookstore and library influence as a source of recommendation and acquisition, and that many purchases are instead migrating online to vendors like Amazon. The study is part of Bowker's Understanding the Children's Book Consumer in the Digital Age.

Friends and family overtook bookstore browsing and libraries as the top influencers, painting the picture of the children's book market as a highly local word-of-mouth economy.

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Best Younger Children's Books - Evening Standard

A Christmas roundup from the London Evening Standard

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Jungle Tales by Horacio Quiroga - Fully Illustrated English Translation

American English teacher Jeff Zorrilla and Argentine film critic Natalia Cortesi have just published a fully illustrated English translation of the popular Latin American children's book Cuentos de la Selva by Uruguayan writer Horacio Quiroga.

Jungle Tales (Cuentos de la Selva) is a collection of eight short stories by Horacio Quiroga that was published to enormous success in 1918. To this day children in elementary schools across all Latin America read this book as a part of their curriculum. Quiroga captures the magic of the jungle, which is the scene of great and exciting adventures illuminated by nature in all its splendor. A place where snakes throw glamorous parties with flamingoes, stingrays join forces to fight off man-eating jaguars, and a giant tortoise carries a wounded man on its shell for hundreds of kilometers to bring him to safety.

While these stories have been translated into over 10 languages, Zorrilla and Cortesi were astonished to find out that there is no English translation available. Zorrilla explains:

Dutch artist Bert Van Wijk has done all full-color illustrations of the book.

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by the author of Legend

'A romantic thriller set in a post-apocalyptic world where nothing is what it seems--Legend is impossible to put down and even harder to forget.' Kami Garcia, New York Times bestselling author of Beautiful Creatures

'I could only stand up and cheer, therefore, for Marie Lu's 'Legend.' A fine example of commercial fiction with razor-sharp plotting, depth of character and emotional arc, 'Legend' doesn't merely survive the hype, it deserves it.' New York Times

'Marie Lu's dystopian novel is a 'Legend' in the making' USA Today

Publishing in the UK at the end of January.
Look out for a chance to win a copy in one of ACHUKA's New Year competition giveaways.

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Guardian Review

Goldilocks by Allan & Jessica Ahlberg, reviewed by Simon Mason

There's a touch of the Shreks about the Ahlbergs' attitude to fairytales, and their Goldilocks riffs are adorable, anarchic and very funny. Here - of course - is Goldilocks and the Three Bears. Here also is Goldilocks and the 33 bears (including quite a lot of skinny teenage bears in hoodies, flat-peaks and anti-fit Levis). SIMON MASON

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Longlist for the 2013 Branford Boase Award announced

The longlist for the Branford Boase Award 2013 was announced today. The Branford Boase Award is given annually to the author of an outstanding debut novel for children. Uniquely, it also honours the editor of the winning title and highlights the importance of the editor in nurturing new talent. 62 books were submitted for the award; 26 have made it onto the longlist. This year's judges are Julie Randles, Managing Director of Scholastic Book Clubs; Joy Court, Learning Resources Manager for Coventry City Council; Prue Goodwin, consultant and lecturer in children's literature; and Annabel Pitcher, author of My Sister Lives on the Mantelpiece, winner of last year's Branford Boase Award. The panel is chaired by Julia Eccleshare, children's books editor of The Guardian. Julia Eccleshare says: "The 62 submissions, one up on last year, came from 19 different publishers, demonstrating the exciting and healthy state of children's books in this country. The longlist contains books for readers of all ages and is very varied, with adventure stories, thrillers, comedy, romance and family stories all represented, as well as some books that defy categorisation." The shortlist for the Award will be announced on 1st May 2013. The winner will be announced on Thursday 11th July at a ceremony in London. For further information please contact Andrea Reece on 07807893369 or andrea.reece@zen.co.uk The Branford Boase Award longlist in full: Soldier Dog by Sam Angus, edited by Rachel Petty(Macmillan) Tiger Wars by Steve Backshall, edited by Fiona Kennedy (Orion) Heart-Shaped Bruise by Tanya Byrne, edited by Hahhan Shappard (Headline) Wolf Princess by Cathryn Constable, edited by Rachel Leyshon (Chicken House) 15 Days without a Head by Dave Cousins, edited by Jasmine Richards (OUP) After the Snow by S D Crockett, edited by Emma Young (Macmillan) Mortal Chaos by Matt Dickinson, edited by Kathy Webb & Liz Cross (OUP) The Things We Did for Love by Natasha Farrant, edited by Julia Heydon-Wells (Faber) The Feral Child by Che Golden, edited by Roisin Heycock (Quercus) Shrunk! by Fleur Hitchcock, edited by Sara O'Connor (Hot Key) Daylight Saving by Edward Hogan, edited by Mara Bergman (Walker) A Dog Called Homeless by Sarah Lean edited by Rachel Denwood & Lizzie Ryley (HarperCollins) Socks are Not Enough by Mark Lowery, edited by Alice Swan (Scholastic) Torn by David Massey, edited by Imogen Cooper (Chicken House) Itch by Simon Mayo, edited by Kelly Hurst (Random House) At Yellow Lake by Jane McLoughlin, edited by Maurice Lyon and Emily Sharratt (Frances Lincoln) A Hen in the Wardrobe by Wendy Meddour, edited by Janetta Otter-Barry (Frances Lincoln) Magnificent Moon Hare by Sue Monroe, edited by Rachel Boden (Egmont) Hitler's Angel by William Osborne, edited by Imogen Cooper (Chicken House) Black Arts by Andrew Prentice & Jonathan Weil, edited by Simon Mason (David Fickling) Black Heart Blue by Louisa Reid, edited by Amanda Punter (Puffin) Geekhood by Andy Robb, edited by Jane Harris (Little Tiger Press) A Boy and a Bear in a Boat by Dave Shelton, edited by David Fickling (David Fickling) A World Between Us by Lydia Syson, edited by Sarah Odedina (Hot Key) Slated by Teri Terry, edited by Megan Larkin (Hachette) Doglands by Tim Willcocks, edited by Charlie Shepperd (Andersen Press)

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Why I've Self-Published

Diana Kimpton explains on the Notes from the Slushpile blog why she has decided to self-publish The Must Be Horses, her novel for older readers...

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SNAPPER by Brian Kimberling (Tinder Press)

available for pre-order

There's a bittersweet feeling that comes when you turn the last page of a really good novel. Often it comes from the emotional power of the story, or an attachment that you have felt as an involved reader with one or more of the characters. Less frequently it comes from the knowledge that the voice of the writer has come to the end of their tale. The story is over. The voice has spoken.

And it is Brian Kimberling's voice, as much as the story he tells in SNAPPER, that makes this such a startlingly good debut. At just over 200 pages it is a short book (by today's standard). I read it slowly, savouring the elegantly humorous measure and fluency of its prose.

Nathan Lochmueller, the narrator, and the other characters in the book are vivid, despite there being no high drama or adventure involved in the plot. For much of the first half of the book Nathan has a job collecting bird observations on a reserve in southern Indiana, a landscape and a microclimate described with affectionate and ironic honesty. From this starting point the story unfurls backwards and forwards, involving college friends, inconsequential encounters and, not least, Lola, a free spirit with whom Nathan enjoys an on-off relationship.

Insofar as the book has plot-driven page-turning momentum, the desire to know whether or not Nathan and Lola eventually get together permanently keeps the reader wondering to the end.

I was reading a proof copy. The hardback is published in May and the paperback in August (2013). An eBook will be available in April.

At its conclusion and at its heart it is a coming of middle-age novel that leaves us realising how important it is to stay true to the spirit and energy of our youthful selves. Not all the characters in this book manage it, but it is clear that Kimberling (via his main character Nathan) is made despondent by what time does to some of us.

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