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Top 10 Self-Editing Tips

by Guest Blogger:
Janice Hardy







Janice Hardy is the author of The Pain Merchants(UK Title)/The Shifter(US Title)
You can read an interview with Janice Hardy on tall tales & short stories by following this link

Running in conjunction with Janice's posts is a chance to win a signed copy of her debut novel. Details can be found at the end of this post.


Janice Hardy's Top Ten Self-editing Tips

1.  It’s all about the story. No matter how much you may like a scene or a line, if it doesn’t serve the story it has to go. Check each scene against the core conflict and make sure it advances it in some way, no matter how small.

2.  Layer it. Trying to edit the entire manuscript at once can be overwhelming. Edit in layers, focusing on one thing at a time (by chapter or the entire book) so you can focus and not get distracted.

3.  Check your goals and motivations. Characters without strong goals and motivations driving the story can lead to weak stories. Make sure every character is acting with purpose, and not just doing what plot tells them to.

4.  Check your character and story arcs. Is everything leading toward the exciting climax or do storylines go astray? Do characters grow or are they the same at the end? Arcs that advance and grow give the sense that the story is progressing, which helps keeps readers interested.

5.  Make sure it’s dire. Stakes are vital to hold attention and keep readers wanting to know what happens next. Make sure your protag has a lot to lose if they don’t solve their problem.

6.  Separate people. It’s easy to switch who says what during revisions, so go back and make sure you have individual voices for all your characters, especially your main ones. If you can’t tell who is speaking by how they say it, you might want to tweak further.

7.  Know your weak spots. We all have words we like to use or things we do that we know we need to cut. Hunt down the mistakes you know are there.

8.  Getting from here to there. Bad transitions can leave a reader confused, so make sure you switch smoothly and clearly when changing scenes, locations, and POVs.

9.  Bury the backstory. Backstory creeps in on a first draft all the time, because we’re often still trying to figure it all out ourselves. Look for those sneaky bits and find a way to include the inf

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Marketing Your Book: Clues from the Formerly Clueless

by Guest Blogger:
Janice Hardy


 



Janice Hardy is the author of The Pain Merchants (UK Title)/The Shifter (US Title)

You can read an interview with Janice Hardy on tall tales & short stories by following this link

In the first of three WRITING ADVICE posts, guest blogger Janice Hardy discusses Marketing Your Book.

Running in conjunction with Janice's posts is a chance to win a signed copy of her debut novel. Details can be found at the end of this post.

When I sold my novel, I knew I’d have to do some marketing to help promote it. But like many other debut authors, I had no clue what I’d need to do. A website certainly, probably a blog, some kind of social network like Facebook or MySpace. Beyond that? I had no idea.

I did my research, read lots of sites, but even that didn’t help all that much. I found too much conflicting advice, or advice that something worked or didn’t without any context to put it in. Even the marketing classes I took left me with questions.

So, here’s what I learned and what worked for me, with the all important reasons why. (Oh, keep in mind that I’ll be talking about the marketing and networking pros and cons. There’s also a lot of fun involved in some of these as well)


Getting Online

Website

A website is a must in today’s publishing world. Many agents now Google potential clients, so while it used to be you didn’t have to worry about this until you had an agent or sold a book, the sooner you can get one the better. You want this to be a professional looking site, since this is often one of the first things people see about you.

Things to include:
Pre-published: - Your bio, photo, ways to contact you.
A little about your book if you’d like (if you worry someone will steal your idea, it’s okay to leave it off).
Any credits or information that aids you in your agent quest and makes you look like a professional writer they’d want to work with.

Published: - Your book cover, blurb about the book.
Any good reviews you get.
Links to where people can buy the book.
Links so the media can download high and lo

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What Works for Me?


by Guest Blogger:
Jon Mayhew.












Tracy asked me to give some writing tips and advice for her blog. “Writing tips? Advice? Me? Why?” I said.


“Could be something to do with the fact that you were picked up earlier this year by Bloomsbury? Your first book Mortlock comes out April next year?” Tracy replied.

Fair enoughski, I thought. (A veiled reference to my recent Russian deal…had I mentioned that? Tee hee).







So, here are things that work for me. (Brief fanfare).

1)  Bum on seat. An old chestnut but if you’re wandering around dusting or hovering, shopping or sky-diving, you aren’t getting the wordcount up.

2)  Once Bum is on seat switch off internet. Another oldie but goodie but Facebook isn’t writing a book and blogging doesn’t get the wordcount up either.

3)  Neither does Twitter.

4)  Brainstorm your ideas. Scribble anything down. I’ve been doing this with Book 3 while I wait for Book 2 to ‘bake’ (I’ll explain that later). A mind map of anything to do with your initial idea or character can throw up some wild ideas and take your story to another level.

5)  Have a plan. Know where you’re going, roughly. A map is useful. You might find roads flooded, bridges down a more pleasant detour on the way but have a good idea of your final destination before you set out.

6)  Write the book first. One of my big faults is that I write Chapter 1 fifteen times and then start again. Having to be more disciplined about writing, I’ve found that taking the story right through to its bitter end and noting problems on the way helps productivity.

7)  Write the scenes that excite you first. I nicked this from Sally Nicholls on An Awfully Big Blog Adventure but it was great fun. Write the exciting scenes, the important scenes first. That way you don’t get bogged down in a plodding linear text. The down side is you have to go back and jigsaw it all together later.

8)  Know your characters. How would they react to different situations? Would they want to lead? To hide? To follow? Would they follow and then grumble when it all goes wrong? What are their physical habits? Are they nail biters? Nose pickers? Hair chewers? Hummers? Twitchers? Scratchers? Ummers? Ermers? How do you show that? My two main protagonists in Mortlock are forever bickering, even now, a fraction of their arguments got onto the page.

9)  Leaving my work to ‘bake’ is crucial for me. I get so caught up in the story and the characters that I have to leave the writing and not touch it for a while. This can be anything from a week to a month. It’s agonising but it lets you look at the work with fresh eyes.

10)  A robust and friendly crit circle or writing buddy is invaluable but you need someone who will challenge you and you have to be able to take it too. Similarly, a good literary consultant is worth considering if you can afford it.

And finally, ask yourself, ‘Why am I writing this?’
You write for fun anyway, right?
You enjoy writing, yes?

Good. That’ll keep you from going insane during the submissions process!





Tall tales & short stories will be bringing you an interview with Jon Mayhew in the very near future. So, please do watch this space.

In the meantimeyou can also find Jon at his blog http://jonmayhem.blogspot.com/

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Why should you join a critique group?

by Guest Blogger Miriam Halahmy: Author, poet, workshop facilitator, writing mentor.

I started writing for children about four years ago. I was commissioned to write a story for children with cancer, Peppermint Ward, by a charity called CancerBackup.
I had never written for children before and I discovered a love and a flair for it. But I didn’t know any other children’s writers. Then I discovered SCBWI who encouraged members to set up critique groups. There wasn’t one for me to join, so I started my own. That was the beginning of the North London SCWBI group (NLSG) which I convened and have been running for over three years.

In work facilitating creative writing workshops I meet many aspiring writers in my work who are desperate to be recognised, published, become famous, etc. But so many have never shown their work to anyone, never listened to any feedback, never engaged in the analysis of their own and others work.
My first advice to them is - Share your work, with a class or a critique group. It could be your first real step towards stardom!

NLSG member, Christina Vinall, who was placed in a Cornerstones competition says:
'Apart from the wonderful inspiring people you get to know - honest professional feedback from fellow writers.'

Of course, creating a healthy, vibrant, supportive critique group doesn’t happen overnight. But with perseverance your critique group could be the foundations for your budding writing career.
The NLSG began with three of us meeting for coffee in Central London. We hit it off straight away but within a year I was the only original member left. At one point there were fifteen people in the group but I wasn’t worried. I knew that the group needed to attract a lot of people before it would take shape and at the beginning I wasn’t sure what that shape should be.

Then I met Candy Gourlay, a few months after we started. Candy was already a committed and experienced writer and also saw the value of a strong critique group. In the early days the monthly meetings in our homes often consisted of the two of us. But we persevered and it paid off.

Candy is now a widely published writer and a winner in the first SCBWI Undiscovered Voices Anthology, 2008

Here are her views on the importance of joining a critique group;
'Gone are the days when editors took a promising author in hand and shaped them into their full potential. I get this kind of nurturing from my critique group - as well as friendship, support, information and it’s a reminder that I do what I do for the love of it. It helps to be in a group with such strong writers as well because it keeps me striving to write better.'


Gradually we recruited more people whom we felt suited the personality of our group and were writing for similar age groups. We agreed that members of our group needed to be working on novels for children to teens. Once we made this decision it was easier to decide who to try out. We wanted very committed writers who would develop their critique skills with us. They didn’t need to be published and personality was also very important. We had to consider whether someone would be a good ‘fit’for out group, not just a good writer. We didn’t want people who would dominate or focus on themselves or put others down.

Helen Peters & Christina Vinall
Helen Peters, who joined NLSG a year and a half ago and who has just received an Honourable Mention in Undiscovered Voices, 2009, comments;
'The value of being in a critique group is greater than I could ever have imagined. It is often easier to recognise problems and strengths in other people's work than in your own, but the process of critiquing trains you to become better at recognising the problems in your own work too. Critique partners keep your writing focused on the story and point out when you're being self-indulgent or getting sidetracked.
In the isolated discipline of writing, your critique group are your colleagues. They keep you going when your confidence is low and provide a professional network, informing each other about interesting events, workshops, articles, books.'


We had to be patient. It took more than a year to achieve the group which we felt would best support our writing. But eventually we became a group of five novelists and our work is going from strength to strength.


Paolo Romeo, author of The Vespertine Hour also received an Honourable Mention in Undiscovered Voices 2009, comments;
'Since I’ve joined the critique group three years ago, my writing has improved tremendously. That’s not only thanks to the feedback that I receive from my fellow writers but also the encouragement and motivation gained by attending critique meetings regularly, giving me a belief in my own writing efforts.'


So, what makes a strong, enduring, meaningful critique group?

You probably need to decide that for yourself, but this is how I did it:

1. I took on the role of Convenor. With email this is of course much easier than it sounds. But all groups need a leader. As Convenor I set the dates and venues for meeting and send email reminders round. I channel any practical problems as they arise, such as changing dates if someone can’t make it.

2. I take the lead in our monthly critique sessions. We meet between 6.30m and 7.00pm, to chat, eat, etc. But by 7.30pm I start the critique part of the session. I take charge of timing to ensure that each person gets a similar amount of attention.

3. We have evolved a way of working which is comfortable for our group. We have agreed to bring one chapter each month. We provide copies for everyone and then we sit and read in silence. We make notes on the work. Then we give spoken feedback.

4. Meeting monthly seems to suit our group. But we often see each other in between at writer events and share information about the ‘writing industry’. We also meet in different combinations informally between our regular meetings, for further critique, or we email sections to each other.

5. Paying attention to group dynamics is essential. I know of many groups who have failed because of members who simply didn’t fit. Be clear about who you want, take time to get to know them. We met people at Conferences and retreats and so were able to observe them in both critique and social situations over several days.

6. Decide how many members you can support. Be honest. Our group now has a reputation for nurturing writers to success and people often ask to join us. But we have found that five is the maximum we can currently support and so we have to state firmly that we are full.

7. Our shared view? Serious, knowledgeable, always striving to improve, with the overall goal to be published.


Not convinced yet? Well all five of us have had success with our writing, from publishing contracts to being placed in competitions.

Candy Gourlay and I have short stories in the same anthology, Under the Weather, Francis Lincoln, 2009.

I have just signed a three book contract with Meadowside Books


Success in writing is a mixture of hard work, perseverance, surviving the rollercoaster ride of interest and rejections and also a bit of luck. Getting a publishing contract felt to me as tough as going through the eye of a needle.
But I also believe that my critique group have been the foundations, breaking the mould of the lonely writer scribbling away in an attic, veering between dreams and despair.

Don’t go it alone, join other writers, develop your critical skills and enjoy yourself. The writing world can keep you busy for the rest of your life if you take the plunge.

Happy Writing!
Miriam Halahmy

www.miriamhalahmy.com

http://miriamhalahmy.blogspot.com/

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Glitter Text Generator

From humble beginnings where I wondered if anyone would ever find my blog, let alone read it, to having over 11,000 hits and rising (and still not even a year old), tall tales & short stories would like to celebrate its success by raising a glass of virtual champagne,


saying thank you for reading

and offering its readers a series of Writing Advice and Tips from published writers.

I am very pleased to announce that the inaugural Writing Masterclass will be posted on the 2nd November and has been written by Miriam Halahmy, published author and poet.
Miriam mentors and runs workshops for writers to develop the craft and techniques of writing and in the first of two posts for the series will be discussing the importance of joining a critique group.

There'll also be a competition to win a signed copy of a great book, The Pain Merchants, or The Shifter if you're in the US, running in conjunction with further Writing Masterclasses.

So, please watch this space and keep tuning in for further instalments.

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I was invited to contribute some author interviews to the Scottish SCBWI newsletter, Thistleblower.

In preparation for this new role I interviewed the Thistleblower's new editor and fellow SCBWI member, Maureen Lynas.


Hi Maureen, please tell us a bit about yourself.

I’ll start with the traditional approach. I live by the sea and I’m very happily married with two grown ups, one man and one woman who have fled the nest. We did have a number of pets but they are all dead now, however, as they were all gerbils, hamsters or rabbit’s this isn’t as traumatic as it sounds.

I’m a very lucky person. I’m writing full time having given up teaching and I get to spend my days thinking ‘What if’ and talking about writing with my husband. I’m unpublished (as a fiction author) but I am determined to make it and joining SCBWI is one step towards that goal. I’ve learned so much already and met some great people.


What made you think ‘I want to write for children?’ Is it a genre you enjoy reading?

Writing for children lets me do anything! Extreme face-pulling, magic bras, cows falling in love with flowers. I think that’s why I love it so much. The only limit is my imagination - and my ability to get the age range right, develop strong characters, think of a good plot, and keep the faith.

And yes, I love reading children’s books. Some of my favourites are Goodnight Mr Tom; Not Now, Bernard; The Knife of Never Letting Go, anything by Dahl and I’m a huge Potter fan.


As an active SCBWI member, what projects are you currently working on?

I always have a few projects on the go so that I can rest them and then come back to them with a fresh eye. The Bloodcurdling Bug-eyed Jawbreaker is on another draft after a very useful critique from Cornerstones, which highlighted some stuff I knew deep down but had chosen to ignore in the hope no one would notice!
I Wanna Dog (a romcom between a boy and two dogs) is waiting patiently to be finished as is Abracadabra (starring the magic bra mentioned above).
Then there’s the picture books; Buttercup’s Flower and I am a Mole and I Live in a … I’ve written those with my daughter Katherine and we’ve just sent them off to Little Tiger Press, so wish us luck, please.

Oh and of course, I have just volunteered to be SCWBI Scotland’s newsletter editor. I spent two days at the June event sitting on my hands to prevent myself volunteering for anything and then when it was finished we went to the pub and I got talking to Karen, the designer, and she said editing was easy and then …


Have you won or been short-listed in any writing competitions?

I’m hoping! I’ve entered Bloodcurdling Bug-eyed Jawbreaker into Undiscovered Voices. I did have it on the Authonomy site for a while (HarperCollins critique site) and it reached number two on the children’s list but the whole thing was too time consuming and you just won a HC review so I put my hand in my pocket and paid Cornerstones for one instead. I’ve entered Abracadabra in the SCBWI comp for new writers too.

Congratulations to Maureen. The Bloodcurdling Bug-eyed Jawbreaker was recently announced as having received an Honorary mention in the SCBWI Undiscovered Voices Anthology competition.




Do you have a favourite genre or age group you prefer to write for?

No, and I’m hoping this isn’t going to be a problem. I know publishers like to promote you as a writer of … but I have so many ideas for future books that cover the entire range from young adult to board books. It’s hard to know what to focus so I think I will just have to go with the flow on that one. (I’ve just read Jane Yolen’s article and she’s written for everything so I think I’ll copy her lead.)


How long have you been pursuing your writing ambitions and what have you done along the way to improve your writing?

Ah. Erm. A while. Actually, ten years. BUT I wasn’t any good ten years ago. I started with picture books because I was a reception teacher and thought I knew the genre inside out. Ah, how the mighty are fallen. I got some brilliant rejections! However, at the time I didn’t know they were brilliant. I didn’t know about the standard rejection slip (I only discovered this when I started writing for older children). So, even though I had some long, helpful, rejection letters and a two pager from a reader at Random House (and a phone call) I put the stories in a drawer and forgot about them. Apart from the one that Andersen Press kept for two years, that went into the drawer later.

I’ve just counted up – twenty nine books and sixty two rejections! Mostly the early picture books sent as multiple submissions. I made the classic mistake of not redrafting those early books. I always moved on to the next one. I don’t do that now, I am much more focussed on plot and structure before I begin writing.

I decided to have a go at books for older children and got involved with Cornerstones who pointed out that I was a funny writer BUT I needed to learn my craft. (Best writing moment so far – went on a Cornerstones course and as people read my story, they laughed out loud! Yay!) And so we bought bookshelves to house the huge number of ‘how to’ books that I devoured.

The books that have made the biggest difference in my writing are;
Plot and Structure, by Scot Bell and
The Writer’s Journey by Christopher Vogler.
I would also recommend books on screen writing and screenwriting courses – the focus is on plot and structure, which is where I needed help. If you are writing picture books, you can’t beat Writing with Pictures by Uri Shulevitz.

Oh, and review other peoples work, you then spot their mistakes in your own work. I’ve used youwriteon and authonomy and I have a fantastic friend who I met on a Cornerstones course (fellow SCBWI member) who pulls my work to pieces for me. She is worth her weight in gold.

My favourite writing book is a recent one, How Not to Write a Novel, by Howard Mittelmark and Sandra Newman. I love it because as I read it I realised I didn’t do any (many) of the things in the book! It was like passing a writing test - they should give out certificates.


Which authors/stories did you enjoy reading as a child/teenager? How do you think they compare to the children’s/YA novels available today?

I don’t remember books featuring heavily in my childhood but stories did. Historical adventure stories on the television; Robin Hood, William Tell, Ivanhoe, Richard the Lionheart. And at school we had a magazine called Look and Learn which had a Greek myth on the back of every issue and I used to hide in the corner every Friday afternoon and soak up the fantasy.

My obsession with children’s books began when I became a teacher; it grew as I read to my own children and has never waned. There are such a lot of good books coming out now, and I go for the ones that have a good dose of fantasy, a good plot that will take me away, and say something about what it is to be a human being. I also like books with a strong sense of family, whether the family is there or not. So many of them compare favourably but Harry Potter and His Dark Materials stand out from the crowd for me.


What do you think children of today want to read?

Something good! Something they can’t put down. Something to read under the covers. Scott Fitzgerald said people read for company (have searched for the actual quote and can’t find it) but I think children actually make friends with the characters in their favourite books – this is why characters like Charlie and Lola are so popular. And why Harry Potter was a world wide phenomenon, children engaged with the three characters and just had to know what was going to happen to them. Same for Twilight. After all you don’t read seven books in a series if you don’t love the characters! So that is my focus at the moment – how to make my audience love my characters.


ACTION WORDS
You successfully self-published a series called ACTION WORDS, which teaches high frequency words. The scheme consists of teachers’ manuals, workbooks, and posters and is used extensively in schools around the country.
Could you tell us what inspired you to write this series?

As a primary school teacher my focus had always been on literacy and it used to puzzle me why some children found it so easy to read and others didn’t. Then I had a boy in reception called Anthony, and I spent a huge amount of time trying to teach him to recognise words and letters but he just couldn’t do it. He spent the next year with someone else and I got him again as a year 2. He still could not remember them. Then I introduced a scheme called Letterland, which gave a visual clue to the letter in the form of a character – Annie Apple looked like an apple – and the light bulb went on in Anthony’s head! Eureka! He could do it and he was so thrilled to be able to read like everyone else. After that I was always on the look out for a way to switch on more bulbs. Then I used a scheme called Jolly Phonics, which used an action to demonstrate each letter and I wondered if you could apply a similar technique to the high frequency words. So I did – and it worked.


Could you explain how the scheme works and how it benefits children?

Basically, we take in information through our senses; visual, auditory and kinaesthetic (bodily) and store it in our short-term and long-term memories. The usual method of teaching a word uses the first two – you are shown the word, you listen to the word, and then speak the word. Which is great for the two thirds of the children in the average class who have good visual and auditory skills: but not so great, if you are weak in those areas. By adding in a meaningful action to each word, you access the physical memory. This is the most powerful and long lasting memory - we never forget how to do things like ride a bike, swim, knit etc even though we haven’t done them for a long time. Any child can benefit from this scheme as it speeds up the learning process but what I like to imagine is all those light bulbs being switched on all over the country. And I love getting the ‘thank you’s’ from teachers and parents.


Perhaps you could also mention something about the self-publishing process? Give a few words of advice for anyone thinking of going down this route.

I could have approached publishers but decided to self-publish just to see what would happen. Because Action Words was a spiral bound manual it was easy to get a local printer to produce copies as and when required. I started locally with my own authority and involved six schools in the product testing process, and involved my class in the development of suitable actions then I did my first presentation. The weather was atrocious and only two literacy co-ordinators turned up! And one was a good friend. But that was the worst one.
I targeted Special Needs teachers who go into a range of schools and work with struggling children (there’s a good picture) and they became my advert. Schools saw the improvement in those children and ordered for the rest. Soon Action Words was in over 70% of schools in the North East. One consultant even bought it outright for every school in her authority – we’ve since become great friends.

The worst thing about self-publishing was the time spent running the company – developing stationary, doing the tax, all that stuff. It got in the way of being creative, making new products and becoming a world famous children’s author (still working on that!) So my husband Geoff took over. He completely revamped the system and produced the wonderful products we have today.
You can see them on www.actionwords.co.uk


So that’s it, you know all about the Thistleblower's new editor.
Thank you to Tracy for the interview and if you are not already following Tracy’s blog please give it a go. She has interviewed people who are actually, properly, famous!





For any aspiring children's writer, I thoroughly recommend joining SCBWI, a worldwide organisation of like-minded writers and illustrators. It provides support and opportunities to network and exchange knowledge about the diverse fields of children's and young adult literature, magazines, film, television, and multimedia.

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First of all, I'd like to congratulate the twelve winners of the second SCBWI British Isles Undiscovered Writers 2010 Anthology competition.

Undiscovered Voices is an anthology of excerpts from unpublished children’s fiction from the members of SCBWI British Isles. The winners were selected by editors and agents, and the printed anthology will be sent out in February 2010 to children’s book agents and editors in the hopes of getting the authors discovered.

Congratulations also go to the seventeen writers given Honorary Mentions.

You can read more about SCBWI BI's Undiscovered Voices by visiting the website

And how wonderful is this...
Recently I found out about a nine year old boy who'd started his own blog reviewing books he'd read. I had to become a follower because this is what writing for kids is all about, engaging with your reader and them wanting to talk about what they've read.


The blog is called THE BOOKS I READ and the young blogger says about himself -

I'm a 9-year-old boy living in London. This blog is about the books I read and what I think of them.

Please go and check it out and leave him a comment.

THE BOOKS I READ at http://www.bookthunker.blogspot.com/




Things to look forward to on tall tales & short stories


To celebrate reaching over 10,000 hits on the blog I've invited some writers to divulge some of their writing knowledge and experience in a series of Writing Masterclasses. I shall be posting these in the near future so please do keep checking in.


There are more interviews to look forward to including debut author Keren David who has written a fantastic book called When I was Joe. I had the great pleasure of being given an ARC copy to read and recommend it highly. More about Keren and the book very soon.


An interview with one of the winners of the inaugural SCBWI Undiscovered Voices competition, Steve Hartley, who talks about his book series for younger readers, Danny Baker Record Breaker. These are very funny and have been longlisted for the 2010 Waterstones Children’s Book Prize.


A competition to win a signed copy of The Pain Merchants by Janice Hardy will be up and running very soon. In the meantime you can read an interview with Janice on this blog, right here


So I hope you'll agree there's plenty to look forward to and many thanks for reading my blog.
Tracy xx

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Hi Val and welcome to tall tales & short stories.

First, thank you, Tracy, for asking about THE OTHER SIDE OF BLUE.
I’m very happy to have my first novel coming out, and I very much hope it will connect with readers.

Fifteen-year-old Cyan was named after the colour blue by her artist mother. And blue, in all its shades, is how it feels for Cyan to be back in the Caribbean one year after the loss of her father, drowned in an inexplicable sailing accident. Expected to play host to a potential new stepsister, Cyan’s past and future feel coloured by mystery. Did her mother drive her father away? If he killed himself why didn’t he leave Cyan a note to help her understand? And most bafflingly, why did he sail to the horizon with an ice bucket and two champagne glasses on board?
Local rich-boy Mayur lures Cyan with promises that only he knows the truth. And now, with the anniversary of her father’s death approaching, and with a gulf as wide as the Caribbean between her mother and herself, Cyan must explore the depths of the colour blue - the blue of sadness, the ocean, the horizon, and ultimately herself - in this exquisitely told story of love, betrayal, and ultimately hope.

An exquisitely written debut novel from an evocative new voice. Han Nolan, National Book Award winner, says: ‘Valerie Patterson is a born writer. Her language feels so fresh, clean and spare.’


A tall tales & short stories review of The Other Side of Blue

I was very fortunate to have the opportunity of reading The Other Side of Blue and it didn't disappoint. This is a beautifully written book, poignant and delicate, yet brought into stark relief in the Caribbean sunshine.

Cyan and her mother return to Curaçao one year after her father's death and it's under the spotlight glare of an unrelenting Caribbean sun that emotions come to the surface and the truth about what happened to Cyan's father emerges.

A recurring theme throughout the novel is art and painting and Valerie brings the story to life and develops the layers like a brushstroke on a canvas. Slowly, surely, the picture begins to emerge, the complexities of relationships, the truth of her father's death, the levels of pain and confusion Cyan feels regarding her mother's new lover, the death of her father, the possibility of a new step-sister. Colour is an important motif throughout and Valerie's prose comes alive with texture and vibrancy, it evokes the Caribbean beautifully, this reader could feel the heat, could see the striking blue sea, could see Kammi in all her 'pinkness'.

The poignant ending brings a new beginning - as if the painting of the summer is almost finished and a new canvas will soon be on the easel, ready to be begun, ready to have the first touch of colour applied and maybe, just maybe, it won't be 'blue.'


THE OTHER SIDE OF BLUE is your debut novel. Is it your first attempt at writing a novel or do you have other manuscripts hiding away?

Oh, I have other novels in a drawer. Besides BLUE I have five completed drafts and several other novels in various stages of completion. I’ve learned something from each manuscript, even if they’re never published.


What inspired you to write THE OTHER SIDE OF BLUE and how long has it taken you from initial inspiration to finally achieving the publication deal?

I’ve always been intrigued by the sea—perhaps from growing up along the Gulf coast of Florida—and art. My mother and sister-in-law are visual artists, and my husband is a cartographer who makes terrain into works of art. Personally, however, I count myself fortunate when I can draw a simple three-dimensional object in graphite. Forget color! I admire how artists see and translate their subjects. I’m also interested in mother-daughter relationships. More than one story I’ve written explores those relationships, which can be difficult, though critical.

I started the novel in an independent writing course at Hollins University. I worked very slowly on the first half of the novel as I was finishing my master’s thesis and another novel. Then in early 2008 agent Sarah Davies of The Greenhouse Literary Agency encouraged me to finish it. I worked intently and I really felt the novel start to flow. It took me places I hadn’t consciously intended. I finished the draft that spring and revised it with Sarah’s guidance. She submitted it during the summer of 2008, and I’m very fortunate that Jennifer Wingertzahn of Clarion Books selected it.


How long have you been pursuing your writing ambitions and what have you done along the way to improve your writing?

I’ve loved books and writing since I was a child. I recently found a small picture book I wrote and illustrated for my younger siblings. I would rather have bought books than anything else—that hasn’t really changed! I published a few poems in local magazines and school collections. At university I studied English and Spanish. There was a period—from law school through my first six years of working—when I didn’t write creatively. I still read voraciously, however, and I gradually found my writing voice again.

To improve my craft, I started taking classes at the local Writer’s Center and attending conferences. I also joined a critique group, which has been a source of helpful criticism and moral support. I received a grant from the Society of Children’s Bookwriters and Illustrators for my second novel, which inspired me to keep working. I applied for the MFA program at Hollins University because I wanted to study writing and literature more formally. I liked the program because it emphasized critical as well as creative work, and the courses were mainly held during summers, too, so the program fit my work schedule better than other MFA programs. I visited the campus before I applied and felt at home there.

Hollins Children’s Literature website: http://www.hollins.edu/grad/childlit/childlit.htm


Would you recommend entering competitions, attending a writing course? Do you think these can be an important deciding factor in finding success other than simply writing a good novel?

The critical thing, of course, is to write a really solid novel. Some people can do that easier than others, and writers develop at different speeds and at different levels. For me entering contests provided deadlines that helped spur me to complete novels. You also never know what might happen. I applied for the SCBWI grant on the last possible day.

Writing courses have been helpful to me because I’ve learned more about craft. I also have benefitted from valuable feedback and learned what works and doesn’t by reading others’ work in critique groups. Learning how to give and receive constructive criticism is invaluable. The creative process is often so personal, it takes effort and practice to separate the written work from yourself.

When submitting work to an editor and agent, the fact that you’ve received grants or recognition helps show that you’re serious about your craft. But, the work has to stand on its own.


What made you think ‘I want to write for children?’ Is it a genre you enjoy reading?

I don’t think I consciously thought, “I want to write for children.” I simply wrote what I felt drawn to writing. More often it seemed to be from the perspective of a teen or adolescent. I enjoy reading books for young readers and I believe many of the best books published today are for that audience.


Have you changed genre since you first started writing? If so, do you feel your writing suits a specific genre and do you enjoy writing this more than any other?

I have written and submitted a picture book (which was under consideration but ultimately rejected for being too quiet) and I’ve written a few short stories. At this stage I feel most comfortable writing novels for older adolescents.


Have you ever tried writing for adults? Is it a market you’d like to write for in the future?

I’ve written about half of a mystery aimed at adults. It felt flat to me, and I lost interest. I don’t know that I would set out to write for adults on purpose. I think it would depend on where the story led me.


Would you recommend having an agent and, if so, why?

Yes, absolutely. Sarah made all of the difference for me. She gave me editorial advice and encouragement. She also had access to editors—and knowledge about what drew them to novels--in a way I never could have if I’d submitted on my own, dutifully one editor at a time.


If several agents were interested in working with you, how did you decide which one to choose?

I only submitted BLUE to Sarah. We did meet face-to-face before entering into a formal relationship. I felt immediately comfortable with Sarah, who is warm, enthusiastic, and very generous and responsive.


Has achieving a book deal changed the way you approach your writing?

Does it make sense to say I am more nervous about the book I’m working on now? I’m trying very hard to block out thinking about BLUE and focusing only on the new work, the new characters who need to develop. I’m trying to be more constant in my writing now, even if it’s short snippets, to keep drawing the subconscious to work on the novel, even when I’m in the workaday world.


Do you plan your stories in advance, or do they happen on the page?

Sometimes I have a vision of the very last scene, and I write to find out how the characters got to that point. Other times I have a character and an opening, and I write to find out what happens next. The story starts to unfold and, with luck, layer.

Unfairly or not, I think one of the reasons I didn’t finish the mystery novel for adults is I had the whole thing plotted out in great detail, and I no longer was writing to find out what happened. I know that my process wouldn’t work for some writers, and I’m not sure that my process is efficient. But it is how I’ve been working.


Rewrites and Revisions: How much have you had to do throughout the writing of THE OTHER SIDE OF BLUE?

I revised the draft with Sarah and made some additional changes after that. Jennifer also asked for revisions, and she did so with great gentleness and precision. I’m very thankful for her guidance.


Titles: How many titles did you work with until settling on THE OTHER SIDE OF BLUE? Aspiring writers are often told how important a title is - do you have any advice on what a good title is?

This is only the second title. The working title was CURAÇAO BLUES, which didn’t work as well. I think it may have confused readers who might not have known Curaçao is a Caribbean island. It also may have led people to think the book was about music. The right title for a novel will draw the reader in immediately, no question. I think a good title intrigues a reader and makes a promise.


Do you use your own children or any others as a ‘sounding board’ for your novels?

No. In fact, I’m rather anxious to see if my book passes muster with two of my nieces in particular, Nicole and Annie, who are in the age range for the book and voracious readers.


Which authors/stories did you enjoy reading as a child/teenager? How do you think they compare to the children’s/YA novels available today? What do you think children of today want to read?

I read and loved classics such as LITTLE WOMEN, THE SECRET GARDEN, THE YEARLING, and TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD. I also read Slyvia Plath and poetry across the spectrum as well as adult fiction.

Teen fiction wasn’t as developed when I was a teen as it is today. I think the overall quality of children and teen’s fiction today is quite high—I’d rank the best YA fiction among the best fiction for adults any day.

I think children and teens today are more sophisticated about the world than I was and they have to deal with a world that’s more fast-paced and complex and in some ways more ambiguous and nuanced than I did. Nevertheless, I think teens today want to read for the same underlying reasons I did—to find books with heart and soul, to identify with characters who overcome challenges and who persevere and transport us beyond ourselves. I still prefer books that end on a hopeful—though not necessarily happy—note, and I believe most of us crave that same thing, an aspect of hope for the future.


Regarding artwork for the book cover. As the author did you have any input into the choices made or was the decision left entirely to others?

Authors do not have any approval over cover art, but Jennifer solicited my ideas on what I had envisioned for the cover. I had thought of the ocean, of course, and the blue boat, which figures in the story, and perhaps a girl. I didn’t see the cover artwork until it was finished. For so many reasons, it is simply exquisite.


What sort of publicity and marketing will you be undertaking? Will it be arranged for you, or do you have to initiate your own ideas?

Clarion is making some connections for me, and I am pursuing speaking engagements on my own. I’m trying to learn how to be effective at getting ‘out there’ but I admit marketing myself is not something I’ve done much of before. I just opened up my presence a little on Facebook, and that was traumatic!


Words of wisdom and advice to any aspiring writer?

Yes, NEVER give up.
I think I’ve said that before, and I believe it. Keep writing and learning and enjoying the journey. By continually honing your craft and finding your own voice, you have the best chance of success. But you also have to remember to enjoy the process because there are no promises of immediate—or even delayed--success. I know that I was struck by lightning, and I am honoured to have a novel coming out with Clarion.


Agents comments: SARAH DAVIES of The Greenhouse Literary Agency
Why I chose to represent Val:

Someone tipped me off about this amazingly talented writer called Valerie Patterson when I first arrived in the USA from London in Autumn 2007. The Greenhouse was just getting underway, so of course I lost no time in tracking her down – especially as we live fairly near each other in Virginia. I was blown away by the beauty of Val’s writing, her acute perceptions, her sensitivity to language. It’s a truism that now – especially in a difficult economy - everyone is after high-concept fiction, and that literary writing is going to be impossible to sell, or at least very tough. However, I felt Val deserved to be discovered and published, and I had a strong sense that this was my mission, especially as a former fiction editor and publisher myself.

Val has lots of books in her, but THE OTHER SIDE OF BLUE is very special – atmospheric and rich, full of colour and texture. It’s the kind of writing I love and respond to, so it was very exciting that we had America’s two leading literary publishers fighting over BLUE at the end, both desperate to lay claim to Val and her future writing career. So often agenting is like match-making – you’re looking for the love and passion that will make the perfect publishing match – and so it was this time. Jennifer Wingertzahn of Clarion (part of the Houghton Mifflin Harcourt group) fell in love with BLUE from the beginning and it was her determination and conviction that won Val for the house.

It’s been very exciting indeed, and I can’t wait to see what response we’ll get to BLUE, and what Val will write next!


Valerieopatterson.com


The Other Side of Blue
Published by:
USA/Canada: Clarion Books (Fall 2009)

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Tabitha Suzuma is the Award Winning author of A NOTE OF MADNESS, and its sequel, A VOICE IN THE DISTANCE; FROM WHERE I STAND and WITHOUT LOOKING BACK.

Hi Tabitha and welcome. Would you like to tell us a bit about yourself?

Hello and thank you for interviewing me!

I was born in 1975 and grew up in London where I still live to this day. I went to a French school which I hated, but when I changed to an English school I was still equally unhappy. So I finally forced my parents into letting me leave school at the age of 14 by behaving so outlandishly in class that I ended up under threat of expulsion. I had always been a school-refuser and so it was somewhat ironic that I returned to the classroom twenty years later –this time as a teacher.

I am the eldest of five and my youngest brother was born when I was fourteen. I played a big part in bringing him up and when he was two, I discovered he had an extraordinarily musical ear. I started teaching him the piano and found him a proper teacher shortly after. He subsequently went to music school, gained a place at the Royal College of Music (where A Note of Madness is set) but chose instead to do a course in music informatics. Although his personality is nothing like Flynn’s, it was my brother’s extraordinary talent that inspired the character: a musical genius studying piano at the Royal College of Music.


A NOTE OF MADNESS

Life as a student is good for Flynn. As one of the top pianists at the Royal College of Music, he is put forward for a big concert, the opportunity of a lifetime. But beneath the surface, things are changing. On a good day he feels full of energy and life, but on a bad day being alive is worse than being dead. Sometimes he wants to compose and practise all night, at other times he can't even get out of bed. His flatmate Harry tries to understand but is increasingly confused by Flynn's erratic mood swings. His friend Jennah tries to help, but Flynn finds it difficult to be around her - she evokes in him feelings that he can't accept. With the pressure of the forthcoming concert and the growing concern of his family and friends, emotions come to a head. Sometimes things have to get worse before they can get better.




A Note of Madness was your debut novel. Was it your first attempt at writing a novel or did you have other manuscripts hiding away?

When I was seventeen, my favourite author at the time, KM Peyton, encouraged me to try my hand at a book of my own after I’d written her many a fan letter. Inspired by her encouragement, I wrote a book about teenage gangsterism called ‘Angels on the Wild Side’. KM Peyton liked it so much, she sent it to her editor David Fickling. He wanted to publish it, but at the last minute the deal fell through as others felt it was too risky. Despite the disappointment, I remember KM Peyton telling me ‘as sure as one can ever be of anything in this life, I am sure you will become an author.’

I always kept her words at the back of my mind along with the almost-published ‘Angels on the Wild Side’. However, I was taken up by doing a degree, postgraduate study and various other jobs including teaching over the next ten years. I never stopped writing but I never attempted to write a book until 2003 when ‘A Note of Madness’ happened – sort of by accident really. It wasn’t until I was half way through writing it that I thought, ‘Hey, maybe I could try to get this published.’


Your books to date have dealt with various mental health issues and a family on the run. What inspired you to write about these themes?

I write about what I am passionate about, what fascinates me. Abnormal psychology is a subject that fascinates me and one I have studied at university. Mental illness is something that I have experienced first hand for the best part of my life. I first developed depressive symptoms as a child, these worsened in my teens and culminated in a suicide attempt when I was 22. At this point I sought help and have been on various different anti-depressants and other medications since then. Some have worked for a short time, most haven’t been very successful at all. I live with severe clinical refractory depression on a daily basis. It is something I know only too well. I wanted to write about mental illness in order to express some of the traumatic times I’d been through but also to share by experience with many of the other thousands of people who have suffered in similar ways too.


Do you feel drawn to writing gritty realism and do you enjoy writing this genre more than any other? Have you tried writing any other genres?

Gritty realism is what writing is all about for me. These are the kinds of books I read as a child and especially as a teenager. I was a voracious reader in my youth and never had much interest in fantasy, horror, comedy or any other genres. I sought out books that reflected the truth, stories that I could believe in, that were based on something real, that dealt with the harsh realities of life. Books that made me realise I was not alone in my suffering – that others had been through similar things too, and had found a way through. I haven’t tried writing any other genres and I think it unlikely I will.


Anne Fine was recently misquoted in the press about questioning the bleakness of children’s/teen books. She clarified that she was in fact asking the audience of social workers and teachers who deal with vulnerable children if bleak endings had any effect on the children. Regarding your own books, you write about mental health problems which are sadly still considered a rather 'taboo' subject. How open do you think your teenage audience are to reading and understanding these issues?

I think there is much more interest in mental health problems and other ‘taboo’ areas amongst teens than many adults realise. Teenagers have a real hunger for the truth. They also, almost without exception, experience some form of mental malaise during their adolescence. So even if they have never suffered from a mental health problem themselves, they almost invariably know someone who has. Or else they have the capacity to imagine their own feelings magnified to a point where they are uncontainable. Teenagers are incredibly open-minded and passionate. It is usually during the teen years that people feel the most keenly and are thus best able to empathise with someone suffering from a mental illness. Adolescence, in a way, is a form of madness itself. The child goes from a relative state of innocence to realising what the real world is all about and it is usually a hell of a shock to the system and the time when the big existentialist questions are asked.


Do you think reading about characters suffering from similar problems or displaying traits they can relate to helps the teenage (or any age) reader feel like they are not alone if they too suffer from some kind of mental illness?

CS Lewis once said, ‘We read to know we are not alone.’

So absolutely. When I was a teen, and even now, I turned to books about others going through similar experiences to my own for comfort and advice and reassurance. A book doesn’t have to give you the answers – works of fiction rarely do that – but they can remind you there is hope, that even if you feel alienated from your peers there are many, many people who have gone through what you have, who have suffered in similar ways, who have asked the same questions, who have questioned the reason for their own existence.


Do you get much feedback from your readers? And if so, would you like to share your readers’ thoughts on your books and their themes?

I am extremely fortunate to get a huge amount of feedback from my readers. Teenagers email me, but so do adults. Some of them have been through experiences similar to my characters and an often recurring line is ‘I felt as if it was a book written especially for me.’ They tell me how my books have helped them to come to terms with their own problems, to seek help if necessary, to recognise symptoms of a certain mental illness and to find the courage to speak out. They talk of lending my books to friends and family as a means of conveying to the people closest to them what they themselves are going through.

The readers who contact me have not always suffered a mental illness themselves. For some, it has helped them understand a friend or relative. Others say it has made them view the term ‘mental illness’ in a completely new light. All of them have identified with the main character in some way. After all, we have all felt sad at some point in our life – it doesn’t take a huge leap in imagination to envision what it would be like to live life with that feeling constantly, and often for no external reason. One thing my readers all seem to have in common however is a high degree of emotional intelligence – even if they have not experienced the main protagonist’s feeling first hand, they have the imagination and empathy to walk in that person’s shoes and imagine what ‘a life of madness’ could be like.


You are very open about your own struggle with depression but in regards to any other mental health problems you may not have experienced first-hand, how much research do you do to better understand the condition?

I am passionate about mental health issues so I don’t view my ‘research’ as such. I read all the memoirs and biographies I can find of people who have experienced mental illness in some shape or form. I have also studied abnormal psychology and continue to do so – mainly in an attempt to help myself and my own condition. I have friends and acquaintances who have been through different types of mental illness and I am always fascinated by their stories. Abnormal psychology is a passion of mine. My own psychiatrist has even been known to take my advice over a course of treatment!


Are your publishers open to all your ideas or do you have to censor yourself because of your target audience? Are some issues still considered too risky or taboo?

My publishers have been brilliant in that they have embraced all of my ideas and I have never been made to feel that anything was too risky or taboo. In fact, the book I’ve just finished writing, due out next May, would be considered by many as ‘the final taboo’. It doesn’t get much more risky than that, even in adult fiction. I don’t write for teens in a way any different than I would for adults. I just prefer my protagonists to be teenagers and that’s why my books are considered ‘teen fiction’ and not ‘adult’. But as I’ve said, many adults who have come across my books in one way or another have written to me to say how much the books have resonated with them.


Your main protagonists are all teenage boys. How difficult, or easy, do you find it to get inside the head of a teenage boy? Do you use memories of how you were at that age and adapt them to a boy’s mindset?

I find it very easy to get inside the head of a teenage boy. I have a teenage brother which helps! No two teenage boys are the same anyway, so there is no such thing as your ‘typical’ teenage boy. Especially as my characters tend to be purposefully atypical. In ‘A Voice in the Distance’, I write from both the male and female perspective in a dual narrative with alternating chapters, which is a technique I’ve also used in my latest book. I have vivid memories of my life and emotions as a teen because it was during those years that I suffered and felt the most. However, writing predominantly from a male perspective has been a deliberate choice. In part because many boys find it more difficult than girls to express their emotions in a society which still expects boys to keep their feelings to themselves and girls to express them more openly. But of course mental torment and suffering and illness affects as many boys as girls. The other reason I prefer to write from a male perspective is because my own adolescent feelings are still there, as raw as ever, and I draw on those constantly in my writing. I don’t want to feel as if I’m writing about myself, however – I want to create a brand new character and so it helps me feel less self-conscious and less exposed if I write about many of my own experiences but from a male perspective.


Do you use your own children or any others as a ‘sounding board’ for your novels?

My teenage brother, along with my other three siblings and my best friend all give me a great deal of feedback on my books. I have discussions with them which often leak well into the night. Their input is invaluable. I also ask my readers what kind of issues they would like to read more about, which characters they identified with the most, which of my books they preferred…


Did achieving your first book deal change the way you approach your writing?

Getting published was quite a shock to the system. I don’t think I was fully prepared. I knew no other authors at the time and so didn’t know what to expect. I have felt a lot more pressure since being published. In the past I would just write for myself, or for my siblings and friends to entertain them. Now I know I have a certain reputation to protect, there are expectations made of me and a certain level of writing that I have to maintain. I think every author lives in fear of writing a ‘bad book’. Now that I’m published, I think a little more about my target audience, I suppose I have been forced to think a little more ‘commercially’. For example if I felt passionate about writing a book about trainspotting, I would have to step back and think ‘is this going to get published? Is this really going to sell?’ On the other hand, I refuse to have my books dictated by the current market. I can only write and certainly only write well if I’m writing about something I’m a hundred percent passionate about.


Do you plan your stories in advance, or do they happen on the page?

I do a bit of planning, but very little compared to most authors I’ve spoken to. I either start off with a character, or an idea. For example with A Note of Madness, I was walking around Helsinki in the snow and the dark, listening to Rachmaninov on my iPod when the character of Flynn came to me. I knew I wanted to write a book about mental illness, and bipolar disorder was a condition I was particularly interested in and the character and the subject matter seemed to fit well together. So I just started writing, with no particular story in mind, but the ideas came to me as I went along. With something more plot-driven, for example From Where I Stand, I needed to plan a little more because of the psychological twist at the end.


Rewrites, Revision and Research: How long does it take you, roughly, to complete each novel? Do you tend to do much rewriting? Do you do much research if the theme warrants it?

I don’t do a huge amount of research because I tend to write about what I’m interested in and what I know about anyway. If there is a specific incident, for example an arrest, then I will get in contact with the police and ask as many questions as I can, read first-hand accounts of people who have been arrested in similar situations, etc.

I do very little rewriting. My first draft is usually my last. Then I hand it over to my editor and at that stage we put our heads together and see how much rewriting – if any – needs to be done. I tend to prefer to go with my instincts. Occasionally I will take a wrong turn and think ‘hey, that doesn’t quite work’ and have to backtrack and head in a slightly different direction - but fortunately that doesn’t happen to often!

On average I take 8 months to write a book from start to finish.


What made you think ‘I want to write for teenagers?’ Is it a genre you enjoy reading?

I have been an avid reader throughout my life but it was when I discovered teenage fiction that my interest in books really became an obsession. I love teenage fiction above all other genres and still read it to this day. I went through what was probably the worst period of my life as a teenager, and the books I read then literally saved me. And it was when I was devouring teen fiction that I started writing my own first novel. I particularly love teen fiction because good teen fiction is brave, direct and pulls no punches. It treats the reader as an equal: it doesn’t talk down to them, nor does it try to impress them with fancy, wordy, unnecessary purple passages. I love the rawness, the grittiness, the pace. Good teen fiction makes me think, ‘Yes, this is the real thing, this is what it’s really like.’


Which authors/stories did you enjoy reading as a child/teenager? How do you think they compare to the children’s/YA novels available today? What do you think children of today want to read?

As a child and as a teen, my favourite authors were KM Peyton, Joan Aiken, SE Hinton, Lois Duncan amongst others.
Titles that have particularly stuck with me are I AM THE CHEESE by Robert Cormier, FLAMBARDS by KM Peyton, THE OUTSIDERS, RUMBLE FISH, THAT WAS THEN THIS IS NOW by SE Hinton.

I think in the last 15 years or so since I was a teenager myself, children’s fiction has changed considerably. It seems to have become much more commercial, more accessible in some ways but lacking in depth in others. There is obviously this huge interest in fantasy currently, which feels quite alien to me as it has never been a genre that has appealed, even as a child. There also seem to be a lot more comedy out there and a lot more ‘pink & sparkly’ books. I think it’s great there is so much more variety, but I do sometimes feel that ‘escapist’ books dominate now to the detriment of more ‘real life’ novels.

I think children of today want variety. I don’t think that just because one genre (re the HP phenomenon) has had sudden success that everyone should be pushing to publish those types of books. I think there needs to be more of a balance. Children and young people will read what is on offer. If it’s mainly wizards, vampires and mermaids then that is what they will read. I would like to see more ‘real life’ books being published. There is a need to read for entertainment and escapism. But there is also a need to read to help make sense of the world we currently live in, of life issues, for reading novels about ‘real’ people leading ‘real’ lives. To read to know that you are not alone.


Have you ever tried writing for adults? Is it a market you'd like to write for in the future?

Yes, I have recently completed my second novel for adults. It is definitely a market I would like to write for and I am currently taking steps to achieve that aim.


How long have you been pursuing your writing ambitions and what have you done along the way to improve your writing?

I declared to my mother I wanted to be an author when I was six. Since then I’ve been writing almost continuously. At first I wrote stories for my younger siblings and their friends, and after the one I wrote when I was 17, I mainly wrote for myself – always fiction – often creating a sort of alter-ego to share some of my angst, which I found very therapeutic. I also wrote to escape – when life became too unbearable, becoming another person in another set of circumstances was a way of entering another world.

I haven’t consciously done anything to improve my writing, but I do remember my mentor, KM Peyton, telling me that no writing was ever wasted. So I believe that all the writing I did just for myself over the years has helped me become the writer I am today. I have also had the privilege of reading some of the greatest book that have ever been written. I know these have influenced me enormously.


Before finding your current agent and achieving publication, did you approach many agents and publishers? Have you had to deal with rejection along the way?

Yes. Unless you happen to be very, very lucky (not talented – lucky!) rejection letter after rejection letter paves the only way to publication. There are simply too many people who want to write books and too many books for them all to sell! It’s very, very difficult to ‘break in’ because an agent or a publisher has to take a huge gamble on a new author – not knowing whether the book they invest their time and money in will sink or swim. Agents and publishers receive hundreds of manuscripts a week and sadly, rarely have time to read them all. It’s a tough, tough business. I sent out ‘A Note of Madness’ to countless agents and publishers – I’ve even lost track of the number. As soon as it was returned, I would send it out again. It took me six months to find an agent and another six for my agent to find me a publisher.


Words of wisdom and advice to any aspiring writer?

No writing is wasted, even if it’s never read by anyone other than yourself. If you really want to be published, make sure it’s for the right reasons: for example if writing for you is like nourishment, if you need to do it in order to survive; not because you want to be rich or famous (very few writers ever are!) Perseverance is the key when approaching agents and publishers: make sure you follow their guidelines to the letter, expect rejection, ignore it and move on. And finally, make sure you have a good day job. Few authors earn their living just by writing alone.



A VOICE IN THE DISTANCE

In his final year at the Royal College of Music, star pianist Flynn Laukonen has the world at his feet. He has moved in with his girlfriend Jennah and is already getting concert bookings for what promises to be a glittering career. Yet he knows he is skating on thin ice - only two small pills a day keep him from plunging back into the whirlpool of manic depression that once threatened to destroy him. Unexpectedly his friends seem to be getting annoyed with him for no apparent reason, he needs less and less sleep, he is filled with unbridled energy. Events begin to spiral out of control and Flynn suddenly finds himself in hospital, heavily sedated, carnage left behind him. The medication isn't working any more, the dose needs to be increased, and depression strikes again, this time with horrific consequences. His freedom is snatched away and the medicine's side-effects threaten to jeopardize his chances in one of the biggest piano competitions of his life. It seems like he has to make a choice between the medication and his career. But in all this he has forgotten the one person he would give his life for, and Flynn suddenly finds himself facing the biggest sacrifice of all.
Told in alternating chapters from both Flynn and Jennah's points of view, this is the breathtaking, poignant sequel to A Note of Madness.



FROM WHERE I STAND

Raven is a deeply disturbed teenager, who, after witnessing the death of his mother, is placed in foster care. The Russells do their best to earn his trust, but only little Ella manages to get through to him. Meanwhile, at school, bullies are making his life a living hell. An unexpected companion comes in the form of Lotte, a classmate bored by her 'ordinary' friends. Together, they track down Raven's mum's killer, with the goal of exposing him to the police. But their carefully crafted plan goes dangerously wrong and suddenly nothing is as it seems. Everything is falling apart and, ultimately, there is only one, final way out.



WITHOUT LOOKING BACK

I used to be called Louis Whittaker, he thought to himself. I had a sister called Millie and a brother called Max. I used to live in a big house in Paris. I used to speak French every day. None of this is true anymore...

Louis is a young Parisian with a lot on his plate - his parents are locked in a custody battle over him and his brother and sister, Mum is always working late and Dad is rarely allowed to visit. But his passion and talent for dancing and his friends at school mean that life in Paris is good and certainly not one he ever thought he'd be forced to leave behind. So when Dad suddenly whisks Louis and his siblings away on a surprise holiday to England, right in the middle of the school term, he isn't too thrilled, especially as Dad is acting strangely again. Why is he being so secretive and paranoid - could it be he has not fully recovered from his mental breakdown? The rented farmhouse in the Lake District is nice, but why is Dad furnishing it and why won't he let them call home? Then Louis comes across a poster - a missing person's poster. And it has his face on it...


www.tabithasuzuma.com

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Tommy Donbavand is the author of the very successful children’s series SCREAM STREET.


Hi Tommy and welcome. Would you like to tell us a bit about yourself?

Thank you for inviting me!

I was born and brought up in Liverpool, England. At school, I decided I wanted to be an actor and became very involved with drama classes and my local amateur theatre company. That's what first got me writing - I was penning scripts so that I would have strong parts for myself to play!

After training at college to work as a serious, Shakespearean actor - I immediately made the obvious move and became a clown called Wobblebottom (no, really!) I toured the UK and later worked on cruise liners, entertaining children. When I eventually came back to dry land, I got a part in a musical in London's West End called Buddy: The Buddy Holly Story, where I played the MC at Buddy's last performance. I stayed with the show for eight years and, by then, the writing bug had really got hold of me.

I had the idea of compiling all the games and activities I'd created whilst working with children, and had four boredom busting books published - each of which quickly went out of print without making much impact at all.

When Buddy finished, I joined a children's theatre company as a writer, actor and director and was back to writing for the stage. By now, the joy of writing was easily over-taking that of performing and - three years ago - I quit my job to write full time.


SCREAM STREET

Scream Street 1: Fang of the Vampire

After Luke Watson transforms into a werewolf for the third time, he and his parents are moved to Scream Street - a secure location for unusual people just like him. However, while Luke quickly fits in and makes friends with wannabe vampire, Resus Negative and tomboy mummy, Cleo Farr - his parents are terrified of their new neighbours. Luke discovers there are six relics - each left by one of the community's founding fathers - which, when gathered together, would give him the power to open a doorway home. With the help of Resus and Cleo, he sets out to find the first - an ancient vampire's fang.


Scream Street 2: Blood of the Witch

Scream Street's wicked landlord wants the book that Luke is using to locate the founding father's relics, so he disconnects the blood supply to the vampires' homes - forcing them to go out and bite for their food for the first time in years. Luke, Resus and Cleo are searching for the second relic - a bottle of witch's blood - while trying to avoid a plague of vampire rats, and a cute kitten with deadly fangs!





Scream Street 3: Heart of the Mummy

Scream Street has been shrouded in constant night for as long as anyone can remember - but the community grows even darker when Luke, Resus and Cleo inadvertently release millions of spiders while searching for the third relic - a mummy's heart. The spiders coat everything with their suffocating webbing, and it's up to our heroes to put everything right if they're to succeed in their quest.





Scream Street 4: Flesh of the Zombie

The world's greatest zombie rock festival - Deadstock - has arrived in Scream Street! Thousands of zombies tunnel in to listen to their favourite band, Brain Drain, but only one of them has the piece of flesh that Luke needs. Matters take a turn for the worse when the trio have to chase the relic's owner to the terrifying Underlands...






Scream Street 5: Skull of the Skeleton

The Headless Horseman returns to his former home in Scream Street to launch his new range of aftershave - Decapitation Pour L'Homme. His fans are delighted to see him - but horrified when his head is stolen! Sir Otto Sneer is the culprit - and he's used the head to complete a home-made demon with which he plans to terrorise Scream Street's residents. Luke is the only one who can stand up to him - and it's the only way he'll get the skull he needs.




Scream Street 6: Claw of the Werewolf

Luke, Resus and Cleo are on the trail of the final relic - a werewolf's claw. It's not going to be easy to find, however, as the last founding father is close to home, but almost impossible to reach. The trail leads Luke to discover some revelations about his own family, the people who banished him to Scream Street - and results in him and his friends becoming trapped in the real world!




What inspired you to write the SCREAM STREET series and how long did it take you from initial inspiration to finally achieving the publication deal?

I visit lots of schools to run creative writing workshops and, on the drive home from one such event in October 2006, it occurred to me that, no matter where I go, children all love spooky haunted house stories. I wanted to write a spooky tale of my own and wondered what would happen if there were two haunted houses, side by side or - even better - a whole street of haunted houses. The name Scream Street popped into my head and I hurried home to start writing. The deal was done with Walker Books in mid 2007 and the series launched exactly two years after I'd first had the idea, in October 2008.


SCREAM STREET is a comedy-horror series. Do you find humour easy to write? Do you think it’s something a writer needs to have a natural gift for?

I'm not sure writers need a natural gift for comedy - but I do know that it should never be forced into a book. Children will very quickly spot unnatural humour and close the book to search for something else to read.

I do put plenty of humour in my books - it's a useful balance to the creepy horror scenes - and I find that, now I know my characters so well, all the laughs come naturally from them. I'm still careful not to include something in the book purely to get a giggle, however. That never works!


Were your publishers open to all your ideas or did you have to censor yourself and tone down some of the horror elements because of your target audience?

I always try to over-write the horror scenes and let my editor pull me back a bit. That way, the spooky stuff ends up pitched at just the right level. If I were to make things too bland, I'd run out of readers very quickly indeed!

My editor and I are very much on the same wavelength and agree on almost everything - but we occasionally have discussions over certain elements. There's a bouquet of dead flowers in a vase of blood in the first book that nearly didn't make the cut - I really had to fight for that to stay in!


Do you use your own children or any others as a ‘sounding board’ for your books?

It's funny you should ask that because, only last week, I found my 2 year old son and 10 year old son engaged in a rousing game of 'werewolves and zombies'! The sight of a toddler lurching around, shouting "Brains!" is something to behold!

My boys see scary stories as a natural part of life and they often inspire elements in the Scream Street books. They're both in there as characters, too - one as Samuel Skipstone, a talking book and the other as Twonk, the drummer with zombie rock band, Brain Drain.


Was SCREAM STREET always intended as a series and therefore did you have further ideas in mind, or did you have to think about the sequels from scratch?
What would your advice be for anyone writing sequels without having achieved a deal for book one?

Scream Street was always planned as a six-book series as I wanted Luke to have to work hard to take his mum and dad away from their nightmare neighbours. I make sure that each books can be read as a standalone novel, while there is an overall arc to the series which regular readers can follow.

If your books have to be a series, I would recommend writing and pitching them as such - but don't just think up a new adventure for the characters who survive book one. Make sure there is a genuine reason the story has to be told in segments.


How many books do you plan to write for the SCREAM STREET series?

Shortly before the first books were published, the series was doubled to become 12 titles and it wasn't long before my editor pointed out that we were only one number away from the magic and creepy 13! What we did was keep the original six books as they were, invented a second set of six stories - and dropped a standalone 'hinge' book in the middle to link both quests.


Do you plan your stories in advance, or do they happen on the page?

I'm an obsessive planner! One wall of my office is covered with whiteboards and I spend days, if not weeks, scribbling on them, making sure I have all the elements in place before I begin the first chapter. Of course, things still happen that take me by surprise as I'm writing - but I need to have that road map to steer myself back on course, not only for the plot of that book but for the series, too.


SCREAM STREET has recently been published in the US. How does it make you feel having your work reach even more children? And did you have to make any alterations for the US market?

Candlewick Press have just published the first two Scream Street books in the US - and I couldn't be more excited! I'm really hoping the series will catch on over there and find itself a loyal audience.

My American editor made a handful of UK to US tweaks (Mum to Mom, for example) but on the whole, the books are identical to those published in Britain.


ZOMBIE! A book you’ve written for struggling and dyslexic readers is released on the 24th September. Is it a one off or part of a series?


Zombie! is a standalone book written especially for children who have reading problems. It tells the story of Nathan who, when visiting his grandfather's grave with younger sister, Olivia, finds himself faced with a real life (or should that be 'real dead'?) zombie. However, the walking corpse - Jake - has only risen to buy supplies for a cemetery wide party, and the children end up helping their undead friend shop at a local supermarket!


Could you explain how writing for struggling and dyslexic readers perhaps differs from writing for the more fluent reader? As someone with no experience of dyslexia it would be interesting to know what rules, if any, may apply?

My 10 year old son has learning difficulties, so working with struggling readers has always been a passion of mine. I remember him being given very childish books to read while his friends were reading popular authors - and he felt very embarrassed about it. By writing books such as Zombie! for specialist publishers like Barrington Stoke, I'm able to make sure no child is embarrassed about what they are given to read.

From a writer's point of view, it is very important not to try and write down to a struggling reader. Yes, you have to keep sentences shorter and less complex, but the publisher - Barrington Stoke - have wonderful language editors to help authors fine tune their books for this challenging audience.


What made you think ‘I want to write for children?’ Is it a genre you enjoy reading?

I've always worked with children - so it made sense that I would write for them, too. I read a lot of kids books, so I knew what sort of thing was out there - then it was just a case of submitting, being rejected and submitting again!

I love having children as my audience as they are always honest - and will just as quickly tell me if they haven't enjoyed a book as when they have.


Which authors/stories did you enjoy reading as a child/teenager? How do you think they compare to the children’s/YA novels available today? What do you think children of today want to read?

As a child, I mainly read Roald Dahl and Enid Blyton - but, while those books provided comedy and adventure, there was nothing around to satisfy my desire for something spooky! So, by the time I was a teenager, I was reading adult horror writers, such as Stephen King and James Herbert.

Children have a much wider choice of books these days - from the brilliant fantasy of Eoin Colfer to the absurd adventures written by Andy Stanton. I'd love to be a young reader with a library card now!

I don't think the type of books that children want to read has changed very much over the years - action and adventure are still the order of the day. After all, the Famous Five and Harry Potter books both feature a group of friends trying to solve a mystery - it's simply good, old-fashioned story telling.


How long have you been pursuing your writing ambitions and what have you done along the way to improve your writing?

The writing happened to me almost by accident, as it was always my goal to become an actor. However, the journey to the stage meant that I wrote plenty of scripts, monologues and sketches - and I suddenly began to enjoy the writing more than performing. One day the balance simply tipped and I started to write full time.

As for improving my writing - there is no substitute for writing every single day, whether you feel like it or not. There's no shortcut to being published - writing, writing, writing is the only route.


Before achieving publication did you have to deal with rejection along the way?

I have filing cabinets filled with rejection letters - including several from my current publishers, Walker Books! Rejection can be hard, but you have to remember that publishing is a business and so that 'No' isn't personal - it's simply that your work isn't of a standard or style that will earn the publisher money. Take it on the chin, improve your writing, and try somewhere else.


With your books being aimed at a younger audience, what kind of publicity and marketing do you undertake? You have a flair for entertaining your readers in public situations. Do you think it’s important for a children’s author to be able to really engage with their readers, become something of an entertainer?



I work hard to publicise my books - running school, bookshop and library events - but I also make use of new media as a way of reaching my readers. I make video trailers to post on YouTube, run my own websites and even post snippets of forthcoming tales to Twitter.

I don't know if it's important for all authors to be able to entertain, it's just that my background means I can. I get a far stronger reaction from readers at my school visits when I run something like my 'Vampires vs Werewolves Game Show' than if I just sit and read from my books. Many children see reading as school work and, by bringing my stories to life with props and gags, I can hopefully convince some of those kids to try reading for fun.




Getting yourself out there really helps to get you and your work noticed. Since I've been writing full time, I've been lucky enough to work as writer-in-residence at Seven Stories, the centre for children's books in Newcastle Upon Tyne - and become the first RIF Ambassador for reading Is Fundamental, attached to a primary school in Middlesbrough. None of that would have happened if I'd stayed hidden behind my keyboard.


There seems no end to your talents as you’ve also written some non-fiction books for children and their parents, and you write for several magazines. What came first - The non-fiction or fiction?

For books and magazines, the non-fiction came first. The articles I wrote for parenting magazines were simply games, activities and party themes I had developed during my work with children. This gave me a leg-up to writing fiction - something I'd done for the stage, but now wanted to do in novel form.


Could you tell us about your website Trapped by Monsters?

I get a lot of emails from readers asking when the next Scream Street book is due out and, in some cases, I have to reply that there is a wait of six months or more. I decided I would love to be able to 'hand over' my readers to another author while they waited, and get them back when the time was right! So - with seven other like-minded writers, we created Trapped By Monsters. Now we can not only recommend each other's books - but great children's writing in general. We also recently ran our first Trapped By Monsters joint event - where six of us took to the stage to play embarrassing activities for the benefit of the audience. Great fun!


Words of wisdom and advice to any aspiring writer?

Don't give up. It's as simple as that. You WILL be rejected at first - quite possibly for a long time - but, so long as you keep writing and improving your work, you will get there. It's not easy but, if I can do it, so can you.


Any other comments/observations/general mind-blowing information you‘d like to add?

Thank you for the interview!


http://www.tommydonbavand.com

http://www.screamstreet.co.uk

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A couple of interesting links for aspiring writers and avid readers alike.

Sarwat Chadda, author of Devil's Kiss, and my first ever interviewee, is running a competition on his blog.



He's got plenty of goodies up for grabs including Devil's Kiss books, cd's, mp3 discs, and for the aspiring writer, a chance to have your first three chapters critiqued. Some great prizes, I'm sure you'll agree.

To find out more go to Sarwat's website here

Sarwat's interview on tall tales & short stories can be read here,
his top ten self-editing tips right here,
and last, but not least, my review of Devil's Kiss

Patrick Ness has been the Writer in Residence blogger on the Booktrust website.
I'm a huge fan of Patrick's books, The Knife of Never Letting Go and The Ask and the Answer.



My review of The Knife of Never Letting Go can be found here

Patrick has posted a series of writing tips for the aspiring author on the Booktrust site.

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Hi Sam, please tell us a bit about yourself.

Hi! My name is Sam Enthoven. I'm thirty-five years old and I write fantastical action thrillers aimed at eleven to fifteen year olds. When I'm not writing I sometimes play guitar in a band called Sour Mash Daddy and His Sixty Wives.





How long have you been pursuing your writing ambitions and what have you done along the way to improve your writing?

I've been in print since September 2006, when my book The Black Tattoo was published by Random House Children's Books. It took me about ten years to get to that point – and one hundred and thirty-four rejection letters before I got the one saying 'yes'!
Creative writing workshops formed part of my degree (English Language and Literature, at Manchester University) and that's why I decided to pursue this, but since I graduated (1996) I've taken no courses or consultancy. I just read as much as possible and keep writing, doing my best to learn as I go.


What made you think ‘I want to write for children?’ Is it a genre you enjoy reading?

When I was about to go part-time at my job to give me more time to write (I was a bookseller) I sent a short story out to around fifty agents, hoping for advice. One wrote back suggesting I try writing for young people. It was something I'd never considered, but after some thought I realised this was one of the best pieces of advice I've ever received.
I love the challenge of writing for an audience who aren't even sure whether books are for them. The stakes are high. If, at the age I write for, someone hasn't come across the right book – the one that shows them, personally, what the big deal is about reading – then it's possible that they may never read a book again. Equally, it's the books I read when I was young that made me the gleefully omnivorous reader I am today. If one of my stories could be the one that has that effect on someone now – the one that first introduces someone to books and what they can do? Wow. That's something to aspire to, it seems to me.


Have you ever tried writing for adults? Is it a market you’d like to write for in the future?

I was writing for adults before I started writing for young people. But now I don't see myself ever going back. I mean: what for? ;)


Have you got an agent, would you recommend having one and, if so, why?

Yes. Definitely. In one way, it's a simple business decision: a good agent will bring you much more than what you'll pay them in commission. Publishing deals are an agent's daily bread and butter: they know the very latest going rates for what (and where) you're writing, what's normal in a contract and what you should expect – and they know all this to a level that would take an individual author an enormous amount of time and research to discover for themselves. Agents also know publishers in other countries (including the USA) who might be interested in your work: international rights deals are a valuable potential source of extra revenue (and readers!) that, even with the benefit of the internet, I would hardly have known where to begin finding out about.
Agents are specialist negotiators: in a clear-sighted, businesslike way they will fight your corner, and make sure that you get your due. They'll also find even more opportunities and avenues for you and your work outside of straight publishing: they know film scouts, tv producers, games companies and so on – contacts that an author working alone would have to be very lucky to possess.
Example: my book Tim, Defender of the Earth has been optioned by Universal [SQUEE! Ahem: 'scuse me.]
Without my agent – Penny Holroyde, of the Caroline Sheldon Literary Agency – I don't believe that would have been possible. Penny negotiated the deal (the contract was sixty pages long!); she's made sure we get paid on time; she talked me through the whole process and, perhaps most importantly, she knew to whom to give the manuscript so Universal got interested in the first place.
And of course, agents are brilliant in all sorts of other ways, too. I recently had a meeting with Penny to discuss the next stage of what I (modestly) call my Sinister Masterplan to Conquer the Universe. The meeting was in a pub and took all afternoon, involving deep (and loud!) discussion of the global state of publishing for young people and what we could try to do with it, plus a splendid lunch, numerous (ahem!) refreshments, and a lot of laughter and fun. In short? Agents are AWESOME.


Did achieving a book deal change the way you approach your writing? Do you find you are more productive as a result or do you still write the same amount a day? Have you adopted a specific way of writing, structured hours or you do you write as the muse strikes?

Working with editors (as opposed to getting advice from my mates!) was definitely different. Promotion – website work, organising visits to schools, etc – that's a part of my working day that wasn't there before the book deal, too. But as to productivity, the daily discipline of the job? No. For me it hasn't changed at all. For most of the ten years before I got my first book deal I was working evenings and weekends at a bookshop, Blackwell's, on London's Charing Cross Road. Money was tight: mostly I lived off instant noodles. But it did mean that I could spend the day writing, and though I've left the shop (and currently eat noodles only when I choose to!) that's exactly what I still do now.
When I'm working on a first draft, I have a quota: a thousand words a day. I like a wordcount as a measure of a day's writing. If things go well, I get it done quickly (three hours maybe) and then I can do something else. If things go… heh, more normally, that quota will take me five or six hours, sometimes more. Redrafting involves a similar system: I divide the number of pages by the number of days I've got before the deadline and that gives me a rough idea of how I'm doing, how fast I should be going. In terms of daily hours, my working day usually comes out quite similar to most non-writers': something like eight or nine hours a day total, not including breaks.
Muses are a lovely idea. But even if they were real I wouldn't want to depend on them. Like Harry Crews once said: 'The secret to writing? Put your ass on the chair.'


Do you plan your stories in advance, or do they happen on the page?

I plan as much as I can. I like filling a story with things I'm excited about, things I'm looking forward to writing. I also like knowing that a story is going to come to an end! But no matter how much you plan, there's always a point where you realise you won't know any more until you're writing it. Then you have to close your eyes, hold your nose, and jump.


Do you use your own children or any others as a ‘sounding board’ for your novels?

I don't have kids of my own, and don't presently intend to. But I do believe in taking my stuff out on the road and testing it on its audience, so I do as many author visits to schools as I possibly can. At my events I usually do a reading or two, but they're essentially Q&A based: I talk about whatever I'm asked, trying to be a straightforward and unpretentious as possible. However: while I hope the audience get something out of listening to me, I know that I get at least as much out of listening to them! Hearing what young people are interested in, what they have to say, is a great privilege. It's enormously inspiring and it has a direct effect on my work. More on this later.


Which authors/stories did you enjoy reading as a child/teenager? How do you think they compare to the children’s/YA novels available today?

I loved fantasy, SF and action thrillers. Two authors in particular combined all three for me: John Christopher with his Tripods trilogy and Douglas Hill with The Last Legionary Quartet. Those may have dated a little now but they were brilliant: I remember being so excited by Douglas Hill's books that I could hardly sit still enough to read them! However, apart from those I also remember having a lot of trouble trying to find stories back then that gave me the same kick.
Thanks to Anthony Horowitz, Eoin Colfer, Darren Shan, Robert Muchamore and others, things are much better now. Writers like Dean Vincent Carter, Barry Hutchison and Alexander Gordon Smith are producing wonderful new work – which is as it should be.
If we're seriously going to try to attract to books and reading people who normally get their story buzz from films and (particularly) games, then I believe that contemporary thrilling writing for young people is more important now than ever before.


What do you think children of today want to read?

It's unwise to generalise: different people want different things from stories – age makes no difference to that. But I do have one theory I've been working on. I've been doing events at schools, talking directly to the audience I write for, for about three years now. Over that time, in about two sessions out of every three, I've had a conversation that goes something like this:

Young Person: …OK, your books sound pretty good. Maybe I'll give them a go.

Me (absurdly pleased): Great! Fantastic!

YP: One thing, though. How long are they?

Me: Well, The Black Tattoo is sort of an epic, around five hundred pages. Tim, Defender of the Earth is shorter, though – just a cheeky three hundred or so.

YP: Woah, that'll take me six months! I think I'll wait for the movie.

…I believe that, bluntly, there should be more short books for the eleven-plus age range. I don't know if it's to do with Harry Potter, Eragon, Twilight or what, but it sometimes seems like publishers' prevailing wisdom these last few years has been that tomes the size of tombstones are all that will sell to this age group. I've obviously got no problem with long books per se: if you're a keen reader already, great. But if you're a young person at that point I've discussed, when you're not sure if reading is something you could ever actually do for pleasure (and as a result, perhaps your literacy skills aren't all they could be) then the massive time commitment that a long book represents will be a factor that might put you off – potentially permanently.

Don't get me wrong. This isn't about underestimating the audience. Just the opposite: just because someone's not a keen reader it doesn't mean they don't expect a brilliant story. My aim is to write that story in a form that tempts young people to pick it up… and be grabbed by it!
So: for the last two years I've been working on a book that packs everything I've learned from Black Tat and Tim into just a hundred and fifty pages – a comparable length, incidentally, with the works of H G Wells, John Wyndham, John Buchan and many other classic storytellers whose work I adore and admire. Keeping to that length without skimping on the story wasn't easy: in fact I think it was harder than a longer book might have been. But the result, a standalone horror novel called CRAWLERS (exclusive announcement!!), should, I hope, be coming out in Spring 2010.
Is it what a lot of young people want to read? I can only hope so. I know I'm excited, so tentacles crossed!


Regarding artwork for the book covers. As the author did you have any input into the choices made or is the decision left entirely to others?

I'm delighted my covers so far have looked as good as they do. I really have been amazingly lucky. Because the fact is that, as a new author, you don't have much influence over what your books look like.
Publishers will ask your opinion, sure. But you have to accept that at the same time they're also asking a lot of other people whose opinions are, bluntly, more important to them than yours. The sales team want to love and believe in what they're selling. What the chains and supermarkets think of a book's look will have a direct effect on how many copies they take, and how prominently (or if) your book is displayed in their shops. The book may be your baby, you want it to look nice, but that's not up to you. So unless the cover is utterly unsuitable [Justine Larbalestier's recent troubles with her US publisher putting a white girl on the jacket when the central character is black, for example – sigh] then when asked their opinion, an author should answer carefully. Throwing a tantrum about it, as authors are sometimes known to do, is counterproductive. Constructive suggestions, however, seem to be very welcome. When I suggested that RHCB add a flaming London skyline to the UK cover of Tim – and they did – I was delighted!


What sort of publicity and marketing have you undertaken? Was it arranged for you, or do you have to initiate your own ideas?

A bit of both. My publishers have great ideas about how to promote my books: they arrange events for me around launch time, they send my books to people who might review them and they come up with all sorts of other cunning plans, too! But these days no sensible up-and-coming author could or should leave publicity and marketing entirely up to their publishers. The best thing to do is to combine forces – use their powers and your own, together.
I arrange my own events at all times throughout the year – at schools, libraries, bookshops, festivals and anywhere else that invites me. I keep a page on the excellent website ContactAnAuthor, and get most of my gigs through that. But I keep an eye on book trade developments, and if I spot anything that might be useful I'll approach directly myself. A great recent example would be The Big Green Bookshop, a fantastic independent that opened last year in Wood Green, London, not far from where I live. I've done a bunch of events with them – they're brilliant!
Then there are my websites. I pay my friend Katie, who is a genius(!) to build and maintain a separate website for each one of my books. As well as interviews, bonus short stories, competitions etc, those websites have guestbooks where readers can reach me directly. That's in addition to the various social networking sites where I keep profiles so people can get in touch if they want. These things are part of my ongoing writing progress: as I've mentioned, I'd like young people's opinions to have a direct effect on the stories I write. Plus, it's fun!
I also have a blog that I update around once a week that syndicates to various places. I have a YouTube profile and every so often I make silly clips to post there. I have a Flickr page where I post pics from my events. I have a Twitter page where I post a new favourite word every day. I do other stuff, too, and I'm always on the lookout for new opportunities.
While some self-promotion is essential – publishers, rightly, expect you to make some effort to put yourself out there – I don't think everyone has to go crazy with it. It's up to the author to decide how far they want to take it. No single promotional activity will give you any guarantee of sales, fortune, fame, whatever – so be true to yourself. And… enjoy it! I get a big kick out of this stuff. I mean: having people contact you from all over the world about your work? That's AMAZING!


Aspiring writers are often told how important a title is - do you have any advice on what a good title is?

This question reminds me of a story I think I read in Story, by Robert McKee: '"Ugambo,"' (says the jaded Hollywood producer) 'is a lousy title. But "Ugambo, starring Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall"? Now, that's a GREAT title!'
The obvious guiding principles are that you want something that catches the eye, and that says something about what sort of a story it is. I personally don't tend to go for titles that have the central character's name in them – particularly if it's the name and nothing else ('What? I'm supposed to be interested just because of the name the author gave this person??') But that's just my opinion, and I'm a curmudgeon sometimes. ;)
The fact is, if the publishers don't like a title they'll ask an author to change it. While of course I take care choosing mine, I've discovered that titles are a lot easier to change than some other things I've had to part with so far in my books(!) So it follows that I don't think titles are as important as all that, and they're certainly not something to get too hung up on.


You set up a website with seven fellow authors called Trapped By Monsters. I understand its aims are to encourage kids to read. Can you tell us more about it?

Trapped By Monsters is the mutant brainchild of Tommy Donbavand, author of the awesome comedy horror series for younger readers, SCREAM STREET. He noticed that joint author blogs in the UK (particularly those involving authors who write for kids) have so far tended to be rather serious, focusing as they do on writing, and what a terribly hard and grim and special and difficult job it supposedly is.
Trapped By Monsters is for FUN. We have a very silly premise (for which I must admit I'm largely responsible, having provided the name) and from there we talk about… whatever we want. We occasionally offer writing advice, of a nuts and bolts kind. We talk about each other's books – so it's a good promotional opportunity, sure. But we also pass on recommendations for anything else we've discovered that we think is brilliant, together with competitions, illustrations, guest spots, stories, rants, etc, etc. It's about enthusiasm and delight about books for young people, as well as passion and commitment. And, obviously, monsters.


THE BLACK TATTOO

Jack's best mate, Charlie, has always been cool. When Charlie wakes up one day and finds a mysterious, moving black tattoo on his back, it's a clear sign he's even cooler than Jack thought. To top it off, Charlie is suddenly able to fight like a kung fu master, fly, and control the minds of others: yes, he's got superpowers. Or does he? Jack soon learns the terrifying truth: Charlie's incredible powers come from an age-old demon called the Scourge, who is using Charlie to bring about its evil masterplan. To stop the Scourge, Jack and Charlie join forces with Esme, a girl with superpowers of her own, trained from birth to fight the demon. But time is running out as Charlie falls deeper under the Scourge's dark spell. When the Scourge vanishes with Charlie, Jack and Esme must follow their friend from the streets of London into Hell itself, where they face horrors that may well cost them their lives. Can they survive to outwit the Scourge, save Charlie, and stop an even greater evil?



Was The Black Tattoo your first attempt at writing a novel or did you have other manuscripts hiding away?

Black Tat was my fourth finished book. But those previous manuscripts are going to stay where they are: buried at a crossroads with stakes through their hearts, for reasons I'll come to in a moment.


What inspired you to write The Black Tattoo?

One of my favourite authors, Lee Child, was asked for the best piece of advice he could give to anyone thinking of writing a book. 'Write the exact book that you yourself would be thrilled to read,' was his answer. When I read that it was like a door opened in my head. Before, I'd been trying to write something that I thought 'would sell' – doing my best to second-guess what the market seemed to suggest 'ought' to go in a book for young people. That had got me nothing but rejection letters and heartache. Instead, I started thinking about what I, personally, would love to find in a book. In Black Tat's case, it was… swordfights, monsters, flying kung fu, demonic possession, the end of the universe, a seven-way gladiatorial monster fight to the death set in Hell – things like that! Black Tat started as a wish list. Then, slowly, I worked out how to put it all together.


How long did it take you from initial inspiration to finally achieving the publication deal?

Five years. That's not including the year out I took to go write something else that may (possibly) turn out to be another book.


Rewrites and Revisions: How much did you have to do throughout the writing of The Black Tattoo?

Masses. The finished book is a chunk, but the first draft was more than twice as long: more was cut than actually ended up in the final version. I'm happy with those cuts. Every bit of redrafting made the book better. But yes: around half of those five years was spent rewriting and polishing, polishing, polishing. I learned an enormous amount.


Is The Black Tattoo a stand-alone novel or part of a planned series?

Like all my books right now, it's a standalone. That said, all my books currently take place in London, and at the same time. They're all aimed at young people. They're all fast and (I hope) thrilling, and they all (surprise!) have monsters in them of one kind or another, because that's what I do and what I love. So there's a continuity between them. But for now I have no intention of writing sequels to any of them.


At face value, the novel is a spectacular fantasy adventure with a kick-ass heroine, an every-boy hero, and some OTT demons, yet at its heart there seems to be some intriguing interpretations of some commonly-held beliefs. Hell, demons, heaven, God(frey). How much was intended and how much developed as you wrote the story?

Once I decided to set so much of the book in Hell, everything else came with it. The setting itself, however, came from thinking about the traditional conventions of fantasy for young readers – particularly the idea of the gateway to another world. I wanted to approach that from what I hoped would be an unusual angle: by including a world that the reader might think they knew about already, then playing with their expectations.


Are any of the ideas you’ve used in the book taken from existing mythology? (I particularly liked the vomiting bats.) Do you use myth and mythology as a basis for your books, if you do, how much research do you do for your books?

The ideas in my book are taken from a bubbling stew of every single thing I've read, watched, heard or played – mythology included. I don't attach any extra weight to any particular source based on how old it is: I just look for the tingle at the back of my neck, the sparks it sets off in my brain. That said, for Black Tat I did gather and research every version of Hell that I could lay my hands on. The research depends on the story: I do whatever it takes. Glad you liked the bats!


The creation of extra strong swords using bird mess; true or false?

Hah! True, as far as I can tell. Like Raymond says, I've heard of chickens being used, and ostriches. Not pigeons, I admit, but a London story needs a London bird!


TIM, DEFENDER OF THE EARTH

He's big, he's moody, he has a tail that could crush the Houses of Parliament and he's all that stands between the Earth and total destruction. Tim – that's Tyrannosaur: Improved Model – is the product of a top secret military experiment. He lives in a comfy secret bunker buried deep beneath London's Trafalgar Square, but now the British government has decided he's too expensive to keep and Tim must make a break for it. He forms an unlikely alliance with fourteen-year-old Chris and his classmate, Anna, in order to save humanity from the greatest threat it has ever known: Anna's father, the brilliant Professor Mallahide and his growing swarm of all-consuming nanomachines.
The stage is set for a spectacular showdown the likes of which London has never seen. Who will prevail?
The terrifying Professor Mallahide, or TIM, DEFENDER OF THE EARTH?




What inspired you to write Tim?

Again: it's the exact story that I would be thrilled to read. In this case, it came from an obsession with giant monster films – particularly old-school Japanese kaiju flicks, with people in rubber suits stomping on stuff. I figured out why I loved them so much: it was because I was imagining being the monster. Now: admittedly, for a big, clumsy oaf like myself, who waves his arms about and sometimes destroys things by accident, that's perhaps not the conceptual leap for me that it might be for another person! But I've loved those films and stories ever since I was little (I read The Iron Man, by Ted Hughes, about ninety times). As soon as I started thinking how much fun could be had with a British monster who was the same age as the target audience, I got very excited. Then came the input from audience themselves. When I was touring schools and libraries and bookshops with Black Tat, I asked the young people I spoke to a particular question: Which famous London landmarks would you most like to see DESTROYED in a story?
As you might imagine, I got a lot of enthusiastic answers to that. And you know what? I managed to work pretty much all of them in. Hee hee hee!


How long did it take you from initial inspiration to finally achieving the publication deal?

The US and UK deals for Black Tat were for that plus another book: that second book was Tim. But I didn't get to take five years over it! Tim took about two.


Rewrites and Revisions: How much did you have to do throughout the writing of Tim?

Not too much that time, luckily. I wrote a solid first draft. The UK editors, the US editors and myself all managed to agree on what we wanted (mostly!) and by the third draft (not including copyedits) Tim was fully formed.


You have two main human characters – Chris, male, and Anna, female. Do you find it easy to write from a girl’s perspective?

It depends on the girl. Characterisation is hard, and some characters are much harder to write than others. But I would prefer to think that's down to individual cases, more than anything as general as gender.


The bad guy, Professor Mallahide is quite an ambiguous character. On one hand he wants to help people, there are several incidents which show his good, benevolent side then, on the other, he abuses his power. We see him as the good guy in opposition to the military and the uses they want to put the nanobots to. Was it intentional and crucial to your novel that you explore the many facets of good and evil? That there is no black and white answer for why people do the things they do. That power corrupts?

That's a very flattering question, and I'm thrilled and delighted you've asked it. But, as with your earlier one about religious beliefs, I'm going to leave the book to speak for itself and swerve around it a bit! I will say I love stories where you can understand the baddie's point of view. In fact in most stories I find it's the baddie I'm cheering for. (Does anyone else do that? Or, erm, is that just me? ;p)


Can you tell us anything about your next book?

If you like fast-paced storytelling, I'm hoping Crawlers will knock your socks off. There are plenty more where that, Black Tat and Tim came from, but if you don't mind I'll keep any more of my sinister masterplan under wraps for now: MOO HOO HA HA! Um, sorry.


Words of wisdom and advice to any aspiring writer?

Just the same ones again, for emphasis.

From Lee Child: 'Write the exact book that you yourself would be thrilled to read.' I tell you, it's a lot easier to get through the tough bits if you love and believe in what you're writing.

From Harry Crews: 'Put your ass on the chair.' It's not going to happen if you stop.

But… (and here's a bonus one) if you keep going, IT IS POSSIBLE. It happened to me. That proves can happen to you.


Anything else you’d like to mention?

Thank you, Tracy, for interviewing me! And my thanks and best wishes to anyone reading this.
Sam, 4th August 2009


If you'd like to find out more about me and my stuff, check my homepage:
www.samenthoven.com

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Two bits of news today.

Harriet Goodwin, SCBWI Discovered Voice and tall tales & short stories interviewee, has launched a new website ahead of the publication date for her debut novel THE BOY WHO FELL DOWN EXIT 43.
Harriet's new website can be found at http://www.harrietgoodwinbooks.com/

The website includes extracts from The Boy Who Fell Down Exit 43 which is due out in the UK on the 1st September 2009.

You can read Harriet's interview on tall tales & short stories by clicking here

Harriet also offered her top ten tips for self-editing here




Yesterday my blog was given an award.

A wonderful surprise and gratefully received it's always nice to feel our endeavours are appreciated.
The award was presented to me by fellow writer and blogger, Col Bury from Col Bury's New Crime Fiction
Thank you Col B.


Now I award this accolade to five deserving bloggers who I admire and have inspired me.

Candy Gourlay - http://notesfromtheslushpile.co.uk/

Janice Hardy - http://thehealingwars.blogspot.com/

Jon Mayhew - http://jonmayhem.blogspot.com/

Sarwat Chadda - http://sarwatchadda.blogspot.com/

Debra J Edwards - http://trialsofaself-publishedauthor.blogspot.com/

For the rules of the award click the picture above.

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SOPHIA BENNETT won the 2009 Times Chicken House Children's Fiction competition with her winning entry THREADS.




















THREADS

Nonie’s passion is fashion. Humanitarian Edie wants to save the world. And budding actress Jenny has just landed a small part in a Hollywood blockbuster. But when these three friends meet a young African refugee girl called Crow, sketching a dress at the Victoria and Albert Museum, they get the chance to pool their talents and do something truly wonderful, proving that fashion fairy tales really can happen.

Some of the praise for Threads -

'A treat... elegant and funny and has real narrative verve.' David Almond, author.

'Great fun. It goes at a cracking pace and girls will love it.' Jacqueline Wilson, author.

'From the moment Nonie and her friend Jennyspot Crow sketching a dress wearing dungarees and a pair of pink fairy wings ...you're enchanted.' Amanda Craig, The Times.



Hi Sophia and welcome to tall tales & short stories. Was THREADS your first attempt at writing a children’s book or do you have other manuscripts hiding away?

I hadn’t written for children before, but I’d tried three other books, which were detective stories for adults. Those got a bit of interest from agents and publishers, but no actual deal. I’d always wanted to write children’s books, but didn’t feel I was ready to until I had some children in my life whom I could read to regularly and learn from, so I knew I was reflecting their lives and interests properly. I didn’t just want to rewrite what I’d read as a child.
I’ve always enjoyed children’s films and watched them get sharper and faster with every season. I knew it would be the same with books. Eventually I had my sons and stepdaughters and felt brave enough to try.


What inspired you to write THREADS and how long did it take you from initial inspiration to finally achieving the publication deal?

The idea for Threads came to me suddenly when I was doing the laundry one day, and stuck in my head. That was about five years ago. For a long time, it was just a mystery story about a girl who secretly designed clothes – which is something I used to do when I was about ten and have been fascinated by ever since. I’m still as bad at it now as I was then, though, sadly.
Of those five years, three and a bit were spent thinking about the story while I had a proper job. Five months were spent writing and rewriting. I finished the book in early October 2008, just in time for the Times/Chicken House Competition, which I’d vaguely remembered about from the year before. I sent it off and carried on with rewrites.
I was completely shocked when I was shortlisted, and more so when I actually won. I’m not normally a winner of things.
I found out about the win in late February (about nine months after I started writing Threads) and the book will be out in September – just under a year after I finished it. It feels super-fast. I was convinced that a massive amount of editing would be required but, amazingly, there wasn’t much.


You mentioned to me that you’re not sure what you did differently this time, what made THREADS so special. Having learnt a bit about you, do you think it’s because your love of fashion helped bring the story to life, imbued it with that extra sparkle because your enthusiasm shone through?

To be honest, no! My detective stories were also about subjects I’m passionate about – ballet and the art world. I think the difference was partly the result of my biggest challenge – somehow melding African refugee issues with high fashion. It’s the Ugandan side of the story that gives it its heart. Without it, it would just be another fluffy book about frocks. Well, I’d have tried to make it more than that, but I’m not sure I’d have succeeded! Plus, it made it a much more interesting book to write.
Also, I was more rigorous as a writer this time. I rewrote a lot. I threw a lot away. I was much more careful about plotting. I basically just tried to apply my craft more and be less self-indulgent. Very boring, but very worth it in the end.
Malcolm Gladwell (whose ‘The Tipping Point’ is one of my most favourite non-fiction books) has recently written ‘Outliers’, in which he suggests that to be stand-out successful, you need to put in the hours. About 100,000, he estimates – bless him. He might be overstating the case, but I do believe that hard work, dedication, passion, repetition – it all helps.
If anyone cares to look, they’ll see that when my characters are successful, it’s because they’ve worked their socks off for years. If they get unearned success because they’re just lucky, it tends to rear up and bite them in the bottom. Work, children, work!


Alongside the glitter and sparkle of fashion and Hollywood, you tackle a serious issue involving war affected children in Uganda. What came first? Did you want to develop your story around this issue or did it come later?

My story started with fashion design. Then, as I told and retold it to myself, it began to incorporate ideas about hard-earned fame versus cheap celebrity. Then I found out about the Ugandan night walkers and I really wanted to write about them too. But I had no idea how to meld their story with my fashion/celeb thing. The breakthrough was when Nonie, my narrator, started telling the story in her voice. That made all the difference. That was version 17, of 34. It wasn’t seamless!


What made you think ‘I want to write for children?’ Is it a genre you enjoy reading?

I’ve always wanted to write for children. I wanted to be Noel Streatfield before I wanted to be anybody. Well, possibly after I wanted to be an Olympic gymnast and an air hostess, but I was only about six then and that doesn’t count. I adored Ballet Shoes, White Boots and Ballet Shoes for Anna. I’ve loved reading in the genre ever since.
My current favourite is Stargirl, by Jerry Spinelli. And yes, I found the Harry Potter books inspiring, both as an author and as a reader.


You mention that you've changed genre since you first started writing? Do you feel your writing suits a specific genre and do you enjoy writing this genre more than any other?

This one’s going well so far! I love doing it and it seems to suit my natural style. Whatever I sit down to write, it comes out funny (well, trying to be), expressive of my inner teenager and full of contemporary cultural references. My letters to my bank manager are rubbish.


How long have you been pursuing your writing ambitions and what have you done along the way to improve your writing?

I’ve been planning to be a writer since I was nine or ten. I studied literature at university, but I always knew that the only way to write is to write. Despite this, I chose to do a PhD in modern literature rather than a creative writing course. I was still too scared to go for it. Then I chickened out and got a proper job as a management consultant for three years. From then on, I alternated between working and writing.
I did a screenwriting course, which, it turns out, has helped a lot. It’s made me much stricter and more ambitious with my plots and characters. But mostly it’s just sheer practice and reading and thinking about it obsessively.


Having tried writing for adults, is it a market you’d like to write for in the future?

One day I’d like to have another go at those detective stories and get them right. But if I only ever write for children, I will be a supremely happy person. Deeply, seriously happy.


Did achieving a book deal change the way you approach your writing?

Nope. Not in the slightest. The only difference is that before, I was desperate for a sympathetic editor whom I could discuss problems and ideas with. Now that I actually have one, I’m desperate to solve everything by myself. She’s really good, and I don’t want to embarrass myself by giving her something that isn’t polished. (However, that’s what I’m about to do with the draft of book 2. Gulp.)


Do you have an agent? Would you recommend having one and, if so, why?

Yes, I do now. Going through my first contract only proved to me how little I know about the publishing business. I really missed having a sounding board to tell me what was sensible, even though I was negotiating with Barry Cunningham, who is my hero (and whom I would have given the book to for free, in gobsmacked amazement at getting published at all, but it’s too late now – hah!).
If you have a deal, years of publishing experience, a keen legal brain and the self-confidence of Simon Cowell, I’d say just go for it. But if you appreciate a bit of industry knowledge and support, an agent is great.


If several agents were interested in working with you, how did you decide which one to choose and did you meet them face-to-face to help you decide?

It was half fairytale, half nightmare. You spend ten years dreaming of getting an agent and then three come along at once. I met three people who are at the top of their field and could have blissfully worked with any of them. It was an impossible decision. In the end, I chose Christopher Little, because I thought if he overawes other people as much as he overawes me, that has to be good. Also, he said it would be years before I was truly successful, and I was encouraged that he was clearly in it for the long haul. (Also, he seemed to think that one day I might be truly successful.)


Would you recommend entering competitions?

No, don’t do it!

Yes! Of course, do it!

I’ve entered loads – for travel writing and short stories, mostly. I’ve only made the shortlist once before, but I’ve kept doing it. It keeps you writing. It gives you the sense that someone is reading. It makes you feel part of a community. And there’s a chance that, even if you don’t win, you’ll grab someone’s attention and get closer to a deal.
Writing a good novel is a start, but having a group of people actually offering to read it for you is a major step along the way. Go for it! And don’t worry if you don’t get shortlisted. Just keep going. Plus, I made online friends with one of the other shortlisted authors. You never know where it’s going to take you.


Do you plan your stories in advance, or do they happen on the page?

I plan them chapter by chapter, so I end up with a paragraph to describe what happens in each chapter, which is usually about 1,500 words. In the Threads series I have four characters with interweaving stories, so I have to make sure their stories intertwine at appropriate moments. Then the voice takes over. That’s the best bit. Sometimes the characters do what they’re supposed to, but on a good day they go off in slightly unexpected directions and I write as fast as I can to keep up with them. I know I sound like Joyce Grenfell doing her ‘Writer of Children’s Books’, but it really is like that.


Do you use your own children or any others as a ‘sounding board’ for your novels?

Yup. My elder son (eight) insists that there aren’t enough techno-gadgets, chases or fights in my stories, but my stepdaughters (thirteen and fifteen) are keen to know what’s happening. They absolutely made Threads possible. However, they help the most by just talking about what they’re interested in and watching trashy TV with me.


Which authors/stories did you enjoy reading as a child/teenager? How do you think they compare to the children’s/YA novels available today?

I read the classics and lots of series, like Veronica at the Wells and the Nancy Drew mystery stories. Also stories about children surviving the Second World War, like Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit. I think some of them might seem slow and quaint to today’s reader, who is really spoiled for choice when it comes to good writing. We’re very lucky to be living in an age of Anthony Horowitz, JK Rowling, Cressida Cowell, Meg Rosoff, Louise Rennison, Eoin Colfer and so many others (you can tell I have boys and girls!). I can’t believe I’ll be on the same shelves as them. Wow wow wow.


What do you think children of today want to read?

Same as always. Stories and characters that take them to a world where they will be tested and will discover their inner strength and character. Stories that let them escape and also work out how to deal with problems that worry them. And stories that tap into their hormones at a time when real life can sometimes be a bit of a disappointment (speaking from personal experience). But also stories that recognise the very short attention span that’s required to read web pages, or texts, or to follow modern movies. Luckily, my attention span is microscopic, so I find it easy to adapt to.


What sort of publicity and marketing will you do? Is it arranged for you, or do you have to initiate your own ideas?

I am so lucky. All sorts of lovely things are being arranged for me. I’ll be at the Bath and Cheltenham Festivals and also doing some readings – possibly in costume-related venues round the country. But I’m also telling every local school, bookshop and library I see that I’m available for readings and signings! I’m shameless when it comes to meeting potential readers of the book. I can’t wait.


Rewrites and Revisions: How much did you have to do throughout the writing of THREADS?

While I was writing, it was constant. As I say, I was on version 34 by the time I submitted the book to the competition, and I wrote two further drafts afterwards. I fully expected to have to pull it apart and rewrite it once it won, but somehow, I didn’t. There were a couple of bits we tinkered with, but mostly it was punctuation. I doubt it will ever be that straightforward again.


THREADS is the first in a three book series. Was it always intended as a series and therefore did you have further ideas in mind, or did you have to think about the sequel from scratch? What would your advice be for anyone writing sequels without having achieved a deal for book one?

I wrote Threads very much as a one-off. It was a crazy fashion/refugee thing. How more one-off can you get? However, the characters really came to life as I was writing and they carried on after I’d finished. I knew what they would do next, and after that, and I loved the idea of living with them a bit longer while they did it. I didn’t sit down and think ‘What would a logical sequel be?’ This made the second book much easier to write, in fact, because I was just trying to keep up with the characters. It also makes me more nervous about it now, because they don’t necessarily all do what the reader might expect them to do.
My advice to anyone thinking about a sequel would be: plot it, but don’t write it yet. Get the deal first! It would be too painful, I think, to live with your characters through two books and have both of them sitting in a drawer. Also, you might radically rewrite book 1 once you’ve got an editor, which makes rewriting book 2 inevitable. Having said that, I wrote the first 10,000 words of book 2 before discovering I was shortlisted for book 1, so what do I know?


Words of wisdom and advice to any aspiring writer?

Write. Be hard on yourself. Read a lot.
Indulge in ‘How Not to Write a Novel’ by Howard Mittelmark and Sandra Newman, because it is very funny and spot on.
Read the ‘Writers and Artists Yearbook’ from cover to cover. Not as funny, but just as spot on. Keep writing. Make your own luck. Stop reading this blog and get typing!


A few words from Barry Cunningham:

' The judges of the Times/Chicken House New Writers Competition were unanimous in choosing THREADS - brilliant when you think they were drawn from the award winning author David Almond(Skellig) to the popular taste of the Waterstones Children's Buyer Claudia Mody, via librarians and literary pundits! All were knocked out by the humour and humanity of the story, the compelling characters and great plot showing that fashion and creativity can matter to real people too!
I think from my point of view I could see that the novel would MATTER to young girls who are concerned with issues as well as entertainment. Perfect really. Sophia has a great writing career ahead of her.'

Barry Cunningham
Publisher and Chair of Judges



www.threadsthebook.com.

Sophia's Blog

Chicken House

www.christopherlittle.net



www.savethechildren.org

www.invisiblechildren.com

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The concluding instalments of the Peter Cox interview.

PART THREE





PART FOUR




http://redhammer.info/

http://www.litopia.com/


Just for you, ColB.

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PART TWO





http://redhammer.info/

http://www.litopia.com/

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PART ONE

All this week I shall posting instalments of my recent interview with literary agent, PETER COX of the REDHAMMER AGENCY.

A first for tall tales & short stories, the interview has been recorded and can be seen as a podcast.
Please click play on the video window.





http://redhammer.info/

http://www.litopia.com/

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