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In my blog for An Awfully Big Blog Adventure back in December, I shared a list of some of my favourite teen and young adults books that I'd read in 2014. You can read that blog here - Favourite Teen/YA reads of 2014. Commenting on the blog, David Thorpe asked me an interesting question – why were those books in particular on my favourite reads of the year? His question made me wonder if there was something that linked the books, a shared theme, a particular voice, or a genre. I looked at the list and at first thought: no, the books are all very different. Some of them were written in the first person present, others in the third person past; some had a male POV, others a female. Many of them were set in different parts of the world, or in an alternative world, or in a different time.

All the books in my list are richly diverse in terms of when and where they are set. Most of them are set in different countries, from Denmark to Ireland, Germany to the USA, and  I think that’s part of their lure for me. Many of the books are set in a different time or era: from the 19^thCentury to a version of the future, or even a parallel time.

Some of the books are fairy tale like. The Hob and the Deerman reads like a wonderful fairy tale and reminds me of all the fairy stories I read as a child. I would happily invite a Hob to come and share my home. Jonathan Stroud’s Lockwood and Co, is set in London – but although the places in the book may be familiar to a Londoner, it’s not quite like the London we know. It’s beset by ghosts and ghouls that only children have the ability to see and deal with. So, when darkness falls, the adults lock their doors, leaving the child agents to do their work.

It was just as I finished reading Out of the Easy by Ruta Sepetys at Christmas, that I realised there wasa common thread between all the books in my list. Out of the Easy is the story of Josie, the daughter of a prostitute in New Orleans in the 1950’s. It’s a book that I would definitely include in my list of favourite teen/YA reads of 2014.

It is the fact that they are set in a different time and place and sometimes in a different world which sets these books apart, and I think that’s what I love about them. All the writers beautifully evoke their setting, so that by the time you’ve finished their book you come away feeling as though you really know that place.

It’s not only the variety of world settings or time they’re set in that set these books apart for me, but also the variety in the lives of the characters. In both of Tanya Landman’s books, Buffalo Soldier and Apache, the main characters are girls: one is a black slave and the other is an orphaned Apache. If I had a teenage daughter, I would be recommending them to her. (Luckily I have nieces to whom I can recommend books!) But my teen son has no problem with books where the main character is a girl, and is interested in reading both.

Here’s an unashamed plug for libraries - it’s National Libraries Day on February 7^th. Events are happening in libraries across the country from Friday 6^th into the following week. If you have a minute, check out the link here to see what’s going on in your local library.


Here’s the hashtag for National Libraries Day on Twitter #NLD15
Or share a library #shelfie
Follow @NatLibrariesDay on Twitter and you’ll know what’s going on.




So the books are there – if you can find them or have been made aware of them. I’m hoping 2015 will be even more richly diverse in teen and young adult literature. I’m sure I’ve missed a few great reads in 2014, so please feel free to leave your recommendations in the comments. And I’d love to hear what makes a book stand out for you.

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Wycombe Library 1970

Ever since I was very young, I’ve loved books with a passion, though back then I couldn’t afford to buy them. Luckily there was a brilliant library that fed my needs (I’ve blogged about my wonderful library, Wycombe Library, here My Library and Me ).







The Cottage Bookshop in Penn

Later, when I was doing my A levels, I discovered the most amazing second hand bookshop in Penn, The Cottage Bookshop, (which I’ve blogged about here The Cottage Bookshop ) and bought my first books. I found a very old hardback copy of Our Mutual Friend in there once. I suspect the fact that it was the first proper book I owned had something to do with why I loved studying it for A Level English.







I returned many times to that bookshop and to the library, until the day finally arrived when I could actually afford to buy full priced books. Then I went to live in the Middle East and had to take a ton of books with me as there was only one bookshop in the city where I lived, and it sold a ridiculously limited number of books.

So began the stockpiling.



My work room - in the summer!

It’s continued over the years. I had to buy new bookcases every year until they lined most of the walls downstairs, and then the walls upstairs. A friend once joked that she was sure the bookcases were propping up the house. That’s an indication of how bad the stockpiling had become.

My book alley

In 2013 we had major work done on the house. In the planning of the loft conversion, I cut the proposed bathroom in half and created a book alley. I designed the book shelves so that the available space would take as many books as possible, and, fortunately, they can take a lot! There are still lots of bookcases with lots of books dotted around the house, and my new work room at the bottom of the garden houses all the children’s books, teen/YA books, and research books.

So the stockpiling never stopped.

Kindle and ebooks helped a little bit, but not that much. Like many people I still like to have real books in my house. I got out of the habit of using the library when I was living abroad, but I do use it a lot now, so that helps as at least those books don’t need permanent shelf space in my house.

The problem is that I love buying books – even though I know I don’t have the time to read as many as I buy (which probably makes me a hoarder!). When I was on Twitter the other day, a book blogger tweeted about her plan to read 20 books and 20 ebooks before allowing herself to buy any more books. So that’s what I’m going to do. Yes, I do have that many that I haven’t read yet...

My #TBR20

Here’s the hashtag if you’re interested, and if you like, you can post a picture of your 20 books #TBR20. I won’t be putting a time limit on when I should read my twenty books by, although one of the bloggers doing the #TBR20 is planning to have them all read by Easter! The fact that I’ve banned myself from any book purchases until these are read will be enough of an incentive, if I need one.

There is one place you are allowed to go where you can read other books without having to buy them, where stockpiling books is their business, and if they don’t happen to have a copy of the book you want they even order it in for you. My library is my saviour and I have to admit that I’m there once a week, returning books and borrowing more books. So my #TBR20 may take a while to get through at this rate, but at least it’s curbing my stockpiling, if only temporarily.

I can’t be the only stockpiler out there, can I??

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The Unicorn Hunter by Che Golden




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The Astrological Clock

The Old Square

Charles Bridge

The Arch to Charles Bridge



Wenceslas Square



St.Vitus Cathedral

Chair of Nails

Torture Chamber

 

Surreal urination at the Franz Kafka Museum...

Modern day declarations of love

If you run out of books...

Prague was a great source of inspiration to me. It was as if I were stepping back in time. Sadly I missed out on a Ghost Tour of this magical city. Oh well, I’ll just have to go back...


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“Mediocre writers borrow. Great writers steal.” T. S. Eliot



A couple of recent articles by writers have made me think about the process of writing and the question of theft in writing. I’m often asked the question, “Where do you get your ideas from?” I’m pretty sure every writer gets asked this question at some point in time.

My imagination is pretty vivid, I would usually respond. So when I hear a story, or a piece of news, or someone relates an incident that has happened to them, I store it away – to perhaps use one day. My imagination will usually do the rest, amplify it, alter it, assign it to a character, incorporate it into a story line, perhaps even make it the whole crux of a plot. As William S Burroughs said, “All writing is in fact cut-ups. A collage of words read heard overheard. What else?”

I’m not sure anyone would really call it theft or stealing – unless you ‘borrow’ whole sentences or paragraphs, and that’s a whole different blog! What makes stories relevant, individual and original is how the source of inspiration is used and manipulated by writers. If a number of writers are asked to use the same news item as the inspiration for a story, you can be assured that it will result in several very different stories. I ran a creative writing workshop last week where I gave fifteen students the same opening sentence. By the end of the session, each of the students had taken that sentence and continued it into a whole variety of stories ranging from ghost stories, adventure, romance, fantasy and science fiction. In Jean-Luc Godard’s words: “It’s not where you take things from—it’s where you take them to.”

In a recent essay describing his creative process, Ian Fleming, said that many of the scenes in his books are drawn from real incidents that he “dolled up, attached a hero, villain and heroine to, and there was the book.”

He may have over-simplified it, but perhaps not – he used to write the first draft of a story in six weeks, which is pretty astounding. Here’s a link to the rest of his essay. It’s an interesting read. http://www.mi6-hq.com/sections/articles/literary-ian-fleming-how-to-write-a-thriller?t&s&id=03763

My writing process has come under pressure these past few months, and my motivation and staying-power is not quite what it used to be. I’ve tried working in different places and at different times, but I have felt stuck. October is the month that that will all change. Or, at least, that’s what I’ve told myself. Fleming had a tropical island hideaway where he wrote, uninterrupted, 2000 words a day. I may not be in the fortunate position to be able to fly away to Jamaica and work four solid hours a day so that at the end of just six weeks I could have a first draft of 60,000 words under my belt, but I’m damned well going to try and get the current work in progress from draft to manuscript.

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Emily’s ideas for FUNNYBONES sequels

It can be done – spreads from CLAP HANDS and TICKLE TICKLE by Helen Oxenbury.)

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Recently I wrote a blog here about diversity in children’s literature Black and White and Everything in Between. I'm returning to the discussion again today.

Malorie Blackman has talked and written and discussed the lack of diversity in children’s literature. Recently she was interviewed about the issue and egregiously misquoted, which led to a lot of racist comments on her Twitter feed. On the Edge Writers blog, Paula Rawsthorne discussed this and the issue of diversity. You can read it here..

Bali Rai has talked about the lack of diversity in children’s literature, as have many other writers, librarians, readers and reviewers.

In the States a huge campaign was launched after it was revealed that all the ‘luminaries from the world of children’s, teen and YA writers invited to the panel discussions at the BookExpo America were all white and all male’. After the campaign, a much more diverse group of children’s authors were invited to sit on a panel to discuss the issue.

The American Association for Library Service to children also initiated a programme to address the lack of diversity in children’s literature available in libraries.
I blogged about the whole US #WeNeedDiverseBooks campaign on the Edge Writers blog, which you can read here.

When I talked about the issue on Twitter I was told by an editor at a very big publishing house that it wholeheartedly promoted diverse writers, and already had two on their lists, (the inference drawn was that obviously that was quite sufficient). But, she said, the problem really was that British writers from ethnically diverse backgrounds were not submitting manuscripts to publishers, and she could not understand why...

I know the truth to be a little different.

I also know she did not grasp this concept at all: that if children from ethnically diverse backgrounds rarely see any version of themselves, other than occasionally as stereotypes or as bit parts, then they are in danger of believing that books are the preserve of the white middle classes, and also that the children’s publishing industry might not be a place for them when they grow up. Perhaps I’m painting it too black and white, but I’m sure you know what I’m saying.

Children’s fiction, teen fiction and YA fiction is a tougher market than it ever was before, it’s also become far narrower than ever before, both in terms of the books commissioned and published, and the apparent ‘market trends’ as dictated by the publicity and marketing departments. This is reinforced by the lack of diversity in terms of ethnicity, age, background, and sex of most of the editors at most of the publishing houses in the UK. You only have to go to a book publishing event or conference to see that for yourselves. There are few people of colour.

Everything has been squeezed. The market-driven publishing houses are all on the look-out for the Next Big Thing, mid-range writers are often fighting a losing battle, teen/YA shelves are now full of very, very similar books on very, very similar themes, and you’ll be very lucky if you find much diversity in theme never mind anything else.

Something has to change surely. So I wholeheartedly support Malorie Blackman in her endeavour to promote diversity in children’s literature. I know lots of children’s writers who feel the same way and are blogging to raise awareness.

Here’s a hashtag we can all use to help promote diversity in children’s literature, and I use the term diversity in its widest possible sense - #WeNeedDiverseBooksUK
And I very much hope that the publishing industry pays more than lip service too.

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Where do you come unstuck? I seem to have a regular list of minor blind spots and two major ones. Perhaps writing this blog will remind me what I have to watch out for and even throw up a couple of things I'd never even considered.
Join me on the journey through my litany of blind spots.


MINOR BLIND SPOTS ( and these are just the ones I can remember)

Just ..... why does it appear so often? Is it glued to my typing fingers? It is almost never necessary and yet it punctuates dialogue, thought, narrative comment as though it is the most essential word in the English dictionary.
Strike 1 : just ( almost always)

Suddenly ... I know, I know - it's a real struggle to avoid this when you want to move things on. But this is a word at times I almost wish had never been invented.
Strike 2 : suddenly just about everywhere possible. Think of another way. ( groan)

Commas.....I litter the first draft with them. Most of those you don't need either.
Strike 3 : commas ( a lot of the time)

Contractions ....this is the opposite to the Strikes - for some strange reason my first draft almost never contains contractions. My typing fingers seem to automatically speak in formal language - she had never told anyone and she knew he had not either. I don't speak like that and neither does anyone I know!
Correction : pretty well all places where there should be a contraction.

Exclamation marks... They litter the dialogue as though everyone is shouting but I simply can't see it the first time round and often not even the third time round. I'm still removing exclamation marks the morning I hovering to press Send to lovely agent.
Strike 4  : you honestly don't need more than about 4 in a 60,000 word novel.



MAJOR BLIND SPOTS  ( can I bear to be this honest?)

1. Impatience : I can't relax until I've completed the first draft - well, that's probably normal. I love redrafting - I really do. You get that long lovely time to enrich your plot, layer the characters, leak in those juicy bits of research you've been saving. But then after I've done about several major and minor redrafts the impatience sets in and I want to be DONE! That's where I have to try and reign myself in, put the manu to one side, focus on something else and try not to read it again for at least I week - I know, I know - I bet the rest of you leave it at least a month and you're RIGHT - but I'm too impatient.

Note to self : C'mon! Learn patience! It's never too late you old boot.

2. Switching the initiative away from the main character.
Now this is the really serious bit of this post and probably why I've written it - this is my biggest note to self. I think it is a combination of a serious blind spot and impatience. I have had three separate readers in my life for three separate manus point it out - the second one was an editor who loved the book otherwise. It always happens around the climax of the book. I get distracted by an idea for the plot and for a second main character, it takes hold, plays out like a film in my head and BINGO - the initiative swaps hands like a deck of cards. I convince myself its a great piece of writing ( and probably the actual writing is ok) but the book is in danger of disappointing the reader and unravelling before my eyes.

Note to self : Be honest! And slow down!



But I am also one very lucky writer because over the years I have been able to develop close, supportive, trusting relationships with some very talented writers, including Sassies, Leslie Wilson and Savita Kalhan, and they are willing to read my manus and be very honest when I'm stuck in that blind spot. Usually I know there is a flaw, I'm worried about bits of the book - but I need the firm clear objective eye of my lovely readers to feedback before I press that Send button.

I have just finished my seventh novel. My readers have already pointed out Major Blind Spot Number 2. It's a relief to be honest - I couldn't see it but I could FEEL it. Now I have the time over the summer to fix it - I already know how- and it's going to be great fun. Just wish I'd had the good sense to sort it out myself.
*sigh* - maybe next time - especially now I've written it in a blog post!

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I have lots of fears and phobias, some rational, some irrational. Here is a (by no means comprehensive) list of some of them: dizzying heights, sheer vertical drops; wasps, bees, hornets, well almost anything that buzzes and gets anywhere near me; enclosed spaces like tunnels and caves; dark places – even a deserted street at night, which is more frightening because it is deserted, and then, bizarrely, becomes even more frightening when you see a lone figure walking towards you; cemeteries, at night; the woods, at night, but also in the daytime if they’re deserted. Yes, there is a general night/dark theme going on here, and a fear of bumping into someone when no one else is around. People do go for walks on their own all the time. But not me.

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In the past I’ve blogged about my pattern of ‘Writing with the Seasons’ on ABBA, and how it’s always worked for me, but over the last few years it’s all gone out of sync – not just the whole writing with the seasons thing, but my entire routine and writing process.

Various factors have contributed to this, which I won’t bore you with, but they have had a major impact. It’s not that I haven’t been writing, because I have, but not quite in the same way.

Reworking a manuscript is a very different kettle of fish to writing a new book.

With a new agent and fresh eyes on my work, I spent the first part of the year re-working a manuscript that is very close to my heart, and by the end of that process I was quite happy with the end result. I am now reworking a second manuscript, which I am finding much harder going. The voice of the main character eluded me for a long time, and I couldn’t understand why. It was only when I switched to the first person that things started to click and fall into place.
But this is when I come to the writing with the season thing. I know my most productive time of year for writing is autumn and winter and spring. Not the summer. The summer has always been the most distracting time of year, firstly because of school holidays,(although my teen is now old enough to arrange his own distractions, which he happily does!) family holiday, the sunshine, the allotment, the tennis, the...you get the idea. Routine disappears and with it the word count plummets and the guilt rises. There are too many offers for a game of tennis, the swing seat and a good book are always beckoning, the weeds on the allotment need to be kept under control, and there way too many courgettes to give away and recipes to look up!

What’s the answer? Well, we all know that writers never fully switch off, that story ideas, scenes and characters are always percolating in the grey matter, and that a break from writing is good and necessary, and that a holiday is essential. That’s all well and good, but it doesn’t get the present re-write re-written, which has to be done before the end of summer. For my own peace of mind I need to be back in synch.



First crop of cherries for my two year old tree

Without the external pressure of a looming deadline, and the self-imposed deadline not working as it does at other times of the year, it’s all about time management for the summer months for me now: allotting hours of the day, days of the week to the current re-write and fully committing to them, and if that means turning off the phone, the internet, and dare I say it, Facebook and Twitter and the rest of it, then so be it.
Well, that’s the plan...





Third time lucky garlic crop



Four varieties of potatoes

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I was invited to take part in Loughborough University’s 2^nd Literary Salon by Kerry Featherstone, lecturer in English. Industry professionals were invited: Walker Books and the literary agents from DKW, and another author – Maxine Linnell. The subject of the Salon was: Writing YA Fiction. We were each invited to speak, followed by a Q and A session, and, at the end of the evening, there was a Round Table. The audience comprised students, lecturers, authors and anyone in the local area interested in Teen/YA fiction. There was a great turn out and an interested and involved audience, with lots of discussions.

My talk focussed on the realities, good and bad, of being a children’s writer in the modern world, what an average advance might be, royalties, the changes in the publishing industry, and my experiences of being a teen/YA writer. I tried to give a balanced view on how difficult it is to make a living from writing, how a children’s writer today has to wear very many hats, know the industry and know how it works, while not neglecting the most important aspect of being an author: writing a book. I was a little surprised by how many students of creative writing were unaware of the realities of being a children’s writer.

I hope I didn’t put them off wanting to be writers!
 
The round table discussions focussed on various issues, including age banding in children’s books, the changing reading habits of children and teenagers, and diversity in children’s books. Bali Rai joined the round table and talked about how he and Malorie Blackman have been discussing the lack of diversity in children’s literature for many years, and how little has changed in that time. I’ve blogged about diversity in Teen/YA lit here on An Awfully Big Blog Adventure here and on The Edge Blog here, and for Teen Librarian Monthly here. Reading David Thorpe’s interesting post on yesterday’s blog, made me wonder about the diversity in the ethnicity of the children who had entered the 500 word story writing competition where 118,632 entries were received.

The Literary Salon was a very good event for students who were interested in pursuing a career in writing. They got to meet a publisher, agents and writers, and to put questions to them. It was the kind of event I would have loved to have gone to when I first started writing and knew so little about the publishing world.


Book Trailer for The Long Weekend

Savita Kalhan's website here

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According to a study by the Cooperative Children’s Book Center at the University of Wisconsin, of the 3,200 children’s books published in 2013 in the US, just 93 were about black people. The UK fares little better by all accounts.

Leila Rasheed has blogged about the importance of non-issue based children’s books featuring children from ethnic backgrounds, and why she finds it hard to write about non-white characters.  http://leilarasheeddotcom.wordpress.com/2014/03/20/permission-to-write-my-experience-of-being-a-british-asian-reader-and-writer-of-childrens-books/

Tanya Byrne has written about this on the Guardian books blog where she calls for more books featuring children of colour. https://href.li/?http://www.theguardian.com/childrens-books-site/2014/mar/20/tanya-byrne-top-10-black-characters-in-childrens-books?CMP=twt_gu

The dearth of non-white characters was raised by Dean Myers, in his article: Where are the People of Colour in Children’s Books. http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/16/opinion/sunday/where-are-the-people-of-color-in-childrens-books.html?_r=1

And then again by his son Christopher Myers in The Apartheid of Children. https://href.li/?http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/16/opinion/sunday/the-apartheid-of-childrens-literature.html

There is now an increasing debate and demand for more diversity in children’s literature to reflect our increasingly multi-ethnic and multi cultural society.

Almost thirty years ago Verna Wilkins set up Tamarind Press in an attempt to redress the lack of books with children from non-white backgrounds being published in the children’s market. But ‘mainstream’ publishers have yet to catch up, and there is clearly still a huge lack of such books.

As a British Asian, who is 100% Indian in terms of heritage, but who is essentially more British than Indian, and as a big reader during my childhood, it was always a surprise when I found a book about a child who shared my skin colour. A nice surprise. Yes, often those kids were beset by problems such as racial abuse and stereotyping, but that wasn’t a problem for me because growing up in the UK at the time did in fact necessarily involve having to face those issues to a greater or lesser degree.

What bothers me now is the fact that, as all of the above authors have pointed out, there are still very few books that feature children of colour, whether or not they are issue-based or are 'normal' non-issue based stories .

Children are growing up in a society which is far more culturally mixed and diverse. But, for today's children, not much has changed from when I grew up, in terms of seeing and reading about a diverse range of children like themselves and their friends in literature.

That’s a problem.

I completely agree with Malorie when she talks about diversity of multi-cultural voices in children’s literature being of paramount importance, not least because it would promote awareness and understanding, and tolerance.

On a personal level, as a writer, I have written books featuring all white characters. People have often said that The Long Weekend could have been written by a white Anglo-Saxon. That’s fine. I find it quite amusing. It’s my fully Indian name on the spine. In another novel, Amnesia, the main character is an English boy, but his best friend is Indian and his girlfriend is half Italian. The book I have just completed is about an Asian girl and features predominately Asian characters of different backgrounds. I don’t feel that because I’m Asian I have to write about Asian characters all the time, or that I should feel obliged to.

What’s important in children’s literature is that a diversity of characters in terms of ethnicity and culture is depicted, and that their voices are heard, and that a child is no longer surprised when they find more than one book featuring someone of their ethnicity, culture or colour. Sadly, that’s not happening yet.

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It’s World Book Week this week, so I thought I would share some of my favourite reads over the last year in teen/YA and adult fiction. I hope you’ll share some of your favourites, books you would recommend, in the comments section. It’s always nice to find undiscovered treasures...

Here's my recent Teen/YA reads:

  Eleanor and Park by Rainbow Rowell
5^th Wave by Rick Yancey

Looking for Alaska by John Green

Wonder by R J Palacio

Exodus (series) by Julie Bertagna

The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman

Secret Son by Laila Lalami

The Light Between Oceans by M L Stedman


And the Mountains Echoed by Khaled Hosseini




www.savitakalhan.com
The Long Weekend by Savita Kalhan
The Long Weekend Book Trailer
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When I wrote my teen/YA thriller, The Long Weekend, I was very much a novice in terms of my knowledge of the publishing industry, and in terms of book marketing and publicity, and also the internet. All have undergone considerable changes over the last few years, and a writer now must be far more savvy about the workings of the publishing industry than ever before.

This is a list of the ten things I wish I had known before writing a book. There are many other things I could have added to this list, but I had to stop somewhere...

1. Join a writers group. Most full-time writers write in long periods of isolation, so it’s good to know other people in the same situation. It’s a great support network!

2. Research your publishers, so that you know exactly who they are, their reputation and what they will do for you.

3. Find out where and when your book will be placed in different markets – and make sure your publishers adhere to the plan.

4. This one links to the above two – maintain a good relationship with your publishers and as far as possible, work together on a publicity plan for when the book is published.

5. Get a good agent – an agent is invaluable in fighting your corner. They’ve got contacts with publishing houses, they’ll promote your book, and they’ll decipher your contract if you’re lucky to get offered one.

6. Get on the internet and research all the book magazines and papers that review books and make sure review copies have been sent out. This is usually handled by the publisher, but it’s always worth checking up on.

7. Stay on the internet and research all the book blogging sites – this may take some time as there are so many and they are spread right across the world! Most publishers are now sending review copies to book bloggers on your behalf – if they are not then you may have to do this yourself, but it’s money well spent. Ask the bloggers to review your book – that’s what I did! They are wonderful, committed readers who love books and love reading, and if they like a book, they do a lot of shouting out about it for you. A public profile is very important, especially for publishers.

8. Before your book launch make sure you have told the world about your book and when it will be published. Surround the event with as much buzz as you can – raise your profile on social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter.

9. Arrange to have your book launch in a book shop – if you’re very lucky your publisher will pay something towards such an event. Make sure the event is well-publicised. Invite everyone you know, and people you don’t know too! Invite your local librarians, school librarians, any teachers you know, any book reviewers or book bloggers, local press. Publicity is the key factor to success, and the more you can generate for your book the better.

10. Don’t give up the day-job, but don’t stop reading, and never stop writing! And did I mention about not giving up the day job...?



For experienced ABBA authors, much of the above will be old hat. But as a new author, it is all too easy to be overwhelmed and make mistakes, just as I did. So if you are a new or aspiring new writer and you’ve found this website, then in all likelihood you’re already a step ahead of where I was when I was first published!

Anything you wished you’d known before writing a book?

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For both the reader and the writer, endings are extremely powerful things. I know I feel like celebrating when I’ve typed the words THE END on a manuscript, even though I’m fully aware that in the life of a finished manuscript the hard work has only just begun. Which type of ending did I go for? Fairy Tale, Hollywood, Bollywood or Hopeless?

Hopeless endings are few and far between, and rarely have a place in children’s literature.




I guess we’re generally conditioned to expect the happy ending. I suspect it’s what most children want, and perhaps what most adults want too. Imagine reading lots of books where the whole book is dark and grim and the ending no less so, the outcome so hopeless that you wonder what frame of mind the writer was in, or what he or she had gone through in their life, to end a book in that way.

Numerous studies have shown that a person’s reaction to a traumatic event can be significantly leavened by an ending that is positive – as long as the peak pain felt during the experience is less than the pain experienced at the end.

Recently, debate has intensified with regards to the darkness in teenage literature, specifically the supposed rise in ‘Sick Lit’. Alongside the waves of paranormal romances and dark dystopian thrillers, are readers looking for escapism or to be protected from dark issues and themes? Is it time for a return to ‘lighter’ teen/YA fiction? Or should we be encouraging authors to continue to explore the dark themes that teenagers need help coping with?

I’ll be interested in hearing what other authors and industry professionals have to say, but regarding endings specifically, I think most people would want an All’s Well That Ends Well ending.



www.savitakalhan.com

The Long Weekend book trailer
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=14TfYyHgD6Y

@savitakalhan

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 In Celtic mythology the rowan tree was called the Traveller’s Tree because it helped travellers find their way; magicians’ staffs were often made of rowan. In Europe the Rowan tree was thought to provide protection from malevolent beings. In Norse mythology it was the tree from which the first woman was created. I’ve barely touched upon this huge subject and now that autumn is here and winter nights will soon be upon is, it might be time to delve into the rich folklore that surrounds these hedges and trees.




www.savitakalhan.com

The Long Weekend book trailer
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=14TfYyHgD6Y

The Poet, a short story by Savita Kalhan
Published in Even Birds are Chained to the Sky, by Fine Line Publishing
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Even-Birds-Chained-Other-Tales/dp/0956761054/ref=pd_rhf_dp_p_t_1






 

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Protect Yourself




Earlier this year I suffered a major knockback – the book that was supposed to have been published in Spring 2013, with ARCS and cover ready by this summer was returned to me when a signed contract was cancelled abruptly after a takeover. From all the wonderful messages of support I received, I know that this has happened to many writers and that I am not alone.

In seconds, my glee, excitement and anticipation of the amazing year ahead was crushed by an overwhelming gloom and despondency that surprised and shocked me. I allowed myself to wallow in it for about a week. Of course I know that there are far worse things that could have happened, but, professionally, this felt like the worst. Even though it was not down to me but a business decision made by the not very far-sighted suits who took over a wonderful publishing house with an exceptional list and great authors, didn’t make it any easier.

Eventually, I did what I knew I had to do - I picked myself up, dusted myself down, opened a new file on my laptop and gave free rein to my imagination.

This year has felt much like being on choppy seas, but luckily I have a life jacket. When I first met my agent, she said, “Develop a thick skin – it will protect you,” and she was right. It’s very hard to protect yourself against professional disappointments, but I know that without a life-jacket it would be impossible. Being part of the SAS and getting to know other teen/YA writers who have become friends, I have discovered a support network that is incredible and I am very grateful for it.

So, yes, it is important to find ways to protect yourself as far as you can.

I’m at the Olympic Park today, watching the athletics, so forgive me if I am late responding to any comments.

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Hell Wood


Here are a few more pictures of Hell Wood, just imagine it darker...

Scum Pond

4 Comments on The Dark Side... Savita Kalhan, last added: 5/25/2012 Display Comments Stroppy Author said, on 5/24/2012 11:35:00 PM Lovely pictures - and it's really called Hell Wood?! What a find! I love your dark books - and we dark writers need to stick together. Joan Lennon said, on 5/25/2012 12:52:00 AM "But then I probably wouldn’t use my own basement should that kind of need arise..." Live in an upstairs flat, me, so no use to you. None at all. Really. Savita Kalhan said, on 5/25/2012 1:10:00 AM Anne -- Thank you. Yes, that's its real name. I love it - but I haven't been able to venture in there at night! Joan - There's always the attic... Savita Kalhan said, on 5/25/2012 7:25:00 AM Btw, the twisted tree was actually two trees entwined together, and it almost looked as though one of them had been struck by lightning. I'll have to go back with a tree person who has more knowledge of these things than me. Add a Comment More from this Blog | Email This | Add a Tag 23. Waiting by Savita Kalhan 9 Comments | Previous | Top | Next By: Savita Kalhan, on 2/6/2012 Blog: An Awfully Big Blog Adventure (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap) JacketFlap tags:  The Long Weekend, Savita Kalhan, Add a tag What do you do while you’re waiting for your readers to get to you about your first draft (or second or third...), your agent to get back to you about your WIP, your publisher to get back to you about your submission? Do you use the time to write blogs, do some promotion, catch up on admin, on friends, films and books? Or do you chew your nails to the quick, pace an indentation into the carpet, dig up every weed in the garden, clean everything you can lay your hands on, climb a mountain, cook three course gourmet meals... And does the waiting become any easier the more books you have had published? Or is it just as hard to forget that you are waiting and get on with things. I try to get on with things, sometimes I’m very successful – my allotment will be utterly without a single weed, I will have discovered some amazing recipes, and cooked them, and several ideas will be buzzing around for the next piece of work. But sometimes I can’t. Occasionally, despite my best efforts, I’ll have turned into a complete horror to be around. So thank you to my nearest and dearest for putting up with it all. I’m hoping more experienced Sassies will tell me not to worry and that the waiting gets so much easier that you’re almost blasé about it.... And now, with recent good news, the nature of the waiting has changed. It’s infinitely better. It’s a less pressured kind of waiting, and I’ll even be able to work while I’m waiting... 9 Comments on Waiting by Savita Kalhan, last added: 2/7/2012 Display Comments Stroppy Author said, on 2/7/2012 12:01:00 AM Good luck with the waiting - and congratulations on the good news! I get on with the next thing. Not because of any kind of virtue, but because it's preferable to tackling the cleaning (which is totally out of hand)! Anne Cassidy said, on 2/7/2012 12:22:00 AM I start a new book. JO said, on 2/7/2012 1:24:00 AM I hope you manage to hang in there. I'm with you - I prowl, read, walk, then try writing bits and pieces, start another book, prowl again, see if the neighbour is in for a cup of tea ... it's the not-knowing that feels even worse than someone saying your piece needs oceans of work. Liz Kessler said, on 2/7/2012 2:00:00 AM The waiting definitely gets easier. Once I've sent my manuscript to my editor, I put it out of my mind completely and treat it like a holiday! I also find that this is the time when the tiny seedlings of ideas for the next book begin to emerge. Good luck with the waiting (and the weeding). Savita Kalhan said, on 2/7/2012 4:46:00 AM Thanks so much, Stroppy! I will reveal the nature of the good news soon... Anne - I actually start a couple of books, one moves forward eventually while the other sits on the backburner percolating. Jo - know exactly what you mean! Liz - Thank you. I will definitely try and treat some of it like a holiday, it beats cleaning and weeding, and then get back down to being focussed about work! Dianne Hofmeyr said, on 2/7/2012 12:34:00 PM While I wait I seem to eat an inordinate amount of chocolate! And have on occasion been known to open a bottle of Moet or Verve. Why shouldn't one celebrate the fact that a piece of work is 'finished' and someone is reading it! Its a step closer to being a book. And if it doesn't become one, at least there's the pleasure of remembering the taste of chocolate and Moet! Dianne Hofmeyr said, on 2/7/2012 12:36:00 PM Forgot to say... today's my wedding anniversary! 42 years! So bring on the chocolate and Moet! Sue Purkiss said, on 2/7/2012 1:03:00 PM Congratulations, Dianne! Savita Kalhan said, on 2/7/2012 1:40:00 PM Dianne - congratulations!! Bring on the Moet and the chocolates! Add a Comment More from this Blog | Email This | Add a Tag 24. Beautiful Dead Girls 5 Comments | Previous | Top | Next By: Savita Kalhan, on 11/22/2011 Blog: An Awfully Big Blog Adventure (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap) JacketFlap tags:  Savita Kalhan, book design and titles, Add a tag Recently on her blog 'Trac Changes’, Rachel Stark highlighted a disturbing and worrying trend in teen/YA book covers in which female characters were depicted as dying, beautifully and tragically. Her post “Cover Trends in YA Fiction: Why the Obsession with an Elegant Death?” discussed why the imagery of dead girls has become so popular in teen/YA lit. She considers that these images are “less the product of an overt “male gaze”, and more the product of teenage girls’ morbidity...anyone who has worked with teenage girls will know that many have an astonishing taste for that which is melodramatic, desolate and downright morbid.” Rachel Stark explores the idea that, at least in part, this fascination is a product of the internalised misogyny of teenage girls. You can read the whole post here - .http://trac-changes.blogspot.com/2011/10/cover-trends-in-ya-fiction-why.html?spref=tw This post comes in the same week as the trailer for the film The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins hits the airwaves. If you haven’t read the series, Katniss Everdeen is the main character and she has gripped the imagination and emotions of thousands upon thousands of people, from pre-teens, young teens, older teens, young adults and adults, and she is also one of the strongest heroines to have emerged in recent years. Yes, there is lots of violence in the books, a love triangle, a terrifying dystopian world, but at the centre of it is a captivating heroine who refuses to die. The book covers for the Hunger Games Trilogy do not figure a beautifully elegant dead girl. Yet the books are best sellers and they have captured the imaginations of girls and boys alike. The covers of YA books are typically designed by publishers’ in-house designers, who usually first read the book to capture the mood and the story and who will then discuss the design with authors. But editors, and importantly, the sales and marketing department, have a huge say in book cover design. Personally I believe that the design of book covers is largely in the hands of the publishers rather than stemming from a demand from teenage girls. I do buy Rachel Stark’s line that there is a strong undercurrent and receptiveness towards images of “beautiful morbidity” amongst teenage girls. But I’m not prepared to believe that this receptiveness has grown explosively. I think it’s down, as usual, to the sales and marketing department’s tendency to hunt in packs and to copy the latest fad. Perhaps too some authors get less of a say in the look of their cover than others. But to whoever decided that beautiful dead girls on covers sell books and to those who continue to endorse the trend, isn’t it about time for a trend change? 5 Comments on Beautiful Dead Girls, last added: 11/23/2011 Display Comments Penny Dolan said, on 11/23/2011 1:12:00 AM Good questions, Savita, especially when all the covers are collected together like this. The image of perfect, lone and untouchable or unreachable beauty, of withdrawing into one's self (or one's death) so that life can't get to you or hurt has a hypnotic magic but is too easy and answer. Can't help wondering if the in-house discussion continues: "Hey, if they look like babes, the boys might even read the books too!" Or so some might think. The pushing of the gender divide is a worrying thing. Thanks for the link to Rachel's blog, by the way. Dan Holloway said, on 11/23/2011 1:58:00 AM It's a dificult subject, and one I think we have to get to grips with the full history of before we can begin to unpick it - I think Rachel's blog does an excellent job of giving a sweep of some of the background (the first thing the opening of this post made me think was Ophelia, and then, of course, fairy tales like Snow White and Sleeping Beauty). I'd be interested to delve further into this, in particular to see how images of glamorised teenage girls relate to religious iconography of the "beautiful dead Christ" - especially in the Renaissance the crucified Christ is an incredibly beautiful figure artistically, and one of the key symbols in his portrayal is his androgyny. Couple that with significant figures like Teresa of Avila, and the identification of anchorite deprivation with the suffering of Christ and a very complex picture of gender/beauty/suffering and transcendence through the point of death/ecstasy emerges. I have a feeling that to even begin to understand the way these images work today, even for audiences who've never heard of the anecedents, one has to do some work untangling all of that. At the very least, we need to be constantly aware of (and sympathetic to) the shifting boundaries that always complicate the distinction between absolute self-oblation and absolute self-assertion, and the constantly shifting psychological quicksand that marks that border Abi Burlingham said, on 11/23/2011 6:00:00 AM There do seem to be trends in book cover illustrations don't there? These images do seem to be a recurrent theme, and one I am slightly bored of. I, like you, suspect that it has more to do with marketing departments than the authors. If only more publishers would go out on a limb and produce something that baulks the trends. Savita Kalhan said, on 11/23/2011 7:17:00 AM These covers are just a very small sample of what's out there, and I do think it's a worrying trend that shows no sign of change. Meg Cabot's book, Abandon, has another cover which closely resembles the other four, so I guess the image does sell books. I wonder how these books would sell with different covers... Lynda Waterhouse said, on 11/23/2011 4:01:00 PM Savita I apologise for an early posting. Add a Comment More from this Blog | Email This | Add a Tag 25. The Short Story Tradition Savita Kalhan 4 Comments | Previous | Top | By: Savita Kalhan, on 8/3/2011 Blog: An Awfully Big Blog Adventure (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap) JacketFlap tags:  BBC Radio 4, Savita Kalhan, Short stories, Add a tag The recent announcement by BBC Radio 4 that the short story slots were being cut was met by an outcry by writers and listeners alike. The new controller, Gwyneth Williams, intended to axe them in order to make room for more news, specifically a longer World at One programme. She felt that the programme wasn’t long enough. In her words, “Stories now develop faster and need a fresh eye by lunchtime. Parliament sits in the morning now and WATO needs to cover emerging issues." Many people disagreed with her. Yes, current affairs are important, but is fifteen minutes every other day too much for a small slice of fiction? A campaign began to save the short story slots. A petition was started and signed by almost 6,000 people the last time I checked. To sign – No More Short Story Cuts - please follow the link below. http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/noshortstorycuts/ The campaign has already helped bring about a small U-turn. Radio 4 have said they will keep two short story slots instead of one. Short stories suited radio, and Radio 4 championed them for many years. But why is the short story so suited to radio? Maybe because the short story has its roots in oral tradition. Long, long ago, short stories were told before they were read aloud. They had their origins in fables and anecdotes in many cultures across the world. But the same is true of the intervening years and it’s even true of the present day. The short story has been around since before Aesop. Chaucer wrote a linked collection, The Canterbury Tales. The short story covers every genre from crime to science fiction, and every age group from toddlers to adults. If you’re lucky to have had parents who read aloud to you as a child, you will probably have been read short stories, and before that stories told from pictures. In school you will have been taught how to write compositions for English exams. They were basically short stories. As you got older, those short stories may have become longer. For me, listening to a short story on the radio is an oasis in the day. I won’t know where I will be taken or how far it will take me, or how much I will enjoy it, or become involved in it. But I know the voice in the story will transport me to a very different place, to a different experience, and that is something I look forward to. I wasn’t one of the lucky ones whose parents read to them as a young child because my mother was illiterate, but, like generations before her, she retold the stories that had been hand 4 Comments on The Short Story Tradition Savita Kalhan, last added: 8/5/2011 Display Comments Stroppy Author said, on 8/3/2011 11:26:00 PM So true - it's not as though the BBC doesn't provide other places people can get their news fix, after all! And much of the news is either waffle or barrel-scraping and really *doesn't* need an update! And it's not as though they couldn't claw some time back by reducing the number of repeats, either... #bbcgrouch Sue Sedgwick said, on 8/4/2011 3:53:00 AM Thanks for the link. I've signed and will pass it on Savita Kalhan said, on 8/4/2011 5:56:00 AM Anne - so true about the repeats too! Sue - thanks for signing the petition and sharing the link. Emma Barnes said, on 8/5/2011 11:42:00 AM I do agree...despite being a news junkie. Maybe I am biased as I had a short story "The Prince's Favourite" broadcast on Radio 4, and going to listen to Claire Skinner record it, then getting so much positive feedback afterwards, was both a huge pleasure but also made me realise how big an audience this slot reaches, and how much short stories are enjoyed. Add a Comment More from this Blog | Email This | Add a Tag View Next 3 Posts © 2017 Jacketflap.com                         About Us   FAQ   Advertise on JacketFlap   About our Widgets program for Publishers   Privacy   Terms