by Teri Terry It is Independent Bookshop Week, 20th June - 27th June! We at Notes from the Slushpile LOVE bookshops in all shapes and sizes. Both as readers and writers, they are an essential part of what we're about. Ordering a book online doesn't give the same thrill as browsing and finding 'the one', and taking it home, and probably reading it on the way.*  Writers are huge book buyers

By  Candy Gourlay Here's a report from the AFCC's first retreat for writers and illustrators on Bintan Island in Indonesia, which I attended as a mentor. 'I hope this retreat will help you to get to the truth within the lie,' Sarah Odedina told a roomful of writers and illustrators at a retreat in Indonesia last week. 'I think all good literature has message and meaning. But the

Candy Gourlay chats with author Cliff McNish, whose new book My Friend Twigs is out now. CANDY: Hey Slushpile people, meet author Cliff McNish. Back in 2013, Cliff talked to us about Deepening Character - it was one of our most popular blog posts of that year. Lucky us, he's agreed to come back to talk to us some more. Cliff, you're known mainly for your creepy teen fantasies and ghost stories

A note from Candy: Slushpile readers no doubt are marvelling at the sudden rise of activity here on our previously somnambulant blog. Yes, dear reader, we're trying to liven up this unreliable blog (we only blogged 11 times last year). How to do this? Why, find someone more reliable than us to blog of course! Ladies and gents, please welcome the latest member of Notes from the Slushpile, Nick

A note from Candy: I was truly wowed by the last book I read by Nicky Singer  -  Knight Crew, a retelling of the Arthur-Guinevere romance set in a gritty council estate and populated by heart-breaking teenagers. When Knight Crew came out, Nicky actively urged readers not to buy the book from Amazon. Last week I stumbled on Nicky's Kickstarter campaign to publish her play, Island, as a novel. I

<<<PREVIOUS: HOW WE LIVE NOW By Candy Gourlay On 9 April, I guested on the vociferous #UKMGchat, a twitter chat group devoted to middle grade in the United Kingdom. Here's a recap of our night of tweeting (you might have to wait for the embedded tweet images to show up):DO CHECK OUT MY PRE-#UKMGchat BLOG POST ON DUAL NARRATIVES Tonight @candygourlay will be talking about DUAL NARRATIVE for #

By Candy Gourlay Last week, my friend Nick Cross waxed nostalgic over on the SCBWI Blog Network, looking up the early days of long time bloggers like me. It was fun checking out those early versions of ourselves that we presented to the outside world. For example: Sarah McIntyre, then an art student, posted just four times in May 2004 with brief captions like this: Today, of course, Sarah

by Teri Terry Have you seen this banner here, there and everywhere today? It is the UKYA Easter Egg Hunt: and this is what it is, how it came about, who is involved, and what we hope to achieve. A few months ago I was reading an article published in the UK about YA books that seemed to focus rather hard on books published in other countries.Well...one other country in particular: the US.

By Candy Gourlay If your name is JK Rowling, please ignore this post. Facebook Page: formerly called a fan page, it's for businesses, brands, products, public figures. More Facebook Profile: for individuals. More So you're an author or about to become one, your publisher or maybe your agent thinks you ought to create a Facebook Page, so that you can start the social media ball rolling. Should

By Candy Gourlay Writing novels is an honourable way to make a living, but sometimes you can feel like you're so deep in the cave of your imagination there is no such thing as real life. To stop my brain turning into a cow-pat from spending too much time in the writer's cave, I've been trying to diversify a little bit. Last year, I attended a graphic novel course where I made comics. That was

<!--[if gte mso 9]> Normal 0 <![endif]--> Last week I discovered Miriam Halahmy’s post on An Awfully Big Blog Adventure about using her kindle as an editing tool. Using the kindle in the way she describes is so useful. Being able to change the font size and view your manuscript in a different format highlights many problems. But there is another way to use the kindle as an

Beverley Birch is friend and mentor to many slushpilers and published authors alike. She was a senior commissioning editor for Hodder Children's Books and three times shortlisted for the Brandford Boase Award in recognition of the editor’s role in nurturing new talent. She is a writer of more than 40 books including novels, picture books, biographies and retellings of classic works and folk

by Teri Terry School one of ten...! If you've got a book out soon and the words publicity tour have been mentioned by your publisher, if you're anything like me you were just a little terrified... I mean, not just a school visit, but a whole week of them? and travelling? and packing? and author-imagining-long-list-of-things-that-could-go-wrong? I'm just back from the publicity tour for

by Addy Farmer Peering through my spectacles this week, I spotted this interesting article in The Guardian.  It examined the reaction to writer, Lynne Sheperd's piece in The Huffington Post in which she urged J.K.Rowling to stop writing and give other people a crack at earning some money. She says: I didn't much mind Rowling when she was Pottering about. I've never read a word (or seen a

It's Friday. I have looked back on this week through my newish purple spectacles and find that I need something cute to take the edge off the reality of rain and rain and more rain. This is the owl baby who says, ''I want my Mummy!' This is the owl who is Afraid of the Dark. This is the owl who will grow up and live in a tree-top house with a bell outside and a sign with 'wol' written on it

Last week I read agent Donald Maass's post in which he cheekily described a new class system that has emerged from the ongoing publishing revolution. I thought, Woah! That's going to upset a lot of people. (Donald Maass is President of the Donald Maass Literary Agency. He was blogging on Writer Unboxed) Here's how he described the class system: Freight Class - 'Self-published authors and

By Candy Gourlay Apparently, teenagers were invented by Americans in the 1940s. Trailer for Matt Wolf's documentary Teenagers (2014): "A lot of people try tlevio shape the future. But it's the young ones who live in it." I learned this nugget while trawling through podcasts the other day. This was from a fantastic Film Programme tracing the rise (and fall) of teenagers in film. And

By Candy Gourlay Well I say 'old-style' because I was a journalist in the eighties and the nineties. This post is about how journalism has taught me stuff I now apply to Social Media. I beg you all not to get too caught up with the maths. I was a YOUNG journalist back in the eighties. Yup, the 1980s, when some of you were still foetuses. Or not. Me in my press jacket in 1985. That's a

IKEA manuals. Mmm. By Candy Gourlay My husband often makes fun of me because I like reading instruction manuals. Before I can even begin to take the packaging off a new kitchen appliance or family widget, I'll be poring over the instructions. I can't help myself. There's something gripping about a good step by step. So when I became serious about writing novels, I set out to read all the How

By Candy Gourlay Here we go again. The success of Netflix, the subscription-based, all-you-can-watch streaming media provider, has got everyone talking death. The death of divd rentals, the death of dvd itself, the death of TV, the death of cinema. We in the book industry know what that's like. With the technological revolution in full swing, respected book critics are getting the elbow from

In which we slushpilers look back at our writing highlights for 2013. Teri Terry | Maureen Lynas | Candy Gourlay | Addy Farmer  Teri Terry SERIOUSLY? Just five things? *plans ways to cheat* OK here goes, in chronological order: 1 In January Slated won the North East Teen Book Award on a very snowy evening in Newcastle. Others followed, and they were all amazing experiences: I loved

Hang on, smile, keep your back straight and keep going into 2014! (left to right) Maureen Lynas, Addy Farmer, Teri Terry, Candy Gourlay and Jo Wyton Joy, energy and hope (LOTS of hope!) this season, from all of us on the Slushpile!

This is a public service announcement by Notes from the Slushpile.

by Addy Farmer  Yes, Malorie Blackman, children's Laureate, writing superstar and all round amazing person was here, in my car.  Nuff said.

By Candy Gourlay SHOPPING | MUSING 'Just give some money for god's sake,' Someone tweeted snarkily at the start of this mammoth endeavour. Sure. We did that too, thanks very much. But moving on, there are only two days left before the Authors for the Philippines auction closes to bids. I am touched and amazed by the numbers who stepped up to help the Authors for the Philippines Appeal.