Fifteen Days without a Head and other stories

Book signing at Waterstones, Hemel Hempstead, Saturday 10 March.

2012-03-04T18:24:00.000Z

I'll be at my local branch of Waterstones in Hemel Hempstead this Saturday, signing copies of 15 Days Without a Head.

I'll be in-store from 11am, so if you're in the area do stop by and say hello. As well as signing books, I'll be chatting to customers, giving away postcards and running a competition. Plus FREE Scooby Snacks (all the way from the US) for everyone who gets a book signed (while stocks last!)

Hope to see you there.

Cheers, Dave.

Celebrating World Book Day 2012 at Hove Library

2012-02-29T18:53:00.001Z

World Book Day is a worldwide celebration of books and reading, and is marked in over 100 countries around the globe. I'll be taking part in the celebrations at Hove Library, reading and talking to pupils from two local secondary schools.

Hove Library – lending books for over a hundred years

I'm hoping there'll be time to visit The Book Nook before catching my train home. I've been informed they serve tea and homemade cakes and have a pirate ship, not to mention the books …

World Book Day aims to encourage children to explore the pleasure of books and reading by providing them with the opportunity to have a book of their own. School children receive a World Book Day £1 Book Token (or equivalent 1.50 euro in Ireland) which can be exchanged for one of eight specially published World Book Day £1 Books, or redeemed against any book or audio book of their choice costing £2.99 or more at a participating bookshop or book club.

Visit www.worldbookday.com for full details and a host of other World Book Day stuff.

Keep up with World Book Day on

Twitter, Facebook and YouTube.

William Hussey's Essential Six: Author Interview with Dave Cousins

2012-02-26T19:12:00.001Z

Huge thanks to the brilliant William Hussey for featuring me in his Essential Six author interview series. If you've not read any of the Witchfinder books yet, you're missing a treat. I had to sleep with the light on after the reading the first one! Superbly scary stuff!

William Hussey

Welcome to the first in an occasional series of interviews with some of my favourite authors! I’ve called this series ‘The Essential Six’ for two reasons: first, writers need to write! I love the work of these authors so much I don’t want to take up too much of their precious scribing time. Secondly, I wanted to narrow down my questions to a core half dozen so that we could get down to the real nuts and bolts of their life and work.

What follows is an interview with debut author Dave Cousins. Last year, I was lucky enough to get hold of a proof copy of his moving and laugh-out-loud funny novel 15 Days Without A Head - the finest Young Adult book I read in 2011 …

Read the full interview here

NACOA Children of Alcoholics Week

2012-02-10T20:49:00.001Z

Children of Alcoholics Week aims to raise awareness of the problems faced by alcohol-dependent parents, and let children and adults know there is support and advice available.

The campaign is led by the National Association for Children of Alcoholics who provide a Free Confidential Telephone Helpline 0800 358 3456, plus advice for children, parents and teachers on their website, or you can email helpline@nacoa.org.uk

Here's a short video from NACOA explaining some of the important work they do.

The single, A Change is Gonna Come was specially recorded by Maria McAteer, Bjorn Dahlberg and the Stanford Quartet for Children of Alcoholics Week in February 2011. The video below was produced by Sean Caveille. You can download the single here from iTunes, and help support NACOA.

Please visit the Children of Alcoholics Week website, to find out more.

Thanks.

National Libraries Day – Why are libraries so important?

2012-02-03T13:44:00.000Z

Saturday 4th February is National Libraries Day in the UK. A day to show support and solidarity for our public library service – a day to visit your local library and take out some books. It doesn’t matter if you’re no longer a member or have lost your card. Go down and rejoin – it’s free! Take the family and friends and see what your local library has to offer, you could well be pleasantly surprised.

There are over two hundred events being held at libraries across the country. Click here to find out what's happening near you.

In the last twelve months my local library opening hours have been reduced. It's a trend affecting branches across the country. In addition many libraries have been closed and many more are under threat. So what? You might say. In the current times of austerity, everyone is feeling the pinch. Funding is being taken from the police service, hospitals and schools. Why are libraries so important?

Is a fair question. Voices for the Library provide some answers here.

But I thought I’d ask my fellow authors at the Edge, what libraries mean to them. Click here to read what they said.

For further information, please visit the following:

Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals
Voices for the Library
Alan Gibbons' Campaign for the Book
The Bookseller Fight for Libraries Facebook page
The Reading Agency

You can tweet your support using the #NLD12 hashtag.

See you down the library!
Cheers, Dave.

15 Days Without a Head in bookshops now!

2012-01-29T19:35:00.000Z

I'm not sure I'll ever get lose the thrill of seeing my book in a bookshop. More than any other part of the process, finding a copy on the shelves makes it finally feel real.
I was delighted to walk into my local branch of Waterstones and find 15 Days Without a Head at number six in the Kids' Chart!

And number ten in the store paperback chart!

Huge thanks to the staff at Waterstones and to everyone who has been in to buy a copy.

During my recent schools tour, I spent a day with Nigel French from Cole's Books in Bicester. After a great morning with students from years 7 and 8 at The Cooper School, we managed to find time to grab half an hour to browse his fantastic bookshop.

I was extremely chuffed to find myself next to Phil Earle on the display. Cole's are selling signed copies of 15 Days Without a Head through their website, with free postage and packing to UK addresses. (see the link in the sidebar)

It was also a pleasant surprise to walk into my local Empire cinema to find 15 Days postcards on the racks, next to Sky Hawk (a superb book by fellow OUP author, Gill Lewis)

But possibly the best thing about the past few weeks has been going into schools and having the opportunity to meet students, and talk to them about books, writing and wanting to be an astronaut! The response to 15 Days Without a Head has been fantastic. So a big thanks to the staff and students at The Broxbourne School*, St Gregory the Great and King Alfred's Academy in Oxford, The Cooper School in Bicester and Bruern Abbey, Oxfordshire – for their time, enthusiasm and cake!*

Blog Tour #10: 15 Days Without a Head – On Location.

2012-01-17T09:00:00.000Z

After fifteen days on the road, the blog bus doesn't smell quite as sweet as it did when we started. It's been a great trip though, stopping off at some of the best book blog sites on the internet and meeting some fantastic folk in the process.
Appropriately enough, our final stop brings us all the way back home to Hardacre. We've parked the bus in Parkview Parade, under the shadow of The Heights, and are taking Cicely on a tour of some of the locations used in 15 Days Without a Head. Why not click over to Cicely Loves Books and join us.

Blog Tour #9: A Day in the Life of an Author – Photo Story!

2012-01-16T10:27:00.000Z

Join me for a day in my life as an author, at Heaven, Hell & Purgatory – today's stop on the 15 Days Without a Head Blog Tour.

Blog Tour #8: Dave's Dozen Wondrous Reads!

2012-01-14T14:54:00.000Z

For today's stop on the 15 Days Without a Head Blog Tour, I'll be visiting Wondrous Reads to talk about my top twelve books of all time … so far!

Blog Tour #7: My Dream Holiday - if you can dream it, you can go!

2012-01-12T10:17:00.000Z

In 15 Days Without a Head, Laurence attempts to win an all-expenses-paid holiday of a lifetime courtesy of local travel company, Hardacre Holidaze. Readers sometimes ask what my dream holiday would be like …

You can find out at The Book Zone (For Boys) – today's stop on the 15 Days Without a Head Blog Tour.

Blog Tour #6: What's in a Name?

2012-01-11T10:28:00.000Z

Find out the tale behind the title at The Overflowing Library – today's stop on the 15 Days Without a Head Blog Tour.

Blog Tour #5: "Give your ears a go on these!" - Mina's playlist for Laurence

2012-01-09T00:39:00.000Z

After a great fantasy dinner party with Sister Spooky, the 15 Days Without a Head BLOG TOUR is back on the road – only things are getting a little fractious. As we pull up outside Books 4 Teens, Mina is putting Laurence straight, regarding what he should be listening to on the Blog Bus Stereo …

Blog Tour #4: The Heights of Sophistication: My Fantasy Dinner Party

2012-01-07T01:00:00.000Z

What happens when you put a world famous detective, a future-world assassin and a tunnelling dwarf on a roof together, and hand them each a bag of chips?

Find out at today's stop on the 15 Days Without a Head BLOG TOUR, when we join Sister Spooky for a fantasy dinner party at The Heights.

Publication Day! Wahey!

2012-01-05T10:48:00.001Z

Huge congratulations to my fellow Edge authors Sara Grant and Katie Dale on the publication of their debut novels. The first two of Katie's Fairy Tale Twists series for younger readers are published today by Orchard, and Sara's excellent dark dystopian YA novel Dark Parties, by Orion.

Today is also the third date on my 15 Days Without a Head Blog Tour. I'll be returning to chat with Vivienne at Serendipity Reviews as well as dropping in to see Emma at Book Angel Booktopia to choose the Song of the Month.

Oh, and 15 Days Without a Head is now officially out. Wahey!

1 Day Without a Book! Countdown to Publication #15: On my desk – objects no writer should be without

2012-01-04T10:40:00.000Z

15 Days Without a Head will be in bookshops tomorrow! By way of celebration, I have been publishing a new post here every day, for the 15 days leading up to publication. The idea was to provide a few bonus items, such as you'd expect to find on the extras disc of a DVD. Today is the last of the 15 posts. To read the rest, scroll down or see the archive at the bottom of the sidebar. Thanks to everyone who has been following and left comments. But this is by no means the end!

Today is the second stop on the 15 Days Without a Head Blog Tour, where I'll be visiting some of the best book blog sites on the internet to talk about 15 Days, writing, books, music and The World's Largest Rubber Band Ball …

To find out more, join me over at Feeling Fictional and take a tour of the attic where I write.

Tomorrow: 15 Days Without a Head will be available in the bookshops and I'll be visiting Serendipity Reviews and choosing the Song of the Month, for Book Angel Booktopia.

2 Days Without a Book! Countdown to Publication #14: 15 Days Without a Head On Tour!

2012-01-03T10:57:00.000Z

15 Days Without a Head will be in bookshops in 2 days time. By way of celebration, I will be publishing a new post here every day, leading up to publication on Thursday. The idea is to provide a few bonus items, such as you'd expect to find on the extras disc of a DVD – except these will be available before the main feature of course.

Today is the first day of the 15 Days Without a Head Blog Tour, where I'll be stopping off at some of the best book blog sites on the internet to talk about 15 Days, writing, books, music and Monster Munch, probably!

The first stop on the tour is Writing from the Tub, where I talk about writing in the first person and what it was like inhabiting Laurence's head. To read the blog and check out the other great reviews and articles on Writing from the Tub, click here.

Tomorrow: Take a tour of my writing room with Feeling Fictional.

3 Days Without a Book! Countdown to Publication #13: 15 Days Without a Head Original Soundtrack

2012-01-02T00:02:00.000Z

15 Days Without a Head will be in bookshops in 3 days time. By way of celebration, I will be publishing a new post here every day, leading up to publication on Thursday. The idea is to provide a few bonus items, such as you'd expect to find on the extras disc of a DVD – except these will be available before the main feature of course.

The start of my musical adventure – check out the carpet!

Music has always played a big part in my life. I was lucky enough to spend nearly ten years touring and recording with a band, and was nearly famous! My leather trousers have long since been retired, though I still pick up a guitar most days and keep a stack of vinyl records in the attic for those moments when I need a blast. I envy writers who can actually write with music on. I’ve read that Stephen King listens to rock while he works, but there are others who need absolute silence – William Hussey, for instance, often writes with earplugs in.

I think I’m somewhere in between. I certainly can’t write while listening to music with words, and usually work in silence, but during the final stages of 15 Days Without a Head, I created an eight hour playlist of instrumental music which helped me through the long, and often late, hours I spent revising the manuscript. (Big thanks to RF who introduced me to much of the music on the list.)

I’ll often compile a soundtrack for the book I’m working on, it provides a reference for the mood I’m trying to create. Playlists for characters can be useful too, as it helps to get inside their heads. (A couple of the stops on my Blog Tour will be dealing with this in more detail, including Mina’s playlist for Laurence)

The one below is a small selection of the music I was actually listening to while working on the book. The Original Soundtrack album, if you like …

1. Biosphere – People Are Friends

2. Arctic Monkeys – The View from the Afternoon

(I think the video for this is brilliant. It captures the cold concrete essence of The Heights and Laurence's belligerent determination to survive. Great track too!)

3. Gonzales – Overnight

4. Max Richter – Autumn Music 1
(I dubbed this one Laurence’s theme)

5. Max Richter – Sunlight
(And this one for Mina)

6. Elliott Smith – Taking a Fall

(There had to be one from Elliott and some of the words from this seemed apt.)

7. Stars of the Lid – Down 3

8. Doves – Black and White Town

("There's a saying round here that goes: How do you know when you reached rock bottom? Answer: You wake up in The Heights")

9. The Cinematic Orchestra – Prelude

10. Tord Gustavsen Trio – At Home

Tomorrow: is the first stop on my 15 Days Without a Head Blog Tour when I’ll be visiting Writing From The Tub to talk about Getting inside Laurence’s Head.

4 Days Without a Book! Countdown to Publication #12: You make your own luck! Customs to welcome in the New Year.

2012-01-01T00:30:00.000Z

15 Days Without a Head will be in bookshops in 4 days time. By way of celebration, I will be publishing a new post here every day, leading up to publication on Thursday. The idea is to provide a few bonus items, such as you'd expect to find on the extras disc of a DVD – except these will be available before the main feature of course.

The theme of luck runs throughout 15 Days Without a Head. DJ Baz, is constantly asking Laurence, “Do you feel lucky?” This was deliberately ironic, given that for most of the book Laurence is having a hard time and could be forgiven for thinking he is the unluckiest person in the world. It is only when Laurence feels that fate is so stacked against him, that he might as well give up, that he remembers his Nanna's belief that luck can be influenced:

“You make your own luck – that’s what Nanna used to say. She believed that if you expected the worst, that’s what you’d get. But if you counted on good things happening, then they usually would. The Power of Positive Thought, she called it.”

(from 15 Days Without a Head)

It is strange when you consider that luck, by definition, is random, and yet every day people modify their behaviour in attempts to influence it: not walking under ladders; wearing lucky underpants to watch football (or is that just me?); not opening an umbrella inside the house. There is no scientific reason why these things should change what happens to us, and yet if we break a mirror, many of us might admit to a momentary feeling of uneasiness about the seven years bad luck the superstition warns of.

Given these tendencies, it’s not surprising that there are many New Year customs around the world, designed to bring good luck in the following twelve months. The first twenty four hours are believed to be crucial and will have a huge impact on the fortunes that follow.

Many customs in this country concern themselves with the idea of luck flowing into or out of the house. First-footing is probably the most well known. The details vary from region to region and have evolved over time, but all varieties seem to involve the person doing the first-footing (ie. the first person to enter a dwelling in the New Year) having a lucky characteristic – dark hair, for example – and carrying certain objects – coal, is a common one.

First-footing from Punch, 1897

There were also widely held beliefs in the nineteenth century, that it was inviting bad luck to let anything leave the house on New Year’s Day, especially fire.

“At any other time they would be quite happy to let a neighbour or stranger take a live coal or taper to light their lantern or house fire, but not at New Year.” – The English Year

Another superstition that may provide a legitimate excuse to steer clear of the laundry basket today, is that it was thought to be extremely dangerous to wash clothes on New Year’s Day, as you would be “washing out” one of the occupants of the house (ie. they would die in the following year!) On the other hand, for those fond of washing (themselves) it may be worth noting the Herefordshire custom regarding the “Cream of the Well”. Servants would sit up to see the New Year in and then rush to draw the first water from the well, as it was “thought to be beautifying and lucky. The maid who succeeded in getting it would take it to the bedroom of her mistress, who would give a present for it.” * Unfortunately, I'm not sure the first water from the tap has quite the same properties.

As well as doing everything they could to ‘make their own luck’ for the following year, many people would go so far as to try and obtain a peek into their future.

“before retiring to rest the old women opened their Bibles at haphazard to find out their luck for the coming year. The text on which the forefinger of the right hand rested was supposed to foretell the future.” – Folk-Lore Journal, 1886

Of course, this method left much room for interpretation and was the subject of some discussion during the following day. The bible was the book of choice, but other texts, especially poetry, were seen to be just as effective, especially if you were worried about using the Bible for such a purpose. I did consider trying this using 15 Days Without a Head, but I’ll admit to being a little bit superstitious at the best of times and chickened out. You’re welcome to have a go though, I’d be interested to hear what the pages predict!

Happy New Year!

* Much of the information above was taken from The English Year by Steve Roud, a fascinating book for anyone interested in folklore.

Tomorrow: My 15 Days Without a Head playlist.

5 Days Without a Book! Countdown to Publication #11: And the winner is …

2011-12-31T13:13:00.000Z

15 Days Without a Head will be in bookshops in 5 days time. By way of celebration, I will be publishing a new post here every day, leading up to publication on January 5th. The idea is to provide a few bonus items, such as you'd expect to find on the extras disc of a DVD – except these will be available before the main feature of course.

I started the countdown to publication by running a competition to win a signed copy of 15 Days Without a Head – it's now time to announce the result. Just to prove that everything was fair and above board, here's a video of Dylan making the draw for the winner earlier today.

video no longer available

So, congratulations, Malaika! As Dylan said, we'll be in touch to find out if you would like your copy signed and the delivery details. Thanks to everyone who entered and to my publisher, Oxford University Press for donating a copy of the book.

I'd also like to take this opportunity to thank everyone who has visited this blog and my website over the past twelve months. Your comments and support are much appreciated; it would be a very lonely process without you! I hope to see you again next year.

Wishing everyone the very best for a great 2012.

Dave

Tomorrow: You make your own luck!

6 Days Without a Book! Countdown to Publication #10: What every writer needs – an anarchic ginger cat for company.

2011-12-30T00:30:00.000Z

15 Days Without a Head will be in bookshops in 6 days time. By way of celebration, I will be publishing a new post here every day, leading up to publication on January 5th. The idea is to provide a few bonus items, such as you'd expect to find on the extras disc of a DVD – except these will be available before the main feature of course.

One of the biggest adjustments I had to make when becoming a full-time writer, was dealing with the solitude. Going from a busy design studio to being alone all day in an attic, took a little bit of getting used to. Once the words start to flow, my surroundings tend to fade, but it’s the start of the day when I feel it most, when I climb the ladder and find myself saying good morning to an empty room. There is also the fact that these days, every tea round seems to be my turn.

For some reason I’ve always associated cats with writers, though I’m sure there are just as many, if not more, who own dogs. Maybe it was the scene at the end of Betty Blue, when Zorg sits down to write and the cat appears to keep him company, that made me think our feline friends would make such good writing companions. I read somewhere that Jan Mark’s house was full of cats, whom she conversed with daily, further adding to her legend as a wonderful eccentric, as well as a superb and prolific writer. My all time literary hero, Robert Westall, had many cats and wrote about them frequently, with the kind of depth and understanding that only comes from years of sharing your life with the creatures.

Then there is Albert – the anarchic ginger cat I mention at the back of 15 Days Without a Head.

He is Kato to my Inspector Clouseau – you can never be sure when, and from where, he will leap out next.

Can that rat really do kung-fu?

A Maine Coon, Ragdoll cross-breed, Albert looks like a small lion, with an eighties soft-rock haircut. He’s the most intelligent cat I’ve ever known. Access to the attic where I work each day is achieved by means of a loft ladder. While all our previous cats have sat at the bottom mewing up at me, Albert learnt to climb the ladder. More impressively, he has also worked out how to get into the attic when the ladder is up. There’s a bookcase nearby which would get him part of the way, but after that … I can’t quite explain how he does it. A bit of feline sorcery I suspect.

Off to patrol the roof.

When I first started hanging around the house all day, it took him a while to adjust to my new routine, but these days he is often at the top of the ladder waiting when I ascend to start the day. At least now I’m talking to a cat rather than an empty room. While I check my email and schedule for the day, Albert does his rounds on the roof. The downside of this, is that I have to leave the skylight open until he returns, which on a December morning can be a little draughty. He comes in cold, damp and dirty, and retires to his spot – inside a box of old video tapes. I talk to him more often than is probably healthy, and I haven’t got a clue what he’s saying in reply, but as writing companions go, he’s OK – rubbish at making tea though.

So, it's my turn again is it then?

Entries for the draw to win a signed copy of 15 Days Without a Head must be received by midnight tonight (30 Dec 2011). Click here for details.

Tomorrow: I'll announce the winner!

7 Days Without a Book! Countdown to Publication #9: 15 Days in Pictures

2011-12-29T01:00:00.000Z

15 Days Without a Head will be in bookshops in 7 days time. By way of celebration, I will be publishing a new post here every day, leading up to publication on January 5th. The idea is to provide a few bonus items, such as you'd expect to find on the extras disc of a DVD – except these will be available before the main feature of course.

It's over three years since I started writing 15 Days Without a Head. Here's a diary of sorts – in pictures …

This is a 'cover' treatment I produced as a promo postcard to hand out at a SCBWI Agents Party I attended at the end of 2009. Dylan and Ptol agreed to pose as Jay and Laurence, but I had to mess about with the scaling to make Ptol look taller. The high-key treatment gave the photo a desolate feel that I thought suited the story. It was well received by the agents who saw it, but in hindsight focused far too much on the darker elements of the book. Even the strap line is menacing … not to mention the dead cockroach!

Dylan drew this one for me. I like it a lot, especially Nosy Nelly with the hooked nose peeking out from her flat.

Then he did another version and made it into a mug. Naturally this became my lucky writing mug and had to be used during each evening's writing session. Which reminds me, I must ask him to do one for the book I'm working on now!

My wife sketched this on a napkin in a café. In the book, Mina draws a picture of Laurence and Jay, and I always imagined it would have looked something like this.

The first published extract of 15 Days Without a Head appeared in the SCBWI Undiscovered Voices Anthology in 2010. I'm very fond of this book; it changed my life as an author!

The Sherbet Lemon Special Edition Bound Proofs for 15 Days. The first time I saw the story as a book; a special moment. Nick Cross said you could see them from space.

The final cover for 15 Days Without a Head. The team at Oxford University Press went to a lot of effort to get this right, and I think they did a great job.

My favourite bit of the cover though is the quote from Keith Gray, one of my all time writing heroes.

Only two days left to enter the draw to win a signed copy of 15 Days Without a Head. Click here for details.

Tomorrow: What every writer needs …

8 Days Without a Book! Countdown to Publication #8: 15 Days Fortune Teller – yours to cut out and keep!

2011-12-28T00:57:00.001Z

15 Days Without a Head will be in bookshops in 8 days time. By way of celebration, I will be publishing a new post here every day, leading up to publication on January 5th. The idea is to provide a few bonus items, such as you'd expect to find on the extras disc of a DVD – except these will be available before the main feature of course!

Have you ever imagined yourself as the character in a book? Today, you can download the 15 Days Without a Head Fortune Teller, and find out who from the story is most like you. Do you like pizza? Dogs? Phone boxes?!! Or is an evening beside the radio more your style? Completely scientific, the 15 Days Fortune Teller never lies!

To download the artwork as a PDF, click here.

To download a Jpeg, click here.

Once successfully downloaded, simply print the image on a sheet of A4 paper. Cut out the fortune teller where indicated and then follow the folding instructions below.

Turn the sheet over so that the printed side is face down.
Then fold each of the corners into the centre.

It should now look like picture above, though your
table will probably be less ink stained than mine.

Turn over, and again fold the corners into the centre.

Your fortune teller should now look a lot like the one above.

Fold in half as shown and then turn over
so it looks like the picture below.

This is the tricky bit –
well, I found it difficult, but that could be me.
Stick your fingers under the flaps
to open out the fortune teller as shown above.

Now you are ready to play!

You can consult the fortune teller for yourself or on behalf of a friend.
Step 1. Choose a day of the week and then spell out the word by opening the fortune teller first north to south and then east to west, one move for each letter.
Step 2. Choose one of the pictures and spell out the word beneath in the same way as before.
Step 3. Choose another picture and then carefully lift the flap under the picture to find out who you are!

And that's it. Hours of endless fun – guaranteed!

The 15 Days Fortune Teller was conceived and designed by Dylan. So if you don't like what it says, blame him, not me!

Don't forget I'm giving away a signed (or unsigned, if you prefer) copy of 15 Days Without a Head. Click here for details.

Tomorrow: 15 Days in pictures.

9 Days Without a Book! Countdown to Publication #7: National Association for Children of Alcoholics (NACOA)

2011-12-27T00:30:00.000Z

15 Days Without a Head will be in bookshops in 9 days time. By way of celebration, I will be publishing a new post here every day, leading up to publication on January 5th. The idea is to provide a few bonus items, such as you'd expect to find on the extras disc of a DVD – except these will be available before the main feature of course!

15 Days Without a Head is a work of fiction, but many young people live with problems similar to those faced by Laurence and Jay in the story. In fact, there are an estimated one million children affected by parental alcohol problems in the UK today.

The National Association for Children of Alcoholics provides confidential support and understanding to anyone affected. This includes children of all ages, many whose problems only become apparent in adulthood.

The following video is a brief introduction to the important service NACOA provides:

In 2012, Children of Alcoholics week is 12-18 February. I'll be posting more information here nearer the time, but please visit the website if you would like to get involved.

NACOA Free Confidential Helpline: 0800 358 3456

Email: helpline@nacoa.org.uk

Website: www.nacoa.org.uk

Don't forget I'm giving away a signed (or unsigned, if you prefer) copy of 15 Days Without a Head. Click here for details.

Tomorrow: 15 Days Without a Head Fortune Teller – yours to cut out and keep!

10 Days Without a Book! Countdown to Publication #6: Fun Facts!

2011-12-26T00:30:00.000Z

15 Days Without a Head will be in bookshops in 10 days time. By way of celebration, I will be publishing a new post here every day, leading up to publication on January 5th. The idea is to provide a few bonus items, such as you'd expect to find on the extras disc of a DVD – except these will be available before the main feature of course!

Today, a few facts about 15 Days Without a Head:

Fun Fact #1: The first version of the story thatbecame 15 Days Without a Head was called Somewhere. The title was inspired bythe song from West Side Story, though it was the Tom Waits version I had in myhead (and on my character's iPod.)

Fun Fact #2: In the original version, the brothers Laurenceand Jay were called Jimmi and Danny Harris. Mina was a Scottish girl called Nikki, who lived with her gran, on the floor above Jimmi in the Heights.

FunFact #3: The story opened with a scene in a pub – very much like the real lifeincident that drove me to write it – and ended in a policestation. The journey Jimmi and Danny take in Somewhere is very different to theone Laurence and Jay live through in 15 Days Without a Head. There are lots ofthings I like about the original version, so you never know, there may even be abook in it … someday, somehow, somewhere!

Don't forget I'm giving away a signed (or unsigned, if you prefer) copy of 15 Days Without a Head. Click here for details.

Tomorrow: The National Association for Children of Alcoholics.

11 Days Without a Book! Countdown to Publication #5: A Monster Munch vs Doctor Who Christmas Cake Duel!

2011-12-25T00:30:00.000Z

15 Days Without a Head will be in bookshops in 11 days time. By way of celebration, I will be publishing a new post here every day, leading up to publication on January 5th. The idea is to provide a few bonus items, such as you'd expect to find on the extras disc of a DVD – except these will be available before the main feature of course!

But today is Christmas! So there will be no more talk of books … only cake!

Last year, our Christmas cake was an homage to the wonderful Calvin and Hobbes. This time, in keeping with the countdown to publication of 15 Days, we made a Monster Munch cake. You'll have to read the book to find out why!

Monsters (l to r) Roast Beef, Pickled Onion and Smokey Bacon

A new festive flavour – Marzipan Monster Munch!

Monster Munch and chips – Jay's ideal Christmas cake topping!

Tasty …

And then we made a Doctor Who one … because, well … it is Christmas.

Cybermen, Daleks and The Doctor put aside their differences for a festive snowball fight!

Geroni…snow !!! (sorry)

As Christmas is a time for giving gifts, don't forget I'm giving away a signed (or unsigned, if you prefer) copy of 15 Days Without a Head. Click here for details.

Tomorrow: 15 Days Without a Head – Fun Facts!

12 Days Without a Book! Countdown to Publication #4: I'll do anything for a Scooby Snack! 15 Days and Scooby-Doo!

2011-12-24T00:31:00.000Z

15 Days Without a Head will be in bookshops in 12 days time. By way of celebration, I'm publishing a new post here every day, leading up to publication on January 5th. The idea is to provide a few bonus items, such as you'd expect to find on the extras disc of a DVD – except these will be available before the main feature of course!

‘You stay here and keep a look out Scoob, while I go inside and look for clues,’ I tell him, when we get to the chip shop.
Jay frowns. ‘I want to come with you. Scooby and Shaggy always stay together.’
‘They don’t allow dogs in there Scooby, old pal!’ I’m trying to keep it going, doing the voice and everything; people walking past are staring.
‘I’ll bring you a bag of Scooby Snacks!’
Jay’s lip quivers, but eventually he nods. ‘OK, but don’t be too long.’
My brother has more in common with that dog than he knows.

(from 15 Days Without a Head)

I was a huge fan of Scooby-Doo as a kid. It was one of the cartoons I’d run home from school to watch. This, of course, was back in the days when there were only four channels, and children's television occupied a narrow late afternoon slot before the early evening news. I have to admit that I always thought the credits looked scarier and more exciting than the actual shows, but there was something about Shaggy and Scooby that appealed. They were funny, easy-going and cowardly, yet never deserted each other in a time of crisis. I suppose it was natural that my dog-obsessed character, six-year-old Jay in 15 Days, should choose to identify with Scooby. It is a testament to Hanna-Barbera head writers Joe Ruby and Ken Spears, along with artist and designer, Iwao Takamoto – that Scooby-Doo is still on television nearly thirty years later.

Giant Scooby and Mini Mystery Machine on the shelf in my (somewhat dusty) attic!

Fun Fact: Scooby-Doo was originally entitled Mysteries Five and were a mystery solving band of musicians. Scooby’s character – Too Much – played the bongos!

Scooby must also take some of the credit for the fact that 15 Days Without a Head is being published in 12 days time. When Oxford University Press invited my agent and I to their offices to pitch for the book, they not only got a male member of staff to dress up in women’s clothes and serve dinner (all will become clear if you read the book), they also presented us with a box of home-cooked Scooby Snacks each. I have to admit, that pretty much clinched the deal for me!

Scooby Snacks from OUP. By the time I got home and took the photo the box was half empty!

Don't forget I'm giving away a signed (or unsigned, if you prefer) copy of 15 Days Without a Head. Click here for details.

Tomorrow: it's Christmas!!!

13 Days Without a Book! Countdown to Publication #3: 15 Days Without a Head Book Trailer

2011-12-23T00:06:00.000Z

15 Days Without a Head will be in bookshops in 13 days time. By way of celebration, I will be publishing a new post here every day, leading up to publication on January 5th. The idea is to provide a few bonus items, such as you'd expect to find on the extras disc of a DVD – except these will be available before the main feature of course!

Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, grab your choc-ices and take your seats for the premier showing of the 15 Days Without a Head book trailer!

(cue Pearl & Dean music for those of us old enough to remember it!)

Big thanks to D & J for their production and direction advice during the making of this trailer, and the reviewers for their kind words.

Don't forget I'm giving away a signed (or unsigned, if you prefer) copy of 15 Days Without a Head. Click here for details.

Tomorrow: I'll do anything for a Scooby Snack …

14 Days Without a Book! Countdown to Publication #2: How I Write – Getting into Character

2011-12-22T00:30:00.000Z

15 Days Without a Head will be in bookshops in 14 days time. By way of celebration, I will be publishing a new post here every day, leading up to publication on January 5th. The idea is to provide a few bonus items, such as you'd expect to find on the extras disc of a DVD – except these will be available before the main feature of course!

Today, I'm giving a behind the scenes insight into how I find inspiration when creating a new character …

The video was originally created to celebrate the Society of Children's Book Writers & Illustrators 10th Anniversary. Members were asked to supply a video of themselves writing (or illustrating). This was mine.

I am also happy to announce that the Kindle Edition of 15 Days Without a Head is published today and available for download.

Don't forget I'm giving away a signed (or unsigned, if you prefer) copy of 15 Days Without a Head. Click here for details.

Tomorrow: I'll be unveiling my new 15 Days Without a Head book trailer.

15 Days Without a Book! Countdown to Publication #1: Win a copy of 15 Days Without a Head.

2011-12-21T09:05:00.000Z

15 Days Without a Head will be in bookshops in 15 days time. By way of celebration, I will be publishing a new post here every day for the 15 days leading up to publication on January 5th. The idea is to provide a few bonus items, such as you'd expect to find on the extras disc of a DVD – except these will be available before the main feature of course!

So – in the spirit of St. Thomas’s Day*, I’m going to start by giving away a signed (or unsigned, if you prefer) copy of the book. (Thanks to my publisher, Oxford University Press for donating a copy).

> Sorry, folks! This competition has now closed <

To be entered into the draw, simply click here to email the answer to following question:

Which of the following creatures can live for days without a head?

A – Chicken
B – Cockroach
C – Crab

The closing date for entries is midnight December 30th, 2011. The result will be announced here on New Year’s Eve.

Unfortunately due to postage costs, I can only accept entries from the UK.

* For those who don't know the history of St. Thomas's Day (I didn't) An old English tradition on December 21st, was for women and children to go 'Thomasing' or 'gooding' around the homes of their neighbours for food and money towards their Christmas celebrations.

Tomorrow: How I Write – Getting into Character (AKA The Hat Video!)

31 Days without a book …

2011-12-05T14:31:00.001Z

Only one month (or rather 31 days) to go until 15 Days Without a Head hits the bookshops. Wahey!

By way of celebration, I will be publishing a new post here every day for the 15 days leading up to publication on January 5th. The idea is to provide a few bonus items, such as you'd expect to find on the extras disc of a DVD – except these will be available before the main feature!
As well as a few fun facts about 15 Days Without a Head, I'm hoping to unveil a brand new book trailer, as well as finally posting the 'hat video' a few people might already know – this time with a brand new, original soundtrack. As if that wasn't enough folks, there will also be a chance to win a signed copy of 15 Days Without a Head (or unsigned if you prefer) which I will post out to you BEFORE it becomes available in the shops.
Finally, if there's anything you'd like me to include during the 15 days of extras – any questions you'd like answered etc. please leave a comment here, or email me through my website and I'll do my best to include it. Many thanks.
Look out for the first post on Wednesday 21st of December.

See you soon.

Kids' Lit Quiz and SCBWI Conference Photo Gallery

2011-11-26T21:57:00.001Z

On Monday, six-eights of The Edge spent the afternoon at The Broxbourne School for the North London heat of the Kids' Lit Quiz. There were 28 teams from different schools competing for a place in the UK final on Friday. I was part of one of the two author teams, alongside Fiona Dunbar (Kitty Slade Mysteries), Sita Brahmachari (Artichoke Hearts) and Sophia Bennett (Threads). Despite spending much of the time scratching our heads and marvelling at the speed with which the students answered the quick fire questions, we ended the day as the winning team by a single point. Sadly the author teams don't qualify for the final, but it was a great opportunity to meet so many enthusiastic young readers. Check out Candy Gourlay's write up and superb photos here.

The previous week I was in Winchester for the Society of Children's Book Writers & Illustrators Conference. As promised in the previous post, here are few photos and a video from the Edge panel event.

Spot the baldy! (No prizes I'm afraid)
I'm in there somewhere, sitting next to my editor, Jasmine Richards.

It was a real privilege to listen to Frank Cottrell Boyce.

I even managed to pluck up the courage to say "hello".

Anthony McGowan's Human Powerpoint of Freitag's Pyramid.

This year's cake did not disappoint.

Candy Gourlay, deserved winner of the Crystal Kite Award
for her superb debut, Tall Story.

The Edge Graffiti Wall with Paula Rawsthorne, Sara Grant and I.

Not quite sure what to say about this one …

The Edge panelists get ready for action.
And below a video clip of our body-swapping introduction.

Thanks to Candy Gourlay, Miriam Halahmy and Sara Grant for letting me use their photos.

Five Get Edgy in Winchester

2011-11-17T11:16:00.001Z

This weekend five-eighths of The Edge will be appearing at the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators Conference in Winchester. I’ll be joining Bryony Pearce, Miriam Halahmy, Paula Rawsthorne and Sara Grant on an Edge panel discussing current trends in YA and looking at the benefits and pitfalls of writing edgy fiction, as well as answering questions from the audience. The weekend will also see the first unveiling of the Edge Graffiti Wall. Delegates will be invited to write questions, comments, slogans and even draw pictures on the wall, which the panellists will then discuss during the session. Should be fun … and edgy, of course.

For me, the highlight of last year's conference were the edible books …

Books made of cake. It doesn't get much better than this.

How do you top that? Well, Chris Riddell and Frank Cottrell Boyce as keynote speakers is a good start. Mr Cottrell Boyce in particular, is held in high esteem in our house, so I’ll be taking our much-read copy of Framed along with me, in case I find the courage to go up to the great man and ask him to sign it.

Pictures, and possibly video evidence to follow on my return …

On no account should you read this …

2011-10-07T21:12:00.000+01:00

It was my turn to write the post for The Edge this week. In it I investigate the curious incident of the dog in the locker.

A couple of weeks ago I read an article about a student in an American high school, running a library of banned books from her locker. What started as a small act of rebellion against censorship, turned into something much more significant and interesting, when she discovered that her classmates wanted to borrow and read the books because they had been told they shouldn’t.

Whatever you do, don't click here to read the rest …

Serendipity Review & Big Break Interview

2011-09-30T21:34:00.000+01:00

Earlier this week, I was delighted to receive this great review for 15 Days Without a Head from Serendipity Reviews – not to mention a little bit of extra pressure for the next book!

On finishing this book, the first question that came to mind was - where the hell has Dave Cousins been hiding?

This book is fantastic. I loved it from the first word until the last. In fact this book really took me by surprise, because when I first heard about it, I really wasn't sure it would be one for me. How wrong was I? This book made me feel so comfortable and right at home as soon as I entered the Roach household. The story was refreshing and original and kept me entranced all the way through. I found that the author's writing just sucked me into the story until I felt like an invisible member of the Roach family.

Read more …

I was also lucky enough to be featured in Serendipity Reviews, Big Break interview:

Where did you get the idea for the book?

An incident I witnessed in a pub one afternoon. A really drunk woman arguing with the people at the next table, much to the embarrassment of her sons. It made me wonder what life was like for those two boys, what would happen when they got home. All my stories grow from a spark like that – a character or situation that affects me in some way and makes me care enough to start writing to find out what happens next.

Read more …

Huge thanks to Vivienne at Serendipity Reviews for her support.

Oxford University Press Bloggers' Evening

2011-09-23T22:41:00.000+01:00

On Wednesday I was out and about again, this time in London, for the OUP Bloggers' Evening.

The entrance to the Charlotte Street Hotel is flanked by a pair of Narnia-esque lamp posts, and there's a flag hanging over the doorway; I wasn't sure they'd let me in. Luckily I had best selling author, Joss Stirling with me. As the doorman held open the doors and bowed low to welcome Joss into the building, I took the opportunity to sneak in while nobody was looking.
The room OUP were using was downstairs, and it felt like strolling into a sitting room at the Diogenes Club. I wouldn't have been surprised had Mycroft Holmes risen from one of the armchairs and offered me a brandy.

The Story Chairs, ready and waiting …

Sherlock's brother may not have been there, but I had an equally warm welcome from the OUP publicity team, who were putting the finishing touches the room – which included this mountain of hot chocolate.

OUP Children's Publicity Manager, Harriet Bayly with the hot chocolate mountain.

Joss started the evening by explaining that she'd written Stealing Phoenix, the follow up to the best selling, Finding Sky, for her teenage daughter. This definitely means I'm not in the target audience for the book. Having said that, at the time of writing, I'm over halfway through Stealing Phoenix and completely hooked. It's a paranormal romance/thriller, but feels very real. Phoenix is a great protagonist and there are some truly evil characters in this book, who I'm hoping will meet a suitably gruesome end.

Red books in the red room – waiting to be read. (sorry, about that …)

It was great to hear Joss talk about her inspiration and writing process. Then it was my turn in the chair. I attempted to relate my journey to becoming a published author and the inspiration for 15 Days Without a Head, before giving a short reading, which I thoroughly enjoyed. Nobody threw anything at me or went to sleep, so I think it went OK.

Joss Stirling and I, with our editor, Jasmine Richards.
Here I'm proving the fact that somebody will always pull a stupid face and ruin a perfectly good picture.

Afterwards we had a chance to mingle and talk about books, writing, and Dr. Who – amongst other things. It was a great night and over all too soon. So, a big thanks to everyone who came (some, quite a distance) – to OUP for putting on the event, and the staff at the hotel for making us so welcome and letting me have this hooped pencil to take home as a souvenir.

Yes, I know it's just a pencil – but it's kinda cool.

These pictures were all taken while we waited for the bloggers to arrive. I was so engrossed talking to people afterwards that I forgot to take any more. However, just to prove there were other people there, check out some of the links below to find out what the guests themselves thought of the evening.

www.paulashx-bookreviews.com

www.feelingfictional.com

Getting out more

2011-09-19T23:50:00.000+01:00

I've been spending a lot of time typing in the attic recently, and have noticed I've started talking to the cat. No disrespect to Albert, but I'm not sure it's healthy. I think maybe I need to get out more.

Last week gave me two opportunities to do just that. On Thursday I spent the day in Oxford with my publisher.

My publisher's rather impressive front door.

We discussed plans for a school tour to coincide with the publication of 15 Days Without a Head, then had lunch with the publicity team, my editor and my agent. A definite improvement on sandwiches in the kitchen with the cat.

Friday morning found me stumbling out of bed at four-thirty to catch the 6am train to Birmingham for a Writers in Schools day at the MAC, organised by NAWE. I managed to stay awake and do some work on the journey, and arrived in time to have breakfast with the squirrels in Cannon Hill Park. (Where's Johnny Morris when you need him?)

Judging by his eyes, I suspect this fella was on his way home from a big night out

On the train home I finished reading The Long Weekend by Savita Kalhan. Page-turner is an over-used phrase, but in this case, entirely deserved. A superbly paced thriller with some nice twists and well-rounded characters – I couldn't get to the conclusion fast enough. The Long Weekend deals with child abduction and abuse, but the subject matter is handled deftly, so that the threat feels horribly real without any explicit content. Although the reader doesn't witness any actual abuse, we know it has happened and see the very real consequences in the transformation of the characters. Recommended, but not for younger readers.

The stuff of dreams

2011-08-26T14:57:00.000+01:00

With autumn approaching, preparations for the publication of 15 Days Without A Head are picking up momentum. I received a very strokeable embossed cover proof in the post last week.

Check out the emboss on this!

A lot of work went into the cover and I'm really pleased with the way it looks. I have to admit though, that the part that gets me grinning every time is the quote from Keith Gray – one of my all time writing heroes.

Keith's novel Creepers was one of the books that inspired me to write, and to receive such a great recommendation on the front of my debut is truly the stuff of dreams!

In addition to the cover artwork, I also received a bulging envelope full of 15 Days uncorrected bound proofs with special limited edition lemon yellow covers. The final version will look slightly different inside and have the red and blue cover, but it was great seeing a stack of 15 Days Without A Head in book form.

15 Days Without A Head (Citric Lemon Limited Edition)

The proofs went out to readers at the start of the week and I'm delighted to say that the response I've had so far has been fantastic, including this one from 14-year-old, Rewan Harper, who read the book within a day of receiving his copy!

"This book is truly awesome! It has everything a good book needs. It is funny and witty, but with a serious edge giving the novel another layer. Excellently done!"

And this from Josh Bouvier, who is 12:

"This book is immense, 10/10. I could see everything happening in my head as I read. I really felt for Laurence and couldn't stop myself from thinking of ways to help him out. I didn't want it to stop and now I want another 15 days."

So, quite a good week, all things considered!

A word from the attic

2011-08-12T22:15:00.000+01:00

I've been locked away in the attic for the past couple of weeks, surviving on a diet of tea and shortbread – which keeps me typing, but may mean I have to enlarge the hatch in order to get out again. I'm busy working on my new book for OUP and really enjoying getting back into full-on storytelling mode. I always find first drafts precarious but exciting, especially when characters and events start to take over as I write.

Things have also been happening over at The Edge, with three new books coming out in the past two months, plus a whole host of interviews and features. It was my turn to write the Edge blog post this week – it's about comics and reading, and includes a great Calvin and Hobbes story – have a look if you get the chance.

Cheers for now and happy reading!

The Truth about Paula Rawsthorne …

2011-07-31T15:00:00.002+01:00

I first met Paula Rawsthorne at Foyles bookshop in February of last year, at the launch party for the SCBWI Undiscovered Voices Anthology. At the time, neither of us had a publisher and were somewhat nervous and bemused at finding ourselves in a room full of agents, editors and book industry people.

It's now eighteen months later and Paula's debut novel The Truth about Celia Frost hits the shelves on Monday. Already the response to the book has been fantastic with a real buzz in the industry and great reviews from readers.

But these 15 minute interviews are all about the writing – attempting to peek around the other side of the typewriter and maybe steal a few secrets of how the magic on the page is conjured in the first place.

So, Paula – what's your secret?
Lots of luck and an over active imagination! I was the kind of kid who had imaginary friends when I started school and I pretended I had a limp (but that's a different story).

A limp! In an attempt to get sympathy? Or something more sinister?
Attention seeking drama queen is probably the diagnosis!

Ha! It sounds like you were always focused on medical issues, even as a child. So what was the spark for Celia Frost? Was it your first novel?
Yes, Celia Frost was my first go at writing a novel. Before I'd written short stories for adults. The spark was really the firm idea in my head of what KIND of story I wanted to write. I knew it had to be for YA and I wanted it to be gripping, entertaining, twisting and hopefully thought provoking. From there the image of Celia and Janice Frost came to me.

So, did you make it up as you went along? Or plan the whole thing out?

Once I had the images of Celia and Janice in my head, I suddenly knew that there was something about Celia that Janice wasn't telling her. From that point the plot emerged and evolved. As it's a very twisting tale I worked out crucial plot points along the way and knew the end but, as you know, with writing things can take unplanned turns and that's always exciting.

How long did it take to write? Did you write a few dead ends along the way and have to retrace and try a different route?

I certainly had a few Eureka moments when I suddenly realised what should happen or what a certain character would do, but it never felt like dead ends, it felt more like excavating. I worked when the kids were at school and in the end it took a school year to write.

That's fast! It doesn't sound like you suffer writer's block or have that point, about a third of the way through, where you lose faith – like many writers seem to.

I was fortunate not to get writer's block but at times I suffered badly from lazy, faffingitis!! Eventually, I conned myself that periods watching Home Under the Hammer was time well spent as something was bound to be fermenting in the depths of my mind (hopefully to do with the story)

Yes, allowing your subconscious to mull the story over without interference. That's work.

With Celia about to hit the shelves, I know you've been working on your next book for Usborne. How's it going? How did you decide what to write next? Did you have a few ideas to choose from?

I'm glad you agree, Dave! I was lucky to get a two book deal with Usborne and they have been wonderful to me. The only thing they asked of me was to write another thriller, so I went away and had a very big think and put in a synopsis that they really seemed to like. Then they said – off you go and write it (and gave me a delivery date!)

Paula signing books at the recent launch for Celia Frost

I've now written half of it but need to quicken my pace. All the lovely publicity and work to do around Celia Frost has been great but it's taken me away from Book 2. I got to a point were I just had to put Book 2 to one side for a while to make the best job of the book tour, events, writing articles etc. I'm looking forward to getting stuck into it again, very soon.

Can you tell us what it's called, or any other sneak previews?

I only have a working title at the moment. It's like having a baby – with some, you know what you want to call it even before it makes an appearance (Celia Frost) but with this one I'm going to have to wait and see what suits it once it's delivered! The only thing I can tell you about it at the moment is that it has a shocking opener and events unfold from that. Plus I was getting far too involved with all the characters so it's probably best i've had a break from them.

I take it then, that this time you're working to more of an outline than you did with Celia. How are you finding that?

Yes, definitely. In fact, this time I went and got a corkboard and note cards and basically made a storyboard. This felt quite comforting but events and plot lines are still emerging and taking on a life of their own – which I love.

What's your daily writer's routine now you're published and have all the other things, besides writing, to take care of?

Paula's guilty secret? Coffee and cake to summon the muse!

It's not ideal, but as I'm giving up full-time work at the end of this month, I'm hoping my day will be a bit more like yours, especially regarding the cake!

Is there any advice you would give to the Paula who sat down to write The Truth About Celia Frost ?

I've just consulted my kids on this and they've said "Don't eat some many cakes!" I'd say "Paula, this is a bloody long shot but you only live once so keep the faith sister and get that book written!"

Ah, you can never eat too much cake! Good advice. Keeping the faith as a writer is half the battle! You did and look at you now!

Finally, what question do you wish I'd asked you? And what would your answer have been? You can consult with the kids again if you like. Or how about – what question do you wish I'd asked and also what question do they think I should have asked?

Kids would have asked how much T.V I watched when I was meant to be working.

Mine is- how do you manage to write having to share a laptop with three kids trying to get on the internet all the time!?

Good questions! And what would your answers be?

HA, HA- The kids will never know!

And- it's a miracle I get anything done because as soon as I leave my chair (even to go to the loo) one of them jumps on it!!

Maybe it's time you pestered Usborne to buy you your own!

Thanks for sharing 15 minutes of your time with us Paula, and thanks also to your guys for their input.

The Truth about Celia Frost is published on Monday, 1st Aug, available from all good book shops and online here.

To find out more about Paula and Celia check out:

www.celiafrost.co.uk

http://edgeauthors.blogspot.com

Follow Paula and Celia on Twitter

The Truth About Celia Frost on Facebook

Top 6 procrastination techniques used when I should be writing

2011-07-24T23:18:00.000+01:00

1. Writing a blog post listing my top 6 procrastination techniques. (At least I won't be able to use this one again for a while.)
2. Checking email – this is a bad one. A real time sponge.
3. Letting all my Twitter followers know that I am writing, when clearly, what I'm actually doing is twittering …
4. Research. There's a time for research and a time for writing. When I'm drafting I'm sometimes tempted to go and look something up, find a clever name for a character for example, when what I should do is just put anything in for now and keep going.
5. Walking to the local shop for bread / milk / biscuits / cat food / chocolate (delete as applicable) One needs to be properly prepared before summoning the muse.
6. Organising my books alphabetically by the protagonist's first name. I suspect this is actually beyond the realm of procrastination though and far more serious. I mean, first of all you have to remember who the lead character is, and what if there's two? The Pigman for example? Should that be filed under J for John or L for Lorraine?

This could take all night …

Reading and Writing

2011-07-17T22:20:00.001+01:00

How much does the ability to write well, depend on how dedicated a reader you are?

For those of us trying to write around the demands of a day job and family, time reading somebody else’s words would surely be better spent creating our own? That’s a logic I have followed from time to time over the years, but one I eventually found to be false – in my case at least. These days I tend to agree with Stephen King, who said, “If you don’t have time to read, then you don’t have the time (or the tools) to write.”

Me, doing a tough work-out (photo: Dylan Cousins)

Over the years I’ve noticed that when I’m not reading every day, my writing flows less freely. An obvious analogy would be the sporting one: that reading is an important part of maintaining a level of writing fitness, like a footballer exercising in a gym. The activity has little to do with football, but will greatly affect his ability to play well. When I’m reading a lot, my writing feels natural, instinctive – fitter, if you like. Or as The King puts it: “Constant reading will pull you into a place where you can write eagerly and without self-consciousness.” For me, it’s about filling my subconscious with words and stories – the rhythm of sentences and paragraphs, the pace of a well spun yarn.

“Every successful writer I know is also a great reader.” – Robert Cormier

When I started to write, I worried that my own stories, or rather my voice, would start to sound like whatever I was reading, but that didn’t happen. Instead, I find that reading somebody else's words helps to clear my head, and stops me thinking about my own for a while, so I'm fresher when I return.

But what about you? I’d be interested to hear other people’s experience of how reading sits alongside their own writing. Does it help? Does it interfere? Does it matter what you read? Please leave a comment and let me know. Thanks.

Fifteen minutes with Bryony Pearce, author of Angel's Fury

2011-07-03T15:56:00.000+01:00

Available from Monday 4th July

Cassie has suffered from nightmares her whole life. After a terrifying school trip to Germany, she discovers that she has lived before and that all of her past lives are being manipulated by a fallen angel who is bent on destroying mankind ...

Bryony Pearce, author of Angel's Fury, was waiting by the derelict church at the end of the lane. I wondered why she had chosen this place for our fifteen minute interview, until I followed her into the churchyard and saw the granite angel perched on a tomb. I switched on my tape recorder and began the interview, but as we walked, I could feel those stone eyes watching …

Hi, Bryony, thanks for sparing us fifteen minutes of your time.
Angel's Fury comes out on Monday – are you excited? It must seem a long time ago that you sat down to write the book?

I started writing Angel’s Fury at the beginning of 2008, the first draft took me about seven months. So I can’t believe it’s now the end of June 2011 already. I'm really excited, but mainly nervous. I guess because I've had the book for a while, the big thing about the launch for me, is that other people can now get hold of it. I'm worried about opening up my Amazon page one day and finding a bunch of reviews! I guess it would be worse if there weren’t any ...

Yes, anything is better than being ignored – I think. Once the book is on the shelves I suppose we have to take a step back, leave it to make its own way in the big bad world!

If you could give a piece of advice to the Bryony who started to write Angel's Fury three years ago, what would it be?

There's no rush! I have a tendency to get a bit insane when I'm writing – and reading – and focus on it too much, to the exclusion of other things. I did the initial rewrite when Riley was a baby - I spent the first three months of his life working like mad. I'll never get that time back. Of course, if I'd gone slower, I might not have got that publishing contract.

It’s difficult getting that balance right. I suffer similar guilt at the amount of time I spend writing when I could, possibly should, be doing other things.

I'm always interested in other writer's processes, so can I ask you a bit about how you write? Are you a discovery writer or a planner?

Planner, definitely! For my first book I only planned out half, then I wrote the second half as I went. My feedback from publishers was that the first half was great, but the second half was a mess. Message received. I planned Angel's Fury from start to finish and it sold.

I like to plan - for me it means I know where I'm going, I know what kind of foreshadowing, motifs etc. need to go in, and at each point I know how far I have left to go – which can be quite motivational. Also I know what needs to happen in each chapter - which is important when you can't sit and write for solid chunks of time - I need to be able to pick up two or three days later and know exactly what needs to happen next.

Did you stick to the plan? Did Angel's Fury end up as the book you set out to write?

Certainly the first draft did. I had to make some fairly big editorial changes, but this final version is the book I would have planned to write if I could have imagined myself writing this well – editors improve your writing so much ... well mine anyway. I had to lose a couple of things along the way – the title and one of my main characters – but I'm really proud of my book.

That's brilliant. After so much work and many days of doubt (if you're anything like me!) to end up with something you are proud of is great. What was the original title, by the way?

The original title was 'Incarnation'. The publisher was concerned that some potential readers wouldn't know what it meant. Also Angels are very ‘in’ right now and they wanted to capitalise on the fact that the book has an angel in it. They're probably right, but it was a bit like someone suddenly saying 'you know, I like the name of your kid, but I'm going to start calling her Emily instead of Maisie, OK?'. It's hard to get your head round.

Does planning mean you don't ever suffer 'writer's block'? If you do, how do you 'unblock'!?

I don't suffer from writers block often. I do suffer from writers malaise though - which is when I lose my mojo and just can't be bothered to write - but that's not the same thing. With both block and malaise, my solution is to write through it. With a plan in place I can do that. Just keep on going, no matter how rubbish it is, and once I've got my groove back on, I can go back and fix the blah part. I sound like Austin Powers now, don't I?

Yeah, baby!

So, what are you working on now?

I'm actually taking a break. I've written two books since Angel's Fury – The Society and Windrunner's Daughter – and I have another one I'm about five chapters into. Windrunner is with my agent and I'm sure he'll have lots of changes to send to me in a while, but in the meantime, I've decided to chill out for a bit and enjoy my book launch. Well, I say, 'I've decided', my brain switched off when I sent WD to Sam, but at some point it will kick back in again – as it does – and start screaming at me to get going on another story, but until then ... time off. Sad to be dictated to by an organ isn't it?

Quite a vital one though, and possibly the supplier of the magic, so probably best to keep on friendly terms.

On the subject of enjoying the book launch, do you have any plans for Monday – the day Angel’s Fury officially lands on the shelves? Are you going to march into your local book shop and buy a copy? Or will you be having a quiet toast at home with the family and doing the happy dance in the back garden? Or maybe just sleeping off the hangover?

I'm having a party on Sunday, so I had planned to be sleeping off the hangover, however, my editor has invited me down to London for lunch and asked me to sign some books – given that you can now pre-order signed copies on Amazon, I wonder if that is somehow related. Tempted by the offer of decent Thai food, I will be spending two hours on a train (both ways), having lunch with Philippa (my editor), Sam (my agent) and Jo (from my publicity team), then book signing and hanging around London till the off peak trains start to run again. I'd love to find my book in a shop in London and take a picture of myself with it, but I'm not sure that'll happen just yet. Might be a bit early.

Sounds like a good way to spend the day, though I don't envy you that early train journey south!

My fifteen minutes is just about up, but before we go – what question do you wish I'd asked? And what would your answer have been?

That's a hard one. Really hard. How about …

(You) I notice you like Thai food. … Would you like me to order you a takeaway?

(Me) Yes please!

Ha! What is it about authors and food bribes? Bill Hussey wanted a pint and Miriam Halahmy, dark chocolate.

Cheap dates …

And with that Bryony departed. I looked for the stone angel on the way out, but couldn't find it. I suppose we must have left by a different gate …

Angel’s Fury is available from Monday 4th July at all good book shops and online here. Signed copies are also available from Amazon.

For more news from Bryony, check out her current blog tour (see left) or visit

www.bryonypearce.co.uk

http://edgeauthors.blogspot.com

Great book blogs to visit

2011-06-27T21:44:00.001+01:00

This week I'm saving my planned post for another time, in order to re-direct you to a couple of other book blogs well worth a visit.

A good place to start is the excellent Notes from the Slushpile, for the first instalment of their That'll be the Debut feature – an interview by Candy Gourlay with Edge authors Bryony Pearce, Katie Dale and I. The piece took the form of a conversation between the four of us, about our experiences of being debut authors. It was great fun to be involved and makes for an interesting read.

On The Edge blog itself, Katie Dale asks why so few teen books from other countries make it onto UK bookshelves and considers cultural reference points that are somehow Lost in Translation.

As part of Fluttering Butterflies Awesome Women series, Keren David talks about the women who inspired her life and her writing.

And yet another Edge author, Paula Rawsthorne is this week's debut author on the brilliant Tall Tales & Short Stories blog.

Then there are the fascinating Writing Room Revelations running on Nicky Schmidt's Absolute Vanilla, featuring Meg Rosoff, Nicola Morgan, Keren David, Jon Mayhew and Miriam Halahmy to name just a few.

Finally, it's always worth stopping off to see what Nick Cross has to say at Who Ate My Brain. This week Nick poses the question of re-readability.

Thanks and happy browsing …

Independent Booksellers' Week

2011-06-18T23:21:00.003+01:00

Today sees the start of Independent Booksellers' Week. Throughout the next seven days, independent book shops all over the UK will be holding special events involving authors, readers and booksellers. The initiative is part of the IndieBound campaign to promote independent bookshops and the role they play in developing strong reading communities, as well as the idea of shopping locally and sustainably.

I was at an event recently where the an indie bookshop owner described how they try to buy books that reflect their local area. They get to know their readers' tastes and see themselves very much as serving the community. Of course there are certain bestselling titles they have to stock, but they will consider any book, however niche or unusual, if they think it has merit and will appeal to their customers. This for me has always been the beauty of the indie shops – they are places to browse and talk to the staff, and their shelves are filled with potential gems.

Imagine a world with no bookshops – a climate where publishers refused to take a risk on new talent unless they could guarantee bestseller status. How many great stories would we lose as a result?

So in the spirit of Independent Bookseller Week, why not buy a book from your local bookshop this week. Visit the Indiebound indie bookstore locator to find your nearest shop hosting an IBW event. Or the Booksellers Association to search for all booksellers in your local area by postcode.

Here are a few of my favourites (send me links to yours):
Victoria Park Books, Hackney
The Owl Bookshop, Kentish Town
The Lion & Unicorn, Richmond
Tales On Moon Lane, Herne Hill

Tell me a story

2011-06-11T23:51:00.000+01:00

In the past fifteen days I’ve read a total of eight novels, two poetry collections and a short story anthology … or rather, I’ve had them read to me. (I realize some people do actually read that fast, but I’m a slow reader; two novels a month is about average for me.) I’d like to tell you that Anton Lesser himself popped round to read me Geraldine McCaughrean’s brilliant Death Defying Pepper Roux, but hearing him read the audio book was almost as good and great deal more portable.

I can still quote large chunks of these stories off by heart

When I first discovered story tapes they came on cassette and vinyl. As a kid, I spent many happy afternoons in my bedroom, constructing Airfix models while listening to James Herriot read from his series of vet books. Looking back, I realize that the glue and paint fumes probably helped provide a slightly psychedelic Alice in Wonderland twist to my experience of Herriot’s Yorkshire, which the subsequent TV series never quite matched.

By the time I returned to audio books years later, I found they were now unabridged and available on CD – a perfect distraction for the kids on long car journeys and wet holidays. (There is an area around the Llyn Peninsula in Wales that I will always associate with Terry Pratchett’s Wee Free Men.)

Story CDs also provided a less daunting introduction to new books for the kids, particularly the boys. Our copy of Alan Bennet reading Wind in the Willows was passed between all three of them and became a regular – and I mean, regular – feature on the car stereo. When it was eventually retired from active duty, the youngest had graduated to Alex Ryder and Artemis Fowl – first on CD, borrowed from the library, and then the books themselves.

Old Skool Rare Paddington Bear vinyl (B4 he went electric)

For me, audio books mean I can read more than I would otherwise have time to. I will also try things I wouldn’t have picked up in printed form, knowing that my bookcase of unread books is already over-flowing. I can listen on my walk to work, at home in the kitchen, in the car. I still read – there’s nothing quite like holding a book in your hand – but I know I’d have missed out on some great stories if I hadn’t been able to borrow them on CD. This is one of the many reasons I’d be very sad to see my local library close, because audio books are expensive, but you can borrow them from the library for free – which still amazes me. Prices are coming down though and increasingly books are available for download from Amazon and specialist sites like Audible.

My debut novel 15 Days without a Head will be published in January. I can’t wait to be able to walk into a book shop and pick a copy of the shelf. But, without wishing to be greedy, I do fantasize that one day somebody might want to make it into an audio book. I know I shouldn’t admit to this, but I’ve already decided who I’d like to read it!

A Moveable Feast

2011-06-04T22:41:00.000+01:00

Writers have long held associations with cafés – Ernest Hemingway meticulously documented his time writing in Parisian coffee shops and bars in the 1920s, while it is well known that JK Rowling wrote much of the Harry Potter books in The Elephant House café in Edinburgh.

Somewhere warm and dry for JK to create her magic

But what is it that attracts authors to cafés? Is it simply that they offer somewhere warm and dry to sit and write for the small price of a cuppa? I know some writers who need to get out of the house to work, and find the bustle of the local coffee shop helps to focus their attention, while at the same time removing them from the temptation of Facebook or the lure of daytime TV ‘research’. The fact that cafés are frequently found actually inside bookshops these days, would suggest that books and a warm beverage somehow belong together. After all, there is something almost decadent about settling down with a brew and a good book - whether it’s already written or not!

Like most writers I take any opportunity I can to write or read or do a bit of editing. When travelling I'll find myself seeking out the nearest café if I have time to spare between trains or events. It was while walking round one particular city in the rain, tired and hungry, on a fruitless search for a café, when it occurred to me it would be useful if there was a writers' guide to cafés – especially those sympathetic to a scribbler nursing the same skinny latté for an hour or so. As far as I know, no such guide exists, so I thought we could create one here.

Here's one in Barmouth, Wales, to get us going …

Therefore I’m asking for your café recommendations. It can be somewhere local or a place you stumbled upon in your travels, it doesn't matter. Just let me know the name and address – a picture would be great if you have one – and I’ll compile a list online. Then, the next time you're in Brecon or Belfast, Brechin or Birmingham, with time to spare and words to scribe, you'll know where to go for a good brew and a quiet corner to be inspired.

I'll be posting a few of my own classic coffee shops over the next few months, so watch this space.

Writing a Novel (Part Three): Good Days and Full Bin Days

2011-05-14T22:31:00.000+01:00

Since handing over 15 Days without a Head to my publisher, I've been sitting down each day to write what I hope will become my next book. Some days the writing flows and I get lost in the story, sailing through a thousand words and barely noticing the time passing. Others are more difficult. When I'm not sure where the story goes, or when the words on the screen feel wrong.

Having a Full Bin Day

I call these Full Bin Days – when each page is metaphorically torn from the typewriter, screwed up and tossed in the bin. These are the days when writing anything feels like an act of faith, continuing to type even though your brain and every cell in your body is telling you it's a waste of time.

On these occasions, I find it sometimes helps to remind myself that I'm not alone – that better writers than me have suffered days like these. Over the years I've amassed a collection of quotes to help me through such dark hours of doubt. I thought I might share a few, just in case anybody out there might be having a Full Bin Day too …

"Most days feel useless. I don't seem to accomplish anything – just a few pages, most of which don't seem very good. Yet, when I put all those wasted days together, I somehow end up with a book of which I'm very proud. Somehow I've now written eighteen books." Louis Sachar

"If you're going to make a living at this business … you have to realise that a lot of the time, you're going to be writing without inspiration. The trick is to write just as well without it as with. Of course, you write less readily and fluently without it; but the interesting thing is to look at the private journals and letters of great writers and see how much of the time they just had to do without inspiration. Conrad, for example, groaned at the desperate emptiness of the pages he faced; and yet he managed to cover them. Amateurs think that if they were inspired all the time, they could be professionals. Professional know that if they relied on inspiration, they'd be amateurs." Philip Pullman

"There's a lot of hard graft along the way. It feels precarious. I suppose it's like sculpting. You keep working away at a formless blob until some kind of form emerges. What keeps you working is the certainty that there is something in there." Julie Bertagna

"No topic is perfect. You just have to shut up and write." Natalie Goldberg

"She said, 'The way to say something is just to start saying the start of it, then everything will come out.'" From Clay, by David Almond

"It's important to write regularly. Discipline is as important as talent, perhaps even more important – a lot of books don't get written simply because talented people never sit down and actually write." Robert Cormier

"I've listened for years to the reasons why the book is not being published … he wants it to be perfect, so it will never happen. If you look at the first copy of The Big Issue, it is rubbish compared to what it has become. It was done very quickly. I didn't want it to be the best magazine in the world. If I had, I would still be waiting to launch it." John Bird, founder of The Big Issue.

And finally, my favourite, from The King himself:

"Sometimes you have to go on when you don't feel like it, and sometimes you're doing good work when it feels like all you're managing is to shovel shit from a sitting position." Stephen King

Taking a Dark Ride in the Owl Bookshop

2011-05-06T22:27:00.000+01:00

Action shot: me buying a copy of Dark Ride

On Wednesday evening I returned to the Owl Bookshop in Kentish Town for the launch of Caroline Green's debut, Dark Ride. I met Caroline for the first time at Miriam Halahmy's book launch last month (Yeah, I know, a writer's life is just one party after another). When Caroline told me that Dark Ride was about a girl who meets a strange boy living in an abandoned fairground, I knew I wanted to read it. Seaside towns, especially out of season when the piers and fairgrounds are deserted and desolate, always feels like they are full of stories, and this one sounded great.

Miriam Halahmy with chocolate!

Once again the bookshop aisles were packed with people. I managed to catch up with a few friends, including fellow 'Edgar', Miriam Halahmy, and was able to present her with the chocolate I owed her for the interview she did here last month. However, collect too many writers together in a room lined with books, and strange things start to happen. When I found myself standing with Candy Gourlay, Nick Cross and Sue Hyams, excitedly developing an idea for a picture book about a sheep serial killer, I knew it was time to leave – but not before getting my book signed. The line was long and unruly, but it meant I got to meet the queue-jumping Anthony McGowan, and discuss tea and ukuleles while we waited.

Nick Cross and Candy Gourlay, before the serial killer moment

Caroline, still smiling at the end of the queue!

I read the first four chapters of Dark Ride on the train home and was so engrossed I almost missed my stop – the sign of a good book I think. But don't take my word for it. Check out the trailer and read an excerpt here.

Dark Ride is available now, published by Piccadilly Press.

Writing a Novel (Part Two): A Place to Write

2011-04-30T22:52:00.000+01:00

Welcome to the second part of my series looking at the process of writing a novel. Part One: What to Write? can be read here.

One of the great things about writing is that it doesn’t require a lot of equipment – something to write with and something to write on, and you’re sorted. If you're really stuck, you can breathe on a window and write with your finger! Obviously if you’re going to attempt to be published, eventually you will need to get your words typed-up, but there’s a lot of writing required before getting to that stage.

A common excuse for not writing, along with not having the time (which I’ll look at in a later post) is not having a quiet space. I know that some writers need absolute silence and solitude in order to work. Bill Hussey locks his door, and sometimes even uses ear-plugs; by contrast Frank Cottrell Boyce has talked of finding the clamour of a house full of children inspiring.

Miriam Halahmy wrote much of Hidden in cafés

Most of us are somewhere in-between, and try to write when and where we can. Miriam Halahmy and Candy Gourlay are just two writers I know who are part of a long line of café scribes, following in Ernest Hemingway’s espresso stained footsteps. Some of us write in libraries or on trains – I’m drafting this longhand in my notebook while walking, during my lunch break. Sometimes, in order to write anything at all, we have to adapt and learn to get the words down where we can.

Having said that, I think it is useful to find a more permanent space to write. This doesn’t have to be a beautifully designed bespoke writer’s study, though that would be nice. Stephen King wrote his early novels with a typewriter balanced across his knees in his laundry nook, Roald Dahl famously in his shed, and I read somewhere that Michael Morpurgo writes in bed. What’s important is finding a space you will associate with writing, so that as soon as you enter, your brain recognises it and thinks, ‘Ah, so this is what we’re doing now!’

My corner of the attic

I've written in libraries, on a laptop balanced on a drawing board in the bedroom, but about two years ago I cleared a space for a makeshift desk in the corner of our attic. It’s cold in winter and besieged by wasps in summer, but I love it. And when I climb the ladder each evening, by the time I sit down and switch on my computer, my brain already knows what’s required. It doesn’t always comply, but that’s another post altogether …

Writing a Novel (Part One): What to Write?

2011-04-23T21:19:00.000+01:00

I'm not sure about that title – I don't wish to mislead anybody arriving here hoping to find a guide to writing a best selling novel. If you were, then I apologise and wish you well in your search for wisdom. I will however direct you towards Stephen King's excellent book On Writing, and Nicola Morgan's website – you will find many nuggets of writerly advice available from both. Other than that I would suggest you switch off your internet connection, open a new word processing document and simply start to write. Do this every day and you'll be surprised how quickly the words build up. I don't mean to suggest that writing a book is easy, it isn't, but you can read as many how to books as you like, it is the act of sitting down and actually writing that will get you there in the end.

Okay, now that's out of the way, for those still reading, I thought it might be interesting to look at the process of writing a novel – at least my experience of it, which is all I am really qualified to talk about. You never know, a few scraps of useful information might emerge along the way.

One of the most common questions asked of writers is where do you get your ideas from? It's a question that many will struggle to answer. Not me. I know exactly where my stories originate. I'll let you into the secret, but don't go spreading it around – this is just between us, OK? On my desk there's a metal box, 18cm wide by 9cm deep and 8cm high. I call it the Word Tin, and it contains all the words I need, stamped into small strips of metal, like dog-tags. To build a story, I simply delve into the box, pull out a handful of words and put them in the right order – easy. OK, see you next week for part two …

The Word Tin – where stories come from!

Sadly, I’m joking (but imagine if such a tin existed – now there's an idea for a story!) The tin is real though, if not magic, and I have once or twice tried to conjure a story the way I described and produced some interesting, if not exactly publishable, results.

So where do ideas for stories come from, if not a magic tin or mail-order story depository? The answer to that is – everywhere and anywhere – a memory, an overheard snippet of conversation, a location, a news story, the list goes on. But as Philip Pullman said, 'the initial idea is much less important, actually, than what you do with it.' Often a single idea isn't enough to make a story, but combining two seemingly disparate concepts … that's when you strike gold. However, I believe there's another important consideration – the reason most of the ideas I scribble on scraps of paper will never become stories.

The late, great Robert Cormier

For me, Robert Cormier explained it perfectly when he said, ‘to work for me, an idea must be attached to an emotion, something that upsets, dazzles or angers me and sends me to the typewriter’. The spark that sent me to my notebook to scribble the start of the story that became 15 Days without a Head, came from an incident I witnessed in a pub one afternoon. A very drunk woman arguing with a stranger at the next table – much to the embarrassment of her sons. It made me wonder what life was like for those two boys, what would happen when they got home.

It takes time to write and revise a novel, and I find that if the characters and their story don’t mean anything to me, they won’t sustain my interest through the months of writing. If you care, it also brings with it a sense of responsibility, a desire to do justice to the characters and their story, which can be a great motivation – especially in those dark hours encountered with every novel, where the story won’t come and you find yourself reaching for the Word Tin.

You will often hear writers speculating what the next big thing will be, asking what publishers and agents are looking for. The answer that usually comes back, is that they don't know. What editors want is something special, something captivating and original, and the best chance of writing like that is to be honest – write what excites you. If it's fun to write, chances are it will be fun to read.

So maybe the place to look for inspiration is not here, or in the next how to book, but inside yourself. Work out what it is that excites or unsettles you, which are the ideas that gnaw away at your subconscious, disturb your daydreams and keep you awake at night. Find out what it is that drives you to the typewriter … and start typing!

The Edge: Cutting edge fiction for teens

2011-04-17T22:54:00.000+01:00

A few weeks ago I mentioned the inaugural meeting of the Edge, a group of like minded authors ganging up to talk books and stories in schools, libraries and at literary events across the country. The Edge website is now up and running with an introduction to the gang and some of the books currently available, plus a great kick-off post from Bryony Pearce exploring the question 'What is edgy fiction?'

Undiscovered Voices 2012 open for submissions

2011-04-09T18:34:00.000+01:00

Nearly two years ago I received an email from Cornerstones Literary Consultancy about a competition organised by the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators (SCBWI or Scooby to its members). I didn't often enter competitions, but this one looked good. The prize was inclusion in a published anthology that would be sent to agents and editors in the UK and United States. The honorary chair was Melvin Burgess and the judges an impressive panel of agents and editors. I was an unpublished writer at the time and had just completed a revised draft of my novel Fifteen Days without a Head – it couldn't hurt to send it in. I wasn't expecting to win … but I did. Within six months of entering the competition I had an agent – six months later, a publisher. So in some ways you could say Undiscovered Voices changed my life.

13 of the 24 authors have books out already

Last Tuesday night, SCBWI announced that the 2012 Undiscovered Voices competition was now open for submissions. This edition will be the third anthology in a series that is proving to be highly regarded by the industry as a showcase for talented, but as yet undiscovered, children's writers. The facts speak for themselves: at the time of writing, 13 of the 24 featured authors have publishing contracts or books already out, many more have signed with an agent. So far, Undiscovered Voices winners have been nominated for and won a number of literary prizes, including the Waterstone's Children's Book Prize, Branford Boase, Blue Peter Book Award, not to mention inclusion on the prestigious Carnegie Medal long-list.

Once again this year's list of judges makes impressive reading, and the honorary chair is the highly respected, award winning author Malorie Blackman. So, if you're reading this as a children's writer yet to be published or acquire an agent, but you've got a great story ready and waiting to be discovered, it might be worth submitting it to Undiscovered Voices 2012. You won't win a cash prize, or a book token, or even a year's supply of chocolate, but it might just change your life.

For more information and full details on how to enter please visit www.undiscoveredvoices.com Also check out the Undiscovered Voices Facebook page and keep up to date with all the latest news and announcements via Twitter @UndiscVoice2012

Finally, here's a sneak preview of The Truth about Celia Frost by Paula Rawsthorne, which will be the first of my fellow 2010 winners onto the bookshelves. It was fantastic to see the cover already on Amazon for pre-order and the trailer below.

Here's to discovery!

Hidden book launch at the Owl Bookshop, Kentish Town

2011-03-25T22:57:00.001Z

Launching a ship involves smashing a bottle of champagne against the hull. This is usually accompanied by lots of cheering as the impressive feat of human engineering slides down the slipway into the sea. In all honesty, it would be difficult to apply the same technique to launch a book (though it might be fun to try). But a book, like a ship, takes a long time and a great deal of human effort to complete, so maybe there is mileage in the comparison.

However, the Owl Bookshop in Kentish Town has a lot more literary ambience than your average shipyard. On Tuesday evening a good crowd gathered to squeeze between the aisles and cheer, as Miriam Halahmy metaphorically swung her bottle of champagne against the hull of the good ship Hidden (the first of the Hayling Cycle fleet) and launched it into the world. Given that the sea plays a crucial role in the story, perhaps you'll forgive the analogy, especially as Miriam herself said in the opening of her speech, "It's great to have you all here, to launch Hidden off the beach of Hayling Island. It's floating out to sea and it's got to make its own way now."

Some of those gathered on the quayside: Bex Hill, Miriam, Christina Vinall, Nick Cross, Savita Kalhan, Caroline Green and some bald bloke in a seventies leather jacket.

If you don't know the background to Hidden, then check out my interview with Miriam. In it, she talks about her writing process and the inspiration she found on Hayling Island, as well as offering a sneak preview of the next two books in the series. Better still, grab yourself a copy, lay back in your hammock and settle down for an exciting voyage.
OK, OK … I'll stop it now.

Fifteen minutes with Miriam Halahmy – Part Two

2011-03-18T23:49:00.001Z

Hidden, the first book in the Hayling Cycle, by Miriam Halahmy, will be in book shops at the end of the month. For the first part of my interview with Miriam, click here – or read on for part two.

8. Did you always imagine Hidden as part of a series? When you started, did you have all three books in your head?

No, when I started Hidden, I think I was very much feeling my way in a new genre, writing for young adults, and I thought this would just be one book. But the trouble is, your characters have minds of their own, well mine do! A minor character in Hidden, the bad girl, Lindy, kept growing and growing until a whole new idea for a book about her emerged. The second book is called Illegal. But two books didn’t somehow feel the right arc and so Jess, a minor character in Illegal, becomes the main character in the third book, Stuffed, along with her boyfriend, Ryan. I have therefore written a cycle of three stand alone novels, with a shared landscape, where a minor character in the previous book becomes the major character in the next.

9. Can you tell us more about Illegal and Stuffed?

Illegal is Lindy’s story. Lindy helps Cousin Colin to run his cannabis farm, but then he forces her to push cocaine. Lindy is terrified that she will end up in prison like her older brothers. She must find a way to report Colin to the police without him knowing, otherwise he will kill her. She finds a friend in the mysterious Karl who is mute and drives her around the Island, underage, on his motorbike.

Stuffed is Jess’ story and also Ryan’s. It is told in alternating first person voices. Both Jess and Ryan make a terrible discovery after they have started their relationship. Each keeps their secret from the other. Will their love survive the pressures they find themselves under?

10. Which book in the series have you enjoyed writing the most and why?

To be honest, the book I most enjoyed was the one I was working on – the work in progress, as authors like to say. But I also love redrafting and I really like working with my editor. So it has been a real pleasure to revisit each book and take a long slow look at it, taking the time to develop and enrich it to produce the best story possible.

11. What has been the hardest part of the journey?

Getting past the gate keepers. Once I started writing my novels it felt like a tap had turned on. I wrote the first drafts quite quickly, in a matter of months. But for Hidden Alix’s voice was too passive. So I started again from the beginning, keeping the main storyline but turning her voice into a much more active, ironic, humorous voice. I really believed in my book and submitted quite soon after finishing it. But as most authors know, it is soooo hard to find an agent who really loves your work. Once you find the agent, then you have to find a publisher – more gatekeepers and more frustration. I coped at first by writing Illegal, while Hidden was being submitted. But I didn’t see the point of writing the third novel until I had my contract. It really is a long hard road to publication, but if you believe in your work then you will get there if you persevere.

12. Do you enjoy research? Any tips you could share?

I love doing research and for Hidden the research involved lots of lovely visits to one of my favourites places. But it also meant that I had a chance to meet people and visit places I wouldn’t have thought about if I wasn’t writing the novel. For example, in Hidden, Alix’s grandpa tells of his experiences as a boy of fourteen in May 1940, sailing over to Dunkirk with his dad, to help rescue the stranded British army. To my delight, I discovered that five ‘little ships’ went to Dunkirk from Hayling and I was shown over one of them, Count Dracula, by one of the local sailors. I have a total passion for history and it was so exciting to find myself standing on the bridge of this plucky little boat. It really helped to bring that part of the book alive for me.

My biggest research tip : enjoy it, see it as fun, but don’t let your research dominate your story. Ultimately it is your characters and the twists and turns of their journey through your book which will hold the reader’s attention. Be accurate, but be minimal in the use of your research.

13. If you could give one piece of advice to the Miriam who first sat down to write the Hayling Cycle, what would it be?

Don’t rush, believe in your story and give it the time and space to unfold. I think I let my fingers run away with me on the laptop sometimes. Certainly I took much longer over the next two books. But I find the first-draft stage the most nerve-wracking. Once I have got to the end then I can relax, I know the arc of the story and the characters. The redrafting stage feels long and luxurious as I spend hours contemplating how to enrich the text and make my characters stand up and stand out on the page.

14. Which five books would you save if the house was on fire?

1.The Secret Garden – it was my school prize when I was nine. I think I fell in love with Dickon.

2.Little Women – my mother’s copy which her sisters gave her when she was little.

3.Crime and Punishment – my favourite of all the great Russian writers which I read throughout my uni years.

4.Death of a Naturalist – the first poetry collection by our greatest living poet, Seamus Heaney. He signed my copy two years ago when I met him and told him about his influence on my poetry.

5.The Concise Oxford English Dictionary – something new on every page.

15. What question do you wish I had asked you?

Why dark chocolate instead of milk chocolate? Fry’s chocolate cream instead of Turkish Delight? Crikey! Couldn’t you ask me anything about chocolate?!?

Sorry Miriam, maybe a large bar of Bourneville will serve as an apology?

Hidden will be out in paperback at the end of the month, published by Meadowside Books – available in all good book shops and online here.

Fifteen minutes with Miriam Halahmy – Part One

2011-03-11T22:12:00.003Z

Hidden, the first book in the Hayling Cycle, by Miriam Halahmy, will be published on March 31st. Tackling the complex issues of immigration and human-rights law, Hidden is a coming-of-age novel dealing with courage, prejudice and the difficult choices faced by its fourteen year old protagonist, Alix.
I caught up with Miriam at Edge Headquarters a few days ago and asked her a few questions about Hidden, and her writing life.

1. Hi, Miriam, what does a normal writing day consist of for you?

I write best in the mornings for two to four hours, and usually complete a couple of thousand words. I will then probably edit some of this in the afternoon. I write something every day.

2. Where do you write?

I have a beautiful study which my husband built for me at the end of the house, over looking the garden. It is sunny and quiet, but I often walk up the road to Costa Coffee bar and write there. I have been writing in coffee bars since I was a student and really like the atmosphere, especially early in the morning.

Miriam gets creative in a coffee bar

I leave the house before eight a.m. It is a brisk fifteen minute walk which gets the creative juices going. At that time of the morning the cafe is peaceful with the background hiss of steam and the music down low. I sit at the same table, with my regular Americano, hot milk on the side and within ten minutes I am in the fictional dream, typing away on my little laptop.

Many people have followed my lead and have told me they now write in coffee bars!

3. Are you a discovery writer, or do you outline? What’s your writing process?

I start in my head day dreaming – I let my thoughts go in tangents, ask questions, answer them, ask more questions. I start a notebook and write down anything that seems relevant, a snippet of dialogue, an eye colour, a piece of clothing, a fear. Once I feel ready to start my book I write quite quickly and I am very much a discovery writer. My characters tell me where to go next, who they will meet along the way, what they think of the problems up ahead and how they are going to cope.

Or in her study at home

Sometimes I come up against a problem and can’t move forward. Those are the most difficult times, when I get the urge to abandon ship, go and load the washing machine or make dinner. But I have learnt the hard way, that those are in fact the most important times, when you have to glue yourself to your seat and work your way out of the hole. Otherwise you start the next day at the bottom instead of on top and ready to move forward.

My method for overcoming the problem is to ask myself questions and make myself answer them, however silly and banal the questions and answers appear to be. It is the very act of writing which gets me writing again and quite soon I find I have freed myself up, climbed out of the hole and resumed the flow of the story.

4. Do you use a notebook? Can you share with us the last thing you wrote?

I have been writing in notebooks since childhood. I have a cupboard full of them. I prefer quite small cheap notebooks and I am very fussy about lines – they can’t be too wide or too narrow. I don’t mind plain paper. I hate that paper with woodchip in it which comes from Nepal. It’s very trendy, but useless for writing on. I have different notebooks for different purposes. I always have a journal on the go, I have been keeping journals since I was a child. But I don’t write something everyday, only when I feel like it. However, whenever I travel I keep a meticulous journal, as so many new and exciting things happen when you travel.

I always start a new notebook for each new novel and only use it for those notes. But I usually have a general notebook on the go for everything else which needs recording. The last thing I wrote was a note to myself to finish these questions! (Good answer! - Ed)

5. Where did the inspiration for Hidden come from?

I was walking on the beach one day on Hayling Island and I thought: What if a couple of teenagers saw an illegal immigrant thrown into the sea from a boat and they rescued him? What would they do? That was it – the story was born and eventually became, Hidden, the first in my cycle of three novels set on the Island.

Inspiration on Hayling Island beach

It’s always a mystery where the first idea for a story or a poem comes from, I think. But I had been writing about asylum seekers; I have worked with asylum seekers and I had been writing short fiction for young people. I think a lot of things came together and ignited my idea that day.

6. Location obviously plays an important part in the Hayling Cycle, what came first, the location or the story?
I had begun to think that Hayling would be a great place to set a story for young people. There are so many mysterious corners to the island, there are all the possibilities of a setting by the sea and although it is a place I love, it’s not that well known, so it was like writing on a fresh sheet. I think all of this came together that day on the beach when I had my inciting idea.

7. Setting a story in a real place that you know very well, must present it’s own problems. Or did you find it easy to create a sense of Hayling for your readers?

My parents moved to Hayling as I went to uni. So I have spent a lot of time on the island, but not actually lived there. My parents left the island before they died, but my husband shares my love of Hayling and so we visit several times a year for long weekends, week-long holidays in a flat on the beach, and quite often, just for the day. I have visited the Island literally hundreds and hundreds of times since my student days.

I found it very natural to use the setting of Hayling in my books, it was a gift really, knowing parts of the island so well and having a real love for the place. Like Alix in my book, I prefer the island in winter when there are very few visitors and the beaches can be quite deserted. I like the winter light on the island too, it’s quite pure and translucent, particularly in the early mornings on the beach. That’s why Hidden is set in winter.

Miriam beside a pill box on Hayling Island

However, there were problems as the landscape did not always fit the story I wanted to tell. For example, Hayling had quite a few pill boxes on the southern beaches at one time, to protect England from invasion during World War Two. Several of them have disappeared, including the one I used to sit on near the Lifeboat station. So I just put it back as I needed it as a landmark in my story. I also had to learn a great deal about the tides to make sure there was enough water at the times they kept falling in the sea. The water completely drains around the Island every day and leaves just mud flats and no water in many places.

Click here for the second part of Miriam's interview, when she gives us a sneak preview of the second two books in the Hayling Cycle and let's us into a guilty secret …