An Interesting Question!

On a high school visit last week, I was asked an interesting question. It went something like this.
Are children's authors competitive with each other?
It was quite gratifying to be able to reply with a negative. To my mind, it's quite a supportive relationship that we have. Not just socially, either. If someone has read Mortlock and the Demon Collector and are waiting with baited breath for The Bonehill Curse, then what better way to fill that aching void with something in the same genre? A little Chris Priestley, perhaps or something by Curtis Jobling? Maybe one of Barry Hutchinson's creepy Invisible Fiends or an offering from Tommy Donbavand?



Or maybe Ash Mistry and the Savage Fortress? This is the start of a new series by Sarwat Chadda and having read it in one sitting, I can thoroughly recommend it. There are demons and ancient gods. There's action galore and a hero so recogniseable and ordinary (to begin with) that you're cheering him on from the start!

Mr Chadda always writes a breat-taking action scene and in Savage Fortress, he excels but the seeds are sown for some scary and fascinating character development too. I suggest you have a go at Ash Mistry. It'll put you in the mood for some adventure with an Eastern, exotic tinge... The Bonehill Curse, perhaps!

Website here: http://ashmistry.com/books

The Bonehill Curse

The Bonehill Curse comes out in May which is still quite a way off. So I haven't talked much about it yet. It seems so distant. Or it did...

This morning I received the Bonehill Curse uncorrected proofs. These are a kind of 'rough copy' that gets sent to booksellers and reviewers. And here they are!

It's sooo exciting! More details to come!

To Read or Not To Read?

I always remember hearing Alan Bennett saying that there's a difference between writing and being a writer. Being a writer is fun, he says and involves eating cake at WI meetings, being smiled at and talking about yourself. Writing is the hard bit.

For me, events and school visits are one of the best bits about 'being a writer.' So I'm always trying to keep my talks fresh and interesting. One of the things that I do find problematic is the reading. It's not my short-sightedness or any difficulty sounding out letters. At an event recently, I declared to the audience that I didn't do readings so much because that was their job. And I meant it. I think.

Recently, I went to a reading by a famous author and faithfully bought his book. When I came to the passage he read, I found it spoiled my enjoyment of that particular passage and of course, it was a good one. He wouldn't have chosen to read it aloud otherwise.

My stories have their roots in traditional songs and folk tales. More and more, I find myself telling the stories that inspired me. And before I get a telling-off from my publisher, I do talk about my books too!

So do you like to hear an author read at an event?

The Woman In Black and Other Stories

I recently re-read The Woman in Black by Susan Hill. It’s a brilliant story, cleverly delivered in a voice that could have easily been M R James or one of the other Masters. I’m waiting for the new film version to come out in February and hoping it does it justice.

But it did remind me of just how big an influence those short stories of the late 19th and early 20th centuries were on me. One story I often mention at events is The Clock by WF Harvey.

 Written in 1928, The Clock is a superb example of why I love stories set in a less technical age. The whole story hinges on clockwork. The fact that a clock has wound down when it shouldn’t have. I love the way Harvey leaves so much to our imaginations. We never know what it is the heroine has encountered, we never see it, we only hear it. It is so creepy because we are left to fill in the gaps and we can all scare ourselves more easily than anyone else can.

Writing Resolutions

It's another New Year so here are my writing resolutions:

1) Facebook and Twitter are great fun and the people I meet there are brilliant but it is not writing. I will be spending more time exploring my twisted imagination than social networking. Write more witter less...

2) I could well be wrong but I can't escape the nagging feeling that tweaking your Amazon profile, joining Linked-in, changing the colour scheme on your website is no substitute for actually visiting schools and talking to children, teachers and librarians. So I'll be starting a major school visit offensive!

3) I also need to tweak my Amazon profile and do something about my website too...

4) I'm going to get out more. Literally. The last 12 months has seen a marked decline in my running time and I reckon that I have my best ideas when I'm out in the open.

So, all achieveable, not too much. What re your resolutions?

Wishing you all a very merry Christmas and a prosperous New Year

I hope you've been good!