That Elusive Line

Puffin in the Snow

2012-02-05T14:24:00.000Z

I was going to write an essay on the iconography of snow in children's literature, but then I thought, nah, and took my little boys out to play in it instead. Far better use of my time!

Haunting My Younger Self

2012-02-01T11:31:00.000Z

I have been thinking a lot abouttime travel lately. This isn’t surprising, given that I’ve just written a book inwhich the characters can visit their younger selves -- and their ancestors --in the form of ghosts. What would you do, if you could do that? And what would Isay if I got the chance to haunt myself at the beginning of my efforts to writefiction? Apart from ‘boo!’ that is.

I remember that beginning quiteclearly -- it was the start of 2005, a year and a half after I’d moved to France. I washouse-sitting alone for a couple of weeks, trying to meet an illustrationdeadline and walking someone else’s dog. On those daily tramps through the woods, I came to realise that not onlydid I have a whole novel-sized story rattling around in my head, I was also nolonger afraid to try writing it down.

Now that I am on the point ofseeing my first book reach print (not the book mentioned above, naturally), I canlook back over the whole experience and draw some conclusions. So, as atime-travelling ghost, what writing/crafting/story-telling tips would I give myyounger self when I appear before him in the woods? Before my younger selfpasses out from shock, I think I could get across at least five:

1 – Storytelling trumpseverything.

…especially when you are writingfor a young readership. And I mean everything. It’s more important thanhistorical (or contemporary) accuracy, more important than the things you worryyou should be writing about, andcertainly more important than the demands of your ego. People NEED good stories. Just be grateful for the chance to supply them.

2 – Don’t aspire to be a great writer,aspire to be a great story-teller.

…and don’t call it ‘writing’, call it ‘work’.Above all, don’t aspire to be a writor (with an ‘o’). Writors (with an ‘o’) areponcy people who ‘commune with their muse’ and complain about wine. Instead, gointo the ring bare knuckled, and don’t come out till your book is lyingface-down in the blood and sawdust. That’s the work. Now you can drink the wine.

3 – ‘Fiction is a lie, and goodfiction is the truth inside the lie’

Okay, I stole this one fromStephen King, but my younger self doesn’t know that. It's time he did. Let’s hope he’s takingnotes.

4 – Plan ahead.

…even if it doesn’t comenaturally. You don’t have to stick to the plan, just give yourself a clearsense of what you’re aiming for. Trying to make up a complicated plot as you gois a bit like brick-laying in the dark. You wouldn’t build a house that way, sowhy do it to build a world?

5 – Listen to criticism. Also, BOO!

Big Breakfasting

2012-01-24T10:31:00.000Z

I went to the Chicken House’s BigBreakfast event last week. And look, I spotted a copy of my book! Well, okay,it was just a spiral-bound printout, but this is the first time I’ve seenanything of Haunters on paper, so itwas still memorable. I was even asked to sign a few.

These Big Breakfasts are allabout bringing authors and their books together with interested parties from the world ofchildren’s literature. There were croissants, there were readings, and there was thegreat Barry Cunningham to make it all sparkle.

The Chicken House’s list for thisyear seems very strong, and a few titles particularly caught my eye: Freaks by Kieran Larwood (last year’sTimes Chicken House Fiction Competition winner), Girl About Time by Kerstin Geir (best-selling time slip romance firstpublished in German in 2009), Floors by Patrick Carman (madcap goings-on in the barmiest hotel in the world) and Muncle Trogg and the Flying Donkey by Janet Foxley (the sequel to the wonderful MuncleTrogg, and which the author kindly inscribed for my son (who adores Muncleand anything to do with Mount Grumble)). But those were just the few books I snaffledon my way out. The rest look great too. I just hope Haunters won’t let the side down when it’s finally published in May.

A Boy and a Bear in a Boat

2012-01-09T09:34:00.000Z

I was very pleased to be able togo to the launch -- at Heffers in Cambridge -- of Dave Shelton’s charming and delightful illustratednovel, A Boy and a Bear in a Boat. Andit was lovely to meet so many old friends from art school and beyond. Thoughwishing to spare the author’s blushes, everything about the book is lovely too.

First there’s the title, which isitself a definition of what ‘high concept’ is all about. Then the cover is a jawdropper, not only because it’s stylishly understated, but because publishersare thought to be allergic to anything but ‘play it safe’ these days. Theninside… well, inside there’s humour, humanity, allegory, a sea monster, fly-fishingwith a rubber duck, a very strange sandwich, and much more besides, all peppered throughwith fine drawing. And some cracking one-liners too: “The boy managed ahalf-smile (he would save the other half for later)…”

For children and grown-ups alike,especially if they appreciate good design with their future classics. Buy it orfind out more here or here. And you can see pages from Dave’s sketchbooks onhis excellent blog. And if that isn't enough, Sarah McIntyre has written a much more fullsome acount of the launch, with photos and cake and everything!

Happy New Year! And...

2012-01-03T15:40:00.000Z

Don’t worry, I’m not goingto give you a breakdown of the last 12 months. For me, 2011 was all about 2012anyway. And I’m not going to be making any resolutions either (beyond the usualdesire to increase brain activity whilst decreasing stomach usage). I just hope you all have a good time ahead, andcan keep positive. Don’t let the tabloids get you down.

To set my blog going again, Iwanted to post something about a twelve-year-old sketchbook blogger called WilliamSedgwick. Only, to do that I had to wait till he’d turned thirteen. His age isrelevant because William recently suffered the indignity of having his long-standingblog and g-mail account summarily deleted by Google because he was ‘underage’. Bytwo months. That’s DELETED, not frozen or suspended. And how was this younghoodlum found out? He was honest about his age whilst trying to upload a filmto You Tube. Clearly the action of a dangerous subversive.

Anyway, now that Will’s matured overnight to be aresponsible member of the blogosphere, I’m happy to say he has founded a newblog: Drawing Lizards. Please take a look – he has a fine and confident line,and a fearless eye. But after being slapped by Google, even Will could do witha boost. And he deserves more followers too, having lost the following he’d carefullybuilt up. Will’s an old friend (is that okay, Google?) and I’ve seen many of hissketchbooks, indeed, been there when he drew in some of them. You won’t bedisappointed by his blog, I promise.

Have a very...

2011-12-23T12:25:00.000Z

This image pretty much sums upwhat I’ve had to deal with since school ended a week ago. But I’m notcomplaining. I’m lucky to be able to spend so much time with my boys (he muttersas he picks shrapnel out of his scalp). We’ve had a lot of fun, and the dialsstill aren’t in the red. Yet…

I send you all my warmestChristmas wishes, dear reader/friend/passer-by, and if you don’t do Christmas, well, you can have my warmestwishes anyway. I’ve been warming them all year:)

Have you seen these hedgehogs?

Designing a Character

2011-12-13T10:28:00.000Z

These sketches and colour test show me looking forthe sense of a character. It’s too early to say what he’s for, but I will say thisis the first time I’ve worked with an author for ages. And there’s no doubtbeing an illustrator is slightly easier when it involves working to someoneelse’s specifications. Unless those specifications are crazy (happily not thecase here). There’s such a thing as toomuch freedom.

Odd the difference between howsomeone looks in my head, and how they turn out on the page. Why is it I can’tjust draw what I see in my mind’s eye? What is it about putting down marks thatchanges my intentions? Answers in the comments please.

This character is intended to bea cross between a dismal but kindly uncle type and a strong-arm butler. Someoneyou’d want with you in a dark alley, but not so much at a party. It’s the1920s.

I finally get to draw a Homburg!Unless the author tells me not to.

Comic Books

2011-12-06T10:12:00.001Z

For years now I have beendrifting back towards the comic book/graphic novel mode. I say ‘back’, becauseit does feel like I’m coming home. As a teenager I always drew strip cartoonsand comics, and it seemed like that was what I would always do. Until all of asudden it wasn’t. The fact that this happened while I was at art school is nocoincidence, but I can’t really blame anyone else (not even Batman) -- the factis, it just didn’t seem to be something I could build a career on. I talkedmyself out of it.

I won’t bore you with the epicjourney round my navel that has brought me to regret that decision. But I wouldlike to share some of the landmark graphic books I came across on the way. Andjust in time for Christmas too.

La Théorie des Gens Seuls (or anyof the Monsieur Jean books) by Dupuy & Berberian

When I moved to France I waspretty down on comic books. But BandesDessinéesare a big deal over there, often the most popular section in bookshops, andit didn’t take me long to latch on to Monsieur Jean as something a bit special.These are the stories of a frustrated twenty-something (then thirty-something)Parisian writer as he tries to steer a course through modern life. They shouldstrike a chord with anyone who has struggled to understand the opposite sex,been perplexed by their friends or wondered how to be a good parent. Do youknow anyone like that?

Plenty of humour, moments ofpathos, and lots of sitting in cafés with self-doubtand small cups of coffee. Francein a book! But available in English too.

Rébétiko (La Mauvaise Herbe) by DavidPrudhomme

When Ifirst read Rébétiko, I thought it wasnothing less than the best graphic novel I’d ever seen. Even now, havingdiscovered some real treasures, I still think this is the case. The book feels drawn in a way few graphic novelsdo, as if it was taped together from fragments torn from someone’ssketchbook, and the story (set in hard-line Greece during the 30s) reads liketrue experience. But the greatest thing in this book is the music. I don’t meanthat to sound gimmicky, simply that this tale of musicians, whose music hasbeen proscribed by the state, is shot through with sound, energy and dance.It’s a masterpiece.

I don’tthink Rébétiko has been translatedinto English, but really, you don’t need to read it all. The book would beworth owning just for the art on pages 57 to 66 alone. Get a taste of it here.

Rupestres! by various (see link)

Okay,another French one, but I’m trying to keep this chronological. Rupestres! is the work of six comic bookartists as they make a tour of the prehistoric painted caves of SouthernFrance, paying homage to, and trying to connect with, the earliest‘cartoonists’. The six styles vary wildly, but are tied together by shared experience.The book is based on a real trip (there are some photographs too) and will takeyou deeper into the mysteries of the prehistoric mind and the origins of art than any textbook on thesubject.

Rupestres! isn’t available in English,but again, it’s the graphic statement that really matters. And that’s triumphant.For anyone who cares about drawing.

Hicksville by Dylan Horrocks

Promptedby my good blogging friend Rachel Fenton, I finally got round to reading Hicksville onlyrecently. With a narrative that runs on several levels, through different comicbook genres and stories, Hicksville might have been too tricksy for its owngood, if it weren’t so full of good humour and humanity. And this tale of artists,searchers and tea-lovers is like an introduction to the world of comics itself,and the lovely people it seems to attract.

The perfect cure for anyone whothinks comic books are just about superheroes and big-eyed manga girls (*shudder*).And hey, it’s in English:)

Nelson by various (see link)

Newlypublished, Nelson acts as an anthology of contemporary British comic art, andthat’s why I bought it. But in just a few pages I found myself drawn into thestory of Nel, as she grows up without her twin, Sonny. The constantly changingstyles didn’t upset the story as much as I thought, and the journey through Nel’slife is packed with period details and ‘how we used to live’ charm (the music! The hair!). I wish this book had been availablewhile I was still at art school. Grown-up content, but the perfect surpriseChristmas gift for anyone who likes telling stories in pictures.

Allproceeds go to Shelter.

I’malways on the lookout for new books to read. If you’ve read a comic/graphicbook recently and want to share it, please leave a note in the comments.

On Finishing

2011-11-22T13:28:00.001Z

Yesterday I sent the line editback for Haunters. Since then I have been wrestling with a very odd feeling:the dawning realisation that the bloody thing’s actually finished!

Now, obviously there’s going tobe some comeback from the last edit, and I’m sure I’ll be tippexing the screenright up to the end, but right now -- and for the first time in thethree years and seven drafts it has taken to reach this point -- I honestly can’tthink of anything else I could do with it.

When I signed the contract, myagent gave me some very sound advice. In response to my flapping about howcraptastic the book was probably going to end up, she told me… well, first shetold me to get a grip, but then shetold me that the only way to protect myself from critics, detractors and one-starAmazonian book demolishers was to be entirely sure that I had done everything I possibly could to make the book as strong as it couldbe. If there was a stop, I had to pull it out. If there was an extra mile, I had to ploddown it, hacking at the nettles -- yes, even in the rain. I probably looked likea frightened rabbit when she told me all this, but I tookthat advice to heart.

Of course, the book could stillbe utterly craptastic. But objectivity? Well, that’s a whole other subject.

Being Edited

2011-11-09T20:47:00.000Z

I am currently working throughthe line edit of my Science Fiction thriller Haunters (blogged about before as ‘The Ghost Effect’ and due to bepublished by the Chicken House next May). For those who don’t know what a lineedit is, it’s the part of the editorial process that involves the most red ink,the part where the text is scrutinised line by line in search of errors,inconsistencies and crapness. My editor has cut 6,000 words. That’s a lot ofcrapness. Here is some of it:

Purple prose. Of the ‘behold my literary sensibilities’ variety. I don’t know whether to be grateful or embarrassed about this, so I shall be both.
Repetition. Saying it clearly the first time means not having to say it loosely again and again.
Waffle. My book isn’t set in Belgium. And even if it was, characters should never be allowed to sit about in comfy chairs, explaining the plot to each other. At least not in front of the reader.
Un-warranted non-verbal communication and other narrative ticks. Such as staring, gasping, sighing, eye-rolling and arse-scratching. Actually, no-one ever scratched their arse in my book, but if they had, they wouldn’t be doing it now.
Seeming. When things patently are.
Many instance of the word that. On the whole I think ~~that~~ this is a good thing.
A policeman. Yes, a whole policeman. He was a rubbish policeman anyway. I like to think ~~that~~ he’s now in the next street, scratching his arse.
Repetition. Oh…

I’m told some writers actually go ahead and publishtheir own e-books without any input from an editor. Don’t do that.

Harry Potter and the Good Cause

2011-11-04T23:28:00.000Z

Okay, okay, I know. But at leastthis time it’s for the benefit of others. I have donated a book with a signed sketch in it to Team Hannah. Please take time to visit the site.

I've seen these sell for 4figures in the past (not for my benefit, I should add), and since I don’t often do this kind of thing, there could be the chance of a rare andunusual Christmas bargain here. And if you can’t bid, you can always spread theword…

Thanks.

Covers My Book Won't Have

2011-11-01T14:23:00.001Z

Borrowing an idea fromtop comic book artist Dave Shelton, I thought I’d post one of the many coverconcepts that won’t make it to the finished version of my illustrated comic novella Dan and the Dead.

This image was thrashedout between the designer and myself, using elements from previous roughs andnew sketches made both in and out of Photoshop. I really liked it (as an idea),but those who will be marketing the book thought it looked a tad too ‘young’.And so, for once, ‘back to the drawing board’ wasn’t a cliché.

This book was createdwith reluctant boy readers in mind so anything that might put them off has tobe addressed. The story is voice driven, so there’s much more emphasis on Dan’scharacter and attitude in the new version. I’ve just sent it off. Let’s hopethey like it.

Finding Yourself When You're Five

2011-10-23T19:25:00.001+01:00

This is a map of my son Benjy's imagination. He asked me to "put it on a machine and on the internet please, Daddy". So I have.

One Reason Why Picture Book Publishers Still Don’t Like Rhyme

2011-10-14T16:30:00.000+01:00

Just a short posttoday, as an addendum to my ever-popular – at least according to the stats -- rhyming picture book posts.

Next year I have a newpicture book out called The Pets You Get,illustrated by the unstoppable Adrian Reynolds (this, to the left, is one of his thumbnails). It’s in rhyme, and the firstverse text I’ll have had published since Jack’s Tractor rumbled out. But justwhen I thought all my work was done and the edits finished, my editor called toask if I could write a prose version as well, saying that ‘the rights team find picture books with rhyming texts are impossible tosell abroad and so rather than give them an excuse for not selling the book, Ithink it would be a good idea if we could provide them with a prose version.’

I’ve never been asked to do such a thing before, butit makes perfect sense. And apparently it works. It was hard, though, taking carefully constructedmetrical writing and slapping it down into unadorned prose. But it just goes toshow the extra lengths you have to go to when dealing with verse. Aspiringpicture book writer beware!

The Pets You Get is available for pre-order. Just saying...

The Big Draw at the DLWP

2011-10-03T16:51:00.000+01:00

We had lots of fun at the De La Warr Pavilion yesterday, at their Big Draw event in support of the Campaign For Drawing. The underwater theme was explored in everything from sand marks to felt-tipped oyster shells. There were pebbles to decorate, ultraviolet lights to play in, origami fish to fold and -- for a lucky few -- a limited edition Molsekine Sketchbook as a prize. No excuse not to draw, and even grown ups were allowed to join in. Needless to say, my two little boys LOVED it. And the special edition sketchbook? Um... well, I might share it...

Dan and the Dead Character Studies -- Dan

2011-09-30T13:06:00.005+01:00

More sketchbook pages, this time showing Dan, the hero of my comic-gothic novella Dan and the Dead, due to be published next summer by A&C Black. I’m illustrating this with black and white chapter heading pictures and a colour cover, and I want to give the book a graphic novel/comic feel, because I believe that will help make it more appealing for its core audience: boys, 10 – 14, who have little motivation to read.

These samples are interesting (to me, anyway) because they are free hand sketches and not pen work tracing a pencil rough beneath. This will hopefully allow me to keep some of the energy and movement of original drawing, rather than turning the rough into an ink fossil of itself. In other words, it’s seat-of-the-pants work. I hope my bottom doesn’t stick out too much.

Click for a closer look if you like. Still working on lots of things, not least the lettering…

Oh, and if you’ve got any spare money, Dan and the Dead is now available for pre-order.

Don’t forget, books look better in pairs:)

Drawing From Life

2011-09-23T09:55:00.001+01:00

I went life drawing last night for the first time in years. And it was a humbling experience. There’s nothing like being confronted with the real thing to remind us that everything we draw is in a kind of shorthand. It’s less a question of trying to succeed in capturing the subject than an exercise in trying to control the failure to do so. Which is why drawing from life is so important, and why I’m pleased to have found a new group to join. It’s the visual arts’ equivalent of practicing scales.

But it wasn’t just the drawing that made me feel like a student again. The heat of the room (one of us is naked, after all), the smell of fixative and charcoal dust, the furtive chalky scratchings, and – because there’s always one – the squeal of a board marker being thrown about a sheet of A1 paper, all took me back to Fridays at Norwich School of Art and Design in the 90s. And I struggle with the drawing no less now than I did then.

Don’t bother to click for a closer look – I’m sure you’ve got better things to do:)

Random Ruritanian Gypsy...

2011-09-14T10:55:00.000+01:00

...because no blog should be without one.

Much happier with the looser line here (compared to the slightly syrupy quality of the line in my last post, I mean). Click for a better view.

Click For A Closer Look

2011-09-12T13:42:00.001+01:00

The Night’s Template

2011-09-08T21:24:00.005+01:00

I’ve been messing about with my blog again, as regular visitors (Hi, Mum!) might have noticed. I have never really been happy with its appearance, so I thought I’d try and make it look like my actual desk. With a sketchbook on it. Do you see? So... what do you think? Stylish? Rubbish? All pretty pebbles and no trousers? You can be honest – It’ll no doubt look entirely different tomorrow.

In the meantime, here’s Peter Falk making drawing look cool (thanks, Julian).

Editted to add: Nah, don't like it. Cold light of day, and all that. So now it's back as it was.

Stubby Pencil Drawings of a Stubby Subject

2011-09-03T15:56:00.004+01:00

More pages from my sketchbook, this time after bothering a miniature Dachshund. Everyone thinks they know what a sausage dog looks like, but it was only through exploring this one's form on paper that I discovered how complex and surprising such a dog really is (otter paws and a wrinkled smile?). Which is what sketching is all about, of course. Some of these drawings stink, but that’s the point too. Click for a closer look.

Banksy's been to see us...

2011-09-01T09:28:00.001+01:00

The Beautiful Word

2011-08-22T16:52:00.002+01:00

I've been drawing musicians again, this time The Beautiful Word, who gave a short free performance on the roof of the De La Warr Pavillion in Bexhill. It was windy, and with the sea views the lead singer (above with the toy piano) said it was like playing on an ocean liner. A great building and a very cute band. Somehow I, er, didn't quite manage to draw the male members. however, while we waited for them to start, I did grab a quick sketch of some of the very Bexhillian audience. Click if you want a better view.

Twang!

2011-08-17T21:20:00.003+01:00

I’ve just been away on a sketching/mooching/laughing holiday with some very dear chums, something I’ve been doing from time to time for years. These trips, organised by the very-moose-like Julian Sedgwick, are moments of heightened drawing activity for me – intervals of proper sketching between prolonged bouts of quotidian daily grind moleskine wipe-out. I always come back determined to keep up the pace, but I never manage it for long.

Here’s a sketch of Adrian Reynolds playing his banjo, which he does with great flare (despite my cheesy sound effects). Click for a closer look. I didn’t draw his face because I was more interested in his fingers. In fact, I’m especially interested in his fingers right now because Adrian is, as I write this, illustrating my next picture book in rhyme, due out next year with Andersen Press. I hope he doesn’t break a nail.

Topaz

2011-08-15T21:49:00.000+01:00

I've been away for three weeks. There was lots of drawing. Normal intermittent blog service will be resumed soonish...

Character sketches -- 3

2011-07-19T11:58:00.005+01:00

More sketchbook extracts, this time showing head studies for Petra, the main female character in my novel. During the revision process Petra has found her role in the book under pressure, but I’ve resisted reducing her presence too much, in part because she brings a human touch to moments when the many boys and boffins start going off on geeky tangents.

It’s frustrating how difficult it is to bridge the gap between the image I have in my head and the pictures that emerge at the end of my pencil. The first sketch (top left) was far too Sigourney Weaver to be Petra at all, but as I took her down in age (she's deascribed as 'mid teens') she ended up looking a bit too nice and woolly (top right). A later sketch was much closer (though still a little too old perhaps) and I couldn’t resist colouring it.

I enjoy all this sketching around the edge of my writing, but I can’t help feeling enormously relieved that I’m not being asked to illustrate my book. Click if you want to look closer.

Character Sketches -- 2

2011-07-14T13:43:00.008+01:00

Another character from my novel, this time the gifted but ruthless ‘hero-turned-bad’ Adam Lang. He is the archetypal golden boy, back-slapped off the rails by excessive praise of his talents -- brought up to aim so high that he despises everyone below him. I think we all went to school with someone like that. Adam stalks through the story re-arranging the past so that those who don’t fit his vision of the world were never even born in the first place. And when he’s finished, even those who survive can’t be sure he was ever there.

Click for a closer look, but don’t hold his gaze for too long…

Character sketches -- 1

2011-07-12T10:29:00.002+01:00

My novel won’t be illustrated, but that hasn’t stopped me doodling the main characters. I’ll post some of the sketches here while I wait to hear what my editor thinks of the latest revision. This cluster of heads shows my search for a clear sense of Eddie, a troubled fourteen-year-old boy who spends most of the book (and the year 1940) on the run from a ghost he believes is trying to kill him. He’s right about that, but not in the way he thinks.

As ever, click for a closer look.

Six Days

2011-07-01T23:12:00.002+01:00

Here’s a boost for fellow Chicken House author Philip Webb, whose debut SF novel, Six Days, is about to be published. I was privileged to read this book a year ago (back when it had a whole other title and publication date) and hearing a little of its progress towards publication has been fascinating and very instructive for me. Find out more here.

Six Days is a fine book indeed, with a truly epic scope (prehistoric stone circles, organic space craft, a billion-year old computer with dangerous hang ups…), but its heart is surely in the 'scavs' and their hand-to-mouth existence in the ruins of London. The voice and voices are strong, the questions intriguing, and I found it easy to follow Cass, Wilbur, Erin and Peyto in their struggle. Philip Webb knows how to tell a story and conjure vivid imagery, as well as balance a sentence perfectly. Strongly recommended for readers 11 (ish)+ who enjoy using their brains.

Harry Potter and the Mysterious Wizard.

2011-06-20T17:07:00.005+01:00

It has been brought to my attention that for years a debate has rolled around Harry Potter fansites, and among commentators, about the identity of the wizard (pictured here) I painted for the back cover of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone. The mystery seems to have gained greater resonance because he was quickly replaced with a more clearly recognisable portrait of Albus Dumbledore. But who is this mysterious first wizard? And what sinister forces were brought to bear on the young artist to bring about the change?

According to many, the first picture shows an unaccountably young Albus Dumbledore, while others think he must be Professor Quirrel or Nicholas Flamel, and perhaps that’s even the Philosopher’s Stone itself we see bulging out his pocket! Some have said that the "illustrator obviously didn’t read the text before illustrating it". Or perhaps the text was too precious to be released before publication! Because this is Harry Potter, it's even been suggested that maybe I was privy to secret knowledge of the characters and books to come.

Well, though I’m afraid it’s rather dull, here’s the explanation: when I was commissioned by Barry Cunningham to produce the cover art for a debut middle grade novel by an unknown author called J. K. Rowling -- and yes, I did read it -- I was asked to provide "a wizard to decorate the back cover". So I did. The books are full of magical characters and sorcerers, so it wasn’t difficult to conjure up one of my own. It never even crossed my mind to depict Dumbledore. Well done, Chlidonias, for guessing correctly.

And the change? Well, the publishers found themselves repeatedly called on to explain why the wizard on the back didn’t correspond to the description of Dumbledore in the book. It was clear what readers wanted and expected, so Bloomsbury contacted me for a portrait of the famous head of Hogwarts, and the original wizard disappeared in a puff of smoke.

So that’s the answer. The first wizard wasn’t anyone in particular. Except…

…except he was, actually. He was based on none other than my own wonderful, magical father. Yes, my somewhat eccentric, embroidered skullcap-wearing dad is the wizard on the back of Harry Potter. Here he is boiling up a potion:

I’ll leave you to guess which wizard I prefer.

(See also: Harry Potter and the Missing Artist)

How to Survive Being Edited and Still Love Your Book/Editor/Self (and Even Occasionally Smile:-)

2011-06-14T08:59:00.002+01:00

This wasn’t lifted from a guidebook or a ‘How To’ blog, it comes direct from the Sharp End. I find revising my novel under editorial guidance a bit like experiencing assisted indigestion. Of course, gas is always better out than in, but now I’ve got someone to kick it out, and then give me soda water and interesting new stuff to eat afterwards. It’s exhausting, it’s essential, and I cope with it by being…

-NERVOUS. Don’t let anyone tell you to be relaxed about your work. Nervous energy is good – it prevents complacent or comfortable writing, and keeps you out of the biscuit tin. And fortunately there’s loads to be nervous about, especially if it’s your first novel. So bite those nails! Drink too much coffee! And don’t worry if a little cold sweat seeps into your keyboard -- there really is everything to play for and everything to lose. A nervous brain is a very active organ, a nervous brain gets things done. So keep it real, brothers and sisters -- keep it twitchy.

-HUMBLE. You are not in complete control of your novel, only the writing of it. And this is good because no way can you be expected to bring much objectivity to something you’ve been giving birth to for years. If it’s rubbish, you need to be told. If your editor spots a useful connection you could make, or a logical flaw you shouldn’thave, just be grateful. The only question you should ask is, ‘would this change improve the book?’. If the answer is yes – and somewhere deep down you’ll always know the answer to that question – then go for it. Just remember to also be...

-RUTHLESS. You’re living on your nervous system and your ego is in chains. Now you are loose in a world of your own making with the most powerful weapon a creator can have: the delete button. Even your main character reaches for a spare pair of trousers as you clank by, your senses straining in every direction for signs of plot device, flabby prose and vile non sequiturs. You have already driven cliché to the edge of extinction, and reduced vast herds of Adverbs to a few captive specimens. On your keyboard, no button shines as brightly as the one that used to say ‘Delete’.

A huddle of emaciated back-stories spot you. They point at each other and shriek, ‘Him! Do it to him!’ but you merely scatter them with your passing – you’re after new prey now. Up ahead, a minor character who no longer pulls his weight is too busy ordering pizza to notice your approach. It’s only when your monstrous scales disrupt his wireless connection, preventing him from uploading his third best Mahjong score, that he looks up into your pitiless lens. In a second, he’s off his chaise longue and running, but it’s already too late.

You know where he lives.

Getting the Title Right, Getting the Title Wrong...

2011-06-10T13:28:00.000+01:00

Regular readers of this blog will know that I have a novel due out next year, a supernatural thriller entitled The Ghost Effect. I’ve been a bit sparing with details of this event until now, mostly because I have been up to my mind’s eye in rounds of heavy revision. But as time slips by and things begin to speed up, I can start reporting milestones in the book’s progress towards publication, starting now with the news that my book almost certainly won’t be called The Ghost Effect.

Now, I always suspected this might happen, even though I did put a lot of thought into the issue of titling over the two years of the book’s creation. The story is about kids who can travel in time through their dreams. Because it’s non-physical time-travel, they take on an ethereal form as they do this, being spotted throughout history as ghosts. The title was conceived as a combination of the creepy Germanic ‘ghost’ with the Latinate, science word ‘effect’, a mis-match that was intended to create an intriguing whole. Like the Butterfly Effect, only spookier. At least, that was the idea. However, I always felt that ‘effect’ was a weak title word, and, as it turns out, so does everyone else.

So, what will the title actually be? Well, that’s being debated right now. There is one strong contender, but I won’t say anything about that just yet. What does strike me though is how closely those involved in marketing books think about these things. And also just how popular one-word titles have become. Finding a single word that captures the essence of my book, is universally relatable, and looks/sounds fab, though, now that’s a tall order! Even the English language has its limits. But one thing is certain – it’s crucial to get it right. Watch this space.

I Flatline at Weekends

2011-05-20T10:14:00.002+01:00

I’ve been neglecting my blog. And like a sick patient in an understaffed hospital, my blog is suffering as a result. But don’t take my word for it, just scroll down to the very bottom of this screen and take a look at its cardiogram. Eek!

Obviously, the ideal pulse rate would be a once-a-day (or at least twice-a-week) rhythm of site traffic spikes, as my scintillating wit and industry relevant infoblasts bring waves of visits to each post, but, um… I’m still warming up to that. In the meantime, while I wait to be industry relevant and scintillating (and rather than resort to posting pictures of kittens), maybe a detailed study of my blog’s stats will suggest a suitable medicine.

My most visited (I won’t say ‘read’), blog post is without doubt my claim-to-fame one. There’s nothing surprising there: write about something famous and people will find it. But my second most visited post, and by some margin too, is a throwaway piece I knocked out in a few minutes, whose popularity seems to be based on the fact that the play on words in its title is also a popular spelling mistake. So clearly the best shot in the arm I can give my blog is a dose of…

…Harry Potter and the Googled Myrrhmaid!

There. Long term though, there’s no alternative to getting back into the driving seat and making the effort to blog more regularly, but I have to move house first. In the meantime, please don’t worry if the patient slips into a temporary coma, it should be over by the end of June. And don’t go away, because there’s loads of news about my novel coming up (hey, I saw that look!), and more about Dan and the Dead, as well as my adventures with websites, my thoughts on branding (cowboy!), the experience of being edited, and the ups and downs and headaches of working with ideas. I’m also going to be giving stuff away.

See you soon (I hope!)

Out to Launch

2011-05-05T09:58:00.002+01:00

Last night I went to the launch party for Caroline Green’s debut YA title DarkRide, a book I just about finished on the train journey home. Not because it’s short, I might add, just brilliant and difficult to stop reading. Congratulations, Caroline!

The launch itself had all the essential ingredients -- wine, a reading, good company and a charming author – not to mention that other strange phenomenon of a 21^st Century social life: the meeting of people one has already ‘met’ via social networking. In short, I had a great time, and I couldn’t help noticing that a lot of books were sold too.

The reason I find this particularly noteworthy is the fact that I was recently told (by those who know) that new authors shouldn’t feel the necessity to hold a book launch at all, at least from the point of view of sales. The reason being that all those who would come would probably have bought the book anyway. This has had me wondering about my own debut next year and whether I should go to the trouble of organising a launch party if, as is likely, the publishers don’t hold one. But last night’s spectacle of happy people chatting over dwindling piles of stock as the wine flowed has me thinking again. And after all, without that launch party I wouldn’t have met the author, I probably wouldn’t have bought her book any time soon, and I certainly wouldn’t have had it signed. So my question over whether to launch or not seems to have been answered right there. At least, from the sales perspective – it goes without saying that it’s always fun to open a bottle or two with friends, whatever the bean-counters think.

Before I sign off, I’d also like to send out congratulations to Fiona Dunbar, whose new book, Divine Freaks, is published today. Fiona was at Caroline’s launch last night, so I was finally able to chat in person with someone I only knew by reputation and facebook. Divine Freaks, by the way, is about a girl who can see ghosts, and you have only to glance at my last post to see why I find that interesting. Congratulations Fiona!

Dan and the Dead

2011-04-17T21:08:00.000+01:00

For a long time now I have been quietly working on a comic-Gothic novella for A&C Black (part of the Bloomsbury Group) and as the contract has recently been signed, I can finally announce the good news on my blog. This is a big deal for me, not only because it means I have a second fiction title coming out in 2012 (hurray!), but also because it will be lightly illustrated, and therefore the first time I have been able to combine my own illustrations with my writing for older readers. Double hurray! (The picture above is just a sample, but click for a closer look anyway.)

This project began life as a proposed contribution to a new series of very slim chapter books aimed at reluctant teen readers, but A&C Black felt the idea could be taken further than that, launching me on a very protracted (but ultimately very fruitful) journey. And there was even a brief of sorts: imagine a boy of between 10 and 14 years who has almost given up on reading, but who might yet be tempted to open a book if it looked exciting enough. You have this one chance to get him hooked. Now write!

It turns out that was precisely the challenge I needed, and the stripped down, revved-up 22,000 word text that resulted was a sheer delight to write. I'm not saying it was easy – it certainly wasn't – but I learnt so much that I was able to go back to my novel afterwards and rip many thousands of pointless words right out of it.

So what's it about? Well, it's about a boy called Dan who can see dead people. Yup, like in the film, only I've added a twist that should hopefully freshen things up a bit. The basic set-up owes something to Randall and Hopkirk (Deceased), and sees Dan team up with the ghost of an Eighteenth Century gentleman called Simon, and go into business solving the troubles of the 'Desperate Dead'. For a rather extraordinary fee. Dan's the talent, Si thinks he's the brains of the outfit, and between them they're pretty damn awesome. In a skin-of-Dan's-teeth kind of way. There are dead Victorian magicians to contend with, the feisty ghost of murdered teen Emmeline, sleazy nightclub owners, gold polyester fluffy dice, scary lady vicars and more North Sea than is good for a boy whose hands are tied behind his back. Oh, and there are guns and car chases. And a severed finger. And something very, very grisly that Dan has to carry around all the time. There was even a Quiet Moment for a while, but I decided to delete it.

Anyway, it's something to put in the diary for next Spring:)

In Search of a Lost Reader

2011-04-13T11:34:00.002+01:00

The recent death of Diana Wynne Jones has got me thinking. A great many tributes have been posted on-line recently, not just by those who actually knew her, but also by many who trace their own development as writers back to reading her magical books as children. And it's that that's got me thinking, because no matter how far I delve into the crumb-filled cardboard spaceship of my own childhood memories, I can't find Diana Wynne Jones in there anywhere.

Perhaps it doesn't matter. I mean, I have read some her books as a grown up, and seeing as how I have a professional interest in keeping my inner eleven-year-old alive and dreaming, maybe that's enough. But I can't shake off the obvious question: what was I reading then?

Well, the earliest memory I have of being signed up for permanent membership of the Great Book Club of Life was reading The Hobbit at about age 13. Yes, I know that's probably the most uninteresting piece of autobiographical information I have ever posted here (what boy didn't read The Hobbit at age 13?), but for all it's banality, it was still a key event for me. It was the first time I remember feeling bereft at the finishing of a book, and also the moment I understood fully that a story doesn't disappear just because it's over. I even remember exactly where I was standing when I realised I could turn the book over and start it again if I wanted to. The best thing about book covers is everything they contain.

Anyway,The Hobbit led to The Lord of the Rings, and from there I discovered Terry Pratchett, Terry Brooks, John Wyndham, Douglas Adams, Arthur C. Clarke, Real Life, and eventually Girls. But how did I get to Tolkein in the first place? What steps did I take to become a committed reader? And how can I – as a writer for children -- help make sure that other young people get switched on too?

Well, I can reveal that I did read Enid Blyton, though only because I borrowed my little sister's Magic faraway Tree books. I was about 11, and already aware that they were too young for me. I have also -- with the help of Facebook friends -- uncovered the fact that I read The Three Investigators, and this might push my reading back to the age of ten. There were comics of course, and much further back I know my father read Beatrix Potter to me, and my mother was definitely there when the tiger came to tea, but no matter how I look at it there's definitely a big round hole in my memory, and it's at exactly the point where Diana Wynne Jones would have fitted in nicely.

Oh, well. I can't exactly complain about having lots of great books still to read, now can I? But I am sorry to have missed her first time round, back when I wasn't bristling with critical faculties, prejudice and ugly ambition – back when all I needed was a torch and a duvet and a heap of books under my pillow.

So how did you become a reader? And what do you do to help the young people in your life find out where the stories are? In fact, should you do anything?

(I lifted this photo from a fansite. I have no idea if I need permission to use it or not -- feel free to tell me if you know better)

How To Write a Rhyming Picture Book and Get It Published -- Part 3: A Reader’s Perspective.

2011-03-26T15:18:00.006Z

In parts one and two of this mini-guide, I gave some technical tips to help with the writing of your rhyming picture book, and some facts to bear in mind when trying to sell it to agents/publishers. This last instalment is to help you envisage the culminating event that all your efforts lead towards: the moment the book encounters its readership. But let’s start with a fact that cannot be emphasised strongly enough:

PICTURE BOOKS ARE PRIMARILY READ BY ADULTS!

Adults are not only the readers, they are also the gatekeepers and purchasers of picture books. In fact, it’s crucial to keep in mind that every step of your book’s journey from your keyboard to a child’s bookcase has to be made with the approval of a succession of grown-ups, starting with you as author, going through agents, editors, marketers and booksellers, and ending with Mummy or Daddy at Bedtime. Like it or not, if you are writing for small children you are doing so at one very big remove.

As I mentioned in part one, the average parent would rather be half-submerged in the bath with a gin and tonic than reading bedtime stories (and that includes me some nights). Anything that makes your verse difficult to read or confusing will only compound the problem. Instead, aim to make your book the family’s favourite – the one that’s not only adored by Timmy and little Desdemelda, but which also brings a sigh of relief to their tired parents when it’s dragged out of the bedroom clutter and shoved under their noses.

For this, your text must be short and sweet:

SHORT: 300 to 600 words is pretty much the optimum length for a picture book. However, a text written in rhyme might have to be longer because of the need to complete rhymes and stick to metre. Anything over 800 words though is getting too long, and texts over a thousand probably wouldn’t even get beyond most agents and editors these days. Jack’s Tractor is less than 600 words.

SWEET: Your writing must trip off the tongue. Stick to familiar metrical feet, such as iambs (o-O) and anapaests (o-o-O), trochees (O-o) and dactyls (O-o-o), but NEVER assume knowledge of such things in your reader. Crafting and technique is your job, and you are paid to get it right. Ideally, you will have shepherded the natural stress pattern of the language in such a way that the reader has no choice but to deliver the story in the singsong rhythm you have chosen. No, it’s not very easy to do, but it’s pleasing, and challenging too! And your verse will run sweeter with crystalline metre and rhymes that are honest and true.

But perhaps you’ve a differing view?
Or a technical question or two?
Well, the ‘comments’ below
Is the place you should go.
In the meantime…

….good writing to you!

"Read this -- it's good for you..."

2011-03-23T12:05:00.001Z

Michael Gove (British Secretary of State for Education) is getting a proper ribbing for his recent comment that ‘…our children should be reading fifty books a year’. Quite apart from the tragicomic illogicality of saying such a thing at a time of library cuts -- and indeed the absence of libraries in an increasing number of British
schools -- his call for ‘leading children’s authors’ to select titles isn’t going down too well either. Librarians are surely the true experts, as many authors themselves are pointing out.

What really worries me though is the nature of many of the books on any such list of fifty (why fifty?) titles children 'must read'. When grown-ups start waving classic works of children’s literature at their kids, you can almost hear the Angel of Literacy crinkling at the edges as she shrivels and dies.

As a boy of 12 or so, we started reading Treasure Island in English Class. The teacher read aloud for five minutes, then we took it in turns to stumble through Stevenson’s Victorian prose ourselves. There seemed to be a story in there somewhere, but all I could hear was a hesitant drone and the rustle of paper aeroplanes. When weeks turned to months, the teacher finally decided something had to be done. She held a vote and we elected to stop reading and do a mini project on democracy instead. Obviously we all loathed Treasure Island by then.

Years later, when writing my own seafaring tale, I read Treasure Island again (hoping to pinch Stevenson’s research). Needless to say it’s quite brilliant, and Long John Silver is one of the great villains of literature. But as a set text at school, blurted out from behind the hunched shoulders of the class bully, it didn’t stand a
chance.

Isn’t it time to abandon the concept of ‘children’s classics’ altogether, and accept that Stevenson, Ransome, Carroll, et al are best left for more mature readers? Let’s stop beating kids round the head with what they should read, and let them take their pick from modern writing, comics, flash fiction, anything that keeps them reading. This is meant to be a 'Golden Age of Children’s Writing,' after all. But it’s libraries, not lists, that could help it become a Golden Age of Reading too.

How To Write a Rhyming Picture Book and Get it Published -- Part 2: A Publisher’s Perspective.

2011-03-22T11:33:00.009Z

In the first part of this mini-guide, I gave you some tips to help you write your rhyming picture book text. Now I’m going to explain why publishers (and therefore agents) will probably reject it simply because it’s written in rhyme and metre (in the UK, at least). Tough, I know, but this isn’t about ruining your day, it’s about helping you to know your enemy. And the publisher is your enemy until the day they give you a contract and become your friend.

1. Rhyming texts are difficult and expensive to translate, and therefore hard to sell into foreign language markets. In Britain co-editions are crucial to the economic viability of picture books (I illustrated a picture book some years back which still isn’t published because it hasn’t gained enough interest abroad, and that was in prose!). This fact alone is enough to generate an automatic rejection. The situation is less acute in the US because the domestic market is so much bigger, but it's still an issue.

It’s not all bad news though. An editor recently told me that ‘if it’s good enough, it will be translated’, but I take that to mean that it has to be something exceptional.

2. Even within the English language, rhyming texts don’t always travel. This is especially true between the US and Canada on the one hand, and the UK, Australia and New Zealand on the other (other English-speaking countries are available). This is because the stress patterns in North American English differ from those of elsewhere, and I’m not just talking about the famous case of al-u-MIN-i-um/al-U-min-um. While in the UK ‘toward’ is two unambiguous syllables, for many in the US it’s only one. And when it comes to rhyme, while many non-rhotic Brits are happy to rhyme ‘parcel’ and ‘castle’, most Americans wouldn’t dream of it.

These are subtle points, but enough to dissuade a reluctant publisher in the US from acquiring a UK text. British publishers know that and so should you.

3. Metrical, rhyming texts are much harder to edit, because they are inevitably more highly structured. Whereas 500 words of prose can go through enormous revision and emerge greatly improved, 500 words in verse can only really be tinkered with or scrapped and rewritten entirely. Editors don’t need that kind of headache, especially if they’ve never worked with you before.

Now you see why I wrote ‘IT’S MUCH HARDER THAN YOU THINK!’ In capitals in the first part of this three-part post. But don’t be disheartened, just add these three points to the challenge pile, roll up your sleeves, and get stuck in. Publishers DO take on picture book texts in rhyme, they just set the bar very high, that’s all.

Next: what happens when your published book encounters a very different kind of enemy/friend: the reader.

How To Write a Rhyming Picture Book and Get it Published -- Part 1: A Writer’s Perspective.

2011-03-18T09:37:00.009Z

(Apparently I don’t put enough practical information on my blog, so here goes…)

Many aspiring picture book writers start off in rhyme. It’s easy peasy and kids love it, right? Well, slushpile veterans can reel off numberless examples of second-rate verse and failed Dr Seuss-a-likes, so let’s start with this crucial fact:

IT’S MUCH HARDER THAN YOU THINK!

‘Easy’ rhymes with ‘cheesy’, after all.

Part of the nature of good rhyming texts is that they are a joy to read and roll off the tongue, but that does NOT mean they slide off the ballpoint without hours of sweat and stress. The English Language may be rich in words, shades of meaning and overall loveliness, but it’s comparatively poor when it comes to rhyme, especially true rhymes. Here are some technical points and tips that are worth keeping in mind:

1. True rhymes are best because they are the easiest to read and clearest for children. But they are very difficult to keep up. A rhyme is true if it rhymes on the last stressed syllable, with all subsequent unstressed syllables being identical. For example: HAIR-i-ness and SCAR-i-ness. Some words have large numbers of true rhymes (‘-IGHT’ words, for example) but most will have very few, and given the restricted vocabulary of writing for the very young, this fact makes rhyming in picture books a real challenge. The clever way round this, and the most fun, is to seek out near-true rhymes (NOR-wich and PORR-idge). The very worst thing you can do is fall back on forced rhymes.

2. Alliteration is more than just using words that start with the same letter. It’s about unifying a line and creating points of contact between lines. It only works with stressed syllables (the lurid allure of London), regardless of whether or not they begin a word, and is all too easy to overdo. It’s much better to have just two alliterated syllables in a line than to try and squeeze in as many as possible. And don’t forget, a Big Brown Bear is also a Big Fat Cliché.

3. Don’t forget assonance! The overlooked but secretly rather wonderful cousin of alliteration, assonance is rhyme in stressed vowel sounds, and a subtle way to unify a line (his little sister’s slipper). To be used sparingly but cleverly.

4. Metre and syllable count ARE important. Forced scansion is just as bad as forced rhyme, since it can cause a reader to stumble. The whole point of metre is to make the verse predictable. Any ambiguity in either rhyme or scansion is likely to wreck your text, because…

5. …picture book readers are usually not children at all, but ADULTS. This is important because sadly many parents are reluctant to read to their children even at the best of times. But at the end of the day, after work and a long commute followed by screaming fits over broccoli, even reading a short bedtime story can seem onerous. You will win friends amongst parents if you give them something effortless to read and you will make the children smile if you give them vivid rhymes they can shout out and a rhythm they can anticipate. Add a dollop of fun and you’re done!

Next post: a publisher’s perspective. In the meantime, my latest picture book in rhyme is available everywhere and would make a great gift when you’ve finished dissecting it.

Don't Just Read About It...

2011-03-15T09:16:00.004Z

It's now possible to help Japan without leaving the world of books and writing by bidding on the Authors For Japan site (created by Keris Stainton). Up for grabs are signed books, advance copies, original artwork and critiques. Why not go to the site now and rummage about? There's something for everyone, and every penny goes to help the real people behind the dramatic footage we've all been watching of the disaster that has struck Japan. I'm bidding. Will you?

Remembering Rosemary

2011-03-11T21:35:00.007Z

This morning my former agent, Rosemary Canter, died at home. It wasn't exactly a surprise given that she had been suffering ill health for so long, but it's still a shock that I know I share with everyone who ever spent time with Rosemary. She was a towering figure in the world of children's books, the big league agent I often felt I didn't deserve, a grown-up and shrewd business woman blessed with a child's delight for story.

I met Rosemary through my tutor at art school, who was also one of her clients. I'd been muddling along as an un-agented illustrator for a couple of years, and with my first picture book text contracted I felt it was time to find representation. I had already been rejected by three agents, and frankly I didn't think Rosemary would be very impressed with me. For a start, I probably looked about twelve and my portfolio of samples was a shambles. She asked me about the kinds of things I was interested in and I remember making some goofy greenhorn comments. She was very patient and professional, and if she looked at her watch I didn't notice.

Towards the end of the interview, I told her I'd written a new picture book text and she asked me to tell it to her. I was caught off guard by this, but did my best to conjure up the unlikely tale of a badger who finds a chocolate biscuit only to lose it again through a daft scheme to multiply his good fortune. When I finished, Rosemary offered representation. She said later that the way I'd told the story made her feel like a little girl again. This is still one of the greatest compliments anyone has ever paid me. That text went on to be published as Ludwig and the Chocolate Biscuit Tree, and my decade as Rosemary's client began.

Rosemary stuck with me during some very lean and unproductive times, when another agent might have questioned my place on her list. She also had to ride to my rescue when my link to a certain boy wizard took on a complex and frankly quite scary legal dimension. Much later, when I met her over coffee to announce that I was working on a novel of my own (despite the fact that I'd never shown her any desire to do such a reckless thing in the past) she took it in her stride and told me to send it to her as soon as the first draft was ready. She took me seriously and that alone gave me enormous confidence.

Since then there have been ups (when she read that first draft she phoned to tell me that I had 'all the gifts' – glow!) and more than a few downs (such as her response to the first draft of my next attempt at a novel: 'perhaps there's something else you could be working on?' – cringe), but Rosemary stood by me regardless. Only yesterday I sent a revised picture book text back to my editor, a text that Rosemary enriched enormously with a few insightful comments. She was that kind of agent too.

Rosemary was last year succeeded at United Agents by the capable and tireless Jodie Marsh (I still feel like I have an agent I don't deserve!), though her loss will be no less keenly felt for that. It's a sad, sad day for a great many people, but right now I find I have only one thing left to say.

Rosemary, thank you.

"Darling, Don't Tell the Children..."

2011-03-06T10:01:00.009Z

The world of children's writing and publishing is dominated by adults. So much so, that I often cause shocked disbelief in people outside when I explain that actual, live children are rarely, if ever, involved in any aspect of it. Except of course as consumers, though even there adult readers have recently staged an invasion. Which is no bad thing, but still...

So where are the kids in all this? Well, one place they might be found now is t his fantastic new Guardian site (actually a sub-section of Guardian Books, but what the hey?). It's a rare spot for young readers themselves -- still handed down by grown ups, but at least its heart is in the right place and real children and teens are involved. It's well worth digging through if you have an interest in writing for the young.

US agent Mary Kole recently posted about the ranks of adult gatekeepers that stand between writers and children. It sounds all wrong, doesn't it, but that's how it's done. So I was amused to read about Lucy Coats' recent World Book Night adventure. That's one way to reach readers directly, and all in a good cause too.

The Next Big Thing

2011-03-01T14:39:00.007Z

Following my last post, I thought I should have a stab at guessing what might be 'hotter than hot' in Kid-lit in the next few years. Not because I advocate writing anything other than the story you have to tell (trend-chasing is for losers, right?), but because precedent suggests it's bound to change the publishing landscape, whatever it is.

The web is surely the best place to hunt for nascent signs of tomorrow's 'Harry Twilight', and the opinions of readers are easy to find and always interesting. However, what people read now only tells us about the acquisitions climate of two or more years ago, which is more relevant to my last post than this one. The opinions of writers themselves are far more likely to take us toward the future, and those of agents even more so, but surely the nearest we can get to the publishing sensation of tomorrow is to look closely at what is exciting commissioning editors right now. Or at least at the things they have noticed are missing.

About two years ago the head of a British publishing house told me he believed 'young detectives' (think Nancy Drew/Hardy Boys/Secret Seven) were overdue for a comeback. Since then several editors have suggested to me that they feel the same way, and there certainly does seem to be a gap in the market. There have been close equivalents in the Young Bond series (and now Young Sherlock Holmes) and individual books (such as Siobhan Dowd's delightful London Eye Mystery) have been very successful. Character-driven mystery-tackling in its broadest sense is perennially popular (Artemis Fowl, Joshua Garcia, Alex Rider, etc), but where is the Red Hand Gang of the 21^st Century? Either the 'group of crime-busting child/teen detectives in a short-text series' format has morphed into something else or it's been neglected. Few contemporary teenagers are going to want to read or watch Nancy Drew now, but is that because they don't want crime fiction of their own or is that because Nancy Drew is very dated and 70s cheesy (at least on the telly)?

The clichés and archetypes of the genre are well known: a dashing but flawed leader (with a dog), a nerd with specs who is the brainy one, and a fiery girl (probably with red hair) to stir things up and provide a dash of very tame sexual tension. Then the set-up needs a 'Something Else' that gives the kids an edge (a gift for disguises perhaps, or a rich uncle with 'access') while the writer must have a talent for slow-drip backstory and long term character development. Stir all this together and serve it up in a dozen or more plot-driven shorter novels, and watch the fan base grow and the film rights get optioned.

Or not. At the very least it's something to think about (minus the clichés, of course). But identifying a gap in the market is a long way from spotting The Next Big Thing, and as far as I can tell that publisher and those editors have yet to be proved right.

But what if the next hot intellectual property is already here? I've just finished reading I Am Number Four by James Frey and Jobie Hughes (under the name Pittacus Lore). The book -- soon to be a series and already a movie -- reads like a self-concious attempt to reboot a tried and trusted formula in order to generate a fresh publishing sensation. First wizards, then vampires, and now... aliens? Traditional Sci-Fi themes of the space western/Star Wars type are also conspicuously lacking in today's Kid-lit market place (I've long wondered why we don't have a modern teen take on Flash Gordon or Blake's Seven, and perhaps Nathan Bransford has too), but it could be that Pittacus Lore has found the right way to exploit them. Book one was published six months ago, and with five more planned someone somewhere is investing heavily in Aliens. Did I mention there's already a film?

So, er.. that'll be my conclusion then: the Next Big Thing in Children's publishing might well be super-powered alien heartthrobs who gang up to solve crime. Or it might be something else.

You heard it here first:)

What's Not To Write?

2011-02-15T14:25:00.005Z

I wonder if Children's publishing is the branch of literature most beset by trends. It certainly seems that way. Over the last decade a stream of themes and archetypes have burst onto the bookshelf only to be dropped in the 'No-no' box a few years later – the point at which only the very well-established can get away with writing something new about them.

By my reckoning the contents of that box is very rich and becoming richer by the year, but how long before those themes become fresh again? A generation?

New writers, looking for their first book deal, obviously need to be aware of the contents of the 'No-no' box, even as they also opt out of the fools game of trend-chasing. It's a fine line to tread, especially as tastes amongst editors, agents and readers (in that order) can change while you're still beavering away at the keyboard. And what do you do if your favourite subject has become deeply unfashionable? The answer to that, I'm afraid, is write about something else, or self-publish and hope.

So what's in that box right now? What should an aspiring children's writer, hoping to attract the attention of agents and editors in 2011 and 2012, be avoiding like a plague of vampires?

Well, boy wizards must be somewhere near the bottom. Along with anyone else who discovers they have powers and need to go away to a special school to learn how to use them. Unless, I suppose, they have powers we've never read about before.

Somewhere just above magic would be pirates. I learnt just how unpopular they had become the hard way. Alongside pirates are similar historical archetypes such as highwaymen and Vikings. In fact, historic themes as a whole are a hard sell now, precisely because they were rumoured to be the 'next big thing' about eight years ago and weren't.

Just above pirates are all those supernatural creatures we've been seeing so much of. If a supernatural creature isn't there, it's because we haven't been seeing much of it, so get writing quick! You're too late for werewolves or hunky fallen angels, but you might just get away with a yeti with dreamboat eyes.

Then -- and last to go into the box -- we have steampunk, partly because there’s been a splurge of it in the last 18 months (and there's still a lot more in the tube), but also because it’s a dead end. A glorious, wonder-filled dead end, but a no-through-road nonetheless. This airship sailed last year.

And then... well, I don't know. Can anyone think of anything else? My guess is that zombies and demons are due to be dropped in the 'No-no' box pretty soon, though to look at the bookshelves they are still enormously popular. But that's precisely the point.

Save Our Libraries Day -- Saturday 5th of Feb.

2011-02-05T08:24:00.005Z

In Britain we now have something called 'The Big Society'. For those of you who don't live here, this is the government's Grand Idea, designed to stimulate local entrepreneurial flare while pulling back the role of central government. I'm all for giving new ideas a go, but looked at from any angle it's hard to see the Big Society as much more than a Big Sticking Plaster slapped hastily over the effects of even bigger cuts in public spending. Cuts that plunge painfully near an author's bone when they they cause the loss of public libraries.

Of course, it's not just writers who should be worried. Everyone has something invested in the concept of the free lending library, whether they have forgotten what that is or not. And don't take my word for it. Philip Pullman's recent speech in Oxford, where the local council has decided that Big Society means the proposed closure of 20 of the county's 43 libraries, does more than anything else I've read to highlight the value of what we may be about to lose. Please take some time to read it (though the chances are you have already).

I'm lucky because my local library isn't threatened. It's a bright, clean, modern place, and never empty. But I know that this isn't always the case. Some have been allowed to become 'gloomy old buildings full of unread books', and many respond to their possible closure with disinterest. You have only to read some of the negative reaction to Pullman's speech to find out what a part of the British population thinks of libraries. And as their use is allowed to decline, some local authorities -- invited by government to 'be creative' in their response to the Big Society – have deemed libraries to be irrelevant and unprofitable (!), dead wood to be hacked off. An easy way to save money.

So much for being creative. A truly big idea would see our less popular, shabbier libraries re-vitalised as centres of literacy and civic pride, designed to counter the numb-skull notion that we don't need them 'coz it's all on the internet'. Like Pullman, I want to live in a Long Society that remembers the past and invests across generations, not a short sighted one that can't see beyond next year's accounting and the vague positives of 'bigness'.

In 1994, Norwich central library burnt down. It was a traumatic event for the city, and I sensed the ruin and shock of it even though I no longer lived there. I used the library as a boy, and remember it as a grand and sober institution, a repository of local history stretching back a thousand years, a lending library stacked to its high ceiling with upright spines. It may not have been a very joyful place for a child, but there's something especially bitter about the stink of burning history and books, however old you are.

Norwich responded to this disaster not by rebuilding a cheap imitation of what was lost (as many called for), and certainly not by grabbing the chance to cut spending, but by finding the courage and foresight to create something innovative: a 21^st Century forum.

The Forum is not merely a new, modern library, but a beacon of cultural and civic life, with conference rooms, cafés and even (horror!) shops. But it's most emphatically not a Mall. It is what all libraries, even small branches, could aspire to be with the help of some genuinely creative thinking from local and central government: a crossroads and meeting point for ideas, friends, and all aspects of regional cultural life; an icon of local identity; a temple to information in all formats. In short, a place that will still be relevant when the 'Big Society' is nothing more than a passage in a history book. A book anyone in Norwich will be able to read because they have such a cracking library.

Thanks to Phil Bradley for the picture.

Boo! Hiss! Get off!

2011-01-31T13:31:00.005Z

Writers like to stick 'notes to self' on their computer screens. 'Show, don't tell!' seems to be a popular one, as is 'be brave!' or 'get on with it!' Until now, all I've had on mine is a zigzaggy snake and a sticker saying 'old stuff rocks' (presents from my children). I wanted a post-it too, but what? For a while 'Facebook can wait' was a serious contender, but then I read this excellent post on layering by Victoria Mixen, and one phrase jumped out and bit me:

“...get the heck out of the way.”

Which I take to mean: the author's place is round the back, pulling the strings, not prancing on stage, waving his learning/research/vocabulary/ego about. Or in other words:

Don't get between the reader and the story.*

Now, this isn't news to me – I've been learning it the hard way for years -- but seeing it end the sentence “Say what you’ve got to say, say it quick, and get the heck out of the way.” brought on that post-it note moment for me.

What do you have stuck to your screen? Wise words? Or ravioli?

*Yes, I know it's different for literary fiction:-)

Confidence Trick

2011-01-25T10:33:00.003Z

Every time I read about a writer shuffling through a dog-eared, coffee-drizzled pile of foolscap or 'making that leap from the notebook to the screen', I always feel a little inadequate. Maybe this is how it's supposed to be done. Perhaps I'm not the real thing because I can only write on a computer.

I've mentioned before that it took me years to screw up enough confidence to launch into a novel. There are many reasons for this (I can't simply blame Art School mentality), but one of them was definitely disgust at my own handwriting.

In my mid-twenties I started a children's novel. I didn't have a computer then so I wrote by hand. I can't remember much about it, but I do recall that everything about the sight of my scribble cried out 'put me in the bin and go to the pub!'. So after a few pages, I did. Perhaps if I'd used a word processor, I might just have been less prejudiced. Nicely justified and spell-checked in Times New Roman, perhaps I would have been able to concentrate on the story and take it somewhere interesting. Perhaps.

Agents, editors and established writers sometimes complain about this phenomenon -- the way word processing creates the illusion of competence. Mediocrity can dress itself up as literature, right from the off. That'll be a bad sign for me then. But I can't help being grateful for the crutch that got me walking, and gave me the confidence to want to run.

Ghosts & Gangsters

2011-01-17T09:10:00.006Z

Here are more black and white samples -- character studies for a comic novella I wrote at the end of last year. I can't say anything about that until a certain acquisitions meeting at the end of the month (cue heartburn), but since there's a chance I would illustrate the book too, I've been warming up.

Who am I kidding, I've been trying to warm up for years.

I feel like I've been fighting the materials since my mid-teens, with the sorry result that I'm basically just hiding from the the whole issue of colour right now. But I'm determined to gain some sense of mastery in black and white. I mean, black pen on white paper – how hard can it be? Answer: finger-achingly, back-ossifyingly tough. But at least I'm in no doubt about the Faber-Castell PITT artist pen (hurray!), especially when 180g course grain paper resists the nib so nicely.

My aim in all this is to make pen feel like pencil. Click for a closer look. Why not just use a pencil? Um... I'll have to get back to you on that.

The Ladder of Fear

2011-01-10T22:18:00.003Z

It’s incredible how much fear and trembling is involved in building a career as a writer. The trick, I suppose, is to use that fear as fuel to drive your creative engines, but surely even glass-half-full people spend days chewing on their own souls. In fact, I'm told that even the most successful novelists never quite step off the top of the Ladder of Fear.

The first Rung. You really want – no, need -- to write, and you even have a story to tell, but you don’t yet know if you are capable of completing something the shape and scope of a novel. I let self-doubt like this keep me frozen on the first rung for years. It was here that I hid behind the fact that I was an illustrator (“we don’t DO words, okay?”) so that I could postpone the potential discovery that I was incapable of doing the thing I really wanted – no, needed – to do (chew, chew, chew…)

The Second Rung. I sometimes think half the blogosphere is comprised of people stuck here. This is the place for those who have completed a first draft or three, but now have to face the considerable challenge of wrangling and revising and cold-sweating it into shape in order to win an agent/publishing deal, despite nagging self-doubt, a demanding day job and a steady rain of rejection. As is well known, getting beyond this is about ten times harder than writing the damn stuff in the first place. The ground is littered with broken dreams and empty wine bottles, but at least you don’t have to stand in them.

The Third Rung. Here’s where people who have publishing deals end up, twitching but probably half expecting the fear to ease up from now on. Only it doesn’t. Because despite having a measure of acceptance, not to mention industry professionals to guide you, bad books still get published, and what if yours is one of them? What if you get horrible Amazon reviews? Or worse still, what if you don’t get reviewed at all?

This is where I am, tormented by the fear that come 2012 my name will be very publicly stamped on a block of 80k words that right now I can hardly control, let alone judge. I do know that there are good bits, but I also know that good bits just aint good enough. Nobody wants to actually eat the Curate’s egg.

The Fourth Rung. I can actually see this from where I cling, and I can well imagine that having to write a second book that matches up to the first (in only a fraction of the time) must be pretty scary. And I can also see how the aviator who crashes is worse off than the aviator whose plane is still on the runway. But I can’t quite feel this fear yet. It belongs to someone else. Though it is waiting for me.

The Fifth Rung and Beyond. Having got published will you manage to stay published? Will you earn enough to keep writing? Will you match up to your ‘earlier promise’? Or will you write something foolish on your blog and ruin your reputation? Or perhaps you'll just swallow a poisonous toad and die before you can finish your breakout novel? God alone knows, and maybe he’s even up there somewhere, but from where I stand the ladder disappears into the clouds and I can’t see much. Except, is that a Nobel Prize for Literature falling my way? Or just a stick of dynamite? And is that Neil Gaiman I can see, trembling fearfully as he reaches rung fifty-seven?

(chew, chew…)

2010, eh?

2011-01-01T09:29:00.002Z

Happy New year!

I'm not very inclined to dissect the year just gone. It contained a few great moments for me, most notably landing a publishing deal for my début novel (did I mention that?), and also saw me moving back across to the sunny side of the Channel, but there was enough tedium and frustration to make the arrival of 2011 very welcome. So my best foot is well and truly forward this January morning, and there's even a slight spring in the old step too. Lots to do.

I don't make New Year's resolutions any more – I'm more of a five-year-plan kinda guy – but I do like to consciously tackle something connected with my career at this time of the year. Last time round it was the fact that I felt poorly-read in recent kid-lit, and I read nearly 50 MG and YA novels last year as a result. This year's issue will be branding: how should I promote myself as a novelist whilst taking into account everything I've done -- and am still doing -- in picture books? And where does my illustration fit into all this?

Who am I exactly?

By this time next year I plan to have a website that resolves all this. Right now though, I can hardly imagine what will be on it.

But let's not cram it all into one day. I think I'll go out for a walk, to see if I can spot any positive signs for the future in the dripping hedgerows and mist. Well, you never know...

Will you be making any resolutions? And if so, how will you enforce them?

Happy Christmas

2010-12-18T21:22:00.004Z

We've been getting a lot of snow lately, but at least it gives me the chance to be useful for a change. In the first blizzard, about a fortnight ago now, I even managed to dig our car out with nothing but a Wellington boot.

Despite the prospect of having to cross the English Channel on foot, I'm anticipating a high old time over the next fortnight, and I hope all readers of my erratic blog have a very happy Christmas too. I send you my very best wishes, and let's make sure we all have a fab start to 2011 as well.

See you in the new year!

In Training...

2010-12-16T19:21:00.005Z

A few people have asked me, now that I'm no longer working as an illustrator, if I've also stopped drawing for myself. I can see why they'd ask that, but I couldn't even contemplate hanging up my sketchbooks for good. That would be an intellectual amputation, and no, I don't believe I'm exaggerating.

I've sung the praises of slim Muji notebooks before, but they're so little trouble to carry that there's really no excuse not to, even if you're on a nudist beach (they're so small you could tuck one in your... well, in the band of your panama hat).

Coming home from London the other day I rediscovered another advantage of the pocket-sized sketchbook: it's incredibly easy to hide the fact that you're drawing at all. The people in the sketch above must think I'm highly proficient at crossword puzzles. When it comes to violating other people's privacy, a gentleman does so in secret.

I still think of myself as an illustrator, and finding some black and white line work is one of my aims for 2011, but for now I'm happy keeping the engines in tune with Muji. And now you know what to send me for Christmas, so we're all smiling.

I'm Off Again...

2010-12-04T09:22:00.002Z

...only this time it's to hide in the countryside with my laptop and my revision of The Ghost Effect. I'll be taking aspirin too. In the meantime, and because I know you'll miss me, here's an interview I have just done on the subject of Harry Potter and my cover art for the book. Yup, still talking about it...

See you soon.

"Bah..."

2010-11-30T19:06:00.004Z

"...not another illustrator who thinks he can write!”

This mean-spirited sentiment has come my way a few times in recent months, but you know, I'm grateful for it. After all, nothing inspires ambition quite like being put in one's place.

Now hit me again, harder.

I Learnt Two Interesting Things…

2010-11-26T20:36:00.005Z

…at the Sheffield Children’s Book Award. They are so interesting (especially if you write and illustrate picture books) that I’m going to share them here. No, wait, I actually learnt three things! But first…

The award ceremony was a huge event, much bigger than I’d expected, with a 1000 school children in the audience, plus plenty of adult hangers on. Sheffield should be very proud of itself for hosting such a wonderful annual blast – a celebration of libraries, reading and books, with the kids themselves voting for the shortlists and the winners.

I didn’t win in my category, though just being shortlisted felt pretty special, I can tell you. Morris the Mankiest Monster by Giles Andreae and Sarah McIntyre won both the picture book category and the overall prize, and this is a much deserved win because, as I said, the children chose it themselves. It was in talking about this with editors afterwards that I discovered the first of the Interesting Things:

--Picture book editors, some of them at least, are growing less reluctant to publish rhyming texts.

This is exciting -- for me, anyway -- not only because kids love rhyme, but because it comes naturally to me when I write for the very young (as with Jack’s Tractor). The difficulty of landing a co-edition, especially in a language other than English, has made rhyming texts very difficult to sell in recent years. But I was told, “if it’s good enough, it will be translated.”

The second Interesting Thing was this:

-- Gross sells (Morris is a very manky monster indeed), but not so much in the US. Actually, Morris does have a US co-edition, but as a general rule, books about poo, vomit and farting, while hugely popular with young readers everywhere, often don't get picked up by US buyers, and the possibility of not landing an American co-edition keeps the lid on the number of gross picture books that come out in the UK. In other words, there’s no point in running off after Morris’s slime trail just because he’s very popular, even though these days there are certainly more gross books about than before. Gross alone isn’t enough. But that’s the thing about Morris – he manages to be charming, even when he’s squeezing his spots! Definitely something to keep in mind.

The third thing I learnt was this: if you are nominated for an award, then if at all possible please go to the ceremony. I know a lot of authors complain about having to traipse about attending these events because I’ve heard them doing it, but when, at Sheffield, the kids were told that their favourite author couldn’t be there, the look of naked disappointment on their faces was a lesson in itself.

Being Let Out

2010-11-20T21:08:00.006Z

I'm off for a week, mostly to be in Cambridge to catch up with old chums, though I'll also be heading up to Sheffield for their children's book award. This is because Jack's Tractor has been shortlisted in the picture book category. I honestly think I've been very restrained in not mentioning that every other post, so stop rolling your eyes, you at the back!

I have never been nominated for a proper children's book award before. And this after over ten years of writing and illustrating. Perhaps that isn't something to admit here in public, but I can't help feeling that this, coupled with the fact that Jack's Tractor is the first text I wrote that I didn't plan to illustrate myself, can only say positive things about my decision to concentrate on writing.

I don't think I'll win the award – my money's on Morris – but I hope it'll be fun just being there. In any event, I'm not going to take my grumpy side with me. I'll leave him here instead, to illustrate this post.

Willies and Bums

2010-11-13T11:34:00.006Z

Warning! There are some potentially offensive words in this post.

I’m working on a new text for reluctant teen readers (14 and under), primarily boys, and the question of just how bad bad language can be in kid-lit has presented itself. It’s always an issue, but this particular text, which is slap-stick and energetic, just cries out for some fruity language, especially with very grown up bad guys. For example, I can’t have sleazy nightclub owners and their hard men say ‘Golly!’ or ‘Come back here, you ruffian! We have the measure of you!’

There’s a lot of scope for ingenuity in cooking up faux swearwords, and famously this is where literary pirates get their cheesy vocabulary, (arr!) but even the best faked-up obscenities tend to bring a text down in age range, a sure way to drive off teen readers. The problem is, real swearwords often drive off the people who control what those teenagers read.

I’m fortunate to have editorial guidance on this though, and after reflection, the spectrum of language and acceptability looks something like this:

‘Cunt’ and ‘fuck’ are right out on the edge, and I hesitate about using them even here. I wouldn’t even use ‘WTF?’ for this age range.

‘Arse’ and ‘shit’ are tamer, but still too fruity for most gatekeepers. They might work for older readers, but are best avoided if you want your book to be stocked in a school library.

‘Bloody’ and ‘crap’ inhabit perhaps the most interesting part of the spectrum, which seems to form the crossover point between rude and tame. Many people would still object to their use in a children’s book, but for an audience over 12, and if deployed with care, a great many wouldn’t.

‘Ninnyhammer’, ‘lumpus’ and ‘poo-brain’ are at the fun end of things. This is my natural home, though I have to turn my back on it while I write the teen story.

Do you have any thoughts on this? At what age should young readers be exposed to bad language in literature, language they are more than likely hearing around them anyway? Or should children’s books be a refuge from the crappier side of life? Where would you draw the line?

Exterminate!

2010-11-08T11:25:00.004Z

As I revise my 11+ SF/supernatural thriller, I find I’m using the search and replace function to eradicate certain words, or at least limit them, as part of changing the tone of the story under editorial guidance. Since at some level this action is driven by the current market, I thought it would be interesting to display the corpses of those words here, as a warning to others. So here’s the gibbet:

Paranormal (dead)

Psychic (mostly dead)

Agency (very dead, along with all ‘agents’)

Department (dead, along with ‘government/al’)

Spy (mostly dead, though there are still two left in the field)

I’m actually queasy with embarrassment seeing these words listed here, because they suggest my book is about something it’s not. So it’s just as well they are gone. Words favoured and promoted as part of the same change are: spectral, ghostly, dreamwalker, dreamself, Metascape and Somnarium. I like these words.

Redit

2010-11-03T14:11:00.003Z

I have a foot each side of a divide. It’s not an eye-wateringly wide distance to span – children’s publishing is still a small pond -- but it is brain bending, not least because the size of each lily pad is so very different. One is as broad and bendy as an 80k word novel (yes, careful counters amongst you will have noticed that it has grown), while the other is as tight as a 347-word picture book text (and one that I have been asked to reduce, at that). But the trick doesn’t really lie in balancing between two such mismatched things, the trick is allowing them both to bloom despite my size 12 clod-hoppers. If you hear a splash, you’ll know what’s happened.

Urchin

2010-10-23T20:43:00.001+01:00

My Problem With Books..

2010-10-13T15:31:00.005+01:00

...is mostly one of storage and eradication. We moved recently and don't have the space we once had, and I have too many books. Yes, I know, this is what charity shops are for, but wow, it's difficult choosing which to part with! It goes something like this:

My eyes slide along the spines and I'm confident there must be a good half dozen I can hoick off the shelf and into the charity box, and yes, look at that big tatty red one with the broken back that I know I have never read. So out it comes and I see that it's called A Tramp Abroad, and I'm just about to drop it in when I remember that Mark Twain wrote that, so I look at it again, because, you know, it's Mark Twain, and I'm thinking it's probably a 20s edition, only it s ays 1881 on the title page, and I'm impressed because that makes it 129 years old, so now I'm looking at it with completely new eyes because the centre of each spread is like a time capsule of smells and textures from the reign of Queen Victoria, and the font is archaic and the drawings are delightful, and who cares if it's falling apart? And then it occurs to me that it might be a British first edition, so I take it over to Google it and inevitably this means I start reading it too, but there's no time, so back on the shelf it goes, and it's not so much that the shelf is as full as it was before, it's like it's fuller than ever.

Phew!

Now look me in the eye and tell me you're different:)

Unseemly

2010-10-07T21:28:00.003+01:00

I apologize for my lack of blogtion recently. I'm feeling a bit frazzled. I have also been very busy turning my novel into a building site and dealing with the creeping fear that maybe I won't be able to put it back together again. I will, won't I?

In the reject rubble pile, it's funny how the same misshapen brick keeps turning up. We all have our own writing foibles, but mine seem to be dominated by overuse of the word 'seem'. Sorry, I mean mine are dominated...

What do you think, is it just a harmless literary tic? Or is it a sign of a feeble intellect (along with making up words like 'blogtion'.)? Whatever it is, dealing with it seems... sorry, is certainly snapping my writing into better shape.

We All Have a Bottom (Even When It's an Ass)

2010-09-27T22:33:00.001+01:00

It's Banned Books Week, and time to remind censors, gatekeepers, and self-appointed moralists that some people hold different views to theirs, and that the young deserve to grow up fully informed and not hoodwinked and mollycoddled. The most interesting article I've read so far has to be this by Anne Rooney, perhaps because it gives a non-American perspective on the far reaching implications of decisions taken in places like Texas and Beijing.

I have frequently had to make small changes to picture book texts and illustrations to boost a book's chances of securing a US co-edition, and some rather big ones too, but the real issue here is much more serious than avoiding hedgehogs and the word 'trousers'. Let's celebrate today by reading something that someone doesn't want us to read, and revel in the extra publicity a ban brings a book while we're about it. And let's all laugh at the idea that banning Harry Potter or photoshopping out genitalia ever made any sense whatsoever.

Drawing Out a Character

2010-09-20T18:44:00.007+01:00

It's a long time since I last posted a sketchbook page. This is from a pocket book, showing a primary character (more ghosts, I'm afraid) from something speculative I'm working on for 10+. They're humorous short stories, so my more cartoony style is for once quite appropriate. Looks a bit peaky, doesn't he, my gentleman ghost? But then I doubt death does anyone any favours.

Click for closer look.

I've noticed on my travels around the internet that a lot of writers draw their characters, regardless of whether or not they have any expectation or intention of illustrating a text. I find this fascinating and always enjoy seeing such pictures. It doesn't matter if they're little more than biro sketches on the back of an envelope -- you never know what might emerge from the act of sketching that can be folded back in to enrich a character with some unexpected detail. Even if it is a hole in the head!

Do you do this? I'd love to know, and all links to posted sketches are welcome.

Open Day at Ivory Towers

2010-09-10T15:01:00.008+01:00

People occasionally write to me. I call this my ‘fan mail’, but I’m not really as deluded as that sounds. Okay, some of it actually is quite complimentary, but often it’s requests for advice on being an illustrator (which I’m happy to give, for what it’s worth), letters helpfully pointing out mistakes I have made in one of my picture books (thank you!), and very rarely – but rather wonderfully – drawings from children who have liked a story. Inevitably a lot of it is Harry Potter related, though that’s dying off a bit now (and I’m always a bit wary of any HP requests, especially after someone asked for a signed book cover for a sick child only to put it straight onto e-bay!).

Anyway, why am I telling you this? Well, to make the point that unless you live in a cave and shoot would-be readers, writing really isn’t as solitary as it’s often made out to be. Readers and writers go together like crackers and cheese.

I won’t say which is which.

Everyone who keeps a blog knows all this already, but there’s nothing wrong with being reminded, as I was a few days ago when my agent forwarded an e-mail from a confused parent. Could I please explain how something in one of my early picture books was possible? What was “the author’s intention”? There were two small children waiting for an answer.

Wasn’t it clear from the story? Apparently not, and who’s fault is that?

I wrote back and apologised (and I hope my explanation satisfied those two boys) but as I spend my days wrangling with a half-fossilised ms, trying to make time travel sound plausible, it’s useful to be reminded that readers will be the ones to decide if I’ve succeeded or not, not me. And even the loftiest ivory tower has a letter box.

Rejection, Indigestion, and Unfinished Business

2010-09-05T21:24:00.005+01:00

I keep seeing this Bernard Black clip around and it always cracks me up. We've all been there, and as long as we keep on writing we'll all go there again. Thank goodness for Laughter! And wine.

Of course, following my recent good news (blah blah, etc.), I’m feeling slightly braver about the dreaded R word right now, though only slightly. I can’t stop thinking about the many editors who said NO. But before you roll your eyes at this (and in keeping with my new warts-n-all approach to blogging), please hear me out. The fact is, having had time to mull over the whole submission process for my novel, I now see that I did something very stupid. So, Writer, let what follows be a warning to you.

My agent sent my ms out to nineteen individual editors. Some simply weren’t interested, and some didn’t even respond, but a good dozen or so gave thoughtful and informative responses to read while I fumbled with the corkscrew. Looking through those again I have spotted a theme, and I now finally understand something that people have been saying to me for a long time. Namely that you really can’t afford to submit work that isn’t as strong as you can possibly make it. Or in other words, if you feel that something could be improved in your own ms, for heartburn’s sake do something about it before you screw up your chance with an editor!

Several editors came close to actually spelling that out to me in their rejections, with comments such as “positive, positive, positive …but I just don’t have the time to work with the author on… example, example, example”. It’s the reference to lack of time that says it all. Why submit something that an editor thinks they’ll have to spend loads of time on?

Of course, it’s one thing to do this if you don’t realise you are doing it, but the point is I knew there was room for improvement and went ahead anyway. Why? Well, because I suppose my head had never really left 2006, when showing strong potential was still sufficient to interest a publisher. This was back when publishing was still confident and bullish (and solvent!) and when mid-listers could still be regarded as bestsellers waiting to happen. You know, back before hundreds of editors were made redundant and when bookshops could still paper over the cracks and smile.

You don’t need me to tell you that 2010 is a rubbish time to approach publishers, but it can’t hurt for me to say this: it’s never been easier for an editor (or, by extension, an agent) to say no. Therefore, it’s never been more important to avoid giving them obvious excuses to say it! Even if this does mean many months of extra work.

And after all, 2011 might just be better. Let's drink to that.

To Be Read in Tooth and Claw

2010-09-03T20:37:00.012+01:00

The deadline for my latest picture book give away has passed, and it's more than high time I picked a winner. There were a few late entries, but that's okay – they're all in the magic hat now. So if you'll just bear with me while I slip into my sequins...

rustle

Here we go...

Drum roll

The winner is...

Suspense!

… Loodles!

Congratulations, Loo. Just send an address to ***@***.fr with any names you would like me to dedicate this book to, and I'll get it in the post ASAP. And I hope you enjoy this fine -- and now very rare and collectible -- Book and CD bind-up.

In the Wake of a Book

2010-08-27T22:05:00.011+01:00

In the rush and tumble to find something eye-catching to blog about, could it be that I have stumbled on a subject seldom covered? After all, I don't see many celebrations of a title's removal from a publisher's list. But that is precisely what is happening to one of my books.

To be accurate, the title itself isn't going out of print, it's a book & CD edition of it that's for the chop. The paperback of The Noisiest Night lives on, but it's nonetheless a sad development, not least because the audio version is rather fun. If anyone's curious, the form of words used to condemn a book is (something like):

'I am writing to let you know that sales of this book have slowed down to such an extent that we have reluctantly decided to remainder the stock we have left and declare the book out of print.'

Not really what you want to read over coffee and a marmalade breakfast, but (as I suggested a couple of posts back) that doesn't mean it isn't a significant development worthy of being recorded on a blog like this. Every book has a shelf life, and when a single title becomes several editions, a letter like this one won't be long in coming.

Ashes to ashes, pulp to pulp.

Anyway, this is supposed to be a celebration so let's get to it. I have a shiny rescued copy of this fine picture book (and CD!) about cheeky tigers and animal noises to give away. Simply comment on my blog before the beginning of September GMT and your name will be entered into a draw. In fact, make an animal noise while you're at it (ROOAR!), and I'll put your name in twice. The lucky winner (or the young person of their choice) will then receive this signed book (with sketch), complete with bedtime recording and sound effects. All you need is an address!

Here's the Deal...

2010-08-22T20:04:00.005+01:00

Well, it's happened: the contract has arrived, the ink is more or less dry, and only the Royal Mail can stop me now. Accordingly I have performed the promised cartwheel, but just in case you blinked and missed it, a faithful reproduction in pen and ink has been attached to this post showing it exactly as it happened.

I am proud and delighted that The Chicken House have acquired world rights to my 11+ supernatural thriller, The Ghost Effect, for publication in June 2012. These days I'm mostly to be found on Cloud Nine.

The Chicken House is a great publisher, and one I have been eyeing up for a while now, mostly because of their vibrant 9-12 and YA list. They have a reputation for nurturing new writers and for being as focussed as a small press would be, whilst being part of the Scholastic Group means that they are able to back up this hands-on approach with real global clout. I honestly don't think my novel could have a better home, especially with an award winning editor (no pressure there then!).

Thanks again for your encouragement and kind comments on my blog as I have staggered toward this major branching point in my career. I promise not to bore you to tears with endless posts about revision angst and the fascinating depth of my navel, but I hope you'll forgive me if I, er, mention my book quite a lot nevertheless:-/

Keeping it Rosy

2010-08-17T11:56:00.006+01:00

Many publishing blogs spin endless tales of doom and gloom right now, as mid-lists shrink, retail space evaporates, and we all teeter on the brink of celebrity cookbook wipe out. But writers themselves tend to paint a rather more positive picture on their blogs, especially when they talk about their own careers. Not all writers of course, some are more honest about these bruising times than others, but there's no doubt that a great deal of 'talking it up' is going on. Not that this is at all surprising.

I get my fair share of knock backs, and I don't normally mention them here. For example, I tried very hard for a lovely ghost writing job a few months ago, and failed. And I've just received a letter notifying me that yet another edition (book+CD) of one of my picture books is going out of print, something that happens perhaps once a year. But why don't I blog about these things? Isn't a big part of blogging the 'sharing of relevant information', warts and all?

Naturally, no one wants to look like they're struggling, and this is probably even more true of writers who are already published because they have professional reputations to nurture upon which future publishing deals will be based. So we talk it up and keep it rosy, because it's in our interests to do so. But could it be that some agents and publishers have an interest in doing the exact opposite? Just a thought -- don't shoot me.

How about you? Do you blog it up (if you blog that is)? Or are you brave enough to show a little bruise blue with your rosy pink?

Hurrah for...

2010-08-10T08:18:00.005+01:00

It's too long since I last sent out any hurrahs, and I know I've missed some people and books and publications. Sorry. Let me correct that today with two shout outs.

Hurrah for author and artist Marcus Sedgwick and the publication of his latest novel, White Crow. Marcus is an old friend and fellow sketcher, and these days a major figure in YA writing, inspirational to me not only for his taut prose and Gothic imagination, but also for the fact that, one way or another, he manages to illustrate a lot of his novels. My copy of White Crow has reached the top of my reading list, so hurrah for that too. See Marcus talking about his book here here.

Secondly, but no less importantly, acclaimed Writer and Illustrator James Mayhew is celebrating the considerable achievement of reaching book number ten (!) in his charming Katie series of picture books. James is another old friend, and while he isn't quite one of my ex-tutors (I'm not sure how I managed to miss his modules, but it wasn't deliberate I promise!), he was a great moral support when I was starting out. He also bakes legendary cakes.

On top of all this, James is a prolific blogger, with something interesting to say about everything from Dusty Old Books to Opera and Ballet. So Hurrah for James and for Katie!

I Didn't Only Doodle

2010-08-01T22:25:00.008+01:00

Technically, I've been a published author for 11 years (I'm young at heart though, I promise), and yet, as the editing and revision of my novel begins in earnest, I find myself almost back at square one.

Having a picture book text edited is not normally a complex or protracted process, though it can be dramatic, with editors saying things like 'love the basic concept, but now try it in the present tense, and set in space!'. And as it's only five hundred words, you give it a go, because we're talking hours and days here, that's all. Yes, getting a picture book text just right can be very difficult, but exploring options is pretty easy, and fun too.

Having had several days to absorb my first editorial meeting about a novel, I can see that I'm in completely new territory. There's A LOT to think about! Having a fourth dimension doesn't help either – why, oh why did I pick time travel?

Oh yes, because it's endlessly -- timelessly -- fascinating, that's why.

But anyway, it's nevertheless an invigorating experience being edited on this scale, and liberating to be given time and permission to slash and burn, as well as reappraise all those discarded ideas. What it all comes down to is writing out the weaknesses of the text to allow the strengths to really fly, though that makes it sound easy. It isn't, which is why having someone experienced point out which is which is beyond price.

I've been told that I might just have an original idea, though I hardly dare type that! Perhaps it would be more accurate to say it's a cluster of ideas that have not been combined quite this way before. I think. I'll probably find out to the contrary when the plagiarism charges arrive. But whatever it is, I've also been told that it's being held back by some rather pedestrian (though core, unfortunately) plot elements that have been done, frankly, far too often. It's no simple thing to nurture and destroy at the same time, but that it seems is what editing is all about.

If only my contract would arrive, then I could talk about it here properly.

Looking the Art

2010-07-22T08:57:00.013+01:00

I never look more like a geography teacher than when I'm on the beach. Unless I'm looking like a minor civil servant on annual leave that is, and really it could go either way. Of course, being English, the sunburnt knees and insect bites come naturally, but at least I could do something about that hat.

Back when I lived in Silicon Fen, people with bored handshakes would say 'you're in IT I suppose', and I always enjoyed putting them straight, if only to watch their confusion. 'Is that even a job?' they wanted to say. Perhaps it was unfair of me not to have purple hair and a brain stud.

To what extent should (should?) people in the arts peacock themselves with flamboyant dress? Is a poet in a cardy and slippers not to be taken seriously? And what about a crumpled linen suit, straw fedora and loud summer scarf? Which is worse, being a disappointment or being a cliché?

Now that we writers are all performing monkeys and indefatigable self-promoters (you reclusive types can just stay at home), surely it pays to adopt a trademark style. Some have big hats, others enormous beards, and some look like they've escaped from rock bands. What do you think, could red knees do it for me? And how about you – do you expect creative people to give themselves away in their manner of dress? And what do you do to set yourself apart?

Carte Postale

2010-07-15T19:19:00.007+01:00

I was warned to be careful about living by the sea. I was told it would be addictive and that after one taste of shoreside life, I would never want to live inland again. Well, people tell me all sorts of things, but this is one bit of advice that has already proved itself true. I now live a short stroll from a fabulous little beach, overlooking the English Channel, and it already feels like home.

And there have been signs too. I won't list them for fear of jinxing myself, but a dozen little things have happened to make our move just that bit easier than it might have been, just a shade more agreeable.

One of the reasons for my family's relocation was my need to be closer to my own career -- a sorry thing, that was growing sorrier by the year with my absence. So I can't help feeling reassured by the fact that within hours of arriving, I discovered that Jack's Tractor has been shortlisted for the Sheffield Children's Book Award. A few days after that, the contract for a picture book text called Too Many Tickles finally reached me, bringing to an end a year long submission process, my longest ever. Plus, I have an appointment for a first editorial meeting about my novel, as well as a few publishy things to go to.

That was quick!

I hope my wife is happy. She looks it, and I know she's always dreamed of living by the sea, but I also know it's not easy to leave your own country behind. I don't worry about my children though – there's a beach! And kites, and ice cream and fossils to find and crabs to catch and two full-time parents to wind up. I reckon they're pretty lucky.

Actually, I think I am too.

This is Rouen, signing off...

2010-06-29T15:31:00.008+01:00

Well, there's no getting round it. It's time to put away my beret and baguette, and dust down the old bowler hat and brolly – I'm moving back to England. Actually, I hope to be dumping clichés like that over the side of the boat, but something tells me I won't escape them, wherever I go.

This will be my last post for a while. As is always the case, despite all efforts to avoid it, I'm sure to be cut off from the internet for weeks. But I have decided to try and embrace this spell of analogue life and do things like write postcards and throw pebbles in the sea. Who needs the internet anyway? I've managed to blog once a week during this complicated move, so I hope to do more once the dust has settled. In the meantime, it's the Eighteenth Century for me.

It's very strange to leave a whole life behind, a whole way of life, not to mention another language (bien que je n'aie jamais blogué en français). So many lovely people, so much that's familiar, exchanged for a new town in a country that has changed a lot in the seven years I've been away. But I won't bore you with my strange emotional state. And I have things to look forward to as well, such as the arrival of a certain contract (fingers crossed! fingers crossed!), not to mention the ability to actually say yes to publishing parties. Also, the pub.

So this is me, signing off for a bit. But it's not adieu (unless those clichés capsize the ferry) merely au revoir. Have a great summer and see you soon.

Wasted by Nicola Morgan

2010-06-22T10:11:00.010+01:00

Wasted is a story about chance, about Jack who seeks to control it by directing his life through the toss of a coin, and about Jess who has to deal with the consequences. Oh, and it has to be one of the most nerve-jangling books I've read for a long time, though in a good way. I mean, I'm used to getting attached to characters and worrying about them, but Wasted dials that edge-of-the-seat anxiety up a notch. Why? Because not only are we shown how chance determines what is, we also get to see what could have been. And the reader has a hand in shaping both.

The driving force within Wasted is the way small seemingly unrelated moments can combine to determine the course of events, even spelling the difference between life and death. But those moments could easily have been different. What if we had arrived somewhere slightly earlier, or missed a particular phone call? What if someone glanced up and noticed something they might easily have missed? Life is shot through with What Ifs like these, but in Wasted we are given a god's eye view of this process. At two points during the book the reader is even shown the dramatic role of chance through alternative chapters, and then, at the end, it's our turn to toss a coin to decide the fates of Jack and Jess.

I must admit that I wasn't very keen to read this book. I'd got hold of the wrong idea about it and its coin-flipping peculiarity. I imagined it would be like those choose-your-own-adventure books I read as a boy. But I'm a grateful follower of the author's blog and knew this was an important title for her, so I added it to the pile. The fact that it has turned out to be one of the highlights of my reading year shouldn't really surprise me though, because I knew from Fleshmarket that Nicola Morgan writes beautifully and vividly. But to think I almost didn't read Wasted! There's a What If right there.

The voice of the narrator (and therefore the author) is very present in Wasted, and this might grate with some. But don't let it. The presence of the author at our shoulder is key to how the book works. This is a puppet show where not only can we see the puppets and their story, but also the puppeteer, and even the way the strings interact. The result is a completely engrossing reading experience -- literature in the round. Actually, it's like being invited backstage to watch the play, and is all the more fascinating for that.

It says something about how much I got caught up in the story that I took that final act of coin tossing very seriously. I was determined not to sneak a view of the alternative ending, and I still haven't. I flipped the coin and got heads, and with it the end of the story that chance dictated. Then I turned the book round and round in my hands, looking at it, as I always do when I finish something and know I'll never be quite the same again. It is, quite simply, a brilliant book.

Wasted by Nicola Morgan was published by Walker Books in 2010. Nicola's superb writing blog (soon to be a book too) is essential reading for anyone who needs help finding a publisher.

The Nose of Not Letting Go

2010-06-15T13:08:00.006+01:00

The deadline for my Jack's Tractor HB give away has been and gone, and Higgins the dog has rootled for a winner in the Pink Hat of Fortune (not mine). My foreign correspondent and animal handler has just sent pictures and yes, I can confirm that -- despite Higgins' surprising lack of professionalism -- one name did stick to his snout more convincingly than the others. And so the winner is...

...fellow writer, Natalie Bahm.

Congratulations Natalie! And don't worry – Higgins hasn't slobbered on the book itself. Please send an address and anything you would like me to write in the book to *** at free.fr and I'll put your prize in the post this week sometime.

Who was it who said one should never work with children and animals? Oh well, at least no dogs were hurt in the winning of this book, though I doubt anyone will be wearing that hat again.

Win a Book!

2010-06-11T13:31:00.009+01:00

As there are only a few weeks to go before my family and I (minus one refugee cat) head north across the English Channel (for good), I am increasingly living in a cardboard Manhattan of packed boxes, and it won't be long before our internet connection is switched off. Since I can't be on-line at the beginning of July to note the release of the paperback version of Jack's Tractor, let's celebrate early with an amazing, stupendous hardback give away!

Simply comment on this post before noon of Tuesday 15th June (GMT), and you could win this beautiful glossy book about noises and boyses and rhyming animal fun. Your names will be put in a hat and my mother's dog, Higgins, will carefully select one using the latest psychological profiling techniques. If your name is still legible, I will sign and dedicate the book either to you or the young person of your choice and send it off to any valid address you care to give.

So what are you waiting for? Comment without delay! And thank you for leaving me with one less thing to pack.

No cartwheels without a contract, but...

2010-06-04T12:34:00.004+01:00

…I think I can risk a small blog post to announce that I've just accepted an offer to publish my novel, The Ghost Effect.

As I'm very cautious by nature, I don't want to even name the publishing house yet, just in case something happens before the paperwork comes through, but I think you can tell by the way I'm grinning that it's a good one. I went to London about ten days ago to meet the publisher and my future editor and had a really rather galvanising and inspirational time. Beside their enthusiasm for the characters and the story, they did say that they think the second part of the novel could do with some work, and I hope I made it clear that I'm prepared to do whatever it takes to make this the strongest début novel I can manage. There was even speculative but exciting chat about the future, but stop, Taylor, stop...

No cartwheels without a contract.

But it's very exciting! All the more so because there were two top-notch publishers interested at the end, and I was able to pursue my chance with the one whose list seemed the more natural home for my book. I'm pleased to say that Boris is utterly speechless about all this, and even Natasha left a congratulatory post-it on her way through to see someone more interesting.

The publication window mentioned is Spring 2012 (gasp), though that's still a quite normal period of delay. The book will be published in all the obvious English-speaking countries... but I'm getting ahead of myself again.

Anyway, to all those who have kept their fingers crossed for me, please feel free to flex again, and thank you for your moral support and kind comments here. My own fingers will remain firmly in the crossed position however, right up until I need them to sign my name on the contract.

Then I'll post a picture of me doing a cartwheel:)

Back to the Source

2010-05-26T04:57:00.010+01:00

I have just finished reading The Tin Princess by Philip Pullman, first published way back in 1994, and it feels like I've blundered into a clearing and rediscovered why I'm in the forest in the first place. Pullman's writing did more than anyone else's to inspire me to write fiction for children – yes, because of Northern Lights, but also because of his illustrated books for younger readers, Clockwork and The Firework-Maker's Daughter. I remember, in my mid twenties, being made to feel the magic of childhood again and wanting very much to pass on the favour.

The Tin Princess is probably a very silly book. It's the tale of a cockney street kid who becomes the queen of a tiny central European state, and finds herself caught in a storm of courtly intrigue and danger as a result. It's so cliché-ridden it stinks (they even put the word 'swashbuckling' on the cover), but how wonderful that it doesn't matter!

As I sit and worry that my own writing is frivolous, that somehow I should be 'addressing issues' or 'telling it like it is' in gritty council estate drama, thank you Philip Pullman for reminding me that I don't need to. As he says on his website:

'… I'm not in the message business; I'm in the “Once upon a time” business.

And I'm proud to say that so am I.

Gold, Frankincense and... Mer?

2010-05-17T21:22:00.008+01:00

I take great delight in finding pagan or magical imagery in churches. On a cliff near where I live is a church that contains no less than two mermaids. Naturally it overlooks the sea.

These sirens are on a carved stone column, dismissively described as un curieux pilier in the church itself, and have an escort of bizarre and brazenly secular heads: sun burst faces, feather-hatted noblemen and a vomiting sailor.

But the mermaids of Varengeville-sur-Mer aren't merely a legend, they were actually seen in the sixteenth century, playing in the waves. Whether or not those gawping sailors were sick drunk on rum or had merely stayed too long in the sun doesn't matter. They must have seen the mermaids, or they wouldn't have been carved in the church now would they?

In the graveyard, in the company of minor poets and composers that only the French know, the cubist George Braque is buried beneath a mosaic headstone. Back inside, his stained glass makes the light of the sun a deep-sea blue where the mermaids are.

The church at Varengeville was founded by St Valery, who carried the first stones up to this cliff top despite the advice of the locals. Fifteen centuries later the magical place he began is making its way back down, as the cliff subsides and the stone mermaids wait for the salty taste of the sea.

I collect places like this. But I see no reason why I can't share them.

Reading: Focused or Flighty?

2010-05-08T11:04:00.014+01:00

As the submission process for my novel grows more protracted and, er... eventful (though still very uncertain), I'm finding it hard to concentrate on my writing. I have two new ideas that I believe are very strong, and I've started working on them both, but they are very different to each other and I'm torn. Fortunately the other primordial preoccupation of all writers (other than sketching cast-iron dragons, that is) is still open to me.

For the first time in my life I'm reading exclusively from a single genre: Kid-lit. More specifically, MG/11+/YA fiction, mostly published in the last few years. And it's quite a ride! There have been real highs, such as Pat Walsh's bewitching Crowfield Curse, and the brilliantly moving Alone on a Wide, Wide Sea by Michael Morpurgo (all hail!), though there were lows too. One book even got chucked across the room (and not in a good way) though naturally I won't mention its title here. There's been page-flipping adventure in The Joshua Files (M.G.Harris), wonderful writing in Fleshmarket (Nicola Morgan), and gripping contemporary drama in When I was Joe (Keren David). And I haven't finished yet – next up is Revolver by Marcus Sedgwick. All in all, I think I'm managing a book a week so far this year, which is pretty fast going for me.

But I wonder if all this focus comes at a price. I know that some writers never read their own genre (or say they don't), preferring to 'bring material in from the outside'. Now that I'm not reading history or popular science or picking up books at random (from Chatwin to Chick-lit), am I confining myself to a literary ghetto?

How do you read? Do you flit from genre to genre as the fancy takes you, or are you as joyfully blinkered as I've been lately?

Proofs, and a Cover Up

2010-05-05T13:31:00.012+01:00

I recently received the proofs of my next picture book, to be published in August. In the world of fiction, a proof copy is a bound preliminary version of the real thing, but that's not the way with picture books. The illustrations being so important, picture book proofs usually come as flat, unbound and un-cropped sheets. But the purpose is the same – it's a chance for the author/s to have some final input before the book goes off to be printed.

After years of being Illustrator to other peoples Author, it's still strange to see those roles reversed. So it was probably inevitable that when the proofs came for Little Mouse and the Big Cupcake, I looked at the illustrations a lot more closely than another author might. And I wasn't exactly shy about letting Boxer Books know that I was worried about the cover.

Don't get me wrong, Jill Barton's fine illustrations have a real charm of their own, and are especially suitable for Little Mouse's ideal readership: the very young. But that cover, being so pale, just left me worried that my book would be all too easily missed on today's digi-coloured bookshelf. Just compare it with Jack's Tractor, and you'll see what I mean. Anyway, the reality of the situation is that at proof stage, there's not much that can be done about the colour work as scanned. However, that's not to say the design can't be altered. It turned out that others at Boxer had similar concerns, and here's what they came up with:

The addition of blue, and the enlargement of the text is a huge improvement. The design is much stronger now, and I'm happy that this is how the book will appear when it's released. What do you think?

Little Mouse and the Big Cupcake will be published (on both sides of the Atlantic) on the 3rd of August (when I'll be living in a carboard box, somewhere in the English Channel) by the very lovely Boxer Books. If you like furry animals, fun and cake, then what are you waiting for? Pre-order your copies now! You know it makes sense.

Everyone's a Critic

2010-04-28T15:04:00.003+01:00

I've just had a very unprofessional micro-argument with my wife over my last post. She wanted to know where on earth those horrible drawings came from, and made it clear that she could hardly even believe I had drawn them. Of course, I can't see the problem and thought they were rather good little samples of illustrative line-work.

According to the most fundamental advice doled out to budding writers, partners are not best placed to comment on your artistic doings. They are supposedly as incapable of objective observation as mothers, being entirely preoccupied with the need to live a harmonious home life, protect your feelings, earn breakfast-in-bed privileges, etc.

So how come mine missed the memo?

But, you know, I'm glad she did, because there is one very good reason why those closest to us are actually important as beta readers/test audiences/drawing slagger-offers: they have to live with the fallout if we get it wrong. This could be financial or professional, but perhaps most serious are the psychological consequences of seeing a loved one lose perspective, head off down a dead end and then come off the rails in a sticky heap of depression and self-depreciation (cof). It's surely worth a little short-term ornament throwing (sorry) if it forces another look at even those things we think we're getting right.

My wife doesn't know much about children's publishing. I'm trying to develop an illustration style that appeals to twelve-year-olds, and frankly she doesn't have a clue how to do that. However, she's quite right to make me look again, because perhaps I don't either.

Thank you, you:)

Kave Kids

2010-04-23T14:28:00.002+01:00

It looks like I'm going to have to put my blog on the back-burner for a bit, what with a complicated move coming up and the need to keep on being creative amidst the cardboard boxes and chaos. I'm also putting together a new batch of black and white line work – in the style shown here – as the basis of a second portfolio. It's a long time since I last illustrated any MG fiction (Tanya Landman's Merlin's Apprentice), and I would very much like to work in this area again. A strong new on-line portfolio should help me do that. Anyway, black and white drawings like this may be all I post here for the next few months.

Click for a closer look and don't forget to say UG!

Home Again

2010-04-16T10:44:00.027+01:00

I'm back from my farewell tour of the south of France, and very lovely it was too. In a few months time I will once again, after seven years away, be living in the UK -- and dealing with the very mixed feelings that this change will involve – so this spring trip was especially welcome. I read Theresa Breslin's excellent Nostradamus Prophecy to help get a historical sense of place, as well as keep up my 'kid-lit' reading.

Naturally I also took a pocket sketchbook with me. This time a particularly fine leather bound affair with gold-lined pages, no less! Okay, it was a present. Normally I wouldn't be seen dead with such a Sunday painter's posing pad, but it's just too nice not to use. I deliberately roughed up the first pages a bit and once I'd found my way into it, it's a great little book, with square pages that fold into a very useful double page landscape spread. Thank you Julie and Philip (and congratulations again!).

I'm still not sketching as much as I'd like, despite anything I might have said about these things before. I'm longing to go off on a dedicated drawing trip (Julian, are you there?), but it'll have to wait.

I managed to receive a thoughtful rejection of my novel whilst away. But, despite being positive in tone...

'The Ghost Effect is an intriguing novel, and a fascinating premise, but after much thought, I have decided not to make an offer for it. ...There is a part of me itching to work with the author to make this into a super first novel, but the realistic part of me has to admit that, at the moment, I just don't have the time.'

… a no is still a no. Ah well. Every olive has a stone in it, but is no less delicious for that.

Anyway, I'm back in the driving seat again, with lots on, not to mention a house full of stuff to pack. Oh, and lots and lots of blog-reading to catch up on.

As ever, click for a closer look at the sketches

Slush, My Darling

2010-04-02T14:04:00.014+01:00

I'm off to the south of France for Easter (I know – please don't hate me), but I'm leaving Smiley to guard my blog while I'm away. Make no sudden movements. I'm also going to leave you an interesting site that is rumoured by some to give a close approximation of what it's like to wade through the fabled, dreaded, soul-devouring slush pile.

For those who don't know, the slush pile is the heap of unpublished material that sloshes around publisher's back rooms and threatens to swamp them completely. It is so named (so the story goes) because the piles of paper that were once pushed through editor's doors while they were away, closely resembled heaps of banked up snow once the door had been opened and closed again. These piles of slush, whether virtual or physical, are still where your manuscript goes if you send it in unsolicited. This is also where the most junior staff members are exiled, just in case the next Dan Brown is in there. Somewhere. The internet is full of horror stories about slush, from supplicant writers who never hear back to editorial staff pulling their hair out and shredding armfuls of material unread.

These days, with the numbers of people writing a novel going ever upwards, the slush pile has become so scary to many publishers that they have stopped accepting unsolicited manuscripts, adopting an 'agented only' policy instead (according to Random House, the last time they found something publishable in the slush pile was 1991!). This means that literary agents are now the gate-keepers to publishing, and it's their offices that are being swamped, since the acquisition of an agent is the first sensible goal of most writers today (agented stuff still goes into a slush pile though, just a much smaller one).

But what must it be like to sort through a slush pile? Well, try this site to find out. In a nutshell, writers are invited (for a small initial fee) to submit the first page of their novel for rating by members. And by members, I mean just about anyone since joining at a basic level is very simple. If enough people rate your writing highly, it's 'elevated' to level two: the chance to submit a whole chapter. Get through that, and you can submit 50 pages in level three. Score highly there too and your manuscript will be reviewed by a real live literary agent, a prize that will ensure a healthy submission rate, I'm sure.

What do you think of this? I must admit to being put off by the fee, though at least it ensures that only people with a certain level of commitment to their writing will submit. Or is this just too much of an obvious money spinner for your taste? I don't plan to submit anything myself, but I have found the rating process (completely free) strangely addictive, and interestingly my ratings have largely followed those of others (revealed afterwards), which suggests a useful level of objectivity. And it's fascinating to see what others are writing, and yes, some of it is pretty good. It would be interesting to hear from anyone who uses this site. I can't help feeling that approval from an anonymous cross-section of readers would be a huge spur for anyone caught in the grip of writerly self-doubt.

Happy Easter!

Reading: Speedy or Creepy?

2010-03-29T13:11:00.002+01:00

I'm a creepy reader. By which I mean that I'm slow. In fact, I was so slow even to learn to read in the first place, that I needed special help at school to keep up with my comrades. My eye crawls across the page at a very sedate pace, caterpillaring from one word to the next while my mind booms them out loud between my ears, and I often wonder if I should be worried about this. Not that there's much I could do about it.

I have tried to develop the knack of speed-reading, but I can't. If I try to switch off the voice of my inner-reader and take in the meaning of the words direct -- or parcels of words as I'm told speed-readers do -- I lose the sense of the writing very quickly. My mind wanders and I usually end up at the bottom of one of those white channels that open up in text bodies like well shafts in cross-section. Some of you might not even know what I'm talking about when I refer to these. I mean the snaking white spaces that form at random across the page, joining the spaces between words in one line with those of the next and the next, and so on. They are the first thing I see when I open a book, and I take this as a sign of being visually-minded.

Speed-reading, I'm told, involves taking in a sentence at a time, registering its complete meaning, and then moving on to absorb the next. So not a caterpillar nibbling each leaf, but a goat demolishing the whole bush, one twig at a time. It's very impressive -- I know people who read incredibly quickly and I've always envied them. My own mother, apart from being amazing in a general sense and nothing like a goat specifically, is a natural speed-reader and can read a novel a day. Typically, it would take me a week to get through the same book. My mother could read a stack of stuff in that time, but I often wonder who gets the best experience of the writing.

I'm very preoccupied with the sound of words when I read and write, and some part of my brain can't help but 'count' the stressed and unstressed notes that characterise English. This is the music of our language. Can speed-readers appreciate this as they stride through the text? I really don't see how they can, but perhaps it doesn't matter, especially since the meaning of the words has nothing to do with the sounds and shapes they make. Or has it? Perhaps Dylan Thomas meant more than we might suppose when he chose the words of his musical lines. Could poetry be speed-reader proof? I'm asking these questions because I don't know.

I'm not trying to criticise speedy readers (put the phone down, Mum), I am, I suppose, just trying to reassure myself that it's okay to read as I do. And perhaps, for a writer, it's preferable. Can a novelist be complete without being a stylist to some extent? Or would writers be better off concentrating on meaning alone, leaving off the curly bits? I would love to hear your views on this, especially if you are a speed-reader who doesn't slow up for poetry. Can you read a novel a day? And are there any other creeps out there?

Sketchbook Sabretooths...

2010-03-25T10:41:00.006Z

...because, hey, why not? Click for toothy close-ups.

And if, like me, you write for the young and sometimes need a galvanising kick up the backside, this post on Candy Gourlay's blog (about Richard Peck's Bologna speech) should set you up for the day. And hopefully beyond.

I shall be feeding all my adverbs to Smiley from now on.

My novel – des nouvelles

2010-03-22T13:45:00.005Z

Regular readers of my blog will know that I have a YA novel out on submission at the moment. This process started about 6 weeks ago, with a request for a response from publishers within a month. That deadline (which was never more than a guide time) has obviously passed, and as I write this the only response so far has been a handful of rejections. Most potential publishers have yet to respond (though there have been some hints of interest and requests for more time), and with the Bologna Book Fair about to kick-off, I can expect the waiting game to continue for a while yet.

Rejections -- though inevitable -- are always disappointing, but at least mine so far have been of the brief 'thanks, but not for us right now' kind. However, each one has also offered a critical observation, as well as a positive. Multiple rejections, even ones as brief as these, can be very useful for objectively highlighting a problem in the text, and I'm reassured that so far I haven't had a string of people making the same criticism.

So much that I've read lately suggests that 2009/10 is a bad time to submit a début novel, but I try not to think about this too much. After all, the idea of sitting on my hands and waiting for better times is intolerable, as well as ridiculous. So those hands are out and busy (when my fingers aren't crossed that is) and I'm still hopeful that The Ghost Effect will find the right home. I'll post more about all this when the time comes.

On s'amuse au musée

2010-03-15T10:27:00.011Z

My son wanted to see some real swords and shields, so we went to the Musée des Antiquités in Rouen to look at the things the Gauls, Romans and Vikings left behind. We took sketchbooks, making this the first drawing trip we've ever been on together. He asked me afterwards if I was going to put our pictures on the internet. How could I say no?

You've got to love the ancients for their interest in animals, and the curious things they did with clay and bronze as a result. When you're only five and also interested in beasts, finding whole troupes of gibbons, lions and mythological creatures at eye-level is enough to put even swords and shields out of mind. Despite only being allowed a few lumpen wax crayons (not every exhibit is behind glass), Max heaved a security guard's chair over and started to draw.

Sketching an object is a bit like crawling all over it with your mind. There's no better way to really understand how it is, and what it's like. With observation alone, the eye tends to slip from one feature to another, registering everything but rarely fixing much in the memory. Drawing forces you to look again, to see all those features as part of something complete. This always provokes a proprietorial feeling in me -- a sense that in some way I own that object once I've drawn it. And with something hand-made, it's also a moment of contact between my mind and the mind of the person who made it, irrespective of language, culture or the passage of time.

Max was delighted by a little Roman monkey jug made of clay, and wanted me to draw it with him. It was only through the sketching process that I noticed it had a surprisingly human anatomical feature that made the responsible Dad in me wonder if I should steer Max to something else. I'm glad I resisted such a prudish impulse. Max, free of prejudice, drew everything he saw in grown-up silence.

On the way to the museum, we met a friend who was impressed that I was going to teach my son to draw. I made one of my 'just-so/perhaps not' grunts (I'm good at those, especially in French) and changed the subject. There's no question of teaching anything – all Max needs is to feel that it's okay to look closely and okay to draw in public.

Max's patience lasted for an hour and a half, and he's already forgotten most of the things he saw in the museum, but I'm sure we'll both remember his brazen little monkey for many years to come.

Tyger, tyger...

2010-03-08T13:08:00.004Z

I was delighted to see my picture book The Loudest Roar mentioned in a moving article in the Times this weekend. Simon Barnes' son has done me the great honour of liking (and growling along with) my tiger, Clovis. And I don't even mind playing second fiddle to Judith Kerr after such a compliment. Good luck to you, Eddie, and...

ROOAARRR!

Hurrah for...

2010-03-05T09:45:00.006Z

Looking back over my blog, I'm dismayed to see that it's all me, me, me! I should do more to acknowledge the achievements of my many creative friends and acquaintances, and what better way to do this than by sending out fine and throaty Edwardian-style 'Hurrahs'?

Let's start with two.

Hurrah for Illustrator Cassia Thomas, whose first picture book was published last week. Cassia is a fellow graduate of Cambridge Art School (under its various changing designations). Lively Elisabeth shows her great talent to the full and makes it clear we'll be seeing lots more from her in the future. And indeed, her second book, George and Ghost, will be out in September. Congratulations, Cass!

And secondly (though far from leastly) illustrator, writer, and graphic novel artist Dave Shelton's new book, Good Dog, Bad Dog, was published yesterday (World Book Day!). Dave is an old life-drawing-and-down-the-pub-afterwards chum and a prolific sketchbook filler. Follow his blog for a regular procession of characters and quirky animals, and for dazzling displays of penmanship.

Good Dog, Bad Dog is the first in a stable of titles rising from the ashes of the DFC, a brave but ill-starred attempt to launch a weekly children's comic in the UK. I came close to contributing to it myself, and it's especially nice to see the venture resulting in something good and lasting. Congratulations, and hurrah for Dave!

I would like to make this a regular feature on my blog, so come on everyone – get busy!

Klop

2010-03-01T21:00:00.004Z

I'm still hoping to do a graphic novel one day. How can I not after seven years surrounded by les bandes dessinées?

In contrast to the last image, I gave the pen free rein in this sample and kept Photoshop in its place. It's dark, but I like it that way. Looking at this again, I think I might have stolen something from Cézanne, but there are worse people to steal from.

Click for a closer view, but don't cheat at cards.

A Little Background

2010-02-27T20:14:00.001Z

The acid test for any illustrator and his style is the depiction of figures in interaction and figures in context. I've been posting samples of my recent experiments with Photoshop, but so far I have managed to avoid placing any of my figures in an environment. Here's a first attempt with a background (though I doubt if 'holding a cat' counts as interaction).

Knowing where to leave off drawing and start using Photoshop to shade and texture is still a challenge. I could have gone much further with the pen, but I held off cross-hatching too much and honestly can't decide whether or not this is a good thing. The result is an image that seems much lighter, with a lot less black than there might have been, but I miss the detail somehow. There's even a little 'painting' going on, although I can't go much further with a mouse. Not without my fingers seizing up, anyway.

Click for a closer look. All observations and advice welcome.

I Won Something!

2010-02-22T09:47:00.005Z

Anita Saxena, figure skating YA writer and fun-loving blogger, recently held a competition to design a new header for her blog and I'm delighted to say that I won! Visit Anita's blog to see her shiny new banner (and read her interesting and humorous posts, of course).

Anita has kindly mentioned my plan to provide an on-line illustration service for those who want to add graphic, illustrated or drawn elements to their blogs and web-sites. In actual fact, I'm still at the 'wondering about logistics' stage with this plan, although her banner competition has spurred me on. So, while this is still mostly something for the future, if anyone reading this has pressing illustration needs I'm sure we could organise something. And now I even have a satisfied customer to show off.

Thanks again, Anita!

Get a Hat

2010-02-19T11:14:00.003Z

Click for a closer view.

Get Ahead

2010-02-14T21:37:00.001Z

Nail-bites

2010-02-11T15:52:00.003Z

Well, it's gone. My novel, for better or worse, is now sitting in the in-trays of the depressingly small number of people who publish children's YA fiction. According to my agent, they've been asked to respond within a month. Of course, it doesn't take that long to type NO, but now now, Taylor – let's be positive. John le Carré says that 'spying is mostly waiting'. Writing is too. Fortunately, I've got my toenails to move onto while I wait for my fingernails to grow back.

Anyone reading this blog who feels in any way warmly disposed to me and my writing career, might like to start crossing their fingers from now. Please. No pressure, just... please.

I had a very uncool, fist-shaking 'xxxxing hell!' moment recently when I discovered that Puffin were about to launch TimeRiders by Alex Scarrow, the first in a series of books about time travelling secret agents who defend the past against those who wish to distort it. But after raging at my computer for a bit, I calmed down and realised that this is probably a positive thing. After all, it surely means that time travel is getting some serious attention in the publishing world, which can't hurt. The word Zeitgeist might amuse anyone here who has read my novel and knows German. In any case, as far as I can gather the similarities are fairly superficial, though I must read TimeRiders pronto.

Later on I realised that this coincidence probably means an automatic rejection from Puffin, which is a less happy thought. Oh, well. To head off a return of the grumps, I've just been on You Tube to look for something to cheer myself up. You might like what I found. Yes, I know that laughing at people who can't ski falling down in the snow is very, very sad, but still...