'One child, one teacher, one pen and one book can change the world.' Malala Yousafzai - by Liz Kessler

I’m off to London today to see a film.

Given that I live in Cornwall, it’s a long way to travel to go to the cinema. But then, this isn’t just any film; it’s the movie premiere of He Named Me Malala, which I’ve been invited to see because Malala and I share a publisher.

As soon as I realised that the date of this event coincided with my ABBA post, I knew that there could be no better subject for me to write about.

Malala is not just one of the most amazing teenagers alive today. She is one of the most inspiring, wise, brave and intelligent people you could imagine meeting. Not that I have met her. But I have read her book, I Am Malala, and that left me in awe of this incredible young woman.

As authors, we often get asked to do interviews for blogs. On this occasion, I decided to turn the tables and interview my publisher instead. So here is Fiona Kennedy, publisher of I Am Malala, talking about why this book – and Malala herself – is so important and so special.

LK: Can you tell me how you felt when you first heard Malala’s story?

FK: I first heard Malala's story like everyone else on news broadcasts in 2012 - she was the young girl from the SWAT valley who had been shot at close range by the Taliban for speaking up for her right - and every child's right - to an education.  She was flown to England in a critical condition and no one knew whether she would survive. Like everyone, I was shocked by this, but at the time it was first reported had no idea how significant Malala's story would become to the world.

Malala did survive and is more passionate than ever about everyone's right to live in peace, to have equality of opportunity and to be treated with respect. We particularly wanted to emphasise the importance of her message about education and there's no better way to sum that up than with words from her powerful, memorable speech to the UN on her 16th birthday: 'one child, one teacher, one pen and one book can change the world.'

LK: Did you face any obstacles/challenges along the process of publication?

FK: I worked closely with my US colleague at Little, Brown, Farrin Jacobs, who came over to England for weeks to work with Malala.  Malala was still recovering from her ordeal. She had a busy timetable: school, first and foremost (she has been studying for her GCSEs and has just got brilliant results). During that time, many, many invitations from all around the world came pouring in to her, and she, her family and her team were always generous with their time.

LK: How do you feel to be the publisher of this book? 

FK: It is a huge honour to publish Malala's story and, in whatever way possible, to help spread her words and message as far as possible. This is a book close to her heart, and it's one that absolutely everyone - not just a teen audience - should read.  It's written in the first person by Malala and really tells the story of the girl behind the icon - from Nobel Peace Prize to netball courts.

She may be the youngest ever winner of the Nobel Peace Prize and one of the most important teenagers in the world, but she's also a girl growing up in a new home, going to a new school, making new friends. It’s been fantastically interesting and a privilege to publish this book – and I know I speak for the whole team involved with it at Orion. We’re really excited for publication of our Indigo paperback edition and the brilliant documentary about to be released in November. The book and film are perfect companions.

As J K Rowling has said: 'Malala is an inspiration to girls and women all over the world'. She's right. Every word counts – and reading this book, it's impossible not to feel a whole range of emotions.

LK: Have you met Malala? What’s she like?

FK: I was lucky enough to meet her and her family at their home in Birmingham.  She's just extraordinary.  Tiny and gentle, but with such presence and such a sense of purpose and determination. I am sure she will fulfil all her ambitions.  She is truly inspiring just to be with.  She's chatty, charming  and witty - we talked about everything from why English schoolgirls roll their skirts up at the waist (very puzzling to Malala given our rainy, cold weather), to her practising for the school debating team, to how she is still recovering, to teasing her brothers, to missing her old home  - all sorts of things.  The family are incredibly close - it was a pleasure to meet them.

LK: What does the future hold for Malala, and for girls the world over still denied the education and the rights that she is fighting for?  

FK: Malala is continuing her studies and her tireless work with the Malala Fund which reaches far and wide.  She brings hope and with that hope, positive change for the future. Her 'Books not bullets' remains such an effective message.

LK: If you could tell young people today one thing from Malala’s story to inspire them, what would it be?

FK: We all have the power to make things better for each other in some way - large or small. We probably have an inner strength that we have never had to test to the full, but it's there.  I'm not saying we could all be as brave and amazing as Malala is, but we all have potential to do more.

Thanks Fiona. And thank you Malala, for being an incredible and genuinely awe-inspiring individual.

Buy Malala's book I Am Malala

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Terry and the Bad Fairies, by Steve Gladwin

It's lovely to be invited to write a regular blog here. I hope to share with you a few intriguing ideas and obsessions. So dear reader - let us begin.

Elves are wonderful. They provoke wonder.

You can’t really say what a faerie looks like. It appears only as it desires to. All you see is that illusion, that glamour. Whatever appearance the faerie chooses, gives you your sole reference point. A fairy has you believe what it wants you to believe. Should you fail to understand that lesson ----

Elves are marvellous. They cause marvels.

Many prefer to think of fairies as tiny, delicate wisps, like the Cottingley fairies who danced so prettily around the girls in their starched Victorian white. Or perhaps rosy cheeked mischief makers like Arthur Rackham’s cherubic Puck. In another Rackham picture however, there is a sinister lurking presence in the background of Titania’s bower. This too is Puck. He is no longer so sweet, (if he ever was), but the gleeful servant of his dark master. (My mistress with a monster is in love!)

I learnt to tell the difference early on when I was lucky enough to be given a dream trio of books to study for GCE English. Not only A Midsummer Night’s Dream, but Cider with Rosie and To Kill A Mocking Bird by Harper Lee were gifted to me. In one fell swoop I was taught about magic and illusion, introduced to sex and cider behind a hay cart, and learnt the importance of combatting intolerance and bigotry. I also learnt that faeries could be bad.

Elves are fantastic. They create fantasies

In twenty years of being a pagan druid, I’ve met many people who claim to have seen faeries. Many of these are people whose judgement I trust. I’ve spent many happy performance hours playing and directing versions of Oberon and I still know all his speeches. I was even hand fasted to a Midsummer Night’s Dream theme. I love faeries at their baddest and have little patience with the Victorian flower fairy version. If Oberon and the rest were to begin behaving reasonably, I’d feel let down.

Elves are glamorous. They project glamour.

At the moment I’m writing a book about the composer Ralph Vaughan Williams and faerie. It’s fiction of course, but I was amazed to learn recently that his last unfinished work was to be an opera based on the stories of both Thomas the Rhymer and Tam Lin. It seems to make an eerie sort of sense of my own wild fictional imaginings, but it also unites two of the most well known of the stories of English faerie. Each, however similar, seem to carry an opposite message. On the one hand we have true Thomas of Erceldoune, choosing to follow the Queen of faerie to Elfland, (Childe Ballad 37) but allowed to leave when his own life is forfeit because of the ‘tithe' that must be paid to hell’. On the other there is Tam Lin, the kidnapped Lord of Roxburgh (Childe ballad no 39) made captive in his youth by (maybe even the same) faerie queen. Fair Janet battles for his very soul, as her lover's form switches between lion, serpent and a fierce hot brand.

Elves are enchanting. They weave enchantment.

So are these examples of good and bad faeries?  Or are they just the same faery in different moods? How do we know which version we’re going to meet? Will it be the faeries of the seelie court, -- supposedly the goodies, or those of the unseelie court, who can be as nasty as they come? In my favourite modern fantasy trilogy, The Fionavar Tapestry, Guy Gavriel Kay uses a similar idea by dividing his elves into the Unseelie svart alfar, _ (a name also used by Alan Garner in The Weirdstone of Brisingamen,  and the Seelie like, lios alfar. As he spent a year preparing The Silmarillion with Christopher Tolkein, he was surely in a good place to recognise that there might be more than one side of faerie. 

Elves are terrific. They beget terror.

It’s very clear in which court the 'gentleman with the thistledown hair', belongs in Susanna Clarke's Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell. He seems to exist solely to tease and manipulate and destroy. He feasts on exotic and extinct fauna, has a castle surrounded by dead men’s bones and takes great relish in the hunting and destruction of a whole pack of wolves. However his sustained and, more often than not, unwelcome acts of kindness to Stephen Black, show him more quixotic in this instance at least. He is by a long way the villain of the piece. However neither by the end of the book can we be wholly sure of the true nature of the John Uskglass, the Raven King, whose shadowy presence grows throughout the book.  His role is left deliberately ambiguous, with only clues to what he might be when he - Lord Voldemort like, returns in his full power!

Terry Pratchett understood bad faeries better than most. Lords and Ladies has a chill undercurrent throughout, for all the jokes about dwarf Casanovas with step ladders, royal falconers called Hodges aargh and anything done by the magnificently bawdy Nanny Ogg. His faery lords and presiding Lady cannot understand the idea of cruelty because it does not form part of their moral compass. Poking someone harder when they are already being tortured, just seems like a good idea to them. It takes the reader a while to realise that lurking in the background of Lords and Ladies is the faerie plot of A Midsummer Night’s Dream.

Thus in order to prevent ‘Titania’ from allowing her anger at the royal estrangement to wreck things any further for the human world, ("We are their parents and original'), Nanny Ogg and her dwarf paramour venture underground to have it out with ‘Oberon’. Essentially they request him to have a word with the Mrs. 

Nanny succeeds in the sort of task few would dare try, because, despite all the jokes, she’s a very powerful witch herself. In the end however it is her friend Esme who discovers the only way to beat the queen. Maybe Granny Weatherwax doesn’t understand the concept of defeat. She probably wouldn’t accept it even if she did.

No-one ever said elves are nice

In the last few years of his writing life, Terry Pratchett returned to both the witches and the world of faerie in his Tiffany Aching books. The final book in the series, The Shepherd’s Crown, is the last book of his to be released. I like the idea that like Vaughan Williams, almost the last thing he set down was about faeries.

 There are of course many other characters in literature who have discovered to their cost that a faerie is none of those things it either appears to be, or others have had us believe. Maybe they just needed an Esmerelda Weatherwax in their corner. She could tell a bad faery from a good faery. Elves were all the same as far as she was concerned.

Elves are bad.

Quotations from Lords and Ladies by Terry and Lyn Pratchett 1992

A Midsummer Night's Dream by William Shakespeare



Steve Gladwin

Author of The Seven published by Pont Books 2013
Shortlisted for Tir na n-Og prize 2014

'I really like its rigour, its pace, its wit and the way you step so 'lightly and fiercely through the window between the worlds.'

Kevin Crossley Holland

Find out more about The Seven here.

gwernseven.wordpress.com

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'Writing Great Books For Children': Rosemary Hayes

Q: When is a launch not a launch?

A: When it’s a panel of children’s authors joined by a publisher and an agent

Well, here we were, three Cambridge based children’s authors - myself, Pippa Goodheart and Gillian McClure - all published by Troika books, each with a new book or books to promote and an offer from the wonderful Heffers Children’s Bookshop to host an event for us.

‘Please,’ I said, ‘don’t make it a launch,’ remembering all the times I have press ganged loyal friends to come to past launches, listen to me spout and then feel duty bound to go away clutching a copy of my new book.

My new book

Then publicity whizz, Andrea Reece, came up with the idea of a panel event.

‘Let’s call it Writing Great Books for Children.  Each of you write for a different  age group, so you can talk about the whole range from babies to teenagers.’

THAT sounded better.  Something like this could be of genuine interest to children’s writers and illustrators, particularly to those just starting out and looking for a publisher.

‘ We’ll need a publisher on the panel.’

So Martin West of Troika agreed to lead the discussion.

‘And a children’s literary agent.’

Anne Clark, literary agent based in Cambridge, was approached and came on board.

Both Andrea and Heffers really got behind this idea and publicized it widely.

There was a huge response and, despite torrential rain and traffic chaos in Cambridge, the audience flooded (literally) through the door, dripping but eager and cheerful.

Crowd at Heffers

We each spoke, first, about our backgrounds and what drew us  to writing for children.  Pippa admitted that she wasn’t much of a reader as a child but then had a Saturday job at Heffers and ended up working there, surrounded by children’s books – and was hooked.

Gillian thought she was set for a career in teaching but when she couldn’t find an alphabet book to excite her reception class, she created her own, blending  the letters with her unique and enchanting illustrations. This was spotted by a schools inspector who showed it to a publisher – and the rest is history.

Unlike Pippa, I was an avid reader as a child, often living in the imaginary world of fictional characters and I even wrote a ‘book’ when I was ten and was incensed when it was rejected by a publisher! Undaunted, I started writing again when my children were young, always drawn to a young audience with their vivid and receptive imaginations.

Next, we were asked what we found rewarding about working in the genre.

Pippa spoke about how she finds the variety and range of children’s books really stimulating, Gillian about how she loves the fact that she has control over the whole book, both text and illustrations, and I spoke about the fun of researching topics for my historical novels and, more recently, about the research I’ve been doing with local gypsies for my series ‘The Travellers’.

Then Martin and Anne gave an overview of the children’s books market. Martin, as a small, independent publisher, has the freedom to publish what he wants without the encumbrance of the acquisitions meetings, marketing approval, etc, of a large publishing house.  He also mentioned that so many large publishers are wedded to series – if it’s successful let’s have more of the same – whereas the small publisher can publish more stand alone books and popular titles which have gone OP.  The digital age, too, favours the small publisher in that he can print small quantities initially and, if necessary, reprint within a week.  With his long experience in the industry, Martin can see how it has changed, particularly with authors now being expected to play a large part in marketing their books.

The panel

Anne talked about how, in many ways, this is the golden age for children’s books, the genre being taken much more seriously by publishers.  So, while there are huge opportunities, there are also a lot more writers seeking publication.  The secret to success, she said, was to write an excellent story with a distinctive ‘voice’.

Next the three of us discussed new books for children and why we admire them.  I went for Sheena Wilkinson’s ‘Declan’ stories – ‘Taking Flight’ and ‘Grounded’. I particularly admire her characterization and ‘voice’ (see above). Sheena taught teenagers and she has a really authentic and assured touch, combined with  absolutely thrilling plots – and she doesn’t shy away from difficult issues.

Then we were asked what we felt made a great children’s book.:

First and foremost, a great story with plenty of tension, a problem to solve, a crisis and a resolution, with strong credible characters to whom a young reader can relate. Setting is important, too, either grounded in the real world of school or home or in a world of the imagination with different rules and landscapes.

Pippa talked about the importance of emotional impact (tugging at the heartstrings) and how this has to be done with subtlety. And Gillian chose an example of what she felt was the perfect picture book ‘Rosie’s Walk’, a story of only 32 words, but with tension, humour and that essential ingredient that makes a child desperate to turn over the page.

There was some discussion, then, about which current bestsellers might last – stand the test of time – and why.

And finally, we were each asked to give a couple of pieces of advice to those wanting to write for children:

· Read and read. Inside and outside your genre. See how stories work
· Write from the heart. Love your subject and your characters. Don’t try and jump on bandwagons
· Get your story read by others (preferably by a authors’ advisory service so you have an objective opinion and constructive criticism)
· Don’t rush to get your work seen. Put it away and come back to it
· Don’t agonize over the first page. Crack on and then come back to it when you have relaxed into the writing
· Don’t use current buzz words or slang as these will date
· Consider entering competitions (Chicken House, for instance) as a way of getting your work read and considered seriously

The questions from the audience were interesting and varied and the feedback was really enthusiastic, especially from those just starting out on their writing careers.

I’ve learnt so much from this.  A brilliant evening.  Thank you!

RESULT! Oh, and some books were sold, too.

We are all wordsmiths

When I was in my last year in my Catholic primary school (St Albert the Great Junior Mixed Infants) a priest called Father Harry came and talked to us once, and I have never forgotten what he said. He said that saying untrue mean things about someone was very wrong, but that saying true mean things could be even worse. I couldn't understand that at first, but then he said, 'if you use words to tell lies about someone, then at least they can be defended by the truth and they can say they did not do such a thing - but if you know something true but not good about someone and you needlessly pass it on in gossip, then they cannot even say that it is a lie and you can never take it back.' I remember really being struck by that as a child, and I still remember it all those decades later.

I've only just read 'The Apple Tart of Hope' by Sarah Moore Fitzgerald and I really loved it. I thought the way the friendship between Meg and Oscar was affected by the words of the new girl Paloma was brilliant. I don't want to spoil the story for anyone who hasn't read it - but there is one part where I couldn't put it down, whilst at the same time feeling almost sick at the way that words were being used. Words can be terrifyingly destructive weapons and I think this book is great at showing how hard to fight the lies and half  truths of 'spin' can be.  I look at the way politics is reported in this country at the moment, and think how such use of words hurts individuals and our wider society.

I think the job of a writer for children is wonderful. We can use words in such a positive way. We can  write stories about people or communities whose stories are not normally heard, redressing negative historical and/or contemporary 'spin' (For me, for example, writing 'Dog Ears' was about trying to tell children that some of their classmates might be suffering in silence, telling young carers that their story was being listened to, and help from e.g. The Children's Society, was out there).

 Secondly, hopefully we can try to use words in such a way that we inspire our readers to want to write too - so we can give them the power of words to tell their own stories. I love that. There are so many breathtakingly good writers out there, whose sentences just make we want to stop and read them out loud so that I can enjoy the rhythm or the rhyme or the wordplay. I also LOVE the way so many picture books use words and illustrations to such stunning effect. Words are FUN!

Thirdly, we can use words to give readers the ability to look at other stories they are being told and who is telling them. That is what I tried to do in 'Girl with a White Dog', showing how years of anti-semitism in stories and newspapers in Nazi Germany poisoned people's minds. I wanted them to look at the storyteller, not just the story.

The other book I read recently was 'The Wordsmith' by Patricia Forde. What a stunning book! I love the way she focuses on the power of words and imagines a world where words are limited, and she herself writes so beautifully and creates an amazing world out of words.


http://littleisland.ie/the-wordsmith-book-trailer/




At this time when there is so much spin, so much distortion in the media and press, so much said by people with vested interests, and so many stories NOT told which should be, I think our job as writers for children is so exciting, fun and worthwhile. We are so privileged to be wordsmiths. It is wonderful to be amongst so many amazing writers committed to diversity, to using words so creatively and positively and who give so much pleasure to readers. Hooray for writers - but also for illustrators who support our words on covers, within or alongside the text. Hooray for agents and publishers and all who work in publishing! Hooray for editors and those who market our books! Hooray for librarians and booksellers and teachers. Hooray for those who buy or borrow our books - and most of all, Hooray for the children who read our words!


P.S. So sorry this blog post is late today! I had in mind I posted on the 25th, and was feeling very virtuous that I had put my words down early, untilI came to schedule my post and found my day was 21st and that I was late.

Brain Privacy, or Why I'm Cross about Tables - Joan Lennon

School children reading 1911 (wiki commons)

(No need to go as far back as 1911 to find desks in rows - I just liked the photo.)

A modern classroom with grouped tables (wiki commons)

You know how school visits tend to come all at once, like buses?  I've just reached the end of just such a bulge, mostly teaching creative writing.  Which has been lovely, exhilarating, exhausting, infuriating and occasionally really depressing.  And as a factor in the last two categories, I would like to name-blame-and-shame the way the tables are grouped in classrooms.
  
I'm fed up with grouped tables because I'm fed up with this emphasis on working in groups. You can do creative writing as a group.  Sort of.  And grouping the tables the way they almost always are facilitates group learning.  Kind of.  But I'm really really NOT interested in a story or a poem produced by committee, because I really really AM interested in the stories and poems inside each individual pupil's head.  Which are not like the stories or poems in any other individual pupil's head, or any other person's head, now, in the past or in the future.  Why can't that fact be acknowledged in the furniture?

Maybe rows of desks aren't the answer, and maybe schools can't afford anything like the Scottish Parliament's wonderful think pods -  

(Sci-Fun website)

 - but oh I wish there was some physical way to give our pupils some brain privacy.  Or even acknowledge that it might be a good idea.    

Just don't get me started on open plan schools ...                                                                           

Joan Lennon's website.
Joan Lennon's blog.
Joan Lennon's YA novel Silver Skin website.

Speaking Loudly Again: Why Children's Writers Must Tackle Difficult Subjects - Lucy Coats

**TRIGGER WARNING: THIS ARTICLE MAY CAUSE DISTRESS**

Last week I finished one of the most emotionally harrowing books I've read for a long time - ASKING FOR IT by YA Book Prize winner Louise O'Neill (just published by Quercus). I won't beat about the bush here. It tackles peer-to-peer rape and its after-effects, explicitly, honestly and yes, shockingly. That is why I have posted the trigger warning above, just in case reading about that might be a problem for any particular readers - but I am not going to apologise for writing this piece. 

ASKING FOR IT is not at all an easy book - the main protagonist, Emma, 18, and a beautiful 'queen bee' of her school community, is unlikable in so many ways. But that simply doesn't matter. However arrogant, selfish or self-absorbed she is, no young woman deserves what happens to Emma. No young woman, however she dresses or acts should have to go through what Emma suffers from the young men who gang rape and then publicly abuse and humiliate her via social media. No young woman should have to suffer blame and persecution from her parents, from her priest, from her own community. And yet so many do, even now. Victim blaming and shaming is a clear and present problem. Often the victims of rape (most recently Chrissie Hynde of The Pretenders) blame themselves. We see and hear it every day - and rape convictions are currently falling, despite a rise in prosecutions.

'That skimpy dress up to her armpits - well, she was just asking for it.'

'What do you expect when she was falling down drunk - she was just asking for it.' 

No. She was NOT 'just asking for it'. This still all-too-prevalent attitude is why universities are now running courses on what is and is not consent. I wrote about my own abuse by boys from my peer group some years ago, as a response to the banning of Laurie Halse Anderson's novel, SPEAK, which also deals with teenage peer-to-peer rape. I wasn't raped, but since then, I have talked to many young women about their own experiences of rape and sexual abuse. 

Picture from sciencedaily.com

I've listened to many distressing things over the years, but one particular story from a young woman, now in her late twenties, really stuck in my head. Aged fourteen, she went to a party at a friend's house in her home town. She got very very drunk (her first real experience of alcohol). She kissed a boy she fancied. He wanted more. She said no. She struggled. But he raped her anyway (she had never had sex before). Then he took her downstairs, and with his male friends looking on and laughing, burned a tattoo of ownership into her with a cigarette end. She didn't say anything afterwards, although she now tells her story openly, as a way of helping other girls in similar situations to understand that it's ok to speak out, and to help young men to understand that no means no. It's one of her ways of coping. She told me that back then she had been afraid her friends and family would laugh at her and tell her she was making a fuss about nothing, so she kept silent, holding her secret inside herself. She felt shamed, dirty, and for years she believed the little voice inside her head (the one we've all listened to) which told her it was all her fault - though she wasn't 'just asking for it' either. She drank to excess to blot out the memories with alcohol, she sank into deep depression and developed an eating disorder (a way to be in control of what happened to her body), and although she eventually went to a therapist, she still struggled. This will be horrifying to most people - but it is not an uncommon story, and O'Neill's book brought it back to the forefront of my mind.

ASKING FOR IT is bleak and uncompromising and real, as is its stark ending. It is also important. As writers, not only of YA, but for all age-groups, we need to reflect the world around us in all its diversity. I think that includes some of us enabling our readers to open up conversations on 'difficult subjects'. I absolutely accept that not everyone wants to tackle them head-on in the 'gritty' way that O'Neill, and other writers like Tabitha Suzuma, Melvin Burgess, Keren David, Bali Rai, Malorie Blackman, Miriam Halahmy and the late and much-lamented Mal Peet do. But I do think it's vital for us as writers to think about such things. Only by enabling those conversations in a wider context can we break the silence and taboos that still exist around those 'difficult subjects' - and sometimes the characters we write can give our readers the courage to find their own voices. It's not a revelation to say that kids and young people often feel very alone with their problems, big or small. Opening the covers of a book and finding a world where someone has had a similar experience to you can be life-changing. But those books have to be written first - and that's up to us.

OUT NOW from Orchard, Cleo (UKYA historical fantasy about the teenage Cleopatra VII) '[a] sparkling thriller packed with historical intrigue, humour, loyalty and poison.' Amanda Craig, New Statesman

Also out now: new Beasts of Olympus series "rippingly funny" Publishers Weekly US starred review

Lucy's Website - Twitter - Facebook - Instagram

Calling creativity to the fore - demanding its presence.- Linda Strachan

I was once, many years ago,  invited to visit a design studio. I was keen to speak to the people there who spent their
days drawing and creating images as a job.  I thought how wonderful that must be, to be doing something so creative all day, every day.

I have always had an interest in painting and drawing but it has never been more than a casual hobby that occasionally made its way onto our walls.

But I have never been able to draw to order, it was always more of an impulse and like this charcoal drawing.

I had taken the photo of a beautiful bronze coloured baby Zebra when on holiday and I was looking forward to painting it and using such vivid colours.

At least that had been my original idea but one evening, when I didn't have easy access to my  paints I started drawing it in charcoal, which turned out not too badly - but there in was the problem.  I was sure that if I tried again it would not turn out as well.  So I never did try to paint it after all.

There are things here that resonate with writing and my life now.
I made a comment  to one of the illustrators at the studio, that I am now quite embarrassed to recall.  I said that I could not just sit down and draw, I needed to feel in the mood.
His reply was embarrassing,but it stuck with me. He said...

"Yes I come in here and I have to be in the mood 9-5 every day!"

He was right.  When your job is being creative you do not have the luxury to wait for the muse  to suddenly appear, not least of all because that does not pay the bills!  I was approaching it as an amateur and he was a professional.

Now writing is my job and I know that it could be very easy to sit about and wait for inspiration to strike and lose days, weeks and even months of potential writing time.

There are definitely times when life just gets in the way of being creative and you have no physical or emotional energy to spare  and you need a complete break for a short time.  If there is great stress or difficulty in your life for a while it can be next to impossible to be creative, to let the mind flow wherever it wants.

Everyone is different but one thing that often emerges in all the discussions about writing is procrastination. Doing everything else but getting the words written. We all suffer from it now and then.   But soon with the encouragement of other writers, even if it is just a few words each day, just a little peer pressure can help.

Recently the  amazingly prolific writer Barry Hutchison suggested that other writers might like to join him in trying to make sure we all wrote all through the month of July. Summer can be a difficult time with holidays, children and family ties making even more of a call on a writer's time.  So he suggested  a twitter hastag #writethroughjuly and every day those who wanted to join in would announce their word count for the day.
There were just a few of us bit it worked so well that we decided to continue with #writethroughaugust,  By this point I had managed to add almost 47,000 new words to my WIP (work in progress) and had clocked in every day for two months even if it was only a few hundred words.  In September a few were either finished books and starting new ones, or due for some
time editing so #WriteThroughSept is now half way though, with editing and plotting as well as word count  reports.

We are all pushing ourselves to get something written each and every day and somehow we are finding that the creative spark is there when we go looking for it.

Even if I am sure that what I am writing is absolute  rubbish, that fear must be pushed to the back of my mind while I get the words written and push the story forwards.
The fun bit for me is in the editing, when there is a rough diamond waiting to be found when the dross is cut away.

Yes, that chap was right. I've written lots of books since that day  many years ago, and  I now turn up every day and creativity is there hiding in the background waiting for me to pull it into the sunshine and make it glow.


What makes you call on your creativity?



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Linda Strachan is the author of over 60 books for all ages from picture books to teenage novels and the writing handbook - 

Writing For Children.

Linda is currently Chair of the SOAiS - Society of Authors in Scotland 
(Please note, any views and opinions here are her own.)

Linda's latest YA novel is Don't Judge Me . 
She is Patron of Reading to Liberton High School, Edinburgh.

Her best selling series Hamish McHaggis is illustrated by Sally J. Collins who also illustrated Linda's retelling of Greyfriars Bobby.

website:  www.lindastrachan.com
blog:  Bookwords 

The Market or Institutions or Both? Which Route Produces the Best Kids' Books Part 1 by Emma Barnes

With the recent election for Labour Party leader, there's been a lot of debate on whether goods and services like electricity, train travel, health etc should be provided via government institutions or privately through the market, or a mixture of both. So far as I know, none of the candidates put forward a view with regard to children's books (correct me if I'm wrong!) So I thought I'd do a bit of ruminating on the subject myself. It may be a rather dry-sounding issue for a books blog – but important all the same.

It's a Market, Innit?

In some ways, children's books are a classic free market good. Books are commissioned and produced by publishers, who are typically private companies aiming to produce a profit, and are then sold in bookshops or online (again, privately owned companies hoping to make a profit) to consumers (parents children and teenagers themselves). The writer is usually a self-employed individual, receiving sale-dependent royalties. So far, so free market. (And here many authors reading this will be giving hollow laughs, thinking they know all this already: how many writers have heard that though an editor “loves” their story, they can't see “a market” for it or they don't think they could “market” it successfully? In fact, there's a lot of writers out there who regularly bemoan the commercial nature of modern publishing.)

Or is it?

But in fact, there is a lot of non-market involvement too. For one thing, schools and libraries buy large numbers of children's books, and provide them to children without charge. They fund this with public money (taxation) and have traditionally different criteria for choosing books from the individual consumers who go into bookshops. Librarians and teachers shape wider consumer taste too - for example, by reviewing books, or by running awards (one of the most prestigious children's books awards, the Carnegie, is chosen by librarians) or by inviting authors into schools to discuss their books. Some writers receive funding through the government-funded Arts Council, or rely on income from school visits and library events, or from teaching creative writing in universities or elsewhere. Then there is the role of the National Curriculum in determining which educational books are published, or book festivals in promoting books and authors. There is big institutional framework, which is not driven by profit.

Does all this matter? A book is a book – if it ends up in a child's hands via a 3 for 2 table in a big chain bookstore, or via a library shelf after being on an awards shortlist, the response of the child is what matters, surely?

It might not be so simple.  Looking back on my own favourite childhood reads, I'd argue that the two routes can produce rather different books. Here are a few examples, all of them books I loved and cherished, but which I came across in different ways..

Emma's Bookshelf - the Market-Led books

Enid Blyton was wildly popular with kids but was widely shunned by the books “establishment” - she didn't get prizes, was often excluded from schools and libraries for her allegedly dubious values, both cultural and literary, and her work was famously banned by the BBC.  But her books sold (and still sell) in bucket loads – a definite case of the customer winning out.

My favourites included the Secrets series, the Famous five, the Magic Faraway Tree...I could go on.

The “Jill” Books by Ruby Ferguson – this girls' pony series never won any prizes, but like many readers I loved its wit and verve.

The Chalet School Books – girls' school stories were another genre often regarded with pure snobbery by the establishment – no prizes or reviews - yet this series not only established a huge fan base (and still has a strong adult following) but surely deserves credit for its unusually cosmopolitan setting and cross-national cast of characters.

Roald Dahl – it's strange to remember that Dahl was actually viewed with suspicion at first by many in the UK book world. Eventually – after his enormous popularity in the US could no longer be ignored – he was published in the UK, and of course became equally successful.

How did I acquire these books? I never saw any of them in my local library or at my school (except for, perhaps, Dahl). Instead I was either bought them as presents or I actually bought them for myself - not new (I didn't have the funds) but second hand from the shelves of DL's Book Exchange, where the small children's section was squeezed in between the shelves of adult paperbacks.

Non-Market Led

Some of my favourite books, though, were less mainstream. I was an avid reader of historical fiction – a lot of which, I suspect, depended on libraries for sales and shelf-space. The covers were often rather worthy and “educational” in appearance – not designed to immediately entice a child. Such books would sit on the library shelf until some child like me stumbled upon it, decided to give it a go - and then took it to their hearts.

My battered copy

A classic example is One is One.  A real slow burner, with much dense description, set in the medieval period, it relates the story of Stephen, a bullied boy whose artistic gift  ultimately leads him to choose life in a monastery over the adventure of being a knight. Doesn't exactly sound like a crowd pleaser? But it's a wonderful book and actually still in print today. (It's harder to imagine it being taken on and published today, I have to admit).

Needless to say, I never found any of these books at DL's book exchange.

Both Market and Institutions

What's interesting to me is that some favourite authors fall between camps. Or rather they depended on both routes for success.  

Diana Wynne Jones, although probably one of the most influential children's fantasy authors of the twentieth century, was never a household name. I actually bought Charmed Life myself, new, at a Puffin book sale at my school. (It was very rare that I bought a new book for myself.) So – that was my choice was as a consumer. However, it was a choice from a range of books that would have been considered suitable to offer in a school in those days – the solid titles, rather than the glitzy. (And Charmed Life had won an award, which might have led to its inclusion.) My other favourite, The Ogre Downstairs, was acquired through school too.  Like Forest, I'd suggest Jones reached her ardent fans by negotiating a rather tricky route between commercial and institutional approval.

Antonia Forest never won a huge audience, but she did get favourable reviews and Carnegie nominations early in her career. Later on, though, when many librarians shunned her for being “elitist” it is probably the fact that her school stories were so squarely “genre”, and so were released by Puffin, which ensured she continued to find enthusiastic fans.

Kaye Webb biography

Kaye Webb's biography is a fascinating insight into some of these interactions, and how children's publishing worked, during the time when I was a child reader. Webb was the chief at Puffin – the immensely influential paperback children's imprint which brought many authors into the mass market. Webb had enormous freedom to follow her tastes – but, as her biographer points out, the massive expansion in demand from libraries and schools was equally important in trends, creating new demands - for example, for books about children from less privileged backrounds, something publishers like Webb then responded to. This was an “institutional” objective – more diverse characters – but there were also more purely “market” pressures: Webb was not herself a particular fan of Roald Dahl, but his enormous appeal to children (demonstrated through hardback sales) meant she did publish him, and his titles became some of Puffin's most successful ever.

the first Mantlemass book

One of my own childhood favourites, the Mantlemass series – was published by Webb after she had surveyed libraries about their most popular titles. I remember myself originally discovered the Mantlemass series in hardback in my public library (I can still visualize the covers) – then acquiring my own puffin copies, to read again and again.

My childhood reading would have suffered if I'd been only reliant on one category of books – the purely commercial or the institutionally approved. Both were needed. (And both, it has to be said, delivered their clangers too. The pulpier titles of DL's Book Exchange did not always deliver on their promise. Some of the “worthy” school and library reads were pretty turgid too.)  When I look  at children's books, a mixture of organisations, of market and non-profit-driven institutions, seems to have been what worked.

I thought I'd try and organise these thoughts a little.  Here, it seems to me, are some of the pros and cons of both categories.

Good Things About the Market

• Not snobbish – if a child likes it, and parents are prepared to buy it, they will publish it.

• Interested in all age groups and tastes – all “markets” in fact.

• Respects “genre” books – school stories, humour, ponies, mysteries etc

• Want books to be attractive and so compete with other entertainment/consumer goods.

Bad Things About Market

• Publicity potential, celebrity tie-ins, “hooks”, “high concept”, current fashions, may all end up more important than inherent quality.

• “Quieter” books, experimental books, unusual protagonists, niche interests etc may all get overlooked.

• Responds to purchasing power – which means some groups of readers will be neglected.

Good Things About Non-Market Institutions

• Don't just have to think about profit

• May be more likely to reward innovation, experiment or pure literary quality

• Can allow children to discover more "educational” or worthy themes, or pursue minority interests by providing slow-burn, non-glitzy books

• May help to include groups with low purchasing power

Bad Things About Non-Market Institutions

• May be overly “worthy” or snobbish – eg about genre books, overtly “commerical” titles – or inversely snobbish (eg the 1970s backlash against “elitist” titles)

• Has its own fads and fashions

• Adult-led – danger of losing touch with child readers

• May have objectives which may come before pure quality or enjoyment. 

This has turned into a monster post - for which, apologies! Meantime, I'd like to hear your thoughts. How are books being provided - how should they be provided?  How did you get hold of your favourite books, then and now?  And how does this all impact on the children's book market today (a question I'll return to next time...)

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Emma's Wild Thing series for 8+ about the naughtiest little sister ever. (Cover - Jamie Littler)
"Hilarious and heart-warming" The Scotsman

 Wolfie is a story of wolves, magic and snowy woods...
(Cover: Emma Chichester Clark)
"Funny, clever and satisfying..." Books for Keeps

Emma's Website
Emma’s Facebook Fanpage
Emma on Twitter - @EmmaBarnesWrite

The Empathy Map (Part 2) by Tess Berry-Hart

"Is a refugee someone who's had to leave their home?" asked Anna.
"Someone who seeks refuge in another country," said Papa.
"I don't think I'm quite used to being one yet," said Anna.

Extract from When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit, by Judith Kerr

When I wrote the first part of The Empathy Map last month about how big business has turned empathy into a tool for selling, I'd planned a very different type of post for my Part 2.

Back then it was the middle of August, and all over Europe the biggest exodus of people from their native lands since World War II was under way. Pictures of desperate and frightened people, travelling for months and months overland in terrible conditions, were filtering through Facebook feeds. Boatloads of starving and fleeing people arrived in the beautiful Greek islands, narrowly avoiding being drowned on the way whilst Western holidaymakers reclined on the beach or complained about the view. MIGRANTS STORM CALAIS! shouted the tabloids. David Cameron talked about building a wall. Macedonia was actually building a wall. The word "refugee" was barely mentioned. Empathy was in short supply.

Along with many people, I felt so upset about the coverage and the political inertia that I got in touch with Libby Freeman, a grass-roots activist who had loaded up a van with much-needed supplies and driven over to Calais with a few friends the week before. "How can I help?" I texted her. "I'm planning to get a load of people and supplies together and go over again next month," she texted back. "Great! I'm in," I replied, before I had time to think. Libby and her friends had received so many offers of help that they were setting up a Facebook group called Calais Action and were putting out calls to collect clothes and shoes for people in the camps. I became the West London collector for Calais Action, and posted on local community Facebook groups asking for donations. I received some grateful replies and promises. Going to be a busy week, I thought.

Then I went away for the Bank Holiday in Somerset. Phone coverage was patchy, so I switched my phone off and went Facebook-free for a couple of days. When I eventually logged back on, I had nearly 100 new private messages. People were frantically messaging me from all over London - "I'm so glad to see your group! I have clothes! What do you need?" My phone was full of texts, my email rammed. There was even wild talk of rallies in London and Calais to show solidarity with migrants, an initiative unthinkable only a week ago. When I got back home, there was a huge pile of plastic bags on my doorstep, overspilling with clothes and shoes.

What? How!

Then I saw the headlines - and it clicked. In the awful photos of drowned children on a Turkish beach, Britain had found its empathy.

Migrant:A person who moves from one place to another in order to find work or better living conditions.(ODD)

Refugee: A person who has been forced to leave their country in order to escape war, persecution, or natural disaster

The words we use to describe something are important as they can skew our perception and understanding of a situation. Take the word "migrant" - in the hands of the right-wing press it became loaded and symbolic of a particular menace; a hooded, dark skinned man, probably a member of Isis or some such, camping in Calais and breaking into lorries to come into Britain and steal our jobs and benefits. Words make us see "a migrant" as “the other” – someone who threatens us, threatens our secure livelihoods, because of ... what? The realisation that the world is not as safe as we would like it to be? That if the genetic chips had been spilled any other way then our lives would not be composed of lattes and Netflix and clean roads - and that we might be in their shoes?

When Al Jazeera refused to use the word "migrant" and instead reported on "refugees" it changed the narrative. Everybody knows what refugees are - the word was picked up immediately by much of the media and it triggered reserves of empathy towards people seeking refuge in another country.

But how are we to instil empathy in our children? The second way of building empathy, as I talked about in Part 1 of the Empathy Map, is reading stories. Studies show that children who read novels are more empathetic, quicker to visualise themselves in the shoes of a storybook character. When I was younger, some of my favourite books were about refugees and immigrants. For me the ultimate refugee/ roadtrip novel has to be Watership Down by Richard Adams, one of my favourite stories for children and adults of all time. It's the story of a group of rabbits in Sandleford whose warren is destroyed to build houses. Together they journey over the South Downs to find a new home, encountering on the way many different types of warrens and the fearsome rabbits who populate them. I defy anyone to read it and not feel empathy towards people who have been expelled from their homelands. When they finally find a warren high on the downs that they can call their own, it is a dream of every refugee who has ever travelled. “It’s not really about rabbits!” shout its supporters, and they are absolutely right. You can find similar parallels of refuge and exile in The Hobbit by JRR Tolkien.

My other childhood favourites were When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit, by Judith Kerr, about her own childhood as a refugee travelling across Europe from the Nazis. Goodnight Mister Tom, about the "vacuees" - evacuated children from London during the Second World War making a new life for themselves in the countryside. The Silver Sword by Ian Serraillier is another, about a group of children travelling from bombed-out Warsaw to Berlin to find their parents in the aftermath of Word War II. Refugee Boy by Benjamin Zephaniah is a more modern novel about a young boy who is brought to claim asylum in the UK during the 2000/2001 civil war in Eritrea. All of these stories are vastly different - some deal with events long ago, some are about events that have never happened or could happen - but they all contain within them the seeds of empathy that we so badly need.

Indeed, I was so influenced as a child by the ideas of flight and refuge, that the first young-adult novel I ever wrote, Escape From Genopolis, followed the fortunes of a group of refugees in the futuristic world of Genopolis where pain had ceased to exist. Those who still experienced pain were called Naturals and banished to a wilderness because in knowing pain, by extension they still had empathy. In the world of Genopolis, empathy was held as a dangerous gift, because to control people you have to dehumanise them - you must not "understand" them. Words that dehumanise people prevent us from empathising with and helping them; words which foster empathy can change the world.

And the world does appear to be changing from a month ago. Empathy is now front-page news. Libby and her friends have been interviewed by TV and newspapers about the new "grass-roots giving" which refuses to sit back and wait for politicians to take action. And what a powerful force grass-roots movements are. Just two weeks after I set up the West London branch of Calais Action, over four hundred and fifty generous and hard-working people from my local area have either contacted me with donations or volunteered to help collect, sort and pack the giant pile of supplies that I've received - crates upon crates of food, 200 large boxes of clothes and shoes, sleeping bags and tents - which now fill an entire house in a neighbouring square (the house has been also temporarily donated for a week!). This weekend the supplies will be shipped out, to be sent on to refugee camps in Hungary and northern France. A huge rally - "Refugees Welcome" - happened on the weekend in London; another one will happen in the Jungle camp in Calais itself this next Saturday 19th September. A co-ordinated volunteer programme is being set up in Calais by Calais Action and other NGOs and grass-roots groups to repair water pipes, build proper shelter and distribute the vast amount of supplies to the vast amount of people who need them.

Empathy is part of us and what makes us human; we just need to let it flourish.

Virginia Woolf, Alice and Me ..... by Miriam Halahmy

" So long as you write what you wish to write, that is all that matters; and whether it matters for ages or only for hours, nobody can say," wrote Virginia Woolf in, 'A Room of One's Own.

This year I was delighted to be taken on by a new publisher, Alma Books, for my MG novel, The Emergency Zoo, an untold story of kids and pets in WW2. Then I discovered that Alma's offices were in Hogarth House, Richmond, where Leonard and Virginia Woolf lived and where Leonard set up the Hogarth Press.

Cecil Woolf and Jean Moorcroft Wilson

I have had the good fortune in the past three years to be part of a committee to raise the profile of WW1 poet and artist Isaac Rosenberg. The meetings are held in the home of Rosenberg's biographer, Jean Moorcroft Wilson and her husband, Cecil Woolf, publisher and the nephew of Virginia Woolf. I told Cecil that my publishers were based in Hogarth House and that I had seen the printing press in the basement.

This was Cecil's reply, "I think the little hand-press in the picture is the one L & V used for printing circulars &c, rather than books. The small hand-press I bought from Leonard and stored in my bathroom was, I think, rather larger, probably the one on which they started printing small books in 1917. I eventually sold it to John Lehmann and it may be the press now at Sissinghurst. All that was about 60+ years ago . One must try not to have any regrets, well, not too many.

Lots of love,Cecil.

Cecil is in great demand to give talks about his memories of living with Leonard and Virginia and his stories are small nuggets of pure gold. "The last I time saw Virginia," he told us once, "she was picking apples." Having the chance to meet Cecil and hear stories first hand about such an iconic writer is quite amazing and both Jean and Cecil are two of the most fascinating people I have ever met. I have read several of Jean's books - she is an authority on Siegfried Sassoon and has just published her biography of Edward Thomas - and I can thoroughly recommend her work.

Alice in Wonderland - one of the great reading experiences of my childhood - completes this weird and wonderful blogpost. My new publishers, Alma Books, have just brought out their anniversary edition of Alice as it is 150 years since the book was first published and its absolutely brilliant. The edition includes Through the Looking Glass, Alice's Adventures Underground as well as Xmas and Easter Greetings to all readers from the author and extra background material. Beautifully illustrated, this is a fascinating new version for all fans of Alice.

I know all about six degrees of separation but this has been an incredible set of links, coincidences and experiences which are the very stuff of being an author.

www.miriamhalahmy.com

Rainbow Moments by Karen King

When I attended the Patron of Reading Conference in February this year the lovely Helena Pielichaty, the first ever Patron of Reading, gave a moving speech about her experience of being a Patron of Reading. She finished by saying ‘This is the thing of which I’m most proud’. Helena is a talented and profilic author who has had numerous books published including the popular Girls FC series but the thing she is most proud of is inspiring children to read through her POR work. This made me think. What made me proud? What were my rainbow moments, the things that brighten my day?

When I get a new book published I’m always pleased when I finally hold the printed copy in my hands, but proud? No. I’m too besieged with doubts; what if no one likes it? What if there are some typos (and yes, that’s happened a few times), what it if doesn’t sell? I’m fully aware that while my books pay the bills they aren’t literary masterpieces.

My rainbow moments are when a teacher at a school I’m visiting tells me that a pupil who has listened engrossed to my story has never sat still to listen to a story before, or that a pupil who has filled a page in one of my workshops has never before written more than a sentence, when a former creative writing student gets an agent or a book deal, a social media student starts their first blog or makes their first tweet. I feel proud when I’ve helped someone to achieve something.

Earlier this year a lady attended one of my writing class. She had never written anything before, never used a computer, but wanted to write a children’s story for her grandchildren. She worked hard on this story throughout the course. Then one week she told us she’d bought a second-hand computer and was taking IT lessons. On the final week she brought in a neatly typed copy of her story. She was so pleased and proud.  Helping that lady write her story is my brightest rainbow moment this year.

What are your rainbow moments?

 Karen King writes all sorts of books. Check out her website at www.karenking.net