SCBWI-BI celebrates 10 Years!

(SCBWI-BI = Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators - British Isles)

A gathering of "squibbies"

I have returned! And boy, what a time away it was. I even enjoyed the brisk UK cold, though I did fear that I might lose my nose on several occasions!

It was so, so great to have been able to meet and catch up with writer pals, old and new, at the SCBWI-BI 10th Anniversary conference in Winchester. So much fun, so much learned – of course, just not long enough to have a decent chat with everyone.

Hobnobbing with friends and authors - Kathryn Evans, Candy Gourlay, Jon Mayhew and Lucy Coats

I have pages of notes, some wonderful critiques from my online critique partners, most of whom I finally got to meet – what an amazing group of people – I feel very privileged! And...I also had a great one to one session with an editor – so now there is some serious motivation to get the current WIP finished.

7/10ths of my lovely critique group - Jackie Marchant, Jeannie Waudby, Jeannette Towey, Candy Gourlay, Kathy Evans and Ellen Renner

I am powerfully struck by two things – what incredible, friendly, supportive and generous people make up the British Isles SCBWI, and the fact that one is never, ever too old to learn. I have come away with so much and at so many levels.

It was suggested by the SCBWI-BI organizers that conference attendees blog about the 10 things they learnt at the conference. So here are mine:


1. “Squibbies” are the best people in the world! I believe I have finally found my “pack”.

2. You are never too old to learn. And if you think you are, it is conceivable you are dead. (Yes, you may want to check.)

3. People will always help you if you ask.

4. Sometimes people sound exactly like you imagined they would.

5. Marketing yourself as a writer/ author/illustrator is more important than ever – get out there and make use of those platforms. If need be, become an “internet slut”.

Candy Gourlay, Keren David and Sarah McIntyre tell us how it's done...

6. I seem to have acquired a certain kind of fame (though it may be infamy) – but apparently I’m shorter than everyone expected. You see, using the internet can make you seem “bigger” than you actually are!

7. Place can be a character in a novel. Marcus Sedgwick said so. He is right.
He also said that when you start moving commas around, you’ve probably finished your absolutely final edit of your novel. (I’m still moving words and whole chapters around…)



8. Just about all writers and illustrators carry notebooks – though some have “brand” preferences… (For your information and future reference… I’m a Moleskine snob.)

9. Google Earth and Google Street View, YouTube and Flickr, Wikipedia and Twitter are all good places to do research for your novel if you can’t actually get to a particular place.

10. Using the newspaper to gather ideas and combining news stories, is a great way to create a plot – thanks Keren!

Author and friend, Keren David

To the organisers, delegates and everyone else involved in making the conference the success that it was, a huge THANK YOU!!! And, also, thank you to all of you for making me feel so incredibly welcome and part of the "pack"!

The mass of "Squibbies" who've achieved publishing success during the course of 2010
- which shows that being part of this amazing organisation can really help!
Photo courtesy of Candy Gourlay

For other posts celebrating what people learned at the conference, see:

Anita Loughrey's Blog
Ellen Renner blogging at An Awfully Big Blog Adventure
Candy Gourlay
Sarah McIntyre's Jabberworks
Keren David's Almost True
Sue Eves
Lucy Coats at Scribble City Central
Teri Terry and Candy Gourlay's Notes from the Slushpile
Nick Cross' Who Ate My Brain
Kathryn Evans
Julie Day
Dave Cousins' Fifteen Days without a Head
Claudia Myatt
Rebecca Colby
Tina Lemon's A Novel Way
MC Rogerson's Life Beyond
KM Lockwood
Katie Dale


Additional photo credits to Fiona Dunbar, Candy Gourlay and Anita Loughrey

Here's to another 10 Years!

Baaaad Vanilla!

Mea very very culpa. I have been a bad girl. I have become horribly behind in all sorts of things I undertook to do and I hereby beat my chest, tug my forelock and groveling-ly apologise to all those I have let down.

Yes, yes, it’s true. I am entirely behind all the author interviews and book reviews I promised to do. I owe Sarwat Chadda and Nick Green author interviews. I promised book reviews to Ellen Renner and Gillian Philip. And I’ve been so caught up in “life” that reading - and I regret to say, writing - have been cast aside.

In an effort to catch up, I am now reading Sarwat Chadda’s Dark Goddess and Nick Green’s The Cat Kin at the same time. It’s causing me no end of trouble… Sarwat’s Billi Sangreal keeps morphing into a cat, while Nick’s Ben and Tiffany keep getting chased by werewolves – and that’s just all so wrong – because it’s Billi who’s hunting down the werewolves who’ve abducted the Spring Child, while Nick’s Ben and Tiffany have the wondrous ability to draw on their inner Mau and morph into catlike beings in order to go after the bad guys.




Note to self: really, don’t try to read two books at once, you are simply not in any fit state to do so – go and eat chocolate instead.

At least, I’m not getting confused between Ellen and Gillian’s books, as I’ve not even started them yet (sorry, grovel, sorry). But what I will say is this: there is a smouldering burn on the carpet next to my bed - and it’s all that Seth’s fault – for those who don’t know, he’s the seriously hot half-feral son of a Sithe nobleman in Gillian’s YA novel, Firebrand. He’s so seriously hot that I think he’s sent Ellen’s Tobias running for a huge bucket of water in the City of Thieves. Good old Tobias – I’m hoping he’ll prevent my entire house from burning down – assuming his family don’t nick the house first...




Anyway, at least you know what will be forthcoming on the blog, if I ever manage to get my life sorted out. And…there will also be, when it arrives, an interview with Savita Kalhan about her debut YA novel, The Long Weekend.




Right, now I’d better get on with catching up on the critiques owed to three of my critique partners, Jackie Marchant, Candy Gourlay and Lynn Huggins-Cooper.

I may be a while – again.

An interview with Tabitha Suzuma, author of Forbidden

Tabitha Suzuma is yet another of the remarkable authors I have met online via Facebook – it highlights how social networking can indeed enrich lives – and I very much look forward to meeting her later this year. Tabitha is not only a gifted writer (she has won, been nominated for and shortlisted for multiple awards); she is also a warm, funny, extraordinary and courageous person.

I had not previously read any of Tabitha’s work but I was aware of the subject matter she chooses to write about – and let’s be clear about one thing – Tabitha does not choose easy subject matter. In her latest book, Forbidden, Tabitha Suzuma tackles the taboo of sibling incest.

“How can something so wrong feel so right…?”

Before you recoil, read on.

A romance with a dramatic difference, Tabitha Suzuma’s Forbidden should come with a warning label: “Expect to have your world rocked.”

Forbidden is without doubt one of the most emotionally disturbing, powerful and haunting novels I have ever read – even Nabokov’s Lolita pales next to it. Richly complex and emotionally dramatic, Forbidden left me reeling.

Tabitha’s words are beautiful, her characters are vividly alive, the raw emotional power is palpable, and her story is challenging and intense. Forbidden is not a story for the faint-hearted, but it is a novel which will grip and hold you throughout.

This is writing at its most potent. This is a story which will push your buttons and leave you seriously questioning an openly accepted moral taboo and legal crime as you face, just as Lochan and Maya Whitely face, the forbidden love which Tabitha Suzuma has so bravely written about.

Lest you think that sibling incest is both an exception and something morally bereft, consider this:

History is littered with examples of brother-sister love: Cleopatra VII was married to her brother Ptolemy XII, the Roman emperor Caligula is rumoured to have had sexual relations with all three of his sisters, and the Hapsburg and Bourbon dynasties are riddled with incest. It is interesting to note that incest is not illegal in all jurisdictions and the taboo is more often than not driven by religion. On the flip side, “incest” is fairly normal in the animal world and, at its most fundamental, the issue for humans is that avoidance is about genetics and gene pools - inbreeding creates small gene pools and those groups subsequently die out. At its most simplistic, it becomes then, a matter of biology rather than morality. Taken like this, the taboo and law against incest becomes an interesting one, particularly if abuse is not involved. As Tabitha's Maya says: “They’ll never stop us. Not as long as this is what we both want. But you’ve got to stop thinking it’s wrong, Lochie. That’s just what other people think; it’s their problem, their stupid rules, their prejudices. They’re the ones who are wrong, narrow-minded, cruel…”

In reading Forbidden, the reader truly feels for Lochan and Maya Whitely; one does more than just empathise with them and one might even support their “forbidden love”. If it feels so "right", how can it be "wrong"? Forbidden raises many interesting moral questions, some of which are highlighted in an article The Guardian ran in 2002 entitled Forbidden Love in which it becomes quite clear that incest happens all around us, all the time. In short, sibling incest is far more common and prevalent than we’d like to think.

“You’ve always been my best friend, my soul mate, and now I’ve fallen in love with you too. Why is that such a crime?”

But enough of the background, let's get on with the interview.


I am totally delighted that Tabitha agreed to be interviewed on Absolute Vanilla, even though this is the toughest interview I’ve done to date. Tabitha, I'm afraid, found my questions equally challenging and begged to bow out on some of the more complex ones, so if it appears that there are "holes" in the interview, well, there are.

Tabitha Suzuma

Genius, tortured souls, worlds falling apart appear to be trademarks of your storytelling, and you are unafraid to tackle emotionally challenging topics such as depression, alcoholism, dysfunctional families, and, in Forbidden, sibling incest. What draws you or influences you to write stories of this nature?

Haha – when you put it like that, it makes me sound completely mad, which is only partially true! I guess I write about what I know, what fascinates me, and what I think is important, and all of these topics fall into at least one of those categories. The genius in A Note of Madness and its sequel A Voice in the Distance is Flynn, who is a musical prodigy, and his ‘genius’ was greatly influenced by my then teenage brother who is currently training to become a professional concert pianist. I am also fascinated by the link between mental illness and the artistic temperament. I studied psychology for a while, and one of my favourite books is Touched With Fire by Kay Redfield Jamison, which studies this link by exploring the lives of the many, many illustrious writers, musicians, composers and artists who suffered from some sort of mental illness.

Most of my books revolve around mental illness or mental suffering because it is something I am very familiar with. Refractory clinical depression is a condition I have lived with for most of my life and one which has come close to ending it on numerous occasions.






In Forbidden, in addition to the central tenet of the novel, you also draw together the threads of a broken family, an alcoholic mother, social phobia, older children raising younger children and the constant threat of intrusion by social services. Where did you start with this story and how did you find the various threads came together?

The threads you mention came from the need to find a reason for the two main characters, Lochan and Maya, to be drawn together into a romantic relationship. Consensual sibling incest happens more often when the siblings in question are brought up apart and meet for the first time as teens or adults. Consensual incest between siblings brought up together is relatively rare and so I needed some form of explanation for this to occur. Making them child carers, without any real or positive parental influence, forced to act as adults from a young age and to look after their younger siblings enabled me to make their relationship different from most brothers and sisters right from the start. They were close friends, partners, who shared an incredible burden that the rest of the world was unable to understand. They had to act like parents themselves which drew them into a relationship very different from your average brother and sister. It also alienated them from others as they were not free to hang out with friends after school and Lochan’s social phobia reinforced this sense of alienation by creating an actual barrier which prevented him from being able to reach out and talk to his peers. The threat of social services coming in and tearing the family apart placed an extra burden on Lochan and Maya and meant they had a secret (that they were living without parents) which drew them even further together. All of these factors pulled them closer together and made them increasingly dependent on one another for love and support.


In Lochan Whitely you have created a brilliant yet deeply troubled, complex and tragic character. How did he arise for you and how did he form as you wrote?

Lochan was a great character to write. I put a lot of myself into him, as well as a lot of the kind of person I would like to be. His social phobia was just an exaggeration of the kind of social discomfort many teens experience at some point or another and his sense of responsibility from being the eldest was greatly influenced by my own experiences growing up as the eldest of five. His kindness and sensitivity towards others was influenced by a close friend of mine and his brilliance was inspired by the link between genius and the troubled mind.


Troubled male main characters, albeit often balanced by strong secondary female character, seem to be prevalent in your writing. What draws you particularly to write from a male perspective – and the troubled main character perspective at that? And how important do you feel a balancing female protagonist is, and why?

I put a lot of myself into my main characters and when I started my very first book, A Note of Madness, I decided to try writing it from a male perspective so that I was able to create some distance between the character and myself. So that I could be less self-conscious, I suppose, and free to put as much of myself into the character as I wanted without actually feeling as if I were writing about myself. I guess it was a form of camouflage. But I also wanted to write a book about a teenage boy suffering from a mental illness because I think that society makes it far more difficult for boys than for girls to talk about their feelings, especially when things are going wrong, and much more difficult for them to speak out about their problems and seek help. Not that it’s easy for anyone, but teenage boys are much more inclined to keep their feelings bottled up. I also felt there were far more books about troubled girls in YA fiction and that more books about troubled boys needed to be written as they suffer just as much but often receive far less help. I now feel extremely comfortable writing from a male perspective but I also enjoy writing in a dual narrative, as in Forbidden, because for a love story I think it’s important for the reader to experience the feelings of both characters involved.


Lochan and Maya’s mum is a hopeless, and ultimately destructive character, who clutches at her fading youth, a bottle of booze in hand. Were there any particular influences and inspiration behind the creation of her character, which is the primary and fundamentally abusive force within her family?

I think her complete disinterest in her family and her selfishness and most importantly, lack of parental love was influenced in part by my late father, who was physically abusive towards me when I was a child and rarely showed affection.


Would you say that in creating Forbidden you wrote intuitively or did you have to do a considerable amount of research?

The only research I had to do was regarding incest and the law, and the details in the final chapters.


So now, Tabitha, the obvious question arises: what motivated and inspired you to write a book about sibling incest?

It started with the desire to write a tragic love story. It came down to incest by a process of elimination. I wanted the book to be set in contemporary London and I needed the two teens in question to be old enough for their love for each other to be taken seriously. But I quickly realised that (fortunately) in modern-day Britain there are very few – if any – obstacles that could keep a couple in love apart. Cultural and religious difference maybe, but if the couple were determined enough to go against their families' wishes, they could always run away together. I needed something that would be condemned by everyone wherever they went – a relationship that could never be and moreover, was against the law.


Many authors believe their writing is autobiographical to a greater or lesser extent. To what extent does your own life inform your writing?

As I mentioned earlier, I suffer from clinical depression so on the one hand I have always viewed writing as an escape from the real world and as an escape from my own problems and from myself. On the other hand, I also find it very therapeutic because I am able to discharge a lot of my own pent up emotions onto the page. I think it’s an escape because I’m not writing about myself directly and I’m not writing about my own immediate problems; however I definitely use the intensity of the emotions I’ve experienced at various points in my life to make my books as real as possible. I often also find, upon re-reading, that I have unconsciously used many episodes in my life to influence my writing and choice of subject matter. Obviously, my books about depression stem from my own battle with the illness but it took me a while to realise how much of Lochan and Maya’s responsibilities and concern for their younger siblings mirrored my own childhood. I am the eldest of five and although I wouldn’t go as far as saying I was a child carer, I did leave school at fourteen when my youngest brother was born and played a big part in bringing him up: I did the school run, the bedtime routine, bathed him, dressed him, even had his friends round to play. My sister, ten years my junior, called me ‘mummy’ until she was three.




Your characters and your voice are mature, some might even say more suited to an adult as opposed to a young adult readership. What is your view on this and what it is to write for young adults?

I never set out to write for young adults. In A Note of Madness, if you read the prologue, you might be able to tell it was intended initially for an adult audience. But then I found that because I was writing about teens, the book seemed more suitable for a teenage audience. I find myself drawn to writing about teenagers and about what some might call teen issues. Therefore my books fit better in the YA section. However I have had a great number of adults write to me to say how much they have enjoyed my books and I certainly don’t change my style or significantly simplify the vocabulary I use.


I know that in writing Forbidden you went through many revisions, edits and rewrites. What was the view of your publishers on presenting them with the initial manuscript and what were the points on which you differed?

Actually there was only one, major rewrite. And that was in order to remove several of the sexual scenes. I was very keen to keep the story as realistic as possible and didn’t want to do any ‘glossing’ or tasteful fades to black. In order to keep the story real, I felt there would also be quite a lot of sexual content seeing as the couple are more or less left to their own devices. However my publishers felt that Lochan and Maya’s relationship was too sexual and not romantic enough and so I had to rework some scenes and do a lot of negotiation until we found a middle ground we were both happy with.


Do you get to interact much with your young adult readers and, if so, what sort of feedback have you had from them on Forbidden?

I am fortunate enough to get a lot of wonderful emails from my readers. So far, the feedback on Forbidden has been overwhelmingly positive which feels great. However many readers have also written to tell me how much the book moved them, often to the point of tears, and many told me they never thought they would find themselves rooting for a brother and sister to be allowed to have a sexual relationship but that their feelings changed completely during the course of the book.




Finally, what next for Tabitha Suzuma? I know you are working on a new novel, can you tell us a little about it and when it will be published.

My next book is a tragic love story with, as its central theme, euthanasia.



Many thanks to Tabitha Suzuma for agreeing to be interviewed and I wish great success with Forbidden and her forthcoming novel.


For more about Tabitha Suzuma you can connect with her via:
Her website
Her Facebook fan page
On Twitter

Her books can be found on Amazon UK
and Amazon USA

For those interested, overviews of incest and incest taboo can be found on Wikipedia.

An interview with children's author, Pat Walsh

It’s such a treat when someone you know becomes published. I think, as a “pre-published” writer, one rather hopes some of their good fortune will rub off on you! So it was with great excitement that I learned that Pat Walsh’s book, The Crowfield Curse, had been published by Chicken House.

I was fortunate enough to be in a small critique group with Pat several years ago. I knew the minute I read her work that it wasn’t going to be long before she was noticed. I also knew when I read the first few chapters of The Crowfield Curse (or The Crowfield Feather as it was then called) that Pat was writing a wonderfully lyrical and magical story.

The Crowfield Curse has just the right blend of everything – old magic, horror, suspense, thrills, fairies, monks and an orphaned boy with tremendous courage and compassion – and the Sight.

Pat’s characters are beautifully realised and depicted, from Will, the main character to Brother Walter, the hob whom Will rescues from a trap, from the mysterious Shadlok and his master, the leper Jacobus, to the monks of Crowfield Abbey. Together with rich characterization, Pat’s ability to evoke wonderful descriptions of the times (the story is set in 1347) brings the story vividly to life and it makes for an “unputdownable read”.

The Crowfield Curse is a story that will appeal to fans of Catherine Fisher, Dianna Wynne Jones, Susan Cooper and Steve Augard.


An Interview with Pat Walsh:

Children's author, Pat Walsh
(image courtesy of the author)

When I first started reading The Crowfield Curse, I hadn’t a clue the story would end as it did – and I found the ending, although absolutely right, unexpected. As the writer, did you plot The Crowfield Curse from beginning to end, or did the story, as is often the way, lead you to where it wanted to go?

When I began the book, I only knew it would be about an angel, found dying in the snow a hundred years before the story begins. I had no idea how the angel got there, or who killed it. I plotted out the first few chapters and was wonderfully lucky to be part of an online critique group who read and commented on the work as it progressed. (Thank you, Nicky!) Having that feed-back was just brilliant. After that, the story unfolded little by little. I would write a chapter or two and then stop and make notes as ideas for the next chapter presented themselves. The original ending of the book was different from the one that was published, but I wasn’t happy with it. After it was accepted for publication, my editor at The Chicken House, Imogen Cooper, asked me to look at the ending again. By that time, I had enough distance from the book to see what was wrong with it and put it right. If I’d worked out the plot of the story at the beginning, it would have made life a lot easier, but I just don’t seem to be able to write like that.


You’ve created a wonderfully sympathetic character in Will – has he been very alive for you as a character and in what way did he influence the “shape” of the story?

Will is a kind of ‘everyman’. He sees the strange world of magic unfold around him but is not a part it, nor is he involved in the religious life of the abbey. Hopefully, this allows the reader to identify with him. The reader and Will experience the magical and mystical elements of the story together, as outsiders. I’m fond of Will, he’s had a terrible couple of years and has come through them pretty well. Shortly after I began the book and was still trying to get to know my characters, I was on a train and a young boy of about fourteen got on. He was skinny and blond haired and was exactly right for Will. The poor boy is probably still telling his friends about the crazy stalker woman who sat and stared at him all the way from St.Albans to London!


You introduce a fascinating blend of medieval Christianity with the “old ways” of nature worship in The Crowfield Curse, which hints at how much has been lost in our understanding of the natural world. Is this something you personally feel strongly about?

It’s something I feel very deeply about. I look around at my small patch of England and see fields being developed for housing and new road systems, woods being cut down, orchards grubbed up. The ‘old ways’ are no longer a part of everyday 21st century life. We’ve become disconnected from nature in a way that has never happened before, and I think that’s a very dangerous thing. There are a million small, and not so small, tragedies playing out around the world every day. We’re losing rainforests at an unprecedented rate, entire species are being driven to extinction, oceans are being polluted, the list is depressingly long, and we’re not doing enough to stop it. We no longer respect nature and we’ve forgotten our place in it. OK, rant over.


I have to ask, given the way you seamlessly blend magic into the Crowfield world – do you believe in hobs and the fay – even if just a little bit?

I would love to believe in fays and hobs! I had an invisible friend as a child, and apparently I saw a leprechaun when I was five – though I don’t actually remember that. Since then, the fay have been keeping a low profile, but I live in hope…


Despite the dark elements of the story, which one sees in the Unseelie King, and to some extent in the Prior, you’ve nevertheless created a story filled with kindness, courage, compassion and ultimately hope. How important do you believe it is to create a balance like this in stories for young people?

It would be unrealistic to write a story that was relentlessly upbeat, full of good people doing nice things. A story with both good and bad characters is more believable and more satisfying. I think young people aren’t afraid of serious issues or dark elements in story, but they need a hopeful ending.


You work on archaeological sites and digs – to what extent does your “day job” influence your writing and do you find yourself more inclined to write historically based fantasy?

I’ve been involved with archaeology for most of my life, so it’s bound to have an effect on what I write. One thing I’ve always found, though, is that we can excavate settlements and pottery and other artefacts, but we can’t get close to the people. We can dig up their bones but we only get glimpses of the kind of people they were, what they believed in, what they thought, or even, once we get back to prehistory, what languages they spoke. Writing historical fiction is a way of putting flesh back on the bones. Writing fantasy with a historical background is a natural extension of that; it’s a way of exploring another dimension of those ancient lives.


The Crowfield Curse, as it currently reads, stands alone, yet there is clearly room for a sequel. Did you intentionally write a stand-alone novel or did you always intend to write more than one book? And if there is a sequel, can you tell us a little about it, just as a teaser?

I always intended William’s story to continue over several books. There are loose ends in the Crowfield Curse which are tied up in the next two books. The sequel, due out in early 2011, answers the question of what brought the angel to Crowfield Abbey a hundred years ago. It is a much darker book and deals with some disturbing ideas. There was one scene that made me feel very nervous as I wrote it, so much so that I had to get my coat and go and find a nice, cheerful coffee shop to sit in for an hour. With real people. I have since toned down that scene …


What has the road to publication been like for you – has it been a long slog or have you found it relatively easy to get published?

It has been a long, long slog! Like many writers, I have had my fair share of rejection letters. I have several unpublished novels taking up space on my PC, one or two of which I will rewrite one day. The rest are part of the learning process. I began the Crowfield Curse in 2007 and by a huge stroke of luck that was the year The Times/Chicken House children’s writing competition began. I sent off my book and it was shortlisted. It didn’t win (Emily Diamand’s wonderful book Reaver’s Ransom, now called Flood Child, won), but Chicken House decided to publish it anyway.

Several years ago, I was advised not to write historical fiction as it was very hard to sell, and not to even think about a fantasy based historical book, because publishers wouldn’t touch it with a barge-pole. I didn’t listen and went ahead and wrote Crowfield because that was what I really wanted to write. Luckily for me, The Chicken House are brilliant publishers who are willing to take a chance on work that does not have an immediately obvious market niche. I’d heard it said that getting published was often a matter of luck - getting your book before the right person at the right moment, and in my case that was absolutely true.


Who or what would you say are the key influencers of your writing?

Archaeology, the supernatural, myths and legends, and folklore have all been huge influences. I grew up with an Irish mother and grandmother who told wonderful ghost stories. When I was a child and teenager growing up in Leicestershire, we were the only family in my neighbourhood who celebrated Halloween - not the way it’s celebrated now but the traditional Irish way. We carved Swedes and turnips instead of pumpkins (not easy, believe me!). My mother baked a barm brack – an Irish fruit loaf, with a pea, bean, coin, rag, stick and a ring baked into it. What you found in your slice of brack would be a portent of the year to come. How none of us ever choked on a coin or got a bit of stick wedged in our throats, I’ll never know. And always, there would be ghost stories. My grandmother, especially, lived with one foot in this world and one in the next. How could I fail to be inspired by such a woman?

There are so many writers whose work I’ve loved over the years and who have influenced me and inspired me. I couldn’t begin to list them all here, but amongst them would be John Gordon, Robert Westall, Susan Cooper, Alan Garner, Neil Gaiman, Paul Magrs, Cassandra Clare, Holly Black and Tove Jansson.


And finally, where to from here for Pat Walsh?

After the Crowfield stories are complete, there are two books I want to write – one is a historical fantasy but it is very different in feel and setting from The Crowfield Curse. The other is a contemporary ghost story. I also have a picture book planned. And after that? I have no idea, but I’m looking forward to finding out!


Many thanks to Pat for doing this interview and I truly hope she goes on to more great things, she certainly deserves it!

Learn more about Pat Walsh and The Crowfield Curse on Pat's website.
Buy the book from either Amazon or Chicken House.
Read author Mary Hoffman's review of The Crowfield Curse in the Guardian

An interview with debut children's author, Jon Mayhew

I first “met" Jon Mayhew through this wonderful portal called blogosphere. It was about four years ago and we had both recently started blogging and, as is the way of the blogosphere, fell in with the same group of bloggers.

I recall, at the time, reading a short extract of his novel in progress, for children, Mortlock and I also remember Jon wondering how he was ever going to get the book right and get it published. I suggested to him that he join the Society for Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators (SCBWI) and I also mentioned that it seemed that several people were using a writing consultancy called Cornerstones.

Over the years, I looked on as Jon did indeed join the SCBWI, went on one of Cornerstones’ self-editing courses, wrote and rewrote and then rewrote some more and ultimately landed himself an agent – Sarah Davies of the Greenhouse Literary Agency. There was lots more rewriting but it wasn’t that long before Mortlock was snapped up in a three book deal by Bloomsbury. On 30th March 2010 Jon had his official book launch with Mortlock hitting the shelves on the 5th of April 2010.

The suitably atmospheric setting in Shoreditch, London, for Jon's book launch
(image courtesy of Candy Gourlay)

Jon with fellow members of the British chapter of the SCBWI at his launch
(image courtesy of Sue Eves and Candy Gourlay)

I was extremely worried that for some reason I wouldn’t like Mortlock, but it is a brilliant romp and I read it in one sitting. Aimed at children of 10 + years, Mortlock is the wonderfully atmospheric story of orphaned Josie and her twin brother Alfie. They’ve never met, but when they do, it’s to unravel the mystery of their shared legacy, the secret of the Amarant - a magical and powerful plant - and it all has them running for their lives, pursued by three extremely unpleasant aunts, who happen to be terrifying ghuls. Set in Victorian England, the story is darkly gothic, full of magic, thrills and chills. It will appeal to boys as much as girls and will, I’m sure, happily rival Darren Shan and J K Rowling!

There is, I have to tell you, very little better than watching a pal succeed, and so, ladies and gentlemen, ghuls, crows and children, it is with pleasure that I introduce you to Jon Mayhew!

Debut children's author, Jon Mayhew (image courtesy of Jon Mayhew)

With all sorts of shivery delight, I have to ask, as the pre-published to the newly published… What does it feel like to become a published author?

A little bewildering, to be honest. But rather good. You spend so much time handling rejection that it seems too good to be true. Once you accept it, it’s ace! I must admit that I have to remind myself that every copy of Mortlock I see does not belong to me!


When did you first conceive Mortlock and where did the idea spring from?

Mortlock came from a number of sources. Alfie Wiggins, the undertaker’s mute came to me when I was watching my son in a performance of Oliver. There is a scene in which Oliver is ‘sold’ to Mr Sowerberry the undertaker and this ‘what if’ idea sprang into my mind. What if an undertaker’s mute found that he could waken the dead? That was my starting point.


How did you learn about the Amaranth and its immortal powers and what made you choose this is as one of the pivotal elements around which the story is based?

The Amarant is mentioned in Paradise Lost which I studied at university many moons ago. I don’t think any reference is made in the poem to its lifegiving properties but a swift Google search established that some people saw the Amarant as an immortal flower! Originally, there was a character in the story, a sort of Lazarus character who could ressurect the dead but he just got in the way, so I turned him into a flower.


Is there any particular reason why Josie Chrimes, your main character, turned up as a girl?

It was strange really, I started writing from Alfie’s point of view and for various reasons, it wasn’t working. I switched viewpoint several times (which was a pain) but finally settled on Josie. In a way, she is the more decisive and action-focused character and so it was easier then to have Alfie as the calming, sometimes cynical voice.


The three aunts in the story are gloriously macabre, to some extent caricatures of every wicked aunt or stepmother that has ever existed. Where did you draw your inspiration from for them?

If I told you I’d have to kill you! In a sense, they are caricatures. They are an amalgam of every bringer of bad news, every bully and every person I’ve known who smiled so sweetly whilst drilling the pointed blade between my shoulder blades. I kind of know who they are. Paradoxically, I love the aunts to bits. I love the way they twitch and flutter in unison and the way they switch from sweetly smothering to ravenous beak and claw.

The wonderfully atmospheric Mortlock booktrailer

Mortlock is gloriously atmospheric, did you find yourself having to do a lot of research into Victorian London?

It just happened as I went along, really. There were key things that I needed to know such as dates and events in the year it was set, just to make sure I wasn’t missing any good possible plot points. I started out with the basic story and then added detail, checked that something was chronologically correct. There were numerous e-mail conversations about sofas, photographs between my agent and then the desk editor and myself. I enjoyed the research and even visited a nice Victorian hearse up in the North east.


The Jon I’ve come to know is a really nice bloke and a very funny one at that, so I have to ask, where did all this gothically dark stuff spring from!?

I suppose it’s all there… lurking in the recesses of my mind. I try to be a very positive person which doesn’t always work. I suppose I work out all the darkness onto the page, perhaps.

Jon clearly has a bit of a thing about graveyards...
(image courtesy of Jon Mayhew)

Mortlock, despite its horror elements is, at its most fundamental, a story of overcoming the odds, good overcoming evil and ultimately it’s a story of great hope. How important do you believe hope is in children’s stories?

Children spend their lives hoping, don’t they? Hoping good things will happen and bad things won’t, hoping boring things will pass quickly and exciting things will come soon. I think a children’s book bereft of all hope might be a bit miserable. I’d like to think that Josie and Alfie came out of the whole experience with each other and a notion that they love and were loved. That’s important for any child I think.


In many ways, Mortlock reads a lot like a traditional fairy tale. What were the key influencers in the creation of this story and your writing per se?

Traditional song influenced the writing in that the themes of death and mortality haunt all the characters. I love the line “I’ll pike out his bonny blue eye,” in the ballad the Twa Corbies. The word ‘pike’ has so many connotations and sounds so aggressive. I tried to match that in some of my writing. A lot of what I write, I tell myself as I run. I scribble it down and then recraft it. Music influences me too. All kinds, film scores set my mind on the right track.

I suppose one of the key influencers was the writing of MR James. I love those old English ghost stories. The telling of stories is fundamental too. As a youngest child, I was the audience for the goriest, most terrifying stories from my brothers and sister.


You landed a three book deal with Bloomsbury, so we know there is more to come – do you want to give us a glimpse of what else you’re working on and are the other books sequels to Mortlock?

The other books are set in the same time and era with some of the same background characters but the main protagonists change. They aren’t sequels. I rather agree with Geraldine McCaughrean when she says she likes a story to wrap up in one book. I’d love to get the ghuls out and play with them again sometime.

The next book is called The Demon Collector and involves a certain Edgy Taylor (have you heard that name before? Check back through Mortlock) as he becomes involved in the Royal Society of Daemonologie. He hunts demons, helps collect them and goes on an epic voyage to the frozen North to find the lost corpse of the arch demon Moloch. Finally, he finds out which is worse, men or demons.

Jon at his book launch, clutching a newly formed ghul...
(image courtesy of Candy Gourlay)

You not only write, but you’re also the father of four, you have a full time job, you run and you play in ceilidh bands. Do you have a clone or a special recipe for packing so much into your life? And do you perhaps have any plans to give up teaching and become a full-time writer?

I don’t watch much television: Dr Who, the news, Being Human and Have I got News For You. I rarely sit around twiddling my thumbs. My job has reduced to four days a week which is meant to help but in reality, I’ll be spending a lot of time promoting Mortlock. I have to admit that my family are very understanding and cover domestic roles for me a lot of the time. I don’t do all of the things all the time either so at the moment, I’m ramping up the running again and easing off the writing for a little bit… A Bloomsbury Time Turner helps too…

I would dearly love to write full time but I’m under no illusions about how hard this is to achieve. You have to sell a lot of books on a regular basis to do this and I have one title out. I do enjoy my day job too so I’m grateful for that but maybe one day…

Jon and his long suffering family...
(image courtesy of Candy Gourlay)

When we spoke a while ago, you suggested I consider blogging as part of the angle to this interview, so I have to ask, to what extent did blogging play a role in the development of Mortlock and how to you see blogging as being important for pre-published and published authors?

Blogging put me in touch with some wonderful people…yourself included. They gave me excellent advice. You put me onto SCBWI and that was one of the things that put me in front of editors and agents at the Winchester conference. There’s nothing like a bit of professional interest in your work to get other editors and agents peering over curiously to see what the fuss is about.

Blogging has also given me useful feedback on work and even one of my first author gigs when Mickmouse booked me earlier this year to run some workshops at their first ‘Word Explosion’ children’s literary festival down in Cornwall.

It’s just such a great community for support and friendship.

Jon and fellow Greenhouse author, Sarwat Chadda, at the launch of Mortlock. Let's not ask what Sarwat is about to do to that crow... (or what the crow's about to do to him!)
(image courtesy of Candy Gourlay)

Your road to publication, as is the case for most writers, is not something that happened overnight. In what way and how did the story change and evolve to what it is now? And how many rewrites did it take to get you to the final print version of Mortlock?

I have actually lost count of the number of rewrites Mortlock had. It started out very long and quite sprawling. I couldn’t write a synopsis for it because there were so many plot strands and points of view. Cornerstones helped to smooth it out and as with the changing of one character into a flower, it was a question of looking closely at each scene and challenging it to justify its own existence! The book changed quite fundamentally once Sarah Davies got hold of it and more characters were killed off, more scenes axed until it was ready to present to the publishing world.


Now that your first book has been published and you’ve learned a whole lot about writing, how many drafts are you into for The Demon Collector? Do you think the writing process gets easier?

Demon Collector is sitting pretty on the editor’s desk and she told me at the launch party that she loves it. Which is good for morale! Demon Collectors was floating about as I wrote Mortlock and went through about three false starts (upto 10,000 words that couldn’t be used) as I floundered around with characters. It was going to be a modern setting but I couldn’t get the tone right and the characters seemed wrong somehow. Once I set it in Mortlock’s world, it started to fall into place but I still struggled with a main character. Finally, I got it all straight in my head, planned it out (I had to present Bloomsbury with a synopsis by last July) and then I would say it just flowed. At one moment of self-doubt, I started hacking and rewriting but then stopped when I realized that the critical voice in my head was not a good one. It’s taken about two rewrites in all. A far cry from Mortlock.

Book 3? Who knows? Well, I do actually. I have a synopsis and a title and have written about 3,000 words…

Jon signs a copy of Mortlock
(image courtesy of Candy Gourlay)

What are the greatest lessons you’ve learned about writing along the way and what advice would you give to aspiring writers?

I try not to give advice as I’m conscious that I have had great good fortune with my writing. I’m also aware of how much talent there is out there. Just keep writing and reading and enjoying it. We all enjoy our writing, yes? If not, then stop right now and do something else instead.

I suppose if I were going to say anything about what I’ve learned it would be this: It isn’t easy, some of it is down to good luck (assuming you have the writing skills in place). Finding someone who loves your work is the best good fortune and you have to do it twice if you want to land an agent and then a publisher. So your story has to be different and the best it can be. It’s nothing new but it’s true.

If you love writing, then do it anyway. Write your best and never, never, never give up.



Many thanks to Jon for agreeing to this interview and here’s wishing loads of success with Mortlock and his writing career!


For more information on Jon Mayhew and Mortlock:

Jon's blog
Jon's website
The official Mortlock website by Bloomsbury
Jon's Facebook Fan Page
A wonderful article in The Guardian about Mortlock
And if you fancy reading an extract from Mortlock, try the Lovereading website

An interview with Keren David, debut author of "When I Was Joe"

Overview:

Being part of the children’s writers’ community on Facebook and belonging to the SCBWI has brought with it a host of benefits, not least being getting to know so many amazing writers – and London author, Keren David is one of them. I had a feeling, long before I read Keren’s debut novel, When I Was Joe, that I was going to enjoy it. What I didn’t expect was the sheer impact the book had on me. I read it pretty much in one sitting and all I can say is, “Wow! Read it”! When I Was Joe is a gripping, vivid and intense thriller told with dramatic pacing. It is a novel which has left me utterly breathless – and more importantly, it’s a novel that has left me thinking long after I closed the book.

14 year old Ty witnesses an incident of knife crime and gives police evidence, doing what he believes is the right thing. As a result, he and his mum are forced into the witness protection programme and are given new identities and Ty becomes Joe. As Joe’s life spirals out of control he attempts to cling to some semblance of normality and his own identity, all while events and his own decisions seem to do nothing more than lead him further down a path of destruction.

In Ty/Joe, Keren David has created a strong and poignant character with a powerful and evocative voice which is full of integrity and credibility. She also shows that she is unafraid to tackle gritty and powerful themes.

Debut YA author, Keren David

An interview with Keren David:


The first thing that struck me when I started reading When I Was Joe was the strength and integrity of Joe’s voice, so I’m intrigued to know, what came first, the character or the idea?

The idea came first. I’d started an evening course in Writing for Children at City University so I was looking around for things to write about. At that point I thought I might write something for 8-12s.

I saw an item on the news one night about a young boy who’d been caught up in a robbery and had to be taken into witness protection and given a new identity. I was struck by the paradox that the witnesses suffered almost a worse punishment than the criminals, and interested in the possibilities that a false identity offered. I realized quite quickly that it fitted a YA book best, because it’s such a good metaphor for adolescence.


Through the power of Joe’s voice, you’ve created a wonderfully rich and credible character and you write with tremendous insight into Joe’s life, his fears, his longings and his hopes. What enabled you to hone in so powerfully on the emotional life of a 14 year old boy?

I thought the boy in my book might welcome the idea of a new identity, and that implied that he hadn’t been very happy in his old life. So I thought about why that might be. A lot of who Ty/Joe is comes from his family background - particularly the absence of his father.

I also thought a lot about teenage boys, their bodies and their emotions, their lives and influences. It was important to me that Ty was a child of his time - he wasn’t going to like 80s music or classic films because it happened to suit me.

Gradually I got to know Ty very well - his voice got easier and easier. I loved spending time with him, he was really entertaining.


When I Was Joe deals not only with issues of identity but also taps into the increasing concern about the rise of gang and knife crime amongst teens in the UK. This is given witness to not only in your book but also in Shank, the recently released movie starring hip-hop star, Ashley “Bashy” Thomas, which predicts the potential future for kids on the streets by 2015. What personally motivated you to deal with these issues? What are your thoughts on the rise of gang-related knife crime and what do you think could and should be done to counter it?

When I started writing, the focus of the book was going to be identity. I picked a stabbing pretty much at random as the crime that Ty would witness, and thought it would remain very much in the background. But I was writing in spring/summer 2008, when there was a spate of horrific knife crimes in London. Every day the papers seemed full of terrible cases of murder, and a great deal about gangs. I learned a great deal from these reports about Ty, his milieu and the crime he’d witnessed. I started responding to politicians and commentators through his eyes.

If I’m out alone I carry my car key in my fist, just in case I need to punch it into the eye of an attacker. This was so much second nature to me that I never thought about it - I’ve been doing it since I was a young reporter 20 years ago, going out to all sorts of potentially dodgy areas. I read about kids carrying knives to protect themselves, and I started examining my own actions and fears. I wasn’t so different from some of the knife-carrying teenagers.

I’m encouraged when I read about initiatives which seek to make kids feel safer on the street and provide help for them to free themselves from gang culture - Strathclyde Police seem to be the leaders.

Although they take a different approach and have a significantly different "flavour", the movie Shank and When I am Joe both show the impact of knife crime and gang violence in the UK

You reveal an acute insight into gang violence, knife crime and the witness protection programme – did you have to do a lot of research to achieve this?

I read a lot, and I talked to a barrister friend who has worked with intimidated witnesses. I was helped by having worked as a news editor on The Independent from 1990-95 – I knew a lot of background about witness protection in particular. I would have liked to have done more research, and talked to the police in particular, but I felt the book was so topical that there was an urgency about getting it finished and - if possible - published.


You’ve packed numerous gritty themes into one novel, aside from gang and knife crime and the witness protection programme, you also look at teen pregnancy, cutting/self-mutilation, religion, abortion, ostracisation, family violence, identity and death threats. Did you plan to deal with so much or did the story just pour out with all these ingredients? And if planned, what motivated you to try and cover so many issues?

Don’t forget disability! I don’t like ‘issue’ books because so often they focus on one person with one ‘issue’. They’re surrounded by ‘normal’ people and their problem is solved by a wise counsellor. I fear books like this could make one feel even more isolated.

In my experience most of us grapple with multiple ‘issues’ and counselling may not be available. Some people cope better than others, and very little is ever completely resolved. I wanted to reflect life as I find it. I didn’t want to dole out messages or glib solutions.

Ty is someone who’s super sensitive about his mum being very young, he’s very affected by perceived slights and criticism. He gradually learns that he’s not the only one with problems.


Apart from simply telling a riveting story, is there anything you’d particularly like your novel to achieve in a greater social context, given your story offers up a strong social commentary of life in certain parts of the UK today? Did you in fact set out to create a social commentary or was this simply how the story unfolded?

I enjoyed reflecting life in the UK as I found it, because I’d recently returned to live in London after nearly nine years in Amsterdam. It’s odd coming back to your home country from a long time abroad, you notice things that otherwise you’d take for granted. So I suppose there was a lot of social observation in the book.

I wanted to make readers think about the questions that arise – about telling the truth, about identity, about criminal justice. I don’t have any easy answers.




You have been a journalist for most of your adult life, to what extent and how do you feel this influences how you write and what you write about?

I left school at 18 and got a job as a messenger girl on a national newspaper, which eventually offered me an apprenticeship as a junior reporter. The Deputy Editor, David Nathan, was in charge of training, and he taught me how to write clear, accurate and punchy English. I owe him a great deal.

As a reporter I learned not to be too precious about my writing - you’re part of a team, not an artiste. As an editor I learned to cut text - probably the most essential skill for a writer.

They say ‘write about what you know’ and I know about news…I know about the media and how it works, how stories get reported and distorted. I know about crime and justice, lawyers and policemen. Being a journalist is a great privilege - you enter so many different worlds, meet hundreds of people in all sorts of situations. It all feeds into my fiction.

I started out as a news reporter, then worked as a news editor. After that I had a job as an editor on the comment page. So this felt like a natural progression – from factual reporting, to commentary to fiction.


When I Was Joe is written in the first person present tense, something I’ve noticed an increasing number of YA authors doing. What prompted you to write in first person present tense and what do you believe this narrative form creates in the story?

Looking back at my notebook, I wrote the very first page of the very first chapter in third person past tense. By the next page it was first person, past tense. By page three I’d settled on first person present tense. It makes everything feel very immediate. In a book about truth-telling, first person present tense feels like you’re getting the unvarnished truth. I found that useful!
In my latest book I’ve switched to first person past tense and I’m struggling with it. I keep on wanted to revert to present tense, but the members of my writing group are urging me not to and it does help to differentiate the narrator from Ty/Joe.


You have a cast of strong secondary characters in When I Was Joe. Who, apart from Joe stands out for you the most and why?

Ty’s mum, Nicki - I felt very sad for her, but I loved writing all the bits where she’s a complete and utter nightmare.

Ashley, Ty’s sometime girlfriend, the sexy control freak - just such fun to write.

Claire, Ty’s friend – she’s very secretive, full of potential. I felt I ‘knew’ her less than any other character. I loved having the chance to find out more about her in Almost True.


What sort of contact do you have, if any, with the kind of kids who inhabit Joe’s world?

My children go to state schools in Hackney and Haringey, north London, and they mix with all sorts of children. I’ve not met any who’ve been so directly affected by crime though. But Joe’s world is my world - what happens to him could happen to any of us.


What sort of response have you had from young people who’ve read When I Was Joe?

I’ve had a great response. I was really thrilled by a 15-year-old boy who reviewed it on Amazon and wrote “I find it hard to believe the writer isn't a teenager themselves, they seem to know exactly what goes on” which was just the biggest compliment possible.


Many writers of young adult and children’s fiction speak about the importance of hope in their writing. Where do you see the hope in When I Was Joe and how important do you believe hope is in children’s fiction?

A story with no hope in it at all would be so bleak as to be almost unbearable. Having said that, I don’t sit and think about injecting hope into a story, or contriving a happy ending. In When I Was Joe I think the hope comes from friendship, and Ty’s growing understanding of the importance of integrity.



The sequel to When I Was Joe is Almost True, due for release in August 2010. Will it be the last we see of Joe, or will there be more?

There’s no more planned at the moment, although the ending of Almost True would make it possible to return to the story - maybe with a different narrator.


Who or what do you feel most influences your writing?

Who: I’ve got a great writing group, which came out of the courses I did at City University. They’re fantastic at giving feedback and support. My daughter is 13 and she reads everything I write. My agent Jenny Savill is a great person to talk to about anything to do with the work in progress and I’ve been incredibly lucky in the talented editors I’ve worked with at Frances Lincoln, especially Maurice Lyon, the editorial director, who has an almost magical ability to plant ideas in my head without it ever being clear (to me) how they got there.

What: the world around me. My children. The things people say. Newspapers, television, the internet. The past and the present.

Keren and her daughter

What was your journey to publication like and what advice would you give unpublished writers?

Now that I know more about the publishing business I can see that I did everything wrong. I started querying agents as soon as I’d finished the first draft - I didn’t even have a title. I got a few rejections and then I was lucky enough to get some good advice from one agent and I rewrote the beginning of the book to make it more dramatic. That did the trick and three agents wanted to represent me.

Submitting the book to publishers was difficult - the recession was upon us and a lot of editors said positive things but couldn’t make an offer. I was very happy when Frances Lincoln made an offer for two books, as I’d written about a third of Almost True by that point and I was very fond of it.

I’d advise unpublished writers to join SCWBI and read Nicola Morgan’s excellent blog. Develop internal and external armour and refuse to take rejection personally. Cut and polish your work. And make sure your first chapter grabs the reader’s attention.


And finally, where to from here for Keren David?

I’m working on a new book, with a female narrator and I hope to be able to tell people more about it quite soon. I love writing fiction, especially YA, and I hope there will be more to come.


Many thanks to Keren for agreeing to this interview and here’s wishing her huge success with her writing and with Joe – she certainly deserves it!

Thanks Nicky!


For more about Keren, news about her books, take a look at her blog