Anita Loughrey's Blog

Using Story to Teach ICT

2011-09-07T12:12:00.002+01:00

Wow! I'm so excited!

What should be delivered to me this morning but, six beautiful copies of Using Story to Teach ICT ages 5-6. It is the first book in a series of four on teaching ICT in a creative, cross-curricular way and was published by Hopscotch Educational.

It is great being able to hold the books in my hand. This is the absolutely best things about being a full-time writer. I LOVE IT. Can you see my name on the cover?

Colours Around Me

2011-09-06T14:29:00.000+01:00

You know it has been five months since I updated my blog.

Five Months!!! A lot can happen in five months. I have had several new books published for a start. These are the covers for my Colours Around Me Series published by QED.

There are four educational picture books in the series, aimed at 2-4 year olds and they are designed to help children recognise different colours in their own environment.

Oxford Literary Festival

2011-04-05T13:50:00.001+01:00

On Mothers' Day, I travelled into Oxford on the train with my youngest son, Joseph, to see Candy Gourlay talk about her book at the Oxford Literary Festival. Candy's book, Tall Story, was shortlisted as one of Blue Peter's favourite stories in the Blue Peter Book Awards, along with Philip Reeve's, A Web of Air (Mortal Engines), and the overall winner, Dead Man's Cove by Lauren St John.

When we arrived the first thing we did was go and buy some cake, which was yummy. We then took a look around and met Christopher Lloyd. Not the actor but the author. He has written the What on Earth? Wallbook: From the Big Bang to the Present Day. The Wallbook features more than 1,000 pictures and captions that tell the story of the planet, life and people from the beginning of time to the present day. Christopher gave Joe a quiz to do. All the answers were somewhere on the giant Wallbook. We got about half-way through but, had to stop to go to Candy's Event.

The session took place in Christ Church Hall, which is where they filmed the meal scenes for Harry Potter. It was a stunning place, very grand but also very cold. Whilst we were waiting for everyone to find a sit, who should arrive but, my friend Sarah McIntyre. She was doing an event later in the day about one of the books she has illustrated, When Titus took the Train.

The panel was chaired by the Blue Peter presenter Barney Harwood. After the question and answer session we were able to get our books signed and Joe was so excited about getting Barney's autograph and having a photo taken with him. I think that was the quietest he was all day.

After getting Barney's, Candy's and Sarah's autograph, we went back downstairs to have another look around and to finish the The What on Earth? Wallbook quiz. When we had finished Christopher marked it and Joe got 20 out of 20. Christopher Lloyd told him he was a genius. I knew that all ready. :)

We were going to have a picnic but, unfortunately it was raining. So, we walked back to the railway station and decided to eat our picnic on the train home. It was a lovely way to spend Mother's Day and it was brilliant to be able to spend quality time with my youngest son.

Miri's Book Launch

2011-03-23T21:02:00.001Z

Yesterday, I visited the Owl Bookshop, Kentish Town for the launch of Miriam Halahmy's young adult novel, Hidden, published by Meadowside Books. It is also available for the Kindle.

Hidden is the first in a trilogy set on Hayling Island. It is about a fourteen year old girl called, Alix, who hides an injured illegal immigrant and all the complications that entails. Alix has never really thought about asylum seekers before as she has a whole load of her own teenage problems to worry about. But, now she is confronted by the... 'international politics of war, terrorism and refugees.'

Miriam has tackled this gritty subject with empathy and expertise. Get a copy and read it, I know you will be impressed. I was lucky enough to read a first draft and was drawn in from the start and everyone knows that if I'm not hooked by the first few pages I will not bother reading the book. I can't wait to find out what changes were made before it reached the final version in the book.

Here is Miriam at her launch talking to her agent Eve White. That is my copy of the book she is about to sign on the table.

Miriam also writes poetry and runs creative writing classes in London. You can find out more about her and her books on her website: http://www.miriamhalahmy.com/.

100+ Fun Ideas for Science Investigations

2011-03-18T13:42:00.000Z

The other day, I had a little rant about one of the sad things that had been drawn to my attention by signing up to Google Alerts. Today, I thought I should let you know about one of the good things.

One of my publishers, Brilliant Publications, has set up a lovely website where they publicise their books. Each day they post a teaching activity from one of the books they publish, to give you a flavour of the book.

Well, I was very pleased to find out that one of my ideas was used for their Activity of the Day. It was actually the second activity they posted and was from my book 100+ Fun Ideas for Science Investigations.

The activity is to investigate, 'How can you make your shadow bigger?' and is linked to Physical Processes in Science (Ages 9–11). The book contains lots of practical and fun experiments that can be easily carried out in the classroom and help to developp the children's skills of scientific enquiry.

But, don't take my word for it. Go check it out for yourself.

The Literacy Teacher Training Handbook

2011-03-16T12:08:00.000Z

Now, some of you know all ready how I spend hours seaching for myself on the web. Yes, I do! And I have mentioned that I have set up Google Alerts for my name so if anyone writes about me I get sent an email with the link so I can go check it out.

Sometimes this brings up things that make me sad, like the bad review I got for my book, The Literacy Teacher Training Handbook on Amazon. It's really mean. :(

This is one of the books I am most proud of writing. It covers the whole of the Primary Literacy Framework suggesting three or more activities for each of the learning objectives from Year One to Year Six. It is jam packed full of ideas and I would highly recommend it to new teachers, highly-experienced, supply teachers, learning support assistants and I would also recommend it to anyone who needs an idea for a school visit activity.

There are ideas for drama, reading, writing, speaking and listening and working creatively in groups.

I think it is a brilliant book, even if I did write it myself. In fact, it is the book I wished I'd had when I was still teaching full-time.

OK, rant over! Go have a look at it for yourself and make up your own mind what you think.

Voice and Viewpoint

2011-03-15T13:41:00.000Z

At the last SCBWI Professional Series meeting, Elizabeth Hawkins talked about Voice and Viewpoint. Using manuscripts volunteered by those attending, she demonstrated how a story could be told in a different way by changing the voice and the viewpoint.

Every writer has to make their own choice. It does depend on the book. No matter what the viewpoint you have to bear in mind the question: 'Is that my character speaking, or is it me?'

By changing a text into the present tense she showed us how it could be more immediate. We were able to compare this to a more traditional narrator style viewpoint. It was good to see how it subtly changed the feel of the story. The present tense is fashionable at the moment but, very tricky to bring off.

Elizabeth explained that in an action-packed writing scene it is easier to use third person, as there is not so much reflection and interpretation to stop the flow of the action. The reflection requires prior knowledge of what is going on and tells the reader how they should feel about this. We need to avoid telling the reader what to think. A tighter viewpoint helps the reader to see and feel the action. The actions needs to go at the speed of the character - seeing what they see, in the order it happens. Strangely, the third person, even if it is written in the past tense gives the experience of reading it as it happens. In intense danger scenes, a tighter viewpoint adds more tension but, you can pull back this tension in other scenes to let the reader reflect.

With viewpoint it is better not to be original but, to let your story do the talking. A lot of teenage books are written in first person. When writing in the first person and present tense you have to consider how much you are supposed to know at any one time.

The omniscient narrator, such as the Victorian, 'My dear reader', can work in a different way. However, if you talk to the reader you distance them. The omniscient narrator where you don't even change scenes to change viewpoint can suit a big saga. But, it is important to make sure the character is mentioned before you change viewpoint.

Back-story can slow the pace. When adding back-story, the writer needs to seriously consider if it is really needed. It slows the tension and you may find you do not need all the detail. Ask yourself why you are putting it in, as it losses the ability to catch the reader early on. It is better to take out this narrator intrusion.

It is good to experiment with viewpoint within a story. Keep in mind it is the book we are really concerned about. What makes it great is the hard draft of the writing. You can read a book and not remember what person it is written in - it is the essence of the story you remember. You can do anything as long as your reader like it. Elizabeth suggested we ask the children what they prefer to read.

Elizabeth had many little gems of wisdom, which she conveyed to us during her talk Last week. Many of them I have included in my write-up. One of my favourites was: 'Write what is right for you, as you will write well what you like writing.'

Authors for Japan

2011-03-14T16:46:00.000Z

I was shocked and deeply saddened by the terrible events in Japan and the thousands of deaths that occured. It certainly does put my own problems into perspective. These poor people, just carrying out their normal daily routines one second and then disaster strikes. Life will never be the same. If, like me, you were wondering what you could do to help, I recommend you all take a look at this website - Authors for Japan

A whole load of authors have offered dedications, tutoring, sets of books and lots of other goodies to the highest bidders to raise money to help the people devastated by the earthquake and tsunami in Japan.

Bidding starts tomorrow, Tuesday 15th March, at 8am GMT and ends at 10pm GMT on Friday 18th March. The bidder who has made the highest bid in UK Pounds, will be notified by email and sent instructions on how to make their donations to the British Red Cross Japan Tsunami Appeal.

It is the least we can do.

How to Turn a Sheep into a Dragon

2011-03-04T15:31:00.000Z

As part of my youngest son's homework for World Book Day, he had to make a model of a fairytale adventure. He made up his own. It consisted of a castle in a shoebox made from card and toilet rolls and a lot of orange crepe paper where it was burning down. He then came and asked me for a dragon to put in it.

Unfortunately, I did not have any dragons. Why not? I'm not quite sure. Every mother should have a stock of miniture dragons handy just in case of emergencies. However, what I did have was a rather cute selection of sheep, which I had knitted after, Sarah McIntyre's, Vern and Lettuce book launch. See post: Vern and Lettuce.

So, I added some wings and a tail and hey presto... I turned a sheep into a dragon.

Here is the dragon in its habitat. I hope you like it.

What has this got to do with writing for children?

Well... because I liked the title so much, I have spent the day writing a picture book text called 'How to Turn a Sheep into a Dragon' - it is all about a sheep who wants to be a dragon and the crazy things it gets up to on its quest. It needs a bit of editing but, I hope to send it to a publisher sometime soon.

World Book Day

2011-03-03T12:16:00.004Z

Today is World Book Day.

My youngest son was supposed to dress up as a book character for school but, he refused. Apparently, he discussed it with his friends and none of them were dressing up. I did suggest slipping the Peter Pan hat into his bag and he could put it on if he changed his mind. But, NO! He did not want to. Not even, if I dressed up as Wendy and wore my night clothes all day.

To celebrate World Book Day I decided to post this video sent to me by Philip Steele from NIbWeb. It demonstrates what happens to a book when it is taken over by infographics. It made me laugh, anyway.

I thought it was rather clever and not just because it has a VW Type 2 campervan in it. Take a look and let me know what you think.

Win a masterclass with Melvin Burgess

2011-02-15T14:53:00.002Z

Tracy Ann Baines reported today on her excellent blog, Tall Tales and Short Stories that Save the Children have teamed up with the best-selling author Melvin Burgess to launch a blogging conference where you can win a place on a masterclass run by Melvin Burgess himself. He writes brilliantly controversial teen-fiction such as: Bloodtide, Bloodsong, Nicolas Dane and Junk.

There are eight places to be won. All you have to do is attend the conference and write a blog post saying what you were born to do and why. The competition is open to all bloggers of all ages and genres.

The conference is being held at the Save the Children Head Office, St Johns Lane, London, EC1M 4AR on Saturday 26th February at 9.30am - 4pm.

To find out more details take a look at Are You Born to Write or, No Child Born To Die.

You can also create a Twibbon, like the one below, to express your support.

Anita the Artist

2011-02-06T09:12:00.006Z

For Christmas, my sister bought me a beautiful sketch book and a set of Derwent Graphic sketching pencils. I have never drawn before - not really! OK! I've drawn a couple of pencil sketches to support features I've written that have been published in small press magazines! You can see them on my website in the photogallery. But, I've never had any training and I've never just drawn for fun. Sitting down and sketching for fun is something I've always wanted to try.

This is why, I decided to go to the SCBWI London Sketch Crawl at the Museum of Childhood at Bethnal Green. The museum has the largest collection of toys, dolls, doll's houses and games in the world. I met up with fellow SCBWI members and professional illustrators, Anne-Marie Perks, Clare Tovey and Bridget Strevens. We spent a few hours in the morning sketching the artefacts.

Here are the results of my little dabble at being an artist for a day. I have also posted photographs of the things I drew so you could see how close I got to the originals.

I found it was a case of drawing what you see. I tried to put the lines in the right place. Here you can see I changed the wing and the back rudder. I did this on purpose because I thought it didn't look right the way I had originally drawn it. I couldn't work out how to get the lines to look like a wing, so I made up my own.

The picture of the rocking horse took me nearly an hour to draw. I had decided before I went I was going to draw a rocking horse and I was determined to do it. I had also decided before I went (as I knew I was going to go to a toy museum) that I wanted to draw some teddy bears. Here is the result:

The last drawing I did was of a big red train:

As you can see, I had a few problems with the perspective with this one. The angle at the front is different to the angle at the back. I had been sitting still for quite a long time at this point and I moved half way through the drawing and then I couldn't get it right. It was also lunch time. I had arranged to meet up with the others for lunch and I was getting hungry so I did not really have time to fix it. It was quite apparent to me though I have no real understanding of perspective. I have so much to learn.

Here we all are with our drawings after we had eaten:

It was a great day out. It was a pity I couldn't stay longer but, I had to get home.

I recommend attending a sketch crawl yourself. SCBWI organise several across the UK.You may surprise yourself with your results. I certainly did!!!

Anyway, I hope you like my drawings. Please feel free to comment and give me advice. J

Guess what?

2011-02-01T09:42:00.002Z

I just found out there is a Stats Tab for my blog. People do read my blog after all. I am not writing into a vacuum.

Blogger has worked out how many hits I get for each post and which month my blog was the busiest. This is kind of cool. I found out the post with the most hits is: Agents who accept picture book authors. It has had 827 page views. Most of the hits came from the US. It was written on 15 Jul 2007. Not sure if I should mention or not, the information contained in this post is very out-of-date. For more up-to-date info I recommend you check out the most recent Children's Writers' Artists' Yearbook .

The next most read posts in order are:

Forums, written on 6 Aug 2009, 530 Page views
More About Children's Writer's Forums, written on 12 Jun 2006, 404 Page views
Writing Forums, written on 25 May 2006, 360 Page views

This is quite interesting as they are all about writing forums. I think this tells us a lot. Maybe most writers are like me and try to combat the feeling of isolation by joining networking groups?

Even so, the fact my blog is fairly quiet is kind of reassuring, as I am less likely to be making a total fool of myself on a world wide scale. I have a nice select group of readers. Thank you. J

But, the best thing I found out was that I had 165 people attend my Virtual Book Launch last September. This made me very happy. I am hoping to have another virtual book launch very soon, as I have a few books coming out this year.

What are you afraid of?

2011-01-31T18:56:00.004Z

Today I read a post by the amazing Teresa Ashby on her blog, A Likely Story. She compares her initial reactions to a rejection letter and then explains what it really means. Read her post at: What do rejection letters really mean?

When I was submitting short stories to the women's national magazines, Teresa use to astound me by how many she wrote and got published. I'd never have believed she got a rejection letter if I hadn't have read it for myself. I honestly thought every story she wrote was so brilliant it automatically got published.

Now, I had a little success in getting my stories published in these national magazines but, came to a grinding halt when I realised all the stories I got in were about people dying in car crashes. Hmmmm! Weird! Talk about writing out the pain. I had quite a few rejection letters for my short stories and use to keep them all in a big blue ring-binder. My wonderful friend Lynne Hackles has told me to throw this file away as it is bad karma. But, I am unable to part with it and I've hidden it in my library in the attic. My reaction to these rejection letters was exactly as Teresa described. Almost word-to-word!

I have had less rejections for my children's writing but the statistics have been manipulated - partly because most of it has been commissioned and partly because I work on the theory you can't get rejected if you don't send it out.

Anyway, Teresa has helped me a little. Maybe I will dust off my children's fiction and start sending it to publishers and maybe I will think about it for a little bit.

Egmont UK

2011-01-26T11:22:00.009Z

Yesterday, I went to the first of the SCBWI Professional Series events. I’ve signed up to the whole series, partly because the speakers this year all look amazing and I wouldn’t want to miss them and partly because I get to see all my friends for the first time this year. As you can imagine, I was very excited. I don’t think I stopped talking all evening.

It was an amazing event. Ali Dougal and Peter Marley from Egmont came to speak to us about what they were looking for and the Egmont submission process. Where else could you get this first-hand knowledge? Egmont is the biggest children’s publisher in the UK and one of the only ones left that will still accept unsolicited manuscripts. You can send your manuscripts to: childrensreader@euk.egmont.com

For more on what they are looking for and the submission process read my post at: http://britishscbwi.jimdo.com/events/egmont-meeting/

I took my camera along to take a picture especially for my blog. I even sat In the front row so I would not have the backs of people’s heads in my photo. But... I forgot to take the picture. So, I am posting one of the covers for my new series of books due out in March this year instead. It was either that or another picture of me.

I think you will all agree this book cover is well worth looking at ;) and there have been way too many photos of me posted for one month all ready. I suppose I could have posted another picture of Steve Cole or Sarah McIntyre at the Just Imagine event and I would have done if they could balance on one hand and do the splits. :D

Anyway, I thought it was very interesting Egmont is expanding their digital list. Nationwide digital is growing and the number of products available on the market is increasing slowly but will soon explode. It is an area to be aware of. In 2009, they launched Flips for the Nintendo DS, which is an enhanced e-book. In 2010, they launched a standard e-book list of classic titles. Everything brand new at Egmont will be published in e-book and traditional format. This was an eye-opener.

In late 2010, they launched their first picture book app, Charlie Stinky Socks for the i-pad. It displays pictures, narration, animation and interactivity. It is a financial investment but, they do not know how many they will sell. It is early days yet.

The Bookseller did a survey about people’s opinions on e-books. They reckon Digital may "overtake" print sales by 2014.

For a much more detailed write-up on the event see: Tina Lemon’s – A Novel Way.

An Interview with Anita Loughrey

2011-01-24T11:32:00.002Z

Doesn't that sound cool! Yes, I did a real interview and it's on the World Wide Web for everyone to read.

I've never been interviewed before. It was rather fun and made me realise what I put other authors through when I interview them for my column in Writers' Forum. LOL!

You can read the interview on Tracy Ann Baines' fantastic blog: Tall Tales and Short Stories. Tracy interviews loads and loads of famous writers who have won millions of prestigous awards. It feels kind of grand to have my name included with them.

The timetabling idea started after I did Simon Whaley's fantastic time-management course at the Caerleon Writers' Holiday. It was all about how to be a productive writer. It must be working because I wrote 17 books last year. Thank you Simon.

Anyway, here is the link to the interview: Writing Non-Fiction for Children: An Interview with Anita Loughrey.

Cat Protection Insurance

2011-01-20T18:02:00.002Z

Cat Protection Insurance? I bet you are wondering what on Earth I am talking about?

Well, yesterday I think I must have had cotton wool in my ears. I went to the Educational Writers' Group January Forum at the Society of Authors, where we discussed issues to do with contracts.

Lots of interesting things were discussed in particular, copyright clauses and warranty and idemnity.

We were advised to send our contracts in to be checked by the Society of Authors, even if we have worked for that particular publisher before, as publishers are creeping in changes to the contracts and if you are not careful you may end up signing your copyright away. I found out it is illegal to get rights outright in France and Germany. So how come it is not illegal in the UK?

Many people also have problems getting their rights back after books have gone out of print. Publishers can keep a book 'in print' by holding back tiny numbers, or by providing Print On Demand. They will digitise a copy so they have a book in place but it prevents authors reclaiming copyright.

A lot of very worrying and scary stories were told about warranty and indemnity clauses and how some educational writers had been caught out with this. Even an alleged breach may mean you are liable to pay. It was recommended that this clause be removed from contracts. I also learnt it is possible to take out Professional Indemnity and Public Liability Insurance with the NUJ if you are a member.

The Society of Authors do there own Professional Indemnity Insurance but you have to log in to their members area to view it. The cost is about £350pa.

That is not the only insurance the Society of Authors do though. They also do a Tax Protection Insurance, which has nothing to do with cats what-so-ever.

So whilst you are looking at these and the other benefits of membership, why not check out my page at the Society of Authors.

What a Fun and Busy Weekend!

2011-01-18T14:19:00.003Z

I am totally shattered. I have had such a fun and busy weekend.

On the Saturday, I went with my family to the Grand Opening of the Just Imagine Story Centre in Chelmsford. We had to get up very early and leave the house at 8am. This is an achievement in itself for me on a weekend.

The Just Imagine Story Centre is the initiative of Nikki Gamble. I have written reviews for Nikki's Write Away website for many years. She told me that her dream of a Story Centre would never have happened with out her lovely Dad. Here is a picture of Nikki and her Dad:

Just Imagine is a place for sharing stories which will have lots of author, illustrator and story-telling events and will sell books too. On Saturday, Steve Cole, bestselling writer of the Astrosaurs, Cows in Action and Slime Squad series, teamed up with the amazingly talented, Sarah McIntyre, the equally energetic, illustrator and designer of the Just Imagine logo. Sarah cut the ribbon and officially opened the centre's doors to the public at 11am.

There was face-painting and story readings and we made monsters. Even I made one. Joe won the competition for one of the best monsters. It was called Pom Pom and had Eyebrows of Hell, which I don't think are in the picture. I have a sneaky feeling he meant eye lashes. :)

Some of the monsters are going to be made into transfers to decorate the walls of the story centre. It was all go. Joe had his picture taken with Sarah McIntyre:

And the Gruffalo:

Dan had his picture taken with Steve Cole:

It was a fantastic day out. You can find out more about the story centre on Facebook at: Just Imagine Story Centre.

Then, on the Sunday, we had Joe's Birthday party at the soft play area JJ's, in Basingstoke. His Birthday was in the Christmas holidays, so it was a belated birthday party for him and his friends. I've decided next year we are only inviting girls. Boys are a bit yucky - all they do is burp really loud, make farty noises (some of them very smelly!) put ketchup in their ice cream and wear their jeans so low, they show their pants!!! Girls are much nicer.

But, it was a great weekend and we all had a FUN time, especially me - who was probably one of the biggest kids of all.

Ten Minutes is a Lifetime!

2011-01-10T14:33:00.001Z

Noooooooooooo!

BT are upgrading their network in my area on the 12th January 2011. That's the day after tomorrow! During this time I will lose my broadband and phone connection for up to ten minutes.

Ten whole minutes without the Internet. My life is over!

OK. I can understand upgrading my broadband may be beneficial but, why do they have to turn off my Internet to do it? More to the point, why couldn't they do it whilst I am sleeping?

What am I going to do without any Internet connection for ten whole minutes?

'More work,' I hear you say.

But, that is beside the point! And to make it worse they go on to say:

'For the first ten days or so after your upgrade, your broadband might slow down or even stop now and again. That's normal and your speed will soon settle down.'

What's that supposed to mean? It doesn't sound good. That's an infinite amount of minutes without my broadband.

The only consolation is they suggest I can help by using my Broadband as much as possible during these first ten days. Obviously, that means I have to go on Facebook more often.

Oh dear, the things I have to do to help people.

Happy New Year

2011-01-05T13:32:00.007Z

©Digital Artwork

A Happy New Year everyone. I hope your 2011 has started well.

I told myself I will start the year as I plan to go on. But, then I started sniffling and coughing - my throat is sore, my head is pounding and my neck aches. My chest hurts when I breath, which probably means I need to take my inhaler and I am running out of tissues. My nose is all peely (is that a word?) and my lips are cracked. Moan! Moan! Moan! Did I mention the headache?

So I have decided, I don't want my year to continue the way it has started after all. Hopefully, things will only get better. But, I may be going for the best 'Drama Queen' Oscar. Can I ham it up anymore? Yes, I think I can! Cough! Cough! Cough!

However, there's something I've been meaning to tell you all, which I hadn't got around to yet. I wanted to tell you about...

...the great new book by Jane Wenham-Jones. It's called Wannabe A Writer We've Heard Of? and is the sequel to Wannabe a Writer?
The blurb on the back of the book says it is,

'An essential read for every author, whether established or debut, self-published or still dreaming of limelight.'

That's me - still dreaming of the limelight - the day I have my own book launch that is not just a virtual one. OK! Time to stop day-dreaming and finish blogging.

Quite frankly, I think it's brilliant and not only because there's a photograph of me in it. I won't tell you what page I'm on. You'll have to buy the book to find out.J

It is all about what happens after your book is accepted to be published - the countdown, publicity, networking and using the Internet to market yourself. There are words of wisdom not only from Jane but, also from a whole range of famous writers, literary agents and publishers. It is full of common sense and I'm pleased I bought myself a copy. I must remember to take it with me to Caerleon in July to get it signed.

Literary Genius

2010-12-22T13:26:00.007Z

I was very interested to find out this week, the man who inspired Charles Dicken's, Ebeneezer Scrooge, is set to be honoured in Edinburgh for his place in literary history.

His real name was Ebeneezer Scroggie, a Scottish merchant who died in 1836. Scroggie's tombstone was moved during redevelopment work and his real identity was temporarily lost and forgotten. His grave, now lies unmarked just off the city's Royal Mile. Edinburgh authorities plan to erect a memorial statue in his memory, which will be part of a guided tour.

Dickens stumbled upon Scroggie's tombstone in Canongate Cemetery in 1842, whilst visiting Edinburgh for a lecture. It was the inscription on this tombstone that gave birth to the mean, miserly Scrooge in Dicken's brilliant novel, A Christmas Carol.

But, in reality, the tombstone read 'meal man' rather than 'mean man', which referred to Scroggie's job as a successful corn merchant. The real Ebeneezer was well-known for his generous nature and often enjoyed a good party.

So why was the name and personality of the now most famous Christmas character in history, changed in this way? Maybe, Dicken's wanted to protect himself from possible litigation by purposely changing his antagonist's name, or maybe he simply misread the name on the tomb. We will never know. What we do know is, Dicken's wrote in his notebook:

"To be remembered through eternity only for being mean seemed the greatest testament to a life wasted."

So, was Ebeneezer a victim of Dicken's poor research? Or were the changes more to do with the wild imaginations of a great writer who thought, 'What if...'?

To read the original newspaper report, check out: The Scotsman.

GOSH Party

2010-12-15T19:10:00.000Z

Today I went to the Great Ormond Street Hospital Christmas Party, where it was my great priviledge to give the children at the party a book each. All the books had been donated by SCBWI members whilst we were at the Annual SCBWI Conference. Many of the books were signed by the SCBWI authors who wrote them.

It was a wonderful party. The children were amazing and really enthusiastic about the books. I am hoping it is something we can do every year.

Meeting Andy Stanton

2010-12-13T17:00:00.012Z

One of my youngest son's favourite authors is Andy Stanton, who writes the Mr Gum series. So, when I was invited to go to a book signing on Saturday 11th December, at Victoria Park Books in Hackney, London, I was very happy.

Joe took along all the books he had (except Book 6 - which he has lost, but I am sure will turn up again eventually!) We also bought several new ones - that I have never bought before. (I refused to buy Book 6 again, as we all ready have it somewhere!!)

This meant Andy had a massive big pile of seven books to sign. Andy impressed me by signing each one with something different. He can even write backwards. That was pretty cool! To my surprise, Andy managed to persuade Joe to get one of the books signed to his brother.

It was a great event with mulled wine and mince pies. Yum!

Before, we arrived at the bookshop though, we went to Winter Wonderland at Hyde Park Corner. The boys went on a couple of rides. Dan convinced me to go on the Christmas Coaster with him, which I loved. We also went on the Giant Observation Wheel and Dan promptly decided he was scared of heights.

Being the kind, understanding mummy that I am, I told him to stop talking rubbish. How can he be scared of heights when he just went on the Christmas Coaster? Then, I remembered - I am scared of heights too.

Hmmm! Maybe he looks a little nervous.

The Chainsaw Gang

2010-12-09T09:43:00.001Z

Some of the best most gruesome YA horror writers have got together to form The Chainsaw Gang and are currently undertaking the Twelve Deaths of Christmas Blog Tour. You can find out more details on who the members of The Chainsaw Gang are and the books they have written, at: http://www.sarwatchadda.com/the-chainsaw-gang/

The tour started off on Monday at the My Favourite Books blog where the YA authors answer the question:

Did you think you would end up writing darker horror fiction than we normally see?

On Tuesday, they were featured on Mr Ripley's Enchanted Books and you can find out their answers to:

How would you describe yourself, as a character, to be portrayed within one of your books?

Yesterday, they were at Narratively Speaking where they talked about the spookiest place they have ever visited. If you want to read the answers to these and other gripping questions, the dates and locations for the entire tour are:

Monday 6th December - My Favourite Books
Tuesday 7th December - Mr Ripley's Enchanted Books
Wednesday 8th December - Narratively Speaking
Thursday 9th December - Wondrous Reads
Friday 10th December - The Book Zone
Saturday 11th December - Book Gazing
Sunday 12th December - Book Gazing
Monday 13th December - The Book Zone
Tuesday 14th December - Wondrous Reads
Wednesday 15th December - Narratively Speaking
Thursday 16th December - Mr Ripley's Enchanted Books
Friday 17th December - My Favourite Books

They are also writing a Twelve Deaths of Christmas song, adding a new verse each day. Take a look if you dare!!!

Bill Bryson wins 2010 Educational Writers' Award

2010-12-08T10:30:00.003Z

The Authors’ Licensing and Collecting Society (ALCS) and the Society of Authors yesterday announced that Bill Bryson had been awarded the 2010 Educational Writers’ Award for A Really Short History of Nearly Everything (Doubleday), which was abridged and edited by Felicia Law.

The award was made at the All Party Writers Group (APWG) Winter Reception at the House of Commons by Lord Hill, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Schools, who presented a £2,000 cheque to the winners. Bill Bryson shared the cash prize with Felicia Law.

Last year I went along to the award ceremony and felt very grand being at the House of Commons. I had to have my photo taken for the security badge as I entered and the canapes and wine were very good. I get an invite because I am on the Educational Writers' Group committee for the Society of Authors.

This year I decided not to go along as it was cold and I have been going to London quite a bit recently - the guilt has finally set in. However, maybe I should have gone. It sounded like a fun evening. The 2010 Award focused on books for 12 -18 year olds published in 2009 and 2010. A Really Short History of Nearly Everything beat off strong competition from a shortlist that was described as:

“highlighting humour, scholarship and lateral thinking.”

Fellow shortlistees for 2010 included: Ben Crystal for Shakespeare on Toast (Icon Books); John Farndon for Do You Think You’re Clever? (Icon Books) and Liz Strachan for A Slice of Pi (Constable).

The 2010 judging panel comprised three educational experts: school librarian Maggy Campbell, teacher Louise Gerrard and writer Stewart Ross.

The submission deadline for the 2011 award for the 5 – 11 year age group is 1st June 2011.

Tackling the torrent: Online piracy of educational books

2010-12-06T17:19:00.000Z

I went to a very informative and fascinating talk a few weeks back at the Society of Authors. It was all about online piracy of books. I have blogged about this before - see: Electronic Piracy in Publishing. This mainly concerns educational books but, I did see some fiction up there too.

At the meeting I found out there are three types of sites that will put up digital copies of books for download. These are peer-to-peer sites, document sharing sites and file hosting sites. At the risk of boring you, I will go into a little more detail.

P2P
This is not a Playstation site. P2P stands for peer-to-peer. The books, pdf's, etc are not physically on a website but on somebody else's computer and are distributed via email, or such like. It is difficult to stop this type of piracy. The websites will list files they have available. To find a more detailed explanation of what P2P is, check out wikipedia Peer-to-peer.

It is a very similar system to the music website Spotify, which allows users to share their favourite tunes for free. Some sites which index a lot of torrent educational book files include: http://www.thepiratebay.org/ and http://www.isohunt.com/. You can check if your books are featured on these sites by using the search function.

Nicholas Tims warned us to be careful of false positive hits (sponsored links) on some P2P sites, such as http://www.freshwap.com/ and http://www.torrentpump.com/.

Document-sharing
These again are all legal, law-abiding websites. They also react promptly to requests to have your work removed. Such sites include: http://www.scribd.com/, http://www.issu.com/ and http://www.docstoc.com/.

They describe themselves as having:

"Millions of documents and books at your fingertips! Read, print, download, and send them to your mobile devices instantly. Or upload your PDF, Word, and PowerPoint docs to share them with the world's largest community of readers."

These sites are different from P2P websites as, it is possible to view and read the books available on the site.

File hosting
Again, these are legal websites. they normally react quickly to takedown requests. You must provide them with correct and detailed informationa dn they do not engage in correspondence.

Some of the biggest include: http://www.rapidshare.com/ and http://www.mediafire.com/. They are different from the other two in that the files are hosted by the Interent service and are specifically designed to store static content.

What can you do?
To find out if your books appearing on such sites, you can set up a 'Google Alert' on your book titles and on your name. I have talked about this before in my post: Can't find it but, it will appear here when I do!!! Honest!

You can also check if your publishers are a member of the Publisher's Association where it is possible to check on the copy right infringement portal to see sites which respond well to take down requests and those that don't.

Taste of Christmas

2010-12-04T17:23:00.006Z

On Friday, I travelled into London to the Christmas food fayre at ExCel - a Taste Of Christmas. I would like to say I was doing research for a book or feature, but this would not be true. I won tickets to go from Peugeot, who are sponsoring the event.

There was loads of chocolate, coffee, cheese, wine and spirits to sample. My favourite was the rum. I tried quite a bit of that and went back for seconds. I also tried the gin, which I am normally not so keen on.

I got to see Anthony Worrall Thompson cooking live at one of the demonstrations, which was quite fun. I found out about some special food for IBS sufferers and I ate samples of food from some the UK's top restuarants.

I also got to meet the very gorgeous, Andy Pearson, a mixologist. He was there in conjunction with Funkin cocktails! He told us how to make 'raisin rum' and demonstrated how to make a chocolate cocktail. You might recognise him from the BBC Sunday morning show, Something for the Weekend.

Andy Pearson

He must have one of the best jobs in the world. He gets to taste all sorts of alcohol and is paid for it. That must be the next best job after mine - day-dreaming for a living. He told me how he was travelling back home to Yorkshire after the event that day and that Yorkshire had got a lot of snow, unlike West Berkshire. I hope he got home OK!

For those of you who are interested, Funkin cocktails are the ones they used at the Caerleon student bar. I did taste several yesterday but, never achieved my aim of trying them all whilst at the Writers' Holiday. But, then there is always next year.

Novelty Books

2010-11-25T16:22:00.001Z

Don't forget to pick up a copy of the December issue of Writers' Forum, which is in the shops now and you will be able to read my feature with author and editor Anna Bowles.

Anna told me all about the type of research she does when writing novelty books, such as:

My Journey with Thomas the Tank Engine
Wallace and Gromit
Hello Kitty Annual 2011
Dinosaur King

These are only a few of the books Anna has written. She is very prolific. As well as writing and in-house editing for publishers, Anna does freelance editing and manuscript reports for individuals. You can find out more about Anna and her writing on her website at http://www.annabowles.co.uk/

You can also read the post she wrote about the Research Secrets feature on her blog: The Chocolate Keyboard.

Rap of English Culture by MC K & DJ Yaz!

2010-11-21T22:34:00.004Z

DJ Yaz + MC K
We're here to saay

We drink our teeee
Onaaa sundeeey

With our yorkshire puudeees
In our hooodeees

Fish and chips by da sea
And at krimbo a speech from da queen

Scones and roast, Guy Fawkes and football
Dunno what we'd do without it all.

Coor blimey
America calls us limey

Double decker busees pass by da pub
A pint of beer, two for a bob

Ohh my Gordon Bennet
We're the English rappers from Kennet!

This is the rap my sixteen-year-old daughter and her best friend Yasmin wrote for their homework. The assigment was to make a presentation on English Culture and they were going to get dressed up and do this rap. But, they have chickened out and decided to do a Powerpoint presentation on Harry Potter instead!!!!

Which one do you think would be better?

Anita the Poet

2010-11-18T11:01:00.005Z

I've never thought of myself as a poet but a few weeks back, I was approached by Iain McGregor, about a poem I wrote which was showcased on the Thatcham Writers' website.

Iain is a photographer and had taken a lovely picture of a fairground and wanted something to go with it on his flickr account. He found my poem online and got in touch to see if he could use it. I was more than happy for Iain to use my poem and was extremely flattered.

Here is the picture and my poem for you to see for yourself:

The Fairground by Anita Loughrey

Laughter and screams
Fairy light beams
Images blur
Flickering stream of light
The Waltzer spins
As colour gyrates
To the mayhem of sound.

Sparks spray
Wires skim the chequered array
Dodgems crash
Carriages thud
Around the circuit
The cars trudge
Past the bedlam of faces.

Generators churning
Slowly turning
The big wheel climbs
To dizzy heights
Snuggling couples
View the sights
A commotion of intertwined places.

Toffee apples crunch
Flocks of children bunch
Flecks of candyfloss
Stuck in their hair
Singing and shouting
Without a care
In the chaos of the fairground.

The poem has also previously been featured in a teacher resource called ‘Here comes the Fair’ published by the Ahmed Iqbal Ullah Education Trust, in conjunction with the University of Manchester and Manchester City Council.

I have also have another poem published too, in an anthology called Mixed Emotions and I wrote a poem a few weeks back, especially for National Poetry Day. So maybe, deep down, I do have poetic tendencies.

To see more of Iain’s photos take a look at his flikr account.

10 things I learned at the SCBWI conference

2010-11-17T12:24:00.017Z

As you all should know, over the weekend I went to the SCBWI Conference in Winchester. I had a real FUN time. It didn't even matter that I was not drinking all weekend as I was designated driver for Benjamin Scott and Lisa Smith. It was kind of cool ferrying them about.

As part of the follow up to the conference, we were asked to blog about the ten things we learnt at the conference. Here are my ten things in no particular order:

1) There is nothing wrong with writing under a Pseudonym. Loads of brilliant authors have done it including Linda Chapman, Jane Clarke, Lee Weatherly and Maureen Oakeley. This was very reassuring as I have just accepted a commission to co-write six books and we will be writing under the name Cathy West. Only problem is I can't spell Pseudonym, so had to use a spell check to get it right.

2) Make sure you book a place to stay where you get served a big breakfast, not only could it be the only decent meal you get in the day but, you need the energy to keep you going through the workshops without your stomach rumbling.

3) Do not wear low cut tops in a room full of women but, it is absolutely fine in restaurants with hot, young waiters, especailly if you want to get your dinner before everyone else.

4) Co-writing is fun, quicker and the book feels more polished. This was very re-assuring too for the reason explained above.

5) It is a good idea to know how you want your story to end before you start and then it is easier to finish it. This is probably where I am going wrong. Marcus Sedgwick apparently spends months just planning the story. I think I may be a little too impatient to start things. I can see how a plan might prevent me running out of steam and will give it a go.

6) Using magic in a story makes writing stories easier. But, think your magic world through fully before you begin. This again refers to planning. Another good reason to make more of an effort to plan things out. Actually, I think I may have been told this before by Lee Weatherly at a previous SCBWI conference. Now all I got to do is put it into practice.

7) Place can be used as a character. I actually knew this before too but, have never had it explained so passionately and so perfect before. Marcus has made me want to write something just to experiment using place as a character.

8) Reading your pitch aloud to a group of relative strangers can help you to polish it and improve. This was a fantastic workshop run by Jackie Marchant and I want to repeat it for every book I have ever written and will write in the future.

9) You are allowed to be promiscus on the Internet. You are - Candy Gourlay, Sarah McIntyre and Keren David said so. There is nothing wrong with being an Internet experimentalist, fetish or slut as long as you keep your clothes on. Although, I would probably describe myself as an Internet Tease, as I know I have left all my blogger followers with hopes of follow-ups to some of my posts and have never got round to doing it. However, Candy was pushing writing orgies and reckons it is probably better nowadays to be promiscus in a group... or something like that!

10) People change their careers a lot and it is not just a mid-life crisis. It is important to follow your heart and it is possible to redefine yourself. Many of the speakers I listened to have changed their careers some of them, like the amazing illustrator Lynne Chapman, more than once. There is hope for me yet!

If you would like to read some of the other people's blogs about the conference take a look at:

Make the Connections

2010-11-11T11:28:00.000Z

Tomorrow is the SCBWI Conference in Winchester. There is an amazing line-up. The keynote speakers are: Marcus Sedgwick and Lynne Chapman. There are loads of amazing workshop speakers too. I have been registered on the following sessions:

Letting the Genie Out of the Bottle with Linda Chapman
A Sense of Place with Marcus Sedgwick
An Agent Walks into a Bar with Jackie Marchant and Jasmine Richards from OUP
Writing for Young children with Jane Clarke

Am I excited? You bet I am!!!

It is going to be a very busy and fun-packed weekend. Starting with a Network Co-ordinator's meeting Friday afternoon, which I have to attend because I am now the co-ordinator for the London Region. Then Friday night there are critique sessions and I will be chairing a group. Afterwards, sixty-five of us are going for pizza and pasta at a restaurant in Winchester town. That has to be cool!

Saturday, is an early start at the Winchester University campus with talks and workshops all day, including the Industry Panel. In the evening we're celebrating Ten Years of British SCBWI with a mass book launch and party, where I get to dress-up in my posh frock. I can't wait!

Sunday, we have more talks and workshops and saying goodbye to all my friends, which takes my a while, because I get sad that I am not going to see them again for a long time.

If this isn't good enough reasons for you to think about attending a writing conference, especially a writing conference particularly aimed at children's book writers, then take a look at one of my old posts from 2007: Ten Reasons to Attend Writing Conferences. An abridged version of this post appeared in SCBWI's Word and Pictures magazine Autumn 2007, available free through the listserve.

An Evening with... Steve Hartley

2010-11-10T09:41:00.007Z

Steve Hartley told us how he got two World Records in 2002 to impress his daughter. The first was when five hundred people yo-yoed for five minutes. He explained how he’d been practising for weeks. He even bought a yoyo that lights up. If your yoyo broke down you had to sit down in shame.

Afterwards, as they had nothing else to do, they all yodelled for 5mins. He now has two certificates to say he is a World Record holder.

This was the inspiration for his Danny Baker, Record Breaker series. The first in the series, Danny Baker Record Breaker The World's Biggest Bogey, was out in January 2010 and was on the long-list for the Waterstone’s Prize.

He had been writing for over fifteen years before he got published but, just put all his stories away in a drawer. Then SCBWI came along and he decided to join and enter the Undiscovered Voices Competition. When he was looking for something to enter he found Danny in the drawer and sent it out. After he won, he was approached by four agents so, was in the lucky position where he could choose who to represent him.

And then began the process of re-writing and because it was the first in a series, he had to write three more. He had a few rejections but, two publishers put in an offer and he finally signed with Macmillan to do eight books, which includes:

I love the titles. Steve said he has such a hoot writing them and enjoys the school visits. He gets the children to do armpit farts to the tune of Old McDonald had a Farm. He also uses a selection of props. He takes in a massive pair of pants to see how many children can climb in and carries around a giant bogey.

But, Steve reckons some of the real World Records are more crazy and disgusting than his own ideas. For example, there is an actual Guinness Book of Records for the person who collected the most belly button fluff.

An Evening with... Ellen Renner

2010-11-09T16:05:00.001Z

Ellen Renner is SCBWI's Coordinator for the Southwest. She has wanted to be a writer since she was five and has always written. But, she said she would not be the published writer she is today, without the help of SCBWI. She explained how she spent twenty years trying to paint and write and not doing very well at either.

Desperate to learn how to illustrate she joined the Society of Illustrators. Slowly, she moved more to the writing and joined SCBWI where she learnt so much, especially from taking advantage of a one-to-one at the conference. The idea for her first novel, Castle of Shadows, came as an image of a King about to put the last card on a castle of playing cards.

The real turning point though was when she entered the Cornerstones WOW Factor competition. She had to have a full manuscript written to enter but she had only written 50 pages. She finished her first draft with two weeks to spare. All her hard work payed off, as Ellen won the competition and that is how she got her agent.

It took nearly two years and several rewrites before Castle of Shadows was finally published in January 2010 by Orchard Books. It was described by the Bookseller as:

‘A completely gripping, edge of-your-seat adventure.’

The sequel, City of Theives, quickly followed in August 2010. She told us how it never feels real until you start doing school events, because the children are so enthusiastic.

Ellen described her writing genre as ‘Steampunk’. I had never heard of Steampunk before so, decided to look it up. Wikipedia says:

‘Steampunk involves an era or world where steam power is still widely used - usually the 19th century and often Victorian era Britain - that incorporates prominent elements of either science fiction or fantasy.’

I have learnt something today. J

An Evening with... Jon Mayhew

2010-11-08T09:26:00.001Z

Jon Mayhew writes gothic historical adventures for the 9+age range. His first novel, Mortlock, was published by Bloomsbury in April 2010. The second novel, The Demon Collector, is out in March 2011. I interviewed Jon about his research for Mortlock. The feature appeared in the May 2010 issue of Writers’ Forum. Unfortunately I never blogged about it, as that was before I decided to re-launch my blogging.

Jon told us how he has always written. As a teenager he wrote short stories. He described himself as a, ‘Recovering English teacher.’ He used to write the beginning of things and the ends of things and the middle of other things. But, he never sat down and wrote a whole novel until he broke his ankle. His advice to everyone at the SCBWI Professional Series was:

“Don’t ever run in the snow.”

He was ‘layed up’ for six weeks. But, this meant he was finally able to get his bum in the seat and write. 95,000 words later, everything he had ever thought of was down on paper somewhere. But, he had a revelation moment when he went to see his son in a performance of Oliver. His son’s walk-on part of 5 seconds, was the beginning of his debut novel, Mortlock and elements of his original 95,000 words also made a re-appearance.

Jon decided to join SCBWI after a comment on his blog suggested he should. After joining he went to his first Winchester conference in 2008, which is where I believe I first met Jon. At dinner he sat next to Imogen Cooper from Chicken House. Not knowing who she was he started talking about his novel. She asked him to send it in. He also went on a Cornerstones workshop and they looked at his synopsis and sample chapters. Through them he found his agent, Sarah Davis, from the Greenhouse Literary Agency. Then he had to go through the whole process of redrafting and re-sculpting before Bloomsbury took him on with a three book deal. You can preorder The Demon Collector from Amazon.

SCBWI allowed him to meet people from the same mind-set as himself and the SCBWI conference is still the highlight of his year.

An Evening with... Candy Gourlay

2010-11-07T11:14:00.006Z

Candy Gourlay is the SCBWI British Isles’ web-mistress. Her debut novel Tall Story came out in May and was picked by the Sunday Times as one of the ‘100 Best Books for summer’. I interviewed Candy about her research for the November 2010 issue of Writers’ Forum.

Candy told us how nine years ago she decided she wanted to be a picture book writer and went to her first SCBWI conference taking with her a folder containing every picture book story she had ever written, which is a definite, 'No, No!' At the conference, she realised she did not know as much as she thought she did about writing picture books.

So, she decided to try her hand at writing novels instead but, there was still a lot to learn and a lot of studying to be done. Candy entered her novel, Ugly City, into the 2008 Undiscovered Voices competition. When it got through she thought it was going to be plain sailing from now on. She was quickly taken on by an agent. But, she explained how she came back to Earth with a bump. Ugly City was sent out until there was no one left to send it to.

Meanwhile, she started writing Tall Story. It took nearly a year to write. Her Agent sent it to David Fickling Publishers on an exclusive deal. When her agent rang her to say David Fickling loved the book and was going to publish it, Candy said it did not really hit her that she had got her first book deal. It took five months before the contract was completed and even after the book was in the shops it did not really hit her. She said she felt more excited about Steve and Jon’s books as she did their websites.

Candy is currently writing the second novel for her two book deal. She is a 'National Treasure' and you can read more about her in my post: Giants, Basketball and Earthquakes. Candy has produced her own websites and even made her own trailer for Tall Story, which was a real family event. You can watch the trailer for yourself in my post: Tall Story by Candy Gourlay.

An Evening with SCBWI Published Authors

2010-11-06T15:45:00.001Z

On Thursday 4th November, I travelled into London for the last of the Professional Series meetings being run this year.

As normal I was very excited - not only was the evening a chance to celebrate SCBWI successes but also, the authors on the panel, who have all had debuts out this year, are my friends, some of whom I had not seen for quite a while. Jon and Steve had even travelled all the way from the, far and distant North, especially for the event.

Here they all are:

This pictue was one of the ones taken by Ben and lifted from Candy's FB page, as mine didn't turn out very well. I really should have worn my glasses.

In the picture you can see the panel: Steve Hartley, Ellen Renner, Jon Mayhew, Candy Gourlay with Jackie Marchant, the Professional Series Coordinator, standng at the end of the table making the introductions.

Over the next few days, I plan to blog about each of the panel and how they became published.

But, before I go for today, here is a picture of my friends Sarwat Chadda and Christina Vinall because it is one of the only ones that turned out OK.

National Non-Fiction Book Day

2010-11-04T09:43:00.005Z

Today, is National Non-Fiction Book Day. It is the first event to celebrate children's non-fiction books and is going to be held on the first Thursday of November every year from now on. The event has been organised by Adam Lancaster, Chair of the Federation of Childrens Book Groups and is sponsored by Scholastic.

Adam said:

"We hope that by celebrating Non-Fiction we can really show not just the range of great information there are out there and how great the authors of them are but also highlight how important these books are to the children that read them and love them."

As an author of children's illustrated non-fiction this statement is so true to my heart. It is about time that something was done to raise the profile of children's non-fiction books. For too long it has been viewed as the second class alternative to fiction.

When I was teaching, I suggested inviting in a non-fiction author to do some workshops with the children. The looks on the other teacher's faces took me by surprise and instead they got a fiction author in. So, I decided to do non-fiction workshops with my class myself and we made our own encyclopaedias about the Ancient Greeks. Yet, there are plenty of Children's Non-Fiction Authors who are available to do events in schools and libraries.

I always made sure there was a selection of non-fiction books in the book corner as well as fiction. Although, I must admit some of these books were a bit dull and boring looking. But nowadays, there are loads of fantastic, innovative non-fiction books for children to explore. Adam Lancaster has described it as...

"A factual revolution."

Why not join the revolution? Leave me a comment and let me know some of your favourite children's non-fiction books.

Halloween

2010-11-02T21:37:00.002Z

Another Halloween has been and gone and I had great fun getting dressed up and taking my children out trick or treating.

LOL! Yes, I do like to get dressed up and don't really need an excuse to do so. I had even more fun opening the door in my costume to the other kids and seeing the look on their faces, as I dished out the sweets.

But, it got me to thinking about what types of books are available for children, which could be linked to Halloween. There are lots of spooky books for older children about witches, zombies, werewolves and vampires and the like but, what is there for the younger age range?

Off the top of my head I can only think of four:

Funnybones by Janet and Allan Ahlberg;
Room on the Broom by Julia Donaldson;
Meg & Mog by Helen Nicoll and Jan Pienkowski;
Winnie the Witch by Valerie Thomas and Korky Paul.

There has to be more than that? If you know of any others please let me know.

Although, maybe the point is they are not publishing books nowadays that could be linked to Halloween. Maybe it is not politically correct. After all, Halloween seems to be purposely timetabled to fall in the school holidays so that it can not be used as inspiration for creative work in the classroom anymore. Is this just coincidental, or done on purpose to prevent complaints from Religious extremists?

I've no idea! But, it is worth thinking about.

Blast Off with Steve Cole

2010-10-27T12:55:00.010+01:00

Yesterday, I took my kids to see Steve Cole at the Wessex Children's Book Festival. The Festival takes place in Winchester, which is only a 45-minute drive down the A34 from me. So, since it was half-term, I thought it would be a great way to spend a morning.

I had originally only planned on taking my boys, since Steve writes alot of boy-orientated series fiction, such as Astrosaurs, Astrosaurs Academy, Cows in Action and Slime Squad. But, after my 16-year-old daughter watched Steve being slimed on YouTube she insisted on coming along too. You can see why:

We arrived quite early as I was nervous about finding a parking space. Whilst we were waiting, all three of my children got a novelty balloon made by the very funny children's entertainer Silly Scott. Dan got a dinosaur, Joe got a space ray gun and my daughter, Christina, got a cute pink Turbo Tortoise bracelet, based loosely on Steve's first picture book.

Then it was time to go into the auditorium to find a seat.

There is one thing that can not be denied - Steve is a dynamic entertainer. He never stops moving. It was so difficult to get a photograph in focus, as he does not stand still long enough. He also has a very vivid and whacky imagination, from monster chairs that bite your bottom to banana vampires. I laughed so much my face ached.

He told us all about his books and where some of the ideas came from and afterwards we queued for nearly an hour to get his signature. Here is Steve trying to shoot my youngest son, Joe, with the space ray gun Silly Scott made:

Isn't my boy a brilliant actor? LOL! Joe has adopted the dinosaur from his brother and is apparantly now a pirate, with a Dinorot permanently on his shoulder. You will have to go watch the show yourself to understand.

You can read more about the Wessex Festival on Steve's blog and don't forget to leave him a comment to say you've visited. Oh yeah... and don't forget to leave me a comment as well. I do like comments. :)

Vern and Lettuce

2010-10-26T18:33:00.001+01:00

Last Thursday, I went to Sarah McIntyre's launch party for Vern and Lettuce. Sarah is one of my favourite all-time illustrators. I am totally in awe of how she manages to blog every single day.

This is the first book she has illustrated and written herself. Here she is signing her book. I love the way she always draws a fab cartoon to go with her signature. She has also done the illustrations for You Can't Eat a Princess! , Morris the Mankiest Monster and When Titus Took the Train . Aren't her illustrations just brilliant?

Vern and Lettuce is one of the six fantastic comic books in the DFC Library. If you are looking for ideas to add to your Christmas shopping list, I reckon these graphic adventure books are ideal stocking fillers.

It was a brilliant event with lots of famous writers and illustrators there. I think the best bit for me was getting to meet the lovely Sally Nicholls, who wrote Ways to Live Forever and Season of Secrets.

I also got a chance to start knitting my very own sheep thanks to Stitch London who supplied knitting needles and wool especially for Sarah's launch. I didn't get to finish my knitting at the party, as I found it a little difficult to concentrate after a few glasses of red wine.. oh yes and the champagne. So, I took my knitting home. In fact, I got a bit carried away with the sheep knitting and the next day, I made myself a little herd.

October SCBWI Social

2010-10-18T11:46:00.003+01:00

Last week Thursday, was the October SCBWI social. It was held at The Mad Bishop and Bear, Paddington

Station. I thought this was particularly appropriate because of the link with Paddington Bear, us being children's writers and all.

Here I am with the honorary guest Cliff McNish and my wonderful friends, Trish Phillips and Sue Hyams. Trish insisted I get in a photo. I thought I was doing a good job of avoiding being in the pictures by being in charge of the camera. LOL! Thank you Bex for taking this photo.

We were all having so much fun we forgot to have our photo taken downstairs with Paddington Bear. But, I did find out the last chance to book for the British SCBWI Onwards & Upwards conference, is Saturday 23rd October. That's this week! So, if you haven't got round to sending in your booking form yet, you better get a move on.

I remember when...

2010-10-15T15:17:00.000+01:00

Today is Blog Action Day, an annual event held on October 15th where bloggers, blog about an area of global concern. It is one of the largest social-campaigning events on the web. This year’s topic is water, which got me thinking about drought and the many countries that have a serious lack of water. This reminded me of when I use to go to Cyprus on holiday as a child.

Cyprus has had a rationed water supply for years and years. True, it is not one of the worse-off countries in the world but, I remember when I was a lot younger the water was only turned on in Nicosia for twelve hours in every forty-eight hours. It came as a bit of a shock to me that you were not allowed to flush the toilet after you used it and you had to wash with a bowl of water and a sponge in the bath.

As soon as the water was turned back on, it was mine and my sister’s jobs to help fill all the containers back up with water before it was turned off again. Yet, it made me cross to think that whilst this was going on in the homes where the Cypriot people lived, in all the hotels and tourist places they did not have rationed water. So where I was being told off for running the tap whilst brushing my teeth, the tourists were swimming in massive swimming pools, squirting each other with water pistols and flushing the toilet for fun to see which way the water spun when it went down. Not fair! I bet they did not even know the water was rationed.

However, this has made me more aware of my own water usage, especially when abroad.

I did a little bit of research and found out a couple of years ago, a fleet of tankers from Greece were chartered by the Cypriot government at a cost of £65 million to help combat the emergency rationing. Each tanker held about 1.76 million cubic feet of water.

My mum told me (so it must be true) this year the water situation has improved as they have opened a waste water processing plant outside Nicosia. The recycled water from this plant is apparently used by the farmers for irrigation.

There have also been discussions for a 48-mile-long pipeline from Turkey, which could bring 75 million cubic meters of water a year to the island. This has been called the ‘water for peace’ pipeline, which I think is pretty cool.

Here is the link to the Blog Action Day website, if you want to find out more about the world water crisis and what you can do to help: http://www.blogactionday.change.org/

Dark Goddess

2010-10-11T10:49:00.002+01:00

No, the Dark Goddess is not me. Although, I did wear all black for the event. The Dark Goddess is the title of Sarwat Chadda's latest novel which he launched at the fantastic Tales on Moon Lane children's bookshop Thursday evening.

Dark Goddess is the sequel to Devil's Kiss. I previously blogged about Sarwat last year.

At the launch, Sarwat mentioned he was a member of the Chainsaw Gang. I was a little confused at first and had visions of Sarwat running around with a chainsaw chopping people's heads off. But it is actually, eleven YA horror writers who have joined forces to do some amazing author events. They start today with a Blog Tour.

To find out more about the Chainsaw Gang, the authors taking part and their events check out Sarwat's website.

Where I feel at Home

2010-10-07T11:07:00.006+01:00

As you all probably know, today is National Poetry Day. The theme this year is HOME. So, I thought to mark the occassion I would dress up like a poet and try and write a poem about where I feel at home.

Home is where?

Comfy chair
Computer stares
Solitaire!
Mouse and mat.

Here I’m sat
Email
Facebook!
Watch rain fall.

Ideas fizzing
Hear words call
Smile!
Children smile back from the wall.

Tippity-tap, tippity-tap, tippity-tap

Stop for lunch
Munch! Munch! Munch!

Pencils, paper
Shelves of books
Screen and keyboard
Take a look.

Tippity-tap, tippity-tap, tippity-tap

Lost track of time
Going to be late
Again!
Little boy waiting at school gate.

Children sleeping
Turn on the light
Where did I get to?
Type into the night.

Tippity-tap, tippity-tap, tippity-tap

Printer whirring
Stapler clicks
Flick! Flick! Flick!
Great big tick.

Soft warm bed
Lay down my head
Star Trek beams
On TV screen.

Sleepy eyes
Words are creeping
Wait till morning!
Now I’m yawning.

Home is where?
… home
              izzzzzzz
                           …there.

My son also wrote me a poem to put on my blog:

HOME

Homes are
Our
Method of
Expressing feelings
                                                   by Daniel Loughrey (Aged 12)

I think his poem is very clever and much better than my effort.

An evening with Cornelia Funke

2010-10-01T17:54:00.021+01:00

Yesssss! I was lucky enough to get an invitation to attend Cornelia Funke's 'Reckless' book launch yesterday, at the ultra glamorous Beach Blanket Babylon in Notting Hill. I was there to write-up the launch for the new Write Away website.

As I tottered in my high-heeled boots from Notting Hill Underground station, I was in awe of the magnificent buildings and their amazing Georgian windows. I was also ever-so slightly distracted by the shops and have vowed to return one day when they are open.

Beach Blanket Babylon is definitely where all the 'beautiful' people hang out. I was taken aback by the front door, which was over three times my height. But, when I went upstairs to the function room - well, that was when my jaw dropped. It was the ideal venue for a fantasy writer like Cornelia Funke, with its crystal chandeliers, gothic candles, regal chairs and mirrored panelling. This accompanied by the specially composed music set the scene for the perfect, magical evening.

We were greeted by Barry Cunningham from the Chicken House who hinted at a sequel and maybe a third book. He talked about Cornelia's love and grasp of fantasy and fairytale. He said he felt as though Jacob was present at the launch - not in the room, but outside looking in on a great reckless journey.

Cornelia made her grand entrance wearing the most amazing dress ever. It was the witches dress straight out of her new novel Reckless. It was designed from its description, by Jenny Beavin (who designed the costumes for the recent Sherlock Holmes movie) and made by Jane Law. The insects were embroidered on by Cathryn Avison. If you click on the picture you will be able to see the spider near the bottom of the dress and the immence detail that went into making the dress. Cornelia pointed out to me the moth and the butterfly in the folds. I couldn't help running my fingers over the material, until I realised I was stroking Cornelia's leg.

The Sunday Times children’s book reviewer, Nicolette Jones, was also wearing a magnificent ball gown she had hired from Angels in Shaftesbury Avenue for the event. She chaired the discussion between Cornelia Funke and her co-creator Lionel Wigram. Lionel is the producer of all the Harry Potter films and the 2009 Sherlock Holmes movie and its sequel, which is out next year.

They discussed how they met and their collaboration for Reckless. Cornelia explained how writing a book is like navigating through a labyrinth. At every turn you decide whether you go left or right. But, when you are writing with somebody else, you don't always agree on which direction you should take.

We were all given a first edition of the novel, which I was able to get signed by them both. Several glasses of champagne later it was time to go home, unfortunately leaving the fantastic fantasy world behind me. Most definitely a night to remember. I loved every minute.

Take a look at my write-up on Write Away.

Back to Reality

2010-09-28T09:06:00.007+01:00

This week is Banned Books Week, a national celebration of the freedom to read anything you want. Banned Books Week was initiated in 1982 to highlight the problem of censorship in books all over the world. This includes both children and adult books.

I myself have been subject to censorship. You can read my previous rant about St George here. I still have not managed to get over this yet, as you can see as I repeated myself a year later here and here. I was also suspended in 2002, for reading the last thirteen lines of Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets in a Church school, which in my opinion was ridiculous, as it is all about friendship and has nothing to do with witchcraft what-so-ever. I was seven months pregnant at the time and had all ready handed my notice into the school as I was not planning on going back to work after I had my baby. Truth be told, the head and I had several run-ins that Term. But, I realised she was just plain crazy when one day, she suggested the rules for punctuating speech may have been changed overnight.

Anne Rooney has written an insightfully, funny article for the New Humanist website about her and fellow writer’s experiences of censorship. This article was made even more interesting for me, as I was privy to a lot of the initial discussion about it on the NibWeb forum. In her article, ‘Banned: the hidden censorship of children's books’ published’ she highlights how many children’s books are censored, to mainly appease the American market, even before they come to press. This is especially true of children’s non-fiction, which seems strange when you think these books are based on the real world.

Why hide reality from children? Why would American kids find hedgehogs confusing when UK kids do not find porcupines confusing? By excluding hedgehogs from books are we protecting the American children, or giving them a distorted view of the World?

The Banned Book Week website suggests schools could organise a discussion forum on book banning using examples like Harry Potter, or Twilight to develop children’s analytical skills by asking such questions as:

• Why do you think this book was banned?

• Why do people ban books?

• Why do you like this book?

If you have had experience of censorship, or know of books that have been banned for inexplicit reasons, please leave a comment and let me know.

Giants, Basketball and Earthquakes

2010-09-26T17:30:00.000+01:00

If I said these three words to you, what would you think of? Well, I know what I would think of and who…

It would most definitely be the amazing Candy Gourlay and her debut novel Tall Story. I was lucky enough to attend not only her book launch at Waterstones in Islington Green but, also more recently the party held in her honour at the Philippine Embassy in London.

Candy has been described as, ‘The author with a whole nation behind her.’ At the party you really got a feel for what a National treasure she really is. The Ambassador gave her one of the best, supportive introductions I have ever heard. I was also able to buy a copy of the Philippine edition of Tall Story, as did her British publisher David Fickling.

If you would like to find out a bit more about Candy and her novel, you can watch this YouTube video of an interview with her for the Morning Show in the Philippines.

You can also read all about Candy's research for her novel in my column ‘Research Secrets’ on pages 16-17 of the November issue of Writers’ Forum.

Cover Girl

2010-09-20T15:27:00.001+01:00

I was recently asked to forward to my editor at Hopscotch some ideas for the book covers for the ICT series I am writing. I thought this was brilliant. I have never been asked to contribute to the design of the book cover before.

My first instinct was to suggest something really flash that will immediately attract the eye but, then I began thinking about expense. I doubt an educational publisher has money budgeted for amazing 3D-foil book covers. After all, it’s not like I’m a famous author or anything.

This got me thinking about a SCBWI Professional Series meeting I had been to last year, where they discussed author input into covers and editors explained how they have to balance what the author would like with what the booksellers want. I was surprised to learn at this meeting that many booksellers will make a judgement on whether to stock a book totally on the basis of the cover.

Well, as most of my books are sold direct to libraries and schools this may not be such a problem. But, I know as a consumer, I am more likely to pick up a book which I like the cover of, than a plain boring cover that just contains the title and author names. So, I had to think of something good.

Anyway, I am not sure how much I am allowed to tell you about what I said for the book design or even if they will take my input on board. So what is the point of blogging about it? Because, it is another milestone for me.

Oh yeah... and I get to post a selection of books with my name on, to show you the covers. How cool is that?

Abseil Challenge

2010-09-16T10:32:00.011+01:00

No, it is not me who is going to do the 100ft abseil challenge down Battersea Power Station. Although, it does sound quite fun! It is my eighteen-year-old, cousin’s daughter, Imogen.

What makes this event even more spectacular though, is not just the fact Imogen is afraid of heights but, she will be doing it without her leg.

This is because Imogen has had her leg amputated. She was born with a talipes (club foot) and a deformity of the lower leg. Her parents were told when she was born that she may never walk. The fact that she had no ligaments in the knee meant her knee was only supported by soft tissue. As she grew older this soft tissue could not support the knee and she experienced major problems around the age of thirteen.

Doctors tried to help with various treatments, including carrying out knee replacement surgery, but this did not work. At the age of fifteen, she decided to have the amputation. Although, she does have a prosthetic leg, phantom pains in her stump means she can’t wear it for the abseil as she wont have finished the course of treatment injections.

She said, “Doing it without my leg will make it harder but if I take it slowly, it should be fine. Nothing will affect my abseil, I’m determined.”

The abseil will take place on Sunday, September 26, and Imogen is raising money for the charity, Mines Advisory Group (MAG), a humanitarian organisation that works in conflict zones to clear unexploded bombs and disused weaponry. MAG work hard to educate and build futures for people affected by war.

Imogen chose this charity in recognition of those who have lost their limbs from landmine explosions and also because of the work they did in Cyprus to help clear landmines in the aftermath of the Cypriot War in 1974. Her dad (my cousin), Ian, came to England as a child refugee during this time. I remember it well because he lived with me and my family for several years and became my big brother for a while.

To sponsor Imogen, visit www.justgiving.com/Imogen-Holland

Blue Elephant Storyshaping

2010-09-10T11:18:00.005+01:00

Had a great time at the Agent's Party last night, meeting up with good friends and making some lovely new ones. :) You will be pleased to hear I managed to pitch my novels to a couple of the Agents too and they asked me to send in my chapters.

Whilst I was there, I heard all about Blue Elephant Storyshaping, the exciting new venture of Natascha Biebow, ex-Random House picture book editor and SCBWI-BI Regional Advisor. If you are a children's book writer of picture books, young or middle-grade fiction, and need some help shaping your stories pre-submission to agents or publishers, check out her website at www.blueelephantstoryshaping.com/

She says: "Publishing is changing. In the tough marketplace, publishing houses have limited in-house resources and are aiming to reduce their overheads by acquiring more finished, high-quality books that don’t require as much polishing. Agents are also increasingly pressed for time and their job is much easier when they are sent fully developed projects to place with their clients. Blue Elephant Storyshaping can help you hone your work so that publishers and agents sit up and take notice of your submissions.

I recognize that each book is unique and that authors and illustators are individuals. I have the time to help you develop your craft, understand the creative process, and can empower you to find your vision. Blue Elephant Storyshaping can tailor its services to help you shape the book that you have always wanted to write or illustrate. Together we’ll go on a storyshaping journey. We’ll explore, have fun, dig deep for the heart of your story. Sometimes it will be inspirational, sometimes it may be challenging, but together we will craft the best book inside of you."

Contact her at: hello at blueelephantstoryshaping.com

SCBWI Agent's Party

2010-09-09T13:01:00.008+01:00

I have been a SCBWI member since 2002. I know this for a fact because I looked up my membership the other day when I was appointed SCBWI Network Co-ordinator for the London area. This is a long, long time to have a dream of being a best-selling children’s novel writer. Yes, I have 24 books published and more on the way. And YES I have my own column. But, I have NOT achieved my dream.

So, I have decided today is the day I ought to do something about following this dream. After all, aren’t I the one who always says, “You can do, whatever you put your mind to.”

Haven’t I told you the story of when I passed my Bronze Medallion, four months after giving birth to my first child? Well, it is probably about time I followed my own advice and what better way to start than attending the SCBWI Agent’s Party this evening.

The Agent’s Party is an excellent opportunity to learn inside information about the current publishing scene. What’s hot and what’s not! It gives us the chance to meet agents face to face and pitch our novels.

Which means, it is time for me to stop faffing around, worrying about my hair and stuff, and get on with it. I have topped up my business cards and now I'm frantically trying to think of a one-line pitch. I have a couple of hours before I have to get on the train.

OK! YES! I have had days… weeks… months… over a year… since 2002… to try and think of a one-line pitch to hook an Agent.

“Why have I left it till the last minute?” I hear you ask.

I have no excuse. I have attended the SCBWI Professional Series for many years and the message that comes across loud and clear is that a writer should always be ready to give a one line pitch. As Liz de Jager said in her email just the other day,

"You never know if you will be able to fire up the interest of an agent or editor in your work and you might be invited to send examples of your work along later."

But, where do I start? Well, Nathan Bransford in his blog says:

“The important thing to remember is that a good pitch is a description of what actually happens. It's a one sentence description of the plot, not the theme.”

My understanding of this is the plot should include the main conflict that the characters are going to face. Hmmm! I best get my synopsis out and see what I wrote.

Another thing we are always being told, is to consider the USP (Unique Selling Point) of our novels. This information has made my mind go blank. I can’t think of one single USP for any of the children’s novels I have written. Not ONE!

Nathan also says, the one sentence pitch should have:

“A dash of flavor: anything you can do to flesh out your pitch with some key details that give a sense of the character of your novel (funny, scary, intense, tragic, etc.)”

All right, all I got to do now is summarise the plot of my book in one line, include the USP and make it funny, by 7pm tonight. How hard can it be?

Errr! What’s my book about again?

Booktime Competition

2010-09-07T13:19:00.003+01:00

Nominate your primary school or local library for a chance for them to own an amazing artist's proof from "Slowly, Slowly, Slowly,” Said the Sloth, signed by the author/illustrator Eric Carle.

This fantastic Booktime competition is to celebrate giving away 680,000 free copies of Eric Carle's wonderful picture book, "Slowly, Slowly, Slowly,” Said the Sloth, published by Puffin. It has been organised by the independent charity, Booktrust and sponsored by the Pearson Publishing Group.

Every year Booktime give over a million books away to reception children in schools all over the UK. I remember my own children receiving their Booktrust packs and being thrilled with the beautiful picture books they received.

Anyone can nominate a primary school and/or a public library in England. All you have to do is complete the nomination form on the Booktime website. Nominations opened yesterday, the 6th September and close on the 31st October. Every eligible nomination will be entered into a prize draw and the winners selected at random.

Also in this year’s book packs, is a special abridged edition of the illustrated non-fiction book, Why is the Sky Blue? compiled by Geraldine Taylor, illustrated by Amy Schimler and published by Ladybird. It is good to see non-fiction books being included.

My Column

2010-09-03T11:21:00.004+01:00

As most of you should know by now, I have a monthly column in the hugely popular national writing magazine Writers' Forum. My column is called Research Secrets and I talk to some amazing writers about the research they have done for their books and ask them for any tips that may help other writers when researching.

In the October issue of Writers' Forum, available in all good bookstores now, you can read my interview with crime and thriller book writer, Simon Hall. Simon is the BBC's Crime Correspondent for the southwest England and author of the TV Detective novels.

His new book The Balance of Guilt is due out next week on the 9th September and is the fifth book in the series.

I was lucky enough to meet Simon at this year's Caerleon Writers' Holiday and must say as well as being an exceptional writer, he is also a very groovy dancer.

To find out more about Simon and his books and to read his blog, check out his website at: http://www.thetvdetective.com/. To find out his research secrets and tips you can read my double-page feature on pages 16-17 of Writers' Forum.

Virtual Book Launch

2010-09-01T15:18:00.009+01:00

I've never had a book launch - not a proper one at an amazing venue, with lots of guests, champagne and chocolates, where people ask me to sign copies of my books. But, a writer can dream. So, I have decided to have my own virtual book launch with virtual chocolates and champagne.

Please join me today in the launch of four new books written by me and published by QED Publishing. They are a series of hardback illustrated maths books for children aged 2+.

The Shapes Around Me series is designed to help children recognise squares, circles, rectangles and triangles in their own environment. The books have beautiful, bright illustrations to attract young readers.

The paperbacks are due to be released in February 2011. QED Publishing have recently commissioned me to write a complimentary series called Colours Around Me. This series is due to be published early next year.

I'm Back!

2010-08-27T15:46:00.013+01:00

What happened to all the sunshine? In Cyprus we were having a heatwave. Temperatures were over 40˚C. I come home and have to swap air con for central heating. It is hard to believe it is still August. I am missing the pool all ready. I had a wonderful time and even took a ride on the Super Sofa.

As I am half Cypriot, going on holiday to Cyprus is a real family event. This is a picture of my daughter, mum, dad and sister at the beach; not Fireman's Beach mind. You know, I never even saw one fireman. I suppose they were all busy putting out fires caused by the heatwave. Maybe, I should have let them know in advance I was going to be there.

And this is the resident praying mantis at the villa. I think it liked sunbathing by the pool.

I spent a lot of time in the pool, as it was so hot. Oh OK, yes... I am guilty of sitting by the pool with my notepad and pencil. And yeah... I may have snuck off to the nearest Internet Bar to satisfy my Facebook craving a few times. So, all in all, I had a really relaxing time.

The problem with going on holiday, is when you get back there are so many emails to trawl through. I had lots of lovely messages from my friends saying Happy Birthday. Thank you. They bought a smile to my face. :)

Also, in my inbox was a message from The Society of Authors about the Public Lending Right petition, explaining cuts in public expenditure may include reducing funding for PLR. It urges all writers to sign the petition to show how much PLR is valued, particularly by those whose books are sold direct to libraries, like mine. If you have not had a chance to sign the petition, or want to find out more about it, you can do so by following this link: www.alcs.co.uk/petition

It's my Birthday and I'll FLY if I want to!

2010-08-10T15:15:00.010+01:00

Hello Everyone,

How yoooooou doooin? That was my Joey impression btw. Just in case you didn't recognise it. I've been practising.

Well, five blogs so far for August. I think I deserve a medal... or at least a Birthday card. YES tomorrow it is my birthday and I will be 28, give or take a few years. On Sunday, I went out for a lovely meal with my friends. Me and Claire both have birthdays this month, so we were both celebrating.

Here is a poem my friend, Les Baynton, wrote especially for my birthday after an early afternoon at the pub:

KID'S STUFF
I am a children’s writer
I can do no harm,
But when I’ve had some vinos,
You’d better sound the alarm
Now I’ve had to grow up,
I’m really forty five and…
It’s great to be alive
I’m a web designer…
A children’s lit advisor
But when in Wales,
What you’ve seen…

My crazy hat, glitzy dress-yes..
I want to be a Dancing Queen
Anita dance on …………… no fears,
Take no notice of those passing years.

© Les 2010

Not only is it my Birthday tomorrow, at six o'clock in the morning I will be leaving for Heathrow Airport, as we are going to Cyprus for two weeks. That is a double exciting day for me. ☺ Think of me lounging by the pool, with a cocktail or three. Remember, every hour is Pimm's o'clock when you're on holiday. LOL!!

I'm leaving on a jet plane...

SCBWI Picnic in the Park

2010-08-08T18:02:00.004+01:00

Yesterday, I attended the first-ever SCBWI-BI Picnic in Kensington Gardens. I felt it was a very apt venue, due to the literary links with J. M. Barrie's Peter Pan
- the statue is there and JM Barrie lived just around the corner.

The venue was recommended to me by Becky Jones and Clare Lewis who have written a series of adventure walk books for families. There is a Peter Pan walk in their London Adventure Walks for Families: Tales of a City, with details about the park. See: http://www.adventurewalksforfamilies.co.uk/

All week I had been checking the weather and everyday it was different, but most days it said it was going to rain. But, I was determined not to cancel.

So me and my boys got on the train at 10am not knowing what the weather was going to be like. We had our rucksacks full of sandwiches and cakes but, that didn't stop us buying and devouring donuts as soon as we got to Paddington. We arrived at Kensignton Gardens at 11:30 - half an hour early. This gave the boys a chance to explore. I had been to visit the park a few weeks earlier, so it was fun showing them around. Soon everybody else started to arrive.

We were very lucky the weather stayed fine and the sun came out and we had to look for a shady spot to eat. The boys loved the Diana Memorial Playground and we spent several hours there. It was a great picnic and I am hoping to organise another one next year. The highlight for me was definitely meeting Muffin, Sue Eves very famous dog.

Sue has based her puppet, Woofy, on Muffin. I was lucky enough to have met Woofy at last year's SCBWI Winchester Conference, as you can see in the video below. Sue told us all about her school visits and her excellent book The Quiet Woman and the Noisy Dog.

Research Secrets

2010-08-06T19:32:00.007+01:00

As some of you may know, I have a monthly column in the writing magazine Writers' Forum, where I talk to authors about the research they have done for their books. I find research fascinating and one of the careers I was contemplating, before I become a teacher, was a researcher for a big UK marketing company to do educational research.

I have been writing this column for nearly two years now and have had the pleasure of interviewing people like: the wonderful Julia Jarman, Michael Rosen, Cliff McNish, the amazing Peter James, Sarwat Chadda, Jane Borodale, Christina Jones, Jon Mayhew and the lovely Candy Gourlay, to name but a few.

This month, you can read my interview with Zoë Sharp, the thriller/crime writer. She has written nine novels featuring ex-Special Forces bodyguard Charlotte 'Charlie' Fox. Zoë has even taught a self-defence class at the Bouchercon Crime Writers Conference in Chicago.

She also likes to try out all the guns she writes about and reguarly goes to shooting ranges in the US. Here is a picture of her at Scottsdale AZ gun range:

©Mary Regan NYC photo http://nycphoto.interactivenyc.com/

Big gun, or what? If you would like to find out more about Zoë Sharp take a look at the feature on pages 16-17 in Writers' Forum, out in WHSmiths now.

A Writer Needs a Holiday

2010-08-04T11:37:00.004+01:00

It is hard to believe that last week I was at the Caerleon Writers Holiday. Time has gone by so fast. Whilst I was there I managed to complete half of Book Three of my ICT teaching resource for Hopscotch Educational. I had set this as my target and as I reached my target I was allowed to have my reward.

Well, my reward was going to see the Dr Who Exhibition at Cardiff Bay. So on the Wednesday afternoon me and my wonderful friend Mel, took the opportunity to go on the tour to Cardiff and caught the Number 6 bendy bus to the Red Dragon Centre. In the words of my eleven year old son...

IT WAS AWESOME!!!

I had the most amazing time. Mel and I went from exhibit to exhibit like big kids. OK! I was the big kid! I think maybe Mel turned into my mother at one point. LOL! I only wanted my picture taken with a Cyberman! Although, we did meet a very nice man, who looked just as excited as us, who kindly offered to take our photograph.

The second half of the week, I did Simon Whaley's Positively Productive Writer series of workshops and I must say I learnt a lot. I realised that maybe if I achieved my goal by half way through the week, the goal was probably too easy and I should have given myself something that was a little more challenging. But then - I was on holiday. I am going to spend a bit of time though analysing my long term and short term goals. Oh yes, and I must remember to stay positive and Simon gave us some brilliant ideas on how to do this. Have a look at the video and you can see for yourself. Thanks Simon. ☺

On the whole, I had an excellent week and I have all ready booked to go again next year.

Use It or Lose It!

2010-08-02T21:56:00.000+01:00

It has been a long time since I blogged on a regular basis and I apologise for that. I especially apologise to all the people I persuaded to get their own blog like my dear friend Lynne Hackles who is now a dedicated blogger, when I have been so lapse at keeping mine up-to-date.

SORRY! SORRY! SORRY!

For this reason, I have decided to set myself a challenge to blog on a more regualr basis. I will USE IT or LOSE IT. It is a waste of time having a blog linked to my website, if I am not actually going to blog about anything. It looks sloppy and unprofessional. So, if I find I am unable to keep the blogging up I am afraid I will have to delete the whole lot.

I will use my blog, or I will lose it!

That is a positive affirmation of my plan. My aim is for at least three blogs a month, hopefully more. Wish me luck. You are allowed to nag me, if I fall behind on my quota.

Tall Story by Candy Gourlay

2010-05-25T16:17:00.002+01:00

Here is the trailer for Candy Gourlay's debut book Tall Story. It is about a girl called Andi, who wishes she could play on the school basketball team and that she could have a bedroom of her own, but most of all she wishes that her long lost half-brother, Bernardo, will be as mad about basketball as she is. As she waits anxiously for Bernardo to arrive from the Philippines, she is amazed to see... he's a GIANT.

It is a fantastic story that will make you laugh and cry. The book is available to buy NOW on Amazon.
To find out more about Tall Story and Candy Gourlay you can visit the website: www.tallstory.net

Write Away Reviewer’s Event at Walker Books

2010-03-02T12:31:00.046Z

This Write Away event took place on Friday 19th February and I was lucky enough to be one of the reviewers who were able to go as places were limited. We arrived at the Walker Book offices where we were greeted with a selection of croissants and were able to mingle and meet each other. It was good to meet some of the other reviewers for Write Away and put faces to names I had seen on the website, as well as re-meet some of the people I had met at other Write Away events and conferences. Nikki Gamble opened the event by welcoming us all and introducing the speakers.

I made notes for myself during their talks as memory joggers. I have transcribed my notes here in hope that you will find them useful when reviewing picture books for Write Away (or anyone else for that matter). They are not as detailed as usual as I was not expecting to have to write them up but, since Nikki asked…

Making Picture Books - Deirdre McDermott

Deirdre is the designer in a small team at Walker Books. She explained how the intention of a good picture book is to make space. The designer is in charge of the invisible sound. The sound of the language: the rhythm, rhyme and fun. Text and image both tell stories at the same time. These may be separate stories but, the art and text are inseparately entwined. As a book maker her aim is to get an emotional response. Picture books mean something; they are works of art with action in the images. There is a journey into the images and even without being able to read the text it is still possible to recognise where the crisis happens and where the resolution happens.

An Illustrator’s Perspective: Anthony Browne
Anthony Browne showed us a small selection of his books to demonstrate how his illustrations work with the text. He explained how in many of his illustrations he starts by applying a game he played as a child, which he calls The Shape Game. This is where you draw an abstract shape and the next person transforms it. He uses shapes in the background of Hansel and Gretel to help tell the story. He likes to take something that exists and transform it, like he transformed the kettle to the cat in Changes.

In The Tunnel, Anthony uses photos of children to contrast the fantasy in the story. He emphasised how it is important to concentrate on the images as well as the text when reviewing picture books and how they work together. The readers should be able to put their own interpretations into the pictures.

An Illustrator’s Perspective: Bruce Ingman

Bruce Ingman opened his talk by showing us an animation of the things that he keeps in his wallet as an introduction to who he is, he explained how he uses a mixture of reality and fiction in his illustrations. Many of his ideas come from his own background and previous experiences. The illustrator defines themselves within the story. A picture book has to engage the reader. He demonstrated this with his books Everybody was a Baby Once and The Pencil. The process between illustrator and author is teamwork and democratic.

Review Panel

There was a short comfort break and then we came back together to hear the opinion of a reviewer’s panel. On the panel were: Nicolette Jones who reviews children books for the Sunday Times who was joined by Anne Rooney, Layn Marlow and Kim Toohey, who have all reviewed picture books for Write Away.

Nikki introduced the panel and briefly mentioned some of her pet hates in reviews. She particularly dislikes the use of words, like ‘wonderful’ and ‘amazing’, which do not tell you anything. She also does not like the phrase, ‘the illustrations compliment the text’ and will edit these out before she makes a review live. Nikki will try to match a book to the reviewer.

Nicolette Jones

Nicolette was the first person on the panel to speak. She explained her biggest challenge is space and word limits that she is allowed for each book she reviews. Write Away reviewers do not have this problem. They can make their reviews as long as necessary. Picture books are works of art and readers will find details in the pictures and understand meaning visually. When reviewing picture books it is important to describe the pictures as the readers of the review cannot see the illustrations whilst reading the review. One way of doing this is to make connections with other artists and commenting on texture, colour palette, medium, movement, theme, emotion and draftmanship.

Anne Rooney

Anne Rooney explained that when reviewing books it is important to keep in mind who you are reviewing for. Think of the audience of the reviews. For Write Away we are mainly writing reviews for teachers and librarians. Anne tries to use objective criteria to judge a book. As well as the illustrations, she considers:

Does it achieve what it set out to achieve?
Is the aim of the book worthwhile?
Strength of plot and characterisation
Use of space and page turns
Font style

It is important to back up your opinions with examples from the book. Anne reinforced this with references to two of her reviews on the Write Away website for the books, Young Inferno by John Agard and Sshhh by Tony Ross.

Layn Marlow

Layn used the picture book, Grandpa’s Boat by Michael Catchpool to demonstrate how Sophy Williams’ illustrations add information to a story that was not present in the text. She pointed out how the direction characters’ eyes are looking and their expressions provide even the youngest reader with information. She explained how light and colour, were used to conjure emotions. In her review of The Owl and the Pussycat by Edward Lear/Angela McAllister, Layn demonstrated how the illustrator, Kevin Waldron, used images to extend the old text and give new impact. Both these reviews are excellent examples of how to review a picture book.

Kim Toohey

Kim used her reviews of the books Whatever by William Bee and Crazy Hair by Neil Gaiman and illustrated by Dave McKean to show how she goes about reviewing picture books. She tries to be open-ended and non-judgemental when reviewing books. As well as commenting on the illustrations she likes to look at the use of vocabulary. She likes to give a taster without revealing the ending. However, bearing in mind the audience of the books is very different from the audience of the reviews, it is often necessary to comment on whether a book contains images and themes that may upset a young child or give them nightmares.

After the panel we split into pairs to examine a selection of Walker Books picture books and discussed what things would we mention if reviewing these books. These books were: Yucky Worms by Vivian French and Jessica Ahlberg, My Great Lost Dog Adventure! by Marcia Williams and Cloud Tea Monkeys by Mal Peet and Elspeth Graham and illustrated by Juan Wijngaard.

Then we broke up for a buffet lunch where discussions continued. After lunch, we had a guided tour of the pre-Raphaelite exhibition at Tate Britain. Rachel Barnes was our guide. We started with one of the most famous pre-Raphaelite paintings, of Hamlet’s Orphelia, painted by John Everett Millais in 1851-2 and we finished with Edward Coley Burne-Jones’ painting of The Golden Stairs, 1880.

It was a very enjoyable event and I recommend that other reviewers should try and go to similar events run by Write Away in the future. I learnt a lot. I would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone involved. Thank you.

Electronic Piracy in Publishing

2010-02-06T10:12:00.000Z

There are websites such as Scribd that scan and make textbooks available on the world wide web. Scribd is a social publishing site, where tens of millions of people share original writings and documents. They do not ask the author's permission to put their books online. For authors who write for royalties from the amount of books they have sold, this means they are losing money. This is not just a concern for Eduational Publishing but for fiction as well.

These sites eventually remove unlicensed content from the web but they have to be petitioned to do so. There is a Copyright Infringement Takedown Notification on the Scribd website and they provide a Takedown Notification Template for authors.

But, surely they should have not put the books available for free download on line in the first place. They should be the ones seeking permissions and paying for licenses not teh authors having to fight for the right to get paid for their hard work.

Advice from the Society of Authors is to be vigiliant and to search for titles online on a regualr basis. If you find anything suspicious it should be reported to the publishers. The Publishers Association has set up a Piracy Portal to share information about copyright infringement. There is also a Copyright Infringement Portal, which targets websites offering infringing copies for free download, and will soon evolve to also target peer-to-peer sharing via torrents.

So check today. See if you work is being pirated.

Wow! My book is in a Top 5 list!

2010-01-12T11:46:00.003Z

Yes, I was really excited when I found out that my book, Explaining Diabetes, is in the Top 5 Disability and Special Needs Books in the US.

However, maybe this is not as good as I thought? The list is for Borders bookstore in the US. I thought Borders didn't exist anymore. Maybe it hasn't shut down in the US, or maybe they still have an online presence, or maybe my book was in the top five many months ago and I only just found out. Should I feel good about this? So many questions.

Anyway, whatever, I think it is still quite exciting to think I have written a book that made it into a Top five list. To see the list, take a look at: Borders Online.

But, isn't $75.95 a copy kind of a lot of money? The RRP is only £12.99 in the UK.

We're living in a digital world... and I am a digital girl.

2009-12-09T16:47:00.000Z

At the moment I am writing ICT teacher resources. During my research I came across this UTube video. I think it is amazing what the children can do nowadays.

The problem is... can the adults catch up?

Deadlines

2009-11-17T11:49:00.001Z

Apologies to all those people that I should have got back to and have not. I have a very busy schedule at the moment. I will get back to you... I promise. And if I don't - send me a reminder.

I like to fool myself I work best to deadlines. But, now another 'Deadline' is looming and hopefully I will get the book finished on time. All I need to do is focus my mind. LOL! It is the first of a series of four books on ICT and will hopefully be out on the shelves by Jan 2011. I will let you know more soon.

Got a series of pictures books on Shapes due out Sept 2010. Keep a look out for them. When the covers are through I will post them here on my blog.

Meanwhile, this is a picture of me in my new glasses. I need to wear them more and more often nowadays.

Blog Action Day

2009-10-15T10:38:00.001+01:00

Today is Blog Action Day against climate change.

This is an annual event held every October 15 that unites the world’s bloggers in posting about the same issue on the same day with the aim of sparking discussion around an issue of global importance. It is one of the largest-ever social change events on the web. It is a chance to let your voice be heard on your opinion of climate change and help sustain the World's future.

In recent years, more and more people have become concerned about the implications our actions are having on the planet. With the threat to the environment by CO² emissions and other greenhouse gases it is more important than ever to consider what things we can do to combat the effects of global warming. One of the main culprits that has been identified is flying, whether on a business trip or even just going on holiday.

But, it is good to know that green Travel is fast becoming a fashionable option. Many holidaymakers are aware it is possible to enjoy a leisurely time away on holiday and be green at the same time. The first thing to do when booking a holiday, is to look for cities that have made a commitment to going green and have eco-friendly hotels, restaurants and businesses.

Also, when planning your holiday, offsetting your carbon emissions is a good way of compensating for the amount of CO² you will generate. When flying, this can usually be done when you book your flights, ask your tour operator for details. Or you could join an offsetting service like Climate Care, which will use your money for projects that cut greenhouse gases. http://www.jpmorganclimatecare.com/

Another way you can combat the effects of climate change is to plant a tree. Trees convert CO² into Oxygen. Get involved in a local tree planting project. Carbon Footprint runs a service where they will organise the planting of the tree for you. You can also select the region you would like your tree to be planted. www.carbonfootprint.com/plantingtrees.html

There are other things you can do yourself to make your air travel greener, such as booking a non-stop flight to reduce carbon emissions and taking public transportation to and from the airport.

Ensure you book flights with airlines that recycle the waste created when serving food and beverages to passengers. By using electronic tickets you are helping to cut down on paper waste. Electronic tickets are also much more convenient and usually quicker when booking in at the airport.

Probably the most important thing you could do and the easiest, is to keep within the baggage allowance limit, because the fewer things you take, the less fuel is needed to carry it over.

You can also let your voice be heard too. So why not go to: http://www.blogactionday.org/ and sign the global petition and then blog about it. Stand up and be counted.

Undiscovered Voices Winners

2009-10-06T10:23:00.000+01:00

Today is a very exciting day. Many of my friends have won places in the new Undiscovered Voices anthology or have received honorary mention. A very proud moment.

For a list of the winners see: http://britishscbwi.ning.com/profiles/blogs/winners-of-undiscovered-voices

Twitter

2009-09-07T17:03:00.021+01:00

After resisting the urge to Twitter for a long, long time, I have finally succumbed. Yes. I am Twittering and you can follow me at: http://twitter.com/amloughrey

There are many quite exciting things happening on Twitter at the moment. Many YA novelists are twittering as their characters, such as Kathleen Duey http://twitter.com/kathleenduey and Melvin Burgess http://twitter.com/MelvinBurgess.

Sarwat Chadda twitters quotes from his book Devil Kiss at: http://twitter.com/devilskissbook and Julia Golding is running a competition to help her character, Catherine Royal, solve riddles at: http://twitter.com/CatherineRoyal.

Authors like Katie Fforde http://twitter.com/KatieFforde, Jill Mansell http://twitter.com/JillMansell and Mary Hoffman http://twitter.com/MARYMHOFFMAN prefer to Twitter than use Facebook. I always wondered how come their status updated loads everyday on Facebook. I suppose it is very quick and easy.

You can also follow publishers, newspapers and magazines. So it really was about time I joined the bandwagon - better late than never.

The Devil's Kiss by Sarwat Chadda

2009-09-06T13:09:00.003+01:00

Take a look at Sarwat's new trailer for the film of his book. It looks amazing.

I interviewed Sarwat about the research for Devil's Kiss and the sequel The Dark Goddess for my column in Writers' Forum. The interview can be read in the June 2009 issue, the month Sarwat's debut novel, Devil's Kiss, was released.

In fact, I was lucky enough to receive a proof copy and was blown away not only by his excellent writing style but the story really drew me in. I love the links to the Arthurian and The Knights Templar legends. As most of you know, I am a bit of a King Arthur nerd and thought it was very clever the way Sarwat had used characters names from the legends for his own purposes. Some of his ideas challenged my own impressions of the legends and Arthurian Romances, but in a way it made the story even more intriguing for me.

Anyway, if you read nothing else this year, I recommend you read Devil's Kiss by Sarwat Chadda.

Write Away Reviewers Event

2009-08-28T23:49:00.003+01:00

As some of you may know I write book reviews for the Write Away website. On Friday 28th August I attended the Write away Reviewers’ Event at the OUP offices in Great Clarendon Street, Oxford.

It was wonderful. LOL! OK that is an in-joke that hopefully will be understood by those who attended.

But, seriously I had the most brilliant time. My worry was I was not going to get up in time to get my train as I spent a rather late night the day before at Candy’s beach abode. But, thanks to my lovely reliable husband I did and found the connection from reading to Oxford very easily and arrived at 9:05 as scheduled.

At the station I met Theano and Kelly and we walked the short distance to the OUP building without getting lost - due to my map, which I had carefully highlighted in different colours, the night before. It showed all the different routes I would need to know for the day. Actually, to be quite honest the other two probably knew the way anyway.

When I got there Nikki Gamble presented us with a massive cloth bag of OUP children’s books. There were five uncorrected proof copies in the bag, a pack of paper, a book mark and an OUP pen. The books were:

Daughter of Fire and Ice by Marie-Louise Jensen (that I got signed as she was on the panel of speakers).
The Death Defying Pepper Roux by Geraldine McCaughrean
Sea Wolf by David Miller
Lydia’s Tin Lid Drum by Neale Osbourne
And Very Short Answers to Very Big Questions

The event was opened by Richard Thompson who welcomed us to the OUP building. He explained the OUP was the biggest University Press in the world; bigger than all the university presses in the whole of the US put together. He also mentioned the children’s department was the best although they may print some dictionaries and other stuff too.

Nikki then introduced Nicolette Jones, children’s book reviewer for the Sunday Times. She told us how she started off reviewing adult books and was asked to review children’s books to help raise their status. She judges the books to the same standards, looking at plot, language, characters and emotion, etc.

She told us that when reviewing books we should not underestimate children. Always judge a book on its own terms - what does it aim to do and does it achieve this aim in the end? She said reviewers can often fall into one of two camps, hatchet job or rave. Nicolette prefers to be objective, and was inspired by the essay written by Oscar Wilde, ‘The Critic as Artist’, who advocates an artist should recognise the beauty of work different to their own tastes.

If you do happen to dislike a book it is more important that you make a case for why you dislike it and this point must be well argued. There is a difference between a reader and a critic. As a critic you have to try to be objective.

All reviews have to be an interesting piece of writing. Her advice is to whittle down and say as little as you can and never spoil the plot. You should keep the market in mind and as we are writing reviews mainly for adults who are buying the books for their children or class, we need to mention if it covers a controversial issue.

Next to talk to us was Lesley Webb, who is an Early Years Consultant and writes reviews for Write Away on books for children aged 0-2. She told us before she starts to write a review she considers whether she like the book and why? She finds it most difficult to review a book she feels indifferent about. She explained how it is very important when reviewing books for that age range you discuss the illustrations and try to consider what the child will be getting from the book.

After coffee a panel of speakers talked to us about the editors and writers perspectives of book reviews. On the panel were, Marie-Louise Jensen, author; Michelle Harrison OUP and author of Thirteen Treasures and Jasmine Richards OUP.

Marie has also written reviews for Write Away. She explained that reading is a personal experience. People react to books differently, in their own way with different tastes. There is no pleasing everyone. A book review is an emotional response and if you look online at sites such as Amazon you will see many books will have a wide range of reviews from 5-star to 1-star. Often critics do not agree with each other.

Michelle read to us parts of a particularly nasty review. It was a very moving experience listening to her read something that had clearly been very upsetting to her. And she pointed out she had not read the worse bits. It thumped home how a bitter critique was not constructive and how devastating to the author it can be. I also thought it was entirely unprofessional to write such a critique. She compared the critique to a more constructive one written by a member of the Write Away team. Her book Thirteen Treasures published by Simon and Schuster, won the Waterstone's Children's Book Prize.

Jasmine then spoke to us about book reviews from an editor’s perspective. She explained that reviews can be used for promotional purposes. They are important as covers need an expert to validate a book in the eye of the consumer. She also pointed out that for a book to be published someone had to of loved it and it must have been loved by more than one person to have got through the process. A book review is just one person’s opinion.

Nikki summed up the talk by explaining we can recognise a review by the voice it is written in. each reviewer needs to develop their own voice. The voice of the reviewer is your clue to how skilled the reviewer is.

After lunch we went on a guided tour of Oxford with a particular reference to the children’s authorise and stories inspired by the city. We happened to see the filming of Lewis (spin-off of Morse) and saw Colin Dexter. After the tour we had tea in The Rose with Linda Newbury and David Fickling.

It was then time to walk back to the station to catch the train home.

Who do you sleep with?

2009-08-10T16:35:00.004+01:00

Last night I was sat in bed reading. I often read before I go to sleep. I was reading, 'Page after Page' by Heather Sellers and in her book she suggests writers should take books to bed. I felt pretty pleased with myself since that was what I was doing.

In her book, Heather Sellers said we should all get into the habit of reading in bed. We should read every self-help book we can get our hands on and watch our resistance to new ideas. In this way, we court the writing life by simply reading. She called this wooing. She recommends reading indiscriminately.

This got me wondering. What authors do other people find wonderful to sleep with? I'd be interested to know.

Avoid blog flogging

2009-08-07T17:48:00.005+01:00

The European Unfair Commercial Practices Directive of May 2008 briefly states people must not make false claims or give misleading information about their books.

For example, if you are not a best-seller don’t say on the Internet that you are, else you can be taken to court and named and shamed by the Fair Trading Standards.

Authors and publishers who attempt to boost their online profile by reviewing their own books on sites such as Amazon could also face prosecution.

The law is deigned to protect consumers from businesses creating false blog entries, known as 'flogs'.

For more information on Unfair Commercial Practices Directive check out: http://www.berr.gov.uk/whatwedo/consumers/buying-selling/ucp/

Forums

2009-08-06T10:13:00.002+01:00

There are hundreds of aspiring writers out there and basically we are all in the same boat submitting our manuscripts to agents and editors, with similar wishes and desires for success.

Forums bring these people together to chat and talk about their writing. There are different forums for different types of writing. You need to make a search of Yahoo Groups to find a forum that interests you.

My interest is writing for children and so I belong to three forums which discuss issues about writing specifically for children. See my posts:

I got my first writing book commission from a post in a forum.

The Caerleon Writers’ Holiday has a forum: http://uk.groups.yahoo.com/group/writersholiday/

On the forums I belong to, people often ask the same sort of questions But, these are sometimes questions I may have been pondering over for weeks and just wasn't brave enough to ask myself.

Sometimes little debates linked to writing go on with everyone adding their point of view. These can be fascinating. Sometimes I listen in or add my own snippet. It is important to contribute to forums to get the most out of them, although I am sure there are plenty of lurkers.

It is also important to keep it positive. If someone says something controversial my advice is - keep quiet. Remember some of the members may be very highly-regarded authors or editors and you want to make a good impression.

And probably most importantly, when you post to a forum every single member gets to read what you have written so keep it relevant. If you want to ask a specific person a question it might be a good idea to do it more privately through email.

What is the point of Facebook and MySpace?

2009-08-05T11:56:00.004+01:00

Whilst I was at Caerleon I was asked, 'What is the point of Facebook and MySpace?' To which my first response was... it's a good way to procrastinate and waste time.

But, Facebook and Myspace are good networking tools.

Both Facebook and MySpace are social networks where you can meet like-minded people with similar interests to yourself to discuss and share information.
Both MySpace and Facebook have the facility to blog.
Myspace and Facebook also have message boards where you can share comments.
Both have a facility for a newsletter subscription where you can set up a group, invite people to join, and mail to everyone at once.

But, writing a regular e-zine is a big task. Keep it simple and don’t flood people with too many. In my opinion more than once a week is too much. In this way you are using social networking less as a promotional tool and more as a legitimate way to meet new people.

Me and my dog Mutley (1991-2006)

I also use Facebook as my reward. If I have finished a task I allow myself a bit of time to relax and go on FB and water my virtual garden, kidnap a few people and write on my friend's walls. It serves the same purpose as walking the dog use to do - a time to give my brain a rest from writing - especially if I am about to start a new project. I need this break to clear my mind ready to start again.

Virtual Networking

2009-08-01T13:41:00.007+01:00

Whilst I was at the Caerleon Writers' Holiday I gave an after- tea session on virtual netorking.

Networking is a great tool to help you reach your goals. You can network in person by joining critique groups, going to conferences and workshops, or by attending book launches. Or you can network virtually through online critique groups, email, u-tube, podcasts, your own websites, Facebook, MySpace, Twitter and by having a blog.

One of the most important reasons why should authors have an online presence is that it is an ideal way of publicising your self. Publicity is so important, anything an author can do to help sales and increase familiarity with their name, the better. Having a website and / or blog means prospective publishers and buyers of your books are able to look up more information than they could get off a publicity flier.

You can have an online presence at any stage of your writing career. You can promote your articles, short stories, poetry, forthcoming novel, or your column in a magazine or newspaper.

Virtual networking can generate more contacts and interest in your writing. You can meet people you might not have had the opportunity to meet in person, without the huge travel costs. You can refer potential editors to your site so they can see a range of your work and editors who have worked with you in the past can use the site to get in touch.

The net is available 24-hours a day, every day. An online presence will market your work to the whole wide world. It is an excellent marketing forum and should become an ongoing part of your business as a writer. Your blog is a business tool.

The Internet is here to stay as a communication media, so utilise your resources.

Proposal

2009-07-29T23:49:00.004+01:00

Today I had a marriage proposal. Unfortunately, he meant to propose to someone else with the same initials as me.

I am devastated.

Despite having my heart broken, I am having a wonderful time.

My talk on networking went well. I was only expecting about 5 people and over 30 turned up. and tomorrow is the highlight of the week - the male voice choir will be here. Me and 66 men!

That time of year again

2009-07-25T22:50:00.002+01:00

Doesn't time fly?

It doesn't feel like a whole year since I was at the Caerleon Writers' Holiday but, it must have been because I am off again tomorrow.

So am I ready to have my breakfast made for me every morning and for my room to be cleaned whilst I am at the workshops?

Yes! I think so.

For more details about the Caerleon Writer’s Holiday see:

www.writersholiday.net

This will be my seventh year of attending. I plan to work on some of my features whilst I am there and a few book reviews.

I look forward to posting more blogs when I get back. See you all soon. Bye. X

Capture your Thoughts

2009-07-24T23:02:00.004+01:00

Ever come up with a great idea only to forget it moments later?

How can we grasp our strokes of inner genius before they disappear?

Grab your notebook and write it down?

NO!

One of the best pieces of advice that I have had in a long time is: Use your mobile phone!

Yes, you read correctly - we do not have to be confined to our notebooks. Mobile phones have the facility to write yourself messages like you do in your notebook, record voice messages like a dictaphone and take photographs and videos. It is a brilliant writers' resource.

So next time you are out and have that amazing idea that will be the inspiration for your next series of books - take a picture of it.

Review of The Literacy Teacher Training Handbook

2009-07-23T21:36:00.006+01:00

The Literacy Teacher Training Handbook by Anita Loughrey is an extremely useful and informative guide to support the Primary Framework for Teaching Literacy. Although aimed, primarily, at teachers in training and non-literacy specialists I feel it would be useful for all teachers in a primary school, whatever their background.

The organisation of the book which goes through the literacy strands is ‘user-friendly’. The bullet-pointed activities provide enough detail to help teachers plan without being over prescriptive. The format encourages teachers to select the activities to suit their pupils’ needs. The photocopiable sheets are well presented and helpful for busy teachers. I particularly liked the ‘Identity Parade’ sheet where children are asked to describe characters but could be used in many other ways too.

For non-specialist and trainee teachers it would have been useful to have a glossary for technical terms. This is though a minor criticism. Overall, I was impressed by the handbook and will recommend it to trainee teachers whom I supervise on school placements.

Rachel Linfield
Senior Lecturer Leeds Metropolitan University

An interview with Kathleen Duey

2009-07-22T14:06:00.005+01:00

Kathleen Duey is the author of over 70 children’s and young adult books including historical fiction, nonfiction, picture books and dark fantasy. She was one of the 2007 finalists for the National Book Award for Literature for Young People, with her novel Skin Hunger: A Resurrection of Magic. She writes for adults with a partner; they have a finished novel with an agent and a second work being optioned by HBO. She lives in San Diego County, USA.

I interviewed her in November 2007, as a speaker at the Bologna Conference, March 2008. this is what Kathleen told me:

I always want to be a writer. My fourth grade teacher encouraged me and got me started writing stories. Then an English teacher in high school made me promise I would keep writing and give it a serious try, which I finally did, in my late thirties. Mrs. Fredericksen and Mr. Doohan. Bless ‘em both.

All the work I have done, and all the play, inform my writing. Living off-grid for a long time shaped me, too. I missed a couple of decades of TV, probably a good thing. I do a lot of historical research for my books. But, the research never hampers my historical fiction. I use a lot of primary sources and they always enrich, guide, inform. I have never once felt constrained by facts.

I identify very closely with all my characters, so in a way, I have been all of them. I could live where Heart Avamir lives. (The Unicorn’s Secret) I did, in a weird way, but that's a whole story in itself.

My childhood influenced what I write in every way. I grew up in rural places, was raised by rural parents. I tend to write historical fiction and fantasy... both usually low tech, in cultures where people are close to the soil. As a child, my parents bought me non-fiction, almost exclusively. The first novel I loved was Molly Make Believe, an old book I found in my great Aunt’s apartment. Then came Black Beauty and then all the Farley books. In middle school I discovered fantasy and SF and was astounded at the created worlds, the possibilities of speculation, the massive intellects of the writers. I still am.

The best books are autobiographical to some degree. Your life has been extraordinary – you dropped out of the mainstream and lived off the land for many years. That gave you a rich vein of knowledge to mine.

I work alone, almost always, in my office at home. I often play music, quietly. Sometimes I prefer silence. If it is chilly, Rooibos tea is wonderful. The hardest part of writing is sitting still, indoors - I hate it. The shortest time it has taken me to write a book is nine days. the longest was fifteen years.

I don't want a day job, so I market as much as I possibly can. People just need to figure out what is comfortable, what works for them. I like travel, I love schools, speaking has become fun. I began as a nervous, two-puke speaker. I have improved vastly and now enjoy it. Part of my marketing and networking is I blog, http://kathleenduey.blogspot.com/ but not as often as I should, even though I enjoy it. There is a blog on my website, too www.kathleenduey.com/. I have a MySpace page with, like 7 or 8 friends. Please, anyone, befriend me. There is lots of room at my lunch table. I do try to be web-present. It is hard to keep up with it, and travel, and write.

I get more email and letters and guestbook entries than I can keep up with. But, I love them all, I get 5-10 a day, counting guestbook, paper and, mostly email. I *love* knowing that kids like my books. I get a dozen or so every year that say something like, "I don't like reading all that much and I had never finished a book before yours..." and that *thrills* me.

Every book presents different obstacles, various areas of clear sailing. I like every genre I have written in and intend to try more. It's just the way my brain works; it's not a conscious business choice or a deliberate artistic decision. It is about the individual project for me, not the genre. Whatever takes my breath away - that's what I want to write. I like writing for all age groups. I seem to thrive on variety. Writing for kids is an obvious choice for me. I like kids. And I am head over heels in love with the possibility of touching a child's (or a teen's) life the way mine was touched by books. My schedule is simple: Full time -I just write full time.

The next Bologna Conference will be March 2010. More details to be posted shortly.

Tim Bowler – Flesh in the Inkpot

2009-05-22T11:52:00.002+01:00

Trusting your story-making instinct

At the Children's Winchester Writing conference last November, Tim Bowler talked about the physical investment that goes into writing. He told us how some days he has to force himself to put one word after another and it is like chipping the words off the breastbone. Yet, he still advised us to not stop until we had nailed it.

Writing is a very difficult art form. Many people are seduced by the apparent ease of writing because we use words in our everyday life. But, they soon come to realise that words are difficult because we use them in our everyday life.

There is a duel aspect of the writer. You have to be able to have the creative skill and also the critical skill to look at your own work with detachment. Don’t be so in love with what you have written you can not bare to lose any of the words. You have to have a healthy disrespect for your words. The best writing is where you never lose the structure of what is going on. Be bold take a risk.

Tim does not have an idea about his plot or characters until he starts to write about them. He said if you plot and plan - stay loose. It’s only words. Make a pile of chips. A writer’s chips are there words. Stories come from the secret trap hidden bi-ways of the soul.

Writing is not a skill it is a symptom. If you don’t know the trees you can lose your way in the forest if you don’t know the stories you will lose your way in life. Just because you’ve written if doesn’t mean you have to keep it. Ideas and feeling don’t have a shape. When Tim writes he leaves a mass of work to do at the end of the first draft. He recommends going over and over the text as lovingly as possible. Enjoy the freedom of the free flow. It is exciting for the reader if the writer does not know where they are going because every page is a page-turner. Be prepared to be surprised and be OK about that.

The great thing about writing is not being in control. Writing is about empathy. Temporarily empathise with the book and the story. This makes you feel physically vulnerable. An idea has no gumption if there is no character. Have to have a story, character and a strong problem in a visible location. If you write characters who aren’t interesting you won’t care about them and you won’t love them. The books that stay in your heart are the ones that emotionally move you.

Tim is not a commercially minded person. He leaves that to his editor.

Stories enter our emotional bloodstream by experiencing life through other stories as we grow. But, once the fruit has fallen from the tree it belongs to other people. Be proud of it and remember everyone is entitled to their own opinion. The toughest thing we face as writers is self-doubt. So we all need to remember we all have our own special magic inside of us.

(Previously published the the British SCBWI magazine Words and Pictures)

Charlie the Unicorn

2009-05-10T10:55:00.009+01:00

My kids love these utube videos and can recall all the script and the songs. They are quite funny and worth watching to see what the children like. LOL! That may be a tenious link to make them relevant to my blog. Anyway, take a look and let me know what you think. I challenge you not to laugh!

Coffee Break

2009-05-03T15:56:00.001+01:00

OK... this post does not have a lot to do with writing but, all you Supernatural fans out there will know why I posted this.

Jensen Ackles - Eye of the Tiger
Uploaded by DiziPlus

Isn't it HOT!

The Art of Picture Book Characters with An Vrombaut

2009-02-19T11:17:00.004Z

An Vrombaut is a writer, illustrator and animator. She has always loved picture books and loves drawing animals. She draws from her imagination and prefers this to life drawing. She likes to use coloured outlines for her illustrations.

For the 64 Zoo Lane CBeebies series, there is a regular cast of about 60 animals shown in lots of different situations. For this series the script writers could create their own characters, which is quite unusual as usually get a working bible, which outlines all the characters.

An has had to look in detail at what makes a character good. She is best at writing character driven stories. She thinks to herself, what will make the character 3D and stand out more than another and believes it is the flaws. When writing picture books some of these flaws can be visual in the illustration.

64 Zoo Lane has a very gentle pace. It is shown at Bedtime Hour. An wrote the first ten stories for the first series and had a co-writer for the second series. For the new series, due out on CBeebies soon, she has written ten episodes but, has edited the whole series herself. She loves Zoo Lane. She really knows the character and how they talk. She told us how once the voices have been cast and you’ve heard them, it is easier to do the dialogue.

The first series of Zoo Lane were hand drawn and coloured in on the PC. When animating it is essential that all the animators get the dimensions exactly right. In the new series it is done on Flash and the dimensions are on the computer. There are also lip models so the animators know how to draw the lips when they are speaking.

An’s favourite character from Zoo Lane is Georgina the Giraffe. The giraffe is semi- autobiographical. She also likes Henrietta the Hairy Hippo, which is also semi- autobiographical, because when she was younger she was teased about her ginger hair. The flaws in the character drive the story.

An explained that sometimes when she does a design for a picture book it can be easy and she can produce her ideas in one drawing but, sometimes it takes ages to get the design. She starts by doing a pencil drawing with a 3B pencil then she uses a light box to trace the drawing to get the dimensions for each character just right, and pastels and hard crayons to colour it in. Then she scratches through with a metal tool. Some of the outlines are scratched through as well. She uses her fingers to blend it together.

When making characters sometimes the pictures come first and sometimes the story comes first. For The Lost Acorns, she wrote the whole story in her head before she wrote anything, but that is unusual. The Lost Acorns was produced as an animation for CBeebies. But, An was unaware when it was shown so she has only seen it on YouTube.

Dear Dragon has also been shown for the Bedtime Hour on CBeebies, but she has never seen it. She started working on Dear Dragon in 1998 and the character took her years to create. The princess has changed completely from the original. The editor had said the nose was too long but, in more recent pictures she has made the nose slightly longer again. The dragon wears slippers. The slippers hint at his personality. In the second book he is still blowing bubbles because there is back story in the character.

The Dragon Festival is being developed for TV at the moment. She usually works actual size but, when illustrating Dragon Festival she worked smaller and it got blown up to the right size that was needed.

Smile Crocodile Smile has repetitive text and is lovely to read out loud.

An Vrombaut has also produced a short animated film at The Royal College of Art in 1992, called Little Wolf. This started with sketches of her dog.

Sue Eve's Book Launch

2009-02-13T09:53:00.019Z

On Thursday 5th of February, I went to my friend, Sue Eve's, book launch. She has written a fantastic picture book called: The Quiet Woman and the Noisy Dog. It is about a very noisy dog and his quiet owner. There are lots of great sounds and repetition to stimulate young children.

This is Sue's second picture book. She also wrote and did her own illustrations for Hic, a story about a rather hungry cow looking for adventure.

It was a fantastic evening held at the wonderful Illustration Cupboard, in central London, just off the Piccadilly Road. There was wine and snacks and we were surrounded by the gorgeous illustrations of many famous picture book illustrators. If you visit the Illustration Cupboard, you will be able to buy a copy of the first edition of The Quiet Woman And The Noisy Dog, because Sue has signed and left a few extra copies.

The illustrations for Sue's latest book were drawn by Ailie Busby. Three of the pictures were kindly lent to the Illustration cupboard for the event. I personally love the bold colours and the beautiful vivid greens Ailie has used.

On Saturday 14th February, Sue is going to be doing her first public book signing at Wimbledon Books and Music in South London. She will be reading The Quiet Woman and the Noisy Dog and introducing her new puppet dog. She will also be revealing the name she has picked from the list suggested by a local Berkshire school.

Find out more about Sue Eves on her website: www.sueeves.com.

And finally... a big Happy Birthday to Tony.

An Evening with the Illustrator Axel Scheffler

2009-02-09T14:28:00.002Z

A few weeks ago I was lucky enough to go to a talk by Axel Scheffler about his career as an illustrator of children’s picture books, run by the Society of Authors. The meeting was chaired by Ros Asquith.

Axel is one of my favourite all time illustrators. He won his first drawing prize around the age of eight. It was for a picture of a cow. He is originally from Hamburg but, studied at Bath Academy of Art where he got a first class degree.

He told us, the greatest thing about going to art school was having the freedom to draw for three hours and the qualifications opened doors for employment. He has no time to do observational drawings anymore. He has got out of the habit and has been unable to get back into it. Looking and remembering is a skill some people can not do. Picasso and many other artists all used photos. But, Axel claims it is a skill you can train yourself to do. It makes you look more carefully at things. His style he developed himself. But, he is a perfectionist and is not happy with his work on occasions. He divulged how he finds it difficult to draw a succession of events and prefers to tell a story all in one picture.

He showed his portfolio in the mid-80’s to magazines and got regular work for a magazine called Lotus. He would draw anything and would change his drawings when asked. Sometimes he found himself drawing things he did not really understand. He also worked for a German magazine called Zeitmagazin where he did weekly illustrations and illustrated a column for a food writer.

He has also written and illustrated some Pixi Books (or Pixi Bücher) for their 40th Anniversary. He was one of 10 illustrators asked to commemorate the event. They have published over 1,500 identically sized titles, 10x10cm, which are all grouped and numbered in little series with German precision. He likes to do things that are less main stream, but he has less time nowadays. He enjoys illustrating with little pictures on a white background. He still does some work for The Oldie. He thinks as an illustrator he is more popular in Germany than in the UK.

He showed us hoow when you look at his illustrations over the years you can see his progression from pointy nose characters to softer styles.

The Piemakers by Helen Cresswell was the first book he ever illustrated

Daley B by Jon Blake was the first book he illustrated for Walker Books

Sam: Who Was Swallowed by a Shark by Phyllis Root was the second book he illustrated for Walker Books

In 1994, Julia Donaldson was writing songs for Playdays and Axel Scheffler was recommended as the illustrator. He worked on A Squash and a Squeeze. This was his first book with Macmillan. The next book he did with Julia was The Gruffalo, followed by Room on the Broom, Tiddler and The Stick Man, which was nominated for The Roald Dahl Funny book Prize. These books have been translated into 29 languages.

Publishers often do not have the patience to develop illustrators and authors. But, he has worked with Macmillan a long time now and they have moulded him into what they want. There are many people involved in the publication of a picture book. The final product is very influenced by the editor and art director.

The Gruffalo
Usually when he has an idea he ends up sticking with it. But with The Gruffalo cover his original just had a shadow of The Gruffalo, but the editor wanted the main protagonist on the cover so he redrew it. However, in the US they did not want the main protagonist on the cover so he had to draw another one where he hid The Gruffalo partially behind a shrub. This only appeared on the US first edition, the second edition adopted the UK design.

He explained how he had a terrible time getting the skies right because he found it difficult to get the liquid watercolours to do what he wanted. He usually starts his illustrations with liquid watercolours (like ink) drawings a lot smaller than in the book and they get blown up to the right size, which he then works with. He dips a pen into the ink and then colours them with special coloured pencils. He used to do his picture book drawings the same size but, now he does them 90%. He always starts with ink outlines and then colours on top of the inks and rubs in the colours with his fingers. At the end he reinforces the outline with the ink and adds details, such as lines for fur and leaves. Nowadays he is able to ask the publishers to make small alterations in Photoshop but, previously he was only able to change it by hand and then email the new version.

The Smartest Giant in Town
For this book he also drew a totally different front cover, but they wanted something more friendly so he had to rethink.

Rabbit's Nap (Tales from Acorn Wood)
This is a lift the flap book and Axel loved drawing the little dressed animals

The Gruffalo Song and Other Songs
This was not the first cover design again, as he decided he did not want to metamorphosis the animals. This book is also available as a musical audio CD.

Axel’s advice to aspiring illustrators is to practice hard. He kept a sketch book from the age of about 18 before he started at art college. There is a whole playground of ideas in these sketch books that he has jotted down. Sometimes the sketch books relate to books he is working on. Axel explained how it is nice to look at old sketch books as they bring back memories. But, it is the unpredictability of the whole business that is so lovely about it.

Children Using Non-Fiction Books

2009-01-27T13:36:00.003Z

As you may all know, I write a column for Writers’ Forum on the types of research authors do for their books. I was also a primary school teacher for seventeen long years and now write children's illustrated non-fiction and teacher resources for primary school. So children, using non-fiction books for their own research and writing is something that fascinates me.

Margaret Mallett has written extensively about children using non-fiction for researching their own writing. She has written such books as:

These books are aimed at primary school teachers with an aim of teaching children how to use non-fiction books and list suitable non-fiction books to meet the requirements of the National Curriculum and Literacy Strategy.

It is true there are new, fun interactive ways to find information via the Internet and CDRoms. These interactive models work and provide variation. But, in my experience, children do still enjoy looking at non-fiction books to satisfy their curiosity and thirst for knowledge. Non-fiction books need to be widely available in the classroom to support other things they are doing.

Making non-fiction reading and writing exciting and relevant helps advance children's thinking and understanding. Young children require literacy activities that are embedded in practical activities, drama, role-play and outings. These connect children's experiences in school with wider society and provide opportunities to use and talk about texts.

Time should be made during the school day (OK! Don’t laugh – I’ve been there!) for the children to talk about specifically non-fiction books. As writers and teachers we ultimately want children to learn to be independent readers by looking at both fiction and non-fiction books. Listening to others and their interpretations of the books helps with internal reasoning and encourages a quest to find out more. The children’s hypothesis can be supported and reinforced by looking at more books.

Teachers should also read non-fiction books to the class and show the illustrations. Seeing the pictures and hearing the text triggers reflection and help the children by giving knowledge. Using illustrated non-fiction in the classroom is a highly successful way to engage children's interest, helping them to establish a personal foothold and provide a reference against which to check what they have found from other information sources.

Story sacks don’t have to be confined to KS1 they can be for any age and contain non-fiction books. Drama does not have to be solely linked to fiction but can be used to support what is happening in non-fiction texts too.

In my opinion, to foster a love of children’s non-fiction books we need to think about the way it is being used with the children in the classroom and at home.

Nibweb survey of children's non-fiction publishing

2009-01-22T12:20:00.008Z

I am a member of Nibweb, the Network for Information Book Writers and Editors.

In 2009 Nibweb is undertaking a survey of children's non-fiction publishing - its problems, its opportunities, and its future.

Why?
2009 is clearly going to be a difficult year for publishing - Children's non-fiction included. There are however particular issues that go beyond the immediate effects of the credit crunch.

Does children's non-fiction have a future in the age of the internet?

Will children and parents continue to buy the books, and will libraries stock them or install more computers instead?

Is the internet a better medium in for this material in any case?

How can we ensure that this area of publishing remains profitable, so that both writers and publishers can make a decent return on their efforts and that issues such as contract conditions and in house editing can be improved?

How can we best promote the excellent work of children's non-fiction writers, editors and publishers?

If you would like to take part in this survey and add your thoughts and experiences of the publishing world, please visit the Nibweb website at: www.nibweb.co.uk and click on the link for Survey 2009.

What children's non-fiction will survive the electronic age?

2009-01-07T13:48:00.006Z

Here are some of the books that I believe will survive the electronic age. I have tried to highlight children’s books that I think will capture a child’s imagination and make them want to read more. I have mainly chosen children’s non-fiction book but, I have also included some fiction which are based on fact.

Eyewitness Guides
The Dorling Kindersley Eyewitness Guides are full of brilliant photographs that grasp a child’s imagination whilst giving them a realistic portrayal of the world around them. This type of dramatic visual stimulus encourages children to want to find out more.

Pick Me Up - Stuff You Need To Know...
I reviewed this book in 2006. See: Book Review - Pick Me Up. Again, it is a visually engaging book that describes itself as information for the ipod generation. This sort of resource is the way into children’s non-fiction as it gives snippets to capture the child’s interest and hopefully make them want to explore the issues further.

Walker Books' Read and Wonder series
Picture books, such as Spider Watching by Vivian French, Think of an Eel by Karen Wallace and others in the Walker, Read and Wonder series, convey factual information without appearing like a heavy duty reference book. The quality of the information is extremely good. The illustrations are lyrical as well as poetic. There is a rhythmic feel to the book that will engage a child to want to read over and over again.

Walker Books’ Start with Science series
Books such as, Oscar and the Bird: A Book about Electricity by Geoff Waring provide enough information to satisfy a thirst for information within pictures that are full of the wonder and intrigue. This is one of a series of books about Oscar the cat, which are open-ended to encourage further reading. Such books will encourage an interest in research and children’s non-fiction from a very early age.

Running Shoes by Frederick Lipp
This book shows what it is like in Cambodia using a fictional story to transmit the message. I believe introducing fact through fiction is a powerful tool and can help to engage a child’s mind and stimulate them to want to learn more.

Archie's War by Marcia Williams
Archie’ War is classified as fiction but, the information can convey to other children what it was like in Britain during World War One, by portraying life through the eyes of a child. It is full of oversize spreads with collages of period post cards, taped-on bric-a-brac, newspaper clippings, fold-out letters from the front and hilarious, highly detailed comic-strip style cartoons drawn with coloured pencils.

If you can think of any other children's non-fiction books you believe will survive the electronic age please feel free to leave a comment and tell me your ideas.

Children's non-fiction

2009-01-04T21:27:00.005Z

For my first post of 2009, I thought I would write about something that is close to my heart - children's non-fiction.

Over the last few years there have been changes in children's non-fiction and how it is presented and used in the classroom. Today teachers will use a more interactive model of non-fiction and in my opinion this makes learning more fun and exciting.

New technology has bought multi-media texts to the fore and we can use moving images to enhance children's learning. For examle, we can actually see a digestive system working or what the night sky would loook like on specific days at a certain time. Multi-media texts have huge data bases containing large amounts of information readily available at a click of a mouse.

But, does this advancing technology mean parents are less likely to buy their children a non-fiction book, prefering them to do their research on the Internet? This is a worry for the children's non-fiction writer and may mean we have to consider ways to make the traditional non-fiction book more appealing.

Print books can benefit from these advances by becoming more spectacular themselves and already many include a CD-Rom to compliment the printed text.

But, what is the next step? What non-fiction books are going to survive the electronic age?

Happy 2009

2008-12-31T14:42:00.006Z

It is the end of the year all ready. It does not seem a whole year since I was sat here wishing you all the best for 2008 and if I remember rightly I set myself some targets.

Did I achieve these targets?

The answer is NO, not entirely.

I managed to give up the alchohol for eight weeks and got really ill. My theory is it was the alchohol killing off all the germs, so even with the aid of the liquer chocolates, I reckon I shouldn't try that again.

But, although I have written six books this year, I did not break into the children's fiction market and I did not earn enough money to pay the tax man. Wow! Now I feel like a total failure.

So, what are my targets or New Year resolutions for 2009?

I have decided not to set any. I am going to do whatever makes me feel happy and see what happens. Throw caution to the wind and see where it takes me. Wish me luck!

I hope 2009 brings everything you wish for.

HAVE A GREAT NEW YEAR

And to give my blog that traditional international feel...

Nuovo anno felice!

For all those Italian readers who are looking at my blog.

www.anitaloughrey.com

2008-12-22T19:47:00.009Z

I have now got a brand new all singing, all dancing website.

It was not that long ago that I updated my website myself but, since then it has been totally re-designed for me by a very nice man who lives in Italy.

I must say I am totally impressed with the new site and I am very happy. Riky is a graphic designer and designed the CSS template especially for me and he also runs his own web company: Riccardo Angelella

If you have not yet seen my new website please do take a look at www.anitaloughrey.com

The site is due to be updated again in the New Year to include my new books. For more information about my latest book take a look at my blog post: Healthy Schools, Healthy Lives

You can also see my latest children's non-fiction book on Amazon: Diabetes (Explaining)

Healthy Schools, Healthy Lives

2008-12-18T20:56:00.008Z

Tackling Obesity at School

Here is a copy of the information for my latest book from Hopscotch Educational's catalogue.

Healthy Schools, Healthy Lives: A Teacher's Guide to Tackling Childhood Obesity

It is absolutely packed with teacher activities and photocopiable worksheets that emphasise healthy eating and exercise. The aim is to teach the younger generation good eating, sleeping and exercise habits to help reduce the childhood obesity problem nationwide.

You didn't realise there was a problem? Take a look at some of these news reports:

An advent calendar of writing exercises

2008-12-02T12:19:00.006Z

Hi All,

I know I've been a naughty, naughty girl and haven't posted for ages and I wont be on Santa's christmas list. But, I just had to make a post when I saw this...

My very good friend, Benjamin Scott, is posting The Advent of a Seasonal Workshop – December 2008

Take a look. Try some of the exercises, if not all of them. Use them as a warm-up before you get down to your novel.

Oh yeah, and you can share your response with the Gatehouse Community if you want too. Or you could post them in my messages on my blog. I like messages and it would be great to read your stuff.

Well hopefully see you all soon.

Love Anita xxx