Category: Sighted At Large
Matthew Arnold School Visit
On Thursday 16th May, I visited Matthew Arnold School in Oxford, accompanied by Moira da Costa of the Oxford Children’s Book Group, who had kindly arranged the event.
Over lunch, I chatted with half a dozen Year 10 students from the school’s very active book group. Most were keen and dedicated writers themselves, and had many good questions about publication, the craft of writing, motivation and how to form dislocated ideas into a coherent plot during the brainstorming stage.
Afterwards, I talked to two different groups taken from Years 7 and 8 in the school’s spacious, comfortable library.
Memorable Questions:
Q: Is it scary to see a book you wrote in a shop?
A: No – not for me, anyway. The other customers might be a bit unnerved to see me bouncing up and down with glee.
Q: How does it feel when you’re writing?
A: It depends how it’s going. When it’s flowing well and the ideas keep coming it’s the best feeling in the world (though I do need someone to remind me to eat). When I have writer’s block, it’s depressing and frustrating. When I ‘block’ it doesn’t stop me being able to write, but I end up rewriting the same section over and over without finding something that works. When I’m near a deadline, on the other hand, I write like crazy and get through cauldrons of tea. That stage is invigorating, in a panicky sort of way…
Dark Societies
Everybody loves a good dystopia, whether it’s a glossy techno-paradise masquerading as the ideal state, a grimly militant regime set up after a zombie apocalypse, or futures where society has found solutions far worse than its original problems. Many serve as dark warnings, or comments on the world’s current course. A surprising number are hopeful, showing human courage and resourcefulness winning out against a dark and fallen world.
On 2nd May at Waterstones Piccadilly, The Post Apocalyptic Book Club hosted “Dark Societies”, a panel event discussing books about Societies Gone Bad.
The panel was ably moderated by Leila Abu El Hawa, and consisted of Tom Hunter (Director of The Arthur C Clarke Award for Science Fiction), Robert Grant (Literary Editor of Sci-Fi London and Juror of the Clarke Awards), Anne C Perry (Assistant Editor at Hodder & Stoughton and co-founder of the wonderful Kitschies Awards), Adam Roberts (author of BSFA award-winning Jack Glass
We discussed this year’s Clarke Award shortlist and winner, the importance of awards and the vogues for different dark futures. (Zombies are still ‘in’, but the fashion may well change.)
Given the many threats to humanity, Adam Roberts offered to take over the Earth as supreme leader so that he could hold all the dark futures at bay. I was quickly sworn in as his Commander-in-Chief and Minister in Charge of Hats.
Lots of really excellent (and sometimes daunting) questions from the audience about the politics of dystopian writing, whether it is fundamentally optimistic or pessimistic, etc. I hope everybody else enjoyed the event as much as I did. I certainly learnt a lot from my fellow panelists.
School Visits with Just Imagine
On 30th April, I visited Chelmsford for some school visits arranged by Just Imagine Story Centre.
At Tyrrells Primary, I ran a character design workshop for Year 6 students from Tyrrels, The Bishops’ School and Springfield Primary (nothing to do with The Simpsons).
The group came up with some amazingly original characters, including a kind-hearted pygmy elephant, a leprechaun who would rather kill children than see them upset, a sock-hating forest being who had to cross an ocean to rescue her family from a museum, an animated gargoyle who could pick locks with his teeth, a youthful criminal mastermind, a girl who turned into a marshmallow due to an extreme allergic reaction, an unpronounceable alien and many more. I really hope that some of those ideas become stories!
After lunch we traveled to Felsted Primary, where I gave a talk in the music room, followed by a signing in the sunshine.
ChipLitFest
I was lucky enough to be invited to the Chipping Norton Literary Festival, now in its second year. The hotel booked for visiting authors turned out to be, um, a bit grand in places.
Next morning, kindly and well-organised volunteers ferried us to Jaffe & Neale (a wondrous bookshop/cafe with timber beams and a fine range of cake). I was then taken to Middle Barton Primary where I performed before a mixture of Years 4, 5 and 6. There followed discussions of octopi, hats and the relative evilness of sisters.
During the book signing, some students found themselves with 1p change after buying their book, and decided to donate it to the author as a ‘tip’. This has now been added to my savings.
We returned to Jaffe & Neale for lunch in the ‘green room’, where a happy collection of writers and illustrators were plied with tea, cake, sandwiches and elderflower cordial.
School visits in Hammersmith and Hoddesdon
On Tuesday 19th April, I visited Latymer Preparatory School, which already had a number of impressive projects on display.
The discussion at the end of my talk covered the unnatural pallour of people living underground, alternative forms of technology (kitepunk!), etc. Finally I signed a stack of books supplied by the Lion and Unicorn Bookshop.
A week later, on Tuesday 22nd March, I ventured into snowbound Hertfordshire for two events organised by Books@Hoddesdon.
The first took place at The John Warner School in Hoddesdon, where I talked to two hundred members of Year 7.
A Memorable Question:
Q. Does being an author change the way you read books, and has it made you analyse them more?
A. My degree was in English, so I already tended to be a bit analytical as a reader. But yes, I am now more likely to sympathise with what an author is trying to do. I’m also much more likely to read a really good part and think, drat, I wish I’d written that…
There seemed to be a lot of keen readers, including a young contest winner who had read 60 books since September, excluding all the books she had read at home…
After lunch I visted the impressive campus of Haileybury School to talk to groups from Year 7 of the Lower School.
A Memorable Question:
Q: Do you ever brag to your friends about the books you’re writing?
A: I didn’t used to like talking about them at all. When people asked me sign books I used to hide under tables. But now a certain sort of ‘bragging about my books’ is part of my job. It’s called ‘self-promotion’.
I then signed a small mountain of books – some dedicated to ‘Brancombeast’ and ‘Manstrangler’…
Greenwich Schools Book Quiz
On 14th March I travelled to the Shooter’s Hill Post 16 Campus, where the final of the Greenwich Schools Book Quiz was being run by an elite team of sixth formers. (It was also great to meet Caroline Fielding and the other school librarians responsible for coming up with the questions.)
Unlike the competing teams, I only had to answer questions about my own books.
The other author present was Ellie Daines, who talked about her debut, Lolly Luck. (Her next book, a tale of amnesia and family disruption, also sounds fascinating.)
Ellie and I were given the task of declaring the winners and runners-up, and presenting gold, silver and bronze medals, all of which made me feel like an Olympic dignitary. Congratulations to ‘St. Ursula’s Hardinge’ team for taking the gold, and to all the other teams for doing so well in a close-fought contest!
World Book Week
World Book Week an inspirational celebration of reading. It’s also an excuse for me to escape from my computer, and bounce from school to school like a book-obsessed pinball, waving my arms and enthusing about writing. I’m trying to pretend that this still counts as ‘work’.
Pop-Up Festival Booklinks Programme
On Monday 4th March, I took part in the Booklinks Programme, with visits to Our Lady’s Convent High School and Clapton Girls’ Academy.
I’d barely arrived at Our Lady’s Convent High School when my eye fell on some fantastic posters that Year 8 had created, advertising an imaginary movie of A Face Like Glass. (One of them had Eddie Murphy and Jim Carrey in the ‘cast list’ – good choices for a tale of facial contortion.)
Photo taken by Jane McLoughlin
Clapton Girls’ Academy Year 8 had also prepared for my visit, working together to create a list of really original, well-considered questions. It was a bit like being interviewed, but with a different interviewer for every question.
Q. Have you ever suffered from writer’s block?
A. Yes. It doesn’t stop me writing, it just means that for a while nothing I write or re-write works.
Q. If you had to sum up A Face Like Glass in three words, what would they be?
A. Innocence. Betrayal. Revolution.
Q. Do you see yourself in any of your characters?
A. Yes. All of them. Even the homicidal goose in Fly by Night.
Royal Ballet School
On Wednesday 6th March I walked through beautiful Richmond Park to the White Lodge, previously a Royal hunting lodge and now the Lower School of the Royal Ballet School.
English teacher Charlotte Taylor kindly gave me a guided tour of the building (including a ballet museum, Pavlova’s furniture, vaulted corridors that used to be the servants’ tunnels and a rather splendid room where Nelson once planned the Battle of Trafalgar).
The students proved to be welcoming, enthusiastic and full of ingenious queries that forced me to think on my feet.
Q. If you had written your first book differently, do you think that would have affected the way you wrote all your other books?
A. Yes. My first book taught me that I could get away with weird.
Q. Can you give us tips for world-building?
A. Try to understand how your world works, who’s in charge of what, and how the people there get boring things like food, water, clothes and money. Imagine living there for a month.
Q. Have you ever changed your mind halfway through a book, and abandoned your plan?
A. I’ve never completely abandoned the plan, though I’ve sometimes changed my mind about major aspects of the book while writing it. It was still really useful to have the plan, though.
At the end of my presentation, I was even given a big bunch of flowers and a bag of goodies. Excuse me while I drink more tea from my new Royal Ballet School mug…
Chandlings Manor School
On World Book Day itself I visited Chandlings Manor School for a double session, talking to Years 5 and 6 in turn. My taxi was late, but fortunately Mark Thornton of Mostly Books valiantly held the fort for five minutes until I arrived. During that time, the students apparently decided that he was my bodyguard.
Chandlings is full of interesting gothic touches, including a blazing open hearth in the front hall and a sort of minstrels’ gallery in the library. Apparently there’s even an unsolved historic mystery linked to the building. (Given all these resemblances to a school from a book, I secretly hope that the pupils spend all their free time roasting chestnuts, investigating ghosts and solving mysteries.)
Favourite moment: Being asked if I’d ever been so frustrated that I just wanted to give up being a writer… and realising that, no, I never had. Not even when my books were driving me mad.
Interview with BBC Radio Oxford
My last World Book Day engagement was an interview by Jo Anthony of BBC Radio Oxford. Thanks to Jo’s skilful questions, I forgot to be terrified of the microphone, and babbled happily about A Face Like Glass, hats, my fascination with expressions and the path to publication.
Ah. I suppose I should probably stop enthusing about books now, and go back to writing them…
Library Hopping in Oxford
To celebrate the release of A Face Like Glass in paperback, I spent Friday 1st March visiting libraries in Oxford, ably abetted by Sally Oliphant from Macmillan.
First I dropped in on Oxford’s Central Library, where I talked to Year 6 of St. Ebbe’s Primary in the Living Room. They listened very patiently despite all having to sit on the floor at my feet.
After a very tasty fried breakfast at the Art Cafe, we headed to Cowley, where I met with classes from St Christopher’s C of E Primary in the friendly, cheerful Children’s section of Cowley Library.
Thanks to Oxfordshire Libraries for inviting me, Sally Oliphant for being an organisational whirlwind, and the students of St Ebbes and St Christopher’s for coming up with so many cunning questions.
Most thought-provoking question: “Will you ever set a story in the future, or will you keep writing books set in the past?”
Answer: I’m a lot more comfortable with a historical setting than a futuristic one. But who knows? Perhaps one day. I do like trying new things.
Favourite comment of the day: “I don’t think you could write a fluffy bunny story.”
Answer: It’s a fair cop. Even if I started a book with pink bunnies going on a picnic, twists, turns and mysteries would creep into the story in spite of my best efforts. And then there’d be a murder…
An Evening with the Kraken: Kitschies Awards 2013
The Kitschies “reward the year’s most progressive, intelligent and entertaining works that contain elements of the speculative or fantastic.”
Awards have different personalities. The Kitschies are like the most entertaining kind of friend – smart, adventurous, broad-minded, unabashed and fun. One of the perks of getting shortlisted for the prized Red Tentacle award was the invitation to a Kitschies party.
I must admit, I was privately delighted that the dress code was ‘Tentacular Flair’.
(Photo taken by Bella Pagan)
I was accompanied by my agent Nancy Miles, Sally Oliphant and my editor Rachel Petty (who valiantly turned up despite being ill).
(Picture taken by Nancy Miles)
There was much happy milling, chatting and discovering that various Twitternames had real people attached to them. (There are good accounts of the award ceremony here and here, and there will soon be more photos of the event in the Paint Factory section of my website.)
(Photo taken by Bella Pagan)
The winners of the coveted, hand-made and besequinned tentacles were as follows:
The Red Tentacle (novel): Nick Harkaway for Angelmaker
The Golden Tentacle (debut): Karen Lord for Redemption in Indigo
The Inky Tentacle (cover art): Dave Shelton for A Boy and a Bear in a Boat
The Black Tentacle (excellent thing that doesn’t really fit in a category) : The World SF Blog
So I didn’t win, but I can’t be sorry to be bested by Nick Harkaway. Not only has he written a remarkable book, but he claimed his prize wearing a bravura display of tartan, enthused gleefully about freezing his own head and then made like an elephant. I think the Tentacle found its rightful home.
Many thanks to the Kitschies for a wonderful event, and for my free bottle of Kraken Rum!
Kid’s Literature Quiz Final – 6th December
My role at the Kid’s Literature Quiz Final was very easy. I just had to support a team from a school in my area. (‘Supporting’ involved smiling hopefully on the sidelines whilst the team did the hard work, and trying to pretend that I would have been able to answer all the questions.)
I was lucky enough to be supporting the team from The Cherwell School, shown here looking surprisingly chilled despite the fact that the quiz was about to start.
All teams involved were razor-sharp, and gave a good account of themselves. The Cherwell School team were awesome, pouncing on the buzzer to give correct answers on books like Michael Grant’s “Gone” after mere fragments of the question, and identifying Ebeneezer Scrooge from only seven words of the description. After an incredibly closely fought contest they took the second prize.
Congratulations also to Cockermouth School for winning the contest, and to all the other teams for a bravura display of literary knowledge. Many thanks to everybody who helped to organise such an enjoyable event!
