Tag: school visits
The Cake is Not In Fact a Lie
To be honest, I can’t quite remember the moment where I thought: “I know what the world needs – a Victorian Gothic murder mystery featuring deception, palaeontology, postmortem photography, feminism, blasting powder and mendacity-munching plant life.”
Oh well, too late to change my mind now. The Lie Tree is published!
To celebrate this, I headed north for a brief but enthusiastic three-day tour, under the wing of Macmillan’s Andy Belshaw.
Day One of the tour was organised by Booka Bookshop, in Oswestry.
Our first visit was to Moreton Hall School, where I babbled about changelings in front of a hundred and fifty students, before signing copies of Cuckoo Song and The Lie Tree.
Later that evening I attended a friendly, relaxed meeting of the teen book club (and others) at Booka Bookshop.
Day Two was arranged by Urmston Bookshop, and began with a visit to Manchester High School for Girls. Although I didn’t discover this until later, MHSG was actually the school attended by the famous suffragettes Christabel, Sylvia and Adela Pankhurst!
I was rather pleased to find that I’d been promoting a feminist YA book at the Pankhursts’ old school. During election season, no less…
Next we moved on to Altrincham Girls’ Grammar School, where I gave two talks to Y8 students in the school library.
Back to Urmston Bookshop for serious literary discussions. Otherwise known as eating cake, and posing in the cardboard cutout of a previous visitor, astronaut Chris Hadfield.
The final day was organised by Ebb & Flo Bookshop in Chorley. Our first stop was Bolton School Girls’ Division.
Here I am with Diane Gunning of Ebb & Flo in front of Bolton School, which as you can see is splendidly crenellated and Hogwarts-like. (Apparently the library is tucked in one of the towers, and there are mysterious upper rooms…)
Ell & Flo had prepared us a rather nice picnic, which we gobbled en route to our last stop, Albany Academy. There I gave a talk to a packed hall, followed by a short recorded interview. One student approached me and suggested a particularly eerie idea for a story… which I really hope he writes so that I can find out what happens.
Many thanks to all the schools for having me, and Andy Belshaw for looking after me throughout the tour. A big thank you also to Booka Bookshop, Urmston Bookshop and Ebb & Flo Bookshop for all their hard work, and for the goodie bags of presents!
Mini-Tour for The Lie Tree
The Lie Tree will be published on 7th May, and to celebrate this I will be heading north for a small tour (Tourling? Tourlet? Probably not tourette.)
For those that are interested, here is my schedule:
Tuesday 5th May
14:00 Author talk at Moreton Hall School, Oswestry
17.30 Informal talk with teen book club at Booka Bookshop, Oswestry
Wednesday 6th May
10.05 Author talk at Manchester High School for Girls, Manchester
13.30, 14.30 Two author talks at Altrincham Grammar School for Girls, Altrincham
Thursday 7th May
12.10 Author talk at Bolton School Girls’ Division, Bolton
14:15 Author talk at Albany Academy, Chorley
Many thanks to Booka Bookshop, Urmston Bookshop and Ebb & Flo Bookshop for supporting and organising these events!
World Book Week 2015
“How to Write for Children and Young Adults and Get Published”
My World Book Week started early, with the How To Write for Children and Young Adults and Get Published conference on Saturday 28th February. The conference was arranged by Writers & Artists, and hosted at the rather grand Bloomsbury offices on Bedford Square. Many thanks to Claire Daly of Bloomsbury for briefing me and generally looking after me!
Throughout the morning, panels of literary agents and commissioning editors discussed the dos and don’ts of submissions. In the afternoon, attendees could choose between three two-hour masterclasses: Holly Bourne‘s class on YA fiction, my class on writing for middle grade, and Sue Hendra‘s class on picture books.
Mine was the largest class (thirty of us crowded around the long table) but I was lucky enough to have a really keen, interesting, varied and insightful group. We had attendees from different countries and professions, working on a wide range of projects – contemporary, historical, fantasy, humour, adventure, fiction and non-fiction. I really enjoyed our discussions, and in particular everyone’s offerings for the ‘childhood memories’ exercise. Good luck to everyone with their writing!
Visit to Ashford School
On Tuesday 3rd March, I visited Ashford School in Kent, which turned out to be friendly, mellow, engaged and interesting, with some nice old Victorian buildings and really impressive paintings by students on the walls.
I spoke to Years 6, 7 and 8, who had interesting questions to ask about the writing process, changeling folklore, horror stories, etc.
I even had the chance to chat with members of the Sixth Form Literary Society about university, hobbies and choices.
Kitschies Award Ceremony
The Kitschies are amongst my favourite speculative prizes – they’re fun, forward-thinking and fascinated with tentacles. Last year, I was invited to be one of the Kitschies judges for the Golden Tentacle (debut novel) and Red Tentacle (most entertaining, progressive and original novel). I leapt at the chance and said yes… and immediately disappeared under an enormous pile of books.
In the end, there were 195 submissions. Fortunately I was only one of five judges, a couple of whom got through books faster than a woodchipper. My comrades-in-arms were Glen Mehn, Adam Roberts, Kim Curran and Cat Webb. (Glen did a great job of organising and motivating us as we scaled the vast mountain of books, and made sure none of us fell into the crevasses.)
The awards ceremony took place on Wednesday 4th March at Seven Dials near Covent Garden. Glen was master of ceremonies, Cat and Kim announced the Golden Tentacle winner, and Adam and I presented the Red Tentacle. (Adam’s speeches were a lot more eloquent than mine, despite the fact that I had prepared a script and he hadn’t.)
Jim Kay also gave a very enlightening speech about the trials of cover artists, whose work requires a great deal of skill, effort and patience, but whose contributions are so often overlooked.
The proud winners of the Kitchies tentacles were:
Red Tentacle (novel): Grasshopper Jungle by Andrew Smith
Golden Tentacle (debut): Viper Wine by Hermione Eyre
Inky Tentacle (cover art): The cover of Tigerman, by Glenn O’Neill
Invisible Tentacle (natively digital fiction): Kentucky Route Zero, Act III, by Cardboard Computer
Black Tentacle (special achievement): Sarah McKintyre
Visit to Townley Grammar
My day started inauspiciously, when I found myself stranded at Bexleyheath station without a taxi in sight. After I phoned the school in a slight panic, however, I was rescued from my predicament by Batgirl.
In the comfortable, friendly library, I talked to members of Years 7, 8 and 9, many of whom were magnificently disguised as book characters…
…as were the teachers.
Finally, I was interviewed by ace student reporters Medusa and Holly Golightly (I assume they don’t always go by those identities.)
And just because I can’t resist, here are some more of the World Book Day costumes.
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’…
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…
