Answering Back : Penny Dolan

One of the small problems about flying off next week to tell stories at Delhi's Bookaroo Children’s Book Festival(with surrounding holiday) is that . . . . er . . er . . . part of me quite wants to stay home here in Yorkshire working on Tome Two.

I’m behind on my personal deadline. This Autumn’s run of visits tore into the energy I need for my writing work. This is not a complaint, especially as the schools and libraries were really great, but the big fact in most author's writing/earning balance. Visiting is essentially “Out There”; Writing is “In Here”.

I know I should be up and at the Tome every spare second, but my creative mind doesn’t work like that, and before anyone quotes inspirational tales of Messrs Trollope or Archer or even the feted Miss Price, I have no servants, assistants or anyone else writing down my book words.

However, the enforced silence was useful. Returning to the Tome, I suddenly saw that a certain light and subtle story twist was actually constructed of a material somewhat heavier then lead. It required, and will require, strong and severe plot-wrangling.

There is also another problem to solve. The small matter of X, a secondary character: a pale, pitiful creature doomed to arrive at a poignantly early end.

X has decided to be nothing of the sort. In true Jasper-Ffordean manner, she is stomping on furiously, full of life and health and wanting to have her own way. Just now I can’t see how or if I can ever take her in hand, let alone what she will do to the main characters. So much for the power of the synopsis! She cannot be trusted alone.

So I have decided that in Delhi, home of the power-cut,I must keep writing, but it will be - aagh! - by hand. Even though that means facing up to my awful over-excited scrawl. Even though I need the protective “writing distance” my computer screen gives me. I considered the lap-top option, but that adds weight and safety issues. Hand-writing sounds so much more reliable, doesn’t it?

I fear it will all come back to me: the stained fingers, the gloom as the paper is covered in more and more deletions, the awful over-writing, the sense of homework badly done. Ho hum. I must try to be positive.

Will my back-to-scribbling plan work? It's essential that it does, because I’ve reached a significant point in the making of Tome Two, a moment that ABBA writers may recognise, and it is joyous. When I sat down to work this last week, the writing had begun speaking back to me.

www.pennydolan.com

REVIEWS by Adèle Geras

The Well and the Mine by Gin Phillips (Virago)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ceDxO50GVes

Before you read this review, just to get yourself in the right mood,please cut and paste the link above into Google (I haven't been able to make it live, I'm afraid!) and listen to this clip from Youtube of Gillian Welch singing a song called Annabelle from her album Revival. I had Gillian’s voice (and particularly singing this song) running through my head as I read The Well and the Mine. The book was published by a small press at first, having been turned down by several mainstream publishers and then went on to win the coveted Barnes and Noble award in the USA. Now it’s here and I’m recommending it highly to anyone who wants a novel that’s well-written, involving and full of characters we grow to love in spite of their flaws and weaknesses.
It’s the story of a family in hard times. Carbon Hill is a small mining town in Alabama and the book begins in dramatic fashion with a young girl hearing someone...well, here’s the first sentence: “After she threw the baby in, nobody believed me for the longest time. But I kept hearing that splash.” The whole novel, as well as solving the mystery of who threw the baby into the well, describes a community and the relationships between the individuals in it brilliantly well. The members of Tess’s family tell the story in a kind of relay of narration: handing the point of view baton from one to the other. The result is a slow-burning but consistently interesting and engaging story. The mother of the family in particular, is a wonderfully- realized character and the descriptions of such things as food and clothes and furnishings are outstanding. You really do come away from this novel feeling as though you’ve joined the family as one of its members and lived another life for a while. When you surface, it takes time to forget where you’ve been, and I went on remembering what it was like in Phillips’s world for a very long time after I’d finished the book. It’s a terrific first novel and I’m already looking forward to what this writer does next. Buy the book and also the Gillian Welch cd while you’re at it.

Howards End is on the Landing by Susan Hill (Profile Books. £12.99)

My top tip for Christmas for anyone who loves books is this small volume (HEIOTL from now on!) by one of our best and most reliable writers. Susan Hill writes everything, pretty well: literary novels, detective stories, ghost stories of course and essays too, as this book proves. She also blogs at the Spectator and runs a publishing house called Long Barn Books. HEIOTL began when Hill went looking for a book and, in the course of a search through the intricacies of her house, came across a whole number of volumes she either hadn’t read yet or else wanted to revisit. So she made a resolution to buy no new books for a year and simply read what she fancied from her own shelves. What she finds and how she finds it and what these discoveries bring to mind turns into a huge treat for us, her readers. It’s exactly like having a friend sitting with you, chatting about books in a most civilised and also gossipy and personal fashion. You find out not only about her tastes, but also about her education, her brushes with such people as E. M Forster, Edith Sitwell, Benjamin Britten and lots of others. You learn about her life, a little, and most importantly, you learn about the house itself. It is described in small glimpses, but by the end, you feel you know it, every corner. And just as you can envisage famous houses in novels, Susan Hill’s house comes to life as a character in these pages.
One of the best things about reading HEIOTL is that you are almost bound to disagree with some of Hill’s judgements and jump up and down and yell: YOU CAN’T THINK THAT! But yes, she can. Of course she can and why not? These are her books and her opinions and there isn’t a single thing in the world which pleases everyone. We all have our bêtes noires, don’t we ? And we each have our own taste. Most of the reviews for this book have been kind and more than kind, but I did see a sort of luke-warmish one which said something along the lines of: all very nice if you discount her Middle England tastes....or some such. I nearly exploded. You have the taste you have, and if you can write about it as well and as delightfully as Susan Hill, then that’s fantastic. You’ll find here, by the way, three pages of some of the best writing on Dickens that I’ve ever read and which nails completely and succinctly what it is that is so magical about his works.
As a bonus, the book is beautiful as an object. Hill is fussy about fonts and quite right too. Her cover is perfect and, as I said at the beginning of this piece, would look good gift-wrapped under a Christmas tree.

Alice in Love and War by Ann Turnbull (Walker Books, £6.99)

Ann needs no introduction to readers of ABBA, I’m quite sure, but for those of you who have strayed here from somewhere else, you ought to know that she’s one of the very best historical novelists writing today and has not had nearly enough written or said about her books, which are in a different class from most children’s historical fiction, and indeed most children’s fiction being written today. I should declare an interest here. Ann and Linda Newbery and I collaborated on the Historical House series of books and she’s a friend of mine, but even before I knew her, I admired her work and she’s kept up a very consistent standard. I ought also to point out that Leslie Wilson has written about this book before on ABBA, but (slightly adapting the words of the creator of another Alice, who advocated three times) “What I tell you two times is true.” In the words of Mae West: “Too much of a good thing can be wonderful.”
Alice in Love and War is a good title. The book is about exactly that. It’s the story of a young woman called Alice Newcombe, and begins on a farm in the West Country in 1644. Alice can read and write. She’s the daughter of a herbalist. Her father is dead and she lives with her uncle and aunt, but her uncle is after her with his pawing hands and slobbering lips and she’s very unhappy with her situation. When the Royalist troops are billeted on them, she falls deeply in love with Robin and when given the chance to accompany him, with the other women camp followers, she seizes it and the adventures that ensue are heartstopping, moving and will keep readers turning the pages eagerly till the end of the story. Women have always followed armies, and Ann Turnbull’s depiction of the relationships and friendships among them is particularly well done.
I’m not going to give anything away, but will say this: any teacher who’s presently embarked on teaching the Cavaliers and Roundheads (do teachers still do that? Are they still called Cavaliers and Roundheads, even? ) would immediately interest her class in the politics, the dates and the battles with a book like this in her arsenal. We learn so much about the English Civil War and we learn it in the easiest and best way possible: through the medium of a cracking story told in prose that’s as clean and refreshing as pure water. This book is a real achievement and anyone who enjoys reading about the past will love it. It is also a crossover book, so one for adults too. Marvellous stuff.

The Unkindest Review Anne Cassidy

Twenty years ago, before I was published I spent two years writing an adult book. I was a great fan of ‘Hill Street Blues’ at the time and structured my book in a similar way. It was a complete day in a secondary school and involved the lives and loves of a group of teachers. (No need to guess what my job was at the time). It had a host of main characters and a number of intersecting story lines. It was big, baggy and never to be published but I learned a lot from doing it.

After several rejections I began to realise that the returned ms looked as though it had hardly been touched and therein, I thought, lay the problem. Editors clearly found the first few pages dull. If only they could persevere, I thought, they would see what a terrific novel they had on their hands.

Someone suggested that I send the novel to a professional ‘reader’. This would be someone who had experience in the business and who could give me objective advice on what was good/bad about the novel. This seemed like a good idea to me and I duly paid my fee and send off my ms along with return postage.

Then I waited.

If I’m honest those days of waiting were some of the most exciting days I spent. Like in the early days of the lottery when I bought a one pound ticket and spent hours working out what I would do with the winning millions.

I waited.

I pictured this ‘reader’ discovering my novel. She would read it through with a growing realisation that here was something really good. She would recognise the few odd things that needed to be improved (the beginning, certainly – I accepted that). She would talk to friends in the business about this first novel by an unknown but promising author. She might even know an agent and give them the heads up on this new talent. Finally someone would actually read my novel through to page 296 and gasp with admiration and it wouldn’t be long before I had an agent and a publisher.

Then one day the postman handed me the returned ms. My hands shook as I opened the package. On the top of my book was a seven page letter. It started with the words,

This is no better or worst than any other first novel I have read.

I read the sentence over several times. What did it mean? Then I read the next paragraph which informed me that if I wanted to read the positive comments about my novel I should turn to page seven of the letter. I did and read the positive paragraph. Then I went back and read eight torturous pages which tore my novel to shreds comparing it (unfavourably) to Dickens. Perhaps the embarrassing criticism was that my sex scenes were like a cross between Mills and Boon and Masters and Johnson.

I tore the seven page letter into shreds. I cried.

Later my husband picked up all the pieces and put them in an envelope and stuck it down and put it away in the bottom drawer of my desk. He told me to keep it until the day I published my first book and then read it again.

Years later my first book was published (1990). I held a copy in my hand and decided to get the envelope out of my bottom drawer and reread the letter. It took me an hour and lot of sellotape to stick it back together. Then, with the confidence of a newly published author, I sat back and read the whole seven pages again. I cried again. I tore it up again (harder this time because of the sellotape). I threw it away. Again.

This time my husband did not retrieve it.

StarLit!

Amanda Craig, writing in her own blog bought up the subject of literary festivals. I wanted to talk about a brand new one piloted in October in my own London Borough of Hackney. The festival, StarLit, was organised by two enthusiasts of modern children's books, Jo Di Guia of Victoria Park Books and Dylan Calder for the Shoreditch Trust. They handpicked books and authors they knew would work for their audiences of inner city readers, and invited authors and illustrators, including Geraldine McCaughrean, Michael Rosen, David Lucas and Elizabeth Laird.
Tents were pitched in leafy Hoxton Square, four event tents and one bookshop, a sort of mini Edinburgh.
Book sales in inner city schools are not usually anything to write home about, and Dylan and Jo wanted to make sure that StarLit wasn't an hour with an author and a packed lunch, so they secured sponsorship with a city firm, Linklaters, who paid for every child to attend to buy a book of their choice. Elizabeth Laird, said to me that she had never sold so many hardbacks (it was her excellent new novel The Witching Hour) in one go.
It wasn't all about the newest titles either, some authors were asked to discuss old favourites with reading groups. The audiences I saw had all - at least - read the book I was talking about, some had dramastised bits, or painted pictures.
Alongside the festival there was a whole heap of research, too, about reading habits and books which will be made available soon. The most wonderful statistic was that of the children polled, three quarters primarily read 'because they liked stories'. Well, who'd a thunk it?
StaLit went down well, although a few of the evening events did have to be cancelled at short notice rather than go ahead with titchy audiences. But this was a pilot, and I know the organisers will do even better next year.
So if you are lucky enough to get an invite to StarLit for next October, go!

Medina Hill - Sally Nicholls

I'm writing this blog a day early in order to take part in the blog tour of Trilby Kent's 'Medina Hill', which came out last month. Trilby's book will be travelling across blogs in Britain, Canada and America, receiving reviews (wonderful idea, Trilby) and today it's visiting the Awfully Big Blog Adventure.

'Medina Hill' is the story of eleven-year-old Dominic, who has suffered from selective mutism since his mother became ill. In the summer of 1935, Dominic and his sister Marlo are sent to stay with their Uncle Roo in Cornwall while their mother is in hospital. As with many classic children's books, we suspect that everything is about to change ...

Everything changes through the unlikely medium of a small green book entitled 'Incredible Adventures for Boys: Colonel Lawrence and the Revolt in the Desert'. Dominic quickly becomes entranced with Lawrence of Arabia and dreams of imitating his hero - of becoming part of a strange culture, being accepted into a foreign tribe and freeing them. He gets his chance when he meets Sancha, a Romany girl whose family are in danger of being turfed off their land. Can Dominic - like Lawrence of Arabia before him - overcome his shortcomings and liberate his new friends?

'Medina Hill' reads very much like a traditional children's book. All the elements from the books of my childhood are there - the ginger beer, the 'bathes' in seaside coves, the gypsies in 1930s caravans. Trilby Kent has worked hard to avoid stereotypes, however. Her Romany are well-researched and interesting - their romance is still there, but the hardness of their life and the complexity of their language and customs are emphasised. Similarly, the parts dealing with T. E. Lawrence are fascinating - we learn that he was originally refused entry into the army, and that his usefulness to Britain stemmed not from his military might but his knowledge of Arabic. The characters are great too - Dominic's sister Marlo is very well-observed, and I would have loved Uncle Roo's artists colony as a child.

There are times where the storytelling falters - the end is a little too neat and predictable and the pace a little too fast - we are told about Marlo's friendship with the Reverend, for example, rather than see it develop. I would have liked Dominic's problems to be a little harder to solve - the main quest is acheived in several chapters and the hidden treasure found in the first place he looks.

All in all, however, this was a great read, and one which made me interested to find out more about Lawrence and the Romany. Lawrence is an inspiring hero for this age group, and I loved that Dominic's victory is given as much weight for the reader as his hero's. A clever, richly textured book, both for modern children and traditionalists like me.

www.sallynicholls.com
www.waystoliveforever.co.uk

Screaming and Screaming Until I'm Six - Charlie Butler

Like many writers I go through periods of wondering whether I’m not really a complete fraud – not least when, as now, I’m in the middle of a prolonged dry spell. In those circumstances it’s comforting to run one’s finger along a row of spines and remind oneself: “I did that!” But it’s difficult for that thought not to be followed closely by another: “But suppose that’s it?”

That’s why it matters to me that I have six novels under my belt. Six is an important figure. When my first book came out, my euphoria was punctured slightly by my agent saying to me, in a way she intended to be encouraging, “No one thinks you're a one-book writer!” From that day forth, the fear of being a one-book writer haunted my footsteps like the Ancient Mariner's frightful fiend. I wouldn't even have the slight comfort of being a flash in the pan, since my first book was signally failing to ignite. Flush down the pan, more like...

Eventually I completed my second book. But, within a few days, I heard an interview with Gore Vidal in which he carefully distinguished those dilettante authors with “only one or two books” in them, from true professionals such as himself who had been born “writers for life.”

So, out came books three, four and five, forced to light at least in part by the volcanic power of my own insecurity. But all the time, I held to my breast the precious fact that Jane Austen and E.M. Forster, two of my favourites, had published only six novels each. And no one doubted that they were real writers, right? Possibly even realler than Gore Vidal! Okay, so I hadn't got Addison's disease, or fallen in love with a policeman, but I did have my own problems to explain my relative lack of prolificity... I decided that, if I could only make that quota I could relax, and treat anything else as a bonus.

I will slide over the inevitable comparisons between my Book 6 and theirs: Persuasion, A Passage to India and The Lurkers do not make a natural threesome. But never mind the quality - just count them!

Researching Vikings by Marie-Louise Jensen

I think most books need research of some kind. Locations, issues, names – all sorts of things that might seem to flow quite naturally when you’re reading the story, but that probably took the author many painstaking hours of work to give that naturalness. And if they haven’t been done carefully, might jar with a knowing reader.

Personally, I find I need to do a great deal of research. I need to bring the historical period alive in my own mind before I write about it. Otherwise how can I expect my readers to believe in it?
I have a Viking book coming out in February 2010 which took a great deal of time, money and effort to research. I’ve been to Iceland twice to visit locations, museums, digs and reconstructions. We camped around Iceland for six weeks, visiting almost every Viking site there is up there. Most were awesome. The reconstruction of Erik the Red’s longhouse, for instance. You are greeted individually by Icelanders in full Viking dress, willing to tell you the saga of Erik the Red and his bloodthirsty feuds and daring exploration, shown Viking replica artefacts, allowed to dress up, and you leave feeling you have come a huge step closer to understanding Viking life.

Another amazing experience was the Exhibition of Settlement at Reykjavik, where the curator took the time and trouble to explain all kinds of detail of Viking life to me and my family – and I picked up such delightful details as the eating of sheep’s brains in the winter to ward off scurvy – wonderful!

In the tourist centres I used reference books to look up flora and their healing properties, and made copious notes. We took an hour to ride the famous Icelandic horses. Spent whole days bird watching. And the wonderful summer medieval market at Gazir outside Akuyeri was invaluable.

Almost most important of all was the landscapes. I soaked them up for six long sun-drenched weeks. At times the weather was bitterly cold, but it was almost invariably beautiful. I came home and threw away the chapters I’d written before I visited the country and started again, realising I now had a far better understanding of the sights, sounds, smells and atmosphere of this wonderful land.

Of course it’s disappointing when one of the first reviews of the book (on waterstones.com) refers to the Greenland setting (It was a lovely review apart from that *minor* detail) but I do hope, as I always hope, that for many readers I’ve captured a little of the place and time and brought it to life.

The Importance of Bedtime Stories - Lucy Coats

Many of my friends laugh at me when I say that Radio 4 is too intellectual for me. And they laugh even more when I confess that I am a Radio 2 addict. I don't care. Even my picky teenagers admit they play some good music--and if I didn't listen to Radio 2 I wouldn't know about the really excellent children's book thing which is currently taking place on the Jeremy Vine show, (and I wouldn't be able to share it with you). There! You see? It is really a noble sacrifice I am making on behalf of the AABBA readers.

The bedtime story is in decline, according to Jean Gross, the Government's first 'speech chief' (whatever that is)--and it is affecting language and reading skills. "The next generation lack basic speaking skills because parents now spend less time talking to their children over family meals or reading them bedtime stories", she told The Times on her appointment as communications tzar last month. This is depressing, but probably true. Our lives as parents are busier and more pressured than ever. Some children will never be read to by their parents--ever. The ritual of a bedtime story--that precious time of sharing a world of imagination with your child--is more than likely to be replaced with watching tv or playing computer games or television or a cd--or nothing at all. It's easier for many pressured parents to let a machine take over the job--and what a loss that is for both child and parent. So, what is going on at Radio 2? How are they helping to address this problem? Listen carefully (so to speak) and I'll begin.....

All this week on the Jeremy Vine Show, listeners are being asked to choose their favourite bedtime story from a shortlist of eight, in turn chosen from a longlist of 36 last month. Each day Jeremy will read two extracts and then someone from the media will champion their chosen book--yesterday the author and journalist Guy Walters talked about Roald Dahl's Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and Bea Campbell supported Each Peach Pear Plum by Janet and Allan Ahlberg. The others on the shortlist are The Gruffalo, The Very Hungry Caterpillar, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, The Famous Five, Where the Wild Things Are and Winnie the Pooh. Jeremy gets a lot of listeners, and it will be fascinating to see which of these comes out on top--and how many votes are cast. Personally, I am throwing my hat into the ring for Each Peach Pear Plum--a book I have read probably hundreds of times without ever being bored. If asked to recommend a picture book for young children, it's the one I invariably pick. Well, I would, feeling as I do about the importance of nursery rhymes and poetry. Which one would you pick? If you feel as strongly as I do about the importance of banging the drum for bedtime stories, please do go and vote. And even if you are a dyed-in-the-wool Radio 4 listener, give Radio 2 a chance for the next few lunchtimes. Just this once. You never know--you might be converted.

Lucy's own blog is HERE and you can follow her on Twitter HERE. Her website is HERE and her Facebook Fan Page HERE

Who shall I be today? : Linda Strachan

For me writing involves getting inside my characters almost in the way you might pull on a costume.Getting right inside their head and going through the emotions as they feel them, which is exhausting at times but it is such an important part of it that there are times I find myself wondering if I really want to dive right in there.





It is a little like going into the sea when you are not sure if the
water is perhaps just a bit too cold. The tentative dipping in of a toe, or just letting the water wash around your ankles until you feel brave enough to totally immerse yourself into the brisk, fresh sensation.

I started off writing books for quite young children, mostly warm and cuddly or just fun stories where at the worst the child, animal or childish character might become a little concerned, perhaps scared by the dark or be upset by being lost, but it quickly turns out well and happy.

I had avoided writing for teenagers for a long while, I think because the
thought of revisiting the angst of being a teenager never really appealed and I was worried because I wasn’t sure if I could, or would want to, relive the experience even from a character’s point of view.
I wonder if other writers feel the same and are wary of the emotional rollercoaster that their character might take them on? I now find myself writing rather dark books for teenagers, dipping into their most difficult times and giving my characters a truly hard time.

I think I am quite an upbeat and happy person normally, so where does that come from?

When I go into schools I often have the strange experience that in the morning I might be speaking to tiny nursery children, with lots of fun and cuddly toys as props, or slightly older ones with Hamish McHaggis and friends.




In the afternoon I might be facing a room full of young adults talking about the harshest things in life, death, injury, knives, blood and impossible decisions.


I have to admit that I enjoy the variety and challenge and I wouldn’t have it any other way. It is one of the things I love about what I do and it makes my life so varied – it never gets dull - just a bit hectic at times!


So whether it is sitting at my desk about to start writing or preparing for an author visit I find myself asking the question – Who shall I be today?



Linda's website is at www.lindastrachan.com