SO, WHO AND WHAT IS BEHIND THIS BLOG?

Hello! 

If you're a writer for children or young adults, here's a quick reminder about the people behind An Awfully Big Blog Adventure:

                        

 

 Do take a look!

 

Easter Snow by Sheena Wilkinson

Like many others, I’ve been struggling to know what to write for ABBA this month. Should I aim for upbeat and distracting? Hmm, tough when you’re not feeling it, and what if readers wanted to kill me?

I always smiled at Nancy's pumpkin face

Should I look into classic children’s literature and go for something about the opportunities and challenges afforded by quarantine of one sort or another? I got as far as thinking of Winter Holiday when Nancy’s mumps give all the children an extra month of – well, the clue’s in the title. 

life was always harsher on the prairie 

And more than once Enid Blyton used quarantine, and the subsequent late return to St Clare’s or Malory Towers to explore friendship issues. And then there’s The Long Winter, a different kind of lockdown – at least I am not twisting hay with frozen fingers and waiting for Christmas in May. But such a post would involve research and the very thought of it made me want to lie down and eat twenty cream eggs.

Should I confess about the fact that I haven’t made sourdough, that I haven’t done a massive spring clean – because, with the recycling centres and charity shops closed, where would all the crap go? That in fact, apart from long walks (part of my usual routine anyway) I’ve mostly been watching Malory Towers on CBBC to try to keep anxiety at bay? But that’s not very original – so many people have already confessed to being human, much more wittily than I could manage right now. 

I know, I thought, I’ll see what others have been posting – maybe I’ll get inspiration from my peers. I normally do follow the blog, but like many others I have been avoiding the online world recently, in order to avoid too much reality. So I was a bit behind. And of course, the wonderful writers of An Awfully Big Blog Adventure came to my rescue. 

A few days ago we had some lovely pictures instead of the usual post, reminding me that if I couldn’t come up with anything, nobody in our community would judge me. 

obligatory walk picture -- all from my own road

Then there was Anne Rooney’s post about her novel set during the plague in Venice in 1576, and about pandemic literature in general and the ethics surrounding writing about traumatic times in history.  Like Anne, I wrote about a pandemic a few years ago, in my case the Spanish Flu pandemic of 1918/19. Sadly, my agent couldn’t sell the novel, and I was gutted. However, I was able to use much of my extensive research for 2017’s Star by Star. Although Star by Star is ‘about’ the 1918 election, that happened right in the middle of that terrible pandemic so I couldn’t avoid it if I had wanted to. I wonder if now might be a time to reconsider it?   Maybe I should revise it, with the personal experience of living through a pandemic to add something to that might have been missing from the original? I wouldn’t want to read about a pandemic now, but it’s clear from the trends in book-buying and film/TV streaming that many disagree. As some commenting on Anne’s post pointed out, there could be comfort in knowing that as a society we have lived through, and recovered from, such things before. But when I went back to read the MS, I found that I didn’t want to re-enter that nightmare world, when it was too close to what is happening here and now. 

Keren David’s thought-provoking post on Passover reminded me that this Easter in lockdown will be so different from Easters past. In 2013, in my part of Northern Ireland, we had very heavy snow over Easter. I was snowed in for a week, surrounded by scenes of the most surreal beauty – long light evenings with the sun setting on the snow after eight o’clock. It felt so unnatural, a clash of seasons. I fretted at being confined to my own tiny village for a week – a whole week! – but I was mindful of the farmers who had lost young stock and whose livelihoods were threatened. 

This Easter too, though like most writers I have lost a lot of income from cancelled events, I am grateful for how lucky I am, to have some savings, and a garden and access to miles of empty beautiful roads, and like Keren can only hope to be celebrating this important time of year in better circumstances next year. I remember Easter 2014, seeing the daffodils bloom, not to be blasted by blizzard, and the lambs in the fields gambolling, not to be blinded and drowned in snow like the previous year. I’ve always found Easter a very hopeful time of year, but in 2014 it seemed miraculous that spring had come, and stayed. 

So, writing friends, thank you for reminding me, simply through your own efforts to keep the blog going, that we are all struggling with our own Easter blizzards, but, like the Ingallses in The Long Winter, we can look forward to spring. Even if it comes in autumn. 

FIVE THINGS I'VE LEARNED IN FIVE YEARS Sheena Wilkinson

March always marks the anniversary of when I started contributing to ABBA, which more or less coincides with my decision to leave a full-time teaching job to try to make it as a freelance writer. So it often finds me in reflective mood, especially on here. This month being five years since my first ABBA post, I thought I’d do a FIVE THINGS I’VE LEARNED IN FIVE YEARS post.

Some of these things would have terrified and discouraged me had I known them in 2014, some would have delighted me. I’ll let you decide which is which.

1.    You will work as hard as you ever did in teaching, and you will earn a great deal less, but you will be much happier. You will be able to go for walks most mornings and feel you're living more intensely in the physical world as well as in your fictional ones. 

Today's walk 

2.    You will continue to publish books, often to great acclaim, but you will also have disappointments – the ones that don’t sell much, and the one that hasn’t (yet!) sold at all.  You will discover that historical fiction is your favourite genre. 

You will continue to publish books

3.    You will think you know all about your characters and then a question from a thirteen year old will make you realise that someone else knows them better, and the buzz from that is wonderful. 

Thanks to the readers who have helped me get to know my own characters better

4.    You will travel, not far, but to places you hadn’t visited or in some cases heard of in 2014 – places like Gladstone’s Library, whose very existence makes the world feel a better place. 

Gladstone's Library, one of my new favourite places 

5.    Every month you will be convinced that the well is dry, and you can’t think of a thing to write about for ABBA. Every month you manage to come up with some old nonsense. Every month you will feel grateful to be part of such a lovely community of writers and readers. 

Hanging Up My Blogging Trousers - John Dougherty

I've been writing for An Awfully Big Blog Adventure for years. More than eight years, in fact; my first post was the sixth to appear on the site, back in July 2008, and - aside from a bit of a break a year or two back during a time of crisis (and, erm, the very occasional month when I've forgotten to post, which has happened to many of us!) - I've blogged for the site ever since. For most of that time, I've also been part of the editorial team.

And it's been fun. But I've come to a point where I feel I ought to hang up my blogging trousers, for a while at least. So to say goodbye for now, I've rather self-indulgently trawled through my back catalogue of ABBA posts and picked out some of my favourites. I hope you'll enjoy revisiting some of them with me.


Five Go To Therapy Together (August 2008) - in which I argue that the Kirrin cousins belong to literature's most dysfunctional family. This was my second post for the blog, and I was rather chuffed to overhear someone discussing it at a Society of Authors conference a couple of months later

Sense and Sensibilities (June 2010) - musings about some of the things publishers will and won't accept these days

What's Wrong With Ed Vaizey? (May 2012) - you knew this one was going to be on the list, didn't you? A song I wrote about the now former and not-at-all-missed Minister for Ignoring the Ongoing Crisis in the Library Service

We Warned You This Would Happen (November 2013) - I got a bit cross in this one. It's about political interference in education

A Confession of my Own (December 2013) - this was my response to one of the most important posts we've ever had on the site, Liz Kessler's Let's Get This Out There from the previous month

The Reasons for Signing (March 2014) - why I think book signings are an essential part of school visits

Why Do We Believe These Things? (April 2014) - over two years later, this one keeps popping up on my Twitter feed, usually because the excellent Let Books Be Books campaign has pointed someone to it. It's about the so-called 'accepted truths' that seem to be handed down through the publishing industry like oral history

The Great OUP Pig Scandal (January 2015) - remember when people got cross about publishers "banning pigs"? This was my take on it

Copyright - It's a Piece of Cake (April 2015) - I'm pretty proud of this one, in which I attempt to explain copyright as simply as possible


And finally, it seems appropriate that I leave you with the song I wrote for what was, as far as we know, the world's first online children's literature festival, held on this site over three days in July 2011 to celebrate our third anniversary.

Bye. *waves*




_________________________________________________________________________________

John's recent books include his first poetry collection, Dinosaurs & Dinner-Ladies, illustrated by Tom Morgan-Jones (Otter-Barry Books), and Stinkbomb & Ketchup-Face and the Great Big Story Nickers, which is the latest in his Stinkbomb & Ketchup-Face series, illustrated by David Tazzyman and published by OUP.

His first picture-book, There's a Pig Up My Nose, illustrated by Laura Hughes, will be published by Egmont early next year. 

First Draft, the author band featuring John, Jo Cotterill and Paul and Helen Stickland, will next be performing at the Bradford Roots Festival in January 2017.

'Twas the post before Christmas... - John Dougherty

As is traditional, we're taking a break for Christmas. We'll be back with a post from my editorial colleague, Penny Dolan, on January 1st 2016; but until then we thought it would be nice to leave you with a round-up of all the books by ABBA contributors published in 2015.

On behalf of all our contributors and editorial and technical volunteers, I'd like to wish you a very Merry Christmas.

(And apologies for the technical errors which led first to the video being posted without music , and then to the original post being wiped from the blog!) 

The Greatest Story Ever Told by Tess Berry-Hart

“After nourishment, shelter and companionship, stories are the thing we need most in the world.” - Phillip Pullman

“And what do you do?” asks the polite professional lawyer in the group of polite professional people at my polite professional neighbour’s Christmas party.

“Me?  Oh, I'm a writer,” I answer, equally politely.

“Oh, really?”  A wave of heads turn in my direction, polite smiles become suddenly more interested.  “What kind of writing?  Journalism?  Novels?”

“Well, I write stories for children and young adults,” I begin confidently, but oops, I'm losing them already.  Smiles have taken on a glazed quality and I'm starting to be relegated to the category in their minds that houses lolloping bunnies, plucky hobbits and talking lions.  I follow up quickly with a couple of my adult plays and novels but I can see in their eyes that my status has already been set.  Children’s stories! – how quaint.

“But we all tell stories, don’t we,” I begin jovially, in what my husband would term my instructively-speaking-to-a-three-year-old tone.  “Our reality, our economy, our social structures are all governed by stories, aren’t they?”

Deep nods and a strained kind of silence greet this; though a couple of people look a little as if they’re trying to work out if I'm insulting them in some covert fashion.

“And whether you subscribe to the idea that there’s only seven stories in the world or not, it’s amazing how these stories get replayed over and over in media and advertising isn't it?  The small company who fights back from the edge of extinction.  The underdog who wins through on the X Factor.”

Oh dear, the mention of X Factor – the professional version of Godwin’s Law after which any proponent can lose her credibility.  And I haven’t even watched it in years!

A chorus of agreement, though with no discernible words, follows this, and mercifully our hostess comes to our rescue with a tray of mince pies.  People break up into twos and turn to each other with noticeable relief.  “Have you heard about X?”

I take refuge in a mince pie, and think.  Why should we be afraid of confronting our stories?  We adults absorb stories as voraciously as if we were children.  The middle-aged lawyer creates a story to the judge and jury about why they should believe his client’s version of events.  The saleswoman on my left creates stories that we will look better, feel happier and be more successful if we buy her product.  And don’t even get me started on the advertising director opposite.

Stories are all around us, shaping our world and our outlook – and let’s face it, stories are not all capitalist cynicism.  Good stories are centuries old, and they’re around for a reason.  We NEED the story that we can succeed in whatever we do against insurmountable odds.  We NEED the story that the bad guys will get punished and the good guys triumph.

Stories are acutely important for learning.  They are the models by which children see the world and learn from it.  Telling my son a story to deliver a message is ten times more effective that merely telling him the message.  When I see him playing, I can see that games are stories in action.  He’s already channelling the “rescuing hero” story, the “quest” story and the “overcoming the monster” stories all by himself.

Where does the power of story come from?  As psychologists Melanie C Green and Timothy C. Brock note in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, the mechanism of “transport” – using detail and emotional affect to involve the reader – is essential for a narrative.  Highly transported readers find fewer false notes in a story than less transported readers, they evaluate protagonists favourably and show many other similar story-consistent beliefs.  Interestingly, corresponding beliefs tend to be generally unaffected whether the reader knows a story is fact or fiction.  I can know that a cream will not make me look younger, but I’ll buy it anyway.

And we’re at a Christmas party after all.  Christmas is a great story.  Though I'm an avowed atheist, I love Christmas!  The human story of birth in humble adversity; the strong baddie that searches to kill the saviour of mankind, the call to adventure, the exiled and returning hero, the love that lays itself down for another; the elements are all there.  And beyond the advent of Christianity, I feel the pagan solstice of Yule as instinctively as one born in the Northern Hemisphere can; the affirmation of life in the midst of snow, the fire lit against the cold and darkness, the shadows on the wall of the cave that mystics interpret, making sense of the sun and the stars, winter and summer, life and death.

Along with other wonderful stories passed down from times immemorial –The Flood, the Apocalypse, the Exodus – the story means something to us because in a sense (whether you are a believer or not) stories ARE real.  Stories hold a deep psychological purpose, about our relationship to the universe and to Time. Stories give us hope, they give us meaning.  In my book, the greatest story ever told is that of life; that we exist, and we do.

Around me the conversation has moved on, and now they’re talking about the recovery. (Belief in the market’s one of the best stories around at the moment!)  I don’t have much to add to this so I gather my things together and start to slide unobtrusively towards the exit, when I feel a tap on my shoulder. It’s the polite lawyer.

“I thought it was interesting,” he says breathlessly, “what you said about stories back there. It really made me think.”

My heart warms to him.  “Why thank you,” I say.

“I've got to get my niece a Christmas present, and your book sounds ideal.  Would I be able to get a signed copy?”

Seasons Greetings from the Awfully Big Bloggers!

What are you doing reading a blog? Shouldn't you be doing your last-minute shopping? Haven't you got a turkey (or acceptable vegetarian alternative) to collect from the shop? 

We're sure you must have, and we don't want to distract you. Besides which, we've got our own last-minute preparations to be getting on with. So we're going to take a break.

We'll be here again on Wednesday 1st January 2014, when Penny Dolan will welcome you back for another year of Awfully Big Blogposts on all manner of things intimately or tangentially related to the world of children's fiction. In the meantime, we hope that on Christmas morning your stockings are bulging with good things to read.

And till January, from all of us here at An Awfully Big Blog Adventure, we'd like to wish you all a very, very merry Christmas and, ahem, An ABBA New Year.

Thank you ABBA! by Keren David

This week's a big one for me. On Thursday I teach my last class at City University where I've taken the  Writing for Children course for the last two years.
I took this same course in 2008 -  then taught by Amanda Swift, a fellow SAS member, and my first book started as a plot-planning exercise in the classroom.  I'm passing it on to yet another Sassie -  Tamsyn Murray -  so I know it'll be in good hands. I'm sad to leave, but work has taken me away from home too much this year, and my family claim to need me.
 I could not have taught the course without ABBA. It's been my invaluable resource, packed full of information and opinion, to illuminate my students on all aspects of writing for children.
My absolute favourite post to use in class is this one by Liz Kessler. It inspired a writing exercise in which students brainstorm plot ideas onto post its, then get into groups to organise their post-its chronologically into a plot -  amazing what can be achieved in half an hour.
Who knows, maybe one of my students will be writing for ABBA one day soon.
So, thank you Liz, thank you  ABBA contributors, and a very happy birthday to us!

An Awfully Big Third Birthday

I'm still not sure how we did it.

For our third birthday, we held what we believe to be the world's first online literary festival organised entirely by children's writers.

It was quite extraordinary, and the whole thing's still available online. Just click the link and enjoy the feast of posts - including video interviews, a specially-written song, and an appearance by a telly star!


And at 6.00pm, we'll remind ourselves of what happened last year! But I'm sure there'll be another birthday post or two before then.

An Awfully Big First Birthday

On 10th July 2009 we celebrated our first birthday.

Unfortunately, when we upgraded the site a few years ago we lost some of the special little features of those first birthday posts, notably the virtual cake which got nibbled away through the day. However, thanks to genius food photographer Michael Dannenberg, we once again have plenty of virtual cakeage to share with you as you peruse the birthday archives.

So tuck in to this feast of Awfully Big First Birthday Nostalgia.

First there was our birthday welcome post, which was followed by an awfully big giveaway. If you won one of those books, why not let us know in the comments section below, and tell us whether you kept it for yourself or gave it to someone you love!

Then Elen posed an interesting conundrum - any further contributions to that discussion, please let us know in the comments section to this post! - and Amanda Craig dropped by. So did young readers Greg Jensen & Lucy Philip - they were respectively 15 & 8 at the time; now they'd be, um (quick count on fingers) 19 & 12. If either of you is reading this, Greg & Lucy, why not tell us what you're reading now?

In the next birthday post, we returned to the imaginary scenario of our conundrum, and finally agents Julia Churchill and Catherine Clarke popped in to join the party. 

And that was our first birthday!

We'll look back at our second birthday at 2:00pm. See you then - and meanwhile, check back in a bit to see who else has stopped by!

From little acorns...

Happy birthday, ABBA!

Some of the History Girls

And thank you, not only for being so lovely and so various, but also for being the springboard for other equally delightful group blogs. Just over two years ago, Mary Hoffman started the History Girls blog on a very similar model. Many of its founder members were, like Mary, from the Scattered Authors'Society, and all are writers of historical fiction. It's gone from strength to strength, with guest spots from such luminaries as Kevin Crossley-Holland and - wait for it - Hilary Mantel!

And there's the hugely successful Authors Electric, which grew from an idea originated by Susan Price and Katherine Roberts, also Scattered Authors (though many of its members are not). This was a response to the growth of ebookery, and now has over a 1000 followers.

Then there's Picture Book Den, where writers and illustrators of picture books share some of their knowledge, experience and ideas - many fascinating insights to be found over there!

And finally, of course, there's the sister site - ABBA Reviews, with a new review up every few days.

So many splendid offspring - you must be very proud! With fondest birthday wishes,

Sue Purkiss

An Awfully Big Beginning

When Anne Cassidy proposed to a few of her fellow Scattered Authors' Society members the idea of a communal blog, I wonder if she imagined it would still be going strong five years later? Here's Anne's first post - and the first ever post on An Awfully Big Blog Adventure -  from July 10th 2008:

My Dream Library, by Anne Cassidy






At noon, we'll look back at our first birthday celebrations - but watch out for more contributions from the team in the meantime. And scroll down on our Home page to see all today's posts!

My favourite ever ABBA blog post

Writing for children is a weird job, and it often feels like the only people who completely understand that and can give truly relevant advice are other children’s writers.
That’s why I love An Awfully Big Blog Adventure.
My favourite ever ABBA blog post was written by Liz Kessler at the start of 2012, and it’s an equation. It’s an equation, and the explanation of an equation, about when to say ‘yes’ and when to say ‘no’ to author visits.
Here’s the equation:

(S¹º + P⁵ + W³) ≥ T ¹º + C³ – E³ - G³ 

Benefit...................must be greater than or equal to......................Effort
Where: S = Sales; P = Payment; W = Word of Mouth; T = Time; C = Cost; E = Enjoyment & G = Good causes

And here’s the equation on my study wall, where it has lived for more than a year, reminding me when it’s ok to say ‘no’, and therefore allowing me to thoroughly enjoy saying ‘YES’ for all the right reasons.

This is my favourite post because it’s about maths as well as stories (and I love maths too!), because it could only have been written by another children’s writer, and because it contains advice which helps me do this very weird job a little bit better.
Thanks Liz, and thanks ABBA!
Happy Birthday!

Lari Don is the award-winning author of more than a dozen books for all ages, including fantasy novels for 8 – 12s, picture books, retellings of traditional tales and novellas for reluctant readers. And she still says YES to lots of author events… 
Lari’s website
Lari’s own blog
Lari on Twitter 
Lari on Facebook

A birthday message from the Children's Laureate

Believe it or not, An Awfully Big Blog Adventure is five years old today! We have a few celebratory retrospective posts lined up, and are expecting further celebratory contributions from some of the team, but to start the day we'd like to share with you this message from the wonderful Malorie Blackman, acclaimed and award-winning author and recently appointed Children's Laureate.


Happy 5th birthday, An Awfully Big Blog Adventure!  I love the blogs, the video clips, the articles, the advice.  You are regular and required reading as far as I'm concerned.  I just wish you'd been around when I first started writing, some twenty-*cough* years ago.  I know you'll go from strength to strength.

At 10.00am, we'll be remembering how it all began - but expect at least one of the team to pop by before then!   

Happy birthday to us, happy birthday to us....

It's our birthday!!!! Please drop in throughout the day to help us celebrate.

We'll be kicking off the party at 8.00am with a birthday greeting from a very special reader; later on we'll be reminding ourselves of birthdays past; and some of our team will be popping in to join the party throughout the day. See you shortly!

“I never knew that everyone is a writer” - Lari Don

I’ve just opened an envelope of letters from a class I visited before Easter to chat about my new novel Maze Running, and the very top letter on the pile contained this line:

I never knew that everyone is a writer and that you don’t have to be an author to make great stories.

I was absolutely delighted, because that’s exactly what I hope kids will take from my author visits.

I do lots of school visits, and I hope I never walk in like the big fancy author (I’m usually in scruffy jeans and unpolished boots, so I’m not often mistaken for fancy) and I hope I never pontificate about being a writer as if I was the only writer in the room. I hope I always talk to kids, whether it’s half a dozen kids in a workshop or 400 in a theatre, as if we were all writers.

Because we are all writers.

When I visit a school as an author, we all share our passion for stories, we all play together with ideas and what ifs and monsters in dark corners. Sometimes the teachers even join in too! And because we make stories together, we are all writers.

I try to give children confidence in their imaginations and their stories, which is a sneaky way of giving them confidence in themselves.

So that can be the value of authors visiting schools. Kids who discover that they are writers too. That everyone is a writer.

And the value to me of school visits? I get a lot of inspiration. (Not from the kids’ own ideas, which I’d rather they wrote, but their enthusiasm and feedback always inspire me.) Also I get paperclips. Yes, paperclips. There are very few material perks to being a kids’ writer, but when I receive thank you letters and stories inspired by my visits, they often arrive held together with splendid paperclips. In this case, a nice big black and white stripy paperclip.

So, a child who heard what I was trying to say, and a cool paperclip. Not a bad day’s work…

I wonder what message, if any, other authors hope to leave behind when they visit schools?

(This is my first ever Awfully Big Blog Adventure post, and it’s been a bit of an adventure getting it up here. I hope you can all read it and I also hope you enjoyed it! See you again next month…)

Lari Don is the award-winning author of more than a dozen books for all ages, including fantasy novels for 8 – 12s, picture books, retellings of traditional tales and novellas for reluctant readers.
Lari’s website
Lari’s own blog
Lari on Twitter
Lari on Facebook

Happy New Year, from An Awfully Big Blog Adventure - John Dougherty

Happy New Year!

I expect some of you are still in bed and fast asleep. I expect I am, too. It's lovely being able to schedule posts in advance. Of course, it means I have no idea what sort of New Year's I had, since I haven't actually had it yet. But I'm sure it was great.

You might have noticed that we took a longer than usual Christmas break this time around. We're back now, stuffed full of turkey or the vegetarian equivalent and ready to hit the new year running.

This year we're posting on Sundays too, so in 2013 every day will be an Awfully Big Blog day! We hope you'll join us, and point your friends here for our awfully big mix of wisdom, wit & whimsy from our current roster of 30 contributors. And if you missed yesterday's close-of-year post by Penny Dolan, do take a look at it now!

 I hope 2013's good for you. I'm looking forward to it. In January, I'll be:

•  writing most of a book
• getting established in my new position as an official Patron of Reading at a primary school - more news on that soon
• trying to organise my life a bit better and spend more time with my family
• getting out running a little more

 How about you?

 John's website is at www.visitingauthor.com.
He's on twitter as @JohnDougherty8

His most recent books include:

Finn MacCool and the Giant's Causeway - a retelling for the Oxford Reading Tree
Bansi O'Hara and the Edges of Hallowe'en
Zeus Sorts It Out - "A sizzling comedy... a blast for 7+" , and one of The Times' Children's Books of 2011, as chosen by Amanda Craig