Making Time, by Dawn McLachlan

I find this time of year a real struggle and to cope with it I often feel I have to turn down work and take myself off to get through. This post is in itself a shortcut - a cheat to buy myself time. I thought long and hard about what I wanted to say and it struck me that I'd already said it on this platform before. The blog post is a revision of one that first appeared in another cold month in another year. It remains important and worth repeating.

Here goes... Making Time

One of the things most of us struggle with is time. On the surface the Pandemic years had an abundance of the stuff. To all intents and purposes time was sloshing around in vast unused quantities, but I've not found that I have had extra. To be honest, I've found that there has been far less time than I've needed. It's like it's been slipping away and I was constantly hunting for more. Like keys it's been something I was continuously searching for and only finding when I'd... well.. when I'd run out of time...

You can probably tell from this word soup that filling your time with endless tasks in an effort to rebuild your writing career is actually really bad for your writing career.  Over the last few years I feel that I've been constantly playing catch-up with all the things that I set aside back in 2019 - in the Time Before. This fierce struggle to plaster over all of the gaps and cracks in my career has been damaging to both my health, and my creativity. 

After a bit of a rocky time a while back I was talking to a very wise friend and chatting about how much I was doing and she gently stopped me and said "you've told me what you say you have to do, but what is it that you want to do?"

I sort of blustered a bit and we went our separate ways, but her words stuck with me. They sat in my head because it was a kind of revelation - I hadn't actually given any thought to what I wanted to do. Not once in all my busyness (and business) had I thought about what I wanted to do, or what might make me happy. I realised that I don't have to carry on in this set path, I can choose a different one.

I can't always afford to think about that, and for a lot of my life there was no way I could afford a choice. This is something that set a pattern in my thinking and I'm still desperately trying to hang onto absolutely every opportunity in case I can't pay the bills. I've done this for about four decades, for most of my life. I know that most of us struggle to think about not doing something because finances don't allow it, but I do think that it is important to stop now and again. To take the time to think about the happiness gaps in our lives can be an important thing for our mental and physical health. Back in July 2020 I wrote about how we should all try to stop and notice the small wins, and yet I'd forgotten to do this.

I had a few significant mental and physical health issues in 2022 and this made me admit that I couldn't continue to deliver my time the way I used to. I spent most of last year stepping back from various committees, boards, panels and national steering groups. Bit by bit I withdrew from all of them until in November last year I stood back from the last one and that was that. The only commitments that remained were ones that directly support the community in my little rural home.

I'd finally made time and now (maybe) I can think about what comes next. I have accepted that I will probably never get another contract for a children's book, or work in a library again, but some of my poetry is still being published so that's something. I finally have the headspace to finish the adult novel that has been haunting my thoughts for a few years and I might just independently publish that as I'm pretty sure it's too "quiet" for a mainstream glitzy publisher.

Who knows?

I'm training myself to stop looking at all the things everyone else is achieving, and wondering why I'm not in the same place. I'm finding that painting and poetry, and having more time to just look around me and pick a few small wins is helping me get on a more even keel. I'm pretty skint but I have some other bits of work to keep me bobbling along and I know how lucky I am in that aspect. I've worked constantly since I was 17 years old so that means I have hardly taken a breath for almost the last forty years. That said, it's never too late for a fresh start.

Right now I want to write something beautiful, but I know that to achieve that I'm going to need to take a bit of time to focus on some other things and doing everything all at once isn't good. I'm going to stop and look around at some of my small wins, and maybe rid myself of some of the things that are causing me upset and sadness. We can't always deal with everything at once, but maybe by dealing with just a couple of things at a time we cope with the rest.

Dawn McLachlan is starting a new chapter

Twitter - @dawnafinch

Instagram - @dawnamclachlan

www.dawnmclachlan.com

First Contact, by Dawn McLachlan

 

Vulcan Captain "Live long and prosper, here's my card."
Zefram Cochran "Err..sure..but I don't have a wallet, I'm just going to put that...over here.."

Arguably one of the hardest thing to do these days is to stand out from the crowd. First Contact is incredibly important and so is being remembered. We can polish our pitch and get our small talk down to an elegant and practiced piece of perfect prose, but when we walk away what will we leave behind?

When I first started out and my first book was published I got myself a lovely business card holder and spent a pleasant afternoon designing my own cards. I was so excited to hand these out to people and, just out of interest, I made a little note of where I’d handed them out. I have a secret for you – none of those business cards resulted in extra work, but lots of them resulted in me being asked for favours or to work for free. This made me rethink.

I had a think about what I do with business cards in my professional life. As a librarian and literacy campaigner I was given hundreds and hundreds of business cards and I’ll be honest with you, most of those were just dropped into the bottom of my bag and only found again when the handle fell off and I needed to transfer my junk over to a new one. Sometimes I’d find a business card in my purse and spend a baffled moment staring at it trying to remember who had given it to me and when.

With my author hat on I wanted to have a think about where I was spending my hard-earned and whether or not it was good sense. With my librarian and bookseller hat on I had a look around my desk, my files, and my walls and thought about what I kept and what I threw away. For what it’s worth, here’s my two-pennorth…

Business cards are great for industry contacts and I’d say that you should spend a little bit to make sure they are attractive and on quality card. Beautiful ones go in the purse or wallet, cheap ones go in the bottom of whatever tote is being carried around that day. Make sure your business card has a tagline that says what you do (“author of non-fiction”, “YA and children’s author” etc) and that you have your socials listed on the cards as well as your website. Don’t cram it with information, just the bare minimum.

Flyers and postcards are your friends when it comes to contact with bookshops, schools and libraries. I would say that A5 flyers that are designed to look great when folded in half are lovely things. If you can stretch to double sided printing that’s great. One side should look like a little poster (preferably the cover of your book or artwork from the book) and the other has your contact details and a little bit of sales pitch about what you do. Once again, not too much information, just a teaser to take someone to your website or socials to find out more. I didn’t have time to read a whole load of stuff or to work out between the lines.

Personally, I would say that the thing I genuinely enjoyed being given was a postcard. I particularly loved cards that had space to write on and were thick enough to use as actual postcards. These ones I kept, pinned up on my wall until I used them to write notes for people or posted them out to others. Nice looking, cute, beautiful or funny postcards had lives that ran and ran because they went off on adventures beyond me but by then I’d looked at them so many times that I could remember the names of the authors and illustrators on them.

The attractive flyers, small posters and postcards turned into real money for their creators as these were the people who I booked for visits, recommended to others and remembered at events. They were the ones who I said, “hey, have you heard of this person?” because I'd seen their stuff, remembered it, liked it and bought it.

Spend your money wisely, and only on what makes sense, and you can be remembered. That’s what we all want – to be remembered, and with a smile.

Dawn McLachlan (aka Dawn Finch) is a former children's librarian and current author and bookseller.

Wild Song by Candy Gourlay, reviewed by Dawn McLachlan

First the blurb and some background...

The year is 1904. Luki has lived a tribal life in the mountains of the Philippines. Now she's growing up, she is expected to become a wife and a mother, but Luki isn't ready to give up her dream to become a warrior. When her tribe are offered a journey to America to be part of the St. Louis World's Fair, Luki will discover that the land of opportunity does not share its possibilities equally . . .

The long-awaited companion novel to the Costa and Carnegie shortlisted Bone Talk.

*******************

A good book is one that draws you in and takes you to new places and new experiences. A great book is one that seems to physically place you there and sweeps you away leaving you changed forever. Wild Song is a truly great book.

From the very first pages of Wild Song I felt a profound sense of belonging in Luki's world. Despite my own life experiences being a world away from Luki's I felt that through Gourlay's writing I was there. I was right there in this mountain village in the Philippines in 1904. I was immediately struck by how vivid the text is, and that continues to build as the story develops.

We walk in Luki's footsteps as she makes the decision to leave the mountains and Bontok behind and travel with the charismatic American, Truman Hunt, to Coney Island. Luki and her friends and people from other tribes were convinced by Hunt to leave their homes to take part in the World's Fair. 

It's 1904 and the Philippines is under American rule after the Philippine American War. In the laws and the city there is a presence that aims to control how the population live, think and even how they dress. The influence of America is ever present across the island but in the highlands that influence still feels far enough away to not affect too much of their daily lives beyond the American school. Hunt was one of the American soldiers who remained after the war ended with the intention of getting rich on Philippine gold. He was a showman and essentially a Snake Oil salesman but he managed to build up a trust with the locals and they listened to him. When he told them that President Roosevelt had extended an invitation to them to come and take part in the World's Fair it sounded to many like a grand adventure.

The book takes us on this extraordinary journey across a landscape at first familiar to Luki but then reaches across oceans and the grand sweep of the United States. Luki's voice is strong and clear but from our cynical perspective (and with the benefit of hindsight) we fear for her and for the people around her as they are transported to become part of the World's Fair exhibits.

I feel like this book is the perfect example of how literature can teach us something new, but Gourlay does this in a way that is never heavy handed and the novel remains soundly enthralling and readable. The book is beautifully written and is lavishly descriptive but never florid. The characters are utterly convincing and express so much of their history, rich culture and identity without ever drowning the reader in wasted dialogue or exposition. 

I was bowled over by Wild Song and when I put it down I was changed by it. I felt introduced to a part of history that was completely new to me but one that I immediately researched and found out more. I missed Luki and Samkad and their friends as soon as I closed the book. So vivid was this book that a few days on I find I'm still thinking about them and their mountain village. I really hope that there will be more from Luki, Samkad and their family and friends. I love to think that we might follow this community through the next century and right up to the modern day. I can't help thinking that this book would make the most extraordinary film or tv series. In my mind's eye I travelled a hundred years back in time, half way around the world, over the wide pacific ocean, and across the empty expanse of the American West and Heartlands with Luki - and I'd do it again in a heartbeat.

A truly remarkable book that I know will gain a well earned place on many award lists over the coming year. 

Wild Song by Candy Gourlay will be published by David Fickling Books in March 2023

Cover illustration by Leo Nickolls

Reviewed by Dawn McLachlan (aka Dawn Finch), author, poet, and former children's librarian

I am sent dozens of books throughout the year by publishers and book creatives seeking reviews. I never give bad reviews because I only review the books that I feel passionately about. If you would like me to read your book with a view to reviewing it please contact me first via my twitter account. My direct messages are always open.

@dawnafinch

Finch's Frosty Festive Fifty! A seasonal booklist by Dawn Finch

 

Well, here we are again - Christmas and time for my 8th annual frosty and festive children's book list.

This is a list of books for young independent readers that are set in winter or the festive season. I always hope to have a list comprised of some newer titles that you can add to your future classics list and I hope you approve. There may be some big name classics that I've left out but it's probably because they don't need a plug so I'm giving more space to books you might not yet have discovered.

Books make such wonderful gifts but so does sharing a story. There is something truly magical about gathering in for a fine story and I think that this is such a great tradition to have (or start) at Christmas. A book shared aloud with loved ones is an experience that costs so little and carries such a great reward.

I like to pick a book to focus on as a Christmas special and this year I would like to pick A Ukrainian Christmas by Yaroslav Hrytsak and Nadiyka Gerbish - translated by Marta Gosovska and Anastasiya Feher. The authors say "Christmas brings the indestructibility of hope in times of the greatest hopelessness. As long as we celebrate this holiday, we can neither be defeated nor destroyed. This is the message that Ukraine is trying to convey to the world. And this is what our book is about."

This beautiful book has illustrations by Olena Staranchuk and it has been republished with an introduction allowing context with the war in Ukraine and the Publisher is making a donation to the Disasters Emergency Committee Ukraine Humanitarian Appeal.

I haven't posted reviews in the list below because that would take up more space (and time!) than I have, but these are all books I've personally enjoyed. As always please do remember to buy from independent booksellers where possible and support the incomes and further careers of creatives. I'm sure I've missed out a few more so please do add those in the comments - and do please share your own titles that fit the frosty & festive requirements

Happy Christmas, and happy reading!

1. Arden, Katherine – The Bear and the Nightingale
2. Bell, Alex and Tomic, Tomislav – Polar Bear Explorers’ Club
3. Bello, Abiola et al - The Very Merry Murder Club (short story collection)
4. Butterworth, Jess – Running on the Roof of the World
5. Carroll, Emma – Frost Hollow Hall
6. Casey, Dawn - Winter Tales
7. Clive, Mary - Christmas with the Savages
8. Crossley-Holland, Kevin – Between Worlds (illustrated by Frances Castle)
9. Doherty, Berlie – Children of Winter
10. Doyle, Catherine - Miracle on Ebenezer Street
11. Esiri, Ali (editor) - A Poem for Every Winter Day (poetry)
12. Elphinstone, Abi (editor) - Winter Magic (anthology)
13. Farr, David - Book of Stolen Dreams
14. Fisher, Catherine – Snow Walker
15. Fisher, Catherine – The Clockwork Crow
16. Foxlee, Karen – Ophelia and the Marvellous Boy
17. Gaarder, Jostein – The Christmas Mystery
18. Gardner, Sally and David Roberts – Tinder
19. Gayton, Sam – the Snow Merchant
20. Gold, Hannah (illustrations by Levi Pinfold) - The Last Bear
21. Goodfellow, Matt - Let's Chase Stars Together (poetry)
22. Gordon, John – The Giant Under The Snow
23. Hargrave, Kiran Millwood – Leila and the Blue Fox
24. Hitchcock, Fleur – Murder at Snowfall
25. Horwood, William – The Willows in Winter
26. Ivey, Eowyn – Snow Child
27. Landman, Tanya - Midwinter Burning
28. Lauren, Ruth – Prisoner of Ice and Snow
29. Lean, Sarah - The Good Bear
30. Leonard, M G - The Arctic Railway Assassin
31. Matthews, Caitlin and Helen Cann – Fireside Stories, Tales for a Winter’s Eve
32. Montgomery, Ross - The Midnight Guardians
33. Morris, Jackie – East of the Sun, West of the Moon
34. Nicholls, Sally - The Silent Stars Go By
35. Nimmo, Jenny – The Snow Spider
36. Penfold, Nicola - Beyond the Frozen Horizon
37. Pratchett, Terry – Wintersmith
38. Preussler, Otfried – Krabat
39. Priestley, Chris – The Last of the Spirits
40. Riddell, Chris (poems chosen by) - We Wish You A Merry Christmas and other festive poems
41. Rundell, Katherine – Wolf Wilder 
42. Smith, Alex T - The Grumpus and his Dastardly Deadly Christmas Plan
43. Stevens, Robin - Mistletoe and Murder
44. St John, Lauren – The Snow Angel
45. Streatfeild, Noel – White Boots
46. Thebo, Mimi - Dreaming the Bear
47. Torday, Piers – There May Be A Castle
48. Webb, Holly - Luna
49. Wilson, Amy – Snowglobe
50. Woodfine, Katherine – The Midnight Peacock

As always - please add your own additions in the comments. I would love to see someone do a list of poetry for the season too! Apologies for missing anyone out but I only ever list books that I've actually read. If you'd like me to read yours, drop me a line.

As this is a list for older and independent readers, here's some links to pages listing great picture books and festive books for younger children.

https://www.independent.co.uk/extras/indybest/christmasgifts/best-christmas-books-kids-children-b1769835.html

https://www.juniormagazine.co.uk/shopping/24-of-the-best-childrens-books-to-get-you-in-the-christmas-spirit/

https://www.lovereading4kids.co.uk/blog/our-christmas-book-recommendations-for-children-6297

Dawn Finch is an author and former children's librarian and former chair of the Society of Author's Children's Writers and Illustrators Group (CWIG) 

This may well be the last Finch's Frosty Festive Fifty as I no longer write under the name Finch! My married name is McLachlan and from 2023 I will be exclusively using that. I shall have to think of a decent festive rhyme - "McLachlans a' cracklin list" maybe? Maybe not!

www.dawnmclachlan.com

@dawnafinch

The Broken Model, by Dawn Finch

I have on many occasions been outspoken about my belief that the cult of celebrity authors in the world of children’s publishing is harmful. I have explained why I think the current obsession with offering celebrities deals for publishing children’s books is bad for readers and for anyone purchasing books for young people. Now I want to explain why it is bad for authors and the industry as a whole.

It can not have escaped anyone’s attention that the supermarket and mainstream bookshop shelves are increasingly full of books “written” by celebrities. I use the word “written” in quotation marks because this is not an article about the relative merits of flaws of these books (and I have no desire to demean the work of my colleagues who are ghost writers). I'm also leaving aside the many excellent writers of comedy and tv who have made a professional transition into writing for young people. This article is about how the messy bun-fight for books by random celeb names and how it is hurting the children’s book industry as a whole.

Let me explain. To secure the “writing” of a celebrity the publisher offers an advance – an advance payment offered against future sales of the book. These advances are shrouded in secrecy, but it is safe to say that in the world of children’s authors’ incomes these celeb advances would be described as super-massive. The celeb advances that I know of are twenty or thirty times the rate that regular authors are getting, and many are way way more. Publishing houses are, of course, just another business at heart and they have a product that they need to sell and it is within their business interests to make that advance back. To make the advance back they need to sell as many copies of the celeb book as quickly as possible after publication. 

There are many ways to sell a book but the number one way of making sure you have lots of pre-orders and sales is to have maximum visibility. You can have the best book in the world with the finest and most beautiful illustrations and cover but if no one knows that book exists then no one will buy it. Children are not swayed by the latest chef or DJ publishing a book - in fact they literally could not care less. This means the marketing people have to sell not to children, but the adults - the holders of the purse strings. Publishers know this and that is why it’s not enough to just have a press release or a few tweets with the celeb’s book, you have to go all out. What you need to claw back a super-massive advance is a high-profile advertising campaign. You need huge posters on public transport, guest spots on tv shows, glossy ads in magazines, and you need to buy visible shelf space and to buy on to award lists – basically you need to throw a shed load more money at the book to make money back on the book. That's a big gamble.

I often hear people claim that celebrity high-profile books are good for the industry because they “get kids reading” and they have a “trickle-down” effect. I absolutely do not believe that and over the last three decades working with children’s books I have seen zero evidence of this.  I fail to see how the fact that a celeb author who has cost the publisher this super-massive advance and now also dominates their marketing budget can be of any benefit to any author other than the celeb themselves. Frankly I’m not convinced that most of these super-massive advances earn out at all. Evidence for this is that the publishing industry constantly scoping around for the next celeb to gamble on and to repeat this broken model over and over again.

It breaks my heart that month after month, year after year, I see the most extraordinary books for young readers fail to get the attention they deserve. There are some outstanding books published by authors of true talent, authenticity, originality and skill and yet these will probably never find their way into the hands of your children. The cold fact is that if you pass a supermarket or post office shelf, or if you’re on the underground, or switch your telly on to a tea time chat show you are only ever going to see the same books by the same small pool of celebrity authors. 

When celebs started to see children’s books as a kind of easy cash-cow every reader, children’s author, and book buyer lost something. What we lost was choice and variety and in its place we have an industry that is drifting ever closer to being a glossy and homogenised pastiche of what it should be. Instead of shelves full of limitless variety we have an industry becoming dependent on the soulless repetition of this super-massive celeb advance + intense claw back broken model.

There are still those who claim that the reason professional authors protest about the cult of celebrity authors is jealousy, but that’s not the case with the authors I know. Yes, of course they’d like a more level playing field and would like a fair share of the money and the marketing budgets, but it’s far more than that. They can see how this intense focus on celebs limits not only their opportunity to create and write but also limits choice for young readers as the celebs muscle in on all the available shelf space.

Authors want the industry to be better, and to do better. They write for children because they believe in what they do, and because they want children to have access to a wide range of books from all walks of life and expressing all voices. They want children to have the very thing that inspired them to become writers in the first place in that they want them to stumble across an extraordinary book that speaks to them and inspires them and lives in their hearts for the rest of their lives.

I don’t think that’s too much to ask.

Dawn Finch (aka Dawn McLachlan) is an author, poet and former children's librarian with 30 yrs experience working with children's books and reading. She is a former chair of the Society of Authors Children's Writers and Illustrators Group, and a former President of the Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals

www.dawnmclachlan.com

Notes from the CWIG AGM and an announcement, by Dawn Finch

On September 20th  2022 we had the Society of Authors' Children's Writers and Illustrators Group (CWIG) AGM, and there was a lot to report! Apologies in advance for this long article but there's a lot to tell you.

Since the main pandemic restrictions eased the committee and the SoA have been working hard to embed lots of things that were previously in the planning stage.

Things that have happened this year in CWIG:

• We released our statement opposing the government’s plans to convert the Oak National Academy into an Arms Length Body, which can be read in the Where We Stand section of the SoA website.

• In March, CWIG released a joint statement with the SoA in support of Simon Green and the LGBTQ+ community, when his school visit was cancelled for being ‘outside the scope of what is permissible in a Catholic school’ by the Southwark Archdiocese. You can read this statement on the SoA website, Click here.

• The committee has been examining issues surrounding DBS documents (Disclosure and Barring Service), with the result being that the SoA is planning to help authors acquire DBS through an umbrella body as a membership benefit in the near future. Further details of this will be announced very soon and we are sure that our members will be hugely relieved to have access to this. 

This was a matter that we had discussed extensively over the past few years and we are fully aware that in theory an author should not require this extra level of safeguarding, but in practice an increasing number of local authorities are demanding it. We were faced with two options; we could continue to argue the case on behalf of our members and risk alienating schools, teachers and local authorities, or we could work towards SoA becoming an umbrella body so that members could get this documentation. We felt that in the long term it would make more sense to help our members get the extra documentation they required in a simple and affordable way. This helps schools fulfill their safeguarding requirements and ultimately protects and supports our members too.

• The Committee has been working with SoA staff on new template contracts for school visits, which is currently under construction and will be available very soon. Two new guides will also be made available to members: one to help authors draft their own terms and conditions for school visits and other events and a separate guide members can send to schools/events organisers. The aim is for these to be regularly updated.

• In our events we hosted a Big Issues in Children’s Literature event with A M Dassu, Darren Chetty, Stuart Lawrence, chaired by Isabel Thomas. The event was a huge success, as you can imagine. We only made this event available for one month on Vimeo at the request of the panel. I have been asked why we might make a panel event available for only one month and there are a number of reasons, the most important being panel member request. It is a good reminder to everyone who has an event recorded that you should consider what will happen with that recording and you have every right to ask for an expiration date for the recording for whatever reason you see fit.

CWIG hosts many online events throughout the year and we decided to continue with this online access as it has the potential to reach many more people than and in-person event. Our most recent event was an Industry Insider event exploring school visits and how to protect yourself with booking forms and clear conditions. This is a perfect example of the kind of events that are there to provide really practical career guidance.

• Our CWIG Reading for Pleasure Award for schools continues to be well received (and much desired by schools) and we are thrilled to announce that author Nicholas Allan has stepped forward to offer financial support in the form of a grant that will benefit the recipient schools in their work to support reading for pleasure. The Reading for Pleasure Award was rather the victim of its own success and therefore we needed to have a bit of a refresh to make sure that it kept its status. Nicholas Allan stepping up to support the award is very exciting and CWIG are looking forward to being able to relaunch the award in the near future. In the meantime you can still nominate as the existing award will run on the current model until the relaunch. If, however, you wish to hold off until the new model is in place that should be later this year.

• SoA group staff coordinators have also been busy on our behalf -  Teddy and Sarah attended Farshore’s Annual Insight Presentation for their review of the children’s book market.  Group coordinator Teddy McDonald represented the committee in attendance at the Carnegie Greenaway Awards at The British Library. 

Coordinator Teddy McDonald joined a sector partners meeting with Great School Libraries and received an update on the next phase of their campaign. Phase two will focus primarily on head teachers, Ofsted, and government. The SoA will be amplifying the findings of their next survey into primary and secondary school library provisions when the results come in – the survey is still open, so please do submit to this. See their website for more information. 

• As well as my work on committee I have been in conversation with the National Literacy Trust about speaker fees. I took part in the All Party Parliamentary Writers Group report giving evidence and examining the negative impact covid has had on the incomes of authors. As well as engaging in all discussions at the Society and beyond about the rights, incomes and careers of creatives. I continue to work with library and literacy groups to support reading for pleasure and have a number of ongoing author rights discussions that I will see through.

After five years as a CWIG committee member, and two and a half further years as Chair, the time has come for me to take a breather. I have been on committee with dozens of members and when I agreed to take on the role of chair back in 2019 I thought that it might me a lovely way to end my time at CWIG. A few award ceremonies and launches, some lovely events with a few chilled glasses and lots of lovely chats with interesting people.

Sadly a pandemic put paid to that and instead of invites my inbox was full of heartbreaking pleas for help and support. I’m so proud that the Society and CWIG stepped up during this time. We suddenly found ourselves immersed in a world where we could only reach out to our members online, and so that is what we did. I never did get to go to those fizzy wine awards, but I did have a much more important time than I expected. 

Now, I’m delighted to hand over to Isabel Thomas and I’m very happy that I’m leaving the committee and the new members in such safe and expert hands. Isabel is already very well known to most children's authors as an award winning author with over 150 books under her belt, but you can find out more about on her website. 

I would like to thank everyone at CWIG for making this possible and for making such a difference during the most challenging of times. Thank you Teddy, and Sarah at Soa and Jo McCrum who guided my hand at the start of my journey. Thank you Nicola Solomon for your guidance and leadership, and special thanks to Joanne Harris who has talked me into calmer waters more than once! Most of all thank you to the many committee members who have been there with me over the last 7 and half years. You know who you are, and I’m honoured to have worked with you.

My own future in writing for children is far from certain, I had not had any contracts since before the pandemic and I may have to make some difficult decisions in the near future. that said I will continue always to make a stand for rights for creatives. Children's books and the people who create them and work with them will always be close to my heart.

Dawn Finch (aka Dawn McLachlan) - is an author, poet, activist, allotmenteer, seed herder, community cook, and former chair of the Children's Writers and Illustrators Group at the Society of Authors

www.dawnmclachlan.com

Twitter @dawnafinch

Instagram @dawnamclachlan

To join the Society of Authors and gain benefit of all this and more, please click here.

 

Industry Insider Event, by Dawn Finch

The CWIG AGM is scheduled for September and this has given me cause to look at all we have done over the past year. Writing my report for what will be my last AGM for CWIG has certainly been interesting. I was asked to become CWIG Chair back in 2019 and I when I accepted I had no idea how challenging that time would be. We have come through the demanding times as authors and personally I went from being a complete technophobe about being on camera to being quite a dab hand. The last couple of years have turned us into Zoomers and if you have missed any of the incredibly useful (and fun) online events we have done you can always catch up on the SoA Vimeo channel. My personal favourite was the afternoon tea with Dame Jacqueline Wilson and you can hardly see my excitement.... well... I did my best to act professional!

Now the Pandemic conditions are (almost) past and many of us are taking up bookings for school and public events again. This is heartening as I know how much people have missed being out in the "real" world and we all know that the positive impact of author visits in schools is well documented. 

Sadly, times have changed and I have been contacted dozens of times by people who are finding that they are being cancelled at the last minute, or that they are having to cancel themselves. I have also had messages from people who have been cancelled for vague or even unethical reasons, and this raised many conversations at CWIG committee meetings and at the Society of Authors.

One of the pieces of advice we always give people is to get things in writing. I firmly believe that when it comes to bookings it is not enough to rely on a few phone calls or emails when you are committing you time and money to an event. Getting it in writing is often easier said than done and writing your own contract can feel like navigating a legal minefield. At CWIG we were thinking about how we could help to get some advice on contracts to our members and we thought the best way was to put together an online event with some of the most experienced in this field. 

On Sept 20th 2022 join us online at midday for our AGM and hear all about CWIG and find out what we've been up to and what we plan next (and discover who I'm handing over to as the next CWIG Chair for 2023) and sign up for the Industry Insider event at 1pm. This event will focus on contractual terms for authors visiting schools - essential knowledge and guidance for anyone booking their own visits and events.

The panel will be discussing how authors can protect themselves and what terms authors should agree with schools to ensure the visit is a success? The panel will be made up of Sarah Burton (Society of Authors' Head of Advisory Team and Senior Contract Advisor,) and top children's authors Jo Clarke, Karen Inglis, Ross Montgomery, Nicola Morgan.

This promises to be a fascinating and practical event not to be missed, and I'd love the share my last AGM with you!

See you there

Dawn Finch (aka Dawn McLachlan) is a children's author and library activist and the current Chair of the Children's Writers and Illustrators Group (CWIG) at the Society of Authors

Links - Industry Insider - contractual terms for authors visiting schools

            CWIG AGM

            @dawnafinch

            www.dawnmclachlan.com

Tyger - written by SF Said, illustrated by Dave McKean - reviewed by Dawn Finch (McLachlan)

 

First the blurb...

"In a strange alternate world, where the British Empire is still a cruel ruling force, a young boy called Adam has uncovered something incredible in a rubbish dump in London. A mysterious mythical animal.

A TYGER

The Tyger is in danger, and Aam and his friend Zadie are determined to help. However, they soon realise it isn't just the Tyger's life at stake: the world they live in is also on the precipice of darkness. Luckily, the two children have great powers within them, and the Tyger can show them how to harness what's inside."

It is not hyperbole to say that this is one of the most anticipated books of the past few years. Talk and whispers of what Tyger might look and read like have been drifting around social media for a good long time and it was with no small delight that I opened the package that dropped onto my mat. An advance proof of a book with such an advance buzz around it is always a thrill and this was no different. 

Said is a most unusual writer because it is so hard to fit his books into any particular slot. They often walk a beautiful line along the parallels of graphic novel (working alongside the superb illustrations of Dave McKean* SEE FOOTNOTE) and cult novel. Said's fans (of which I'm one) are happy to talk for hours about the subtle undertones and messages within the text and to discuss deeper meanings. Varjak Paw is an absolute classic and with books like Phoenix adding to the Said shelf it is clear that there was a lot of weight and expectation on Tyger.

Breathe easy, it delivers. In spades.

Adam lives in London. A sort-of London. A London of slavery and subjugation, of violence, racism, and ruin. A London where the Empire continued to develop into brutal colonial fascistic masters. Art, imagination and creativity are crushed and there is no space for many for anything other than adherence to the brutal rules of the state, In this hideously broken (yet painfully familiar) city Adam ekes out an existence helping his father with deliveries from their little alterations and repairs shop. It is on one of these deliveries that Adam is saved from a violent attack when he is protected by a great beast that is hiding out in a vast city rubbish tip.

This is Tyger. This wounded and hunted beast has been speared through its shoulder and yet still comes to Adam's rescue. Adam instinctively does not fear this wild animal and instead helps to remove the broken arrow. The great animal then thanks him. Not with an animalistic sound or act, but with a voice that he can hear and that makes his skin tingle. She calls him "Guardian" and thanks him for helping her.

This is the start of an adventure that whirls through the streets of this hideous London as Adam learns more about Tyger and her purpose and her needs and his vital importance in finding this "Guardian". He meets both friends and foes as he develops his own natural gifts and the city is revealed to him as something new and different. Bit by bit Tyger teaches Adam that everything is not always what it seems to be. In darkness there is light, in desperation there is hope, in filth there is gold. As Adam's perception is altered and expanded by these new powers and philosophies the city and his life takes on a new perspective.

Adam, and his new friend Zadie, must do all they can to protect and help Tyger, but she is hunted. They are being stalked by forces that want to trap Tyger and cage her, and kill her. If this happens she will never fulfill her purpose. In a city that is bubbling up with fear, hate, resentment and violence, can Adam and Zadie save her and and help her carry out her task on Midwinter Night before the hangings? Nothing is certain...

There is no doubt that this book earns one of those rare spots on the shelf marked "Future Classics". It is a remarkable work that will be forever discussed and dissected as people analyse every aspect and write essays on the metaphors and deeper meanings. But set that aside for now because to dissect this work too much is to risk the joy of losing yourself to the story and the imagery. Tyger is not a blunt instrument of warning or metaphor but rather an elegant tapestry of threads that catch you and make you look longer, and deeper. A tapestry that you will return to and follow the threads anew to things you had not noticed at your first glance.

We can learn from Tyger, but not in a way that preaches or nags, We can absolutely learn that nothing is ordinary.

Tyger - written by SF Said and illustrated by Dave McKean will be published by David Fickling Books in October 2022

*FOOTNOTE ABOUT THE ILLUSTRATIONS 

It is worth noting here that I have chosen to not review the illustrations for Tyger yet as the proof copy only has a very small selection. The first few, however, show that this book is going to be every bit as extraordinary as McKean's work usually is. I have decided that I will review the illustrations of Tyger separately later in the year when I can do them justice and review the visual experience of the book properly.

Dawn Finch (McLachlan) is a children's writer and poet and is the current chair of the Children's Writers and Illustrators Group (CWIG) at the Society of Authors.

www.dawnmclachlan.com

tweets @dawnafinch

instagram @dawnamclachlan

Writing what we need to write by Lynne Benton

 First, here are the answers to the Easter quiz in my April blog:

1What animal is most associated with Easter? Rabbit 2What did this animal carry in "Alice in Wonderland"? Pocket watch 3Who wrote "The Tale of Peter Rabbit"?  Beatrix Potter 4Can you name all three of his siblings? Flopsy, Mopsy and Cottontail 5What was the title of the book about rabbits by Richard Adams? Watership Down  6In which Disney film did the rabbit Thumper appear? Bambi 7What was the name of Warner Brothers cartoon rabbit? Bugs Bunny 8Who originally recorded the song "Run Rabbit Run"? Flanagan and Allen 9What meat is traditionally eaten at Easter? Lamb 10What do most children enjoy eating at Easter? Easter Eggs 11What is Simnel cake topped with? Marzipan 12What dried fruit is in Hot Cross Buns? Raisins  13Complete this saying:  "Don't put all your eggs in one ..."? Basket 14How is the date of Easter decided? It’s the first Sunday after the first full moon after the spring equinox. 15What name is given to the Sunday before Easter Sunday? Palm Sunday  16In which ocean is Easter Island? Pacific 17Which famous jewellery firm is renowned for its jewel-encrusted eggs? Fabergé 18Which headware item is traditionally associated with Easter Parades? Bonnet 19Complete this line from an Easter hymn: T i a green h f a  There is a green hill far away 20Complete this line from a famous poem:  a h of g d  A host of golden daffodils.

So much for the light-hearted stuff.  I hope some of you found it interesting, or at least distracting from everything that is going on in the world at the moment.

And now for today’s blog, which is not going to be easy. Previous blogs this month, especially Dawn Finch’s on the 7^th and Anne Rooney’s on the 9^th, have expressed their thoughts so well about the current prospects for writers that it’s hard to know how to follow them.

As things are at the moment I can’t help feeling it’s almost self-indulgent to spend my time writing upbeat, optimistic fiction for children. Should I instead be writing something worthy, serious and thought-provoking for adults – something that could come to the attention of certain world leaders, and make them take notice and act to do the right thing for the world/mankind?  If I did, would it do any good?  I suppose if writing such things were my strength, and if I were really famous, it’s just about possible – though I doubt it.

And in any case, writers can only write what they want/need to write, and if it happens to be cheerful fiction for young children, well, that could be important too.  When I see footage on the news of all those children in Ukraine trying to escape from the bombs raining down on them and their homes, seeing things no child should ever have to see, shattering their security, I wonder how they can ever recover.  Maybe in time they will need something happy to read, to remind them of how life should be.  After all, maybe when they grow up they will be the ones responsible for helping to put the world right again.

Maybe all writers can help after all.

Website: lynnebenton.com

Latest book: Billy and the Queen (available from Amazon.co.uk)

Show me the paperwork! by Dawn McLachlan (aka Dawn Finch)

At the start of the Pandemic, I was the new chair of the Children’s Writers and Illustrators Group committee (CWIG) and much of my first few months in the role was spent trying to reassure children’s writers that one day things would be back to normal. The Society of Authors did its best to support members through medical and financial crises as work vanished and things looked increasingly bleak.

Two years on and we are finally starting to see things take a turn for the better. Despite many challenges in the world of publishing sales have risen over the last two years and this has meant authors are again seeing contracts. Schools are largely open again and are booking school visits. In fact, there has been an interesting new trend in schools booking and paying for digital and online visits and this has meant great accessibility and improved diversity and inclusion as well as more potential online opportunities.

However, it is my job to act as the creaking gate in the wind and to grumble about things that concern me. My current worries centre around the increasing number of cancellations I’m hearing about. Cancellations happen, and in this fragile Living With Covid world they are happening with monotonous regularity. Obviously, this is often not the fault of those making the original event booking, but it is also not the fault of the booked author – yet it is the author who is out of pocket.

As you know from my constant posts about matters like this – I’ll say it loud again – EXPECTING TO BE PAID AND TREATED FAIRLY IS NOT BEING GREEDY.

There, I said it. Anyone accepting a booking will find themselves out of pocket with the planning and the travelling and therefore you need protect yourself. You should expect to be paid.

I used to do events that were booked just by a casual email, but failure to reply and confusion over dates meant that I started issuing contracts for each booking. At first, I was worried people would think I was being too formal or that my expectations were too high, but what I actually found was that when I began treating myself like a professional, others treated me like one too. Schools and other organisations booking me did not balk at things like contracts and deposits because they were doing exactly that with every consultant or inset trainer. Some raised a virtual eyebrow at it, but still signed. One or two schools did not sign, and I did not accept the booking. All but one of these schools later returned to me and made official bookings.

Your booking paperwork or contract should always cover cancellation clauses.

The Society of Authors has a very useful booklet covering all aspects of school bookings and on the subject of cancellation clauses in contracts they are very clear.

They suggest that cancellation fees and timings must be made clear and if the booking is conditional then this must be clarified at the outset. They suggest wording along the lines of:

- The author must be paid in full if the event is cancelled within six weeks of the event date;

- The author must be paid 50% if the event is cancelled earlier;

- Any out of pocket expenses already incurred must be reimbursed whenever the event is

cancelled.

Of course you too should have a cancellation clause covering your need to cancel. If you need to cancel for any reason (other than reasons beyond your control such as transport cancellations or pandemic restrictions) the Society would recommend that neither fee nor expenses will be charged and that the organiser will be reimbursed for any pre-paid expenses. If you cannot reach the school due to, say the sudden cancellation of train services or closure of the school due to snow, the Society suggest that you do not charge a fee for the missed session, a new date is mutually agreed and that you are reimbursed for any prebooked expenses.

The Society of Authors has a basic sample contract that you can amend to suit your needs and it is best used in conjunction with the full leaflet about school visits and you can find links to both of these documents at the foot of this article.

Sadly, it is likely that cancellations will remain a concern for us, and therefore protecting yourself and your pocket is important. To my mind a booking contract with a solid set of cancellation clauses is also another form of protection as it is a form of protection against bigotry.

It is awful to have to raise the subject of cancellations for less legitimate reasons but recent cancellations of school visits for authors Simon James Green and Savita Kalhan have given serious cause for concern. If you are a member of the Society of Authors and have been cancelled for reasons that concern you, it is well worth getting in touch.

Get your contracts written, get them signed, and then relax and enjoy the visit and do what you do best – bring joy to your readers!

 Dawn McLachlan (aka Dawn Finch) is the current chair of the Children’s Writers and Illustrators Group at the Society of Authors.

For a Guide for Authors Visiting Schools by the Society of Authors - click here

For sample T&C's for Events in Schools by the Society of Authors - click here

For details of further help and support offered by the Society of Authors - click here

How to talk to children about Ukraine, by Dawn Finch

I have struggled to find something to write this blog about for this monthly slot. I have been back and forth over the book pile, and crossed off everything on my blogging subject list because everything seemed trite and unimportant. The news fills every corner of my mind and it's so hard to gain perspective and to not feel guilty about the pleasant and calm aspects of my life while others are in such horrific situations. If I'm feeling like this, I dread to think how children are feeling.

In these times of digital flooding it is hardly surprising that children are exposed to the news in a way that often causes distress. With the current news being so difficult to understand as an adult, it is obviously even more distressing to a child.

It is incredibly difficult to talk to children about matters like this and to help with this situation the School Library Association has gathered together a few resources that will help both families and teachers to better understand the situation and communicate with youngsters.

You can can access these resources (including a very comprehensive padlet collection) via this link.

https://www.sla.org.uk/article/wendy-cooling-mbe/ukraine-news

It is also worth taking the time to explore the Supporting Wellbeing resources from the National Literacy Trust. These resources are essentially for educators, but they are so useful that they offer an insight into the thinking of children and to ways of communicating better with them and to supporting their mental health.

You can access these resource via this link (below)

https://literacytrust.org.uk/primary/literacy-wellbeing/

I hope that these resources are helpful, and please do add more in the comments

Dawn Finch is poet and children's author. She is the current chair of the Children's Writers and Illustrators Group (CWIG) at the Society of Authors. 

Taking action and changing lives - Libraries Week 2021, by Dawn Finch

 As this is #LibrariesWeek in the UK I thought I'd share some of my favourite vintage library posters again. Many of these can be found as part of the American Library Association digital archive and other library archives and you can easily lose days hunting around their files.

Libraries Week is an annual showcase and celebration of the best that libraries have to offer. Each year we pick a theme and explore the innovative and surprising things that libraries are doing to support their communities.

In 2021, Libraries Week takes place between the 4th and 10th October, celebrating the nation’s much-loved libraries and the central role that libraries play in their community as a driver for inclusion, sustainability, social mobility and community cohesion. We want to celebrate how your library is taking action and changing lives!

Libraries have always been at the heart of a cohesive community and it is important that we keep fighting to protect that, and to make libraries even better. Every day libraries and library workers are changing and saving lives and it is vital that we raise awareness of the huge importance of libraries in our communities.

Keep up to date with Libraries Week 2021 by following @librariesweek and share your plans at #LibrariesWeek. Libraries Week is organised by CILIP - The UK's Library and Information Association.

These posters are snapshot of the the past, and I share them as a reminder that libraries are still carrying these messages today and they are still as valid as ever.

More information about Libraries Week can be found on the dedicated Libraries Week website.

http://librariesweek.org.uk/

Dawn Finch is a children's writer, former library worker and library activist.

Poetry and pain, by Dawn Finch

Have you seen this villain?

This is going to be a very brief post because I'm in pain. Nothing serious, just a toothache from a tooth cracked by a curly wurly back during Lockdown. I have waited too long to book an appointment, and then had to wait even longer to get an appointment. It has been getting worse and worse over the last few weeks and now it's all that I can think about. Getting off to sleep has been very difficult with waves of pain and I realised that I was returning to a method I developed as a child that helped me get off to sleep. 

When I was at school I won a small prize for memorising a poem. We all had to do it but, thankfully, my teacher was lovely and he let us pick any poem we liked. We didn't even have to tell him, we just had to do our best to memorise it and then repeat it to the class. After much musing and choosing I ruled out all of the weighty and meaningful ones I'd chosen first. After a few trials in the mirror I just felt too awkward with lines like "She walks in beauty, like the night, of cloudless climes and starry skies...." or "Bright star, would I were stedfast as thou art—Not in lone splendour hung aloft the night...." etc.. (yes, I was that child)

I decided that as much as I loved reading these poems to myself, they really would make my life even more challenging than it already was if I stood in front of the rest of the kids in our creaky mobile classroom and read it aloud.

 No, something different had to be chosen. After much deliberation I opted for Matilda, who told lies and was burned to death, by Hilaire Belloc. As you can imagine this went down a storm. It is one of those poems that particularly lends itself to being read aloud and even better when performed.

 Decades later I introduced my own child to the poem and they memorised it and made a whole school laugh with a great performance of it. This poem has sat so well in a little niche in my head and I now run the lines of Matilda and other Belloc poems on repeat in my head until I fall asleep. They make me smile and bring back happy memories and it eases my current pain.

 The power of poetry is just that. It can be a puzzle, or a moment trapped in the glorious amber of words, or it can be a laugh, or a pause for thought. Sometimes it can ease very real pain.

 I won't write any more because I'm terrified about seeing the dentist tomorrow. I think I'm going to need some Belloc to sleep. Maybe this one...

 

The Microbe*

 by

 Hilaire Belloc

 

 The Microbe is so very small

 You cannot make him out at all,

 But many sanguine people hope

 To see him through a microscope.

 His jointed tongue that lies beneath

 A hundred curious rows of teeth;

 His seven tufted tails with lots

 Of lovely pink and purple spots,

 On each of which a pattern stands,

 Composed of forty separate bands;

 His eyebrows of a tender green;

 All these have never yet been seen--

 But Scientists, who ought to know,

 Assure us that they must be so ...

 Oh! let us never, never doubt

 What nobody is sure about!

 

 Dawn Finch is the current chair of the Children's Writers and Illustrators Group (CWIG) and she has a toofache.

* this poem is in the public domain. Please be mindful of the work and copyright of others when sharing poems.

Mega Robo Bros by Neill Cameron - reviewed by Dawn Finch

 

First the blurb...

Alex and Freddy are two normal bickering brothers - who also happen to be super-powered robots! They're just like regular brothers...they try to avoid getting into trouble with mum and dad, head off on school trips, and juggle their school work - but at the same time they are agents of R.A.I.D - an elite government unit that protect the world from robotic attacks.

Readers of The Phoenix comic will already be familiar with Alex and Freddy's thrilling adventures (and I'd absolutely recommend buying any child in your family a subscription to the Phoenix). David Fickling books have published an updated and reformatted graphic novels featuring their adventures. 

Set in a futuristic London, Alex and Freddy are adopted by a scientist and her husband and (even though they are both robots) they are sentient and behave to all intents and purposes exactly like regular kids. They are not the only robots in London, but their mother knows that they are "the most complex cybernetic intelligences ever created by humanity".... although the "poopy butts" song does show them be very much like regular kids.

In Power Up, Freddy and Alex are off on a school trip to a theme and spend plenty of time annoying each other right up until they have to battle the other robots of London under the control of the evil Robot 23.

In the sequel - Double Threat - the boys have a new enemy. The so-called genius inventors of Team Robotix are targeting the brothers with gigantic evil robots.

It is easy to like Freddy and Alex. Anyone who knows or has worked with young lads will recognise them here and you can't help smiling reading their adventures. The dialogue is very natural and believable even in a futuristic setting and the reader quickly feels both absorbed and invested in the adventure.

Cameron's London is effortlessly inclusive and diverse in a way that feels completely authentic and recognisable (even with flying buses!) The graphic novel is beautifully illustrated and coloured and can stand confidently alongside the best graphic novels for adults. It really is a thing of great beauty and I found myself going back over it again to take a longer look at the depth and detail of the illustrations. The dialogue is witty and absorbing and the young reader I passed this on has raved about it too.

The extra characters are hilarious and memorable - and I laughed so hard at Stupid Philosophy Penguin that it's worth having a copy of Power Up just for the absolute gold of a robotic penguin that offers Sartre quotes at key moments. Freddy and Alex's London is complete in so many details and it feels like the most exciting place to live while still being recognisable.

These books explore a lot of what it means to be human, and to be a child in a place where you stand out as being different - but that never feels predictable or preachy and I enjoyed them a great deal.

Mega Robo Bros by Neill Cameron - published by David Fickling books

Power Up and Double Threat out now RRP £8.99 

Dawn Finch is the current chair of the Children's Writers and Illustrators Group at the Society of Authors.