2016 and All That by Miriam Halahmy

Quiz winners with some of the Scattered Authors Society ( SAS): the writers'group which set up ABBA.

This is a rather poignant post to write. After six years or so blogging monthly on ABBA I have decided to step down... time for a new voice methinks. I have thoroughly enjoyed being part of this great literary community and the group behind the blog, The Scattered Authors Society. Fortunately there will still be many opportunities to meet up with author friends in this amazing society.

The Scattered Authors' Society has given me such tremendous support since I joined in 2010 just before my first Y.A. novel, HIDDEN, was published. The wealth of experience in the group has been my benchmark ever since, showing the way and providing support through the peaks and troughs of the writer's life. Writing for ABBA once a month was so important as it encouraged me to organise my thoughts  and write a coherent piece on writing on a regular basis. When one is part of a group for a long time it is easy to take things for granted. So just writing this final blog has allowed me to reflect on how much I have benefited from being part of the SAS and how much I look forward to continuing the relationship in different settings.

For my final blog I thought I would reflect on what has been quite a momentous year for me.
After two years in the wilderness with no book contracts, losing a publisher and changing agents suddenly everything happened in 2015 and as a result 2016 has been a richness of publication.

The year started with HIDDEN being optioned for the stage by Theatre Director, Stuart Mullins. Over the year a script writer has been chosen, the wonderful Vickie Donoghue and funding applied for. Rebecca Hayes Laughton,  Producer, and Temor Al-Kaisi, Iraqi Theatre Maker, have joined the team and our meetings have been exciting and tremendous fun. The play will tour schools, community centres and small theatres from September 2017.

HIDDEN was published in America this summer by Holiday House and was chosen by the Junior Library Guild as one of their Fall books. To cap it all, I then received two copies of the audio book in the post! I've listened to the whole book and its terrific.

HIDDEN has also been bought by Danish publisher, Turbine.

In May this year my very first historical novel and very first Middle Grade novel, The Emergency Zoo, was published by Alma Books on their brand new children's list. We had a great launch in Camden Waterstones and I was invited to speak at the Edinburgh Festival. I have had several other events around the book this year and my diary for 2017 is already bursting with festivals and author talks. The Historical Novel Society reviewed the book, "Lovely and moving book. Highly recommended."

In August my other writer group, The Edge, brought out our very first anthology of short stories, Stories from the Edge, Albury Books. My story, Next Stop, The Eiffel Tower, is set during the Paris attacks and reflects on student responses to the situation. "I guarantee that these stories will leave readers gasping for more. " Joy Court, Chair, CILIP Carnegie and Kate Greenaway Medals.

My final publication of 2016 is one that perhaps I'm the most proud of : Yasmin's Journey, Ransom Books. This is a story about a fifteen year old Syrian girl forced to flee the war with her six year old brother. The story is for teenage girls with low reading ages and is 5000 words long. I was a Special Needs Teacher for 25 years, heading up departments in comprehensive schools and so I know the difficulties of struggling readers. It was very exciting for me to actually write a book which will challenge the maturity of these readers but also help them to develop their reading skills.

In between a new grandchild has arrived, inspiring a poem.

 Other poetry has been written and after 35 years as a member of Highgate Poets I was made an Honorary Lifetime Member, which makes me incredibly proud. I have also been asked to write song lyrics for a project in the Midlands that encourages choirs in primary schools. My song, Seven Billion Candles for Peace, will be performed in 2017.

Years come and go and sometimes we forget what a journey each year can be. This one has had many different journeys interwoven into it but as a writer it has really been a year of joy and publication, only outstripped by the new grandchild!

I know that there will be writers reading this blog who are in the trough right now and perhaps my words will feel at the very least unhelpful. All I can say is that I have been there and so I really do know how it feels to watch everyone else succeed and feel left behind and ignored. But just as things turned around for me, I hope and wish the same for anyone out there who is feeling in the doldrums. Writing, as all creative arts, is a precarious journey to embark on and I have certainly needed all the writer friends in the SAS and elsewhere who have generously continued to support me and have never let me give up.

Happy writing, happy reading and a very happy and rewarding journey in the coming New Year.

www.miriamhalahmy.com

Writing about asylum seeking children

I have been writing about the experiences of asylum-seeking children for ten years and have read many heart breaking stories. I started with an educational resource commissioned by the Refugee Council entitled, Global Communities.  "I came back from Sunday School," writes Sado, 8, from Somalia, "and I remember seeing that our living room as well as our kitchen had collapsed. Then I saw tanks in front of our house and they began firing. It was terrible."

Giving a voice to the voiceless has been an important part of my drive to write and also to work with asylum seekers helping them to write their stories down. "Go and open the door," writes Noor, 15, "I see my country, I see the building where my family and friends live."
One boy said, "This has been the best day of my life," after he had read out a piece about his homeland, Iraq. At last his voice and his feelings had been heard and acknowledged.

I have always felt that is is huge responsibility to write fiction about the experience of being an asylum seeker. But the desire to show the human side of ordinary people, as opposed to statistics and anonymity, has been the impetus to keep me writing. In fiction I can weave my research into fictional lives to make the experience as authentic as possible while also creating three-dimensional characters my readers can believe in.

After the educational resource came a short story which lead to the writing of my first Y.A. novel, HIDDEN. Two teenagers save a drowning asylum seeker and hide him to save him from being deported. The novel was published in 2011, well before the current refugee crisis. One of my teens, Samir, is also an asylum seeker from Iraq. I was very keen to show that life in Iraq is not only defined by bombs and bullets. Samir talks longingly about his life back home when he helped his mother shop in the markets and played football in the street with his friends. Over the past year there has been a rising interest in HIDDEN again. It will be published in America ( Holiday House, autumn 2016) and has been optioned for the UK stage.

I have just completed a new story, Yasmin's Journey, about a Syrian girl running away from the war, (Ransom Books, October 2016). The book is for teen girls with low reading ages so my limit was 5000 words. Quite a challenge to cover so much ground in so few words!

In researching the book I came across some very sad  stories such as the three year old boy who cried until he was sick because he was separated from his family. Tears rolled down my face as I read this story. Fortunately a charity reunited the child with his parents.

As a writer I think it is fine to feel the pain and sorrow of people who are fleeing for their lives if I am to write an authentic and effective story. But Yasmin, 15, wears jeans and talks about her group of friends on What's App who call themselves The Fun Girls. If I make my book too serious and sad, who will want to read it?

My next book, The Emergency Zoo, (May 2016, Alma Books) is set just before the outbreak of WW2. It is the untold story of the culling of 750,000 pets - a pretty mind-boggling story on its own. But in my research I came across a story about two Jewish sisters from Germany,coming on the Kindertransport, who were desperate not to leave their dog behind. I therefore created a Jewish brother and sister from Frankfurt who become part of  a group of children who save their pets. 10,000 Jewish children came as unaccompanied asylum-seeking children from the Continent before the outbreak of war and mostly their families perished.

It is a sad fact that many of the children who arrive alone in the UK every week, fleeing war and devastation, will never see their families again. It is essential that we find the strength and imagination to write authentic stories which reflect their terrible experiences and give hope that they will be able to build new lives here with us in the UK.

www.miriamhalahmy.com