Making wine from sour grapes - by Lu Hersey

If you watch the BAFTAs or the Academy Awards, you notice an interesting thing about actors. They can convey any emotion, from deep sorrow to ecstatic joy, and make us totally believe in their on-screen characters – but they just can’t quite get it right when they don’t win an award. Their fixed smiles at the success of their fellow actors really doesn’t quite cover the gritted teeth and barely suppressed anguish at not grabbing the Oscar for themselves.

The thing is (I’m not up for any book awards right now, so I’m allowed to say this), WRITERS FEEL EXACTLY THE SAME! 

Of course we do. We can recognise the brilliance of another writer and be glad they’ve been acknowledged – but at the same time, we wish we'd won instead. We just want to run away and sulk BIG TIME. What we really DON’T want is to be all over social media telling everyone how delighted we are for the winner and how amazing and deserving they are…but obviously we do it anyway, because usually it's true. We just can't feel it at the time.

In any kind of writing competition, whether you’re looking for an agent, or a publisher, or hoping for an award for your published book, not succeeding doesn’t mean you’re no good – just that someone else won. I’ve read manuscripts by excellent writers, telling fantastic, original stories, who somehow haven’t yet found a publisher - and plenty of published books by amazing writers that weren’t even nominated for any awards. There must be an entire library’s worth of books out there that deserved all the accolades, but didn’t get them. Whatever the reason, it doesn’t mean they’re not great books by brilliant writers.

Years ago (more than I’d like to admit to) the person I believed I was going to marry, married someone else. There was one song that kept going around in my head - Yvonne Fair’s It should Have Been Me. (Turn up the volume - it’s amazing and packed with raw emotion. Forget Celine Dion.) The quantity of sour grapes I swallowed congratulating the happy couple was enough to pack a crate and the champagne toast practically choked me – but years later, I’m glad it worked out the way it did. My life just took a different direction, and truth is, sour grapes can mature into fine wine.

The same goes for writing awards and competitions. Don’t waste your energy wondering if you should give up and if you’re no good – just congratulate the winners. You might win next time…and you’re going to really appreciate others wishing you well.

Meanwhile, maybe we should start a virtual library for all the brilliant books that weren’t best sellers or award winners, but really deserve some love…

Lu Hersey

luhersey.com

@LuWrites

New writers – a leg up and a helping hand... Lari Don

Earlier this week, I was privileged to attend the Scottish Book Trust’s New Writers Awards Showcase, where the winners of this SBT scheme read extracts from their startlingly good new writing, and where we were all given a lovely little book of their writing.

I can take a tiny bit of credit for how wonderful the evening was, because I was one of the panel who chose the two new Children's and Young Adult Fiction writers. (A process so wrapped in secrecy and cloaked in mystery that I can say NOTHING about it at all...)

But I can say that we chose Claire Squires and Michael Richardson, and I can also say that all the new writers were fantastic and all their new writing was great... it was a really inspiring evening. The awards they received were pretty impressive too – including mentoring, a week long retreat, and a grant to help with the costs of finding time to write. An amazing leg up and helping hand for anyone trying to work out how to be the best writer they can be.

And most people need a leg up of some kind at the start (or even in the middle...) of their writing career. For example, I got my start when I entered the Kelpies Prize with a draft of my first children’s novel, First Aid for Fairies. It didn’t win, but being shortlisted led to all sorts of other opportunities...

So well done to the organisers of initiatives like this, and best of luck to anyone entering competitions or awards to give them a bit of a leg up, a helping hand, and a bouncy friendly start to their writing career.

And especially well done to Claire Squires and Michael Richardson, both of whom I’m sure you’ll be hearing more about in the future, as they move from being new writers to published writers!

Lari Don is surprised to discover that she’s no longer a new writer – she’s now written more than 20 books for all ages, including a teen thriller, 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 

So long, farewell, auf wiedersehen, goodbye-eee.... Megan Rix / Ruth Symes

How time has flown. I've just looked back at my blog posts and see I started way back in November 2011 and here we are 3 years later and my last post for now.

I've just finished my latest book tour as Megan Rix. This time it was for my book 'The Hero Pup' and we got to have guide dogs and hearing dogs and medical alert dogs, as well as my own two, Traffy and Bella, coming along to different sessions. It was fantastic! My favourite tour so far :) Back in 2011 I hadn't done any week long book tours and now I have 5 under my belt. I'd also never done a ppt presentation but now when we turn up at a school and they're having problems setting it up I'm (don't want to jinx it) so will just say usually able to sort it out. And requests to speak to 700 children plus staff at once - a breeze - done it twice now.

This year has been amazing. Two children's book
of the year award wins - one for 'Victory Dogs' at

lovely Stockton-on-Tees and one for 'The Bomber Dog' at beautiful Shrewsbury. Shrewsbury even provided a dog to come out on stage with me - not a german shepherd like Grey in Bomber Dog but a lively ball loving spaniel who works as a bomb sniffing dog.

Dogs are so wonderful and I never tire of telling children all the brilliant things they can do as well as showing pictures of the things my two get up to. Fortunately I have lots of pictures and the one where Bella as a tiny pup is trying to bury a sock always goes down well. As does the fox poo one :)

I've been so proud of Traffy coming into our local school with me to listen to children read. She's been such a hit and is always ready with a wag of her tail as a new child coos over her. Her special reading mat with letters on it was a true find and the children who've read to her have shown improvements even more than the school had hoped for.

The school was also the first one to hear a very early first chapter of 'Cornflake the Dragon' my new Secret Animal Society series that I'm writing as Ruth Symes. The Ruth Symes books tend to be for slightly younger children than the Megan Rix ones and I love getting letters from readers and pictures of the toys that have been made of the characters. I especially treasured an email I got recently about 'Dancing Harriet' and how the book was being used at a school in India to help teach tolerance and inclusion.

I'm going to miss not writing for ABBA for a while (other than hopefully an occasional guest post) but I've just got a bit too overworked what with running two careers as Ruth Symes and Megan Rix and so it's best to step out rather than find blogging a chore rather than a pleasure. But I'll still be reading it and looking forward to catching up with what's happening  :)

PS Just found out 'A Soldier's Friend' is one of the nominated books for 2015's Carnegie medal - yahoo! Good luck to everyone with books in it xx

PPS Thanks so much to Carol Christie for saying her son got switched back on to reading by The Bomber Dog I hadn't seen the comment at the end of my Dog Days posts until I looked back at the old posts I'd done yesterday. That's what it's all about :)


www.ruthsymes.com and www.secretanimalsociety.com and www.meganrix.com

Dog Days - How my dogs inspire my writing by Megan Rix

Without my dogs Megan Rix wouldn't exist. Rix is a family name of my husband's and Megan, or Meg, sounded to me like the name of someone who liked dogs. So I invented her as a pseudonym for my memoir 'The puppy that came for Christmas'. The book went on to become a Sunday Times Bestseller and told of our experiences of being assistance dog puppy raisers before we got a puppy of our own: 'Traffy.’

Prior to becoming Megan Rix I already had an established career as a writer of children’s books and TV shows under the name of Ruth Symes but once Traffy, and then Bella, came along my daily word tally quadrupled. I now have 4 multi-award winning children’s books about dogs in World Wars 1 and 2 with Puffin and more on the way.

My dogs are in all of my books and not just in the acknowledgements. Bella loved my husband’s socks and only his socks when she was a pup (how did she know they were his?!) and Buster in ‘The Great Escape' has a nose for identifying various members of his family's slippers. Both Traffy and Bella howled as pups like Howl does in ‘The Victory Dogs’ and Bella's love of ball-play is shared by Grey in ‘The Bomber Dog’.  Not forgetting the football playing dog at the Christmas Truce of 1914 in ‘A Soldier's Friend’ inspired by a partially deflated football that was given to us down at the river and played with by an excited pack of dogs from tiny terriers to large Labs.

My days usually start with a long dog walk by the river (with Traffy and Bella often in the river). Sometimes I write in my spare-bedroom office but only one dog can comfortably squeeze in there. They prefer it when I use the conservatory to write in but they like the door open and it can get a bit cold in the winter! The best place to write is on the bed – fortunately I love writing first drafts by hand. Judging by how Traffy and Bella  always clamber on and within a few minutes are fast asleep and often snoring they like this writing spot best too.

A couple of hours later Bella's ready for a break and will remind me by dropping a ball on my lap if I'm working in the office. If I push the ball away she'll pick it up off the floor and drop it on my lap again and again. She’s one persistent puppy. Taffy will also pick up a toy (an orang-utang is her favourite at the moment) and shake it and push it into my hands. I’m never able to resist them for long.

Bella taught me about ‘show not tell’ the other day. I'd taken the dogs for a walk by the river and still had Bella's ball in my coat. My husband noticed her biting at my coat pocket (the coat was hanging up) and asked her what she wanted. Bella went and found a ball and put it next to my coat where the ball she wanted was. I’ve also had dogs bringing me my wellingtons when I’m late taking them for a walk. Dogs love sign language. It’s so much clearer for them than the burble of words. Often in obedience exams sign language isn't allowed but I'm sure if the roles were reversed and we had to guess what a dog was saying from his barks we'd appreciate a handy hint or two.     

Being home along is never lonely when you have two dog shadows wherever you go. Even when I get up at three in the morning to do some work and creep out of the bedroom so I don’t disturb my sleeping husband Traffy and then Bella will pad down the stairs after me and curl up next to me on the sofa-bed in the conservatory.

They always know when I'm going out for the day because I'm putting on make-up and not wellingtons and they don’t like it. But coming home to be greeted by two exhuberant dogs is just the best thing ever. Bella races to grab a toy to give me and Traffy picks up a chew so she can ‘talk' and my normal dog walking, ball throwing, toy playing, writing routine resumes.

Megan Rix will be talking about her books and Animals in War with Damian Kelleher at the Hay-on-Wye literary festival on the 27th May. Her dog Traffy may also put in an appearance.

Her book 'The Victory Dogs' (set during the Blitz) is Stockton-on-Tees children's book of the year 2014. 'The Bomber Dog' (about a parachute dog) is this year's Shrewsbury's Bookfest award winner.

Her website is www.meganrix.com

Writer's Pets - Ruth Symes / Megan Rix

Most of my books have had an animal star in them - certainly all the picture books and the Megan Rix ones. Plus as a work-from-home writer (apart from when I'm walking the dogs by the river) I usually have a dog or two next to me while I'm writing and, when they were small enough, a pup fast asleep on my lap as I wrote at the computer in my office.

If I write on my laptop on the bed Traffy still crawls onto my lap for a cuddle - and she's pretty huge now.

To me, writing and pets just seem to go together. And as far as I can tell from the comments and writers of this blog lots of ABBA-ites agree. So I did a quick bit of research on authors and their pets and found some photos I'd like to share. There were far more than the few below but these are some that jumped out at me:

Steven King with Marlowe

Beatrix potter and Benjamin Bouncer

Maurice Sendak and Herman

Mark Twain with Huckleberry cat

Elizabeth Barrett Browning and Flush

I think Elizabeth's poem to her dog 'Flush' particularly resonates with me at the moment - having had a cold for the past week or so and knowing how much nicer taking an afternoon nap is with a dog cuddled up beside you.

Although my two would rather be having wild times!

What's your writer's pet like?

There must be something down here.

Ruth's latest book is Cat Magic published by Piccadilly and her website's www.ruthsymes.com

Megan's latest book is The Great Escape published by Puffin. It's been shortlisted for the East Sussex Children's Book Award. Her website's www.meganrix.com