Over to Andy…

Andy Robb’s Top 10 Books To Plunder When No One’s Looking

I once had a conversation with Alex Garland, author and screenwriter extraordinaire. It was way before I started writing Geekhood: Close Encounters of the Girl Kind, and I wanted to show him something else I’d been working on.

But he wouldn’t look at it; he said that every writer is a thief, either consciously or unconsciously, and if I showed him my work, it would turn up by accident in one of his books. With that in mind, here are the top ten books whose work I am most likely to be plundering while no one’s looking:

The Lord of the Rings by the utter genius J R R Tolkien. I first read it when I was eleven and I’ve reread it at least once a year since. What I can’t get over is the depth of the world that Tolkien has created. No wonder it’s the Geek Bible. If you’ve only ever seen the films, you NEED to get into the books; you get insights into the characters that film is just incapable of delivering. Which is why I’d take a book over a film any day of the week. You actually get to sit inside the characters’ heads for a few hours a night.

The Chronicles of Thomas Covenant by Stephen Donaldson. If Tolkien’s world is full of love and innocence, Donaldson’s creation is portrait in bitterness and hate. The lead character, Thomas Covenant, is a leper, shunned by his local community. After a car accident, he is transported to The Land, where he experiences recovery from his illness. But the thing is, he doesn’t believe it’s real and, as a result, decides that he can act as he likes – which leads to him making some dreadful decisions. I got into these at the age of fourteen and the sheer anger in the words resonated through my teenage heart. I was a rock. I was an island. But what I discovered was that you’ve got to be prepared for the consequences of every one of your actions.

The Dark Knight Returns by Frank Miller. Miller’s graphic novel changed the way I saw Batman forever. Realized through dark and gritty artwork, Batman’s a psychopath and almost indistinguishable from the bad guys. I’ve always liked The Caped Crusader, but this explores what might happen if Batman was to come out of retirement in his fifties. It explores how the burden of being a lone avenger might affect someone over time. In Geek terms, it appealed to my sense of justice. Like Archie, the main character of Geekhood, I was bullied because of my Geekiness. The Dark Knight Returns tapped in to my feelings of powerlessness when I was constantly on the receiving end of negativity. But even I knew that putting on a bat costume and hiding up a building wasn’t going to change anything – not in the Real World, anyway.

Watchmen by Alan Moore. This is set in an alternate reality 1980s, where superheroes are real and have been outlawed by the government. The drawings are more traditional than TDKR, but the story is just as superb: the Watchmen are being targeted by an unknown villain and they’ve got to find out who it is before time runs out. What’s really special about this is the way that Moore has woven superheroes into the fabric of the real world. While I’ve always been a fan of escapist fantasy and sci-fi, I also love the “what if” style of books that blend the fantastic with the domestic. This has influenced my writing Geekhood subtly. I didn’t want to create a world where people are struggling through Hard Times and suddenly find they have supernatural abilities or can be taken out of their mundane existence to a magical school (though those are great stories in themselves). Instead I wanted to write about the way we all have our own, personal alter egos and fantasy lives.

The Once and Future King by T H White. I think I first read this after failing to get through a book about Merlin and it was a revelation. Arthur wasn’t the wimp that he is in some versions of the story, and Merlin wasn’t the crumbly old man you see in the films. They each had their dark sides, and this caused them to clash. Wizard versus King – what’s not to like? It’s rooted in English legend and I’m a sucker for the mythic. There’s a great myth from my home town of Exmouth: it’s said that the Devil walked through the town one Christmas Eve and the villagers found the footprints. How cool is that? Without our myths, we wouldn’t have half the wonderful books we have today.

Dracula by Bram Stoker. The big boy himself. I’m not one for horror – I’ve got an overactive imagination and I can keep myself scared for days. This, however, is the granddaddy of all vampire novels – the one that started it all off. While it’s not packed with action, it’s seriously unsettling and you can almost feel Dracula’s spirit watching over you while you read. Plus there are some great scenes where he crawls up walls and stuff. Stoker obviously did his research into all the European myths, and the fact that Dracula visited Britain bothered me for ages. Here’s a confession: I read this at a young age and spent at least three months sleeping with my windowsills lined with garlic. I know.

The Bartimaeus books by Jonathon Stroud. The first three books published in this series centre around Bartimaeus, a djinni, who is summoned by Nathaniel, a young magician. In this world, people with power can summon demons to do their dirty work – which is what Nathaniel does. I loved the way in which Nathaniel is characterized as a jerk who messes with Bartimaeus, who appears as a dry, laconic gargoyle. The book has lots of footnotes, which makes reading it feel like sitting inside Bartimaeus’s head. This is what I tried to do with Archie’s Interior Monologue (known as his IM). I wanted to make the character of Archie feel immediate, so I wrote it in the present tense, and introduced sarcastic interjections from his IM. I think some stories benefit from this: as you read it, your brain hears “I am doing this” and “I am doing that”, which I think helps you dive into the world the author’s created. This doesn’t work for all books – just some.

The Borrible Trilogy by Michael de Larrabeiti. I think I read these when I was eleven and it was my first introduction into that “alternate reality” thing. It’s a minor Tolkienesque epic, set in a version of London where kids from broken homes or with a bad past grow pointy ears and live in tribes with no adults. As if that wasn’t enough, they have arch-enemies, the Rumbles, which are giant rat-like creatures living in Rumbledom. It’s a story about betrayal, heroism and love, with catapults and thievery thrown in for good measure. It’s definitely one for the Geek List, as it’s built up a right old cult following. I think it appealed to me because all the kids in it are really tough and I really wasn’t. My favourite Borrible, for the record, was Orrococo.

The Fighting Fantasy books, by Steve Jackson and Ian Livingstone. C’mon – who wouldn’t? It’s like having Dungeons & Dragons in your pocket and you can play wherever you are. You get the story, but you have to choose from the options given to you which way it will go. Will you live and get the treasure or will you meet a sticky end at the hands of a mind-blowing monster? They died out a bit in the early 00s, but I think they’re making a comeback. I hope so.

The Dice Man by Luke Rhinehart. One of the Ultimate Geek Books. It charts the adventures of a psychiatrist who decides to base every decision in his life on the throw of a die. What’s incredible about it is that we’ve all tossed a coin to make a simple choice, but here the character does it for every choice that comes up. It’s such a simple idea and I defy you to read it and not carry a couple of dice in your pocket for a while afterwards. Preferably green ones, like his.

And my final Geeky literary love is The Beano annual. The art, the characters, the simple comic capers … Christmas just isn’t Christmas without a Beano annual. Just saying.

So there we go. According to the Laws of Authorship, I’ve probably nicked something from every one of the above books. Just hope nobody notices…

Further Information

From Amazon
Archie is a fourteen years old and a Geek to his core. In the world of role-playing games, he’s a Level 5 Mage, capable of summoning the Undead. In this world, things are rather different. With no rule book to navigate Life’s Big Challenges – warring parents, a crass step-father, orc-like school bullies and rubbish hair – he’s teetering on the brink… Then a Beautiful Girl appears in his Geeky world… Despite the fact that the closest he’s come to an encounter with a girl is painting an Elven miniature, Archie embarks on a Daring Quest to win her heart.

Thanks so much to Andy for writing this fab post, if you’d like to find out more you can visit his website at www.theandyrobbsite.co.uk and follow him on Twitter @ThatAndyBloke.

Andy Robb’s Top 10 Books To Plunder When No One’s Looking – Geekhood Blog Tour is a post from: Books 4 Teens

Over to Anne…

A Day In The Life Of Anne Cassidy

6 Wake up, turn the computer on, check emails and Twitter. Drink a large boiling hot mug of tea, no milk, no sugar – very weak.

7.30 Read over the three pages of Chapter Seven of Book Four THE MURDER NOTEBOOKS which I wrote late last night. Spend some time redrafting; adding lines, removing sections, changing words. Then move on and continue with the chapter.

8.0 Watch morning TV. Read newspaper. Wash up.

9 – 12 This is where my real work pattern sets in. It’s an odd one and honestly when I think of it I don’t really know how any of my books actually get written. I write, maybe for ten or fifteen minutes. Then I get fed up and do one of the following; shop, watch TV, read, be a housewife, scoot around the internet or ring my mum, sister, son or writer friend. Then I go back and do ten or fifteen minutes writing, then get fed up and so on and so on. The only time this differs is if I’m near the end of a book then I work, work, work.

12. Lunch. I take a long time making up my mind what to eat, a long time putting it together. Five minutes eating it.

1 – 4 Similar to the morning but I might also do paperwork and a mixture of the following; reading (very important, whether it’s fiction or newspapers, or internet. It all gives me ideas); preparing my new web site; making notes in my NEXT NOVEL ideas book which involves looking for pictures of characters and places, finding names for characters using websites listings and local phone directory; read a variety of blogs and web sites for up to date information on what is going on in the children’s book world. Sometimes I just do NOTHING. But I call this thinking time.

5-6 Eat and think back over the day. A writer’s life is a solitary one.

7-11 Another mixture of stuff; Writing and printing off a hard copy of what I’ve done. Watching TV or DVD sets (currently rewatching MAD MEN) Talk to husband about this and that (‘this’ being West Ham’s chances of going back into the Premiership; ‘that’ being the likelihood of West Ham staying down in the Championship) Think about where the book is heading the next day. Fingers crossed that it continues to move in the way I want it to. That’s it!

Further Information

From Amazon
Rose and Joshua first met when Joshua and his dad came to live with Rose and her mum. Then their world turns upside down when their mother and father go out for dinner one evening and never return. With police inquiries going nowhere, Rose is dispatched to live with her chilly, unfriendly grandmother and Joshua is sent to live with his uncle. Then Joshua comes to London to study and Rose is witness to not one, but two murders. Why is this happening to Rose? Can it be anything to do with the investigations Joshua has been doing into the disappearance of their parents? A taut and pacy thriller that is the start of a stylish new series from an acclaimed writer for teens.

A huge thank you to Anne for writing this post! If you’d like to find out more about Anne you can visit her website, ‘like’ her fan page on Facebook or follow her on twitter: @anncassidy6

A Day In The Life Of Anne Cassidy is a post from: Books 4 Teens

So today we have a post from the lovely Sarah at Hot Key Books (a new but amazing UK publisher which specialises in books for 9 – 19 year olds – you can check out their launch list in yesterdays post) to tell us a bit about how they went about building a publisher.

Over to Sarah…

Building a Publisher

Behind the scenes at Hot Key Books – a brand new children’s publisher

When I saw last summer that Bonnier, an extremely prestigious and well-established Swedish-owned publisher were looking to set up a brand new children’s fiction publisher I couldn’t believe my eyes. I’d followed the rapid progress of Nosy Crow online over the last few years with much interest and was envious of those within its midst. I could only imagine how exciting it must be to work at a start-up, and suddenly here was a rare opportunity to be in somewhere from the very beginning.

I think my colleagues at HarperCollins Children’s (where I was previous to this) thought I was half-crazy. Wouldn’t I miss the safety of big name authors, big teams and big budgets?

I admit we were all a little apprehensive on day one in January. When you start a job you normally have someone there to show you how it was done before, where things get filed, what the strategy is for this, what books you’ll be working on. It was hugely daunting to start with a blank file server, no meetings in our diary and no emails in our inboxes. But we also felt a huge shared sense of excitement, opportunity and privilege. We were being entrusted with launching a company, a list and most importantly the careers of authors that we would publish. Our amazing MD Sarah Odedina (who came from Bloomsbury), made it clear that she wants us to publish authors, not just books, so they were and always will be at the heart of our vision.

What followed next? Well, first and foremost we had to make sure people knew we existed. There were agents who we had to convince to send us submissions so we could start to build the list. There were retailers, bookshops, bloggers, reviewers and librarians who we needed to arrange meetings with, write newsletters to, and generally buy a lot of cake for. There were our authors that we had already acquired, (thanks again to Sarah Odedina who had been busy acquiring since she started in September), who we also had to meet, read their books, and again, buy cake (or wine) for. I tell you, I have sent so many – Who Are Hot Key Books? emails in the last few months, and they show no sign of stopping! But the one thing I will say on that note is how wonderfully receptive people have been to us – we have been overwhelmed with the support, in the form of tweets, emails, blog comments, cups of tea and boxes of cookies that you lovely people out there have given us since we started. So thank you for those – I can honestly say our office is a much warmer place because of all your kind words.

Obviously, the biggest focus of all has been acquiring those fantastic authors that we will be working with, and building the list around. This year we will publish nine books from August to November, which I think in itself is an huge achievement when the company won’t even be a year old when the first book (the epic Insignia by SJ Kincaid) hits the shelves. But next year we will publish up to 50 books, so there has been a lot of reading! Another of Sarah’s plans with the company structure is that editorial and sales and marketing are on equal footing. We have to all believe in, and love a book before we acquire it, and we must have a shared vision of how we will publish and promote that book. I think this is invaluable. We want to be talking directly with our potential readers about our books and authors, and it helps if we all agree internally when we buy a book how we will do that. What hooks are there in the story that we can tell to other people? Is the author online? Do they do events? Who is the main reader of this book? This is all discussed before we even buy a book now, and this means it’s a lot easier when we come to publication!

We are so proud of how the list is shaping up. We have around 35 books contracted so far for the next few years and our launch list can be read about and looked over here. We feel like there’s something for everyone on there, and some things that are different from the norm. It’s like my mum used to say, ‘It’s okay to not be like everybody else. Life would be boring if that was the case’.

So, I have rambled for way too long (sorry Jesse!) and I don’t even feel halfway towards telling you our story. Our blog, which has become the heart of conversation with readers, tells it better than me, so I urge you all, when you have time to check it out. We post every weekday about what we are doing, so it really is the place to stay up to date.

We’re only 4 months into our publishing adventure, and halfway to publishing our first book. I come to work everyday excited to be working with such a talented bunch of people, and happy that we all share a creative, and flexible way of working. We are determined to succeed, but we’re also allowed to fail sometimes, and that for me, is the most important thing.

We hope you enjoy being part of the journey.

Sarah Benton
Sales & Marketing Manager
www.hotkeybooks.com

Further Information

Once again a huge thank you to Sarah for writing this insightful post and opening up the doors to Hot Key Books! If you haven’t already don’t forget to check out the Hot Key Books blog and follow them on Twiter and ‘like’ them on Facebook.

Building A Publisher – Behind The Scenes At Hot Key Books is a post from: Books 4 Teens

The Guardian Hot Key Books Young Writers Prize

This week is a bit of a young writers special as I have not one but two (yes two) young writers competitions to introduce to you to. The first is the Guardian Hot Key Books Young Writers Prize. Scroll down a little for the second

Are you aged between 18 and 25? Are you writing books for those aged between 9 and 12 OR between 13 and 19? You are – great! You could win the chance to be published by the new and up coming publisher Hot Key Books!

Here’s the deets you need to know!

We are looking for new young writers between the ages of 18 and 25, who write in either of two categories: for ages 9-12 or 13-19. Entrants should be unpublished talents new to the literary world that are passionate about writing for children. The winners, one for each age category, will be selected by a panel of judges who will consult with school children. Each winner will be given editorial support and the chance to be published by Hot Key Books.

A judging panel comprising of representatives from the Guardian, Hot Key Books, booksellers, school children and authors representing both age groups will be announced at the end of April. Submissions of partial manuscripts will be accepted from 30 April and close on 31 May, with a second stage of full manuscripts in October.

For more information and to enter visit the info page.

You might also be interested in these posts on the Hot Key Books blog:

• The judges
• Tips for young writers

Entries are open now but close at the end of this month!

Good luck!

Hot Key Books Launch List

Sticking with Hot Key Books and for anyone has not yet seen the list here is their launch list which will be publishing from August – I think you’ll agree they have some amazing titles in there to look forward to.

Struck Trailer

I’ve been meaning to post this trailer for absolutely ages – I’ve posted it on the Facebook page but in the unlikely event that you haven’t yet seen it before somewhere here is the awesome trailer for Struck by Jennifer Bosworth.

Wicked Young Writers Award

I’ll end this post how I started it … with another young writers competition. If you’ve been following my blog for longer than a year you may remember me highlighting this one last year – there is a reason, I adore the musical and I love what the award is trying to achieve so without further ado here are the all important details.

The Wicked Young Writers’ Award was launched by the long-running West End musical Wicked to recognise excellence in writing, encourage creativity and develop writing talent in young people across the country.

Any young person between the ages of 5 and 25 years old is eligible to enter, making the award the first of its kind to reward excellence to such a wide age-range of young people across the whole of the UK.

Judging will be overseen by former Children’s Laureate and bestselling author Michael Morpurgo, as well as Michael McCabe, Executive Producer of Wicked in London, and William Fiennes, author and founder of First Story.

As to the prize(s) (if you’re wondering), it’s a mixed bag with prizes available for shortlisted entries as well as Wicked experiences and a writing masterclass for the overall winner.

For more information on the award and to enter visit www.wickedyoungwriters.com. Entries for 2012 close on the 31st July 2012!

Good Luck!

Have You Heard #9 Young Writers Special! is a post from: Books 4 Teens

Publisher: Harper Collins Children’s Books (1st May 2012)

Pages: 525

ISBN: 978-0007442928

From Amazon
Fighting for survival in a shattered world… the truth is her only hope.

The thrillingly dark sequel to New York Times bestseller, DIVERGENT.

I have done bad things. I can’t take them back, and they are part of who I am.

Tris has survived a brutal attack on her former home and family. But she has paid a terrible price. Wracked by grief and guilt, she becomes ever more reckless as she struggles to accept her new future.

Yet if Tris wants to uncover the truth about her world, she must be stronger than ever… because more shocking choices and sacrifices lie ahead.

Review
Insurgent is the sequel to Divergent as such I’m pretty certain there will be spoilers for Divergent in this book – you have been warned! Oh and if you want to you can check out my review of Divergent here

Lets go back twelve months, it was a time when I was just starting to read Dystopia’s (I hadn’t even finished The Hunger Games series at this point) when Divergent landed in my doorstep – it blew my mind. It was quite simply addictive reading, entertaining and everything I could want from a story. Roll on twelve months and I have a copy of Insurgent (yippeee! )

Insurgent kicks right in from the very first page – with very little in the way of introduction (yes it literally kicks off from the moment that Divergent leaves us), this makes for a speedy start which never really lets up. It’s full of drama, action and adventure with a side helping of romance. This once again makes for a story thats very hard to put down no matter what you’re supposed to be doing (erm, work – luckily I read at my desk so I can cut it to the last minute, erm, second!)

It is a story full of twists and turns and at several moments my hairs were standing on end and I was breaking out in goosebumps (especially that ending – oh that ending!).

I’m going to beytray my own faction right now (sorry Candor!) and say that my favourite faction is Dauntless – there seems to be so much energy and action there though it pains me to say I’m probably more like Erudite – yet I don’t like that faction. Maybe I’m a divergent! hehe

My only real problem was right at the start, given the time it’s been since I read Divergent I’d forgotten about all but the key characters – Four / Tobias and Tris and it took a little while for some of the key parts to fit back into place – this is by no means a problem with Insurgent – more a problem with me not having read Divergent for ages. So whilst it is a self contained story I would highly recommend reading Divergent first (and preferably not too far in advance!) as you might get lost otherwise

Overall, Insurgent is just as good as Divergent (if not better) – full of action and adventure told in a way that just won’t let you go!

Thanks to Harper Collins Children’s Books for sending me a copy

Review: Insurgent is a post from: Books 4 Teens

Publisher: Faber & Faber (5th April 2012)

Pages: 535

ISBN: 978-0571276165

From Amazon
Imagine if one day, without warning, the entire human race turns against you. Every single person you meet becomes a bloodthirsty, mindless savage, hell-bent on killing you – and only you. Friends, family, even your mum and dad, will turn on you. They will murder you. And when they have, they will go back to their lives as if nothing has happened. The world has the Fury. It will not rest until you are dead. Cal, Brick and Daisy are three ordinary teenagers whose lives suddenly take a terrifying turn for the worst. They begin to trigger a reaction in everybody they meet, that makes friends and strangers alike want to tear them to pieces. These victims of the Fury – the ones that survive – manage to locate each other. But just when they think they have found a place to hide from the world, some of them begin to change . . . They must fight to uncover the truth about the Fury before it’s too late. But it is a truth that will destroy everything they know about life and death.

Review
I’m not sure I can entirely put into words my feelings for The Fury – it’s nothing like any other book I’ve read and yet it’s gripping, engaging and I. Want. The. Storm. Right. Now! (That’s book two by the way )

So I guess I should tell you a little bit about it! The Fury follows a group of young teens who suddenly and unexplainably become hit targets. Anyone they come into contact suddenly turn on them – parents, friends and complete strangers all of a sudden have a desire to kill them.

And. Nothing. Gets. In. There. Way! They don’t give a monkey about the odd bone hanging at an odd angle or a bleeding nose – they are completely and utterly relentless until the person they’ve turned on is dead! Or until the target gets out of there radar – at which point they revert back to normal and don’t understand why there are bits of exposed bone sticking out of them!

It follows three main characters – Brick, Cal and Daisy – who is my favourite, she has this innocence about her which I loved amidst all the drama! We encounter a whole other host of characters on both sides and I was really impressed how Alexander managed to give each of the characters from such a large cast a unique personality.

I loved how the scope of the story expanded as it went on – moving from what feels like an isolated case to very quickly a few cases and then something much larger and infinitely more dangerous for the world which will be the focus of the next book. Of course this did create the problem where there is a massive question lingering which opened up half way through the book and which was never resolved.

The Fury is an action packed, mystery full of supernatural twists which sucked me in and didn’t let go – The Storm cannot arrive fast enough!

Thanks to Faber & Faber for sending me a copy

Review: The Fury is a post from: Books 4 Teens

Grab a cup of tea and a biscuit and over to Alexander…

A Day In The Life Of Alexander Gordon Smith

It’s fantastic to be here at Books 4 Teens as part of my blog tour for The Fury, thanks for having me! There’s no such thing as a typical day when you’re a writer, but this is what happened yesterday (Tuesday, 24th April)!

5.13am
My alarm is set for seven, but as often happens I wake up early with a story thumping around in my brain. Stories are a bit like babies, when they start screaming you can’t ignore them. I get up, stagger like a zombie into the kitchen and make a strong coffee. Then I fall back into bed and open my laptop. I often spend the early hours working in bed (yes, it’s a tough life!), especially when it’s cold and miserable outside.

5.47am
I start working on a story I started earlier in the month. It’s a horror novel for adults tentatively called Brute. I know I should be working on the sequel to The Fury, which is called The Storm, as the deadline is fast approaching. But one thing I really struggle with when it comes to writing (or anything, for that matter) is patience. As soon as that big, shiny idea appears I want to sit down and write, and I’ll often push current projects to one side in order to focus on something new. The trouble is, of course, that halfway through the next project I’ll have another idea and start writing that, and on and on, ad infinitum. Don’t get me wrong, it’s great to be full of ideas, but coming up with ideas is the easy part for me, and so is starting a new book. The tough bit is finishing something!

5.52am
I check Facebook. This happens quite a bit. And by that I mean all the time. I’m addicted. Honestly, sometimes I’ll check it every five minutes (or every hundred words, whichever comes sooner). I know it’s just because it’s a distraction, but I can’t help it. What I really need to do is switch off the internet when I’m writing, and one of these days I actually will…

7.00am
I get up and start packing for a trip to Mansfield. It’s my first proper event for The Fury today, in Mansfield Public Library. I’m really looking forward to it! I’m doing a talk to a group of pupils from a local school, then a ‘meet and greet’ with teenagers afterwards. It’s being arranged by an awesome guy called Steve Powell, who I have worked with twice before.

8.57am
£83.50 for a train from Norwich to Mansfield, are you kidding me?!

10.26am
Trying to write on the train but not having much luck. I’m too easily distracted. This is why I always write at home, rather than in a café or a public space. I don’t know how writers can work in public – I just stare out the window at the scenery, or listen to other people’s conversations, or check Facebook on my phone (how can you not provide free wi-fi when you’re charging nearly £100 for a ticket?!), or daydream. I love travelling. That was one of the nicest surprises about being published, the amount of time I’d spend touring. I hadn’t really thought about it before, I mean I knew I’d do school visits but I thought they’d mainly be local ones. I’ve been to pretty much every city in the UK, and last month I did a five-city tour of the States (Seattle, the Tri-Cities, San Francisco, Philadelphia and New York). Last year I was in Sweden and America doing book events, and later this year I’ll be in Dublin, Edinburgh and Poland (and maybe back in the US). Next year Brazil! I really am so lucky to be able to travel the world and talk about the books, it’s such a pleasure and a privilege.

12.30pm
I arrive in Mansfield with another 500 words of the book written, which is nice! Steve comes to meet me and takes me over to the library. It is huge, and has just been refurbished, and looks great. I get the guided tour, and a much-needed cuppa, then it’s straight on to the event. There are fifty kids from a local secondary school there, and they’re full of enthusiasm, which is always great. I talk about how I write my books, and why I love horror so much; and I tell them that anyone can be a writer. That’s the theme of my talks, really, that you can do anything you want, and be anything you want, if you put your mind to it. Just never give up!! It’s awesome being able to talk about The Fury, and to show people the finished book. They all seem to enjoy the talk, and ask plenty of questions, and we had half an hour afterwards for an informal chat. These are my favourite events, when the kids are avid readers and writers and seem genuinely engaged with the show. And I even sold some books, which is nice!

3.00pm
Another tea break and a chance to check emails and voicemails (and Facebook!). There are twenty-three new emails since I left this morning: six from publishers / agent / marketing, five from fans, three about possible events, three from friends and the rest junk. That’s the other thing I didn’t plan for when I had a dream about being a writer – the admin! I spend at least two hours a day, and often more, on emails, letters and other bits and pieces of marketing stuff. Saying that, the letters and emails from fans are one of the absolute highlights of the job, it’s so amazing when people take the time to let you know they’ve enjoyed the books! ☺

4.00pm
I’m scheduled for one more event at the library, an open ‘meet and greet the author’ thing. These are often hit and miss, and usually more miss than hit! Sometimes you get absolutely nobody there, other times people turn up but only ask you questions like ‘Where are the toilets?’ or ‘Do you have a cookery section?’ This time, one person showed up, but he had dragged his mum all the way to the library so that he could meet me, which was awesome! We had a chat, and I signed his book, and that alone made my day. Thanks, Nick, for stopping by to say hi!

16.40pm
Back on the train, and the sun has come out. Mansfield looks like a cool place, but as so often happens I didn’t have a chance to explore. Still, the view out of the window is lovely! A quick Facebook check.

5.00pm
The sun is blazing through the window and I’m fighting the urge to fall asleep. I crack on with the book, The Storm this time, but there are just so many distractions! I had another idea for a book on the way to the station, so my brain is ignoring my requests and is busy working away on the shiny new thing. With any luck it will get bored in half an hour or so and give me a chance to crack on. I check Facebook while I wait.

5.35pm
Leaving Nottingham now and decide to have another go at writing. I’m at a crucial part of the book, roughly half way through. It’s pretty massive, already at 60,000 words, but it’s a big, complex, monster of a story. I’m desperate to know what’s going to happen, and the only way I can find out is by writing it. I don’t plan – well, nothing more than a single-page synopsis that the publisher demands, and which usually changes. I don’t like to think too far ahead. I always worry that if I know what’s going to happen then the characters will too, and that’s a built-in safety net for them – they know they’re going to be safe, or when they’re going to die. And if the characters know what’s in front of them I think it leaks into the story, invisible but unmissible, and readers pick up on it, they lose that sense of danger and intrigue. I love horror because anything can happen, and I don’t like to know what’s going to happen before it happens! That’s why writing is so addictive, I think. I always feel excited about it, because I’m not just following a plan I wrote a few months ago, I’m not just filling in the gaps, I’m writing to find out where the story leads, to find out who survives. I’m writing at the speed of life.

6.10pm
Train sandwiches… Yum…

6.43pm
Managed to get a few more pages of the book written, but definitely flagging now. I used to only be able to do one thing a day – if I was writing, I wouldn’t be able to leave the house, and if I had an event there was no way I could focus on writing – but I’m getting better at multitasking now. You have to when deadlines are looming. There are still a couple of hours left, though, and I forgot to bring a book, so I browse the iBook store on my phone and buy James Herbert’s Others. I’m a huge horror fan, obviously, and try to read as many horror books as possible (well, I try to read as many books as possible full stop, but horror is definitely my favourite). I’m always being asked how I feel about ebooks, and the truth is I think they’re great. I read books on my phone quite a bit when I’m away, and I’ve bought three Kindles already – one for me, one for my girlfriend and one for my daughter. Don’t get me wrong, I much prefer reading actual books – and nothing will ever beat that feeling of being an author and seeing a physical copy of your book for the first time – but anything that gets books out there, gets them into the hands of readers, just has to be a good thing. My books are mainly (but not exclusively) read by teenage boys, and quite a few of them read them on their phones. If they couldn’t do that, then maybe they wouldn’t be reading at all. The important thing is the book, the story; it doesn’t matter how it’s read as long as it’s being read!

8.08pm
This book is really good, where has the time gone?! Seriously, nothing beats a good mystery / suspense / thriller / horror book when you’re travelling!

8.38pm
I make it home (with a pizza, whoops, I can never eat healthily when I’m out of the house – or in it, for that matter…) and switch on the computer in my office. It doesn’t take too long to answer the vital emails – the rest can wait until the morning. Of course I also check Facebook! I wonder whether I should try and fire out another few hundred words, then decide against it and settle for a glass of wine and an episode of Breaking Bad instead. But of course Breaking Bad is research… I spend so much of my time watching films and television series and playing video games too, and it’s definitely part of the job. Everything you read / watch / play teaches you something about narrative or character or plot or action or drama or pace or atmosphere… everything. It’s one of the things I always say to people when I do my shows, that my job basically involves reading books, watching movies and playing video games! The downside of that is literally everything you do relates in some way to writing, you’re always thinking about the story – my life IS writing!

11.54pm
So one episode of Breaking Bad became three and a half, but I couldn’t quite bring myself to stop watching. I have quite an addictive personality, and no willpower (I also complemented my pizza with the rest of my daughter’s birthday cake from Monday and the remainder of the wine). It’s been a fantastic day, though, so wonderful to meet existing fans and hopefully make some new ones. And another wonderful thing about the job is that every day is different. Tomorrow I’ll be writing for most of the day, and working on a screenplay with my sister (we own a film production company together, Fear Driven Films), Thursday I’m doing a Skype video talk to a school in New York, Friday I’m down in London for some workshops, Saturday I’m doing some pickups for a short film we’re making. I’ve never been one for routine, so it’s the perfect lifestyle for me! I go to bed, as always, thinking how grateful I am to be able to do the job I love, the job I’ve wanted ever since I was a kid. I really am the luckiest guy in the world! And like I was saying to the kids today, anyone can do it – just find the job you love and don’t let anything put you off. Never give up!

12.27am
Quickly check Facebook… then lights out.

Thanks for hosting me on Books 4 Teens, and thanks for reading my post!!

Further Information

From Amazon
Imagine if one day, without warning, the entire human race turns against you. Every single person you meet becomes a bloodthirsty, mindless savage, hell-bent on killing you – and only you. Friends, family, even your mum and dad, will turn on you. They will murder you. And when they have, they will go back to their lives as if nothing has happened. The world has the Fury. It will not rest until you are dead. Cal, Brick and Daisy are three ordinary teenagers whose lives suddenly take a terrifying turn for the worst. They begin to trigger a reaction in everybody they meet, that makes friends and strangers alike want to tear them to pieces. These victims of the Fury – the ones that survive – manage to locate each other. But just when they think they have found a place to hide from the world, some of them begin to change . . . They must fight to uncover the truth about the Fury before it’s too late. But it is a truth that will destroy everything they know about life and death.

Thank you so much to Alexander for writing this post – it’s really fascinating to see how much travel is involved and love how much he checks Facebook – a bit like me with Twitter

If you’d like to find out more about Alexander you can check out his website www.alexandergordonsmith.com, follow him on Twitter @AGSmith_Author or you can find him on Facebook.

A Day In The Life Of Alexander Gordon Smith – The Fury Blog Tour is a post from: Books 4 Teens

The Fury Competition

To celebrate the launch of The Fury, Faber & Faber have launched a special competition through there Spark Facebook page – facebook.com/thesparkpage. It has an amazing prize too – here’s the details (taken from the press release!)

THE FURY is a brand new YA thriller from Alexander Gordon Smith, about what would happen if, without warning, the whole world tried to kill you. It’s a non-stop, rollercoaster ride of excitement, mystery and supernatural terror – and we giving YOU the chance to create the trailer for it!

If you’re between the ages of 13 and 18 and fancy trying your hand at filmmaking, all you need to do is send us a script and storyboard for the trailer of THE FURY, by 2 July. You don’t need filmmaking experience or equipment – if your script is selected in our top five you’ll win a Flip camera with which to bring your trailer to life!

Finally, the filmmaker behind the best of those five trailers will win a £500 Apple Store voucher and see their film used worldwide as the official trailer for the book.

Go to the competition page http://www.facebook.com/stayfurious to find out more about the book, how to enter and tips on how to write the storyboard for your book trailer. Closing date Monday 2nd July 2012

Good Luck!

A Small Change At Books 4 Teens

Not really very interesting news but it kind of needs highlighting so here it is – the review policy here at Books 4 Teens has changed, you can check it out here (it’s got a lot smaller ). But if you don’t want to go and read it (I don’t blame you!) it basically says that I am no longer accepting any new review requests – I’ve even removed my email address from the page!

In line with this you’ll also probably have noticed less activity on this blog in the last few weeks and I foresee that this will continue for a while – there will still be posts here (but maybe less frequently) and I do expect to be posting fewer comments in the coming months.

Have You Heard #8 is a post from: Books 4 Teens

Publisher: Scholastic (5th April 2012)

Pages: 320

ISBN: 978-1407109527

From Amazon
Adam Wilson is kidnapped and taken to the Dial after betraying his best friend. The Dial is a twilight world where teenage traitors are forced to atone for their treachery. It’s a terrible place, ruled over by a cruel despot, where every day is a struggle fo survival – and escape. Legend has it that only one person has fled the Colditz-like prison. Nobody knows if he made it back to the real world, but he left behind a ray of hope that has reached trough the years. Soon Adam is caught up in a deadly plan to escape. But who can he trust in a world full of traitors…?

Review
I received The Traitors ages ago and only rediscovered it a few weeks while I was rearranging the books on my shelves (I only found it later that it was only released this month). I’m so glad I rediscovered it, I remembered it sounding really amazing when I read the description originally and my feelings on this hadn’t changed. All I can say is that it lived up – big time!

Adam has been kidnapped and taken to a prison known as the Dial, it’s a prison for traitors and lets just say it’s not exactly what you’d call a normal prison. For a start it’s in a place called no time where essentially time stands still. When inmates leave the Dial and return to earth they will be back in about the same time they left. In theory nobody would know they’d been anywhere.

But that’s not where the differences end – sentences are a little different too – how does 1 year for being a traitor sound? Too lenient maybe, okay – 10 years, 100? Try 300 (give or take a few) and in extreme cases you’re looking at a mere 600 year stretch!

With such long sentences it’s perhaps not surprising that the story largely revolves and trying to escape the awful prison. Leading the charge in this department is the Tally Ho gang led by Major X, it was fun to learn about all the escape attempts they made.

The Dial is a prison full to the brim of inmates who are traitors so it’s perhaps not surprising that part of the fun of the story is trying to find out who the traitor is when escape attempts are planned. Unusually though you can’t rule anyone out as they’ve all been traitors in the past in order to earn their place in the Dial.

I immediately liked Doughnut (most the inmates were known by nicknames) – the ‘fixer’ in the prison – if you needed something (whatever you needed) Doughnut is where you would turn. It’s probably not surprising that he was one of the most popular inmates in the Dial.

Overall, The Traitors is a fun and different read – it was kind of different from what I was expecting when I first heard about it but one that’s very worth a read!

Thanks to Scholastic for sending me a copy

Review: The Traitors is a post from: Books 4 Teens

So, without further ado over to Will…

Day In The Life of Will Hill

By Will Hill

Thanks very much for having me on Behind The Books!

I’m incredibly lucky, as I’m able to write full time. Which isn’t always as lovely and pleasant and easy as it may sound, but does mean that I’m able to devote myself completely to writing, which is a luxury that I’m very aware of. My (amazing!) editor and I have managed to get into a rough pattern that fills my writing year – from January to July/August I plan and write a first draft, we edit it through the late summer and autumn, and then copyedit and proofread in the months before Christmas. If all goes well, we can lock the manuscript before everyone goes on holiday in December, and then start all over again in January.

My working life differs during those three phases. When I’m planning, I normally stay at home with notebooks and pens and sheets of A3 paper, listening to music and scribbling and sketching and writing down little bits of ideas that will one day hopefully become fully formed.

I also stay at home when I’m editing, which is (perhaps weirdly) the period I actually enjoy the most, when my (amazing!) editor and I take hold of the first draft (which is usually very long and loose) and start squeezing it into shape. I listen to a lot of music during these stages of the process, and watch a lot of familiar films and TV, anything that clears my head and let’s me focus on what’s happening on the pages in front of me.

In between those two periods are the months when I actually write the vast majority of the words that make up the books themselves. And a day from that period is what I’ll describe here…

7.30am My girlfriend’s alarm goes off, as she has a real job, and she disappears towards the shower. I drag myself out of bed, make tea and coffee, and catch up on email, Twitter and Facebook while she gets ready.

8.20am Girlfriend leaves for work. I fight the overwhelming urge to go back to bed, and stagger into the shower.

9.00am I pack my bag – notebooks, laptop, pencils, sharpener, rubber, headphones – and head for the station. We live in Stoke Newington, in east London, so it’s not a very long journey into the centre of the capital.

9.30am Fight my way through the commuters at King’s Cross, duck into the Euston Road Prêt for caffeine and an almond croissant, and make my way into the lovely British Library plaza. At this point my spirits generally start to pick up (it will be very clear to you all by now that I’m not a morning person!) and I start replying to Tweets and emails while I have breakfast.

9.45am Check in at the British Library. Bags and outdoor coats are not permitted in the reading rooms, the huge quiet spaces where members work and research and write in blissful silence, so you have to put your stuff in a locker (these lockers are at a premium during exam season when it seems like half of London’s university students descend on the Library to write their dissertations, so an early start is pretty essential) then take whatever you need into the rooms in clear plastic bags. This is to make sure you don’t try and steal anything from the collection, sadly.

10.00am I settle into one of the desks in the Rare Books and Music reading room, and remember how much I like it here. The desks are huge, the chairs are comfortable, the wifi is free and it’s so, so quiet. I put my headphones in and hit play on my DVD of Glengarry Glen Ross, which I always have on in the background when I’m writing. I’ve listened to it literally thousands of times, so I barely hear it any more – it’s become like incredibly well written white noise, and it instantly puts me in the right mindset for work.

10:05am Cigarette break.

10:10am I start work. Depending on where I am in a project, I either jump straight into the current chapter or crack open the synopsis. I always start out with certain scenes that I know are going to feature in the story, and then gradually fill in the spaces between them until I have an at least partly coherent plot. I turn that into a rough chapter list, then start writing synopses, until I have a page or so for each chapter. Then I start writing. I try to always end each day with a chapter underway, even if all I’ve written is the first paragraph – it makes it so much easier to pick that up and carry on the next morning, as opposed to opening a blank page.

10.10am I get up and go for a wander around the Library, before grabbing a drink of water and heading back to my desk.

10.15am Back to work.

10.40am I head outside and make the first of whatever phone calls I need to make that day – my girlfriend, best friend, agent and editor are the likeliest candidates, in that order – before buying an espresso and staring blankly into space for a little while.

11:00am Back to work.

11:25am Cigarette break.

11:40am Back to work.

12:45pm I head over the road to Prêt, where I go so often I know almost all of the staff’s names, and pick up some food. I eat it in the plaza, and check email, Twitter and Facebook, in case something of enormous importance has happened in the ten minutes or so since the last time I checked them.

1:30pm Back to work.

The next couple of hours tend to play out in a similar pattern to the morning, but with an increasing amount of espressos and biscuits required to keep me going…

3:30pm Words start to come. I don’t know why, but somewhere between 3pm and 4pm things always start to happen. It’s a bit ridiculous, and I’ve tried just going into the Library in the afternoon to take advantage of the period when it usually goes well, but that never works – I seem to need the long hours of the morning to gather my thoughts, to let the ideas start to take shape. It’s weird. But then writing is weird, and everyone does it differently…

7:00pm I call it a day, unless the words are really flowing, in which case I stay until they throw me out at 8pm. On an average day I’ll normally have written somewhere between 2,500 and 4,500 words, on a good day a few more. The most I’ve ever written in one day was 8,500, but that was one utterly crazy twelve-hour session in which I barely looked up from my keyboard.

7:45pm Home. Girlfriend, food, telly, bed.

And the next day I do it again. Unless it’s Saturday or Sunday, which I try not to work on. There are fewer advantages to being with an author than you might think, so I try and make sure my girlfriend at least gets to enjoy the weekends without me staring endlessly at my laptop and cursing some word that refuses to present itself when I need it. It doesn’t always work out that way – when deadlines get tight, all days become fair game, and seven days a week becomes the norm. It’s OK, you’re allowed to feel sorry for her

So that’s it. That’s my writing day, perhaps not as full as glamour and champagne and fancy lunches as you were expecting. Just me, being miraculously allowed to spend my time making things up and writing them down, to borrow a description from Nail Gaiman. I’m still waiting for someone to tap me on the shoulder and tell me to get a real job. But until that happens…

Further Information

From Amazon

The pulse-pounding sequel to DEPARTMENT 19 – “The best action horror story I have ever read” according to Bookzoneforboys…

91 DAYS TILL ZERO HOUR.

THAT’S 91 DAYS TO RUN.

91 DAYS TO HIDE.

OR 91 DAYS TO PRAY FOR DEPARTMENT 19 TO SAVE YOU…

After the terrifying attack on Lindisfarne at the end of the first book, Jamie, Larissa and Kate are recovering at Department 19 headquarters, waiting for news of Dracula’s stolen ashes.

They won’t be waiting for long.

Vampire forces are gathering. Old enemies are getting too close. And Dracula… is rising.

Thank you to Will for taking part in Behind The Books! If you’d like to find out more about Will you can check out his website www.willhillauthor.com , follow Will on Twitter @willhillauthor and you can like the Department 19 Facebook page.

A Day In The Life Of Will Hill – Author Of The Department 19 Series is a post from: Books 4 Teens