BOOKWORDS

ALERT for everyone who is interested in picture books

noreply@blogger.com (Linda Strachan) — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 16:40:00 +0000

There's a new blog on the block. PICTUREBOOKDEN

It is a collaborative blog all about picture books, writing, reading and ideas for picture books.

Written by a 'scribble' (is that the correct collective noun?) of picture book writers, and there will also be guest bloggers, and there are ideas and writing tips and all sorts of exciting things in the DEN.

So do drop in and have your say.

My first blog on the site is about how books can grow wings,(http://picturebookden.blogspot.com ) introducing the latest book in the Hamish McHaggis series, which will be launched in April 2012.

I look forward to seeing you in the DEN!

2012 Happy New Year!

noreply@blogger.com (Linda Strachan) — Sun, 01 Jan 2012 17:04:00 +0000

Thanks to all those who dropped by Writingthebookwords blog in 2011. I'll be back with new blogs soon in the new year, but for now I would like to wish you all

a very happy, healthy and successful year ahead.

Crime Cental, the SAS, Tuscany and Hamish McHaggis!

noreply@blogger.com (Linda Strachan) — Mon, 25 Jul 2011 18:59:00 +0000

THE SAS....

July has been a busy month, with a trip to Charney Manor ( my room was the window above the door to the left). It was a wonderful week spent in the company of about 30 SAS types.

No! Not that SAS the OTHER ones the
Scattered Authors Society!

(more likely to be armed with pens than guns, although perhaps that is no less dangerous??)

'the pen is mightier than...' etc.

We talked about all things writing-related ( you might be surprised at how wide a topic that can be!) having no need to concern ourselves with the worry of boring the others in the company, as might happen at home! Some interesting discussions took place about the future of the publishing business, the rise of ebooks, Kindle and the like, and what we children's authors can do to keep our careers going, our books in print and, hopefully earn a crust in the process.

There were opportunities to explore less tangible ways to unlock the creative flow and we were also free to hideaway and have peace to write, if that was what was needed.

The food was good, wholesome and plentiful and the sweets far too delicious!

I have been to Charney once before and again I found the experience creatively energising. The writers in the SAS (Scattered Authors Society), always a welcoming and incredibly imaginative bunch, are also a lot of fun to be around. With such a range in ages, writing styles and expertise it was a fabulous opportunity to share ideas and to discuss all the ups and downs in a writer's life.

The SAS is not about writers getting together to moan about the things that go wrong in the publishing world, although we do a little of that too, it is about getting together and making things happen, such as the ABBA (Awfully Big Blog Adventure) Lit Fest which started out as an idea that developed into a fabulous showcase of talent from the SAS.
It took a lot of enthusiasm and hard work, especially for the small but dedicated litfest team, and it turned into a great success. Due to it being an ON LINE book festival you never need to feel you have missed out because itis all still there to enjoy here on the ABBA site at the ABBA online lit fest

This month I am also the editor for Crime Central blog http://crimereading.blogspot.com/ it is always fascinating to see the variety of posts. There is today's post by Susan Price about her fabulous Sterkarm series showing how crime can be protrayed in fantasy.

We had Jo Cotterill talking about crime in a completely different setting, in her Sweet Hearts series book 3 Forget Me Not revolves around much gentler but no less criminal, crime.
There have been interviews with the four editors finding out about
The Opposite of Amber -Gillian Philip,
When I was Joe- Keren David,
Heartburn- Anne Cassidy and
my own- Dead Boy Talking.
We have had Adele Geras, Keith Gray and The Bookette telling us about books they have read and enjoyed and also reviewing crime novels for us. A variety of guest bloggers, Malcolm Rose, Rachel Ward, Cathy MacPhail, and a host of others join us regularly. It is quite amazing how many writers have a criminal slant!

TUSCANY

But some of July has been hiding away in 'Tuscany' my writing hideaway, where I love to sit and hopefully let the images of what I am writing take me away to that 'elsewhere' populated by my characters.

I am enjoying the peace after a very hectic first half of 2011, before it gets busy again.

But I have to say that I am looking forward to the second half of August when it will be time to hotfoot it into (hopefully sunny) Edinburgh because it will be time once again for my favourite time of year, the Edinburgh International Book Festival.

This year I will be there for various events. If you are around come and say hello.

On Thursday 18th August 2011 - 5.30pm
I will be reading as part of the Amnesty International Imprisoned writers series

On Friday 19th August 2011 - 5.00pm

I will be talking about the research I did for Spider and Dead Boy Talking (Chaired by Philip Ardagh)

On 25th August 2011 - 11am

I will be running a writing workshop (THIS EVENT IS SOLD OUT)

and finally as part of the
Edinburgh International Book Festival Schools programme

I will be speaking to primary school children about Hamish McHaggis on 30th August 2011

Here is Hamish at a previous festival appearance, with the fabulous staff in the Author's Yurt
(I wonder -did he need an author pass to get in ???)

Kids Lit Quiz - TV News report

noreply@blogger.com (Linda Strachan) — Fri, 08 Jul 2011 15:07:00 +0000

Quizmaster Wayne Mills and the winning UK team from Cockermouth

The Kids Lit Quiz is fabulous fun and the authors who attend the heats are as competitive as the kids (even though our scores don't count)
It is an annual literature competition for children aged 10 to 13. It puts readers onto the stage and lets them compete for fantastic prizes.
The quiz has heats in New Zealand, the United Kingdom, South Africa, Canada and China, winning teams qualify for national and world finals.

The International World Final and 20th Birthday Celebration Quiz will take place in Hamilton, New Zealand on 19th July 2011. Two teams from the UK will compete.

The winning team from Cockermouth School (UK champions) and the team from Bristol Grammar School (English champions.)

See kidslitquiz website for details.

Wayne Mills the Quizmaster and originator of the Kids Lit Quiz was awarded the Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit in the Queen's New Year Honours list 2011.

I just saw this great New Zealand TV news report all about the new national sport READING!

NZ TV news video

This report of the recent New Zealand KLQ national final, held in the Parliament building in Wellington, shows how much the young competitors enjoy the experience.

Video blog on ABBA online lit fest this weekend ..... and forever!

noreply@blogger.com (Linda Strachan) — Wed, 06 Jul 2011 22:43:00 +0000

One of the best things about an on line Literary Festival is that it will be there all the time so you can dip in and out at anytime you like and it will still be there to enjoy.

This weekend 9th and 10th July is the ABBA awfullybigblogadventure 3rd birthday and in case you have missed all the people talking about it on line there is new look website and there will be a fabulous line up of children's writers - blogging, running competitions and chatting on video, too.

It is one thing to write a blog but it is quite another to agree to appear in a video, quite a scary proposition.. but I do tend to jump in before thinking too hard about things. I thought it would be an interesting idea so I spoke to my good friend and fellow writer Cathy MacPhail who I know is usually keen to have ago at something a bit different!!!

In the very early stages of my writing career I had the chance to be a student at Totleigh Barton in Devon, one of the Arvon Foundation Writing Centres, where they run creative writing courses for writers at all stages of their writing life - from beginners to more experienced writers. I found it a fantastic experience so I was delighted when I was asked to tutor a course on Writing for Children at an Arvon Centre, hoping I could make it just as exciting an experience for the students, as I'd had myself in the past.

Cathy with one of our students

Cathy MacPhail and I had spent a week last summer at the Moniack Mhor Arvon writing centre in the north of Scotland. I blogged about it at the time in a post called The Arvon Magic We decided that we could make a video with us discussing our week and the lovely people we had as students on the course.

Making the video was a bit scary, but once we got started we just began chatting about how we approached the week as tutors, and some of the things that happened. In the end it all went well, in fact we almost forgot to stop!

So this weekend our video will be on the ABBA on line Lit Fest at 5 pm on Sunday 10th July and soon after it will be available on YouTube, too- Now that is really scary!

The great thing is if you can't make it at the weekend you can come back another time and check out all the weekend's blogs and videos etc. because they will still be there.

Just remember the competitions will have a closing time or date, so do check that if you want to enter any of them and win some great books and giveaways.

So come along and join in the fun and check out the Online Festival Programme.

Interview on YA Book Reads

noreply@blogger.com (Linda Strachan) — Sun, 26 Jun 2011 22:24:00 +0000

Check out the latest interview on YA Book Reads Blog

Crime Central Interrogation - Gillian Philip puts Linda Strachan and DEAD BOY TALKING under the spotlight

noreply@blogger.com (Linda Strachan) — Fri, 06 May 2011 10:18:00 +0000

Gillian Philip put a series of interesting questions to me about Dead Boy Talking...

here they are...
1)What made you decide on that particular and unique narrative voice?

2)The novel has a harrowing storyline and you don't shrink from the horror of events, with some brutal description. But you chose not to show the crucial moment of Josh's stabbing and to keep it "off screen". Was that something that seemed natural from the outset or was it a deliberate choice?

3)Skye is an original and fascinating character. Where did she come from inside your head?
We get some very vivid pictures of what goes on inside Josh's head as his life slips away. Did you research the physical and psychological aspects of the dying process, or was this something you wrote by instinct?

4)I found Gary a hard character to like (which isn't to say I didn't find him fascinating, even in his absence!) How did you feel about him and what he'd done to Josh?

5)And the crucial question: Were you ever tempted to make the ending different - at any point in the writing process?

For the answers to all these questions and much more - see Crime Central Blog

ALSO

This month a giveaway competition to win a signed copy of The Long Weekend by Savita Kalhan

and a fascinating blog about why she writes crime fiction for teens.

Find out why Peter Cocks moved form writing TV to YA
.

So why not drop over to Crime Central and have a look!

Wigtown Spring weekend 30 April/1st May Events for Tinies, Teens and Writers

noreply@blogger.com (Linda Strachan) — Wed, 27 Apr 2011 22:30:00 +0000

Wigtown Spring Weekend Events -
I'll be there this weekend so why not come along whatever age you are!
For teenagers and those interested in writing for them.........
SATURDAY 30th April 3pm-4pm County Buildings (£3)
Linda Strachan talks about her latest book DEAD BOY TALKING, and her award-winning novel SPIDER.
...
and on the SUNDAY 1st May for the younger ones......
11am-12noon County Buildings
HAMISH McHAGGIS stories (age 4-10, £3)

To book tickets please contact 01988 403222.

Last chance to win signed copies of both Spider and Dead Boy Talking

noreply@blogger.com (Linda Strachan) — Wed, 27 Apr 2011 09:06:00 +0000

ON Crime Central there is a chance to win both books during April. Just answer one easy question The last date to enter is 30 April and winners will be notified on 1st May.

Check out the blog for the chance to hear what Keith Gray, Adele Geras, The Bookette, and others have to say about the best in crime writing.

6# Auckland- Last stop in New Zealand School Tour

noreply@blogger.com (Linda Strachan) — Mon, 18 Apr 2011 23:07:00 +0000

Driving through some amazing scenery on the way, we left Hawkes Bay headed back north again.

We arrived in Auckland - the last stop in our New Zealand tour - and on our way to have lunch at one of the waterside restaurants

we came across some rather unique and interesting horses.

We also had a chance to see Cunard's new Queen Elizabeth, which had just sailed into port and dwarfed everything else around.

The following day I was to visit two schools in the Henderson area the first was the Bruce McLaren Intermediate school where Carol Brooks was waiting to meet us.
I was speaking to two groups about Spider and Dead Boy Talking.

This is the school hall, prepared for my visit. It had some very colourful artwork on the walls.

I really enjoyed the visit and there were lots of interesting questions.

There was also a chap from 'the ministry' visiting the school that day who sat in on one of the sessions. I didn't find out he was there until I met him afterwards but, apparently, he was impressed!

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

At St Dominic's College with Pam Waters

We were collected at lunch time by the lovely Pam Waters from St Dominic's College, who was taking us for a quick lunch before the afternoon visit in her school.

I had a great afternoon speaking to about 60 girls in the school library.

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

The following day I was to visit Elm Park School, the last in the tour. The school is in Pakuranga Heights in Manukau and Belinda Johnston is the school e-Learning/Library Facilitator (what a great title!) who came and collected us from central Auckland.

The school has a new purpose built auditorium which was bright and airy, exactly what was needed on a hot and sunny day.

I was actually beginning to get used to it being hot in February!

I spoke to two groups of classes that morning with about 200 children in each.

I read from What Colour is Love? and Hamish McHaggis to the younger children and Greyfriars Bobby, Spider and Dead Boy Talking to the older classes.

With lots of fun and great questions, it was a wonderful way to end my tour of New Zealand Schools.

I would like to say a huge thank you to all the teachers, librarians and young people I met, who made it such a wonderful experience.

New Zealand Book Council

I would also like to say a huge thank you to Noel Murphy, Emma Gallagher and all the team from the New Zealand Book Council, who helped to organise the the tour.

WIN signed copies of Spider and Dead Boy Talking

noreply@blogger.com (Linda Strachan) — Sat, 16 Apr 2011 10:16:00 +0000

Over on Crime Central all this month is the chance to WIN

one of 3 sets of signed copies of

both

Spider and Dead Boy Talking.

Just answer one simple question. clue: look on my website for the answer! www.lindastrachan.com/teenage

Competition is open internationally and closes on 1st May 2011
Check out the Crime Central website
http://crimereading.blogspot.com for full details and lots of other interesting information on your favourite crime books and authors.

5# Napier - Hawkes Bay. Tamatea Schools and Bayiew.

noreply@blogger.com (Linda Strachan) — Tue, 05 Apr 2011 07:00:00 +0000

Leaving Wellington we set off on the long drive up north towards Hawkes Bay.

There are wineries all around the area and we were to meet up with some friends at the Craggy Range winery for lunch.

Sitting outside in the beautiful countryside with stunning views of the 'craggy' mountains and delicious food and good company it was a great way to spend the afternoon.

The area has many wineries and the weekend we were there the Mission winery was holding the annual concert which is a huge event, sold out well in advance and is known for hosting top stars such as Rod Stewart. This year it was Sting who was playing to the sell out crowd. This caused a slight problem for us because we had not known about it beforehand and had hoped to stay in the area for a couple of days but after the first night, and my schools visits the following day there was no chance of finding any accommodation in the area.

But due to some incredibly generous people, we were offered a beautiful house to stay in, by a lovely couple we had met at the wedding, a week previously, family friends of the bride's parents.

Their house was situated in Bayview, just around the bay from Napier and was amazing, with the added delight of exquisite views.

Now that the accommodation was sorted there was a chance to have a look around the art deco city of Napier....

In 1931 a devastating earthquake demolished much of the city but it was rebuilt in art deco style.

Every February they hold a weekend art deco festival.

On the Friday I was to visit two schools in Napier. In the morning it was Tamatea High School, where I was taking a couple of classes, to do some creative writing.

I had a lovely morning there and there were some really interesting writers with great ideas!

In the afternoon when we arrived at Tamatea Primary School we were met by a piper in full highland dress who started to play and walked ahead of me, leading me in a procession to where the children were all sitting beside a veranda, waiting for me.

I felt like royalty as I sat on the bench seat and listened to their kapa haka group who sang a Maori welcome - a powhiri. It was lovely.

The head teacher welcomed me and told me they were having a Scottish week in honour of my coming to the school. One teacher, originally from Scotland was even wearing a white dress and tartan sash and the Head Teacher had a tartan cap on, too.

After the welcome I went to speak to two classes Yr 5/6 and told them all about Hamish McHaggis and friends. It was a delightful afternoon.

All too soon we were heading off again, this time back to Auckland for the last three schools.

Crime Central Giveaway

noreply@blogger.com (Linda Strachan) — Fri, 01 Apr 2011 16:21:00 +0000

This month (April) on

Crime Central blog

there is a chance to win one of three sets of signed copies

of BOTH my teenage novels

SPIDER and DEAD BOY TALKING.

The competition is open internationally and runs until 1st May with just one simple question to answer.

Visit http://crimereading.blogspot.com/ A blog to celebrate crime fiction for teen readers, and read interesting blogs by a variety of writers who write about crime, read reviews and find out how crime writers minds work and have your say, too.

CRIME CENTRAL

A blog to celebrate crime fiction for teen readers, run by authors Anne Cassidy, Keren David, Linda Strachan and Gillian Philip. Find out about new books, leave your comments and reviews, read interviews with authors.

4# Wellington: Visitng schools - and sightseeing

noreply@blogger.com (Linda Strachan) — Thu, 24 Mar 2011 16:12:00 +0000

The fourth school I visited was St Marks Church School, in Wellington.

The sun was shining as we drove around the waterside towards the school. I met Tracy Nel the school librarian in the information centre, where we were joined by P1-3 classes and their teachers.

I read from What Colour is Love? and Hamish McHaggis. The children helped me create some great characters and had fun learning some Scots words, too.

Read their report on my visit in their Re-marks newsletter (term 1 week 2-2011) www.st-marks.school.nz

Before leaving Wellington we spent a bit of time sightseeing......

A floating ball high above us

and finally we made our way to the wonderful Te Papa museum . we could have there stayed twice as long, there was so much to see, and some fabulous interactive exhibits.

But sadly we had a fairly strict itinerary to keep to, so we were soon leaving Wellington on our way north to the lovely Hawkes Bay area and the Art Deco city of Napier.

3# New Zealand School visits - smilarities and differences

noreply@blogger.com (Linda Strachan) — Mon, 21 Mar 2011 18:27:00 +0000

The third school I visited was Rangikura School in Porirua just a few miles away from Wellington.

Driving out of Wellington along the coast we headed up to the top of the hill where the view was quite breathtaking over the harbour the water shone in the brilliant sunshine.
Rangikura is a primary school with children from a wide range of backgrounds, which according to their website is -
41% Pasifika, 38% Maori, 14% European, 4% Asian and 3% Others.

We received a warm welcome from Ondine, the teacher I had been in touch with and with the help of another teacher the school hall was soon set up for my talk.;

First I spoke to the younger children about my picture book What Colour is Love? and then we shared a Hamish McHaggis story.

The second session was with the older children and focused on my teen novels. As often happens where you have long country roads and a more sparse and spread out population, there are unfortunately teenage drivers taking extra risks resulting on deaths on the roads.

So there were lots of questions which sparked off much discussion.

I really enjoyed meeting the obviously dedicated and enthusiastic staff and great children in Rangikura school that morning.

As often happens photographs don't really show the scene as well as you might wish, and this was taken from the car as we left the school. There wasn't much time before the second school so we didn't really have time to stop and enjoy the view, which was a pity.

2# Visiting New Zealand Schools

noreply@blogger.com (Linda Strachan) — Mon, 21 Mar 2011 15:27:00 +0000

Following the wedding we were beginning to become acclimatised to the lovely summer weather in New Zealand which was, according to news reports, enjoying its warmest February for years -

not something I was about to complain about as I thought about the freezing cold we had left at home in Scotland.

It was now time to start the series of school visits that had been planned.

The lovely people at the New Zealand Book Council (which works in a vaguely similar way to our own excellent Scottish Book Trust) contacted schools in their network just before Christmas.

Being on the other side of the world their schools were just about to start their long summer break but the response was wonderful with 21 schools asking if I could visit them when I came over in February. I decided to visit 9 schools, all in North Island in a kind of loop that would lead us back to Auckland in time to fly out later in the month, I was going to visit two schools in each place, and three when we returned to Auckland.

They were a mixture of primary and secondary schools and the teachers happily offered to get in touch during their holidays so that the details could be finalised before I left as the visits would be taking place at the beginning of their new school year (early February).

I wanted to speak to a mixture of ages of children but also in a variety of types of schools. The first I visited was in Palmerston North, and after a visit overnight with friends in Whanganui we headed to Awatapu College a High School where we were mat by a Scot whohas been resident in New Zealand for many years now, it was a nice touch!
Mike Tuck the Head of English at Awatapu College had organised two classes of 13-14 year olds for me to speak to about Dead Boy Talking and Spider, and there were some interesting questions.

After lunch there was a change of age group with a visit to a primary school to do a creative writing session with a small group of keen 8-9year old writers at the Central Normal School.

I was curious about the name and discovered that it comes from it being a school there student teachers are trained, the purpose is to establish teaching standards or norms, which is where they get the name.

Leaving Palmerston North we headed South to Wellington, a beautiful city on a bay. We left Palmerston North in glorious sunshine but when we arrive din wellington the rain had arrived just before us and it was pouring. But by the time we had checked into our hotel the rain had stopped. Wellington is known to be a windy city and it lived up to its name the following day when we made our way to the New Zealand Book Council offices but with the sun shining it really didn't matter.

1 - From Snow to Sun - An airport, a February summer and a Wedding

noreply@blogger.com (Linda Strachan) — Fri, 11 Mar 2011 22:48:00 +0000

Winter snow arrived early in 2010 and the snow was still with us in January 2011, at times so deep that it was impossible to go anywhere. This all made building snow teddy bears

amazing icicles

and musing at tyre hearts on the street, the main activities.

But luckily we had other plans and by the end of January we had swapped the chilly snowbound UK for sunnier climes.

After 12 hours on a plane waiting at an airport for a connecting flight can be daunting. But there is one airport I really quite like, because it seems to have been designed with human beings in mind...

This is Singapore Airport,

where there are carpets and trees, an outdoor swimming pool, a butterfly garden and you can go for a shower or even hire a room for a few hours sleep between flights. Most civilised.

When we arrived there was even a chap playing gentle jazz on a grand piano as if he was in the lounge of some top hotel.

Flying on we landed in Brisbane airport and took the train south to meet friends on the Gold Coast.

It has been a strange time with disasters hitting all around. Our trip had been planned before the dreadful floods hit Brisbane and we saw little of the devastation that had hit the city and further north, by then the floods had mostly subsided.

Arriving in Auckland we were met by Wayne Mills who is the quiz master of the Kids Lit Quiz . Wayne was about to leave for the quiz heats in South Africa and then he was off to the heats in Canada where they were joining in the quiz for the first time this year.

The World finals are being held in New Zealand This year and in July the national finalists from all over the world will come to Hamilton NZ for a fabulous world final event and a chance to see some of the amazing sights in New Zealand. Teams from two schools, Cockermouth School and Bristol Grammar in the UK will be there!

The next highlight of our trip was a wedding. The kiwi bride was beautiful and the setting an amazing stone built family chapel and there was a contingent of Scots there on the groom's side, the men resplendent in their kilts!

WORLD BOOK DAY- Do not disturb- I'm reading!

noreply@blogger.com (Linda Strachan) — Fri, 04 Mar 2011 07:29:00 +0000

My favourite picture for World Book Day!

Abigail - 15mths

Giveaway launch for new Crime blog

noreply@blogger.com (Linda Strachan) — Wed, 12 Jan 2011 17:31:00 +0000

Crime Central
http://crimereading.blogspot.com/
A blog about crime books...and more,,,, for teens

If Crime is your thing why not drop in and see what devious thoughts we crime writers are having and why. Have your say about......

Your Favourite crime novels, old or new,

Your favourite characters

Find out what drives writers to the dark side of crime

......and so much more.

There are four criminal masterminds leading the way and they are -

Anne Cassidy

Keren David

Gillian Phillip

Linda Strachan

(that's me, in case you didn't realise!)

We will be joined by a host of great writers of mayhem and mystery.

But most of all we want you to join us.

And what better way to start than with a great giveaway competition.

TEN people will win a signed copy of one of Anne Cassidy's great books.

It's too good to miss!

Drop by Crime Central, read a fantastic blog by our very first special guest Malcolm Rose.

Christmas gifts for booklovers -how did you fare?

noreply@blogger.com (Linda Strachan) — Tue, 28 Dec 2010 10:51:00 +0000

TODAY on

What bookish delights did you get or receive this Christmas?

The north wind shall blow and we shall have snow - again?

noreply@blogger.com (Linda Strachan) — Sun, 19 Dec 2010 00:10:00 +0000

Sue Purkiss, in her excellent blog about snow Dark Lords,Witch Queens, and Snow on ABBA yesterday, said -
'Snow changes what happens, we all know that: ordinary life holds its breath. You can't work any more, so you might as well play.

But there's something else, something much deeper than that. We are taken back to an older time, when we were bound more closely to nature; to a time when people must have wondered if winter would ever end, and if they could possibly survive it even if it did.'

We have just had almost two weeks of incredibly deep snow. When it arrived so early it seemed quite beautiful and a lot of fun, but soon almost all travel was impossible, except on foot through snow that lay a foot deep.

That was when, as Sue says, ordinary life held its breath. But it felt much more than that.

When day after day we looked out on this altered landscape through snow-crusted windows it should have been an opportunity to get lots done at home, but perhaps we are more instinctive beings than our modern lives would suggest?

Are we more tied to nature, making this deep wintry weather trigger some kind of survival instinct or dread that it would never end? Is that why some people seem to have reacted strangely to the enforced holiday.

After the first day or so when we cleared paths only to have them as deep in snow by the following morning, it should have been easy to settle down to working at home or doing all those things that there never seems time for.

But instead I was unable to concentrate on anything for very long, as if life was on hold, breathlessly waiting to see when this force of nature would melt away and everything would return to normal. My friends and neighbours reported the same sense of waiting, of not-quite-holiday, when day after day we woke to more and more snow, just when we thought it was beginning to disappear, it all came back again, worse than ever.

Most of it finally melted away leaving behind small mountains of hard-packed ice and snow where it had been cleared from the roads. Most of the deep snow may have gone but many icy paths and pavements are still covered by snow, hardened to solid ice by sub zero temperatures. It is currently -7 outside but the latest fall of snow seems to have avoided our little corner of the land and is currently immobilising the north and south.

The forecast threatens - as the nursery rhyme goes - ' The north wind shall blow and we shall have (more) snow...' Will we still hold our breath until it all goes away again? Will our instinct for survival make us fight the lethargy or make us want to hibernate until the spring?

Presents - what would you buy your characters for Christmas?

noreply@blogger.com (Linda Strachan) — Fri, 17 Dec 2010 15:45:00 +0000

Do you know what to give your nearest and dearest this Christmas? Do you find choosing gifts a pleasure or a chore.

Perhaps there was a present you desperately hoped for as a child, but never got, or one that delighted you so much that the memory is still vivid?

Do you remember the worst present you have ever received or the present you wish you had never given someone else?

A great way of creating real, living, breathing characters is to get to know them as well, or better, than we know the people around us. So here is a thought - what to get them for Christmas. or what would be their ideal Christmas present?

If you understand your characters well enough to breathe life into them on the page, you should be able to think about what they would want for themselves, but also what some of the people around them would choose for them as a present.

Strident Publishing have 3 copies of Dead Boy Talking to give away.

noreply@blogger.com (Linda Strachan) — Sat, 21 Aug 2010 22:22:00 +0000

- It's giveaway time!
Strident Publishing have 3 copies of l Dead Boy Talking to give away.
To participate simply leave a comment on their facebook page - Strident publishing saying why you'd like the book... The contest will end next Friday 27th August when they will choose 3 winners at random.

Weegie Wednesday I'll be there, will you?

noreply@blogger.com (Linda Strachan) — Mon, 09 Aug 2010 20:47:00 +0000

This Wednesday - 11th August 2010- is Weegie Wednesday - Their website describes it pretty well

'an opportunity for writers, poets, publishers, booksellers, librarians, creative writing students or anyone else with an interest in books to get together socially once a month to talk about books, writing and publishing.'

It happens upstairs at The Universal Bar in Sauchiehall Lane (directly behind Waterstones in Sauchiehall Street) Glasgow from 7.30pm.

There are two 10 minute showcases each month and this Wednesday I will be sharing the spotlight with my good friend and fellow writer Nicola Morgan.

I will be speaking about the challenges of moving between writing soft and cuddly books for little tots and edgy realism for teenagers.

Nicola will be speaking about the changing face of publishing and what that means for writers and publishers.

So why not come along for a chat and a glass of your favourite refreshment! We'll be there...will you?

Congratulations Charlotte!- Bloomsbury 247 winner for July

noreply@blogger.com (Linda Strachan) — Wed, 04 Aug 2010 13:11:00 +0000

I was delighted to hear that the winner of the Bloomsbury 247 story for July is Charlotte.

You can read her story here www.bloomsbury.com/247tales The title for July was THE SECRET ROOM and her take on it is a rather sad, but well thought out story.

I met Charlotte, who is just 15, a couple of months ago and she is a very talented young writer. I am sure we will hear more from her in the future.