Candy Gourlay - Author of Tall Story

How I almost drowned and other delightful seaside tales

2012-02-13T01:03:00.000Z

This is a photo of me on a South Korean beach just before I almost drowned 25 years ago. Over on the DFB Blog, I've been asked to blog on a seaside theme so I thought I'd tell this delightful story.

Do come over and read Almost Drowning and Other Delightful Seaside Tales on the DFB Storyblog. Do leave me a comment (I'm needy like that).

Salford Children's Book Award

2012-01-30T00:30:00.000Z

Last week, I was one of the shortlisted authors who attended the wonderful prize giving ceremony for the Salford Children's Book Award 2011.

It was my first time in Northern parts as an author, so I asked the organizers if I could swing a school visit or two. They obliged and as a result I had a fun session with children from St Peter's CE School and Clifton Primary School in Swinton Library.

Pamela Manley (Children and Young People's Library Service Manager for Salford) acted as my driver, bodyguard and shopping director (we stopped at a very exciting pound shop for urgent sundries) and Lynne Ashworth of Swinton Library rounded up the children. Thank you, oh lovely librarians!

Me and Pam, post pound-shop - I later found out it was her birthday! Happy birthday, Pam!
Photo courtesy of Pam Manley

They put me up at a hotel with a terrific view of the famous Salford Quays ...

The view from my hotel which was a short walk along water to the Lowry where the awards were taking place. These photos are in black and white because I had my camera on the wrong setting so the colours were all wrong. I forgot to take a photo of Manchester United's stadium across the water ...

To get to the Lowry, we walked down this beautiful avenue of trees along the water. That's author Pat Walsh, shortlisted for The Crowfield Curse, sporting superstar sunglasses in the bright sunshine.

Pat took this photo of me with the Imperial War Museum in the background. I totally forgot to take a photo of the Lowry from outside, but I found this picture on the web to show you what it looks like in technicolour:

I was excited to meet author Alan Gibbons who anyone with a pulse in the book industry would know as a tireless campaigner to save our libraries. He's been my friend on Facebook for years.

On FB this is what he looks like:

But I was astonished to discover that in real life he looks like this:

He sings, he roars, he does animal impressions and Elvis impressions ... OMG!

He tried to comfort all the nervous shortlisted authors present by talking about the gazillion times he'd been shortlisted for the SCBA prize ... and lost.

The first time in 2003, his book The Edge lost to Molly Moon by Georgia Byng.

In 2004, shortlisted for Caught in the Crossfire, he lost to Private Peaceful by Michael Morpurgo.

In 2005 his book The Defender lost to The Recruit by Robert Muchamore.

In 2006 his book Hold On lost to Magyk by Angie Sage ... (it might interest children's book enthusiasts to know that Skellig by David Almond was also on the shortlist).

Okay. So maybe it wasn't that comforting. But it was MASSIVELY entertaining - the man burst into song and rocked and rolled all over the stage. And don't worry, he may have lost those shortlistings but he has won the Blue Peter (for Shadow of the Minotaur) as well as a gazillion other awards.

I think I would have melted into a puddle of tears if I'd had to sit up on the stage with these Salford luminaries. On the left is librarian Emily Stock who looks incredibly composed considering how hard she'd been working to make the event happen. I was excited to see the golden chains on the other guests, thinking that a rap act was going to perform. But no, it was the mayor and mayoress.

We were in stitches!

Then they got the authors to go up on stage, one by one, to say a few words, take a few questions.

Unfortunately, they sent us up in alphabetical order, so I had to speak first. I remember nothing.

Each author was escorted up the stage and introduced by children who participated in judging the prize. Sam introduced Tall Story - you can see by my expression that I'm wondering how I'm going to top his brilliant presentation! Photo: Nick Harrison

Ally Kennen explained why her book about burning corpses was a good idea. Sparks is about children wanting to give their grandpa a Viking funeral.

Richard Platt, who has written many books but in non-fiction, talked about the inspiration behind Double Crossing, his book about immigrants arriving in America.

Pat Walsh talked about digging up old things and rubbish and wondering how they got there. No, she's not a gardener, she's an archaeologist.

And then along came Jon Mayhew, author of Mortlock and The Demon Collector

The boy introducing Jon read out loud his favourite excerpt from Mortlock, which involved dead bodies rising out of the ground or something disguisting like that ... Jon promptly began to act it out.

... do not feed this man ...

... blood, gore, guts, etc etc ...

Chris Priestly was moving house and so couldn't be there to hear how wonderful his book The Dead of Winter was. Just as well because after Jon Mayhew, could the audience bear to meet another horror author?

Chris Priestly (stolen from his Facebook page)

The other missing author was no other than Michael Morpurgo, national treasure and children's book superstar ... all Allan Gibbons' tales of finding himself on the same shortlists as David Almond, Michael Morpurgo, Jacquelyn Wilson and JK Rowling began to ring hollowly in our brains ...

AND THE WINNER IS ...

... MICHAEL MORPURGO FOR Shadow!

Wait, Michael Morpurgo sure looks a lot smoother and more feminine than he normally does. Okay, that's not Michael Morpurgo - apparently he was somewhere over the ocean in an aeroplane ... so he sent his friend Mary Byrne

... and no, Jon wasn't disappointed at all.

(lest you think Jon really did burst into tears - this shot came from the moment earlier when Jon described his sorry life as a browbeaten, younger brother )

And honestly, I didn't mind losing to Michael Morpurgo ... in fact I enjoyed telling my kids, 'I lost to Michael Morpurgo' - they were sufficiently impressed that I was on the same shortlist.

And here's my trophy picture with Michael at last year's Hay Festival (I snuck up behind him to get my picture taken and he caught me)

Photo: Sarah McIntyre

Great souvenir shot of the SCBA crew by Nick Harrison

Afterwards there was almost an hour of book and what have you signing - I got to test drive my new stamp ... if ever I'm in your part of the world, make sure I get that stamp out, it's so cool ... but I absolutely refuse to stamp anyone on the forehead no matter how much they beg. Photo: Nick Harrison

Thank you to the children and librarians of Salford for an unforgettable day (and Waterstones of Deansgate who sold the books)!

The Book is Dead? Not at THIS School!

2012-01-20T18:01:00.001Z

An excerpt from the Reader's Cup - taken with my mobile phone!

I was thrilled when Thomas' Day School in Battersea (London) invited me to be their guest for their Readers' Cup Challenge, in which each house fielded a team of readers to compete in a quiz featuring three books.

The books were Trash by Andy Mulligan, The Ghost of Thomas Kempe by Penelope Lively, and Tall Story by me!

The teams valiantly read the books over the Christmas holidays. The atmosphere in the school auditorium was electric - children were cheering for their houses, headmaster Ben Thomas himself acted as quiz master and librarian Catherine Kmet kept score. A hundred points to win with every correct answer. And a hundred points to lose with every wrong one! Fingers on the buzzer!

Headmaster Ben Thomas conducts the challenge

Someone awesome brilliantly set up a complex technological feast of a show - with buzzers, spotlights and at the very end, an explosion of confetti over the competitors. The featured books were beautifully introduced before each round of questions. In between rounds, the audience got to answer random questions about books.

My goodness, aren't they tall! Or am I shrinking?

Schools, take note! What a terrific way to celebrate reading!

2012, Here We Come!

2012-01-01T01:00:00.000Z

Here's wishing you all much happiness this coming New Year, whatever 2012 may bring ...

Today I am blogging over on the DFB StoryBlog about the best beloved Christmas stories of my childhood (I just love how my publisher calls itself a 'Story House' and its blog a 'Story Blog') ... This piece is very special to me - please, please come by, have a read and leave a comment!

A Tree for Nick by Mary Lou Brown (1959) - one of my all time favourite Christmas reads!

Also, do come by Notes from the Slushpile where there's a bit of a poetry duel going on amongst my fellow slushies - featuring a behind the scenes transcript of email exchanges while we were working ont our very popular recent Countdown to Christmas series which featured editors and agents galore.

It's gonna be a busy year for me - hopefully with my new book out in late 2012 and lots of authorly events! Wish me luck!

Meanwhile, from me and my family ...

... and an extra Happy New Year!

Spreading the love this season

2011-12-21T20:11:00.000Z

Season's Greetings, oh lovely friends and readers!!!

Every year, my family braces itself as I get to work Photoshopping our heads onto a greeting card. One year, we were the Incredibles; another year, I put us all into snowy Narnia (much to my son's dismay because he was cast as Mr Tumnus!).

My son Nick didn't like being Mr. Tumnus in last year's card,
but I think the ears suit him!

This year, I thought we'd go for an Olympic theme, given that it's going to be our big event here in London in 2012. So here are the very best wishes from my family (with thanks to the Chinese gymnastics team for loaning their bodies, and Manchester City FC for loaning us the crowd in the background)!

But all the fun of creating the card was hugely dimmed by the terrible, terrible events that have been happening around the world: the shocking violence in Egypt, economic catastrophe in the Eurozone, and then, last week - oh no! - another calamity of biblical proportions in the Philippines as a massive typhoon rampaged through the southern island of Mindanao. As I write, the death toll from typhoon stricken parts is about to reach 1,000. Read this moving article by my friend Ceres Doyo.

It's tempting to batten down the hatches, avoid eye contact, keep everything quiet for fear of either offending someone or appearing too joyous in the midst of other people's misery.

But it's so important to defy the gloom and doom. We must do what we can (please click on the box above to find out how we can help victims of the Philippine disaster) ... but we must also count our blessings ... and pass it on. Let me share some things that have given me joy these past few weeks:

1 Are you an aspiring author? The blog Notes from the Slushpile - of which I'm a member - is featuring agents and editors galore - one a day, till Christmas. Check it out!

2 One of my favourite fantasy series is Mortal Engines by Philip Reeve. Lo and behold! Philip has written a short story for Christmas featuring the Mortal Engines universe ... not only that, it's illustrated by my lovely pal, Sarah McIntyre! Thank you, guys!

3 I've been away from Facebook for the past three months because I've been busy working on my new novel. I recently returned (but only temporarily as I'm not finished yet). What joy to reconnect with the friends I left behind. And what's this? FB has introduced a new feature called the Timeline! Dare I say that I love it?

The main photo is of the stage set of Tim Minchin's musical Matilda which I saw
last week. It's AMAZING. Go see it if you can!

4 Living on the other side of the world from the Philippines as I do, I get a bit homesick for a good Filipino read. Recently I discovered short stories in the Philippine Free Press online magazine. Here's one I loved - Manny Pacquiao Speaks to a Butterfly in California by John Bengan. Can't wait to read the others! Thanks, PFP!

5 And I guess people are clearing their desks, finalizing plans, etc because last week I signed up to several brilliant festivals and events in 2012! To say that I am EXCITED is an understatement!!! In January, I'll be meeting children involved in judging the Red House Prize at , then I'll be attending the Salford Children's Book Awards at the Lowry in Salford. I'll be appearing at the Surrey Libraries Children's Book Festival in March. In April I'll be speaking at the FCBG's Worlds Within Words Conference. And in May, I'm going to Singapore - woo hoo! - for the third Asian Festival of Children's Content which this year focuses on the Philippines. Oh and in August, I'll be speaking on the subject of immigration as part of the Afternoon with Random House event of the IBBY World Congress in London.

6 And in February, I'm going home to the Philippines to visit my Mom!!!

So you see, I have much to be thankful for. I share this in the hope that you too will embrace the things that have made, are making and will make you happy this season of joy and hope.

Now let's get busy spreading that love.

How to Help the Victims of Typhoon Sendong (Washi) in the Philippines (thanks for advisory from the Philippine Embassy in the UK):

The following institutions are accepting cash donations to help, in equal priority, victims in Iligan and Cagayan de Oro, through their Philippine bank accounts:

1. Xavier University Cagayan de Oro City (care of Fr. Roberto "Bobby" Yap, SJ, friend of the Filipino community and former scholar in the UK)
Account name: Xavier University
Account number: 9331-0133-63
Bank: Bank of the Philippine Islands, Cagayan de Oro- Divisoria Branch
(note: those who wish to receive receipts for their donations, kindly email finance@xu.edu.ph with details of their donations, i.e. donor's name, receiving branch, date of remittance, amount)

2. La Salle Academy Iligan City (care of Bro. Raffy Reyes)
Bank: Bank of the Philippine Islands
Account Name: La Salle Academy
Account Type: Savings
Account No: 9353-0377-62
(note: those who wish to receive receipts for their donations, kindly email raffyreyes1018@gmail.com and brodennis@gmail.com with digital copy of their remittance receipt)

3. Philippine Red Cross
Account name: Philippine Red Cross
Account number: 00-453-0018647
Bank: Banco de Oro (swift code: BNORPHMM)
(those who wish to receive receipts for their donations, kindly email fundgeneration@redcross.org.ph with details of their donation, i.e. donor's name, date of remittance, amount and digital copy of their remittance receipt)

The following UK-based remittance institutions have kindly offered to send the public's remittance to Xavier University, La Salle Academy and Philippine Red Cross free of remittance charges:

1. Global Express Money Remittance
11-12 Hogarth Place, Earl's Court
London SW5 0QT
Tel. No. +44 (0) 203 441 1824
Mobile No. +44 (0) 794 416 6478
Email: info@gemremittance.com

2. iRemit Global Remittance Ltd.
1st Floor, Orchard House
167-169 High Street Kensington
London W8 6SH
Tel. No. +44 (0) 203 384 5084
Email: iremit.uk@myiremitfo.com

Kids Lit Quiz - Meeting the Best Readers in North London!

2011-11-29T17:03:00.001Z

Quizmaster Wayne Mills travels the world conducting these quizzes

Wow! Yesterday, I chugged up to the North London Heat of the Kids Lit Quiz with a carful of authors - Keren David (When I Was Joe), Fiona Dunbar (Kitty Slade Mysteries) and Sita Brahmachari (Artichoke Hearts).

Authors United - Fiona, Sophia and Sita. Dave Cousins was revising secretly in his car. They beat the children by one point!

There were 28 teams competing, in addition to two author teams - Authors United (Fiona, Sita, Dave Cousins and Sophia Bennett) and the Author All Stars (Josh Lacey, Echo Freer, Steve Feasey and Sam Osman).

Authors All Stars (or, judging by their score, All Scarred?)- Steve Feasey, Sam Osman and Echo Freer. Josh Lacey arrived late and got blamed for everything.

This year I was perched up on the stage, marking the quiz - which was great because I had a wonderful vantage point for taking photos!

Wayne Mills in action, wearing his trademark hat

Sue Shaper organized the whole thing. Thank you, Sue!
(Sue is vice chair of CILIP's school libraries group national committee)

Visuals from the 'Rodents' section of the Quiz (name that rodent!)

I managed to get this photo before the event started, of Sara Grant, Katie Dale and Keren David - who were marking quiz sheets with me. Below - here are the markers all set for the job: Savita Kalhan, Sara, Katie and me. Miriam Halahmy, who was also marking, took the photo on Katie's camera. I didn't manage to get a shot of the authors who were scoring, but you can see them in the distance - Pat Walsh, Pauline Francis and Mark Robson

And here are some of the bright sparks who joined the competition!

The winners were City of London Girls - little geniuses ... during the break, they were sitting quietly, reading!

City of London Girls won the heat!

Here are the top five teams in the North London heat:

1. City of London Girls A

2. Arnold House B

3. Orley Farm A

4. City of London Girls B

5. Bishop’s Stortford College A

CONGRATULATIONS!

I had such fun! The overall winners get to go to New Zealand for the world finals!!! So sad to miss the finals this Friday in Oxford - good luck, young readers! Read about the finals on Fiona Dunbar's Girls Heart Books post. And here's more from Katy Dale (at the North London final), Philip Reeve (who went to Wadebridge for the South West final), and Jo Cotterill (at the Oxon/Berks regional heat)!

The best readers in North London all gathered under one roof! The Kids' Lit Quiz is annual literature competition for children aged 10 to 13. It puts readers onto the stage and lets them compete for fantastic prizes - I went last year to the South England heats and to the North London heats (Read my blog post about it).

The quiz has heats in New Zealand, the United Kingdom, South Africa, Canada, USA, China and Australia, winning teams qualify for national and world finals. The Kids' Lit Quiz is not for profit and run entirely by volunteers. International sponsors include Serco, Softlink, Scholastic and Oxford University Press.

The quiz was founded by by New Zealand quizmaster Wayne Mills, who reads enough books to write several thousands questions each year. When his kids were teenagers he never observed readers at prize-givings being rewarded for their reading and it was this that provided the impetus to start a literary competition for 11-13 year olds in 1991. The idea of the quiz then was to acknowledge and motivate readers at a time when reading traditionally dipped. He claims to have never asked the same question twice!

Do drop in on my other blog, Notes from the Slushpile, where we are having a Christmas Countdown!

Great Expectations With SCBWI British Isles

2011-11-21T00:49:00.000Z

You win a prize, you get to cut the cake! Photo: Sue Eves

I've just come home from a most moving weekend. It was the annual conference of SCBWI British Isles* - an organization of writers and illustrators that has had a huge impact on my creative life.

This year Tall Story won the inaugural Crystal Kite Prize for Europe, the only peer-given prize for children's books. I was awarded the trophy at the conference and asked to deliver a speech.

I was also surprised to be given this year's Outstanding Contribution Award. It was particularly poignant for me because last year the prize was won by my friend Margaret Carey, whom we lost to cancer last summer.

Receiving the two awards was like getting a huge hug from an organization that has been family to me since I joined in 2002.

I am not supposed to be doing anything online at the moment, as my book deadline looms, but I just wanted to share my Crystal Kite acceptance speech. I wrote it with a lump in my throat.

Here is the shortlist, and below, my speech.

Shortlist for the Crystal Kite Prize for Europe

The Crystal Kite Award

Thank you so much.

Before anything else, I’d like to say thank you, Natascha Biebow (regional advisor of SCBWI BI), who was the first person I met in SCBWI – luckily when I met her, I didn’t realize she was a commissioning editor at Random House or something embarrassing might have happened.

Thank you to all the members who voted for Tall Story. I am so honoured to be chosen for this award.

I hope everyone’s had a great first day of the conference – I remember my very first SCBWI conference. It was in Winchester and it was 2001. The keynote was Geraldine McCaughrean.

I was very nervous. I didn’t know anybody and I’d spent so many years being pregnant I was not in training to be sociable.

I was also nervous because I’d left the latest baby in the care of my husband and there were two big rugby games on that weekend.

But most of all i was nervous because I thought this was it. This was going to be my big break. In my bag I had all the picture book texts I’d ever written, ready to thrust at the first editor or agent I met. I figured that they were going to be overwhelmed by my astonishing talent and I was going to walk into that conference a wannabe and walk out, an author.

Did it happen?

Why, yes, I think it did.

I walked into the Conference a total beginner. I thought that that children’s books looked simple enough, surely getting published was going to be easy.

I thought I knew how to write – I’d been a journalist for many years.

But after the conference, I discovered two things.

1) Writing for children? Easy? No no no!

And 2) Writing for children was totally utterly the life for me.

That was ten years ago. Maybe I was a slow learner.

And so I began my quest. I attended all the conferences, signed up for the professional series, volunteered ... and as time passed, I became a better writer and i became a little bit wiser to the children’s book world.

The rejections also became a little bit better. They began to sound a lot more personal. Some were even handwritten.

Here’s one from a publisher that I keep pinned to my noticeboard:

Dear Mister Gourlay, Many thanks for sending us your manuscript. Although we thought it was a sweet story nicely written, unfortunately it is not quite strong enough for our list at this time. I’m sorry for the wait you’ve had for this reply.

Sounds familiar?

More than anything else however I was beginning to Get It.

• I GOT that Publishing is a business and editors and publishers are not just looking for talent, they are looking for a product.

• I GOT that There were a LOT of good writers out there, a lot of good writers who had ideas more brilliant than mine. I had to raise my game.

• I GOT that to give my writing a fighting chance, I needed a special something, a unique selling point, that set me apart from the rest. It took me a while but then I discovered what that special something was: ME.

• And finally ... I GOT that this long journey was not just about getting published, it was about LIVING A CREATIVE LIFE and all the striving, the struggling, the honing your craft, the finding the time, the rejections? That was part of the package. I had to stop yearning for the Creative Life because the Creative Life was NOW.

Early this year I was lucky enough to win a grant from SCBWI for my volunteer work. It was a grant to attend the New York conference. One of the keynotes was YA author Sara Zarr.

She described those dark, awful times when she thought her writing was ready but nobody was paying attention.

At a meeting with a literary agent, she couldn't speak, she was so close to tears. The agent told her:

The time between when you are no longer a beginner but you are not yet in the business is the hardest ... and one of the biggest frustrations is: no one can tell you how long this phase will last. Read Sara Zarr's keynote

That was so totally me (I’ll bet there are few in this audience who see themselves there too).

There came a point when I knew that I was ready. I had done my time at the slush pile. I DESERVED to be published.

But nobody was noticing me. Why was that? I spent some time blogging about it on my blog Notes from the Slushpile – if you can call whining, blogging.

By this time I’d given up on picture books and was writing novels. The novels were getting much more positive responses than the picture books ever did. Except at the end of a positive letter, there was always the comment: ‘But this is a quiet, literary novel and we cannot publish this at this time.’

When oh when was it going to happen?

I am not embarrassed to say I looked long and hard at self publishing – could I go through it without a publisher? But self publishing had such a bad press. I didn’t have the courage.

My husband tiptoed around me. He was careful not to use the word, but when I was feeling very very down, I tortured myself, asking: is this just a HOBBY?

Friends who knew I was writing would ask, how’s it going? Are you published yet? They listened politely while I explained that it was not a quick process – probably thinking, she’s just not good enough. Which was exactly what I was thinking.

My cleaner told me she was cleaning for someone who was also trying to get published. ‘She sits at her computer, writing all the time. Like you, she doesn’t comb her hair and wears rubbish clothes [Candy's note: Frances disapproves of my jeans and t-shirt approach to fashion] . Writing and writing and getting nowhere. JUST LIKE YOU.’ Thanks a lot, Frances.

Then one day Frances came in to work with a gobsmacked look on her face.

‘Oh my god, Meg’s book is going to be published!’

‘What’s her name again?’ I said.

‘Meg Rosoff.’

Rosoff? I’d never heard the surname.

But I soon did.

Then I won a place in the first Undiscovered Voices anthology. This is it, I thought. It’s going to happen.

I got signed by an agent.

This is it ... at long last ...

And then ...

Nothing.

The only difference was that it was my agent who was getting the rejection letters. The rejections said dystopian fantasies? We’ve had enough of dystopias. (It was 2008, before the current dystopian rush)

So my agent tried submitting my coming of age novel. Guess what the rejections said? It’s a quiet literary novel. Too quiet.

Then I wrote Tall Story. And just like that, the door opened.

And now here I am, up on a podium, talking to you.

It was official, I was living my dream.

Except the reality was not quite what I thought. Yeah, it’s been one of the best years of my life ... but it has also been one of the worst.

Here are the good things: I saw my book in the shops. I met my writing idols – Jacquelyn Wilson, Michael Morpurgo, Malorie Blackman – I had my picture taken with them ... whether they liked it or not.

I actually get fan mail. My Mum is proud of me. The Philippines is proud of me. Tall Story was shortlisted for eleven prizes.

But instead of enjoying every short-listing, I found myself panicking. I had to write my second novel but I was finding it hard to write, I just couldn’t find the words.

My blood pressure went sky high. I was grinding my teeth at night and my dentist was in despair at the damage I was doing. I was distracted and not paying enough attention to family things. Sometimes I was convinced that I would never write another book again.

It wasn’t writer’s block as much as writer’s freeze.

When I finally handed my second manuscript to my editor last summer, I knew that there were a lot of things wrong with it.

I went to a meeting with my editor, Simon Mason (author of Moon Pie, shortlisted for 2011 Guardian Prize) ... I armed myself: I prepared a synopsis, a step outline, I got ready for a technical discussion – cut here, paste there.

The first thing he said was: ‘It’s good, Candy.’

Uh oh. I thought. Here comes the BUT. BUT it’s not quite strong enough for our list at this time.

But Simon's been in the business a long time, he’s seen his share of second book blues.

So what he said was this:

‘When you approach revising this book, you must not focus on problems and fixing them. You must focus on what is GREAT about it.’

And then he sat me down and said, ‘... and you know what’s great about this book? It’s GREAT because of this ... it’s GREAT because of this ...’

For half an hour he just told me how great my book was.

I came out of there with my head spinning.

I stopped looking for failure. And when I began to focus on what was right instead of what was wrong, I found the book that I wanted to write.

A few weeks ago, Michael Morpurgo was asked in a Guardian interview: ‘What is the greatest threat to publishing today?

His answer:

‘Not giving room and space to new writers. They are no longer nurtured in the way that I was.’

Actually, I know many editors and publishers who believe in nurturing their authors, but times have changed since the days when editors fished their authors out of the pubs, paid their gambling debts and stood guard as their genius sat at the typewriter. The pressures publishers are under today - economic or otherwise – are mind-boggling.

And as for TALENT ... hah! Look around you. This room is FULL of talent. One thing I’ve learned is that in this business, Talent is not the bottom line.

You need a big idea, good luck, and PERSEVERANCE – LOTS OF IT.

David Fickling, my publisher, told me, ‘This is who you are now, this is what you do.’

But who am I? This past year has been such a whirlwind that I kind of lost track of myself.

Who am I?

I am that person who arrived at the SCBWI conference with all her hopes packed in a bag. I was looking for something ... and it was not just an agent, not just a publishing deal, not just tips on how to write ... I was looking for a way of life.

It’s not true that nurturing no longer exists in this business. Nurturing is what we do here in SCBWI.

This business is such a roller coaster ride and it’s great to have so many like-minded fellow travellers sharing the highs and the lows ... we mentor each other, cheer each other on, cheer each other up, and generally lift each other up to the next level.

So Thank you, SCBWI. Not just for voting for Tall Story, but for nurturing me.

The Outstanding Contribution Award

*Visit Notes from the Slushpile for a comprehensive round-up of blog links and photos of the conference

Learning about learning to read: Phonics, Real Books, Reading Schemes, The Electric Company

2011-10-23T15:24:00.000+01:00

Reading is good. But how should reading be taught?
Photo: Pratham Books

I'm an author (just). Surely I know something about reading ...

But last week I found out that it took more than a love for writing and reading to teach children how to read.

Joanna de Guia of Victoria Park Books very kindly invited me to attend a debate on the teaching of reading. It was the final event of a conference on 19 October entitled Reading Without Stories: Does It Make Sense?.

I was puzzled by the title. How could one read without stories?

Turns out I haven't been paying enough attention to current events. Apparently there's been a war raging between two camps of reading methods for almost a century - Whole Word teaching and Phonics. In the UK, where the Whole Word method's been ascendant for a while, Phonics is beginning to regain ground.

(Added) Deborah Orr of the Guardian writes here about the UK's literacy crisis:

I became aware of the state system's problems with teaching literacy when my own son, and a number of his friends, were not learning to read and write at primary school, but were instead becoming hostile to reading and writing, in a school setting that saw this as unremarkable and untroubling. Looking into the matter further, I found great cause for concern.
Read All About It: Britain's shameful literacy crisis, The Guardian

I was of the era that learned to read via the Phonics method. As a child, a lot of my learning was done watching endless reruns of the American educational series from the 1970s, The Electric Company.

The debate was advertised as focusing on the 'respective merits of using real books or reading schemes to teach reading'. Note the careful absence of the word Phonics from the brief.

First up, headteacher Greg Wallace talked about refusing to teach the government-imposed literacy strategy at his primary school Woodberry Down ' because phonically it wasn't right for the younger children'. Wallace is credited for turning Woodberry Down from a failing school to one judged 'outstanding' by school inspectors. The school serves one of the most deprived areas in the United Kingdom - 25 per cent of its pupils are refugees and 60 per cent are on free school meals.

Wallace argued however that it was impossible to divide the argument into Good - classes reading novels by favourite authors - vs Bad - phonics, comprehension, literacy hour and SATS practice. He said:

'It’s a false division because we have to do all these things and we have to be very clear that purpose ... It’s the absence of purpose that causes schools to fail.'

Wallace described his own literacy strategy of starting children off with synthetic phonics and decipherable texts and a 'huge focus' on developing vocabulary:

'Children cannot comprehend if they do not know what the words mean.'

He said there was an urgency to get the children reading as quickly as possible so that they could get the best out of 'real' books. The book choices of the school - by authors like Beverley Naidoo, Anne Fine and Benjamin Zephaniah, covering themes of gender, race, family - reflect the school's demographics. 'For lots of our children, they are not issues, they are realities,' Wallace explained.

He illustrated how real by showing some quite moving literacy work by students. In one writing exercise to an imaginary character based on Zephaniah's Refugee Boy, a Year Six girl writes:

'What you did helped me as well with my life because I’m a refugee too.'

'How can we ensure that the government’s drive for effective phonics teaching and its obsesson with testing do not drive out children’s understanding and enjoyment of books?' Wallace asked.

The next speaker was psychologist Christopher Hulme, who presented studies and statistics that compared the effectiveness of various methods in teaching children to read. I wish I could write more about Hulme's presentation because it was very rich and detailed.

My simple-minded take-away was that a combination of both methods, vocabulary teaching and reading aloud to pupils would result in huge gains in reading. It made start thinking about creating bonus materials on my website to help teachers help children read my own books! (Teachers, please don't hesitate to drop me a note on my contact form if you have any suggestions of additional material I could post on my website to help you teach Tall Story. In fact, I'm thinking of doing a video on vocabulary!)

Then, author and former Children's Laureate Michael Rosen - who struck me as not so much anti-Phonics as pro-books - described schools he visited where there were no 'real books' (as opposed to reading schemes). It was hard to take notes because Rosen is quite a captivating speaker and you keep forgetting to write things down and then he's saying something else so fascinating that you don't manage to catch up! Anyway, here are fragments from my notebook of what he said:

'Crucial to the concept of what is a school – are we imparting wisdoms? Are we enabling children to access wisdoms? ...The way these children are going to achieve is in part due to their encounter with books. How come we have invented a system where books are option al and in some places, book free, with an ITC room instead of a library, and scarcely any books in classrooms. Is it possible to have a system where children could learn how to read but the notion that books pass on wisdom is not present?'

Rosen was especially dismayed to visit schools whose shelves were stocked with reading schemes, with no 'real books' in sight. In some schools he visited, he was saddened to see that computers took precedence over libraries. (Added: And how about news that reading tests will be including non-words?)

After the presentations it was the audience's turn to ask questions or comment on the presentations. The response was intense and passionate.

I felt like everyone was wringing their hands and asking, 'But HOW can we do our best for the children? What can we DO?'

As debates go, it was an odd one in the sense that every single person was on the same side. Although some of the discussion was heated, I was curiously reassured. It was obvious that everyone in the room cared deeply about getting children to read and not just read but to love books.

At one point I turned round to look at this audience that cared so much - because I wanted to see the faces in that crowd of teachers, librarians and education policy-influencers. These are people who have probably already changed someone's life.

I like to joke that watching too much TV made me an even bigger reader. But seriously, I hold The Electric Company close to my heart. Even though it was an American creation designed for Americans, it exported reading in a fun and accessible format at a time when learning to read in the Philippines was old fashioned, rigid and painfully structured (yes, Phonics was a drag!). It didn't just teach you to read, it made you love learning how. I am thrilled that I can revisit my favourite bits of the programme on YouTube. I leave you with a selection of my favourite clips from The Electric Company.

Another classic song from The Electric Company. Can you tell that I hold these early reading adventures close to my heart?

The Adventures of Letterman - voiced by comedienne Joan Rivers

The Menu Song from The Electric Company - recognize the two Oscar winning actors? Morgan Freeman as a groovy young man and Rita Moreno (of West Side Story fame). And the song is by Tom Lehrer (The Elements Song)

My Nephew Alphonso with Rita Moreno

N apostrophe T - another Tom Lehrer song

Mum of Warcraft: my autobiographical story on Tesco Magazine Kids' Book Club

2011-10-16T14:47:00.002+01:00

Yes, dear reader, Mum of Warcraft is based on my absolutely true story as a part-time computer game fanatic. Check out my Mum of Warcraft story on the Tesco Magazine Kids' Book Club (with apologies to Zhang Ziyi from whom I borrowed this magnificent pose)

So I just found out that my story is up on the Tesco Kids' Book Club.

It's called Mum of Warcraft - and yes, that's a play on the hit multiplayer online role-playing game that some of my young friends have become badly addicted to.

Parents, look away now, because I'm about to make a confession.

I was badly addicted to my children's computer games.

Well, not to all of them, but to two in particular.

One was Age of Empires. It's a strategy video game in which you build competing civilizations and armies - collecting resources, upgrading technology, planning entire towns - and watch to see which civilization survives. I played under the name 'Attila the Mum'.

I competed with my sons for computer time on that game ... what I didn't tell them though was that I continued playing through the night, after they'd gone to bed. When my husband was away, I could play until three in the morning, secure in the knowledge that no grown-up was going to stop me.

Screenshot of typical carnage on Age of Empires. I LOVED Age of Kings, its second upgrade. Image from RSTC

The other game I loved was Sim City. It's the town planning game which later gave birth to the far more popular game The Sims. I never got into the Sims, but I could spend HOURS on Sim City.

A screengrab from SimCity3000. I could play this for hours. Once, I did so well that the Sims built a statue in my honour! Picture from GamesHunter

I loved the Toy Story game as well but I was lousy at using a game pad so unfortunately I never got very good at it.

In Mum of Warcraft, a boy named Jack finds his mother's addiction to computer games annoying (full disclosure: one of my sons is named Jack).

He is especially displeased when his mum falls into the habit of hanging out with his friends, discussing strategies for playing one particular game.

I'm afraid the Mum hanging out with son's friends scene was totally autobiographical.

I didn't know any people my age who enjoyed playing Age of Empires, so when I went to collect my then nine year old son from school, I used to stand around with his friends, discussing AOE cheats and strategies. (I've read that Noughts & Crosses author Malorie Blackman used to be into games too, but I didn't know her then)

I only stopped when my son Nick told me he didn't like me chatting to his friends and would I please stop.

The problem with being addicted to your own child's computer game is that you absolutely have no credibility when you do that yelling thing up the stairs, 'TURN THAT GAME OFF!!! What's wrong with you modern children? When I was young we sang around the campfire, played board games, blah blah blah etc etc.'

The good thing of course is I have absolute authority when I say: 'You guys are totally addicted. I know what addiction is like because I was addicted to computer games too.' The only part of that which is slightly dishonest is the 'was' because my addiction is not in the past tense. Yet.

Space Invaders. Thanks to Original Game Screenshots

I cannot tell a lie: I always thought computer games were cool.

I remember saving up to play Space Invaders at the supermarket in the 1980s - if I were told then that in the near future everyone would have their own game consoles at home, I would have found it hard to believe!

Why did I stop playing?

I haven't really ... just taking a break to do grown-up things like write novels, bring up children.

But what's this I hear, Age of Empires Online?

Somebody, stop me ...

Thanks to Jack who took the photo of me with my warrior face on for photoshopping

Finding The Unmistakeable I Am

2011-10-06T10:35:00.011+01:00

Screen Grab from ABC News obit

I was saddened this morning to hear that Steve Jobs had died.

I immediately wanted to write a quick blog post with the title 'Why we should all be more like Steve Jobs'.

Mr. Jobs’s own research and intuition, not focus groups, were his guide. When asked what market research went into the iPad, Mr. Jobs replied: “None. It’s not the consumers’ job to know what they want.” New York Times

I thought, what a great role model for resisting the X-Factorizing of culture - art and literature chosen by marketing departments, committee and popular vote rather than the quality of a particular vision.

My thesis would be: what the world needs now is not Facebook Like-led consensus, but the kind of vision that made Steve Jobs surprise the world.

Thanks to Bazics.net

But then I also wanted to write a blog post about teachers because it was World Teacher's Day the other day and I read an editorial in the Philippine Star wondering what children think when they see these beloved role models leave to become housemaids in Singapore ...

These days, a career as educator has lost much of its appeal. As little girls grow up, reality creeps in: teaching calls for long hours of work, and the pay is rarely commensurate to the expertise required ... The realities are worse in some public schools, where a little girl might see the household of her role model become prosperous only when the teacher leaves the profession and works as a maid in Singapore. (Note to Star: little girls AND boys ... just saying ... )

So I was thinking about role models and Steve Jobs and teachers when I found a video of William Fiennes - author of The Snow Geese and The Music Room - talking about his work with the authors-in-schools charity First Story.

William said his heart sank when he was handed versions of Harry Potter and Twilight and Grand Theft Auto - "more vampires than you can shake a sharpened stick at" - with characters named Alexander and Sophie written by teenagers with names like Ramendeep, Satvinder and Barveen.

William talked about helping these young writers find a voice - not just as a writer but as a person. Here's what William told those young people:

You have a voice. It's unique to you. ... you have a world in your heads a world of experiences and memories, sensations dreams hopes despairs anxieties fantasies and that's your great gift, your great resource and richness as a writer ... and apart from that, the only thing to bear in mind is that all great writing commits itself to the concrete, the specific, the particular rather than the vague general and the abstract.

William called it finding "the unmistakeable I am".

And that's when I realized that I had found an arc for my Steve Jobs / Role Models / Teachers post.

Steve Jobs had vision but you can't just go around telling people to have more vision. And life for teachers is tough enough. Role models live in the real world.

At the end of the day, we've got to help kids find their Unmistakeable I am - because only their Unmistakeable I Am can change their world.

Teachers, parents, everyone, watch this video please.

Watch the speech on Intelligence Squared

Does writing affect one's love of reading? I have to admit that writing novels has definitely spoiled some of the joy of reading for me ... read my latest post on Notes from the Slushpile. My latest on the DFB Story Blog: My Dark Endeavour: Five Monsters I've loved

Outside looking in ... or inside looking out?

2011-09-21T19:52:00.011+01:00

I've been deep in my cave these last few weeks, writing furiously - our recent holiday has given me fresh energy and for the first time in ages, I'm enjoying the laying down of a story.

It's been a slog, this book. Unlike Tall Story which was one of those books that wrote itself, this one has taken a long time to reveal itself to me.

Yeah, I'm one of those authors who wait for the book to tell her what's going to happen. But this one wouldn't for a long time. I wrote a gazillion pages before it decided to have a life of its own.

But now that it's going well, what's this?

From Liz De Jager's blog

I've just written a scene in which one of the characters is standing on a dustbin, peering into a window. Outside looking in.

In Tall Story, there are two 'outside looking in' scenes ... the first when a witch peers into Bernardo's living room window. The second, when Bernardo himself peers into the witch's house.

After I finished the chapter, I had to stop and think.

My new novel may be telling a new story - but the themes in Tall Story - of being 'other', of being different, of being someone on the outside - continue to persist.

We were in a cafe in Edinburgh and this seagull kept watching us

I know I've said it before, but telling a story is not just about writing what you know, it's writing who you are.

I guess being an immigrant, this outside-looking-in theme is going to run and run in my writing ...

(Added to post later) Found this quote from Anton Checkhov:

Everything I learned about human nature I learned from me.

This is explained brilliantly by screen-writing guru Robert McKee in his seminal book Story:

Observation is our source of characterizations, but understanding of deep character is found in another place. The root of all fine character writing is self-knowledge.

The write-who-you are thing came to mind the other day when I was lucky enough to attend a private screening of my friend Koutaiba Al-Janabi's award-winning first feature-length film, Leaving Bagdad.

Koutaiba included "found" footage he'd shot over the years, as well as chilling torture footage from Saddam Hussein's own archives.

Leaving Baghdad follows a man fleeing from pre-invasion Iraq, constantly waiting and searching for a way out. Despite many shots of open spaces and landscapes, the film has a claustrophobic feeling, a feeling of being trapped. The shocking reveal at the end tells us that for this man, there will never be an escape.

Koutaiba's father was murdered by Saddam Hussein's regime - which is the reason why he's lived in other countries for most of his life.

Write who you are. The truth may not set you free but it certainly will give power to your art. Leaving Baghdad will be screened at the Raindance Festival this October. Go watch.

This summer I read American Gods, Neil Gaiman's most lauded title.

I was struck by this passage from the new introduction to celebrate its 10th anniversary:

I remember when it was all done in first draft telling Gene Wolfe, who is the wisest writer I know and has written more excellent novels than any man I've met, that I thought I had now learned how to write a novel. Gene looked at me and smiled kindly. 'You never learn how to write a novel,' he told me. 'You only learn to write the novel you're on.'

I would add: in learning to write the novel you're on, it is very possible that you will also find out who you are.

Does writing affect one's love of reading? I have to admit that writing novels has definitely spoiled some of the joy of reading for me ... have the mechanics of writing made me lose my ability to "live the book"? What a tragedy. My love for reading was what made me want to become a writer in the first place. But maybe there's an antidote ... read my latest post on Notes from the Slushpile

I also blog on the brand new DFB StoryBlog - which features authors and illustrators (some of them extremely famous) of my lovely publisher David Fickling Books. Check us out!

What I did on my summer staycation

2011-09-04T18:11:00.002+01:00

Well it's back to school for us here in the UK - and I'm sure school children all over the country are gearing up to write the traditional school essay - What I Did On My Summer Holiday (or vacation as they say in other parts).

Well here's a quick whip through my summer holidays!

I've read The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman and Her Fearful Symmetry by Audrey Niffeneger, both set in historic Highgate Cemetery. It's just walking distance from my home and yet I'd never been there so one summer weekend, I marched He Who Likes Rugby and One and Only Daughter to do the cemetery tour.

Scenes from The Graveyard Book!

A sleeping lion marks the tomb of an Englishman from the Victorian era who assembled a menagery of wild animals that he toured the countryside with

It was incredibly atmospheric. Cemetery buffs, this is the tour for you.

Later, we spent some time in the city of Portsmouth which is a harbour on England's south coast.

A city with a beach!

I love wandering around Portsmouth harbour - in the background, you can see a ferry chugging across the sea, and one of the gun emplacements that dot the harbour. I was standing by the seawall when a massive ferry suddenly loomed from round a corner. It looked like a moving city stacked on different levels - and I suddenly thought, this must be where Philip Reeve got the idea for his traction cities in his amazing quartet Mortal Engines

We decided to try out the open air swimming pool at Arundel - I love that the magnificent castle towers even over the most banal places - like the swimming pool carpark

We went for a walk along the river at Arundel and there were all these boats moored along the shore, each with their own front door!

Being a very disorganized family, we suddenly realized we hadn't book accommodation anywhere for a holiday. So we rented a motorhome! It helped that Son Number One was in Ghana building libraries with Thrive Africa! and Son Number Two was in the Philippines, counting fish.

The campervan slept three and had neat things like folding taps, a folding loo and a folding shower (!!!). It was surprisingly comfortable.

We visited the Peak District. Yes, it's that gorgeous.

We woke up one morning, threw open the doors and there in the field was a mass of ducks. I didn't manage to get a shot of the ducks but this is the back bit of the motorhome one late morning.

We skirted the Yorkshire moors which were magnificently purple with heather (read The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett!)

We went to the beautiful city of Newcastle and I attended a talk by illustrator/author Shaun Tan - who has not only won an Oscar for his short film The Lost Thing but many awards for his wordless novel The Arrival

And here's my trophy picture with Shaun Tan! Woo hoo!

We found a seaside town that was losing its land to the ocean (read White Crow by Marcus Sedgwick)

We saw lots of scenes like this ...

... and this ...

To take a break from sleeping in fields, we stayed one night at this swanky caravan park in Seahouses (yes, that's what the town is called) with a pool and spa and this Filipino nipa hut. We asked the staff where they got it but nobody could tell us ...

At the seaside town of Alnmouth, we found this fairy post box as we made our way to the beach!

And Son Number One turned up - with a backpack of rather aromatic and paint spattered laundry from Ghana plus bags of plantain chips!

Then we motored up to Edinburgh to catch the tail end of the Edinburgh Festival - this was what the Royal Mile looked like. It had stages and singers and massive crowds! On on our first day, we arrived at 4pm and managed to watch two comedy acts before the night was through.

It's one of the biggest festivals in the world - arts, theatre, books - but we were aiming for the Comedy Fringe - which has grown bigger than the festival itself. There were a lot of strange sights on the street such as this street performer ...

Where's Wally? (or if you're in America, Where's Waldo?)

We saw this moving statue working the street every single day we were there.

Son Number One and Only daughter, cavorting in front of the poster splattered walls of Edinburgh

Did I mention what a beautiful city Edinburgh is? If maybe a little bit wintry for a summer holiday

Edinburgh by night

Edinburgh was an amazing experience - we only stayed three days. We didn't know what to see - there were HUNDREDS of acts going on hour after hour - eventually we based our decisions on the charm of the people handing out flyers about acts ... and yet every single performance we saw was terrific!

We saw two improv groups that improvised entire musicals before your very eyes: Baby Wants Candy and Showstopper; we saw comedy sketches by News Review and the brilliant Cambridge Footlights (it felt ilke we were watching the comedy stars of the future); we saw a Flanders and Swann tribute act and the spectacular acapella group Out of the Blue (who look like something out of History Boys); and a hugely entertaining, kind of rude Glee by Canadian cabaret performer Sharron Matthews.

Baby Wants Candy - a screenshot of them performing Sarah Palin The Musical - for the first and last time! The one they did for us was Steve Irwin The Musical. It was astonishing - a musical in sixty minutes! They made me feel ashamed of how long it's taken me to write my second novel!

When we returned to London, Son Number Two was back from the Philippines with tales of swimming with whales and giant turtles. He brought me back a Philippine sunset!

Leyte sunset. Photo by Jack Gourlay

At that stage, Daughter and I had had enough of sleeping in the motorhome in strange locations every night. But realizing that there were still three days left to our rental, the men in the family drove off for a day and half of surfing in North Devon!

It was what the British call a Staycation ... because we (well the parents anyway) didn't fly anywhere.

But oh what a beautiful country this is.

What other authors did on their summer vacations (will add to this when I find 'em):

Keren David hilariously tries to write against holiday odds

Summer tales

2011-08-21T21:42:00.005+01:00

It's the summer holidays but I seem to be doing a lot of guest blogging! Come along and see what I'm wittering on about on other people's blogs!

My publisher David Fickling Books has decided to recruit their authors to post on their StoryBlog and I foolishly volunteered to go first! DFB, having just launched I Don't Believe It Archie! by Andrew Norris, asked us to write about something embarrassing.

So here's a piece called Why Candy Gourlay is Not Ready for her Close Up - about appearing on TV.

Why Candy Gourlay is Not Ready for her Close Up on the DFB Blog. Photo by he who likes rugby

I also guested on my friend Kath Langrish's blog Seven Miles of Steel Thistles (Kath of course is the author of many fantasy novels including Troll Fell).

Katherine Langrish author of the Troll Fell books and Shadow Hunt. Photo by Helen Giles

She asked me to reflect on Fairy Tales in the Philippines - which was interesting to me because, growing up in the Philippines where most books were imported from America or the UK, I considered everything I read fairy tales. Read my blog post here.

I decided that the closest thing to a fairy tale was the Philippine penchant to make up legends and I thought the best way to reflect on this subject was to do my own re-telling of one Filipino "fairy tale" ... so here is my video re-telling of The Legend of the Pineapple, an old Filipino story.

I made the video with the help of my young neighbours, Christiane and Jacob (Jacob very kindly agreed to be the voice of a little girl as long as I used his drawing of a jet plane - watch out for it!):

The Legend of the Pineapple from Candy Gourlay on Vimeo.

On Wednesday, 24 August, I'm guesting on Canadian author Jan Markley's blog - Three Dead Moths in My Mailbox (realizing now that my author friends have cornered the market in interesting blog names). I'll be talking about my myth-making in Tall Story. Do drop in and say hi. Here's the link.

I'm blogging at my friend Jan Markley's blog. She's the author of Dead Frog on the Porch which has been described as "Nancy Drew for the ipod generation"

Meanwhile, my lovely friend Sarah McIntyre's new book is finally out! Do rush out and buy lots of copies for the sake of starving illustrators everywhere!

You Can't Scare a princess by Gillian Rogerson and Sarah McIntyre

At the beginning of the warm weather, Sarah and I drove up the motorway to visit our favourite author Geraldine McCaughrean (we can do that because we appeared in the Hay Festival on the same panel ... still I was kinda awed).

Here's Geraldine bringing out the Bread and Butter Pudding. Photo by Sarah McIntyre

We loved the wendy house in Geraldine's garden ...

Sarah in the wendy house

It had a horse's head!

Photo by Sarah McIntyre

At the end of our visit, Geraldine turned round and said, "Now, anyone want some books?"

Well, duh!

I very politely requested Vainglory (one of Geraldine's adult books which is hard to find in a bookstore - mainly because Sarah said I just had to read it before I read any other adult books by Geraldine) ... though deep down inside I wanted to have ALL the books on the impressive book case of books she'd written.

Before I say goodbye for now, let me leave you with this photograph of a field near Geraldine's house. It looked like there was a highway to the sky in the wheat!

It probably won't be summer anymore when I blog again. So till then ... have a glorious rest of the holidays!

Pressing SEND. Winning while not winning. Illusions at the Pop Up Festival.

2011-07-17T23:51:00.016+01:00

Today | Pop Up Festival | UKLA Book Prize | UKLA Shortlists

Today

I pressed SEND today. The manuscript of my second novel is now officially in the hands of my publisher. In the nick of time because Amazon's already got it listed! Even my lovely cover illustrator David Dean - who'd only just shown me draughts of the cover - was surprised!

David Dean actually paints the cover by hand. Cool or what?

I've been offline for most of last week, labouring over the manuscript, neglecting ironing, blog and family (not necessarily in that order). So this is a bit of a catch up - but what an exciting catch up!

Last Sunday the 10th

The week began with an appearance at the amazing Pop Up Festival, organized by the indefatigable Dylan Calder. (Yes, it's another appearance - the first one was a session with kids from the City of London Academy at the Foundling Museum - read my account here.)

This was the Pop Up Festival Finale after weeks of bringing authors and children together in sessions with authors in diverse locations like the Foundling Museum, the British Museum, the Sir John Sloane Museum, the British Library ... and many more.

The festival culminated in a two day extravaganza at Coram Fields where big name authors curated various tents filled with surprises for story loving children ...

On the day I went, there was a giant igloo for nursery rhyme singing children curated by author illustrator Karin Littlewood ...

These children painted a massive mural at the tent of former children's laureate Michael Rosen ...

Painting at Michael Rosen's tent

My favourite author Geraldine McCaughrean had a story building tent full of actors (see pictures on Geraldine's blog) ...

Geraldine associating with the enemy, bearded Mr Ardagh who curated the next door tent

And I was one of the authors featured in the House of Illusions curated by hilarious bearded author Philip Ardagh ...

Philip is very, very tall as you can see in this photo with me (left) and Catherine Johnson (right) who curated a tent the day before themed after her Victorian novel, A Nest of Vipers

Or is he?

Things were not quite what they seemed at Philip Ardagh's House of Illusions!

The Human Topiary was another story entirely!

Here are more photos of the Pop Up Festival!

Back to the top

Here's a post by my friend Sarah McIntyre about her Pop Up event

James Mayhew's post about the festival (and a giant pop up book!)

My Pop Up event at the Foundling Museum

Geraldine McCaughrean's post about her Mythic tent

Kerry Lemon's blog about creating decorations for the festival

Friday the 15th

A few days later I found myself up north in Chester, as one of the shortlisted authors for the UKLA Children's Book Awards.

Random House put me up at the Queen Hotel in Chester. At the gardens of the hotel, I thought I'd stumbled upon the White Witch's garden in Narnia, with all the fairy folk turned into statues ...

But I couldn't find Mr Tumnus ...

The UKLA awards are relatively young compared to other national book prizes - but folks, this is the one chosen by TEACHERS and other people passionate about reading.

UKLA Audience! The well stocked bookshop was run by Marilyn Borcklehurst of the Norfolk Children's Book Centre (I had no idea bookshops could travel so far afield). I bought far too many books.

Lynda Graham, convenor of the Awards committee

What was incredibly moving and fabulous about the prize evening was that each shortlisted book was honoured with a touching presentation by teachers who participated in the awards process.

Screenshot of Award criteria which made me feel very unworthy indeed.

As I was listening to teachers and librarians warmly celebrating each book in the shortlist, I found myself thinking back to every teacher and librarian who inspired me to become a reader.

Anyone who was mentored by a teacher or librarian into a love of reading would have been touched - here's my own story of being a librarian's pet

I recently found out that there are such things as Librarian Action Figures (with powerful shushing action). Woo hoo!

(I tried to take notes on my mobile phone but stopped when I realized that it looked like I was sending text messages! I hope someone managed to take notes - the presentations were eloquent, heart-felt and so inspiring. )

But wait! Who should turn out to be on the shortlist as well but Jason Wallace - whose book Out of the Shadows won the Branford Boase (see my report) and various other prizes. And sure enough, Jason (heretofore known as Darn Jason) won the UKLA for my category, the 12-16 shortlist. Congratulations, darn it!

Ellie Sandal won the 3-11 category for her book, Birdsong. Later, teachers performed the picture book text for the audience. I took a video of the performance but decided not to post it after being threatened with detention by one of the performers.

Here is my fellow shortlistee Keren David with literacy luminaries (alliteration!) Joy Court and Jaki Moody, who is holding Keren's book When I Was Joe

I really wanted a pic of the literacy luminaries holding my book but I didn't get the shot. So I thought I'd save time by photoshopping Tall Story into Jaki's hand

After winners were announced, a group of Year 10 students stepped forward to praise the winning novel.

The six authors who attended the awards pose with the young people who helped with the UKLA presentation. At far left is Ellie, I'm in the middle (because the middle is the best place to look thinnest in a photo), just behind me is Darn Jason and next to him, lovely Chris Wormell whose brilliant book One Smart Fish was on the younger shortlist. Then there's Keren David holding up her book. And the person trying not to be in the picture at far right is Theresa Breslin who wrote Prisoner of the Inquisition which was shortlisted for the Carnegie.

After the event, I had dinner with Keren, Theresa and Keren's editor at Frances Lincoln, Emily Sharratt. Emily actually went on holiday to the Philippines after reading my short story How to Build the Perfect Sand Castle, for the anthology Under the Weather, published by Frances Lincoln.

(Filipino readers of this blog will be pleased to know that Emily thought it was the best holiday she'd ever had! See, I'm doing my part for Philippine tourism!)

I was thrilled to find out that Theresa's Prisoner of the Inquisition won the Shadow Carnegie - voted for by schools (the Carnegie itself is chosen by librarians).

Teresa Breslin's brilliant book

I was just so tickled - it just goes to show how amazing young readers are - who says historical fiction is beyond the grasp of today's young people? Well done, guys! (I'm reading it at the moment - and it's fantastic - if you want to read historical fiction that fizzes, this is it!)

And THAT, dear readers was my week.

I appeared in a festival with a human topiary and a bearded man, felt like a winner at the UKLA prize even if Darn Jason won, and finished writing my second novel, SHINE.

Back to the top

The UKLA Children's Book Award

Shortlist 12-16

Theresa Breslin: Prisoner of the Inquisition (Random House: Doubleday)
Gillian Cross: Where I Belong (Oxford)
Keren David: When I was Joe (Frances Lincoln)
Candy Gourlay: Tall Story (Random House: David Fickling)
Alan Temperley: Scar Hill (Luath)
Jason Wallace: Out of Shadows (Andersen) winner

Shortlist 3-11

Libby Gleeson, illustrator Freya Blackwood: Clancy &; Milly and the Very fine House (Little Hare)
Ally Kennen: Sparks (Marion Lloyd Books)
Philip Reeve: No Such Thing as Dragons (Scholastic)
Ellie Sandall: Birdsong (Egmont) winner
Eleanor Updale: Johnny Swanson (Random House: David Fickling)
Chris Wormell: One Smart Fish (Random House: Jonathan Cape)

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Creating a Legend in Your Own Time

2011-07-10T16:00:00.161+01:00

This was my contribution to the Awfully Big Blog Adventure Online Festival! I was the 4pm act!

Visit the Tall Story website
Art by Sarah McIntyre

In my novel Tall Story, I sewed in myths and legends from the Philippines and elsewhere to add magic to the story of Bernardo, a boy who is eight feet tall.

In the Philippines where I was born, legends were a way of ordinary people explaining the often unexplainable forces of nature around them - the volcanoes, earthquakes, the strange shapes of mountains, caves, the existence of plants and other creatures.

A lot of Filipino folk stories are handed down in the oral tradition - grown ups telling children stories, and the children growing up to tell the stories to their own children.

And every time a story is told, the teller adds his own spin to the story, so the story is always changing. It's a very exciting process!

In the video, I tell The Legend of the Bellybutton - as imagined by me and a group of children at the Hay Literary Festival after a hilarious brainstorming session.

Photo by Another Sergio
(Creative Commons Attribution)

It was just one of many legends we made up in that hour we spent together. We had great fun - we must have written 20 legends in one hour!

It's easy! And it's so much fun!

1st Choose something to make a legend about. It can be anything at all!

eg. The Legend of the Nose

Thanks to Jon-Eric Melsæter on Flickr
(Creative Commons Attribution)

2nd Decide how things used to be.

eg. People didn't have Noses. So they couldn't smell anything. So they didn't enjoy eating because they couldn't smell food. And they thought flowers were boring because they couldn't smell how lovely they were. And they themselves smelled bad because they couldn't smell themselves.

People became very grumpy

3rd Something happens to bring your something about!

eg. Someone tripped and grew a bump on their face. Then tripped again and got holes in the bump. And then discovered that they could smell food and flowers (they also began to wash). And everyone became so jealous they went out and accidentally on purpose tripped over too!

And that is why we have noses!

Thanks to Bazusa on Flickr (Creative Commons Attribution)

If you're a teacher or a librarian and you fancy creating legends with your own posse of children, check out my Legend in Your Own Time download on my website!

Thank you!

Other downloads you might enjoy:

Discussion Guide for Classrooms and Book Clubs

Fact File About Gigantism

So Many Armpits Poster

Cool Teacher's Guide for Children's Book Week

Branford Boase Awards Night

2011-07-07T10:31:00.014+01:00

The handsome Jason Wallace and his editor Charlie Sheppard won the Branford Boase 2011 last night for their book Out of the Shadows (Andersen Press).

At the photoshoot - Charlie (left) and Damian pose with the prize's sponsor
Jacqueline Wilson

Yeah, I know, I didn't win - but please don't send commiserations - I'm just so proud to be on that strong, strong shortlist! The only reason I'm a little bit sad is that my editor, Bella Pearson, was ill and couldn't be there ... get well soon, Bella! Here's a picture of David Tennant to cheer you up:

And here are the shortlistees of the Branford Boase on the night!

Hubby took this shot of us posing for the group photo - from left: Pat Walsh, Imogen Cooper (slightly behind), Charlie Sheppard, Maurice Lyon (behind), Jacqueline Wilson, Keren David (totally obscured), Jason Wallace, Damian Kelleher, me, Simon Mason (partially hidden), Beverley Birch (trying to be hidden) and JP Buxton.

I was pleased to meet my new editor Simon Mason, who is covering for Bella and will be editing my new novel. I just read Simon's brilliant new novel Moon Pie - loved it so much, I reviewed it on Amazon!

The other truly big winners of the night were the children who won the Henrietta Branford writing prize. Here's Peter Wollweber whose entry was based on the Culloden Massacre. Well done, Peter!

I thought these two girls were best of friends but it turns out they only met on the night. Lucy Parkinson (left) and Anna Wren - who came from Edinburgh on the 5.10am bus and was planning to get back on the red-eye 11pm to 8am bus so that she could watch a movie with her sister the following morning.

Someday, I imagine these young people will themselves be on the Branford Boase shortlist and I will totter up to them with my walking stick and say, "I signed a book for you once! Now you've got to do it for me!"

After the event, Simon and Philippa Dickinson, MD of Random House Children's Books, took me and my husband out to dinner and lots of conversation about flying (Philippa flies planes!!! I suppose if you could run a massive publishing company, flying planes is easy).

What was Sarah McIntyre of Verne and Lettuce fame doing there? Where does that woman get the energy to gatecrash these things? On the left is John McLay who runs the Bath Children's Festival

I'm sneaking in this blog when I'm supposed to be hard at work finishing my second novel (deadline next week) - because this is a shortlist I really wanted to be on - you can only be a debut author once and therefore on the Branford Boase list once.

... and who should be there but Book Witch Ann Giles and her trusty
photographer Helen Witch! (this photo is my revenge for all the ones
they keep posting of me on the Book Witch blog!

Writing friends Keren David (left) and Pat Walsh (right) with Pat's editor Imogen Cooper, who won the prize last year.

I took a few pictures, as usual, but I thought the story of the evening would be best told in the words of judge Lucy Christopher, last year's winner.

Nicked this photo of Lucy from her website - resisted using the one of her with llamas which appears on the Google search.

Lucy was in transit to the Prime Minister's Literary Awards in Australia for which her second novel Flyaway is shortlisted but she sent this speech, read by Damian Kelleher (who said he was tempted to do it in Lucy's Aussie accent - but could only manage Irish or Johnny Vegas - personally I think it would have added that special something to the evening if he read it in Johnny Vegas' voice).

I am grateful to Damian for very kindly allowing me to steal Lucy's speech from him for this blog post.

Me schmoozing Damian into giving me Lucy's speech

Lucy said winning the BB last year for Stolen was 'one of the most thrilling , exciting and rewarding moments of my life'. She pointed out how the award 'celebrates new talent and catapults it onto the world stage to celebrate with the big guys ... it helps create big guys too.'

What's also really special about this award is its recognition of the author-editor relationship. Writing a novel is a collaborative process. Authors may be able to think about and create all sorts of vivivd and chaotic worlds and characters but they need editors to help organise, trim and perfect them. Authors need editors in the same way crazy people need therapists. Imagine if Margaret Mitchell's editor hadn't talked her into changing Pansy O'Hara's name to Scarlett? Imagine if I still had a talking swan in my second novel, Flyaway?

A display of the longlisted titles. Where's Tall Story?

A display of the shortlist. At the end of the evening, Anne Marley hilariously named and shamed bearded author Philip Ardagh for trying to steal last year's display.

Is this a face you can trust?

Lucy quoted E.L.Doctorow - "writing is like driving at night in the fog. You can only see as far as your headlights. but you can make the whole trip that way." - a good editor is the person brave enough to be in that car with you, the one holding the road map.

The judging process was fun but highly rigorous, Lucy said:

The longlist was of high quality in itself but I think no one in this room will disagree when I say that the quality of this year's shortlist was truly exceptional. Not only the entire judging committee has remarked on this, but indeed the wider writing community - this year's shortlist could well be the strongest shortlist in Branford Boase history. At our final judging meeting, I even heard Julia Eccleshare remark that 'any of these books could be a worth winner!'

Here's what she said about each title:

By JP Buxton. Edited by Beverley Birch

We adored the evocative and skilfully created world with JP Buxton's I Am The Blade. Tog is a loveable and vividly realized character and the plotting and twists in his narrative were strong, surprising and entirely believable. It was refreshing and encouraging to see a new take on this important archetypal story.

By Keren David, Edited by Maurice Lyon

When I Was Joe by Keren David jumped up and hit us in the face, keeping us grabbed from the first moment, also keeping many of the judging committee up all hours until they finished it. Joe is a hugely realistic and identifiable teenage boy and it is easy to imagine how much teenage boys in particular would enjoy and respond to this important book.

Tall Story by Candy Gourlay. Edited by Bella Pearson

Tall Story by Candy Gourlay made us laugh and cry, often both at the same time. Its taut and emotive writing revealed so much about the importance of family and connection. This irresistible book is unique, charming and hugely enjoyable.

By Gregory Hughes. Edited by Roisin Heycock

Unhooking the Moon by Gregory Hughes is a masterpiece in gutsy, original writing. This is brave and unique YA fiction at its best, with an important message about the value of siblings, and with a flavour of Huckleberry Finn thrown in for good measure.

By Jason Wallace. Edited by Charlie Sheppard
WINNER

Jason Wallace's Out of Shadows takes us to the scary, vivid and emotional world of a 1980s Zimbabwean boarding school. The setting of this novel is extraordinary, realised in sense and sound and smell with terrifying emotional accuracy. It's an important and mind-changing book.

By Pat Walsh. Edited by Imogen Cooper

Pat Walsh's The Crowfield Curse also takes us to a vividly and emotionally realised world, and introduces us to one of the best new characters in modern young people's fiction: Brother Walter, the hob. The Crowfield Curse is beautifully written, with an extraordinary attention to detail that never feels flawed or forced.

The key sponsor of the Branford Boase is every children's writer's idol Dame Jacqueline Wilson - and here's my trophy photo with our national treasure!

Now I've got to go to work and try to stop musing on my lovely evening.

Leaving you with this slideshow of the shots I managed - I'm sure Helen over at Book Witch will have better ones (her camera was so cool).

Anne Marley

Added later:

Book Witch's report mentions the most hilarious Freudian slip of the night - Anne Marley, Branford Boase adminstrator, recalled that the WIFE of Never Letting Go by Patrick Ness was shortlisted for the Branford Boase before it made the Carnegie! She also noticed Dame Jackie's nebula outfit ... such an observant woman.

I also should mention that bookselling was achieved that night by the good people from the Newham Bookshop

Photos by me and he who likes Rugby a lot

Popping Up at the Foundling Museum: thinking about left behind children

2011-06-15T19:13:00.018+01:00

A still from Coram Boy, as played on Broadway. More pics here

I read Coram Boy by Jamila Gavin many years ago: the story of an age when single motherhood and children born out of wedlock created such a stigma that abandoned babies were a common feature of the London streets. More about Coram Boy in this Reading Matters review.

Thomas Coram, a retired ship captain, was so upset by the sight of uncared for children that he spent his lifetime trying to find a way to rescue them.

The result was the Foundling Hospital, built in 1739. Read a quick history

Being of a very soft, indeed, mushy disposition, I was slightly apprehensive coming to the Foundling Museum for my event for the Pop Up Festival of Stories.

I had found the play version of Coram Boy utterly heartbreaking.

There's a scene with a forest of trees and a howling begins. And the light changes and one by one the trees are revealed as mothers crying for their lost babies. I took some fairly edgy teenagers along to watch the play and when the lights came up there was not a dry-eyed teenager in my row.

A row of school shirts greets you at the entrance to the main exhibit. I was ready to howl right there.

I was supposed to give a talk to a group of Year Six children from City of London Academy and I was slightly concerned that my usual Tall Story presentation about volcanoes and giants did not connect too well with the setting.

Luckily, I arrived early enough to wander around the exhibition before the children came.

Gulp! A nightie worn by one of the babies who lived in the Foundling Hospital

Love tokens that were left by mothers with their babies.
Although many of these were kept in archives it was
hospital policy not to show them to the children in
order to preserve the mother's anonymity.

I thought I would find nothing in Tall Story to connect with the exhibition - but I'd forgotten that my main character was himself a left behind child.

My eight foot tall character, Bernardo,
is a left behind child! How could I forget that?
Art by Sarah McIntyre

Bernardo's mother takes a job as a nurse in England thinking she can easily send for him later. But it takes sixteen years of bungled paperwork to get his visa.

Annette McCartney, learning and access manager of the Museum, was on her feet for three hours taking the children around the museum

How could I forget that much of my journalism here in England has been about Filipino migrant workers - women who leave their children behind in the Philippines for the sake of a better wage abroad as cleaners, maids, and other menial professions?

I had also completely forgotten that I'd written and presented a Radio 4 documentary five years ago titled 'Motherless Nation' - about the children left behind by the migration phenomenon in the Philippines.

The children's solemn faces reflect how how heart-rending some of the stories were.

So when it came time to talk to the children, I skimmed through my usual talk and delved into my memory banks for the stories of very real people that I'd met ...

... about the mother who, on the night before she left to work in Hong Kong, pinned up homework schedules for her children

... about the families who only ever saw each other via Skype, and how the little ones hugged the computer screens as if they were hugging their mums

... about the cleaner who regularly shipped groceries from London to her kids in Manila - because when she shopped for groceries, it felt like she was really mothering them.

The Court Room - this is where the hospital Governors decided which babies to take and which to reject. When the old hospital was demolished this room was preserved and then rebuilt in the building where the museum is now housed. Many of the works of art were donated by wealthy patrons.

The Court Room., The Foundling Hospital

Using real case archives, children re-enact a selection scene. The rest of the class play the governors and must choose which baby to accept knowing that the baby rejected is likely to die.

This boy (in tricorn) is playing the widowed father of a six week old baby
with other young children at home.

Later, they learn that the foundlings had to do their own laundry using
huge bars of smelly carbolic soap. Here, a boy smells a sample of the soap.

The foundlings rubbed dirty clothes against
these washing boards. The school children
run knuckles over the board to see how it feels.

This boy tries out a washing dolly which
children manipulated in large tubs of
washing.

One of the shocking facts that Annette revealed was that
wealthy ladies used to pay to watch the drama of governors
interviewing the unfortunate mothers. They also
took their children to watch the foundlings
eat their meals (which were conducted in total silence).
Sounds barbaric but doesn't it sound like X Factor-type entertainment?

A list of Foundling names. The children were renamed by the governors as soon as they were accepted into the hospital.

Sometimes they ran out of ideas, as in the case of Sam Foundling.

Sometimes they were feeling creative (and rather cruel), as in the case of Hopegood Helpless

Illustrations by hospital patron William Hogarth reveal the terrible conditions of the time, magnifying lenses on the display emphasize the plight of children.

Maria Connolly, Development Manager of the Pop Up Festival of Stories came along for the event. She also volunteers at the Foundling Museum. Maria helped transcribe the interviews for Foundling Voices.

There was a new exhibition documenting the stories of foundlings, now very old, in recordings. I didn't have time to explore this bit of the museum and was pleased to discover there was a website devoted to the recordings - Foundling Voices Online.

I was struck by the story of Ruth, sent to a foundling hospital as a five year old in 1942, who recalls fantasizing about mothers:

As children we always played out this game of who our mothers were and they were always beautiful, important . . . they weren't ever ordinary people. Listen to Ruth's story

This was an evocative, sometimes painful, visit to times long gone by.

But much of it still resonated with me. That was London of the 1800s, but children are still being left behind all over the world - children of immigration, of refugees, children in all kinds of situations.

I hope there are still Thomas Corams in the world to rescue them.

Thank you to Annette McCartney and her helpers at the Foundling Museum, Maria Connolly and the organizers of the Pop Up Festival of Stories, and the librarian, teachers and children of City of London Academy for such a lovely and thoughtful day!

Here is a slideshow of my photos :

If you can't see the slideshow, view it here

Jose Rizal: Philippine hero, picture book writer

2011-06-07T18:39:00.013+01:00

Jose Rizal, Filipino martyr

Yesterday at Chalk Farm Library, I was the speaker on a subject that was most unusual - how colonialism, calamity and environment impacted storytelling for children in my native Philippines.

Plus I had to tie the whole thing in with the work of Filipino hero Jose Rizal - we're celebrating Philippine Independence from Spain this week.

Heavy? Not too bad but I had to make sure I really did my homework.

My pal Lou Ramos, cultural officer at the Philippine Embassy, came up with the idea for the event and I always find it hard to say no to Lou.

I was expecting an all-Filipino audience and not very many people.

Instead, it was possibly the most diverse audience I've ever had - with plenty of people from the Filipino community, Primrose Hill locals, Friends of the Chalk Farm Library, a big gun from the British Museum, and direct descendants of Philippine heroes ... uh oh!

So these are Jose Rizal's direct descendants. How would YOU feel if you were about to give a talk about someone really important and it turned out the audience was crawling with his DNA? Sarri Tapales and son were very kind to attend.

Chalk Farm Library's Nick Durant, Lou and on the right, Brenda Stones of the Friends of Chalk Farm Library

I was dismayed to find out that this beautiful library in the midst of Primrose Hill is scheduled for closure in the coming week. What??????? Please show your support by liking Friends of Chalk Farm Library on Facebook!

I did a little video spot decrying the closure of the library

Rey Catapang, deputy head of mission at the Embassy, introduced Rizal and then me. You can see the apprehension on my face. What if nobody believes what I have to say?

I was quite taken aback by the turn-out. Had dinner later with Angel Arrando, second from left in black shirt, who told us about how as five year old in the second World War he was interned in San Augustin Church and also how as a teenager, he and a bunch of other boys met Emilio Aguinaldo

Here I am trying to sound credible

Because of the diversity of the audience, I had to start with a potted history of the Philippines:

Bunch of islands (7,107), 175 languages. Along comes Spain. Wham bang. We were a country. Three hundred years of Spanish Rule. Revolution. Then 50 Years of Hollywood after the Americans decide they need a colony ostensibly to Christianize Filipinos (though we'd been hardcore Catholics for 300 years).

Then I talked about the sorts of books I read as a child growing up in the Philippines. A child who had fallen in love with reading.

Me (left) as a short person and my sister, Joy

Typical reading matter for children of my generation. When I showed this, the Filipinos my age in the audience waxed nostalgic about Dick and Jane.

While I LOVED the stories that I read, they were populated by blonde blue-eyed happy children who did not resemble me.

Most stories for children in the Philippines belong to an oral tradition - stories handed down by mothers, fathers, nannies and grandparents.

The first time I encountered written-down Filipino literature was in school.

Much of written-down Filipino fiction was epic, lyrical and difficult originally written for adults, and usually translated to the majority dialect Tagalog from one of our 175 languages. Growing a written-down literature is problematic, with so many languages ... certainly for a child like me, whose original native language was not Tagalog, the school texts were unloveable and painful.

FYI: Oddly enough the one unifying language was a colonially imposed one: English. Upon the arrival of the Americans, schools across our islands were conducted in a combination of indigenous languages and English. Later Tagalog was required in schools as well, to the disgruntlement of speakers of other languages. But it did help improve literacy across the board. Today, a version of Tagalog has been recreated and taught as a national language - called Pilipino.

Sixteenth century epic hero Lam-ang (with thanks to the Clark Monding blog for the image). Lam-ang looks hunky and exciting but studying him, in difficult Tagalog (translated from Ilocano!) was another matter. I'm sure the best I got was a C-.

It was only with the publication of the magazine Liwayway (in the majority language Tagalog) in the 1920s that fiction aimed at children began to emerge.

A 1930s cover from Liwayway. Note the Norman Rockwell style adopted by Tony Vasquez, the illustrator. The magazine took its inspiration from the Saturday Evening Post

What was brilliant about Liwayway was that it published comics (known as komiks in the Philippines) and short story series (Mga Kuwento ni Lola Basyang - The Tales of Grandmother Basyang), that launched the beginnings of published children's fiction in the Philippines.

The cartoon character Kenkoy from the1930s continues to appear in Filipino cinema, comics and short fiction.

Komiks blazed the trail for publishing truly targeted at children.

Today, the proliferation of publishers producing picture books and short fiction for children continue to contend with issues of language and distribution.

Though the marketplace is awash with expensive imported Harry Potters and Twilights from the West, I take comfort in the thought that these today only occupy part of the menu for young readers in the Philippines.

Filipino edition of Tall Story,
Cacho Publishing

It was so important to me that when Tall Story was published, I excluded the Philippine rights so that a Filipino edition could be published by a Filipino publisher.

I know that for the great majority of Filipinos, books are a luxury. Even though the imported US hardback is now available in Manila book stores - I am so happy that readers have the option of an affordable local version.

It is still the same English but with some Pinoy words added in - and it's got illustrations! (available in Power Books and National Book Store)

During the event, I also described how calamity tends to influence storytelling in those parts of the world that sit on the Ring of Fire and how I used these folkloric elements to bring a Filipino sensibility to Tall Story.

Which brings us to Jose Rizal whose writings were influenced not by natural calamity but by political calamity.

Jose Rizal was no brawny revolutionary. But it is a tribute to the power of books that he is commemorated as a hero of the Philippine Revolution against Spain.

His novel Noli Me Tangere (Touch Me Not) and its sequel El Filibusterismo (The Filibuster) sparked off the revolution that led to the end of Spanish colonial rule in the Philippines.

During his travels, he contributed a Filipino fable to a London magazine - The Monkey and The Turtle. It's one of the few examples of Rizal's writing in English.

And it was an animal trickster story!

Funnily enough I wrote a small anthology of animal trickster stories for Oxford University Press's Treetops series last year.

Rizal's simple tale - of how a lumbering turtle outwits a far stronger and more agile animal - resonates with outrage against the abuses of the Spanish colonial regime.

Rizal sketched out illustrations for his book in a now lost guest book that belonged to a family friend. It would have been the Philippines' first picture book!

I ended the evening with a reading of the Monkey and the Turtle.

It may have been written in the 1880s, but in cadence, page turns and economy of language, it's a perfect picture book.

Thank you to the Philippine Embassy, Chalk Farm Library and the lovely audience who turned up for my talk!

I'm an Artist, Let me Into the Green Room: Hay Festival Photos!

2011-06-02T15:18:00.011+01:00

I'm back from the Hay Festival and I survived! Just.

I'm not usually nervous about author appearances but I was nervous about the Hay Festival where I was appearing on a panel with Geraldine McCaughrean (above, right), with my pal, illustrator Sarah McIntyre (above, middle) moderating (as if there was a risk of us suddenly jumping at each other's throats).

(In fact, Sarah beat me to the blogging draw and has posted lots of cool photos from Hay - check out her blog for details of how she totally got in with Camilla Parker Bowles!)

Here's how Sarah does it (that's lovely Anne Cottringer, author of When Titus Took the Train, which Sarah illustrated)

When we arrived it was a bit rainy and the deck chairs were forlorn on the grass

The day after was gloriously sunny!

Warm enough to need a refilling station!

It was my very first time at Hay and I was such a beginner - I booked £38 worth of tickets only to find that performers and their groupies got free tickets to events! Don't worry, the Box Office refunded my tickets, no questions asked (thank you, Box Office!).

It didn't help that I was so busy, I failed to read the information the Hay Office sent. I arrived without knowing where to park, where to go, what to do.

My minders, Random House publicists Kelly Tapper and Louise Vallant laughed and said all I had to do was say "I'm an artist" ... and I'd get parking, coffee, tickets and what have you. And they were right!

My daughter Mia at the car park entrance to the Green Room ... perhaps now I've convinced her that deep down, under all the embarrassing clothing, I'm cool.

Welcome to the Green Room!

Attached to the Green Room was this beehive of activity - with signs everywhere giving everyone # tags for tweeting. Everywhere, there were small groups of people who sounded like they were brainstorming the script of a new film.

The problem of course is, once one gets into the swing of declaring "I'm an artist!" it's very hard to stop. My husband wasn't amused when I couldn't be bothered to pass the salt. I'm an artist!

Random House put us up in a hotel in Crickhowell, 45 minutes drive from Hay-on-Wye (45 minutes too far, you say? No problem! One of the festival sponsors is Land Rover and artists get shuttled to and fro in luxury, easy peasy).

Random House likes to fatten up its authors before performances - at the dinner were publicists Kelly Tapper and Louise Vallant and that there on the right is uber award winning illustrator Mini Grey.

Imagine ME hanging out with Jonathan Stroud (Bartimaeus), Mini Grey(Biscuit Bear) and the Etherington Brothers (Monkey Nuts)!!! What's that you say? Oh yes! I'm an artist!>

Clowning around with Jonathan Stroud (left) and Robin Etherington (right)

The following morning I watched the fans swoop down on the Etherington Brothers and wondered how a nobody like me would cope seated next to Geraldine! I could pretend that I got sat next to her by mistake.

Rob and Lorenzo sign copies of Monkey Nuts for adoring fans. I overheard someone say, "They must be the most popular speakers at Hay. They are so noisy!"

In fact, my event with Geraldine McCaughrean wasn't too bad, even though the Starlight Stage (it had a dark drapy ceiling sprinkled with a gazillion stars!) was packed!

While my minders weren't looking, I nipped out to take a photo of the queue to our event

I asked the queue to wave and some of them did (you can tell from their expressions that they are wondering who this bonkers woman was)!

Here we are on stage. I look like that because I'm trying to conquer my nerves by imagining the audience naked.

That cartoon of Tall Story is fan art by Sarah ... how lucky am I to have a friend who can draw like that!

And look, Pinoy peeps, I brought Bernardo Carpio to Hay!

You can just see the stars in the ceiling above this further away shots.

Now I make it no secret that I just love, love, love Geraldine McCaughrean's writing, as does Sarah. Sarah and I kind of slobbered all over her during the event. Geraldine politely managed not to request a towel during our gushfest.

Geraldine McCaughrean

The book Geraldine was promoting was Pull Out All the Stops (to be called The Sunshine Queen in the US), which is in the same world as Stop the Train, the very first book I ever read by her. Pull Out All the Stops is a magnificent book - check out my review on Amazon. It deserves to be read and everyone deserves to read it!

I had reserved tickets to watch Fiona Dunbar do her Ghostorama act (her latest series is the Kitty Slade ghost mysteries) but I'd forgotten I was a speaker and would have to do signing and meeting and greeting at the bookshop. Thankfully, I had my retinue of Fiona Dunbar readers to send to her event.

And thankfully, we managed to meet up for dinner later so at least we have this picture of the two of us at Hay! (And thanks to Hatty Bayly, OUP publicist, for organizing the magic expanding dinner)... this is Hatty (also known as publicist of the Children's Book Nation) below.

Later, in the Green Room, who should walk in but Michael Morpurgo. He got chatting to Geraldine so I gave Sarah my camera so I could sneak behind him for a photo. But he caught me!

He asked me who I was and I said, I was a beginner author. To which he said, "Oh, that deserves an arm around the shoulder!"

Look! Me and Michael Morpurgo AND Geraldine McCaughrean.

The next day, we watched Michael in action on the Barclays Wealth Pavilion which seats 2,000. And he was awesome.

I still had one more event to do and I'm afraid Michael Morpurgo gave me a severe inferiority complex.

So I was feeling a bit stressed when we then watched Malorie Blackman dazzle a huge auditorium full of teenagers.

Hay's lovely Sophie Lording (who invited me to my events!) did Malorie's introduction:

Here's Malorie talking about her new book Boys Don't Cry.

Afterwards, panicking about my coming presentation, I told my daughter: "I've got to make my talk more like Michael Morpurgo's!"

She replied, "Didn't you hear what Malorie Blackman said? BE YOURSELF!"

So that's what I did. And it was good.

Later, I had to have my trophy picture with Malorie.

Illustrator Layn Marlow arrived with her daughter Tegan ("It's Vegan with a T") ... do check out Tegan's cool blog Tegan on Toast.

And we managed to rope librarian Ferelith Hordon - who was there to represent the Greenaway Prize at Oliver Jeffers' event - into joining us for supper. By that time we'd run out of Artist's ("I am an Artist ... feed me!") food vouchers so we used Ferelith's to obtain bottles of wine - thank you, Ferelith!

Ferelith, Tegan and Sarah. Marcus Sedgwick named his character Ferelith in White Crow ... I'll bet he did that to wind Ferelith up.

These were the last of our vouchers.

Performing artists got a lunch voucher, a morning snack and an afternoon snack. The lunch was steak, salmon, lamb shank, that sort of thing. The snacks were cheesecakes, tortes, mousses. And all you could drink. At one point we managed to negotiate ordering simultaneous morning and afternoon snacks. It was a bit fattening, the festival. But happy. Definitely happy.

At the end of the day, we caught Jo Brand's event in which she talked about her life as a psychiatric nurse, her feminism and what happens when your daughter comes home from school and incredulously asks you, "Mummy, are YOU Jo Brand?"

Why have I never been to Hay before? Even without the Green Room, it's an amazing experience. The slogan this year was:

Ideas may blossom

With my 12 year old daughter, I've seen Michael Morpurgo telling stories and entrancing small children, Malorie Blackman talking about her struggle to become a writer, Jo Brand's down-to-earth compassionate comedy; we've met many extraordinary and creative people we don't see everyday. And yes, we bought books.

Ideas may well blossom.

See you at the Hay Festival!

2011-05-29T08:55:00.003+01:00

Tomorrow at 4pm, I'm on a panel with my favourite author Geraldine McCaughrean with my favourite illustrator Sarah McIntyre as our moderator! Both Geraldine's latest book and mine are rife with calamity - Geraldine's Pull Out All the Stops has a flood, and Tall Story, an earthquake. So here's a drawing by Sarah of our entire Hay panel in the middle of a flood!

I love that Sarah's wearing a collander on her head. Geraldine looks great as a hayseed. And boy do I wish I really did know how to play a geeetar.

And if you haven't seen my video about the Hay Festival ... here it is!

I will be appearing at the Hay Festival on 30 May (with Geraldine McCaughrean and Sarah McIntyre), 4pm; and on 31 May (All by herself, 4pm. Help!)

Lovely, lovely Leeds Book Prize

2011-05-25T00:54:00.008+01:00

Me and my publisher David Fickling
at the Waterstone's Prize night

Tall Story's been short-listed for quite a few lovely book prizes - most recently the Branford Boase - but do you know, apart from screenshots of websites, I have no tangible evidence of these honours, no not even a letter (and the bottle of champagne handed to shortlistees of the Waterstone's Prize very quickly vanished without a trace).

So you can imagine I felt quite proud and emotional when the Leeds Book Prize handed me this lovely crystal to mark my short-listing in the 11 to 14 category.

The crystal had Leeds Book Award etched on it. And no, I have no intention of selling it on eBay! Photo by Mia Gourlay

The winner (not Tall Story, alas) got a massive version of the Crystal!

David Gatward's The Dead won the vote in my category! Congrats, David!

My SCBWI pal, Jon Mayhew, won in the 9-11 category with Mortlock. My other SCBWI pal, Lee Weatherly (who unfortunately was away on a book tour), won for the 14-16 category with Angel. Congratulations, all! Their glory runneth over in my direction.

You can view the complete shortlists for the prize on the Leeds Book Prize's excellent website.

I arrived too late to watch the 9-11 Category but was glad to finally meet Elen Caldecott (How Ali Ferguson Saved Houdini) over lunch - I'd chatted to Elen on cyberspace but never actually met her in realspace!

Elen shows off her souvenir from the Leeds Prize

I also met another cyber friend - spooky Chris Priestly (The Dead of Winter). On Facebook, Mr Priestly looks like this:

Chris Priestly's Facebook Profile Pic

In real life, he doesn't look so terrifying ...

... and then there were all the other lovely authors ...

Left to right: Laura Summers (Desperate Measures), Helen Grant (The Glass Demon), me, Teresa Flavin (The Blackhope Enigma), Chris Priestly and David Gatlward. (Laura and I appear to be holding trophies but those are just water bottles thoughtfully provided by the librarians). Photo by Lyn Bambury

The Leed Book Awards assigned us our own minders - mine was librarian Lyn Bambury ...

Lyn made me feel like a celebrity! Photo by John Mayhew

I even got to spend some quality time with some real readers before the event (some of them turned out to be writers - how cool is that?)

Me and the uber cool kids of Allerton School

So much happened ... here are the highlights as seen by my camera:

Organizer Debbie Moody briefs the authors on how the awards will proceed (Notice the incredible arched ceilings of the Leeds Civic Centre - an impressive piece of architecture)

We got to sit up front: (left to right) Paul Magrs (Diary of a Dr Who Addict), William Hussey (Dawn of the Demontide), Helen, Laura, Chris, David and Teresa (who is an illustrator too!).

Show of hands: who read ALL the shortlisted books?

David wins the 11-14 category and attacks the lad who is meant to hand the trophy to him.

"Mine! All mine! (maniacal laughter)"

I loved the audience's enthusiasm! Who says reading is dead?

Then David's maniacal laughter sparked a maniacal laughing competition amongst the teachers.

Students volunteering their teachers for the maniacal laughing competition

Host Paul Sleem coaxes teachers to join in ...

Now I did take lots of blackmail worthy photographs of teachers cackling into microphones ... but no, I will not post them here. They've suffered enough!

Here's William (of Demontide fame) talking about how he did a little dance when he found out he was short-listed ...

And here's William doing the dance!

Paul congratulates the hard-working organizers of this magnificent prize event

.Thank you to the librarians of Leeds for organizing this fantastic event to the tiniest detail ... thank you teachers ... thank you readers!

And one more thing ... I thought Leeds was rather impressive especially in the May sunshine. Here are some photos I took on my way to the event from the train station!

Created with flickr slideshow from softsea.

A Schools Reading Festival - Hooray for Southwark!

2011-05-19T15:39:00.007+01:00

The last time I was at the Dulwich Picture Gallery was for the launch of Sarwat Chadda's Devil's Kiss and it was dark, raining, and there were knights fighting on the lawn ... oh, and I was still a despairing unpublished novelist.

Yesterday I returned as one of the authors featured in the brilliant Southwark Schools Reading Festival - funded and organized by the borough of Southwark.

The entire event ran like clockwork! They even managed to hire a mad professor to gee up the kids and introduce speakers! Here's a video of how Middleton (the mad professor) started off each event:

Thanks to Middleton Mann for sharing this video. If you are in need of a lunatic at any of your events, here's Middleton's website Publish and Be Framed. He was quite brilliant - only one or two children burst into tears! (Actually they didn't - they were ecstatic!)

Where was I? Oh yes! I was waxing lyrical about the Southwark Schools Reading Festival. I first heard about it from author pal Steve "Time to inflate the Bogey" Hartley (Danny Baker Record Breaker), who appeared at the festival last year with his giant bogey and world's biggest underpants. Steve, bogey and pants were featured again on Monday I'm sure to the unbridled delight of the children.

Steve Hartley and his world's biggest pants!

The festival's bookseller was none other than Tales on Moon Lane - which only the night before won the Children's Independent Bookseller of the Year and its manager George Hanratty won the Best Young Bookseller of the Year. Many congratulations! (Question: is there an Old Bookseller of the Year?)

Here I am with Leah Chin, education manager of Tales on Moon Lane. Check out the serried ranks of Tall Stories on the display!

I finally met Tamara McFarlane, TML bookseller turned author - her book Esme Miranda's Fairground Circus is out soon. On the right is Lillie McCotter , who organizes the festival for Southwark - including creating teaching resources about our books!

Having Middleton as compere raised everyone's energy levels, including mine! I'm sure my voice was several decibels higher than normal after his rousing introduction!

Here I am giving my talk (I always start by showing the children a map of the world with the Philippines right in the middle!). Thanks to Maria Asensio, gallery teacher at the DPG who doubled as sound and vision technician ... and Daisy, who took photos using my camera!

My audiences were smart, attentive and rather lovely! I wanted to take them all home with me but what would my husband say?

The children were totally captivated by Middleton. This was at the end when he suddenly announces that one of them has won a prize!

... and the prize is under one of the seats!!! The children dive ...

It's a GOLDEN TICKET!!!

Joe's golden ticket won him a hardback copy of Tall Story!

Southwark tries to make sure that schools in the borough get the opportunity to attend an event at the festival - you can download the Southwark programme here. For my two events, I performed before 194 children, Year 5s and 6s from schools in the borough - Grange, St Jude's, St Francis, Langbourne, St John's St Clement's, and Bessemer primary schools. Thank you all - such amazing audiences!

My big bonus of the day was that the author of one of my children's all time favourite picture books SO MUCH was doing the afternoon slot - I got to see Trish Cooke entrance a roomful of sweeties with her magical stories.

Trish Cooke's audience was a room full of adorable! And they knew the words to all her picture books! Typically after reading a story, Trish would say: "any questions?" then call one of the adorables with hand raised and the question? "I liked your story." Ahhhhh!

You can see what a presence Trish has from these photos!

And when it was time for the golden ticket, the winner was this sweet little boy! Makes me think I really ought to write picture books ...

This is the original cover art of
So Much that my kids grew up with
...it's illustrated by Helen Oxenbury,
no less!

I got Trish to dedicate a copy of SO MUCH to my now rather grown up children. When I got home and pulled it out of the bag, we crawled into bed and I read it to my daughter instead of watching The Apprentice. Yes, it's that good. Get a copy today.

Thank you Southwark for funding such a brilliant festival ... and thank you to all the cogs and wheels who make it such a fantastic experience for the kids AND for the authors!

I'm doing events at the Hay Festival on the 30th and 31st of May - if you're somewhere near the Welsh borders, you might want to check it out! What's it all about? Check out this post I wrote for the Hay Festival blog. And if you've never heard of this world famous festival - here's a primer I made just for you! See you there!

Weddings, Kisses and Shining Moments

2011-04-29T18:25:00.007+01:00

Alternative merchandise. More

Well who would've thought the royal wedding would put me in such a good mood. Jolly good show to the broadcasters and jolly good show, newly-weds. Speaking of which, I had no idea the royals had their own channel on YouTube.

I have fond, unabashed memories of the Other Royal Wedding.

Especially that kiss on the balcony ...

Back in 1981, I was a Mills & Boone-reading young person, so of course I loved it.

That's why I was really looking forward to the balcony scene today. And they didn't disappoint . It's not that I'm a royalist, just a romantic I am. Sigh.

In the Philippines, we like to say "proud to be Filipino", a declaration you would not normally hear from the natives here in Cool Britannia ... but lo, people in the crowds were telling TV crews that they were "proud to be British" — psst, me too!

Anti-monarchists of course kept their backs staunchly turned away - but quite a few couldn't help surrendering to the festivity and knocking back a prosecco or two to celebrate the occasion.

Those with furrowed brows might ask, so Candy, be you a Royalist or a Republican? I dug around for an answer which I found in the Financial Times' token wedding article:

... through viewers on sofas, not boots on the ground, royalty still earns its spurs ... our royals have been coming and going at Westminster Abbey for a thousand years, so we can either lump it – or leverage it. Read the whole article (you might have to register)

Indeed, the world of late has not been a place of good news which makes it imperative to celebrate every or any bright moment.

Today may I raise a glass to my own recent shining moment?

Allow me to dress in right royal fashion before I begin ...

Friends will know that I've been in the Philippines these last two weeks having one of those life-enhancing experiences ... my mother had open heart surgery which is a miracle of an operation.

It took my mom from this:

to this:

My beautiful Mom, seven days after the operation!

It was a very worrying time and I was astounded by the kindness, patience and generosity of the doctors, nurses and other folk who made the miracle happen.

The world, so dark two weeks ago, is that much shinier.

I had to leave home rather suddenly, so I have to confess I was rather dreading my return to London and the hygienic surprises in store for me at home.

But I had nothing to fear.

The husband and kids decided to surprise me by having the horribly scratched maple floor in the living room sanded and varnished.

It looked like this:

Wow! Shiny!

But where did all the furniture go?

The furniture, it turns out, went into my office:

Not so shiny.

But still! Shiny! Thanks, family!

If you've still got stars in your eyes about the wedding, my blogging author friends have already stolen a march on anyone still trying to think of something clever to say ...

Prolific Lucy Coats (author of the Atticus books) it turns out was actually a friend of the bride at the Royal Wedding of the Other Century. She was there! What a story! (And thanks to Bookwitch, I would have missed Lucy's blog posts if not for the rustle of a broom!)

And Katherine Langrish (of Troll Fell fame) was moved to write a poem.

And Mary Hoffman (Stravaganza!) demanded a higher quality of verbiage from wedding commentators.

And Bryony Pearce (coming soon on a bookshelf near you with her brilliant new book Someone Else's Life) mused winsomely about happy endings.

But for advice on marriage one has to refer to Meg Rosoff (How I Live Now):

Marry someone you adore.

Well.

That I did.

Shiny Mrs Gourlay, 1988

The Blue Peter Panel at the Oxford Literary Festival 2011

2011-04-04T14:53:00.010+01:00

Am I definitely famous now that I've got a photo with Barney Harwood of Blue Peter?

Our panel at the Oxford Literary Festival (from left to right): Philip Reeve (A Web of Air), Barney Harwood of Blue Peter, me and Lauren St John (Dead Man's Cove)

If you have no idea what Blue Peter is then you must be living on another planet ... or another country. Blue Peter is the United Kingdom's favourite kid's TV magazine show, made by the BBC. Here's the Blue Peter website.

So you can imagine what an amazing thrill it was when Tall Story was short-listed for Blue Peter's My Favourite Story Prize along with A Web of Air by Philip Reeve and Dead Man's Cove by Lauren St John. Dead Man's Cove won and yesterday, us three authors on the shortlist appeared at the Sunday Times Oxford Literary Festival to talk about our books.
It was held at Christ Church Hall, now known as Hogwarts Hall because that was where the movie was made! It didn't look like this

Floating candle scene from Harry Potter

But it came close!

Christ Church's Great Hall.
All the photos in Christ Church were taken by Sarah McIntyre or Sarah's camera

Note that the photo was taken by my illustrator pal, Sarah McIntyre (Vern & Lettuce) - this was because I was in super forgetful mode. I forgot to take my camera along and even more horrifically, forgot to take my copy of Tall Story (bad author!) - on my way to the podium, I dived into the audience and snatched a copy of Tall Story from poor defenceless Amy Butler Greenfield!

I have to admit I was a bit too flustered to enjoy my first time in a Green Room (that's the room where all the festival's celebs go), plush with supplies of tea, coffee and some harder drinks. I failed to have a good ogle at the famous people who were milling around. I did manage to get away with a packet of biscuits.

This was because there was a bit of ticket mix up and my family (who all decided to come because it also happened to be Mother's Day) were stuck at the ticket desk .

My family who all came to my talk because it was Mother's Day in the UK. And yes, I much prefer having them come to my talk than presenting me with a large bouquet of flowers and gift box of Cadbury's Whole Nut Chocolate or Ferrero Rocher.

I ran down and sort of sorted it out then ran back, except I lost my way. I managed to follow a herd of people who seemed to be going in the right direction.

"I hope they haven't started yet," one woman said.

"I'm one of the speakers," I said. "They won't start without me." Well I sincerely hoped that they wouldn't.

In fact they didn't and very kindly moved my turn to the end to give me a chance to calm my heartbeat and so that my family wouldn't miss my part of the talk.

We authors were a bit nervous because Sunday Times critic Nicolette Jones, who organized the panel, had warned us that last year's panel did some amazing things (Frank Cottrell Boyce performed a magic trick, Ali Sparkes had some kind of object and Harriet Goodwin sang ... SANG!)

The Blue Peter panel at last year's Oxford Literary Festival

Last year's shortlist was: Cosmic by Frank Cottrell Boyce, The Boy Who Fell Down Exit 43 by Harriet Goodwin and winner Frozen in Time by Ali Sparkes

But we needn't have worried or attempted to juggle bunnies while riding unicycles. We were fine.

The hall was absolutely packed. And Barney, it turns out, is a superb compere, who can pluck a joke out of the air and keep the hundreds of children in the audience entertained and engaged.

Philip spoke first and read the bit in A Web of Air in which his heroine Fever Crumb meets the angels - seagull-like birds who cry "snacksies!" just like the seagulls in Finding Nemo cry "Mine!".

Then Lauren spoke - and told this amazing story about growing up with animals in Zimbabwe with an Indiana Jones character for a dad and how her pet python (named Samantha ??!!!) once almost swallowed her. I now know the correct way to hold a python. You can see an artist's impression of Lauren and her snake here

I talked about the Philippines, the ring of fire, giants, hormones, basketball ... I think I also mentioned Finding Nemo at one point ... and had the distinct feeling that I was babbling incoherently.

Babble babble babble babble!

What was magical to me was when each of us took our turn reading from our books, the faces of the children in the audience all tilted up at the same time and they had these wonderful concentrating expressions on their faces as they listened.

Barney had asked us earlier to think of what superhero we would like to be and what would be our powers. My daughter overheard and reminded me that I used to like pretending to be the terrifying MUMZILLAH ... with eyes in the back of my head and the power to make children tidy up in a single bound. I was too polite to tell her that I wasn't pretending.

There were a few people I knew in the audience - I was delighted to see my next door neighbour of long-ago with a son she made earlier, as well as friends from SCBWI ...

My friend Anita Loughrey, who has written far too many non-fiction books, and her handsome son Joe

... and my favourite stalker, Nicole Burstein!

Me and Nicole!

Then we got to sit in a row and sign autographs. I had to make sure I got all the spellings right and write "Happy Reading" instead of "Happy Birthday" which I once did at the end of a very long signing session. There was a boy with a very cool Darth Vader t-shirt and I tried very hard not to buy it off him.

I need to have my eyes examined. I keep peering over my glasses and frightening small children and sensitive mothers.

Some dads are just too embarrassing. "Please sign this for my daughter. Her name is Nick ."

There were a few aspiring authors in the queue and I was very happy to tell them that this year's Undiscovered Voices anthology competition - which I won in 2008 and led to my getting an agent - is going to be launched tomorrow (Tuesday, April 5)!

People were arriving with piles of books for Philip to sign. That's what you get when you write a SEPTET of books. After Lauren and I finished our lot, the very lovely bookseller turned to Philip and said, "Would you mind signing a few thousand more?"

Afterwards I was thrilled to have my picture taken with Philip Reeve and Sarah McIntyre who was doing an event later in the afternoon. They were both going to have a tour of the new premises of the soon-to-be opened Story Museum later that evening. Check out Sarah's blog for an update! (Extra! Extra! Here is Philip's blog post about it!)

It was cold, I put my fleece back on.

An amazing day!

Here's an interesting thing I noticed about the Great Hall. See those round blue blob things above our heads?

The blue blobs are above each square thingy on the wooden panelling. Photo by Nicole Burstein

Up close, they look like this:

P.S. On the vexed question - so did you get a Blue Peter Badge? The answer is no. Only the winner, Lauren, got one. WAAAAAH!

Hope

2011-03-31T01:52:00.008+01:00

Keris's novel Jessie ♥ NYC
is out in July 2011

I'd like to thank Keris Stanton, who upon seeing reports of the Japanese earthquake decided to get on with the business of doing something about it.

She set up a blog auction Authors for Japan which was instantly flooded with donations from authors just relieved to be able to help. People, we made £11,000 (that's USD $17.616.50 or about 763,000 Philippine pesos!!!!!).

And thank you to the folks who bid for my stuff - Brendan Gannon, Natalie Baines, and Victoria Bennion won critiques for their opening chapters; Frances Trimming and Anthony Mariano won the signed and doodled paperbacks of Tall Story. THANK YOU so much!

***

Though I'm a Random House author, I managed to sneak into an event at Puffin Books last night after a tip-off from friendly undercover librarian Rosie Pike.

Well, it wasn't that cloak and dagger, but grovelling does help get one invited to these things (thank you, Puffin or Penguin, whichever the case may be).

There are far far better reports elsewhere - such as over at Book Witch's blog - the book bloggers got exclusive, schmooze time in a private room with the authors. It always amazes me when I read reports of events I attended - everyone else seems to take better notes than me.

I went because I'd just read Morris Gleitzman's new book Grace - and loved it so much I posted a review on Amazon (I was Reviewer Number Two! Reviewer Number One was Jenny of Wondrous Reads - who lo and behold also happened to be there). Grace is about a girl growing up in a fundamentalist sect.

Morris Gleitzman

What I didn't realize was that it wasn't just going to be Morris but a panel, hosted by Guardian literary editor Claire Armtistead. The other featured authors were Ruta Sepetys whose debut novel Between Shades of Gray will be released in the UK next week and Anna Perera, who has followed up her acclaimed Guantanamo Boy with The Glass Collector.

Debut author Ruta Sepetys

Between Shades of Gray is about a Lithuanian girl banished to Siberia during Stalin's reign. There's a great video on Ruta's website. The Glass Collector is about a dumpsite boy in the slums of Cairo. Read the Guardian review.

Anna Perera, author of Guantanamo Boy

Ruta was driven to write her book by her own Lithuanian heritage, making two trips to Lithuania - one of which included signing up to an immersion experience which, she was shocked to discover, turned out to include beatings. A guard's boot on her back while she was doing push ups has resulted in lingering back trouble.What struck her as she was researching the forced relocation of Lithuanians to Siberia was how so many were teenagers. Her heroine is 15 years old.

Anna travelled to Egypt and visited communities like the one she portrays, assisted by an interpreter. "With Guantanamo Boy, I wanted to challenge the myth that torture could be justified. With this book I wanted to challenge the thinking that people from other cultures aren't anything like us."

Morris, while interviewing fathers who were being shunned by their sects, was shown a letter.

"Dear Dad,You are never going to see me again now that you are with the devil."

"In most families the developing capacity of children to think for themselves is celebrated," he said. But in Grace, the adult extremists refuse to give the children this autonomy.

There's a thread, clearly, that runs through all three novels - of children struggling against the direst sort of adversity. "Is there anything beyond the pale in children's books?" Claire Armitstead asked the authors.

"My editor told me to take stuff out," Ruta said, "It's my first novel,so everything was in the book ... every detail!" At one point her editor wrote her a note:

'Ruta, please watch the gratuitous defecation!'

Added: I forgot to add Morris's riposte and spotted it on Bookwitch's blog- he said: "If necessary, let there be defecation!"

"In the end I was grateful to my editor," Ruta said. "She helped me amplify the hope."

"A story is hopefully more than the sum of its parts," Morris said, adding that books gave context to how young people perceived human behaviour in a "media drenched world" where by definition news is often served without enough context to make any judgement.

Not everyone in the audience agreed that the books managed to deliver hope.

"I was left with a sense that of overwhelming frightening evil," one member of the audience said, launching a discussion amongst the children's book people in the room that left me with a sense of dejavu ... I've written about this before except the authors discussing hope were Melvin Burgess and Anne Fine.

Like the Burgess/Fine discussion everyone agreed that hope was essential to books targetted at young readers..

I give Morris Gleitzman the last word on why hope must prevail in children's literature:

We are handing the world over to our children. The survival of the species depends on their capacity for optimism.

Psst! You guys are AWESOME!

2011-03-16T00:17:00.009Z

I didn't meet my first author until I was a grown-up on the brink of becoming an author myself.There were no book clubs where I could trade information about my favourite books. And there weren't as many amazing books for young people as there are now.

Me as a child. Where were all the book clubs? Why was I wearing that massive bonnet?

So I have to confess, I am dead jealous of the children I meet when I do author visits to schools, libraries and festivals. I mean, talk about having the world ... you children of today are so LUCKY!

Some exceedingly excited and lucky children at Bishop's Stortford College .

Taking a moment from all the excitement to pose for the camera

What was really terrific about my visit to Bishop's Stortford College today was that so many of the children had already read the book, thanks to super librarian Rosie Pike.

One girl informed me that she had finished the book in just THREE hours! I told her it took me ten months to write it, so it's only fair that the reader take a bit longer to read it!

Aww. The library display was fab. And I wonder who did the sparkly writing for my name.

Over lunch, I met up with the book club and answered questions about Tall Story - we talked about everything from rabies and witches to how they would react if they met someone who was eight feet tall like Bernardo. "I will accept him and treat him like a normal person," one book clubber said, "unless he's not nice."

There was a long table of book club members waiting to get their teeth into me when I arrived in the dining room. As we ate, even more came in until the back of the room was packed!

Everyone was very nice about the book - although nobody could quite sum up what sort of book it was - which was one of my great fears about Tall Story ... I mean, booksellers might find it hard to sell something they can't easily put under the usual labels (mystery, fantasy, etc).

At the same time ... the one thing everyone said they liked about Tall Story was that it was DIFFERENT! That it wasn't like anything they'd read before. Cool!

When one of the teachers asked the children if they wanted to say what they didn't like about the book, one girl said, "I didn't like that it was so GRIPPING that I couldn't put it down!"

I didn't like that it was so gripping that I couldn't put it down

This is the sort of criticism an author likes to hear. I got the chance to quote Sol Stein to the kids - "A good author never takes the reader where he or she wants to go!"

Super librarian Rosie made sure I met as many children as she could muster and then we had a quiet sit down in the staff room where we talked about ... guess? Books! Apparently the book club is all set to read Grace by Morris Gleitzman which got me all excited because I only just finished reading Grace and loved it! You can read my review on Amazon.

This is the first time I've blogged properly about the school visits I've been on. The reason I haven't done this before is because I'm trying to be a Good Author and finish my next book.

I'm almost done now so I hope I can post some more stuff about the awesome children I meet (and their names! So many children, so many fascinating names! Today I heard a lot of names I'd love to put into a book! Hmm ... watch this space!)

I'll tell you one thing - you guys are really, truly amazing. I am so impressed by how much everyone reads, how much you take from a story, the intelligence of your comments, and the insight that you bring to a discussion. You are just ... WOW. And don't let anyone say otherwise.

I'll try to post more photos of my school visits in the future - if you can't wait, I've been posting a lot of photos on Tall Story's Facebook page. Go check it out. And thank you to the teachers who took photos of me with the children!

Meanwhile ... a few weeks ago, I visited Princes Risborough library where my friend Teri Terry (remember the name, you'll be seeing it in a bookstore near you very soon) works.

I met some brilliant children in the Chatterbooks group that she runs there and afterwards, they drew pictures of the characters from Tall Story and sent them to me. I loved the drawings so much, I just had to use them in my book trailer ...and here it is!!!!

Well that's all for now ... but before I go, here are some other awesome children I met when I visited schools in the Philippines last year!

The Nest School

Ateneo de Manila High School

Mater Carmeli

Xavier School

Saint Pedro Poveda College

Angelicum College

I am participating in Authors for Japan - an auction organized by author Keris Stainton. I'm offering three critiques of 2,000 word opening chapters of middle grade and teen manuscripts, as well as two Tall Story paperbacks - I will autograph and draw a cartoon on the title pages. I will post a link here when details of the auction are ready. I hope we can count on your support! Here are more links to charities and relief organizations on the Color Online blog

I've donated two signed (and doodled on) paperbacks of Tall Story! Bid here

Browse and bid on Authors for Japan

Grieving with Japan. And hoping.

2011-03-13T18:47:00.008Z

Browse and bid on Authors for Japan

Haru no umi
Hinemosu notari
Notari kana

Buson

The spring sea
All day long it rose and fell
Rose and fell.

I've been visiting schools these past few weeks.

I start my talk about the stories behind Tall Story with a description of my native Philippines: showing photographs I took on my visit home last year - of paddy fields, nipa huts, mountains, skyscrapers, shanties.

And then I show the children a map of the countries on the Pacific rim, and talk about the Ring of Fire ... how the world is like a cracked egg, except what oozes from the crack are volcanoes and mountains and the terrible possibility of earthquakes.

Sleeping mountain

Talking about volcanoes and earthquakes and the Ring of Fire sounds pretty awesome and out of this world. But the breaking news of catastrophe in Japan reveals that it isn't awesome at all.

It's horrible.

How fragile life suddenly seems. How small we are against such unstoppable forces.

The Great Wave off Kanagawa by Hokusai. It's one of my Dad's and my favourite paintings, but terrifying. The men in the boats seem to bow to the deadly power of the wave. Read about it

When I talk to kids, I show them this picture taken by my friend Albert Garcia from the back of a van during the eruption of Mount Pinatubo in 1991:

I show them the aftermath of the eruption, when monsoon rain and ash combined to bury entire towns and villages

Then I show them a picture of the buried church, many years later.

San Guillermo Parish Church in Bacolor, Pampanga

What struck me when I visited the church last year was how life continued in the town, undimmed by the terrible catastrophe that had visited them. The church continued to function as a church, the services being held close to the rafters.

Although it was an amazing reminder of the volcanic eruption, there was no attempt to turn it into a tourist attraction, no attempt to memorialize the event.

It was a working church.

Last night, my husband and I watched Departures, the film by Yojiro Takita which won Best Foreign Language Film at the 2009 Oscars.

It is about a down and out musician forced to work as a despised 'coffinman' whose taboo job it is to perform the rituals to prepare the dead for burial.

At first he is ashamed and revolted by his work, but slowly (and beautifully - the ritual of encoffinment is calm, graceful and achingly touching) he finds fulfillment in the job - realizing that his work enables the people left behind to go on living.

It made me think of all the beloved people I have lost in my life - and how the greatest gift I could give those I mourn is to make the most of the life I'm living.

I am participating in Authors for Japan - an auction organized by author Keris Stainton. I'm offering three critiques of 2,000 word opening chapters of middle grade and teen manuscripts, as well as two Tall Story paperbacks - I will autograph and draw a cartoon on the title pages. I will post a link here when details of the auction are ready. I hope we can count on your support! Here are more links to charities and relief organizations on the Color Online blog

I've donated two signed (and doodled on) paperbacks of Tall Story! Bid here

Browse and bid on Authors for Japan

Thank you, Rayvi Sunico, for posting Busan's haiku on Facebook.

The Last Time I Overthrew a Dictator

2011-02-13T23:31:00.015Z

This past week's extraordinary events in Egypt has given me a massive case of deja vu ...

Twenty five years ago in my native Philippines, I was leaping about hugging strangers in the street just like the Egyptians on TV.

This was after news of the departure of Ferdinand Marcos - our president of 21 years (and most of my childhood) before he was overthrown during the People Power revolution.

Here's a YouTube taste of that other revolution:

Rough translation: A gift from Filipinos to the world / Change made in peace / Truth, freedom, justice achieved without war / Together we can make it happen

Now the 1980s pop vibe might strike some as cheesy but I personally can't hear this without getting a lump in my throat.

See the tanks in the streets? I was there.

See the crowds? I was one of them.

See the people, fists raised, marching alongside the bier of murdered opposition leader Ninoy Aquino? I was there too.

I was there, but so were a couple of MILLION fellow Filipinos. All marvelling that by the sheer force of our presence, we managed to boot out a man who ran roughshod over our country for two decades.

The Marcoses with US president Ronald Reagan who propped up their reign and in the end, supplied their getaway transport and safe haven in Hawaii. Source: Reagan Presidential Library, Wikimedia Commons

And yet what do I remember? Recently, my friend Elizabeth Pisani wrote about the unreliability of memory - she and various journalist colleagues were trying to square their experiences of the Tiananmen Square massacre. If you have the time, do read her well-written piece (published in Granta) - it will make you think.

It certainly made me think. When I tried to conjure up the three terrible and wonderful days of our so-called People Power revolution, I was shocked to realize I couldn't remember anything in great detail. (If you need a blow-by-blow, read this Wikipedia article.)

I'd been a journalist for all of two years on an anti-Marcos magazine, a spin-off from a variety glossy called Mr & Ms - hence my magazine was the oddly named Mr & Ms Special Edition. (Here's a piece in Time Magazine about the heroic women who were my bosses on the magazine.)

These two covers are my all time favourites - the headlines reflect the sharp wit of my editor Letty Jimenez Magsanoc

The Special Edition reported everything that the Marcos-controlled broadsheets didn't and took every opportunity to swipe at the conjugal dictatorship of Marcos and Imelda.

I was young, naive and having a great time, learning my trade in the tumultuous run-up to the revolution. I got to travel around the country meeting extraordinary people, seeing extraordinary things and writing about them.

As opposition to Marcos revved up, we'd go out, get tear-gassed/water-cannoned at an anti-government rally, write it up and make it to Bunchums, a bar in the financial district, in time for discounted Kahluas at happy hour. Fun was had by all.

Posing in front of an anti-Marcos rally

Evelio Javier

It took a murder for me to wake up to how serious the situation was. I'd travelled a few times to the island constituency of a young opposition politician named Evelio Javier, an idealist given to quoting Thomas More.

Evelio was gunned down by Marcos supporters soon after news that votes from his province had gone to the opposition. He was only 29.

After the news of Evelio's murder, I remember weeping in our deserted office, shocked and scared. The columnist Larry Henares walked in. He patted me awkwardly on the shoulder and said, "It will be fine. Things have to get better."

But of course it had to get worse first.

The snap elections were stolen. Literally. Masked men with guns. Ballot boxes snatched and stuffed with dummy votes.

What do I remember? I was in a voting precinct - a school in Guadalupe Nuevo - when goons barged in, grabbing ballot boxes, throwing chairs at people who attempted pursuit.

I remember following the men to a nearby office where they slammed the door in my face. But someone had put his foot in the door. It was one of the foreign correspondents - "Let me in," he said in an impressive British accent reminiscent of all the English baddies I ever saw in the movies - and he pushed and they pushed and he pushed and they pushed until thankfully they managed to shut the door.

I don't think winning that pushing match would have been a good idea. Those men were armed. Little did I know that the foreign correspondent was my future husband.

Then the chief of the Armed Forces and the Defence Secretary called a press conference to withdraw their support for Marcos.

Screenshot of the TV news coverage of the press conference that started off the revolution

They barricaded themselves in a military camp just ten minutes up the road from my mother's home in Cubao.

I found myself in the camp which was crawling with foreign correspondents, TV crews, photographers and other reporters. There were people standing around outside the gates carrying plastic bags full of food - they had heard about it on the radio and rushed out to bring food to the rebels (so typically Filipino to think of food before safety).

People passing bags of food through the gates

In the chaos, I remember stumbling upon the British journalist who had joined me in chasing the ballot-box-snatching goons. He was fast asleep on a bench (to this day, my other half has the ability to sleep through a revolution).

My memory of the revolution hops and skips in tantalizing fragments.

Jaime Cardinal Sin, Archbishop of Manila, issued a statement calling on all Filipinos to go to the Camp and show their solidarity with the rebels.

Screenshot of TV news covering Cardinal Sin's statement that brought Filipinos out into the streets

Immediately the crowds swelled to tens of thousands. Barricades were built of any material to hand - benches, furniture, hollow blocks, logs, sandbags - all along EDSA, the ten-lane thoroughfare outside the camp.

People of all persuasions massed outside the camp to 'protect' the rebels from Marcos troops. Soon a three kilometre stretch was packed tight with people.

When military helicopters arrived, people thought the jig was up. But the helicopters signalled the beginning of mass defections in the military to the rebel side.

At one point, I managed to hook up with my friend Mandy Navasero. We heard Marcos had ordered tanks to attack via one of the main roads and somehow managed to get there, pushing through massive crowds that had built up crowds so that Mandy could take photos.

Screenshot of the tank pushing moment from YouTube.

LVT-5 tanks that rolled in were immediately surrounded by crowds. I remember the soldiers poking their heads out and yelling at us to get out of the way.

The tanks kept gunning their engines like they were going to push ahead at any moment. It was terrifying and I moved away from the path of the tanks. But Mandy was right in the front line of the crowd up against the tank. There's a famous photo of that moment, a crowd pushing against a tank and in the middle, a fair skinned woman pushing and sobbing at the same time. That's Mandy.

I am known for lugging a huge camera along wherever I go. But I spent the entire three days of the revolution carrying an empty camera. I remember running from shop to shop searching for film (remember film?). But all the shops were closed. I begged photographers for spare rolls. "Are you crazy?" one photographer said. "There's a revolution going on. I can't afford to run out of film."

From Wikipedia. Photo by Joey De Vera

It was hard to tell exactly what was going on during those three days. All I knew was that more and more people were turning up in the streets. On the ground, I was hungry and confused, rushing after one rumour after another.

Every now and then I'd be caught up in a large group of people, joining in song, raising fists to the air. Linking arms with strangers to show that we stood together against Marcos. Helping pass bags of food along to people who have been keeping vigil for hours. There was a fiesta atmosphere - food, streamers, lots of singing, lots of praying.

I've kept this magazine for posterity. Not so much because of the revolution but because there in the foreground is the rest of my life. I recently found out that this photo is by Franz Tinio Lopez .

When news came that Marcos had been airlifted to Hawaii, the city went mad, an explosion of mass happiness. It felt so good. For once, the Philippines was on top - no longer the under-achiever amongst tigers.

My press cards - during the Marcos regime (left) and after his fall (right), in the yellow livery of the former opposition

I know exactly what the Egyptians are feeling. That feeling that ANYTHING IS POSSIBLE NOW.

Also that feeling of helpless apprehension - what next? Can we do it?

26 years on - we all know it wasn't happily ever after for us Filipinos.

There were six coup attempts against the government that took over. Corruption, bad luck and mismanagement conspired to shred an already shredded economy. And the flight of manpower and talent that began under the Marcos regime continues unabated.

I wish of course that we made more of our moment. The road is still long for us Filipinos ... but 1986 shows that we have got what it takes.

So to the Egyptians, I have this to say:

CELEBRATE - you've done it! Know that the road ahead is uncertain - but hold this moment close. If you can do this, THINK OF WHAT ELSE YOU CAN ACHIEVE. Something we Filipinos would do well to remember.