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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.
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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!
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David Gatward's The Dead won the vote in my category! Congrats, David! |
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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!
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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:
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Chris Priestly's Facebook Profile Pic |
In real life, he doesn't look so terrifying ...
... and then there were all the other lovely authors ...
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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 ...
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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?)
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Me and the uber cool kids of Allerton School |
So much happened ... here are the highlights as seen by my camera:
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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) |
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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!). |
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Show of hands: who read ALL the shortlisted books? |
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David wins the 11-14 category and attacks the lad who is meant to hand the trophy to him. |
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"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.
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Students volunteering their teachers for the maniacal laughing competition |
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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!
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Here's William (of Demontide fame) talking about how he did a little dance when he found out he was short-listed ... |
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And here's William doing the dance! |
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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.