Quickbits: Shortlistings, How to Write, and Yay for New Books on the Block

By Candy Gourlay

HOW TO WRITE

Last week at the We Read Book Award, a teenager asked me how one was supposed to write without any life experience. Sometimes, it's hard to express something through a keyboard, so I thought I'd answer the question with this video.

CALDERDALE BOOK OF THE YEAR 2015

Selfie with the Calderdale librarians and fellow shortlistee Catherine Bruton (right)

The last couple of weeks have seen SHINE shortlisted for two awards. One was the Calderdale Book of the Year, for which I had to go to Halifax.

I'd heard lots of good things about the Calderdale prize from author friends who'd been shortlisted - such a well organised event, great kids, great librarians! Let me just say: it's all true!

The awards day looked like so much hard labour and yet it ran like clockwork! There must have been a lot of advance work for teachers, librarians and children, with schools reading and reviewing months ahead. The vote was done on the day but before the children met the authors (which meant there was no chance of bribery or threat).

Left to right: Kevin Brooks, Catherine Bruton, Frances Hardinge and William Sutcliffe

William wins the trophy

The teen shortlist included: I Predict a Riot by Catherine Bruton, Cuckoo Song by Frances Hardinge, The Wall by William Sutcliffe, The Ultimate Truth by Kevin Brooks (Kevin Brooks!!!) and Shine by me. William won the prize (congratulations, you annoying man).

Many thanks to the librarians and teachers who make this event happen every year. And well done to the children who wrote reviews, read the books and cast their votes.

Signing autographs

And after the ceremonies, we retired into the staff offices to eat some more!

THE WE READ PRIZE 2015

The We Read Book Awards was set up in 2008 by the Brookwood Partnership and University College School. We Read invites young readers from schools all over North London to nominate a shortlist and then vote for a winner - check out the fantastic website.

Another famous selfie! That's me and Lisa Williamson (The Art of Being Normal) in the front, and in the back are Tereze Brikmane and Tamara Macfarlane of the bookshop Tales on Moon Lane, and C S Flood (Infinite Sky). 

I was chuffed that Shine was part of a shortlist that included: Apple and Rain by Sarah Crossan, Infinite Sky by Chelsea Flood, Out of the Easy by Ruta Sepetys, The Poison Boy by Fletcher Moss, and Valentine Joe by Rebecca Stevens. Today was Meet the Author day, which included Lisa Williamson, author of the well received The Art of Being Normal and Sarwat Chadda, author of the Ash Mistry trilogy.

Tamara Macfarlane of that eponimous children's bookshop Tales on Moon Lane 

Sorry guys, I didn't win that one either. It was won by Ruta Sepetys. Congratulations, Ruta (she said with no trace of sour grapes in her typing).

Sarwat Chadda signing autographs

Left to right: C J Flood, author of Infinite Sky, Martin Hitchcock, organiser of We Read, and Lisa Williamson (The Art of Being Normal) 

So fantastic to meet the readers and answer very good questions about books and writing. A wonderful day.

NEW BOOKS ON THE BLOCK!

June is a month for book launches and I have to give a shout out to friends who have just released their new titles:

My lovely critique buddy, Joe Friedman, launched The Secret Dog, his sweet and heartwarming tale about a boy who keeps his dog a secret.

My other crit buddy, Cliff McNish, has just launched My Friend Twigs - about a girl's friendship with a cockatoo

I didn't manage to make it to the launch of The Crowham Martyrs the other day. But here's a picture of author Jane McLoughlin looking glamorous at the event. I loved her first novel At Yellow Lake and I'm so looking forward to reading this new one!

There are more book launches coming up ... including one that involves Cleopatra ... but I'll save that one for another blog post!

My Year in Books 2014

They say books hold up a mirror to who you are, as well as windows to other worlds. I thought I'd look back at what I read in 2014 to see where I've been!

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WARM UP  

Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell was the first book I read in 2014. It is set in 1986 -  the year I met my husband, the year the Philippines had a revolution. The details are super authentic and made think: hey, Rainbow Rowell must be MY age! But when I looked her up, oh boy. She's just a baby compared to grizzled old me.

Here Lies Arthur by Philip Reeve. I've got a proper version of this book of course. But I had a sudden longing to read the opening chapters again. So I got a Kindle version too. Anyone who loves good writing will adore this cross-dressing, re-envisioning of an epic tale.

Mister Pip by Lloyd Jones. Another re-reading! I am currently writing a historical novel, in which I'm crafting a massive culture clash not just between West and East, but between past and future. Because I write both for a Western and a Filipino audience, I am constantly aware that what one reader from one culture will find acceptable may be totally repulsive to another. I went back to Mister Pip to experience again how Lloyd Jones manages to be unflinchingly true to a painful setting.

Running Girl by Simon Mason. This is a mystery of the hard-boiled kind - and its hero is a 16 year old genius / slacker named Garvie Smith, described by the Guardian as "sharper than Sherlock, more moral than Marlowe, and way too cool to be in school." Garvie solves a murder mystery while dodging his determined mum and Police Inspector Raminder Singh who is always just one step behind. Please let there be more Garvie mysteries.

I took forever writing Shine -- three years. But SF Said has to win the Endurance Prize, taking seven years to finish Phoenix. It's completely different from anything out there at the moment and don't miss the brilliant book trailer made by illustrator Dave McKean.

DARK AND LIGHT  

Then in February, I read three books that starred characters plagued by demons not of their own making. Unputdownable Salvage by Keren David takes a brother and sister separated by adoption and explores the painful realities of nature and nurture. In Close Your Pretty Eyes by Sally Nicholls you feel like a hapless companion to Olivia as she careens through her own emotional minefield. Tulip in The Tulip Touch by Anne Fine is in a similar predicament. I read it for the first time because I was speaking to some girls who'd just read it in class. We had a fantastic discussion about empathy.  

By March, the CILIP Carnegie shortlist was announced.

I read a couple of the happy ones first: Rooftoppers by Katherine Rundell  and Liar and Spy by Rebecca Stead. Man, there is such warmth and kindness in Rebecca Stead's books. And I loved the fortune cookie bit. Katherine Rundell has an engaging, whimsical style -- I hope there are more Rooftoppers books because the world on the rooftops part ended too quickly for me. I wanted more!
Then I read Anne Fine's Blood Family, which was wow but pretty heartbreaking. Anne Fine is never the first to look away when a plot is playing chicken.

I read Ghost Hawk by Susan Cooper of The Dark is Rising fame, not quite my thing but it had a twist right in the middle that jolted me right out of my seat! I love lyrical writing and debut Julie Berry of All the Truth That's In Me is definitely an author to watch! I started The Bunker Diary by Kevin Brooks, but I'm not a very brave reader and I had to stop fairly early on. I will try to finish it sometime. But with all the lights on.

Sadly, I got busy and didn't manage to read the other Carnegie books. The Bunker Diary won, and I was kicking myself for putting it down too quickly.

TALES OF THE UNEXPECTED  

My friend Cliff McNish is known for his creepy, scary books. His latest, published in April certainly gave me a start ... but for other reasons. Going Home, about dogs in a rescue centre, was sweet and heartwarming. Sweet? Heartwarming? Cliff McNish?

Speaking of heartwarming, another favourite author who's somehow turned to the light side is Marcus Sedgwick. The brilliant She is Not Invisible had no beheadings and no gruesome deaths.  Marcus, Cliff, are you guys on heartwarming medication or something?

About that time, my author pal Jon Mayhew (Mortlock) messaged to ask me to stand in for him at a school visit in my area. Sure, I said. And then, as authors do, we got to talking about books.

You've got to read The Girl Who Had All the Gifts by M R Carey, Jon said. But it's a zombie novel! I said. You'll see, he said. So I read it. Ahhh! Wonderful - I had no idea that zombie novels could be so filled with pathos.

USEFUL PROCRASTINATION  

About May, someone asked me what I was going to do about my unpublished novel Volcano Child.

Well ... I've cannibalised so many ideas and characters from Volcano Child for Tall Story and Shine. Volcano Child needs a total reimagining. So I'm thinking of turning it into a fantasy adventure for younger readers.

To research fantasy fiction, villains, monsters and magical settings, I read Doomspell by Cliff McNish, The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster and The Spiderwick Chronicles by Holly Black. Brilliant stuff.

What did I learn? It's NOT going to be easy. I had thought I could write the adventure book in the afternoon and my historical work-in-progress in the morning. No, no, no. Focus, Candy. I got back to work on the historical book.

PICTURE PERFECT  

Spring was an explosion of graphic novels.

I took an evening course in graphic novels at the suggestion of my friend Bridget Strevens who, ever since we met, has been convinced that I'm an illustrator pretending to be a writer.

After the course (with Emily Haworth-Booth), I realised that Bridget might be right. I LOVED it.

I realised that I'd been suppressing my love of drawing maybe because I can barely keep up with myself now, why take up yet another interest?

I think it's too late now to train to become an artist of the caliber of Craig Thompson (Habibi), Stephen Collins (The Gigantic Beard that Was Evil), Isabel Greenberg (The Encyclopedia of Early Earth) and Jon McNaught (Dockwood).

I was very much intrigued though by the non-fictionish storytelling of Pyongyang by Guy Delisle and Line of Fire by Barroux (translated by Sarah Ardizzone) and Fun Home, Alison Bechdel's autobiographical reflections.

The graphic novelist I'd most like to emulate? Marjane Sartrapi who applies magical realism to true stories like Chicken With Plums.

SUMMER OF LOVE  

Reading graphic novels reminded me that, before I became a novelist, I had wanted to write and draw picture books. I gave up when my picture book rejection pile outgrew its shoebox and turned to novel writing instead. Should I return to that dream?

In the summer I signed up for SCBWI's picture book retreat. What a joy to hang out with illustrators. They sit around scribbling in their sketchbooks all the time. It kind of re-orients your brain.

I've joined a picture book critique group to focus my mind. I'm writing picture books again. Fingers crossed, maybe this time I'll be more successful.

Meanwhile, oh the stories, oh the pictures, here are some picture books to fall in love with:

WORKING HARD, READING HARD  

Then I realised that I had to crack on with the novel I was writing. I had a big book tour in the Philippines in September and I had to make lots of progress before then.

So I went on a frenzy of research which involved buying obscure, out of print books from obscure out of print online bookstores, downloading lots of diaries and old government documents from Open Library and, sigh, lovely research time at the British Library.

It looks like hard work, but the truth is ... it's addicting. I have to physically force myself to stop researching and get on with writing the book!

Go, go, go!

PINOY READS 

In September, I had an incredible book tour in and around Manila to launch Shine in the Philippines. Nineteen events in ten days! It was tough but wonderful. Unfortunately it meant I didn't get a chance for my usual trawl of Manila's bookshops. 

I did manage to acquire some treasure.

The delightful school series Supremo by Xi Zuq, illustrated by Al Estrella is funny, sweet and totally Filipino. Woman in a Frame by Raissa Rivera Falgi is about a girl who discovers the story behind a painting.

Moymoy Lulumboy Ang Batang Aswang (Moymoy Boy Monster) by Segundo Matias opens with a strange creature clutching a baby passing unnoticed in a mall because people think he's part of a Cosplay event. Anina ng mga Alon by Eugene Evasco caught my eye because of its cover, and when I opened it, I was hooked by the lyrical prose (you can hear me reading passages from it here). Fish Hair Woman by Merlinda Bobis -- I haven't read it yet but there's a woman with 12 metres of hair who trawls the river for corpses ... what's not to like?

The coolest thing I spotted though had to be Jomike Tejido's new series Jepoy Dyip (that's Filipino spelling for Jeep). Not only is it a young fiction series with lots of stories and cool characters, its a build it yourself town! Each episode introduces a new vehicle character. I bought the whole series for my nephew. I mentioned Jomike's incredible Foldabots characters and low cost pop up books in a video about the Asian Festival of Children's Content back in 2012.

READING SOON!  

Yup, I've done a lot of reading this year. A lot of it work-related. Which is my excuse for not yet reading Shattered, the third book in my friend Teri Terry's trilogy. I've left it so long, I'm going to have to start from the beginning and read all three in one go.

Another series I've got to catch up with is Mo O'Hara's My Big Fat Zombie Goldfish. I blinked and three came out all at once! And there's going to be a picture book too! (Wait, was that a secret? I hope not)

2015 is gonna be a delight though. I'm SO looking forward to the publication of my friend Jeannie Waudby's book One of Us. Go, Jeannie!

Another friend Jo Franklin just got a book deal in the United States. At last, I will be able to read her book Hilf Ich Bin Ein Alien (Help! I'm An Alien!) in English!

The Secret Dog by Joe Friedman is out in May. Joe's in my fiction critique group and I've read all the early versions. Can't wait to see it in print!

Chitra Soundar is in my other critique group and she seems to be roaring away with her Farmer Falgu series -- Old Macdonald doesn't hold a candle to what Farmer Falgu gets up to! I just got a copy of her second Farmer Falgu and I can't wait to read it!

And what about Sarah McIntyre? I haven't seen my lovely illustrator friend all year except via her blog. She's published THREE books this year -- There's a Shark in the Bath, Jampires with David O'Connell, Cakes in Space with Philip Reeve  -- how will I ever catch up? The woman is a whirlwind!

And hey, Jane McLoughlin, is your new book out in 2015?

In related news, writing buddy Kathryn Evans has at long last been discovered - her book More of Me will be published by Usborne in 2016. I've been in critique groups with Kathy and she writes with a to die for voice. Look out, world, your favorite author is about to be published! You can read about her amazing book-to-be here and her inspiring blog post announcing the deal is here.

... that was MY Reading Year. I can't wait to see what books will be coming my way in 2015. What was YOUR reading year like?