Merry Christmas 2019! #NoRoomAtTheInn

MERRY CHRISTMAS

and a

HAPPY NEW YEAR

to all my readers!

Quest to visit Tintagel Castle

Towards the end of this summer, I had the great delight of going to Cornwall on holiday. I wasn't staying that far from Tintagel Castle, so I made it a quest one day to visit the picturesque site associated with the legendary King Arthur.

Bath Children's Literature Festival 2019 - Lucy Strange

Lucy Strange

Writing Middle Grade with Lucy Strange

I spent a very enjoyable afternoon earlier this week getting tips on writing from author Lucy Strange at the Guildhouse, Bath as part of the Bath Children's Literature Festival 2019.

The masterclass session gave our group of twenty plus writers (at varying stages on their writing journeys) a chance to experiment with a mood board, listen to some mood music and chat with Lucy when she visited our tables during the breaks between topics.

Lucy's informative PowerPoint presentation gave advice on synopses, chapters, characters, editing and titles, amongst other things.

Useful things I learned: a synopsis doesn't have to be in chronological order; you can get grants for writing; don't let other people read your writing whilst it is trying to grow; you'll probably experience the five stages of grief (denial, anger, etc) when you receive feedback on your writing, so let it sit for a few days before you go back to it; it's not about us, the writers, but about the readers; if you can't come to the writing, let the writing come to you.

Afterwards, Lucy signed copies of her books, but there were no more copies of the one I wanted at the event, so I made a mad dash to Waterstones to buy Our Castle By The Sea and returned in time for Lucy to sign my copy (so my niece and nephews aren't the only ones to get autographed books at this festival!).

Mood board

Guildhouse

Meeting Bristol City Poet Vanessa Kisuule

Vanessa Kisuule

Today, I had the great pleasure of meeting poet Vanessa Kisuule when she held a pop up residency at Fishponds Library for the day. We chatted about poetry and writing, and Vanessa very kindly gave me a poem from one of several she had on her table.

I discovered that Vanessa is only the second person to have been given the role of Bristol City Poet, which she will hold until summer 2020, and she'll be holding more pop up residencies at other Bristol libraries over the next few months. Check out her website to see if she'll be coming to your area soon!

Begin by Brendan Kennelly

Bath Children's Literature Festival 2019 - Liz Cross and Julia Green

Julia Green and Liz Cross

My editor & Me: Liz Cross and Julia Green

Part of the Bath Children's Literature Festival 2019 is geared towards creative writing for adults, and this evening I attended a talk on the editorial process with editor Liz Cross and author Julia Green.

Their relationship has developed over several books, to the point that Julia now sends Liz the draft of her latest manuscript before she sends it to her agent. Liz also encourages Julia not to be too gentle in her plotting, but to push things further.

We also got to see a cover design sheet for one of Julia's books (which lists keywords or phrases from the book to generate ideas for a cover) and were shown the various concepts for the cover, which were narrowed down and tweaked until the publishers were satisfied with the final image.

Bath Children's Literature Festival 2019 - Harry Hill

Bath Children's Literature Festival is Europe's largest dedicated children's literature festival and this year takes place between Friday 27th September and Sunday 6th October (inclusive). A multitude of talks and activities will take place for children and teens over these days, with opportunities to meet a favourite author or attend a workshop on writing or drawing.

Handily, my sister and her family are visiting from Australia, so this morning we headed to the Forum in Bath and saw Harry Hill talk about comedy and his comedy heroes as well as his latest book, Matt Millz on Tour. The hour-long talk was a good blend of physical and verbal comedy and appealed to my nearly six-year-old niece and my eight and ten-year-old nephews (the man I was sat next to kept laughing out loud, too!).

Harry Hill

There was a chance afterwards to meet Harry Hill and have books signed, so my niece and nephews waited very patiently for this opportunity. The event got a big thumbs-up from them (as well as the pizza they had for lunch afterwards!).

My niece and nephews with Harry Hill

The Forum, Bath

A change of scenery

My current WIP features a unicorn, and my calendar this year is devoted to unicorns, by way of inspiration. Imagine my surprise when I turned to this month's page and found this familiar unicorn before me:

Why familiar? Because I already have this very same unicorn and maiden in another Anne Stokes picture on my wall with a very different background behind them. It just goes to show that even unicorns need a change of scenery from time to time!

Take time to wish...

If you never take time to wish, you will never have one come true...

Quest to unlock a puzzle box

Whilst on the hunt for a friend's 30th birthday present in Bath, I chanced upon a shop - Timber Treasures - that sold some delightfully crafty puzzle boxes. At first, I didn't realise what they were and tried sliding off the top of one, but to no avail. Was it broken? Had it jammed? Then I realised what it was.

As well as a pretty box for trinkets and keepsakes, it was a challenge: How fast could I unlock it? Not only did I have to work out which bits were movable/removable, I also had to follow the correct sequence for them.

Step 1

Step 2

Step 3

Nearly there!

Ta-dah!

Pretty cool, huh?

Quest to find FINALE's secret cover

FINALE by Stephanie Garber

All games must come to an end, and so it is with Stephanie Garber's CARAVAL trilogy.

FINALE - the third book in the series - released this month and, once again, there's a secret cover hidden under the dust jacket.

Before I reveal which secret cover I have, I'll give you the blurb for FINALE:

Sunday Times and #1 New York Times bestselling author Stephanie Garber takes us once again to the magical world of Caraval, where Scarlett and Tella Dragna must fight for their happy endings. . .

Caraval is over, but perhaps the greatest game of all has begun - with lives, empires, and hearts all at stake. There are no spectators this time: only those who will win, and those who will lose everything. Welcome, welcome to the Caraval's Finale. All games must come to an end . . .

FINALE's secret cover

'She refused to be afraid. Fear was poison to love.'

CARAVAL trilogy

Their secret covers

Quest to visit a quirky bookstore

The book I'm currently querying features a bookstore owned by my main character's family, and it was great fun imagining how I wanted the shop to look. A wraparound balcony overlooks the ground floor, and a spiral staircase leads up to where the rarer titles are shelved. It's always rather magical to see pictures of quirky bookstores, even if you never get the chance to pop inside them, but I was fortunate enough to visit a charming bookstore recently, following a recommendation by a friend.

Topping & Company Booksellers at The Paragon, Bath set the tone the moment you step through their doors with their floor-to-ceiling wooden bookcases and the ladders reaching the uppermost shelves. I was surprised how far back the shop extended and the range of books on sale. They hold many author events throughout the year and stock signed editions of their books. Rather charmingly, a lot of books with dust jackets were protected by a cover sleeve.

Who knows - maybe one day I'll hold my own author event there and sign copies of my books for fans! 😄