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! 😄