Number One Rule for New Authors...

I read a sad tale this morning of a prospective author scammed by an unscrupulous person posing as an illustrator. I am appalled that predatory scum-bags like this are out there preying on decent people. Shame on you. All we can do is arm ourselves with information, be vigilant and look out for each other. Trouble is when you are first starting out you don't know what you don't know. And you don't know who to ask or what, exactly, you should be asking about. One of my favourite bits of advise for aspiring writers is to join organisations like the NZSA, Storylines and Kiwiwrite4kidz, and make friends with other authors and illustrators. Because they are the people collectively who know. One of the first things I did when I made the decision to follow through on my crazy dream of being an author was join Storylines. And since those early days I have joined other groups and met a lot of authors and illustrators. If I have questions or uncertainties I ask these people. If they don't know they suggest people who might. I also spend a lot of time searching out information on the internet but I know where to look because I have spent a lot of time looking. There are ways to determine reputations. Ask around. Look after yourselves people. Of course the other problem now is that I may have experience and information at my fingertips but I don't always know what I know. I mean 'I know it' but I don't realise that it's information other people might not have. This is one of the key benefits of belonging to a community of authors and illustrators: you pick up a lot just by hanging out. We are communicative, word people. You cannot find a better source of information. Please, PLEASE don't let shyness stop you. Children's writers and illustrators in particular are the most down to earth, lovely, generous people you might ever meet. None of them (as far as I am aware) bite. We like helping each other. Come and join us :)

Shorts

• I recently had a lovely review of my YA thriller The Half Life of Ryan Davis from a very talented young teen which you can see here. 
• I have solved my title dilemma and am now working on my intermediate mystery cover. I will hopefully be able to reveal more soon. 
• Here is a great run-down on the importance and definition of what the premise of your book is, from blogger Stroppy Author. If you have this clear in your mind when you are writing your task will be easier. Go read it. Go on. 

I have not forgotten about Jack the Viking: Magnetic North...

It is very exciting when someone responds this way to something I have written. Thank you Brill, over at  Random Acts of Reviewing ( a brilliant name for a book review blog IMHO) for your very nice review of my book The Half Life of Ryan Davis.

I have finished (for the meantime) one project (yay!!) and I'm now at work on the next - the rewrite of Jack the Viking: Magnetic North. Hopefully this won't take me more than a couple of months (fingers crossed). I need to get cracking on my research project for my university paper although I have my topic sorted which in some respects is probably the hardest part of the whole endeavour (yay!!) and what's more my topic revolves around one of my most favourite recent reads (double yay with lashings of whipped things). I also have a new role as a NZ Authors mentor (yay some more!!). I'm really looking forward to working together with my assigned mentee on her writing project. I was a mentee on the scheme back in 2005/6 and it was a huge boost for my writing and for me personally. I am very happy to have the opportunity to pay it forward.

My eldest is nearing the end of her time away in the US and she is wrapping things up in style. This weekend just past she went to Prom with a good friend Ayla at Ayla's school (so she still has Prom at her own school to come). Here they are - Elora and Ayla - looking absolutely gorgeous.

and lucky Elora also got to go to Key West over Spring Break (we went there for a day during our family East-Coast-of-the-US odyssey back in 2007). Here she is with (almost all of) her host family The Glissons. Thank you Glisson family for taking great care of my daughter.

I got lost on the way to my happy place...

It has been a week of menial tasks and attending to the needs of others. A week of to'ing and fro'ing, ferrying, and sitting in parked cars. On Friday I sat in a hot, airless car in a featureless carpark in an industrial area for two hours, waiting. Sometimes it is what you have to do. I read a lot but conditions were not conducive to writing. It is hard to create when you feel like your brain is melting and your hungry stomach is about to turn on you and eat you from the inside out. Navman could not give me directions to my happy place. But then last night I understood how to bring the hero in one of my three projects back from an impossible place. Man did that feel good. I hope I get the chance soon to put that thought into words in my manuscript. Solutions come when you least expect them. The important thing is to know that the solutions will arrive. I keep the faith. It is my job as a writer. And sometimes it is the time away from the computer and the writing that yields the best results.

I am a fan of epiphanies. Sometimes they arrive close together and it leaves you wondering if they are not as important and starry as you think they are. Or perhaps they are and it is just part and parcel of the creative life to have as many as I do. Yesterday I had two. One when I realised how to rescue my hero, the other when I read this. Nicola Morgan knows how to explain things. It is clever and enlightening stuff. Go read it, it will improve your writing.

My next picture book Made with Love will be out next April (yay!!).

And over at Tall Tales and Short Stories you can read a review of my young teen novel The Half Life of Ryan Davis.

On the surface the story seems fairly straightforward, but boy is there a twist that I didn't see coming.  With any good thriller you try to work it out and, yes, with hindsight the clues are there, but the denouement took me by surprise and I loved the dark, rather disturbing twist and psychological sting in this tale.


This book is currently available as an e-book from Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and I-tunes and should be available for the Sony e-reader soon. The print version is currently available from fishpond.co.nz and should be in bookshops and on amazon soon. If you want a copy and are having trouble getting it let me know.

Paper prozac

It would be disingenuous of me to say I write for the pleasure of writing alone. I write in the hope that others will read my work with pleasure. I write to find the magic that filled the books I loved as a child. I write to replicate the happiness I find in the pages of a good read. Paper prozac. I want to read it, and write it. So it makes me feel very good when people say nice things about my books. Even more so when there is no tie of kin or friendship to temper their words. So yes I did do a little happy dance when I saw this review of The Half Life of Ryan Davis, 


"A disturbing story but compelling reading. Tightly told in short chapters which capture the teenage voice very well. Almost a detective/mystery novel but has more depth than that."

And this one of The House That Went to Sea.

"This beautifully produced book is a great little story, easy to read out loud and has that perfect combination of adventure and a little touch of sadness that makes the best kind of children’s books."

Do reviews influence readers and book buyers? I have asked this question before and there are no conclusive answers. I know I buy if I see a good review of the kind of book I like. But to me a review is a thumbs up for me as a writer. Someone enjoyed my book. People who read a lot and who know their apples have recommended my books to others. That is a significant reward in these tricky times. It is very encouraging. And it is a terrific antidote to rejections. Especially for the books in question.

If you have been wondering what I am up to now I confess I have become a total slack-arse. I have three novels to work on and instead I have been counting down to the release of the final Harry Potter movie on DVD (and am now preparing to watch it ad nauseum - yay), hanging with my children between their exams and trying to support and encourage them through their study (bless their little cotton socks). I have been reading a great quantity of other people's books which is a treat and an aid to my own writing and have been fascinated to find I have learnt more from the books I have read that weren't as well written as my faves were. It is easier to spot weaknesses than it is to point out the mechanics of great writing. And when the sum of all parts is greater than the individual parts, - fuggedaboutit. That's the magic.