One Week UP

We’ve had a splendid first week! Thank you so much to everyone who’s viewed, read and especially, everyone who’s commented. We love comments; they’re the life of our magazine. Thank you.

I’m trying not to obsess about numbers and I'm rationing myself to stats glimpses only three times a day but a mathematician I know says numbers describe the universe. They're describing the extent of our Words & Pictures universe and I’m really pleased they show that we do have some Internet umph. We're getting about 600 page views a day and many people have been really kind with their tweets and comments.  Our reboot was announced on book2book and Books for Keeps have endorsed us too. So yes, I'm UP! 

And it’s April 1st. Happy All Fools! 

The theme for the month is Making a Living as a Writer or an Illustrator. You may think that trying to make a living doing this thing we love doing is foolish. The general consensus of what I’ve seen on the web is that if you’re thinking of giving up your day job, don’t.  You may also think that this would bring me down but it doesn't, even without a rich partner, and if you bear with me, I'll tell you why.

We have to accept that making a living from writing or illustrating alone is hard; for the majority of writers and illustrators the numbers don’t add up.

"The median income for authors is £4,000 and only the top 10% of authors earn 50% of the income."

This was taken from  Caroline Hooton's recent write up of the SCBWI Making a Living as a Writer professional series event. Sally Poyton, the event organizer has a “wish you‘d been there” report on Tuesday and for the rest of the month we have contributions from those who do make a living from what they love, albeit supplemented with related activities.

Some of us, nowhere near making a living, may be tempted to bottle out of trying to break through via traditional publishing and go it alone. However, as far as financial gain is concerned, there’s as much disillusionment with self-publishing as there is with the traditional process. We’re hoping to address this disillusionment with the traditional route in our monthly Ask a Publisher with Sara O’ Connor and Hot Key Books. Please do continue to ask questions via the comments or by mailing writers@britishscbwi.org. Be bold, ask anything!

The answer to the self-publishing problem and the route to untold riches, as far as I can see, is writing a book that NO-ONE can put down. Simples. In which case, publishers should be clamouring to buy it. Obviously, that is not simple, so why do we even try?

Jonny Geller, says

I’ve read lots of writers who say they’re addicted to writing. I’m not one of them. I find it hard. What I am addicted to is the creation of the world and the rush of feeling when I’m pretending to be someone else. I’m addicted to brave new thoughts, ideas and connections. I love connections. I’m addicted to trimming and shaping, often out of existence, hence my poor blogging record. If I have to write to feed these addictions, that's how it must be.

So, how is it for you?

Do you write or illustrate... 

• to be rich (probably not)
• to be famous (ditto)
• because you love writing (possibly)
• because you can't not (getting close)
• because the thrill of creating a world of your own, filled with beings, human and otherwise, that you want to be with, that you’re fascinated by, who you want to be, is so compelling, so satisfying that it's a deep, yet basic need. It’s like air and food to you. To not do it would turn you into a dried up shrivelled husk of person?

I’d love to know why you do what you do and if you are making a living by it, how. 

I do hope you enjoy what we have to offer this month and very much look forward to reading what you have to say,

Jan Carr

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Jan Carr is the editor of Words & Pictures. Her fiction is older middle grade, she blogs occasionally and loves to write in magenta.

Writing Spaces - where do we write, draw and dream?

An Interview with Kimberly Pauley
by Michelle Newell

In this series, we take a peek into the places and spaces where our authors and illustrators imagine, plan and create. This week, we chat to Kimberly Pauley, a full-time writer of YA fiction. 



She is American and lives in West London with her husband and five year old son. Kimberly is the author of Sucks to Be Me, Still Sucks to Be Me, and Cat Girl’s Day Off. 

You’ve had three Young Adult books published, with another on the way. Were they all written in the same place and space?

Oh no – we’ve moved three times since then. The first book I wrote when we were living in an 1893 Victorian in Kentucky. My office was in the former lady’s dressing room of this old house and I had this half-circular writing desk with a leather top. It was really lovely and completely impractical. I banged the first book out sitting in the front parlour window. Then we moved to Chicago and I had an office space with bookshelves all along one wall, a huge oak desk and big red leather chair, and I wrote mostly sitting looking out the window. That second book was written after I had a baby, so it was a little challenging to go out. My third book I also wrote mostly in that same office. My fourth book, which is going to come out in 2014, was written here in London, even though it’s set in Florida. I wrote most of it in one café around the corner from our house and at a pub called the Elgin in Ladbroke Grove. They have big cushy couches and sometimes they light the fireplace.

You’re experimenting with finding different spaces to write in now. What do you look for in a public writing space?

Since I have a really rubbish laptop battery I often look for somewhere I can plug in! Lately I’ve been trying to write with other people, because writing is such a solitary occupation. It’s nice to have other people there who are doing the same type of thing you’re doing. I posted on Facebook and I found a few people to join me, including some people I met at the SCBWI Conference. We’ve been writing mostly at the British Library, and we’ve also tried the Wellcome Collection and the Metropolitan pub at Baker Street tube. Our choices are determined by tube lines!

You write mainly humorous fiction for girls but you’ve also written something darker recently.

That’s the book that’s going to come out next. It’s definitely strange writing darker things around other people because what you’re writing is really intense. I had some scenes with more intense kissing [than my usual books] and it felt strange to be writing those private comments in a café with people walking around me. I felt sorry for my poor character! With funny books, it’s lighter and easier to write in public. If I crack myself up, people think I’m just the strange lady in the corner, whereas if I’m writing about killing somebody, I feel a little more exposed [laughs].

You also write at home, and I’ve seen on Facebook that you’ve succeeded in your quest to find the perfect writing desk!

I moved in September. Before that we were in a two bed flat and I was working on the kitchen table. It was hard, and my husband [the family cook] didn’t like coming home with the computer and paper everywhere! We moved into a bigger home with an office/guest bedroom. I like old things, and I didn’t want to go to Ikea and get a throwaway desk – there’s no romance to mass-produced stuff. We live near Portobello Road and we went through all the antique and restoration shops. I finally found a desk that I really liked – it’s black and has a weird rub to it with red undertones. We’re renting the house and it completely doesn’t go with anything in the room. But it doesn’t really matter. It’s about creating your own space kind of thing. It’s my everything room, with my craft things and then some writing books that I always like to have around.

What are they?

The ones I refer back to are Stephen King’s On Writing and another one that is probably more new-agey than I would go for, called Writing Down the Bones (by Natalie Goldberg). I write a lot of young fiction, so I also have a book called Writing Magic by Gail Carson Levine which I had signed by her. I’ve figured out what works for me now – and everybody’s different. You can read a billion bits of advice from a billion different authors, and it’s not necessarily going to be the thing that works for you. You have to take the things that work for you.

To wrap up, what one thing would you always keep on your desk - wherever you travel in the world, wherever you live?

I do most of my writing directly into the laptop, but I do like to have a notebook and pen because my laptop is a huge old brick of a thing and I don’t always want to take it with me! I write character notes and snippets of scenes as they occur to me in books. Sometimes I’ll even write out a chapter in the notebook and take it home later and type it in. My husband got me an incredibly expensive pen for my [milestone] birthday in January, with green ink. I like coloured inks because they’re more fun.

That colourful writing matches the tone of your books.

Yeah, I’m a little goofy.

• Any space can be YOUR space. You can spend hours trying to make a space the perfect space, but it's more important to spend that time actually writing. 

• Learn to adapt to wherever you find yourself. I’ve written in pubs, cafes, parks, trains, my mother-in-law's living room... Get a notebook for those times when an idea or a scene hits you. You never know where you'll be when you need it.

• If you can, try and write with other people sometimes. Writing is very solitary and it's good to recharge by writing with others. 

If you find inspiration for your work in an interesting, strange or unique place, we'd love to hear from you. Please email writers@britishscbwi.org

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@michelnewel

Michelle Newell was born and raised in a country town in Australia. She taught history at an all-girls school before moving to England a decade ago to take up the thoroughly modern job of designing new schools. Michelle still loves anything old, and has compulsively collected ‘junk’, as her bemused family call it, since she was a girl. Her flat in London is crammed with fluffy 1950s ball gowns, daintily painted tea sets, and well-worn children’s toys. The stories she imagines behind each of her vintage treasures ultimately inspired her to fulfil a long-held ambition to write novels with an historic twist for young adults. Michelle is currently working on her first novel and is represented by Jenny Savill at Andrew Nurnberg Associates. 

Slush Pile Challenge 2013

We are pleased to announce our first 2013 Slush Pile Challenge. This competition is now closed.

This time we are launching the challenge to coincide with the launch of Words & Pictures and the challenge is going completely online.

Our inaugural challenge is from the amazing 

Anne Clark of Anne Clark Literary Agency.

Over to Anne, now.

I have been lucky enough to work in children’s books for twenty years. Until late 2012, I was a commissioning editor at independent publisher Piccadilly Press and before that a commissioning editor/editorial director at Hodder Children’s Books. I cut my editorial teeth in educational publishing, having started my career with a brief spell in marketing, following an English degree at Oxford. www.anneclarkliteraryagency.co.uk

Anne's challenge sounds simple. Or is it?

THE CHALLENGE: Send in a paragraph pitch for a middle grade novel by 28th April 2013.

THE REWARD:

Anne Clark will pick a winner and arrange to have a meeting with the winner by phone or in person for 30 minutes.

Do you have the winning pitch? Send it in NOW! 

THIS COMPETITION IS NOW CLOSED.
Results and details of the next challenge will be announced soon.

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Who is eligible?

• You need to be a current SCBWI un-agented member, resident in the UK. 
• If your entry is selected for a given Slush Pile Challenge, you will not be able to enter for any other challenges.

To join SCBWI and take advantage of the many opportunities to raise your profile: market your work, meet fellow writers, artists, the gatekeepers to publication, while being supported in the development and pursuit of your craft, visit scbwi.org.

What do you need to do?

Send in your paragraph pitch in a Word Document to competitions@britishscbwi.org by 28th April 2013. Please do not forget to include your name and email adress.

The Process

Chitra will choose 15 entries randomly and send to the agent for review.

The agent will pick a winner and also tell us why.

The winner will be put in touch with the agent, for a 30-minute phone / personal meeting.

Good Luck Everyone!

Elizabeth Dale adds to her pile of 25 published books!

Elizabeth  Dale

Elizabeth Dale dreamed of being a writer but somehow got side-tracked into doing a physics degree and managing the NHS. When her daughters were born she returned to her dream, writing thousands of short stories for magazines all over the world. But she enjoyed reading children’s books to her daughters so much, she decided to try writing them and found it such fun. 

She’s had an amazing twenty-five books published, from picture-books to age 11, other recent books are - When Betsy Came to Babysit (Tamarind), The Carrot Cake Catastrophe (Gullane) and three Igloo story collections. Elizabeth lives in a village in Sussex and is a stalwart member of Chi SCBWI.

Off to Market was published  by Frances Lincoln on 3rd January 2013

My Secret Alien was published by Egmont for their  Green Banana imprint on 4^th March

Competition Success for Wendy Storer and Philippa Francis.

Competitions can be a fantastic jumping off point for  your writing career. So many SCBWI people have had a great start from our own Undiscovered Voices .
Mslexia and The Times/Chicken House are two highly respected competitions that have also led on to success for our members so I am delighted to say that members Wendy Storer of our North West Network and Philippa Francis of South East, were both shortlisted for  Mslexia Children’s Novel Competition 2012/2013. Not only that , Philippa was also longlisted for The Times/chicken House competion with the same  novel 'The Selkies of Scoresby Nab'  and Wendy went on to become runner-up in the Mslexia competition with her novel ‘Bring me Sunshine.’

Wendy Storer

Wendy writes real life fiction for young teens. Having worked in several jobs she quite liked, she finally found one she really likes. Writing. She currently self-publishes her books through Applecore Books, and runs Magic Beans Literary Services to help other children’s writers develop their craft.
Wendy lives in the beautiful Lake District, once home to famous children’s authors, Beatrix Potter, Arthur Ransome and John Cunliffe, although her books are nothing like theirs. She hopes that one day people will say, “The beautiful Lake District? Once home to famous children’s author, Wendy Storer?”

Philippa Francis

Philippa writes as K. M. Lockwood,  she gained an MA in Creative Writing at West Dean College in 2011 after several years of teaching and tutoring. She comes from Yorkshire but now lives by the shore in Sussex where she can often be found beach-combing and day-dreaming. She’s a founder member of Chi Scbwi and one of SCBWI’s fabulous volunteer team. Philippa also blogs as The Wedding Ghost.

If these two have inspired you to enter a competition,  keep an eye open for Undiscovered Voices news!

Carnegie Nominees, SCBWI Salutes You!

Dave Cousins

The Cilip Carnegie Medal is perhaps the most coveted prize in children's fiction. Awarded by the Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals, Previous winners read like a roll call of the best stocked library: Meg Rossoff, Patrick Ness, Neil Gaiman, Mal Peet, Frank Cotterell Boyce, Siobhan Dowd. It sits alongside the Kate Greenaway Medal for Illustration as an acknowledgement of success to be yearned for. To be longlisted for the Carnegie Medal is an honour, a moment in your writing career to treasure.

Elizabeth Wein

 SCBWI's Dave Cousins' 15 Days Without A Head , Jane Mcloughlin's At Yellow Lake, and Elizabeth Wein's Code Name Verity all made the longlist for 2013. Huge congratulations to all three of them for such a fantastic achievement and an extra loud round of applause for Elizabeth Wein.

 Elizabeth is the author of The Winter Prince and The Lion Hunter series, set in Arthurian Britain and ancient Ethiopia. Her most recent novel for teens, Code Name Verity, is a World War II story about the unbreakable friendship between an Air Transport Auxiliary pilot and a Special Operations Executive spy. Code Name Verity is on UKLA Book Award Short List the SCBWI Crystal Kite Award Short List and the Los Angeles Times Book Prize Short List! This wonderful book has also won the ALA Printz Award Honor Book and the SCBWI Golden Kite Award Honor Book as well as being and Edgar Award Nominee AND, it hit the New York Times Bestseller List for three weeks in January February of this year. In addition to all that, drum roll please.... Code Name Verity has now been SHORTLISTED for the CILIP Carnegie Medal!

Jane Mcloughlin

 I’ll give you one second to get your breath back before I tell you, unsurprisingly, foreign rights for translation of Code Name Verity have just been announced in Publisher's Marketplace for sales to the Netherlands (at auction!), Italy, Sweden, Turkey, in addition to complex and simplified Chinese. A Spanish edition is out this month.
 Dave Cousins, Jane Mcloughlin and Elizabeth Wein, SCBWI salutes you!
May you go on to more and more success. Don't miss Candy Gourlay's interview with Elizabeth Wein.

Two Times Teri Delivers Double Delight!

Teri Terry

Hoorah Hoorah! Teri Terry has earned an astonishing list of nominations and awards for her first teen  novel Slated. 

In addition to winning the recent North East Teenage Book Award, Slated has been short-listed for the Leeds Book Award in the 14-16 category, Portsmouth Book Award in the longer novels category, Sussex Coast Schools Amazing Book Award, Rib Valley Book Award, Angus Book Award, and Rotherham Book Award in the teen reads category. It has also been long-listed for the Branford Boase Award, and short listed for the SCBWI Crystal Kite award!

Slated was published in the UK in May 2012  by Orchard Books, and was launched in the US by Penguin Imprint Nancy Paulsen Books on 24th January. As if this amazing list isn't enough, Slated has been recently optioned for a film by Prescience. 

Teri Terry has lived in France, Canada, Australia and England at more addresses than she can count, acquiring three degrees, a selection of passports and a silly name along the way.
 Moving constantly as a child, teenager and also as an adult has kept Teri on the outside looking in much of her life. It has given her an obsession with characters like Kyla in Slated, who don't belong or find themselves in unfamiliar places.

I think a place firmly in the heart of publishing is where Teri Terry belongs and I promise more good news is on the way -  two hoorahs aren't nearly enough! 

Educational success for Janet Foxley and Carmel Waldron

Carmel Waldron

Congratulations to Carmel Waldron for her work on educational books. Her Oxford Literature Companions:on To Kill a Mockingbird and Of Mice and Men are both recently published. Janet Foxley also continues to delight with her book The House in the Forest recently published by Collins Educational.  

Janet Foxley

Janet's book is beautifully illustrated by Keino and is designed to help develop reading stamina.

  

Janet had been writing for thirty-five years and was an OAP by the time her first book was published as a result of winning the Times/Chicken House competition.  Muncle Trogg, published in 2011, was short-listed for a number of awards and sold to 22 countries.  It has also been optioned by Sony for an animated film.

Muncle Trogg and the Flying Donkey followed in 2012 and Janet is now working on another fairy-tale featuring a dragon and a princess, but this time no giants.

What Did Jo Franklin Get For Christmas?

Jo Franklin

I'm  happy to report that Jo Franklin did not get a mouldy satsuma and half a dozen nuts in her christmas stocking. Jo got herself  an agent! Anne Clark of the Anne Clark Literary Agency.

Anne says, What drew me most to Jo's writing was the confident and skilful way she combines a funny, far-fetched plot with an engaging, very believable context of family, friends and school. Daniel's interactions with his annoying big sister and his best friends feel authentic as well as comic, and I love the way Jo weaves through a subtle theme of fitting in (or not) which makes us care about the characters and builds to a satisfyingly warm but schmaltz-free ending.

Jo writes every day in Peckham library. Her favourite seat is sandwiched between thrillers and The Unexplained with a great view of the pie and mash shop.

Jo uses her rejection letters to prop up her wobbly desk. Her favourite SCBWI event is the retreat as it’s the perfect excuse to go away for the weekend with her brilliant friends.

She is writing middle grade boys humour.

We look forward to more success for Jo soon - well done Jo!

FEATURED ILLUSTRATOR Bridget Strevens-Marzo: a roundabout road

Bridget Strevens-Marzo is this month's Featured Ilustrator. Visit her gallery on the Showcase. Bridget tracks her roundabout road through words and pictures.

The Banner
Thank you W&P team for choosing this spread from Mini Racer by Kristy Dempsey to launch the new blogzine! Family illness interrupted my work on it in 2008. Bloomsbury published it in 2011, just before I moved to East London after over 2 decades in France.

Kristy's text is a rollocking rhyme with no mention of who exactly Mini Racer is. So I was free to create characters and invent several visual sub-plots. And I wanted the slowest and most generous character to win.

first rough character sketches for Mini Racer ©Bridget Strevens-Marzo

After I’d finished, I realized some of the vehicles were like later models of Richard Scarry's cars - which I'd seen as a child. Here’s a storyboard done before I changed the first two spreads: 

Second rough storyboard for Mini Racer (ink line and photoshop) © Bridget Strevens-Marzo

I spent ages on the grey-blue road texture of the original US edition. Waterstones UK wanted the cover changed to a flat yellow before they would sell it in their shops. Which cover do you prefer?

US cover

UK cover

My path to publication

Without the Puffin Club, I might never have been an author-illustrator. Among my collection of timeless Puffin Posts from the early 70s, I recently found an encouraging note (below right in red ink) from Puffin editor Kaye Webb, accompanying a book token and pin cushion (of all things!) for a piece I wrote aged around 9, about happiness.  "It's quite difficult to know what you haven't got" she writes.  But recognition for what I loved doing was the best prize ever.

My Sixth Form English teacher suggested I try for Cambridge University rather than art school because at 18, I could write well enough. I chose King’s College because they had an art studio, and juggled between words and pictures, studying Chinese and Art History and illustrating for Granta & student newspapers.
As a student I painted this portrait of my artist father John Strevens. From an East End background, and against the odds, he ended up supporting a wife and four daughters with his painting. I learnt perseverance from him.  

John Strevens in his studio © Bridget Strevens 1979

After graduating I joined my Catalan mother’s family in Paris, attending the Ecole des Beaux Arts and copying at the Louvre. Later I translated the UK edition of a huge book about Matisse. Monet’s letters and other translations followed - a roundabout way into publishing, as were my illustrations to poetry (I know a few poets!) and the odd book cover like this 1985 fictional portrait of Lolly Willowes by Sylvia Townsend Warner reproduced recently in the Times Literary Supplement.

Cover for Lolly Willowes by Sylvia Townsend Warner ©Bridget Strevens,1985

When my oil paintings were lost in a fire in my house in Senlis near Paris, a friend reminded me of my childhood dream of making children’s books.  As a child travelling abroad I had focused on small things- peculiar breakfasts, different sweets -  so I included this in the first story I wrote and illustrated, Toto in Paris.  

Three books later and before my second child was born, I landed a dream job for a while as a salaried author-illustrator, brainstorming and storyboarding CD Roms for children.  The multi-layered stories, comics, games and things to do and make that I loved in Rupert Annuals and the Puffin club attracted me to the exciting but slippery interactive world. Interactive content needs anchoring to reach its users; stand-out characters, a clearly-defined concept or a niche market help - and physical media too. It’s not an either-or situation and it's making everything more exciting. I see that

e-books are encouraging better-looking printed books.  

We all, kids included, need a variety of things to hold, that look and feel good.  
With my first computer in the late 1990s I created two novelty book projects with a very different approach, all about hands-on exploration.

My first web site in the late 1990s, led to a commission to illustrate Margaret Wild’s Kiss, Kiss!  A co-edition success in a more traditional style, it brought me other book commissions and success in the US with publishers like Harper Collins.   Alongside that, graphic games and stories for French children’s magazines pushed me into new experiments that led to doodle books  which also sold in many co-editions including the Tate UK.  At last a steady income from illustrating children's books, though less time to write my own!

       

children's magazine illustrations by Bridget Strevens-Marzo, Bayard Presse France

Enthusing (all too easily!) about other people’s books as well as enjoying working discussions, helped with work as SCBWI International Illustrator Co-ordinator and on the Board of Advisors.  And now I’ve been asked to be occasional contributing editor to the Association of Illustrator’s magazine Varoom.  I give talks and illustration workshops for kids and adults, for the SCBWI and art schools.  A long and windy road to publication in very different UK, US, French and Australian cultures, taught me a lot.

Living a new life in buzzing Spitalfields and cycling to a shared Clerkenwell studio, I’m working on my own stories and concepts again after years of illustrating others. Fingers crossed for exciting news about those soon!

My process 

I adapt my approach to the purpose of the book. And it feels like beginning again every time, until I find the right tools for the job.   

That said, I use a pencil, a thin Pentel G-tec pen or more boldly a Pentel Brush Pen to sketch out ideas and work them up to scan in.  I also love painting directly in gouache, though I use simple splashy paintbrushes in Photoshop too.  My graphic pen allows me to be messy and experiment with layers, playing with paint and scraperboard, and testing out colour combinations.  But right now I’m working away in a shared studio when I can escape the computer. It can suck you in, and aggravate deadening perfectionism.  I fight to keep things fresh.  

My publishing tip

My first publishing deals were made over a detailed storyboard I had roughed out with a text I had written, later revised with the editor's help.  If you simply rely on a portfolio of single illustrations, at best you’ll have to wait until the publisher finds the right story for you.

Use SCBWI critique groups and workshops to help you develop your own story or concept across a standard format. 

Don’t worry if it’s rough or incomplete. On the contrary a perfect finished book dummy risks prompting publishers to ask ‘why not publish it yourself?’ If you can show characters in different situations in a readable sequence, you’ll stand out from portfolios with a gallery of single illustrations.  If a publisher loves the glimpse of a world in your story, they will help you finish the text - and you’ll earn more too!

Useful links

http://www.pencils4artists.co.uk (big choice of cheap pencils and brush pens) 
http://www.varoom-mag.com    the illustrator magazine

To see Bridget's Featured Illustrator Gallery click here!

Bridget's illustrator site http://www.bridgetstrevens.com
Bridget's blog  http://bridgimage.blogspot.com

INTERVIEW Elizabeth Wein: twenty years to overnight success

Candy Gourlay interviews Elizabeth Wein on the heady success of her novel Code Name Verity which was on the New York Times bestseller list and recently shortlisted for the Carnegie Medal ... among others.

Elizabeth was born in New York but lived in England, Jamaica and Pennsylvania when she was growing up. She has lived in Scotland for more than a decade. Her first five books for young adults are set in Arthurian Britain and sixth century Ethiopia. Her interest in flying is what sparked the idea for Code Name Verity. Website: www.elizabethwein.com Visit her blog.

It has been an amazing year for Elizabeth Wein, author of the much lauded Code Name Verity. In addition to the list in the sidebar below, Code Name Verity is also on over thirty 'Best of the Year' lists for 2012 including Amazon, Barnes & Noble, iBookstore and the New York Times; it's also shortlisted for five regional awards here and in the United States. Huge congratulations, Elizabeth!

CODE NAME VERITY
Awards
Printz Honour
Golden Kite Honour
Boston Globe/Horn Book Award Honor Book
Booklist Best Audio Book 2012
Shortlists
Carnegie Medal
Crystal Kite Prize for Europe
UKLA Book Award
The Edgar
The L.A. Times Book Prize
The Scottish Children's Book Award
The Northeast Children's Book Award
The Goodreads Choice Awards
The Cybils

The total Code Name Verity tally is so ridiculously embarrassing that I try not to talk about it in public.

One of the really neat things that happened was making it onto the New York Times bestseller lists seven months after the book's release. Because all my other books had basically stopped selling by that long after their launch dates. It was the "Mock Printz" winner in eight library teen reading groups that I'm aware of. Those last ones aren't real awards, but it means a LOT to me to know that teens love it!

Did you know when you finished writing it that it was special?



Well, I posted on my blog that I was brain dead and that I'd just finished the Best Damn Book I'd Ever Written. I knew it was good but I really had no idea, no idea at all, how astonishing the reception would be.

So what's the count? How many years did it take to become an overnight success?


Twenty!

THE LION HUNTERS PENTALOGY

Hah! Jacqueline Wilson once said "It took me many years to become an overnight success."  How does it feel to be another Jacqueline Wilson?


I don't think I'm at Jacqueline Wilson status QUITE yet! In many ways I got lucky. The publisher can send a book to the NYTimes but they can't guarantee it'll get a reviewer to look at it.

A thing that's kind of bittersweet about the success is that it will never again be so surprising and new. Even if I write another book as good as CNV (and I have a lot of doubts about my ability to repeat that performance), it will never be a voyage of discovery like this year has been.

And also, the chances of ever topping this year or living up to it are pretty slim! Actually, if this had happened earlier in my career, I might expect it always to be this good, and I'd be heading for a fall.

As it is, I've had too many books quietly remaindered to allow me to fully let go of my somewhat jaundiced view of the publishing industry. But CNV has gone a long way toward making me put grudges behind me.

I've had too many books quietly remaindered to allow me to fully let go of my somewhat jaundiced view of the publishing industry.

Code Name Verity seems such a long way from your other Arthurian fantasy books ... what was the journey that led you to writing this book?

If you think of my other books as spy thrillers, which they are, it's not such a leap to make. I guess the main thing that propelled the change was that I desperately wanted my characters to be able to FLY! In the last published book of the Arthurian/Aksumite sequence, the main character, Telemakos, becomes a ship's pilot. I was totally aware of the pun.

I should probably explain that in 2003 I got my own private pilot's license, and it just made me want to write about flight!

OMG that's so cool ... What do you fly?



I learned to fly in Cessna 152s - two-seater fixed-wing training aircraft (piston engine). Lately I've been flying a Piper Warrior, which is slightly bigger (4 seats) and more comfortable - mainly I find I can see better in a Warrior. I also had trouble reaching the rudder pedals in the Cessna 172, which is the bigger version of the 152! ... and I flew a seaplane once! OK, I will stop before I lose everybody in the so-called "technical details."

When did you first join SCBWI and why? Were you already published or like so many of us unpublished and optimistic?


You know, I can't remember not knowing about the SCBWI. I have been a member since 1991 and I am sure I joined when I sold my first book, being unaware that I could join as an associate (that was The Winter Prince, published in 1993). I was living in Philadelphia and was part of the Eastern Pennsylvania Chapter.

Basically, I just really wanted to meet other writers! It never occurred to me this would also be a good way to meet editors & agents.

Having said that, volunteering for the SCBWI led directly to my current agent and my long-time editor at my previous publisher. It's defnitely the most important professional move I ever made, though sometimes indirectly.

You've still got the same agent?  I imagine that the olden SCBWI British Isles used to be something of a support group for American expat children's writers?


For me it was a support group, but not all our original group were expats. Valerie Wilding, Ragnhild Scamell and Gus Smith were also members among the first group. I've been with my current agent, Ginger Clark, since 2001 or 2002. I did have another briefly before that, but never an agented book sale till Ginger came along!

Have you written the next book? I'll bet it's going to be hard!

It's done! It comes out in the UK on 3 June this year! Here's the Goodreads link, with the beautiful Canadian cover:

It was hard to write - it was like writing my "second book" all over again. But it's done. I had a deadline and a lot of pushing. And actually it's so unlike Code Name Verity that I don't think it'll suffer from "oh well this isn't as good as her last one." It is very, very different.

I have to write another one for 15 September. Blargh. That's actually one of the scary things about success - people want MORE and they want it FAST. And I find it's hard to keep the quality up to standard when I'm producing fast - also, I feel that there is a certain amount of magic missing from the process, for me as an artist.

I so agree! You called this year a voyage of discovery ... so, can you share with us what you have discovered?


I meant I was being discovered. The CILIP website has me listed as a "debut" author.



That's hilarious! ... When you compare CNV with your previous books can you pinpoint the thing you did differently, that special spark that made it a winner?


I don't think I did do things differently from my previous books. I still think The Sunbird is a perfect and beautiful book, the best I've written apart from Code Name Verity. But I do think that one of the big differences is the effect of the internet. One thing that did really amaze me is the power of bloggers, and the internet, and how easy it is to share enthusiasm for books and how easy it is for people to connect with authors.

In 2008, when The Empty Kingdom came out, I put together an online launch for it and it was such a new idea that I wrote an article about it for the SCBWI Bulletin (Open Invitation, Jan/Feb 2009).

By 2012, when Code Name Verity came out, it was pretty normal for people to celebrate book birthdays with lots of online reaching out.

Also, online reviews and book bloggers were just not as prevalent in 2008, and I think that Code Name  Verity's success owes a LOT to its enthusiastic reception by readers.

One thing that did really amaze me is the power of bloggers, and the internet

So in the grind of being a bestselling author (ha ha) how do you recapture the "magic"?



How do you recapture the magic... I don't know, I'm trying to figure it out. Take long walks! I get good ideas when I'm walking.

Celia Rees (author of Witch Child) famously tells unpublished authors they are not just writing a debut novel they should be trying to write a BREAKTHROUGH novel. That's what CNV is.


Code Name Verity is definitely and definitively a BREAKTHROUGH novel. But honestly, I didn't sit down and think, "I must write a breakthrough novel." (Actually, I thought The Sunbird would be my breakthrough novel.) I just thought, OMGOMG this is going to be a FREAKING AWESOME BOOK and I have to write it. And actually, I was kind of between publishers and considered myself lucky the new one didn't make me change my name for the fresh start.

Finally can you leave W&P readers some words of wisdom about making it and surviving your own success?


I haven't survived my success yet. Ask me again in September when the next book deadline comes up. I am riding a wave which may drown me.

But here are some words of wisdom:

HAVE FAITH. I have really prayed and prayed for grace - just the ability to accept whatever comes and to deal with it. And to not be envious, because that is just a killer thing. I struggle and struggle with it.

And to point out that CNV follows no rules. There aren't any rules. Don't try to second guess the market. Just write the best book you can. Write for YOURSELF.

Don't play Minesweeper. Stay off Twitter. Don't Google yourself.

Take long walks.

Don't forget to talk to people face to face.

USE EVERYTHING.

Thanks so much - and congratulations again. It's been fascinating, uplifting, and jealous-making all at the same time. May Code Name Verity continue to take you to great heights and may all the novels that follow continue to conjure the magic that keeps all of us at our keyboards.

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Candy Gourlay is the author of Tall Story. Her second novel Shine is out in September 2013. She blogs on Notes from the Slushpile.  www.candygourlay.com