December 1st - John Shelley

#W8PAdvent

See the whole image and the growing Advent calendar here.

jshelley.com

Do you have a Tweetable micro story for

John's illustration?

Post it in the comments and we'll tweet it with #W8PAdvent and your Twitter handle

Don't forget to allow for the # and the @

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It's Advent, are you ready.... for seasonal micro fiction?

After a month of novelling dangerously - hands up 1667 words a day #NaNoWriMo novelists - are you ready for a daily story-soaked 140 characters?
Yes, Paul and the marvellous illustrators have done it again and we have a completely new set of seasonal images for this year's advent calendar!

This is how it works:

• Every day in December we post a teaser image on W&P that links to a growing advent calendar of beautiful images from SCBWI illustrators.
• Each day we invite readers to comment on the post with a 'tweetable micro story' inspired by the day's image.
• @SCBWI_BI and @Words8Pictures will then tweet the comment with the hashtag #Advent and the commenter's twitter handle. So using up characters with the hashtag and twitter handle makes it even more of a challenge but an entirely achievable one as last year proved - we had some star micro fiction authors! 

Can you tell a seasonal story in a tweet?

So before we launch ourselves in to a month of seasonal fiction fun, check out out what you may have missed last week:

• Wonderful interview with 'I don't mind a bit of chaos' Barrington Stoke author Anthony McGowan from Celia Anderson
• Mike Brownlow's essential reading for robot designers - how do you draw one?
• The free Magical MG competition from Skylark Literary
• Clare Bell's report for National Non- Fiction November on writing and researching with gloves on her non-fiction picture book about Cadbury's
• And of course Nick's blogs - now that I've reached 50k #NaNoWriMo (Hurray!) I have a whole month's worth of blogoodies to catch up on!

Anyone still going for their  NaNoWriMo 50k words, I wish all power to your fingers. I crossed the threshold yesterday morning - (yay!) miraculously coinciding the breakthrough with the end of the story. It feels good to have something new to work on.

In the coming weeks we'll be concentrating on our Advent calendar but we do have our last (for the time being) Ask a Publisher podcast and a new featured illustrator to look forward to.

A very happy chocolate tinted Advent to you all!

Jan Carr

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Jan Carr is handing over the editorship of Words & Pictures to the wonderful Nancy Saunders. Jan's works in progress are currently upper middle grade and new adult, if not adult (ooh er). She aims to blog here more regularly though she has blogged here almost every week since March 2013.

How to Draw Robots

Robots have been filling out Christmas stockings since Santa made his first ride, so as the festive season draws near lets connect the circuits and open the lid on the mechanics of drawing our metal friends. And who better to lay down the nuts and bolts than robot supremo Mike Brownlow. Don't touch that dial!



I love robots. Robots have figured prominently in science fiction for a long time, and were a vivid part of my childhood.

I had robot toys and read robot comics. 

Films like The Day the Earth Stood Still, West World, Metropolis and Forbidden Planet all left their mark on me. 

So it’s little wonder that I’ve drawn and painted loads of the things over the years, little and large. 

 
When I came up with the idea for Little Robots back in the late ‘90s, it was partly because robots had never, to my knowledge, been featured as the heroes of children’s picture books, let alone a TV series. I felt as though I had a blank canvas to play with. 

The robots I finally decided on were a mixed bunch – short and tall, round and skinny, loud and shy, fast and slow. 

And that’s the joy of it. Robots, frankly, can be anything you want them to be – as complicated as the Terminator, or as simple as Tiny. 

If you take the simple approach, they can be easy to draw because you need only work with the most basic of shapes. Bodies can be boxes. Arms and legs don’t have to be complicated things with joints and muscles, they can be metal tubes, like those of Bender in Futurama. Robots can have two legs or three or more; they can have wheels or tracks or jets to fly with. Their hands can be simple pincers or suckers like those of the Daleks. Their faces need consist of nothing more than circles, triangles and rectangles. Stick a few rivets on the body and you’re done.

But if you want to try something more complicated, I’ll point out a few problems I remember encountering when I was drawing my characters in Little Robots. They might serve as handy do's and don'ts. I wanted them to look properly 3-dimensional and work from all angles, partly because I had a secret hope that one day they’d make it to the TV screen as animated characters. I also wanted a grungy, mechanical look to my robots, as if they’d ‘grown’ out of a junkyard, or been re-discovered in a Victorian inventor’s old laboratory, rather than having a shiny, hi-tech appearance, so these are some of the things I thought about…

• Faces. If you’re dealing with small children you’ll have to invest your robot with some personality. Immobile and expressionless robot faces like those of the Cybermen (for me, always far scarier than the Daleks!), are really creepy. Logically, robot faces won’t naturally have any mobility, as they’ll be made of metal, so you’ll have to cheat like crazy to enable them to show emotion. I tried to think of a robot face as being made up of cogs, hinges and widgets that moved about in a mechanical way. It was easier to imagine them being animated that way. Alternatively, I’ve created robot faces made from a TV screen before now, so that a variety of expressions could be shown in a plausible way.

• Think of other mechanical devices that might be used on your robot to emphasis its metallic nature – TV dishes instead of ears; telescopes for eyes; springs and shock absorbers for the arms and legs; rivets and screws; pressure gauges and flashing lights.

• Creating your robot’s world. A good exercise is to go into a typical garden shed, DIY  toolbox or an ordinary kitchen for that matter, look at all the gadgets you can see and, (with the appropriate permission!) try assembling some of the objects into a mechanical creature.
Similarly, if you want to create an unusual, mechanistic environment, try taking old pots, pans, cans, perfume bottles, widgets and doo-hickys from your cupboards, and assemble them into something resembling a townscape.  Turn some of the bits and bobs upside down or sideways, and you’ll find unusual shapes reveal themselves. Draw the shapes and embellish them until they become your own robo-town.

Reclamation yards and antiques fairs are other wonderful places to come across strange and unconsidered objects. Victorian mangles, old hoovers, spare parts from 1950’s cars, sci-fi memorabilia – there’s a world of inspiration waiting there for you!

• I wanted to give my robots a variety of finishes to make each stand out from the other so, for example, some had a shiny appearance, some had a rusty look. As an experiment, try drawing a rusty piece of metal, then a reflective piece of metal like a car bonnet. It’s a tough visual problem but you’ll learn a lot about observation. 

• At some point you’ll have to decide how your robot is going to move around. Some sort of logic, however warped, has to be applied, so if your robot has arms that hinge, try to consider the nature of the joints and whether they appear practical. What powers the limbs? How do they twist and turn? Consider the movement of the jaw, and the flex of the foot, and the way your robot collects information from the world. The best characters have a back story, and in this case that should include how they convincingly move through their world.

Finally, school visits. When I go into schools I’ll often do How-To-Draw sessions with the children, but I’ll also take various printed sheets, such as the two shown here, that can be photocopied for use in class after I’ve given my talks. 

 It’s an easy way for teachers to do follow-up work with the children. If they’re too young to do creative writing or drawing, many of them like to take these sheets and colour them in, cut them out and stick the bits together. I encourage them to use the sheets as a starting point, and to go on to make their own robots, which often results in some spectacular results! Why not try something similar?

Have fun!

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Mike Brownlow is both an illustrator and author of many books for children, including CBBC's Little Robots. His new book Ten Little Pirates  was illustrated by Simon Rickerty. Mike's clients include Orchard, Bloomsbury, OUP, Harper Collins, Pan Macmillan, Pearson, Lego....
Recently Mike was Words & Pictures' featured illustrator. He is an active member of SCBWI and lives in Somerset.

Skylark Literary Launches with New Competition for Children's Writers

W&P is very pleased to promote this free competition:

To celebrate its launch, Skylark Literary is delighted to announce an exciting free competition for new children’s authors, full of fun and sparkle to brighten these dark winter days.

The company prides itself on seeking and supporting the best new voices in children’s fiction and with this in mind has enlisted the support of top editors and publishers as guest judges.


Fiona Kennedy, MD and Publisher of Orion Children’s Books, Ben Horslen, Editorial Director, Puffin Fiction and Venetia Gosling, Publisher Over 6s at Macmillan Children’s Books will help to choose the competition winner.

The competition is especially for new, un-agented and unpublished authors who are writing for middle-grade readers. The prize will be a one-to-one editorial critique of the winner’s finished manuscript with Skylark Literary (www.skylark-literary.com). Competition closes Christmas Eve, December 24th 2014 with the winner to be announced in the new year.

Amber Caravéo and Joanna Moult of Skylark Literary say: ‘It is very exciting to be launching Skylark Literary with this competition for new authors. We are honoured to have the support and enthusiasm of guest judges from some of the UK’s top Children’s Publishers, who are also staunch supporters of great new writing for children!’

Ben Horslen of Puffin Fiction says: 'I'm delighted to be collaborating with Skylark as the agency begins its search for wonderful new voices in children's writing and I can't wait to read the entries – with perhaps one of tomorrow's bestselling authors among them!'

For further information, please contact Amber and Joanna on info@skylark-literary.com

An Interview with Anthony McGowan

Continuing our interviews for conference month, Celia Anderson interviewed Anthony McGowan, multi-award winning author of novels and children's stories.


Hello, Anthony - thanks for letting me have this chance to pick the brains of someone who has provided great amusement for the children at St Edward’s Catholic Primary on many occasions. That’s through your writing if anyone was wondering - not any other alternative forms of entertainment such as hula hooping or interpretive dance (although I’m sure you could manage both if necessary.) Right, here goes: 

I interviewed Mairi Kidd from Barrington Stoke publishers for Words and Pictures too. When did you first team up with the company for your reluctant reader range, and how did that come about? 

Back in 2008 I met a delightful author called Cathy McPhail, who was writing for Barrington Stoke. She said how great BS were to work with, so they were on my radar. A little later, my agent, Philippa Milnes Smith, mentioned them. It so happened that I had an idea for a shortish book that I thought might work well for reluctant readers, so I sent it off to them. They liked it, and it eventually came out as The Fall. It’s such a wonderful little publisher, small enough for you to really feel that the whole company is part of your team. And they punch well above their weight – they have incredible writers on their list.

Did you struggle with reading at school or was learning to read something that came easily? 

No, I was always a keen reader. When I was younger I was a heavy consumer of non-fiction – I was obsessed with nature and wildlife, and read everything my local library had on the subject by the time I was 8. However I read rather little fiction – hardly any of the children’s classics. Then, when I was 9 or so, a teacher gave me a copy of the Lord of the Rings. I didn’t really know what to make of it – I had to learn how to read it as a novel – and it took me three years to finish. But at the end of it I was a very different sort of reader (and person), and from then on I lived and breathed fiction.

I can tell from your website that you’re not afraid to plunge into the murky depths of a school visit. We love having authors coming to see us at St Ed’s - sometimes they even come back again (we do have great cake though). What makes a successful visit, in your opinion, and what could go badly wrong? 

Some authors get slightly obsessed with the organizational side of things, but I don’t mind a bit of chaos. What always really helps is if at least a few of the kids know your work, which generates an infectious excitement. It’s great if the teachers can read a few chapters (or a whole book) out to a class before you get there. And I’d rather have a slightly rowdy but enthusiastic room than one drilled to be silent. In my experience visiting junior schools is almost always a complete joy – younger children are completely open, and delighted to be entertained. At secondary things can get a bit trickier. Years 7 and 8 are fine, but 9/10/11 can take a lot of work. But then it’s all the more satisfying when you win them round. Some of the best visits I’ve ever done were with initially reserved, even disdainful Year 10s, who end up seeing the point of you, and therefore, more importantly of reading. One thing I would say is that, at Secondary level, so much of the visit depends on having a brilliant school librarian – it’s a huge shame that some schools are getting rid of theirs.

Have you had any feedback from less confident readers or their teachers/parents through fan mail or school talks and workshops? 

I get the odd letter and email and, more often, nice feedback straight after a session. But the best response I ever got came a couple of years ago. The Fall had won one of the categories at the Coventry Inspirations Book Awards, and during the ceremony they played a little film, made by a teenager, in which he talked about my book. He’d never read a novel before, and talked about his sense of discovery, wonder and connection when reading it. He said that the experience had transformed him. I’ll confess to wiping away a tear.

What three children’s books would be with us forever if you had your way? 

That’s so hard to answer. The three that have meant the most to me are Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings, Redshift by Alan Garner and, perhaps Tom’s Midnight Garden. But then that’s to neglect all the amazing books for younger children. And of course all the more recent books – I do think we’re living through a golden age.

What do you think teachers and authors should be concentrating on if they want children of all abilities to have pleasurable and memorable reading experiences? 

I don’t think there’s a one-size-fits-all answer to this. However, as a general principle, the key is to get younger children to see reading as a source of fun, and not as a chore. So that means, initially, at least, giving them what they like, but also offering a wide range of titles so they can pick what appeals. I think that wide range is vital – it’s really hard to know in advance what’s going to spark that love of reading. Once they’ve made the link between reading and pleasure, then they can be gently nudged, led, encouraged, tempted, to move away from football and fairies (or whatever) on to more challenging books.

Men are in short supply at the school where I teach - in fact we have so few that they have to share the disabled toilet; sadly, it’s not worth putting in a urinal. How could schools provide good reading/writing role models for their pupils when there aren’t enough men coming into primary teaching? 

I genuinely don’t see this as a major problem. Of course it’s great to have men in junior schools, but I never encountered a single male teacher in my time at junior school, and I became a reader. I suppose one option would be to try to get male writers to come in, but then that seems rather harsh on the women writers.

The new National Curriculum is, rightly, putting great emphasis on reading for pleasure and having books read aloud just for enjoyment (although, to be fair, that concept hadn’t passed most teachers by!) Did you enjoy listening to stories when you were at school or did you prefer to read on at your own speed? 

I loved it when the teacher read to us – in fact, for a long time, that was my main way of absorbing fiction. I remember a teacher called Mrs Marah reading Charlie and Chocolate Factory to us. We were spellbound. And, of course, it helped that it wasn’t maths. Strangely, at home, my parents didn’t read to us very much. My dad was (and is) a superb storyteller, and he’d just make stories up, as the five McGowan kids sat around him.

Do you think the problems of dyslexia are taken into account often enough in schools? How can your books - and others in the Barrington Stoke range - help with this? 

I know this sounds a bit odd, given that I’m writing books aimed partly at dyslexic young people, but I really don’t know much about how schools deal with it, these days. I do know that it is, at least, a problem people have heard of, whereas in my day it was barely recognized. However I’m quite drawn to the idea that dyslexia is only one part of the problem of low literacy levels, and that a holistic approach is called for. Beyond that, I’m afraid we’re beyond my competency level.

My classes love all references to bums (bare or otherwise) poo, wee and all other elements of middle grade humour. Do you ever get criticised for including what the punters want? Is there any snobbery about this sort of thing within the world of children’s authors? 

I have reasonably strong feelings about this. My books are extremely scatological – my teenage books as well as my books for younger readers. There are various reasons for that, both high and low. Many of my favourite authors are similarly drawn to the comedy and pathos of the body – Rabelais, Joyce, Anthony Burgess, Shakespeare (!) – all are much more graphic in their humour than I am. Bodily humour is both universal and democratic – it appeals to old and young, rich and poor. It unites us, and reminds us that we are all made of the same stuff, the vulnerable, soft materiality of our flesh. Yet it still has the power to shock, to make the reader hold their breath, as well as their nose. Furthermore, I tend to mix together the high and the low, so the filth will sugar the pill of a passage of quite stretching philosophy. Having said all that, there is a type of book for younger children that lazily throws in some poo, or sticks a pair of underpants on a dinosaur, or has an alien break wind … although, actually, I’ve done all that, except the dinosaurs … But have I been criticised for it? Not to my face. And I think any parent or teacher who read one of my books would see either that it was justified by the storyline, or of such a bizarre and outré nature that it could hardly be described as pandering to the tastes of the groundlings.

What’s your next project, and is there any subject you’d love to write about but haven’t got round to yet? 

I’m working on a sequel to Brock, my previous book for Barrington Stoke. Brock did quite well, and was longlisted for the Carnegie and UKLA book prizes. And I was really fond of my characters, and wanted to give them a second outing. I’m also working on a joint book with Jo Nadin, a really brilliant and funny writer. It’s a quirky YA romance, from male and female points of view. As for what I’d like to write, I’ve got an idea for a big Stephen King style blockbuster horror thing that I’m quite excited about writing. Eventually...

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@CeliaAnderson1

When she’s not marking children’s work, or writing stories involving pants, Celia spends far too much time on Facebook and does a lot of walking to counteract the cooking, eating and drinking which form another of her hobbies. She's a Romaniac  and you can also find her on her own website. Usually sea-starved in the depths of the Midlands, she can often be found wandering happily around Brighton visiting her two daughters pretending to collect ideas for her next book.

Ten-Minute Blog Break - 25th November

I like the book and I like the film adaptation, but which is best?

Harry Hill would have them FIGHT, but here at Words & Pictures we like to take a more measured approach.


Dave Cousins is blogging for The Edge, examining film adaptations as a good way of encouraging discussion during school visits. Dave blogs about ten of his favourite book and film combinations, and asks you to contribute your own suggestions. Where's The Pirates! In an Adventure with Scientists!, Dave?

Eggs seem an unlikely inspiration for a children's book, but Chitra Soundar has a traumatic relationship with these ovoid foodstuffs, as she reveals in her blog post.

Jo Thomas is a newcomer to graphic novels, and her engaging blog post chronicles the challenge of trying to absorb a whole new style of storytelling. Amanda Lillywhite and I then bombarded poor Jo with further reading suggestions on Facebook, so she'll be an expert by the time she's finished those ;-)

Talking of Amanda Lillywhite, she has an interesting report on her Sequential Art blog about an event featuring graphic novelist Emily Carroll. Carroll is an award-winning webcomic creator who has reversed the usual career path, only now releasing her first print collection Through the Woods.

Given my very public stance on writing for free for a commercial (but independent) magazine, I'm probably tying myself in ethical knots by recommending John Shelley's blog post. But John is absolutely entitled to his opinion, and he builds a convincing argument against unpaid working for creatives.

Nick.

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A SCBWI member since 2009, Nick Cross is an Undiscovered Voices winner who writes children's short fiction for Stew Magazine.

Nick's most recent blog is all about the reasons Why You Should Support Stew Magazine, in their Kickstarter campaign.

Sharing the creative non-fiction love – a tale of chocolate, passion, determination and joy (and that’s just the writing of it…) by Juliet Clare Bell.

I love SCBWI and the wonderful things that come out of it. Sometimes it’s practical (a book deal from a meeting with an editor at an event); sometimes personal (enduring friendships). But what I really love about it is that it’s usually both. The annual British SCBWI Winchester Conference is the perfect place for this mix of both to happen.

At the 2008 conference, I sat next to Rebecca Colby at dinner on the Saturday night. We’d never met before. Neither of us was published at the time but we were in a similar place. We showed each other our stories and something just clicked. We’ve shared our writing and supported each other’s journey ever since. A perfect mix of practical and personal. I’ve never written anything that hasn’t been improved by her insightful comments, and for the last three years or so, we’ve been part of the same fantastic picture book critique group.

At the 2014 conference in November, Rebecca and I, who have both fallen heavily for creative non-fiction picture books over the past year or so, did a joint presentation on breaking into the creative non-fiction picture book market (Anita Loughrey did a write up of the panel on this blog last week).

Through our mostly American critique group, I’ve been gradually exposed in recent years to non-fiction. Creative non-fiction (or true story) picture books have taken off in a really exciting way in the States and I was hearing more and more through our critique group, and when I was approached by Bournville Village Trust to write a true story picture book on the Cadbury family and Bournville (which would be illustrated by Jess Mikhail, a very good friend of mine!), I jumped at the chance.

I blogged about the Cadbury project earlier this year on Picture Book Den and at the time of blogging, I’d done months of research and had just given the outline of the structure of the story to the Cadbury and BVT people. And they’d just told me to go ahead and write that story. Since blogging, I have written up a first, then second, then subsequent, drafts. I’ve had them critiqued with both my online and in-person critique groups…

Some of our local picture book critique group relaxing Halloween stylee at the SCBWI Annual Winchester Conference, 2014 (plus Addy Farmer, far right, who is an honorary member and welcome whenever she likes)

…done more edits and a little bit more research - mostly just because I could and it felt so exciting to be able to go to the new Library of Birmingham, place my things into a locker… (no bags or pens allowed –it felt like a secret inner sanctum ritual)...

waited for entrance into the special room where really old archives are kept, and had letters, documents and photos (many over 130 years old) weighed out and handed to me for my perusal...

with gloves on, of course (c) Cadbury Archive

The Cadbury family summer house drawn by Maria Cadbury © Cadbury Archive

George Cadbury, circa 1850 (c) Cadbury Archive

Childhood letter from George © Cadbury Archive

and have done more edits (and critiques) until deciding it was probably time to stop and hand it over.

Jess Mikhail is currently working on the roughs -when she’s not too busy surfing on chocolate

(With apologies for silliness)

or playing hide and seek in an egg…

(And yet more silliness…)

A couple of weeks ago, we went to the printer’s and discussed book size, paper quality and bleeds

Jess, Tim (expert printer) and me

…and were shown how the printing works.

Because it’s not being published traditionally (though it will be sold in lots of outlets, including the shop at Cadbury World, which has over half a million visitors each year), we get to see the printing, and later, book-binding side, which is fascinating.

True story picture books, when they’re done well, are amazing. In the Cadbury book and subsequent true story picture books I’m planning, I want to capture that joy of discovery –whether it’s something physical...

The joy that is an acorn

or mind-blowingly magical...

Last week my son was blown away by discovering (with the help of his big sister) that it’s possible to add up much larger numbers that those you can calculate in your head if you know how to do… column addition!

or pure wonder.

This first-time experience was so amazing, he had to immerse himself in it fully…

And that state where you’re completely absorbed and focused on a task

It’s how I felt when I was researching for the Cadbury book – what an enormous privilege to be able to have that kind of access - and it’s how I feel about the new topics I’m researching. I can’t say what they are yet because someone might beat me to it (though there are many ways to tell a story) but since my pictures are so utterly un-life-like, here are some of the people I’m intending to write about:

An almost final word goes to the wonderfully wise David Almond who said it all when I saw him with my eldest daughter last year in Birmingham, in answer to the question: what’s the most important thing when you’re writing a book?

Make it lovely…

A final thanks goes to my youngest sister, Grace. After a very long phone call with her last week, I had sixty new ideas for non-fiction picture books (which I blogged about over at the Picture Book Den last week). I was nearly four when she was born and I have a specific memory of visiting her in hospital: not only was it Christmas Day, but we got to eat our first ever Womble chocolates, bought at the hospital. I’ve never seen them since… until earlier this year when I was doing research for the Cadbury book and was being taken behind the scenes at Cadbury World by the wonderful Colin Pitt –and guess what we found?

May you all be fired up by your own writing projects (or chocolate, or both).

And one last hooray for the British SCBWI conference from which many good things have come. I wasn't sure we could top the 2008 one, but I reckon 2014 was the best yet!

Medusa next to an eye tree. Just because...

(with thanks to my ten-year-old)

Juliet Clare Bell (always called Clare), is the author of Don’t Panic, Annika! (illustrated by Jennifer E Morris; Piccadilly Press, recently featured on CBeebies), The Kite Princess (illustrated by Laura-Kate Chapman; Barefoot Books, recently endorsed by Amnesty International and Pirate Picnic (illustrated by Mirella Minelli; Franklin Watts). Don’t Panic, Annika! and The Kite Princess were both shortlisted for SCBWI Europe’s Crystal Kite Award (in 2012 and 2013, respectively). 

Clare is a huge fan of SCBWI, jointly coordinating the Central West British SCBWI region with Julienne Durber, and running the Friday Night Critique at the annual British SCBWI conference. She would highly recommend volunteering with SCBWI (please contact them if you’re even contemplating it, or leave a message in the comments section, here: you’ll get back so much from it). She teaches writing picture book courses to adults, and creative writing to children, and blogs regularly for the Picture Book Den. 

National Non-fiction November is the Federation of Children’s Book Groups’ annual celebration of all things factual. Born out of National Non-Fiction Day, the brain child of Adam Lancaster during his years as Chair, the whole month now celebrates all those readers who have a passion for information and facts and attempts to bring non-fiction celebration in line with those of fiction.