Who was at the Faerie Tarantula book launch last week?

I was truly thrilled to be at the Faerie Tarantula book launch last week. It was a joint affair by Paula Harrison who launched The Crystal Mirror, the first in her new middle grade Faerie Tribes series for girls, and Jackie Marchant who launched I'm Dougal Trump Where's My Tarantula?.

It was held in London's Phoenix Arts Club, in a tiny street where the opening scenes from Harry Potter were filmed. The pictures and theatrical posters crammed on the walls were a great backdrop for a wonderful evening.


Kirsty Stansfield, Paula's editor at Nosy Crow says, about The Crystal Mirror

"It’s got great atmosphere and pace, and I really like the relationship between the characters. They’re very well drawn. But what I like best about it is that it raises the possibility of transformation – one day, you’re on the school bus, thinking about what to have for tea; the next, you’ve got wings and you’re about to fly out the window! I like that."

Paula says: "The story is based on the idea that faeries live among us and look like us in their human form, so humans can't tell them apart. They also belong to five tribes with power over water, air, animals, plants and fire. There's a lot of enmity between the tribes. I just liked the idea of writing about a reality hidden inside our everyday world."

We first gave Paula, a big hurrah a few weeks ago. SCBWI's love to celebrate with cake and wine so I thought I’d share some photos of the evening so you can see who was there and raise your own glasses to Paula and Jackie.

You can see Candy Gourlay’s recording of Paula reading the prologue of The Crystal Mirror on the Nosy Crow blog. Thanks also to Candy for letting me post some of her photos.

Thanks to Paula and Jackie for a fabulous evening and here’s to sparkling success for the Faeries and the Tarantula, hip hip hooray!

Kirsty Stansfield, Editor at Nosy Crow
& Catherine Alport, Publicity Manager, Macmillan

Paula with one of her fab sparkly cakes

Andrew Weale gave a hilarious reading

Anita Loughrey and Joe Friedman

Candy Gourlay, Alice Williams from David Higham Associates
& Odette Williams

Nick Cross and Kirsty Stansfield

Mo O'Hara

Heather Kilgour, Paula Harrison and Bridget Strevens Marzo

Lucy Van Smit

Tim Collins

Jeannie Waudby and Jo Franklin

What's escaped from Jackie?

Teri Terry and Jo Franklin

Heather and Bridget with the earlier books...

Mo O'Hara with scary hat and Jackie

Quick! The tarantula's escaping!

The last sparkly fairy cake...

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Tania Tay is an ex-advertising copywriter and has been published in Sable LitMag. She is writing MG and YA fiction, and is on the editorial team at Words & Pictures.

Ten-Minute Blog Break - 28th May

It's been fun, fun, fun in the sun (sun, sun) this bank holiday weekend, so let's keep the vibe going here on the Blog Break with a super SCBWI humour special!


One of the most fascinating things about writing humour is how personal it is. For his blog at the Funeverse, writer and illustrator Alex Craggs discusses his approach to making with the funny - "I try to create something that makes me laugh, because out there in the world somewhere there are (probably) people who share my sense of humour." Alex also gives some practical tips for how to spin the ordinary into the extraordinarily silly by asking lots of "what if" questions to increase the absurdity. Plus, he has a drawing of a woman with noodles for hair!

Wendy Meddour has managed to sneak her way onto the Guardian Children's blog for a second time, with a great post listing her top tips for writing funny fiction. Again, we see an emphasis on taking everyday life and giving it a twist, and it seems that Wendy's childhood gave her plenty of material! In case you missed it, you can also check out her earlier Guardian post, a video showing how she and her daughter Mina work together to create the illustrations in their latest book.

Finally, Dougal Trump author Jackie Marchant gives an interview over at Notes from the Slushpile where she talks about the secret of being funny. Apparently, it's to not be funny. Yes, I was confused too, until Jackie elaborates that she doesn't know if something she's written is funny until she gives it to someone else to read. In fact, this paradoxical inability to see the funny side seems to allow Jackie to get further into character, and bring the humour out naturally without forcing in a bunch of jokes.

So there you have it, three funny writers with three very different ways of writing humour. Perhaps you have another way again of approaching funny writing? Do leave a comment and tell us all about it!

Nick.

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Nick Cross is a children's writer, blogger and all-round digital guru. In 2010 he was a winner of Undiscovered Voices with his zombie comedy Back from the Dead.
Read Nick's latest blog post, in which he considers the pleasures and the pitfalls of using Writing as Therapy.

Hoorah for Marchant and Meddour and Their Unusual Partners

@JMarchantAuthor

This week we celebrate two new books from a pair of unusual writing partnerships and discover how they hooked their agents.
Jackie Marchant and  Dougal Trump launch  I'm Dougal Trump...Where's My Tarantula?  and Wendy Meddour and Mina May prepare the way for Wendy Quill is a Crododile's Bottom in May. 

Dougal Trump literally dropped into Jackie Marchant’s life – at least a bin liner full of his stuff did -  when his mother  threw it out of the window  as Jackie walked by. The bag split open to reveal, amongst other things, four old plaster casts, a deflated dog-chewed football, several notes from friends and family written on homework sheets that should have been handed in, a threatening note about a creature in the shed and the start of the last will and testament of Dougal Trump.

Dougal Trump: Life in a Bin Liner

Officially that's how Jackie met Dougal Trump.  Unofficially, there's another story. Jackie's son asked her about writing a will, which led to Jackie standing  knee deep in the mess of his bedroom, tempted to throw the lot out of the window and wondering what he’d leave to whom in the  will he was thinking about. Jackie wrote 500 words of the will, called her character Dougal Trump, entered a competition and forgot all about him, until she was at the Annual Writers Conference in Winchester. Jackie was very surprised to  come second in the competition she'd forgotten all about. 

Approached by an editor Jackie was asked how much children’s writing she’d done.
‘Er . . . ' she said, '500 words.’

She was persuaded to write the rest, did so and sent it to Alice Williams at David Highams Agency. Alice took Jackie on, she says:

Jackie’s wonderfully inventive plotting and Dougal’s fresh, funny voice stood out immediately. Who would have thought there’d be such comic potential in writing a will!

But there was still a lot of work to be done before the book was taken on by a publisher, and more work before it was ready for publication. I've been in a critique group with Jackie for a long time and it's fascinating how much the book has grown  from draft to published copy - a  real testament to everyone who worked on the book. It's positively alive.

'I’m Dougal Trump . . . Where’s my Tarantula?’ was published on Thursday, 25th April by Macmillan Coincidentally, Wendy Meddour and Mina May appeared on Radio 4's Woman's Hour on the very same day discussing their new venture.

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@WendyMeddour

Mother and daughter Wendy Meddour and Mina May were already very much together before they became writer and illustrator for Wendy Quill.

They're both a bit Wendy Quill - they have the same sense of humour, love being slightly silly and are EXTREMELY close - but Mina May is 'artistic'. In other words, she works when and how she likes. If Flamenco dancing in the kitchen or practising her backwards crabs seem more urgent to her than illustrating, then the illustrations simply wait. But they've never missed a deadline and when the illustrations flow, they flow! Fortunately, Mina May draws to relax. And she likes 'relaxing'. So illustrating never has to wait long.

Wendy and Mina's working partnership began when  Mina May was three. Principally Chief Stapler, Wendy also wrote down the words as Mina May dictated them. 

Mina May was funny. Her words made me laugh. A lot. Without her, I doubt I'd have become a children's writer. 

When Mina May  was about seven, Wendy got the confidence to write some of her own words and draw some of her own pictures. Wendy's agent Penny Holroyde  didn’t hesitate about taking her on. 

Penny says...

"Wendy's approach letter was exemplary, she had been recommended by one of my authors, and her writing immediately stood out for being warm, and funny and perfectly pitched to the age group. She also told me she was committed to this career path. Then when I met her I was hooked. Here was a clearly accomplished and intelligent woman but she also had an ingenuous manner about her that was irresistible. She has such a brilliantly funny and self-deprecating narrative style when she speaks and such an elephantine memory for events of her childhood that I thought she absolutely couldn’t fail to make it as a writer for children. She talked about putting some of these childhood memories into a piece of very young fiction and as soon as I saw it, I knew she had nailed it – managed to convey her personality to the page in a truly effortless way. I was hooked again."

Wendy  was supposed to illustrate Wendy Quill.  The book actually went to auction with Wendy as the named author/illustrator. Then Mina passed Wendy some character sketches she'd done on the family iPad. With a pang, Wendy realised they were vastly better than hers.  What would her agent think?

Here's Penny again...

"I was excited to submit Wendy Quill is a Crocodile’s Bottom and was on the verge of doing so when Wendy sent an email with an attachment that were her daughter’s illustrations. Mina was 10. Not only that, but that she really did want me to submit them with the text – she wanted me to submit them as a mother and daughter team. I’d be lying if I said that wasn’t a bit of a heart sinker. It’s a little bit tantamount to saying your mum loved it plus everyone knows that publishers don’t want to be dictated to about illustration style. So it was with some trepidation that I clicked on that PDF.  However there, writ large, stood Wendy Quill Wheezy Bird. And Miss Pinch. And the Girly Gang getting scared by Kevin. And, of course, Wendy Quill as a crocodile’s bottom. Again I was hooked.
I made the submission and within the hour Jasmine Richards from OUP was on the phone…."

Oxford University Press wooed them with hand-written felt tip scrolls, a hilarious puppet video of a crocodile, some home made cookies and an AMAZING  offer for a series. How could they resist? 

Ah I love a happy ending - hoorah for unusual partnerships: passersby and untidy boys; mothers and daughters;  crocodiles and bottoms !

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Kathy Evans is Celebrations Editor for Words & Pictures. She is South East Network Coordinator with Mariam Vossough and is represented by Sophie Hicks at Ed Victor.