Ten-Minute Blog Break - 11th November

How's NaNoWriMo treating you? You may think that writing a novel in a month is tough, but how about producing a whole comic in 24 hours (without sleep) like Sarah McIntyre did a couple of weeks ago?

I missed Sarah's blog when she first posted it, but it's well worth catching up on - there's tons of creative process, illustration technique and varying levels of sleep-deprivation into the bargain. Even better, you can read her whole comic Scribble here.

Something else that I missed in the wake of the conference was National Dyslexia Awareness week. Thankfully, Space on the Bookshelf had that all wrapped up with a series of Dyslexia-friendly book reviews. The series concludes with a review of Ransom Publishing's Star Struck books, which just happen to be co-authored by super SCBWI volunteer Anita Loughrey. Anita even gets her very own interview on the site.

Talking of the SCBWI conference, a brace of bloggers have crafted their thoughts on the weekend. Kate Peridot found that exhilaration (and not exhaustion) overwhelmed her, as she dreamed of being up on that Saturday Book Launch stage. Sarah Broadley has already blogged about the conference once, but comes back for a second bite of the cherry to detail her session with Melvin Burgess. And Loretta Schauer pays tribute to Outstanding Contribution Award winner Anne Marie Perks, then shares a wonderful picture of Nick Butterworth's Halloween party "friend" (by the way, was it just me, or was there a touch of Harry Hill in Nick's delightful keynote speech?)

As a writer, I've always been inspired by contemporary people and their stories. Yet, I know that some people are drawn to places and legends to drive their imagination, which seems to be the case for David Thorpe. In an evocative blog post for Awfully Big Blog Adventure, David talks about the inspirations for his new YA novel Stormteller (which also manages to have a contemporary theme).

Finally, not content with blogging on this site just yesterday, Natascha Biebow also wrote a piece for Picture Book Den. Following up her post on breakout picture book premises, Natascha delights in picture book plot twists that zing!

Nick.

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

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

Ten-Minute Blog Break - 30th September

Is it really the 230th September already? Oh wait, that's a typo (goes back and edits title). I was sure September hadn't been that long! In fact, it seems to have flown by - helped, no doubt, by lots of quality blogs to read.

There's an interactive component to Katie Dale's latest blog post for The Edge. Katie takes on the subject of censorship to highlight Banned Books Week and sets a tricky quiz. I scored 6 out of 10 - can you do better?

It's great to find a blog with a very different perspective, such as Catherine Friess's Story Snug. Catherine's focus is on book recommendations for non-native English speakers, and her post to celebrate European Day of Languages is a very good place to start. I'd never considered the issues around sharing picture books with a group of children who have varied English abilities, but now I feel like an expert!

Having watched from afar the problems that friends had when negotiating cover designs with their publishers, I assumed that self-publishing would make this process easier. Not so, it turns out, as Larissa Villar Hauser discovers.

It sometimes feels like writers are awash in rules - always do this, never do that. But what would the world of writing tuition have been like two hundred years ago? Marie Basting has a lot of fun setting out her rules for how to write like a 19th century children’s novelist.

Finally, there's nothing I like better than getting a sneaky peek at a work in progress, so I loved seeing the sample designs for Loretta Schauer's new graphic novel. It's a story with a definite Good Dog, Bad Dog feel (by no means a bad thing), as The Three Bears Detective Agency put the squeeze on a certain Incy Wincy Spider.

Nick.

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A SCBWI member since 2009, Nick Cross is an Undiscovered Voices winner who currently writes children's short fiction for Stew Magazine (September issue out now).

Nick's most recent blog post is inspired by a graphic novel whose subtitle is: "Mania, Depression, Michelangelo & Me." You Don't Have to be Mad to Work Here....

Ten-Minute Blog Break - 26th August

I'd like to start this week's column with a special message for the Space on the Bookshelf team. Stop writing so many interesting posts! It'll be your fault if no-one gets any further than paragraph two on this week's Blog Break.

Space on the Bookshelf, you may remember, have a special series of features running about comics, graphic novels and magazines. Let's start with their top picks for graphic novels for various age ranges, then move on to off-the-shelf and subscription magazines for children and a special spotlight on The Phoenix (as championed extensively by David Fickling the other day). Most recently, the site ran an informative interview with Emily Haworth-Booth, who teaches a course in London on making comics and graphic novels.

One SCBWI blogger who always seems to avoid appearing in the Blog Break is our very own Words & Pictures editor Jan Carr. She generally does this by not blogging very much, but this week I've caught her! Her latest post may be "shameless self-promotion" for her novel You're Magic, Duggie Bones, but it's also a chance to see the very positive kids' feedback that gave her the idea for the Chalkface Challenge.

Moving to illustration, Loretta Schauer contributes a terrific process post to Big Little Tales this week. After admitting her unusual phobia of sketchbooks(!), Loretta talks us through her recent life drawing classes and shares the results at each stage.

What made you the artist you are? Miriam Halahmy and her photographer brother have journeyed back to Hayes in Middlesex, where they grew up. In a reflective post for The Edge Miriam traces how this outwardly uninspiring suburban environment shaped her creative outlook.

Finally, author events can be scary enough for anyone, let alone if you have Asperger's Syndrome. So you have to applaud Julie Day's determination to get out there and meet her audience, as she does in her latest post about a children's workshop at Bexley Community Library.

Nick.

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

In Nick's most recent blog post, he enters phase 0.5 of his plan for world domination, sharing A Work in Progress.

Ten-Minute Blog Break - 17th June

Does Tuesday really come around incredibly quickly, or is it just me? Mind you, after a frenzied weekend it's rather nice for me to sit down and go through the SCBWI blogs, then share the best of them with you.


I spent Father's Day pulling up old carpets, visiting the dump, then putting a nail through a water pipe and almost flooding the house! Luckily, other fathers seemed to be having a more sedate time, and it was a perfect opportunity for John Shelley to showcase his own dad's paintings. In an affecting post, John talks about inheriting his artistic talents from his dad, and how lucky he was to be born into a generation where going to art school was a viable career option.

The YA and fairy tale debates I highlighted last week have rumbled on, and Katie Dale had the neat idea of combining both in a single blog post. Is there (she asks) anything better than reading for pleasure, or anything worse than being told what to read? Sally Poyton also combined two topics into one post, the need to celebrate fairy tales and (somewhat more randomly) hell hounds!

There is a lot of sniffiness (from writers especially) about celebrity authors barging into the world of children's books. I therefore enjoyed Ewa Jozefkowicz's balanced post about this phenomenon, and her thoughts on which celebrity writers do and don't make the grade.

Loretta Shauer is interviewed on her publisher's site this week, talking about her latest picture book work. Loretta's journey from amateur artist to full-time illustrator is one that I'm sure many of us aspire to, and wonderful to read about!

Nick.

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

Nick jumped fearlessly into the media furore this week, writing a fairy tale on the "dangers" of fairy tales: The Improbable Prince.

Ten-Minute Blog Break - 27th May

Some of our SCBWI bloggers are so reliable that the same names crop up again and again on the Blog Break. Not that there's anything wrong with that, but it's nice this week to hear from some people who don't get featured as often.

We start with a couple of posts giving different perspectives on library visits. Julie Day guest blogs for the Alliance of Independent Authors, talking us through the self-publishing session she ran at her local library, and how she used it to drive awareness and book sales. Meanwhile, Dawn Finch has some (occasionally cryptic) notes from a School Libraries Group discussion, giving tons of ideas for how authors and librarians can maximise the impact of writer visits.

Writers are constantly being exhorted to "write for yourself", though if that were the whole story, no-one would be reading this site! In an exuberant blog post, Sarah Broadley explores the conflict between being a solitary writer creating only for your own amusement, and the rewards that come from entering the broader, scarier world of critique groups and writing communities.

Like many authors, Jo Franklin is addicted to "How to Write" books. In an insightful post, she picks the inspirational ones that are most guaranteed to give you a lift in times of discouragement and despair.

Finally, Loretta Schauer thinks there should be a BAFTA for Best Supporting Character in a Picture Book. To support her claim, she's made a red carpet style montage of all the important incidental characters in her recent work. And your eyes aren't deceiving you, one of them is a cushion!

Nick.

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A SCBWI member since 2009, Nick Cross is a former Undiscovered Voices winner who currently writes children's short fiction for Stew Magazine, the May issue of which is out now!

Ten-Minute Blog Break - 6th May

As I write this, it's Bank Holiday Monday, the sun is shining, and yet here I am inside, ironing shirts for the week ahead while simultaneously typing on a laptop (no, really I am). Oh, how we must suffer for our art!


Sue Hyams has some home truths for us this week, specifically 5 Truths We Must Face Up To When Writing A Novel. She kicks off with "The story doesn't write itself" and it turns out this applies to the Blog Break too (makes mental note to investigate automated RSS web doohickeys and robot ironing boards before next week).

Paula Harrison celebrated an amazing achievement last week - the publication of the twelfth and final Rescue Princesses book. Somehow, she also found time for a bit of blogging, writing a post for Girls Heart Books. It will surprise no-one to discover that the prolific Paula has a brain full to bursting of book ideas and other "mum stuff", but she also manages to give some great tips on how to point your brain in the direction of the right story when you sit down to work.

Anyone who remembers John Shelley's amazing interactive world map from last year is in for another treat! This time, John has been commissioned by the Japanese Mainichi Newspaper to produce a map focusing on Japan, and it's packed with all the humorous detail we've come to expect from this meticulous illustrator.

I feel a little remiss in not giving much attention to The funeverse in this column. Still, that doesn't seem to have harmed the poets' output of funny verse, nor the parade of guest artists who have generously offered their artwork as the creative seed for those poems. Loretta Schauer is the guest illustrator for May, and so far Katherine Lynas and George Kirk have married their verse to her illustrations (viewers of a sensitive disposition should be warned that George's post contains shameless overacting).

Are we about to see a whole new side of double Crystal Kite winner Candy Gourlay? Well, it seems she's taking a course in creating graphic novels and drawing her own diary in the form of a comic, so maybe...

Nick.

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

Nick's life as an author is filled with ups and downs, so he made a graph of them! Ride The Roller Coaster of Writerly Emotion.

Ten-Minute Blog Break - 1st April

It's April the First, and I was tempted to write an entire Blog Break full of spoof posts this week. However, as there was no round-up last week that seemed a bit unfair. Plus, I'm not sure my brain's working well enough to do something like that!

One of the joys of being part of a community of writers is that moment of relief, when you discover that someone else is having the same problem as you. Michelle Newell's post about allowing yourself guilt-free time not to write is a must-read.

Cloud Riders author Nick Cook is chatting to Danl Tetley this week, talking about following his dreams (all the way to the bookshelf). In a lengthy interview, Nick discusses his influences, his passions and the perils of writing for editors when you should be writing for yourself.

I've always been a sucker for interactive fiction, spending my teenage years immersed in Fighting Fantasy gamebooks. So I'm always interested to hear about new attempts to bring interactivity to children's stories, such as the company that Sally Poyton interviews at Space on the Bookshelf. Freed Fiction are a small startup with big ideas, whose first iBook is based on Jeff Norton's MetaWars series.

Sticking with new technologies, Helen Dineen is blogging at Picture Book Den with an informative look at the pros and cons of picture book apps. And while you're at The Den, check out Juliet Clare Bell's excellent post about creative non-fiction picture books, including the amazing Cadbury chocolate-fest that is her latest commission.

For a final slice of picture book goodness, check out Loretta Schauer's post at Little Big Tales, where she's talking about endpapers. These easily-ignored elements of a picture book can be both a design treat and a sneaky addition to the narrative.

Nick.

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Nick Cross is a children's writer, blogger and all-round techno-ninja. In 2010 he was a winner of Undiscovered Voices with his zombie comedy Back from the Dead.

This week, Nick is featured on the Stew Magazine blog, talking about the inspiration behind his latest short story The Door Keeper.

Ten-Minute Blog Break - 18th February

Turned out nice again, hasn't it?

Er, no. Not at all.

So my suggestion is to stay inside (ideally in a boat) and enjoy the best of this week's SCBWI blogs!


The weather might be awful in the UK, but in Cape Town it's hot. Or as Jane Heinrichs puts it, "So, so, so hot." Jane manages to blog about her sweltering summer without a trace of gloating and even a note of envy. She also gives us a charming watercolour animation of a little girl with more than a touch of the drama queen about her.

Love was in the air for Valentine's Day, and what better way to celebrate than with a list of romantic books? But wait a minute, romantic books for boys??? Head over to The Edge to read Dave Cousins's recommendations.

The life of a visiting author is nothing if not varied. Although not technically a blog post, I enjoyed Julie Fulton's update on her recent author visits, which took her from a nursery, to primary school and then to university! It seems that we never really grow out of loving a good picture book.

Someone who definitely loves picture books with a passion is Norinder Jones, Senior Book Designer at Little Tiger Press. If you've ever wondered what a picture book designer actually does all day, I'd suggest you hightail it over to Big Little Tales, where Loretta Shauer interviews Norinder about their work together.

Finally, here's something a little different. It takes great courage to put your own fiction writing online for others to read - especially when your readers are all authors as well! It's fitting then, that K.M Lockwood's "fairy story for writers" The Blind Seamstress is a tale about courage and finding your voice. Read parts one, two and three.

Nick.

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Nick Cross is a children's writer, blogger and all-round techno-ninja. In 2010 he was a winner of Undiscovered Voices with his zombie comedy Back from the Dead and currently writes short fiction for Stew Magazine, an event that was recently celebrated on this site.

Ten-Minute Blog Break - 9th July

If I hadn't realised it was summer from looking out of the window, I'd certainly have noticed from the sudden drop off in new blog posts!

Fortunately, the content is out there and I have found it...


I was sure that I must have written here about Dave Cousins's genius plan to release an album of songs from his teen novel Waiting for Gonzo, but apparently not! Luckily, Dave blogged at the edge this week to tell us all about it. Even better, he's releasing the catchiest song on the album as a single, with all proceeds going to charity. Trivia fans may like to know that Dave's band Monorail were interviewed in the one and only issue of my fanzine (back in the dim distant days of 1996) but that Dave and I never actually met until Undiscovered Voices. Spooky, eh?

Maureen Lynas wrote a great post for Notes from the Slushpile that I wasn't able to fit in for space reasons last week. Maureen, whose blogs about story structure had been getting ever more analytical, recounts how she was suddenly overtaken by the muse and found herself writing (and illustrating) a book on a subject she didn't even like! Maybe there's an unexpected book lurking in your head too?

I'd never imagined you could get anything out of a favourite jumper except warmth, but Loretta Schauer proves me wrong by scanning the texture of one and including it in her drawings. Loretta's blog post on character development in illustration is a joy, giving a helpful glimpse into how characters change according to publishers' and writers' requirements.

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.
This week, on his blog, Nick tries to hold crazed authors back from the edge by telling them You Know You've Gone Too Far When...

Ten-Minute Blog Break - 16th April

It's an all-illustrator special on the Ten-Minute Blog Break today, which will hopefully also prevent it from becoming a twenty-five-minute blog break like last week!




First up is Paul Morton, who's been cropping up all over the place on Words & Pictures this last week. Although Paul's main Hot Frog Blog mixes product design work with his children's illustration, Paul also has a couple of nifty blogs that he's designed purely to support his children's apps. Wiz-bods with Beeble and Blink is a primary-coloured riot, with colouring pictures, spot the difference and other games, designed to engage children and get them to make that all-important download. The Crazy Monster Mixer site is even more bonkers, and includes some neat "spoilers" for hidden app features that also serve as an illustration of what the app is all about. It's an interesting approach to user engagement, and I'm looking forward to wearing my Grumblesnout mask to a SCBWI event in the near future.

Big Little Tales is a group blog set up by SCBWI illustrators (deep breath) Katriona Chapman, Heather Kilgour, Shana Nieberg-Suschitzky, Anne-Marie Perks, Trish Phillips and Loretta Schauer. It's one of our first SCBWI-BI Tumblr blogs, but it features very few animated GIFs and quite a lot of combined wisdom. I was rather taken by Loretta's recent post on Striking a Balance, which very honestly explores the tensions and benefits of balancing a rewarding day job with an illustration career.

Finally, Jane Heinrichs is inviting us to look at her paint palette! It's all in a good cause, as she waxes lyrical about how she loves London in the rain. Speaking as someone who finds the combination rather less than magical, I can only marvel at her ability to see the positive and poetic side of precipitation.

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 The Book That's Just Like Mine, about something unpleasant he found in the local book shop.