Ten-Minute Blog Break - 23rd December

Is there anybody out there? I wouldn't blame you all for being frantically busy in the run-up to Christmas, but I hope you'll find a few minutes to join me for the last Blog Break of 2014.


Nicola Morgan has written a lovely post about Christmas spirit, and how it means different things to different people (and not always in a positive way). Nicola's own Christmas seems to involve a lot of food, booze and books, which sounds just fine to me!

While Nicola is full of Christmas spirit, Marie Basting has got the fear. Specifically, she's experiencing some significant self-doubt after meeting other writers in the flesh at the SCBWI conference, and realising that they're all really good! But Marie won't be kept down for long, and her post examines the cyclical nature of self-doubt.

For those seeking to polish their craft during those empty days between Christmas and New Year, a couple of our bloggers are here to help. Vanessa Harbour is looking at dialogue this week and considering its best uses within your story. And, following her post about evaluating picture book ideas a few weeks ago, Kate Peridot is now focusing on developing your chosen idea. In this week's post, she's looking at the typical structure and layout of a picture book, and how to map your idea onto it.

For last-minute gift ideas, you can't beat Space on the Bookshelf's A Book in Every Stocking series. Writers, editors and illustrators (including Sara Grant, Sarah McIntyre, Anita Loughrey, and, erm, me) suggest the children's books they'd like Santa to leave in their stocking this Christmas.

I'm convinced that Candy Gourlay wrote My Year in Books 2014 just to make me jealous. How else to explain how many more wonderful books she seems to have managed to read than me? Clearly, I need to set some reading targets for 2015!

Merry Christmas and see you in January,

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 has delved into his archives for the third year running, and found some wonderful lost lunacy for your reading pleasure. Check out The Museum of Me - The Lost Years.

Marie Basting, Our New Networks Coordinator!

Marie Basting
@riewriting

SCBWI British Isles has a new Networks Coordinator!
The British Isles chapter is currently divided into ten area networks and SCBWI writer, Marie Basting has stepped up to coordinate SCBWIs from the south west of England to the south east of Scotland!

About Marie

After many years of working as a Change Manager, Marie decided she fancied a change herself. So she took redundancy and signed up for the MA Creative Writing at Manchester Writing School. Marie is now in her second year of the course, and as well as the academic side of things, has enjoyed being involved in delivering a range of creative writing and educational activities to school children as a University Ambassador.

Marie lives in Manchester with her husband, son and a stuffed koala called Tommy. She is currently working on two main projects. A chapter book for 7-9 year-olds, which she is rewriting for the six millionth time and a Young Adult novel set in 1990, which is based on her family’s appeal to free her Dad when he was a hostage in Iraq. At the time Marie was a student in Nottingham, so the novel is a bit Skins takes on Saddam Hussein. If she’s had enough wine at Winchester, she’ll probably tell some of you about it.

Marie says...

I’m really excited to have joined the regional team as Networks Coordinator. There are so many great things happening in our Networks already, and I’m looking forward to working with the Network Organisers to develop this further. I’ve spent the last few weeks getting to know the team and I’m so pleased to be working with such an amazing bunch. We’ll be meeting in Winchester, before the conference, to talk about our plans for the Networks in 2015.

Over the coming months I’ll be looking to try and ensure that the Networks support the wider development agenda for the British Chapter of the SCBWI. It would be great to get the Networks more involved in delivering activity for our published authors and I’ll be talking with the Pulse Team about how we might do this. I’ll also be looking at our links with potential partner organisations, for example Universities and festivals, with a view to strengthening our local presence.

Finally, I’m keen to look at how we can build a stronger presence in the areas where we haven’t yet developed any local activity. I’m particularly interested in how we can support and involve members in some of our less densely populated areas, where because of geography face to face meetings might not be practical. Technology permitting, I’ll be exploring options such as on-line buddying or localised chat groups.

Effective communication and collaboration is a theme that cuts across all of these agendas and I’ll be working hard to build on our already strong relationship with members. I’d love to hear from you if you have any thoughts on how can develop Network activity.

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You can find out more about Marie via her blog http://riewriting.wordpress.com/ which you may have seen appearing in the Ten-Minute Blog Break.

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Ten-Minute Blog Break - 28th October

Attribution is an interesting subject in publishing. The writer is often credited as the sole creative force, but what about all the editors and designers behind the scenes? And what if the book is illustrated as well?

Attribution certainly became a big issue for Sarah McIntyre, when her book Oliver and the Seawigs was nominated for the Carnegie Medal, but only her co-creator Philip Reeve was listed for the award. You don’t need me to tell you that Sarah did not take that lying down, as her crusade to change the submission rules proves!

I know I featured the fight against Liverpool City Council’s plan to close eleven of its libraries last week, but:
A) You can never make enough fuss about library closures
B) I was much taken by Paula Rawsthorne’s letter to Mayor Joe Anderson, which argues the case for public libraries both from the heart and the head.

To live your creative life fully is to accept a constant process of evolution. To that end, I’m very much enjoying watching Maureen Lynas (who I once saw as primarily a writer) spreading her artistic wings. Her Klimt-inspired Red Riding Hood is a lovely image.

Marie Basting is getting in touch with her inner small person this week, in a bid to perfect her voice and point of view. Prepare to tie a towel around your neck as a makeshift superhero cape when you dive into her blog post.

Finally, a couple of SCBWI bloggers are focusing on the importance of reading to improve your writing. K.M. Lockwood provides her own take on the Kathleen Hale story about stalking book reviewers (which appeared in the Guardian recently). As a writer and a reviewer, K.M. gives a very positive perspective on the perks of being a reader. Elsewhere, I found myself nodding in agreement with Vanessa Harbour, as she complains about some writers of children’s fiction, who somehow think it’s appropriate to claim that they don’t read other children’s books. Not big and definitely not clever!

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 takes a look back at a year of Stew Magazine stories and teases out the common threads that bind them. What's the Story?

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 - 16th September

I'm sure I wasn't the only one buoyed up by Jan's super-positive editorial at the weekend. And there certainly is plenty of good stuff out there if you know where to look, as this week's Blog Break once again proves.

Every writer is looking for the golden ticket, an idea which is just so compelling that it will motivate them to do their best work and crack the market wide open. But how can you identify a breakout premise for a picture book? Natascha Biebow has plenty of advice at Picture Book Den.

My drawing of Pilbeam the robot from Cakes in Space

I was at Sarah McIntyre and Philip Reeve's book launch for Cakes in Space on Saturday, and I can confirm that a very good time was had by all. Amongst the treats on offer were drawing lessons, a new song and interactive video comedy involving sporks(!) But fear not if you couldn't make it, because Sarah has written a blog post with tons of photos from the event.



There's a fantastic interview with Sam Zuppardi on the Scottish Book Trust website this week. I especially liked the anecdote about his childhood biblical confusion!

Candy Gourlay is exploring diaries this week, discussing how they can be used for personal reflection, as creative fodder and as an exercise for author visits. She shares some great tips for keeping a diary, and lets us have a peek at the diaries the kids made in response.

Finally, I found a lot of food for thought this week in Marie Basting's blog post all about embracing the dark side of her creative personality. It set me wondering as to why it is that we become compelled to write certain stories, even when we're trying to do something quite different. That led me to my own post a few days later, all about a character that I just can't stop writing about.

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 (mentioned above) traces The Evolution of Max.

Ten-Minute Blog Break - 19th August

August is one of those rare times of the year when living Down South seems like a disadvantage, as the various Edinburgh festivals take centre-stage. I'm hoping this isn't the last year that this cultural smorgasbord is held in the United Kingdom!

The SCBWI South East Scotland regional team were particularly busy at the Edinburgh Book Festival, organising a panel on author events with Nicola Morgan as one of the speakers. Nicola's terrific blog post on getting and giving great author events covers everything she talked about and a lot lot more.

Maureen Lynas was also in Edinburgh last week, indulging her inner artist and soaking up as much inspiration as possible. And because she's nice like that, she's blogged all about what she learnt.

Candy Gourlay has been nominated for the Guardian Children's Fiction Prize (yay!) and this week it's her turn to feature on their website. Candy's re-posted the two videos she made on her blog, one of which wasn't even supposed to be a video (but is great anyway). Hooray for quiet books!

I didn't have room last week for Marie Basting's blog response to the last Slushpile Challenge (in which Penny Holroyde infamously failed to find an entry funny enough to make her laugh). With the help of The Sooty Show(!) Marie's blog post explores how that competition result made her feel, and her thoughts on the enduring popularity of "goo and poo and stinky farts."

I'm going to end this week with four letters - TGFW. It stands for "Thank God for Writing" as Vanessa Harbour talks movingly about what writing means to her and how it helps her through some difficult life situations. #TGFW indeed.

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 most recent blog post found him coming Out of the Cave, to consider writing, hiding and "the rent-a-gobs of children’s literature."

Ten-Minute Blog Break - 22nd July

Following Sarah McIntyre's celeb-heavy contribution last week, a couple of other SCBWI bloggers are giving us their perspective on YALC (the first YA Literary Convention) in London.


Liz Flanagan clearly had a whale of a time at YALC and left feeling a whole new sense of community. Lucy Coats, on the other hand, celebrates a community she already knows well - the tireless book bloggers who do so much to promote YA books by UK authors.

Candy Gourlay can often be found celebrating writing by children, but this week she makes a joyful leap into the world of children's art. On a visit to Grafton Primary School near Holloway, she finds a wonderful variety of artworks which she had never known were right on her doorstep.

Sarah Broadley is dealing with the knotty problem of regional dialect in rhyming picture books, after a crit group couldn't get their mouths around her rhymes. It's not what you say, it's how you say it.

It's great to welcome a couple of new faces to the SCBWI Blog Network this week. Vanessa Harbour is a frequent blogger who has escaped the Blog Break to date, which is something I must rectify forthwith. Much like Seinfeld (the show about nothing), Vanessa's written a blog post about not writing! Is procrastination a bad thing, or just something else for us to feel guilty about?

Marie Basting is also new to the Blog Network, and I enjoyed her thoughtful post about the ramifications of discovering her six-year-old son had written a story all about a murdered koala. Was it Marie's fault for exposing him to crime stories, or were there other social and environmental factors at work?

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 latest blog post is a guide to writing flash fiction, to celebrate the July issue of Stew!