Ten-Minute Blog Break - 1st October

For a while, this post was called "Lino Sniffing", which would certainly have looked interesting up there on the main page! But although I've bowed to convention with the title, you'll still find plenty of fragrant delights in this week's Blog Break.

Some advice falls on stony ground, and so it was with my suggestion to Rosie Best that she come up with different names for each of her blog posts. Rosie is up to Things and Stuff #13 now, and with her debut novel Skulk soon to be released, it's a good time to catch up with her. Along with the obligatory box of books photo and details of her launch party, Rosie also gives us a useful round-up of links from her blog tour and gets excited by a photo of Meryl Streep in a tree (no, I am not making this up).

Someone else rocking a blog name series is Mark Jones, who brings us Amazing Writing Advice #24: The Secret of Synopsiseses. I mean sinopsyes. Or synopsisis. Or something like that.

Space on the Bookshelf are doing another of their intensive 3D book review features this week, examining Anthony McGowan's novel Brock from every possible angle. The book is designed for dyslexic and challenged readers, so Sally Poyton (a dyslexic herself) kicks off by interviewing Anthony with the help of a teenage reviewer. Other features will follow later this week, including detailed reviews of the book and an interview with Anthony's editor.

Finally, I suppose I should come clean about the lino sniffing. This is what Anne-Marie Perks does to find out whether her piece of lino is in prime condition to print from. Anne-Marie has blogged at Big Little Tales with lots of beautiful images from her recent linocut course, but sadly no scratch and sniff. My campaign to make every post on Word & Pictures smell of chocolate starts here!

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 on his blog, Nick's taking a long hard look at his life and wondering why it constantly feels like he's Spinning Plates.

Ten-Minute Blog Break - 4th June

When Jan posted at the weekend that we hadn't missed a day on Words & Pictures yet, I instantly began to worry that it would be me who left us without content for 24 hours! Luckily, you've all been blogging up a storm as usual...


Rosie Best is still skulking around and still blogging (though she will have to work on her post titles). In the catchily named Things and Stuff #4, Rosie serves up a couple of great links that delve into the reasons behind John Green's recent success, talks about her appearance on The One Show, shows us some awesome nail varnish and points us towards a cool webcomic. Actually, I don't know what title would have linked all that together, though maybe you could suggest one in the comments section.

On the Demention blog, Claire Merle discusses false starts and the slightly mysterious process that is Finding Your Voice. As Claire says, "There’s nothing more magical than running after a story, trying to keep up with it, rather than pulling it along behind you" and she gives some tips to help writers achieve that state of bliss.

Meanwhile, over at the edge, Sara Grant is revisiting her youth, but with an eye to the future. How, her blog asks, can writers keep up with the youth of today when the teenage world evolves and changes at such an accelerated rate? (Readers are warned that part of the answer involves going to a One Direction concert). The blog also features a photo of Sara from 1986 that suggests she used to be a part-time fire-fighter and always looked much cooler than me, even back then.

Sneaking in as a late addition, is Emma Greenwood's wonderfully indiscreet post on Notes from the Slushpile. Emma compares Imogen Cooper to Steve Irwin, talks about nipples on a polite blog and generally gives some fine advice about not holding your characters to the same moral standards you might wish to follow. Sadly for me, it seems that Emma was also a much, much cooler teenager than I was.

There's usually nothing worse than having to sit through a slideshow of other people's holiday snaps, but over at Big Little Tales, Katriona Chapman shares some evocative sketches from her Scottish jaunt that are well worth checking out. Sam Zuppardi isn't sharing any illustrations this week, but he has just been inducted into an online database for authors and illustrators with unusual surnames. Who knew?

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 talks about The Book as Object, and how its role is changing in the digital age.

Ten-Minute Blog Break - 14th May

It's going to be a slightly truncated Blog Break this week, as I've just come back from the SCBWI retreat and my brain is a bit fried (yes, you can have too much writing, wine and cake!)


I'd like to introduce a brand new blogger to the network, Undiscovered Voices 2012 winner Rosie Best. Rosie's taken the plunge into blogging in preparation for her debut novel Skulk (which comes out in October) and she's taken to the form like a duck to water. Her first post explores six places in London that shaped her novel.

Over at the David Fickling Blog, Candy Gourlay pens a simply savage poem to the characters who populate her stories. It turns out that they live, die or even exist at the stroke of her pen. Be afraid.

Illustrators who are looking to enter this year's Undiscovered Voices competition should definitely check out Anne-Marie Perks's post at Big Little Tales, as she takes a behind the scenes look at the judging panel and gives her own top tips for entrants.

Finally, it's over to the ever-reliable Notes from the Slushpile for a couple of recent guest posts. Editor Bella Pearson tells us how (not) to get published (which doesn't sound very helpful, but is) and Nicola Morgan talks about the challenges and the rewards of writing teenage non-fiction books.

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, discussing passive vs. active characters in children's fiction: Passive Obsessive.