The Skull in the Wood shortlisted for the Waterstones Children's Book Prize!

Get ready to dig into a big fat slice of cake this week, as we celebrate with Sandra Greaves, author of the chilling contemporary ghost story The Skull in the Wood, which has been shortlisted for the Waterstone's Children’s Book Prize 2014. 




We first celebrated Sandra's book launch in September. And we asked her to tell us a little more about her journey to publication....

@sandra_greaves 

Sandra tells us: "The Skull in the Wood would probably have never come to life if I hadn’t slipped on black ice back in 2010 and broken my ankle in three places. Suddenly I couldn’t do anything except watch daytime TV or write, and thankfully I chose the writing option. Grim though the accident was, I’m very grateful. My first draft emerged very fast and I was accepted onto the Apprenticeships in Fiction mentoring programme for a year where my mentor, the author Catherine Johnson, helped me knock out the bad bits and hone the good bits. Just when I’d got the novel as far as I could, Undiscovered Voices asked for submissions – and I ended up one of the winners of UV 2012. The fantastic exposure from UV netted me an agent (Anna Power from Johnson & Alcock) and then a publisher – Chicken House. The Skull in the Wood finally came out in September last year and was shortlisted for Shrewsbury Bookfest. And now, unbelievably, it’s been nominated for the Waterstone's Children’s Book Prize as well – to be judged on 3 April. Two other SCBWI writers are also shortlisted – Piers Torday and Gemma Merino. No matter what the outcome is, it feels brilliant. But now I really do have to get on with book number two…."

“The wild moor is the perfect place for this atmospheric tale. Sandra Greaves builds the tension masterfully, winding in the children’s anger with each other and with the world, hints at family enmity, hints at the old tales of the land on which they’re living, building the emotions – and the creep factor – into an edge-of-the-seat tale. Can the two children outrun this ancient hunt? Can they outrun their own hurt? Can they step back into Old Scratch Woods, where the Gabbleratchet resides, and bury the enmity for good?” Isabel Popple, Waterstone's review 

The Skull in the Wood is published by Chicken House for 10+ readers and is Sandra’s first novel. Born in Edinburgh and now living in Devon, she keeps several badly-behaved chickens on a smallholding midway between the moor and the sea. 

So let's wish Sandra the best of luck for April. You can catch up with her on her website, sandragreaves.com or her Facebook page.

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Tania Tay is an ex-advertising copywriter and has been published in Sable LitMag. She is currently writing a YA romantic thriller, is a member of The Golden Egg Academy and is on the editorial team at Words & Pictures.

The Cambridge Summer School for Illustration

With the summer season of courses and schools for book creators fast approaching, Margaret Sturton looks back at her experiences at last year's Cambridge Summer School for children's illustration at Anglia Ruskin University.



Each year, I set time aside to attend a summer school, conference or course for professional development. Last year I signed up for the Cambridge School of Art summer school for writing and illustrating children’s picture books.

The aim of the Cambridge summer school was for each of the 40 odd students to produce a dummy book of a story written before the summer school started. Friday afternoon was devoted to a critique where each student’s work was commented on in depth. Saturday was a day conference with various industry guest speakers.

The summer school was organised by Pamela Smy who is an illustrator and the main course tutor for the Writing and Illustrating MA at Anglia Ruskin University. The co-tutors for the 2013 summer school were Birgitta Sif, Marta Altes and Ness Wood. Martin Salisbury and Emily Gravett both delivered lectures.

 

The basic structure of the course was a lecture each morning followed by a personal tutorial each afternoon. The rest of the time in between was for drawing, storyboarding and structuring your picture book. The conference on Saturday was a chance to network and have feedback from a variety of editors, agents and designers.

 

Character studies © Margaret Sturton

The Course 

The tutors were excellent. Birgitta Sif delivered an inspiring talk on ‘Getting to know your character’. Ness Wood, who is a freelance designer, gave a lecture on the role of the publishing house designer. Marta Altes was an engaging and witty speaker who delved into the variety and possibilities of the relationship between words and pictures.
. 

Storyboard

My reason for attending the summer school was the lure of Emily Gravett. She did not disappoint. The opportunity to flick though Emily Gravett’s sketchbooks was amazing.  Knowing her books and seeing the initial ideas was an incredible experience.

Summer Schools generally are an opportunity to have feedback from industry experts. For me, the value of the Cambridge summer school was the quantity and quality of the input. My work improved so much over the course of the week. If you do choose to go on the 2014 Cambridge summer school, good luck and work hard!

Dummy

General advice

• Applying early and getting university accommodation is an advantage.

• Doing lots of work each day made the input during tutorials more productive.

• If you have a portfolio, take it! The more visual information the tutors have the better.

• The conference is a useful networking opportunity so take business cards and don’t be shy.

• Take drawing equipment you are used to using. If you are not an illustrator, bring a basic drawing kit (soft drawing pencils, a decent rubber and drawing paper). There is not much time for experimentation.

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Margaret Sturton is an illustrator and animator based in Winchester. Her website is at www.margaretsturton.co.uk

Network News: South East... and a surprisingly high score from Southampton

Southampton FC seem to be doing ok at the moment - they're still in the premier league which means they must have been scoring goals…

Exactly like SCBWI So'ton.


Our goal setting supper group,  Helen Dineen, Helen Bonney, Veronica Cossanteli, Ken Lymer, Lorraine Cooke and me, Jan Carr, meets monthly on a Thursday evening at 7:30pm in the Cowherds Pub on Southampton Common. And since our first meeting in May last year, we have grown! Last month we were so pleased to welcome, illustrator Duncan Wilson to the group. 

We have all started, finished, revised and submitted work. Helen (D) has signed with Agent Anne Clark, Lorraine has had two shortlistings, Helen (B) has written and composed a musical, Veronica has published with Chicken House and triumphantly handled her first author visits. Ken has developed picture book ideas, written for Words & Pictures and started blogging, and I finished a book that,  in May '13, was under serious threat of the bin.

Goal setting is such a good idea.

Southampton Common

Quite a few of us across the country now seem to be making goals a focus for getting together. It's interesting to read about how different groups approach goal setting. Here's the routine we've fallen into in Southampton:

• Meet at 7:30pm at our favourite round table in the window
• General catch up while ordering drinks and 'supper'.
• Go round the group, in turn, updating how we did on last month's goals
• Eat (this isn't compulsory but we usually come hungry!)
• Commit ( aspirationally is fine) to a goal for next month
• Jan notes these down 
• Go home in complete control of faculties, encouraged and inspired at about 9:45pm
• Before the next meeting, Jan emails everyone's goals to the whole group with a reminder of the date for our next meeting, and books the favourite table.

Our next goal setting supper is Thursday March 20th

In the coming months we're looking forward to taking part in the Ejector Seat Arts Festival in the City Centre, Southampton Central Library showing of the wonderful SCBWI Showcase and we hope, very soon, to confirm our first SCBWI So'ton workshop on 'Voice'.

Watch this space!

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Jan Carr is the editor of Words & Pictures. Her fiction is all over the place she blogs occasionally and loves to write in magenta.

It's Party Time for the Undiscovered Voices!

The launch of another volume of Undiscovered Voices is always a moment for great celebration. Twelve writers and five artists – all unagented and unpublished - find their work suddenly thrust upon the publishing world, and the publishing world responds with eager interest.

The launch party itself has become a hotly anticipated event, made even more special because it only happens every two years.


The launch party has a dual purpose:

A) Celebrating the end of a long journey for everyone involved in the competition - from the opening of submissions in July 2013 to the publication of the anthology in January 2014

B) Marking the beginning of a new journey for all those freshly-discovered voices, as they come face-to-face with the agents and editors who will take them to publication and beyond

The Undiscovered Voices team with the 2014 finalists
(All photos by Candy Gourlay)

This year’s launch took place in London on Wednesday 26th February. As well as this year’s finalists, the competition organisers, judges and former winners were in attendance, along with scores of those all-important agents and editors. The wine and conversation flowed, contacts were made and friendships were formed.

SCBWI British Isles Regional Adviser Natascha Biebow was the first to speak, and it was her very pleasant job to congratulate Undiscovered Voices founders Sara Grant and Sara O’Connor for their amazing work on the competition and anthology since 2008.

Natascha Biebow with Sara O'Connor and Sara Grant

Chris Snowden

Working Partners Managing Director Chris Snowden then took the stage, revealing that the Saras had actually first approached him with the idea in 2006, when they were both at Working Partners. Chris seemed a little put out that they have both subsequently left the company for bigger things! (Sara Grant as a full-time author and Sara O’Connor as Editorial Director at Hot Key Books). Chris’s talk was full of memorable soundbites, such as the phrase “Internet Schminternet”, which he used to describe the current lack of potential for online publishing of children’s titles. Chris stressed the need for “filtering” of content to maintain quality, and cited Undiscovered Voices as a prime example of where this process succeeds.

Chris Riddell

Chris Riddell – the honorary chair for the 2014 anthology – was last to speak (but definitely not least). He started by saying that he wasn’t sure what an honorary chair actually did, then launched into the very funny story of his early career as an illustrator. Chris singled out the importance of the SCBWI as a community where creative people can come together to share their ideas and find their voices. He also revealed that the Saras had made him a mug with one of his Undiscovered Voices illustrations on the side, a gift he described as his “Scooby Doo mug”.

After the speeches, the party concluded with the real business of the evening – networking! Let’s hope for some exciting news from those 2014 winners in the coming months, and I’m sure we’ll be back here again in two years for Undiscovered Voices 2016.

How W&P Team Members Experienced the Party:

Katrina Charman

It's difficult to put the whole Undiscovered Voices launch party experience into words. From the moment I arrived, I was whisked away to have photos taken with my fellow finalists, the amazing Chris Riddell and the UV team. Then with barely a chance to grab a drink, the industry guests began to arrive and so began a solid five hours of chatting, networking, and hobnobbing with all of these amazing people from the publishing industry who had not only read the beginning of my book, but wanted to read more, which was a very surreal experience. By the end of the evening I could barely speak!

The speeches were incredibly inspiring, and Chris Riddell was absolutely hilarious when he described how he discovered his own voice. It was a night that I will remember for the rest of my life, for so many wonderful reasons, and I have to thank Sara O'Connor, Sara Grant, SCBWI-BI and everyone involved in UV, for this life-changing opportunity.

Katrina Charman is one of this year’s Undiscovered Voices writing finalists, with her YA sci-fi fantasy Phoenix.

Nick Cross

It’s probably a good job that the Undiscovered Voices launch party is only once every two years, because I’m not sure my hearing could recover otherwise. No room seems big enough to contain the amount of people who turn up, no ceiling high enough to dampen the enormous volume of noise they generate! It’s the publishing equivalent of sensory overload - an exhilarating, bewildering, joyous occasion.

Although I described myself as “old news” to one agent, I did make some useful new contacts and caught up with people I hadn’t seen in ages. Perhaps there’s even an element of nostalgia to it all, four years on from my own baptism of fire. But I didn’t feel bitter or greatly envy those writers who were fresh out of the gate, because they will tell very different stories and go on very different journeys to me. I’ve learnt so much about writing and (more importantly myself) in the four years since I gained a place in Undiscovered Voices – it’s literally changed my life.

Nick Cross was featured in the Undiscovered Voices 2010 anthology with his zombie horror comedy Back from the Dead.

Ten-Minute Blog Break - 4th March

Oh my, there were some terrific blog posts this week. What to pick? What to leave out? What to have for lunch? The life of the Words & Pictures Blog Editor is filled with so many difficult choices...


Elizabeth Wein continued her slow climb to greatness by delivering the keynote speech at the SCBWI Winter Conference in New York. There's a summary of her keynote on the official conference blog, and Elizabeth herself contributes a charming post in which she celebrates friendship, family and a secret addiction to My Little Pony.

After what seems like a very long wait, Ellen Renner is back with Tribute, her first YA fantasy novel for Hot Key Books. She blogs about it at the Hot Key site and shares a short story called My Enemy's Eyes, that introduces the world of her book. And boy, does this story go dark!

It's World Book Day this week, news that will fill parents with horror if they haven't sorted out book character costumes for their kids yet. But Julie Fulton is looking at the positive side of this yearly tradition and also highlighting the work of Book Aid International, a charity supporting literacy, education and development in sub-Saharan Africa.

Sally Poyton feels like a one-horned unicorn, but longs to be a phoenix-multi-horned-unicorn-bride hatching from a golden egg. No idea what I'm talking about? Along with some outrageous metaphors, Sally's blog post Always the Bridesmaid contains an honest examination of what it's like to keep getting recognised for your work, but not quite enough.

Finally, there was much goggling (and Googling) in disbelief at Lynne Shepherd's bizarre attack on J.K. Rowling last week, and Addy Farmer provides a great commentary at Notes from the Slushpile. It turns out that criticising the taste of millions of Harry Potter fans can lead to an unexpected, career-limiting disaster. Who knew?

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.

Ask a Picture Book Editor

Ellie and Natascha are delighted to join our Ask a Picture Book Editor column, where you can ask them anything you’d like about picture books. 

Tell us a little bit about your experience editing picture books: 

I always have, and always will love picture books! I knew I wanted to be an editor from quite a young age when I used to cut up my mum’s old magazines and use them to make my own scrapbook stories. I finally found my way into children’s books via a stint at a technical publisher and then as a writer for a children’s magazine. I’ve been editing picture books for the last seven years and am currently Senior Editor at Little Tiger Press. I consider myself very lucky to have such a fun and fantastic job. Each stage has its own exciting elements; from finding a text that you love (and that you know will strike a chord with children), to seeing the first sketches from an illustrator, to holding the finished book in your hands, opening the cover and, finally, starting the story! 

I have always loved books and have an affinity with small children. I love the way they look at the world with fresh eyes, with an incredible honesty and sense of wonder! I am passionate about picture books and love editing. I relish the process of ‘cooking’ stories with authors, illustrators and designers to help a picture book evolve from an initial germ of an idea into something that has wings, where the words and pictures are seamless – though a heck of a lot of behind-the-scenes deliberation and fine-tuning has made them seem so. For 17 years, I worked in-house at major publishers. But, when I had my son, I decided I wanted to get back to editing and help authors and illustrators shape their stories. So, I started Blue Elephant Storyshaping, an editing, coaching and mentoring service to help authors and illustrators fine-tune their work pre-submission. I love what I do! 

What is a picture book? 

It’s a harmony of words and pictures working
seamlessly together to tell a tale and 
inspire a mind. 

A picture book is the most perfect way 
of communicating a story 
to a very young child. 




What’s your favourite classic picture book? 

This is so hard! It really depends on my mood. 
If I’m feeling like a chuckle then I always turn 
to The Elephant and the Bad Baby 
by Elfrida Vipont and Raymond Briggs. 

I love the striking illustrations and cumulative nature of the text. The escalating chaos and drama is so well handled and the voice and character of the long-suffering elephant and the bad baby are so well observed. It never fails to make me smile.

from The Elephant and the Bad Baby

Choosing just one book is such a challenge! 
I like to think there are books for all
 stages of life and all moods. 
I love Make Way for Ducklings by Robert McCloskey. The writing and the drawing in it are exquisite and the story still works for children today.

I love the humour of the ducks’ names and the imagery of them waddling right through the middle of Boston traffic – it’s a classic example of taking an unusual ‘everyday’ occurrence and turning it into a great children’s story. 

from Make Way for Ducklings

 
What’s your favourite contemporary picture book?  

I adore My Big Shouting Day by Rebecca Patterson. It’s a modern classic for me. It so perfectly encapsulates toddler tantrums and that inexplicable rage that can occur at the smallest of things. It’s a wonderful way of exploring emotions and why we feel the way we do, and it’s handled with the right balance of humour and warmth that never makes it feel worthy. 

from My Big Shouting Day!

 My current favourite, laugh-out-loud is Goldilocks and the Three Dinosaurs by Mo Willems. 



What’s not to like? It has Goldilocks gorging herself with chocolate pudding, three gormless dinosaurs (!) and a moral without being too moral. Genius.

from Goldilocks and the Three Dinosaurs

What is the most common mistake made in picture book submissions? 


I think many people think that because a picture book is short that there isn’t enough space for plot or narrative development – this is not true! A lot of the submissions that fall onto my desk (whilst they may have a wonderful voice, lots of humour, great characters etc) often lack strength of story – not enough happens. The phrase I often find myself thinking is ‘not enough meat on its bones’. It’s vital to give a text enough narrative to engage a reader and ensconce them in your world. 

Frequently, authors don’t think through the characters’ motivation enough. The result is that the story comes out flat and the editor thinks, “So what?” and sends it right back. It is essential to know why a character is acting the way they are and what they want (what’s at stake?) so that the story doesn’t fall flat. 

Tell us about a childhood memory:

 Ellie

Finding a perfectly shaped shell on the beach on a family holiday – then promptly losing it! It was very upsetting! 

Natascha

I used to climb up into a bougainvillea tree in the garden of our weekend house in Teresopolis (in the mountainous region outside Rio de Janeiro where I grew up) and read the books my grandmother sent from England. 

What’s your favourite ice-cream flavour: 

 
Ellie: Strawberry! With an extra helping of fresh strawberries, please! 

Natascha: Vanilla with hot chocolate sauce (of course!). 

Great, so now you know a bit about us – now, it’s your turn to ask some questions!

For each month’s post, we will set readers a challenge so we can cover key picture book topics. For our next post on 7 April, we would like to ask:

“What makes a good picture book topic?”

To send us your answers and other questions about picture books, you can add a comment below or email your questions to writers@britishscbwi.org

Natascha Biebow is editor, mentor and
coach at www.blueelephantstoryshaping.com

Ellie Farmeris Senior Editor
at Little Tiger Press www.littletiger.co.uk 

Our Birthday Month

We are now in our birthday month!

As you all know, I'm sure, Words & Pictures, has been going a lot longer than wordsandpics.org. It was brought to birth in 1996 by the then British Isles Assistant Regional Adviser and now multi award-winning, including Carnegie shortlisted, author Elizabeth Wein.


wordsandpics.org, the brainchild of another multi award-winning author and all round fabulous SCBWI volunteer Candy Gourlay, was born in the early hours of Monday 25th March 2013.


The whole month will have a birthday celebratory theme and I'll be picking some of my highlights, in no particular order, from the past year here, on Sundays.

As I said, they're in no particular order, but how could I not begin with my favourite webcomic of all time, Amanda Lillywhite's Duck & Bear?

A Celebratory Duck

It was so wonderful to be able to launch the new blogzine with such a brilliant idea, a writer duck and an illustrator bear, both 'nearly there'. Amanda put such thought, time and talent, illustration and storytelling, into creating the emotional but determined Duck and the quietly plodding sympathetic Bear. I love them and would love to know what happens next. Maybe in Fault in our Stars style, I'll visit and get her to tell me!

Another highlight was  Rowena House's wonderful interview with David Almond last May.  Did I say David Almond? Yes I did, the man himself. Here are just two of David's revelatory ideas that spoke to me.

"So I guess my work is going more towards (exploring) the nature of the world. What language is. What it means to be creative and how we can become more than ourselves, more than what we appear to be by being creative, by being artistic."

and

"Often I might know what the ending of my story is, what’s got to happen, but that isn’t enough. It’s only when you write something that you really know it."

Magic!

Thank you, David, Rowena and Amanda.


I very much like the idea of a birthday month. Though I personally have decided not to have any more, a month long celebration is a much better idea than a day as fleeting as the candles on the cake. W&P's birthday month is in fact extending into April - on the 12th, as many of the team and our regular contributors who can will be gathering for a team building knees-up in Southampton - the home of team building knees-ups.

As with everything involving a list of people where no-one must be forgotten I am beset by the fear that I have. That is, forgotten someone. So if that's the case please pipe up and email editor@britishscbwi.org and come! (If you can.)

Last week there was an educational theme in two great interviews:

• Judy Waite's YA masterclass is next Saturday and there's still time to book
• Julia Green, course director at Bath Spa

plus...

• Jion Sheibani, our new featured illustrator with her wonderful gallery
• Some great Q&A from Sallyanne Sweeney's Agent Confidential
• Numbers numbers numbers in Nick's blog choices
• Hurray for Cath Howe's agent netting success!

...and last Sunday I completely lied about there being news from Southampton so next week there is! (hopefully) with blogs, celebration, and we're excited that our RA, Natascha Biebow, with Ellie Farmer from Little Tiger Press, will be introducing a new series to W&P - Ask a Picture Book Editor.

I'm off make inroads into the next WIP...

Have a great week!

Jan Carr

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Jan Carr is the editor of Words & Pictures. Her fiction is all over the place, she blogs occasionally and loves to write in magenta. You can contact her at editor@britishscbwi.org.