CAN YOU MOVE THINGS AROUND JUST WITH YOUR MIND? DO ALI SPARKES’ FUN QUIZ AND FIND OUT… A NEW telekinetic is in town! The thrilling adventures of Tyrone Lewis are out now in Ali Sparkes ’ new summer must read, Out of this World . Shapeshifter fans will have met Tyrone in the last two books of the Shapeshifter series , when he shows up […]
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I wasn’t supposed to be a writer. I was supposed to be an iconic artist or a world-famous DJ spinning the wheels of steel in front of a crazy festival crowd. Writing was a complete accident. It wasn’t an accident that I learned to actually write – we all have to do that. It was […]
Read moreI have always ‘done’ funny. Both as a reader, and a writer. As a child, I snorted through every page of every Dr Seuss, laughed until I cried at Russell Hoban’s inspired creation Aunt Fidget Wonkham-Strong in her iron hat cooking mutton sog, and the mere mention of the East Pagwell Canal from Professor Branestawm […]
Read moreHi! And thank you for asking us to join you on this blog. So here we are: the mother/daughter team behind the Wendy Quill books – working EXTREMELY hard. Mina May is slaving away on her iPad whilst I am doing VERY IMPORTANT writerly work: You see, because Mina May is only eleven, people are always asking […]
Read moreMy stories are a bit like a fairy with bunions. They are fantasy but they have their feet in the real world. What I really love is making startling, spooky or paranormal things happen in the ‘real’ world that we all know and recognize. When I started out with Dax Jones in the very first […]
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Sally Prue, author of Song Hunter , on the very beginnings of art and creative thinking, including her experience of visiting the British Museum exhibition on Ice Age Art . (This is an expanded version of a piece first posted on Sally’s Song Hunter blog .) Making up stuff is important. No, really: life and death important. Writing a story or painting a picture may […]
Read moreCelebrating the publication of The Rachel Riley Diaries: The Life of Riley , Joanna Nadin shares what she wanted to be when she grew up! I never wanted to be a writer when I grew up. That is to say, it didn’t occur to me that writing was a “real” job, much less one that I would be capable of, or derive enjoyment […]
Read moreHistorical fiction author Marie-Louise Jensen introduces us to the hidden world of smuggling – the backdrop to her latest novel Smuggler’s Kiss. Isabelle is rescued from drowning by the crew of a notorious smuggling ship, and finds herself in a world of adventure, romance, and a thrilling fight for justice. Researching smuggling is a tortuous […]
Read moreDave Cousins, author of 15 Days Without a Head and Waiting for Gonzo , shares his story making secret. One of the most common questions asked of writers is where do you get your ideas from? It’s a question that many will struggle to answer—not me. I know exactly where my stories originate. I’ll let you into the secret, but don’t go spreading it around. This is […]
Read moreThe inimitable Geraldine McCaughrean shares her experience of writing The Positively Last Performance , her wonderful new novel about a seaside town and a theatre full of ghosts, each with their own story to tell. First it was Turner, then Tracey Emin. Even the Rough Guide put it among the world’s ten top resorts. Karl Marx and T. S. Eliot […]
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