Geek List: Paying attention to Facebook Pages

By Candy Gourlay

I had a hundred million other things to do the other day but then I came upon this piece in the New York Times about "Protecting Your Privacy on the New Facebook".

The NEW Facebook? Again?

Sigh. What with now being a quoted company, FB is adding new meaning to the word INSIDIOUS.

Inspired by film. Is it a close up? Or a wide shot?

By Candy Gourlay

A quick thought for Monday.

Many authors I know swear by screen writing books like Story by Robert McKee. There is so much to learn about narrative structure in cinema.

Judging Young Fiction By Their Covers - Yanks vs Limeys

The online magazine The Millions is judging books by their covers again.

"As readers, we are undoubtedly swayed by the little billboard that is the cover of every book we read," writes former bookseller C. Max Magee. "...I’ve always found it especially interesting that the U.K. and U.S. covers often differ from one another. This would seem to suggest that certain layouts and imagery will better appeal to readers on one side of the Atlantic rather than the other."

Reader's Block: is there a cure?

by Teri Terry

A few days ago I posted this on Facebook: 

I don't get writer's block as such - but I do get reader's block. This is much worse! Every now and then, I don't want to read anything I have (and I have a mountainous TBR) but I'm just craving....I don't know what. I want a book to grab my hands and pull me in, but not leave me feeling battered during or after. Everything I pick up I put down again. 

And I wondered: is this a common writer's complaint? Judging by the number of comments left in quick succession, it is.

The author has four faces: A writer's survival guide

By Kate Harrison
Guest Blogger

Writing is a dream job – that’s official. According to this survey, being a writer is the number three dream job, after Pilot and Charity Worker.

Yet we’ve also been told that there’s a strong link between being an author and mental health problems. So writing is a dream job and a potential nightmare rolled into one. So how can you make sure being an author is still a dream come true?

Webinar: "Our list is 100% spontaneous!" Sara O'Connor of Hot Key Books

by Emma Greenwood
Guest Blogger

Emma Greenwood is the Green Columnist for Liberti magazine and author of work-in-progress, Seagull Eyes, a contemporary teen novel that was long-listed for the Mslexia Children’s Novel Competition 2012. Emma also writes teen-voice short stories and has been published by Mslexia and Cinnamon Press. She writes every day at the kitchen table but can type 55 wpm under the bedclothes on her iPhone because the muse invariably visits in the early hours when everyone else is asleep.

Its 8pm and I'm setting up my laptop ready for the SCBWI Central West webinar with Sara O Connor from Hot Key Books. 

New York! New York! Round-up of SCBWI's 2013 Conference

By Candy Gourlay
(Who wasn't there)

Photo from the Empire State Building by Teri Terry (sholdn't you have been at the conference, Teri?)

Notes from the Slushpile sent a reporter to the recent SCBWI Conference in New York but she somehow ended up on the wrong side of the stage at the wrong event.

Are We in a Golden Age of Books and Not Noticing It?

By Candy Gourlay

I've been binge-blogging these past couple of weeks while on a writing break.

After a long period of trying not to blog because I had to finish writing my novel, I crawled out of the Writer's Cave and blogged here, here,  here, here, here, here and here.

But now I've got edits to do so I'm back in the Cave again. If anyone asks, I'm not here ;)

I've been thinking about golden ages recently after hearing Helen Mirren on the radio talking about cinema's Golden Age being that transition between silent films and sound when nobody knew what to expect from the new technologies and so ANYTHING could happen.

We children's authors are a supportive bunch, cheering each other on through gritted teeth

By Candy Gourlay

Hilary Mantel (Photo: Harper Collins)

Go, Hilary!

After winning the Booker Prize a second time (with the second book of her trilogy), Hilary Mantel also grabbed the Costa Prize. £30,000 prize money. Blimey.

Sally Gardner of course won the Children's Costa for Maggot Moon.

Being human is the best kind of marketing

By Candy Gourlay



I heard the oddest story about the Nike Just Do It campaign the other day.

Writing Inspiration from the Making of Les Miserables the Movie

By Candy Gourlay

So aside from watching lots of Making Of documentaries while waiting for comments on my manuscript, I've also been binging on podcasts.

Listening to a podcast about the making of Les Miserables the movie, I kept discovering things that resonated with writing.