Inspired by ... Ghosts

By Fiona Dunbar
Guest Blogger

So here's a blog idea: what inspired your current work-in-progress? Do tell us in a comment or in a blog post (send us the link so that we can list it at the bottom of this post). Our askee in this post is  Fiona Dunbar, author of Toonhead, The Pink Chameleon, and  the Lulu Baker trilogy. Fiona has a new ghost mystery series starring Kitty Slade, who has something called phantorama - the power to see ghosts!

When Candy and I were discussing possible subjects for my Slushpile post the other day, she suggested I might like to do a piece on ghosts in children's literature that inspired me. 'But I can't think of a single one!' I said. And it's true: although I'm writing a six-book series of ghostly mystery stories for children, other ghost stories for kids are not what inspired me to do this.

My actual starting point was the desire to write a sort of Famous Five series for the 21st century, i.e. kids solving mysteries. I just find that premise utterly irresistible - always have. Then the ghosty thing started creeping in - as ghosty things are wont to do - and the whole axis shifted. I found myself merging the mystery-solving idea with a draft of an unfinished story from 2005 called Kit & Nan. You know how it is: you start out with a story, thinking, 'this is gonna be great!' and then...pfft. But it was a good premise, and I didn't want to waste it: in it went.



Anyway, Candy's suggestion got me thinking. It's not as if nothing I've read or seen has informed my Kitty Slade stories. What was it that got my supernatural juices flowing? So here they are: my Top Five Ghostly Inspirations:

1. Morris

Morris is the sublimely revolting creation of Hilary Mantel, in her book Beyond Black. The book is about a medium, Alison, who tours the country doing shows in which she contacts people's dead relatives for them. She is only able to do this because she has a spirit guide - i.e. a ghost that contacts the other ghosts for her. This is Morris. Alison did not seek out Morris: she did not choose him. She just...got him. He is a lowlife, disgusting in ways I cannot mention here; I felt deeply sorry for Alison, while at the same time weeping with laughter. What a delicious irony Mantel has presented us with: without Morris, Alison has no livelihood - and yet he is unbearable.

Alison wonders what she did to deserve him: he chuckles and says 'count your blessings girl, you fink I'm bad but you could of had...Pikey Pete [or] my mate Keef Capstick.' I shuddered to think what Pikey Pete or Keef Capstick were like.

I don't have anyone quite like Morris in the Kitty Slade stories (God forbid!) but there is a character in book four (sorry, you'll have to wait a while!) that in retrospect I realise probably owes something to Morris, in that she's extremely annoying but unavoidable, as Kitty needs her help.

Funnily enough, looking back over Beyond Black now, I see that Alison first encounters Morris when she is thirteen - the same age at which Kitty develops her phantorama. SO glad for Alison that she wasn't any younger...

2. The Canterville Ghost

I thought about putting Jacob Marley in this list, but then I remembered that although I am a huge Dickens fan, A Christmas Carol is my least favourite of his works.

And actually, the ghosts in my stories are not in the least bit like Marley. And nor, indeed, is Oscar Wilde's Canterville Ghost. He would so love to be Jacob Marley: he rattles chains and suits of armour and tries all manner of tricks and guises to scare off the Otises, the American family who have just moved into Canterville Chase.

But when he appears to Mr Otis, complete with Marley-esque rusty chains and manacles, the American merely presents him with a bottle of lubricant, and goes back to bed. When he moans and groans in the night, Mrs Otis offers him a cure for indigestion. The younger Otis children actually end up terrifying him, rather than the other way round.



Interestingly, it is only the teenage daughter, Victoria, who takes him seriously, and wants to help him reach his final resting place.

In a similar way, Kitty's objective in each of my stories is to help a ghost to carry out the unfinished business that's keeping them trapped in the mortal realm.

I don't think you have to have a scary ghost in order to have a scary ghost story: it helps, but a lot of the build-up of tension - in my stories, at least - has to do with the perilous situations Kitty and her siblings find themselves in, as a result of the ghostly intervention.

3. An American Werewolf In London

I cannot overstate how much I rate this film. I majorly heart it. And when a book or a movie affects you in that way, it seeps into your DNA, becoming a part of what you produce. It helps that I was roughly the same age as its protagonists when it came out: I was slap bang in the middle of the target demographic.

But more to the point, it is the best example I can think of anywhere, in books, films, TV, of something that is both funny and scary at the same time. And that is what I set out to do with Kitty - albeit in a PG-rated way! I hope I succeed.



Of course, An American Werewolf is not a ghost story but a horror film. But there is a haunting of sorts - though in this case by the character Jack, who is undead, rather than properly dead. But unlike the zombies you usually encounter in horror films, Jack has an agenda: there is something that must happen (in case you haven't seen the film, I won't say what!) in order for him to be released from his purgatory-like existence. In a similar way, all the main ghosts in my Kitty stories need her to do something, so they can be fully released into the spirit realm.

4. Scooby-Doo
As I have remarked elsewhere, I couldn't have given Kitty a dog - especially one that went round with her all over the place, being her canine assistant. Not only would that have been too Famous Five, but what with the ghosts and the camper van, even a non-talking dog might have tipped it too much in the direction of Scooby-Doo territory. Not that I felt any special need to add a dog anyway, I should add.

So what is it about all those childhood hours of watching Scooby that informed what I'm doing now? Again, it's just in my DNA. I like that combination of ghosts, fun and mystery. The 'mysteries' in Scooby-Doo, as I remember, always seemed to end up with some fraudster pretending to be a ghost, but we didn't care: it was just so much fun.



Ghosts + fun + mystery: that is exactly what I'm doing here, pure and simple. Only with, dare I say it myself, proper mysteries with outcomes you're not going to guess.

5. The Graveyard Book

This deserves a special mention, even though you could say it doesn't count as pure 'inspiration', as I didn't read it until I'd already written Kitty books one and two. But inspiration doesn't stop happening once you've embarked on a project: it goes on happening.

Neil Gaiman's The Graveyard Book rightly attracted a clutch of awards, while up and down the country and around the world, other authors were slapping their heads, crying, "a Jungle Book set in a graveyard: why didn't I think of that?" I was one of them. A Mowgli figure, only raised by ghosts...how fantastic!



And Gaiman pulls it off brilliantly, too. So even though most of my inspiration comes from other sources, every now and then I read a children's book like this and think 'Yes! Here is the reason I'm writing this kind of book.' Sadly, it also reminds me that I'm not Chris Riddell...

Incidentally, the graveyard of the title is based on Highgate Cemetery, which is near where I live - but I won't be setting a Kitty story there. Wonderful though it is, I feel it's been 'done' enough already.

There is, however, another spooky North London setting that I will be using in the sixth book.

You won't guess it...

********************************

MC Rogerson is inspired by pagan mysteries on the Life Beyond blog

Caroline Lawrence is inspired by music over on Wondrous Reads and by gritty westerns on her Flavia blog

The Arvon Experience

By Maureen Lynas

It is possible that my experience of going on a Writing for Children, course at the Lumb Bank Arvon Centre, in 2010, was unusual. It is possible that I am prone to exaggeration.

It is also possible that I live a very sheltered writerly life in my loft with only my keyboard for company, and I succumbed to ‘Writer’s Euphoria’ in the presence of seventeen other children’s authors. But I don’t think so. Because I wasn’t the only author who had tears in her eyes as we said our farewells on the last morning. Some authors even threatened a ‘sit in’, but were encouraged by the lovely staff to, ‘Go home!’

So why didn’t we want to leave?

Could it have been the accommodation and setting? 

Lumb Bank is a wonderful old building perched on the side of a hill near Hebden Bridge. 

The isolation and fantastic scenery make you think you are in another world, completely cut off from your normal life.

 The room we worked, and ate in, had a huge table, big enough for eighteen to sit around comfortably and had fantastic views out over the valley. There were lots of comfy sofas in the sitting room, and the barn conversion, and we were encouraged to treat the place as our own for the week. Which we did.

The bedrooms are deliberately furnished sparsely. 

This is not the Hilton, or even a Premier Inn, in fact one student referred to her room on first viewing as ‘a pokey hole’ but had to be dragged kicking and screaming out of her‘pokey hole’ on the last morning. It can be cold up there and they recommend warm clothing – they even provide hot water bottles. But I would recommend taking your own, just in case.

All in all I would describe the centre as homely, and very relaxing. But I’m not sure that’s why we didn’t want to leave.

So maybe it was the tutors?

I don’t know if we were just lucky but our tutors were extremely supportive, non-judgemental and generous with their time. And as well as running (and participating in) the workshops they both held a one to one session with each author to discuss work we’d brought with us. They are prolific authors: Malachy Doyle writes a range of books from picture books (The Dancing Tiger, When a Zeeder met a Xyder), to teen fiction, (Georgie and Who is Jessie Flood); Julia Golding writes for older children Cat Royal, Companion Quartet, and Darcy Lock. You can see the full range at their websites, www.malachydoyle.co.uk, www.juliagolding.co.uk

Then we had the fabulous David Almond as guest speaker who oozed calmness and confidence and treated everyone as if they had already reached their goal of becoming authors of children’s fiction. I was shocked to hear it had taken him twenty years to get his first book published but reassured too - for me, it meant that I didn’t have to feel despondent for at least another ten years! He was inspirational.

But I’m not sure that was it either.

So, was it the structure of the day?

Slaving over a hot workshop from 9.30 until 12.30. Lunch, then time out to write, walk, talk, think, doze, talk, read, doze, write, talk, chill until 7pm. Sit around the huge table and eat the tasty concoction created by today’s group of volunteer chefs (more about cooking later), drink wine, then an evening activity of readings by the tutors or guest speaker. There was the possibility of a night out at the pub but we changed this to an evening of ‘Interview the Author’ that I was delighted to host. I would like to thank the tutors for their openness in answering such in depth questions as ‘Reliant Robin or Bicycle?’ and ‘What is your favourite six syllable word?’ (Thank you to Clare for those two suggestions!) Very enlightening.

Or was it the food?

The food was delicious. Help yourself to breakfast of cereal, toast, or fruit. Lunch was laid out by the staff – lots of cheeses, meats, breads, salad, etc. Plus cake. Then we had a rota for cooking the evening meal. We signed up into groups of four; each group washed up one night and cooked the next. All of the ingredients were provided, along with very clear instructions, and a member of staff was on hand to advise and rectify any disasters. Not that we had any!

So was it the workshops?

Julia and Malachy’s brief seemed to be to help us become writers in general, not just writers of children’s fiction. To help us to find our voice and to challenge us to think in different ways. 

To say I was nervous of producing work on demand would be an understatement, and to say I was alone in my stammering and heart racing would be a lie. But watching the confidence of the group growing, watching the trust developing, listening to seventeen other voices producing seventeen different responses to identical tasks was amazing. It sent out a clear message – your best writing will be written in your own voice. So let it out.

Speaking of confidence – we were told at the initial, ‘Hello, Welcome to Lumb Bank, Have a Large Piece of Cake, meeting, that on the last night we would all perform one piece of work from the week. There were big gasps of horror and much blood draining from many faces. Then, by the time Friday came, we were moaning and complaining – Only one! Are you sure? I have at least three! I was not the only one to release my inner exhibitionist, and that was before the wine!

And also speaking of confidence – people laughed at my work. Which was brilliant! As an author of funny fiction it was a relief to know that I was hitting some giggling bones. Excellent.

Maybe that was it then. Or maybe it was the students.

It started out well. Lots of smiles. Lots of, ‘Where have you come from? Really? All that way? And what about you? Really? All that way. Gosh.’ And then it just got better and better. I can honestly say I have never laughed so much in one week in my entire life. It was a girls only group, apart from Malachy, and people bonded over writing, bonded over walking, bonded over books, bonded over wine, bonded over their personal histories, their children, their goals, their future. We were so bonded there was no need for glue. And we have kept in touch through an email group and friends are meeting up all over the place, Paris, York, Birmingham, Edinburgh and Newcastle. And lots of us have become members of SCBWI and are meeting up at the Winchester Conference.

Was it worth the money?

Definitively. I would have paid again to stay another week. Arvon has just received extra funding so for the first time you can apply for a full grant and they encourage people to apply.

Would I go on another – just let me pack my bag!

So, I think it was the whole package, the whole Lumb Bank Experience that took a group of wannabe’s and sent them back out into the world with the following message -  Find out why you want to write. Find out what you want to write. Find out who you are writing for. And write!

Read more Slushpile experiences at Arvon

Candy's Arvon course with Malorie Blackman and Melvin Burgess

Jo's Arvon course with Celia Reese, Linda Newbery and Gillian Cross

Publisher Kate Wilson: As The Nosy Crow Flies!

By Addy Farmer

Kate Wilson, founder and MD of Nosy Crow, landed at the Lincoln Book Festival on Saturday 14th May.

Refusing all offers of food and rest, Kate flew up the stairs and perched on her seat to talk about what Nosy Crow was all about.

Update! View the trailer for Nosy Crow's new app - Cinderella

Enough with the bird analogies and down to the Nosy Crow business and Kate's passion for children's stories. A Scot with a peculiar accent and a mean side (she said it, not me, and she meant careful with money rather than vindictive), Kate started her publishing career in rights with Faber and Faber which was a good thing as she began to learn if a book worked by showing it to experienced editors buying translation rights at book fiars.

The first stirrings of the fledgling publisher came when Kate observed potential buyers turning a page and then turning back before going on. Okay if this happens once, she says, but when it happens time after time, you know that maybe something's not quite working with the way the story is working. She moved on to publishing and business roles as MD of Macmillan and Scholastic and decided after 23 years of publishing books for other people that she’d like to publish some of her own.

This drive to create and get children reading for pleasure through story making is the wind beneath the wings of Nosy Crow (sorry). These ideals are backed by some sharp analysis of what does and does not work in children's publishing and how she could make Nosy Crow the publisher that flies.

Kate works with a small team in a smallish office but within polite cake-eating distance of one another. Nosy Crow produces children's fiction (including board books, novelty books and picture books) for 0 – 12, and highly-interactive apps for children from 2 – 7. They’ll publish 23 print books books this year and 5 apps.

The first baby out of the nest was Small Blue Thing, a supernatural romance for 11 plus with NO VAMPIRES. Amongst her impressive aviary of authors is Philip Ardagh with The Grunts and Axel Scheffler's Pip and Posy books.

Some work is produced in house, board books like the Noodle series of touch-and-feel board books with furry ears and sparkly bits. The apps are likewise produced in house but the ideas and story lines could well come from a writer well-versed in this product. Nosy Crow’s first app, The Three Little Pigs, has been published to wide acclaim.

So what's Nosy Crow about?

Children
THE BIG QUESTION is always 'who's it for?' Nosy Crow doesn’t publish a book or an app unless they have a clear sense of the core readership. Kate's not thinking London, literature and reviews, she's thinking Wigan, literacy and real children.

Curating
Selecting the good from the bad using a set of consistent standards and values so that the Nosy Crow brand has real meaning. Kate also stressed the publisher’s role in protecting authors’ and illustrators’ rights in a digital environment in which piracy is rife.

Connecting
Kate thinks that the internet brings to publishers – and to authors – an opportunity to engage with readers in a way that’s never been possible before. Instead of publisher PR being about SHOUTING at an unseen audience, social media provides a way to engage audiences in a two way conversation, and Nosy Crow is active on its website, on Twitter and on Facebook. It's an exciting map of interconnecting participants in the publishing process – the author, the publisher, the bookseller, the critic (everyone's a critic now) – all connecting with one another online. Nosy Crow will go where other publishers fear to tread! Kate wants her company to be an informed voice in children’s books and will talk about books published by other publishers too. A recent Easter and Spring booklist contained just two Nosy Crow books amongst the many others suggested by Kate and her Twitter followers.

Kate (right) poses with groupie and leading stalker.

Speaking at the SCBWI event.

In the world of social media, communication is personal, and Kate believes that being a small, personal company is an advantage in this environment; so she's just as likely to tweet about checking her kids’ hair for headlice as well as her excitement about her latest book.

Creating

Kate Wilson's t-shirt says it all!

Kate thinks that publishers have to “earn their seat at the creative table”. Hers is an active role. Not for her the sitting in a big chair in her own office waiting for offerings! This MD and her team:

a. Commission authors and illustrators to make Nosy Crow’s ideas a reality
b. Are willing to do some heavy-duty editorial shaping

For novels and texts, really good writing is key, and if Kate and if the team see the potential in a submission they will sometimes work with the writer to refine the story. Similarly, if Kate and the team see the potential in even a single character sketch from an illustrator, they’ll work with that illustrator to develop a project.

Collaborating
Nosy Crow has already spread its wings and collaborates with international partners: Allen and Unwin in Australia, Candlewick Press in the US, Carlsen in Germany and Gallimard Jeunesse in France.


So What is Nosy Crow Looking For?
ALWAYS REMEMBER – Who's it for? Nosy Crow will want to know!

Print books:

• Fiction for 0 – 12 but a lot of the youngest book texts are produced in-house and NOT YA. “Mum-friendly” books – no drugs, sex or gritty or gratuitous violence
• Strong commercial concept or character-led series novels and picture books
• Brilliantly-written stand-alone novels and picture books
• Great illustration with child and parental appeal – nothing too dark and arty

Apps:

While some of their future apps (and at the moment, Nosy Crow is developing only for Apple devices) may be based on books, Nosy Crow is also commissioning stories that start as apps, rather than start as books, so is interested in working with authors and illustrators who are excited by, and understand how touch-screen devices can enhance and extend the story-telling experience. Nosy Crow doesn’t want coders, at this stage: they have their own, so they are not expecting to see a ready-made app. They want to see really great ideas and really great art (and want art created digitally in layers for this medium)



Nosy Crow's acclaimed Three Little Pigs app. If you can't see the video, you can view it on YouTube.

There are submissions guidelines on the site, but Kate recommended online submissions, suggesting that illustrators send link to their digital portfolio

Kate has given up the slower flapping wings of big traditional publishing for the zippy repsonsiveness of the smaller bird. She's in touch, creative and passionate about story. Kate wants Nosy Crow to be different and to make a difference. I'm sure it will.