Who do you write for? confessions of a Rock Chick

by Teri Terry

Blue skies at Wembley Stadium last night!

I generally do my best thinking in one of three places: when I'm asleep; in the shower; and at concerts.

My YA novel Slated began from a dream I had: the prologue is pretty much word for word what I wrote down early one morning after a vivid dream, of a girl running, terrified, on a beach. And I often find if I'm stuck or uncertain with writing that if I think about it as I go to sleep...the answer presents itself early in the morning. If that doesn't work? A long shower is often the not-very-green best place for my imagination to work things out.

But it was only recently - ok, last night - that I thought about the music angle. It really should have come me to me sooner. I mean, I resolved to write for young people - made a promise to myself, really - for the very first time at a Mark Knopfler concert at the Royal Albert Hall in 2008.

Hands up if you like Springsteen!

Yet this lightbulb moment waited until last night. I was at Wembley with Bruce Springsteen personally serenading me (and 70,000 other fans), and I was thinking about how he connects with the audience. Most of me was dancing and totally in the moment, but some part of me was making other connections, and writing this blog in my head.

I was comparing two recent concerts: Neil Young at the NEC in Birmingham last week, and the Boss at Wembley. And they were very different experiences.

Neil Young: mid-guitar solo

Neil Young is, like Bruce, an awesome musician, and part of my musical history. But I really got the feeling with Neil Young and Crazy Horse that they were so into their music that the audience was kind of irrelevant. Those rather looooooong guitar solos could have been happening in one of their homes without another soul present, and they'd have been just as happy. Don't get me wrong: it was a great concert. Especially if you rather like guitar solos. But the audience as a whole weren't engaged: we weren't as a group having an experience together with the performers. It was disparate - some people were totally into it; others left early; others hung around but in a non-commital-looking-at-your-watch kind of way.

Springsteen, on the other hand? As far as I could tell he had 70,000 people in the palm of

his hand. And it's not that the music or the message behind it isn't important - it's just that it is all about the communication. The relationship between those on the stage and those in the crowd.

I'm deep into final edits of Shattered right now - book 3 of the Slated trilogy. And while I was having a night off, the analogy between the types of performance and how they relate to my creative endeavours, and writing in general, really struck me.

Do I write for myself, or my audience? Would I rather be Neil, or Bruce?

The funny thing about it is, I think I'm kind of both. When I'm initially writing a story I'm writing for myself. And I won't change the story or what the characters demand to fit an expectation: I won't make a story into a trilogy unless it demands to be one, I won't squeeze in a love triangle that doesn't fit because it is the done thing, I won't take the easy way out with a happy ending if it doesn't fit. 

But it doesn't stay that way. 

When I'm editing, I'm trying to cut my guitar solos. 

It's all about communication: I want my story to get to the audience of readers, I want them to be in the experience and not standing back and observing it. If people love or hate it, that is OK - though I'd rather they loved it. But the worst thing for me as a writer is if they stand back, take it in, and don't care either way. And guitar solos just get in the way. 

Emily Thomas - Hot Tips from Hot Key Books

by Addy Farmer

Emily Thomas - publisher at Hot Key answers 11 burning questions ...

Emily Thomas at Lincoln Inspired!

I began my publishing career at Andre Deutsch Children’s Books as a secretary but I was far more interested in sticking my nose in all the incoming manuscripts and asking a LOT of questions. I moved about a bit: editorial assistant at Scholastic, working with the great David Fickling, followed by a stint of non-fiction editing at Kingfisher books, and then a move to Hodder Headline as junior editor, editor, senior editor, senior commissiong editor, and then publisher of teen fiction at Hodder Children’s Books… It’s been such an exciting career in publishing so far, and now, as Publisher at Hot Key Books, I have arrived at the job I dreamed of all those years ago: to be buying such fabulous books from so many talented authors, working with wonderful colleagues to build a brand new and thrilling children’s list here at Hot Key. It really doesn’t get any better than this.

Addy So, Emily, I've got eleven questions for you, all from eager authors. I'm pretty sure that there are more than eleven questions to be asked and I get the feeling that you may have a few in the comments. To begin - what drives your passion for children's writing? When did it start?

Emily I can't remember exactly when I learnt to read, but as soon as I did, the moment I did, that was when I knew I loved books, and I understood the value of them – for me, as a child. Great books provide children with not only good stories but also with a view of other worlds, and other people/characters, whose lives may be be blessed, or unlucky but whose journeys inspire and delight. Reading broadens the mind just as much as travel does, because it is learning, and building children's' capacity for compassion and empathy too. The books we read as children can be instrumental in our emotional growth.

The Moomins - adventure, travel and story all-in-one

Addy Can you remember the first book you read which made your stomach flip over/heart race? What about your first commissioned book? That had to be special.

Emily The first part of a book I read which made my stomach flip over was the scene in A Little Princess by Frances Hodgson Burnett where poor outcast Sara Crewe's attic is transformed into a luxurious chamber by the gentleman next door. This act of kindness made me burst into tears as I recall.

But every single one of Joan Aiken's novels made my heart race. She was a genius, a brilliantly transportive, yet totally grounded novelist. I am sorry to say I can't remember which exactly was my first commissioned book..but I am particularly proud to have discovered the very clever teen author, Sarra Manning back around 2002. She was a regular columnist for Just Seventeen (now defunct) and her slightly left-field, witty but substantial writing was nothing like I had ever read in that genre. Guitar Girl is a defining novel for me, and I think for the whole of girl-centred contemporary YA.

Addy Do you have a favourite genre?

Emily I don't. I am always surprising myself by realising I am reading a genre I never thought I liked and loving it. If really pushed I would say I like quality realistic fiction rather than elves or fairies or robots. But in fact I love any story whose characters are fully dimensional and with whom I identity, or for whom I feel. If a book moves me to tears, joy or laughter I am in! 

Addy You're a writer as well, can you tell us a little bit about what you've written?

Emily My 'pen name' is Lee Monroe and I have written three paranormal romances – the Dark Heart trilogy – all about a human girl's love for a werewolf boy and both the emotional and physical challenges they face to be together – and the danger they often find themselves in. I have also written a 'fated love' contemporary realistic novel called Love is a Number, which is like a teen version of One Day. It plays with the idea of soul mates and of the happiness that can come out of the most terrible and painful situations sometimes.

Addy How do you distinguish paranormal from supernatural?

Emily Ah, that question!…Supernatural and paranormal do cross over of course, but supernatural is more ghost led, perhaps and paranormal more fantasy driven. Other than that, in many ways paranormal is the new word for supernatural, perhaps!

Addy Does your writing influence your choices for Hot Key?

Emily No. Not at all. Hot Key is a publisher with a diverse and healthy balance of literary writing and quality and mass market commercial fiction and the authors at the heart of it all! I would certainly consider publishing a book such a 'Lee' has written, if the right one came along. But my taste, like that of the entire editorial team here covers a wide range of genres and styles. It is the only way!

Addy It's got to be asked - what do you look for in a ms?

Emily I look for something special, something a cut above – usually in the writing, but sometimes in the concept. I want to see something in the author that I want to invest in – whether great potential or fully fledged clear talent – and this applies to more literary novels as well as very commercial novels!

Addy Can you give us a brief overview of your list?

Emily We publish fifty titles a year – and as touched on before, this consists of such prize winning gems as Sally Gardner's Maggot Moon (a novel for 12 years and above with the appeal of A Curious Incident) and Lydia Syson's A World Between Us – to sci-fi adventure in the form of the insignia trilogy, to gossipy romance, steamy 'New Adult' and charming, quirky boys adventure for 9 to 12 year olds in The Great Galloon and Edward Carey's Iremonger books.




Addy What marks Hot Key out as different/special?

Emily An independent spirit! We have the style and the individual author care that smaller boutique houses offer, and we have a digital presence that is the envy of the industry. Our online networking through social media and through encouraging our authors, our readers and our booksellers to blog makes us stand out in terms of reaching out to our readers. We are dedicated to spreading the word. All that and the fact that we are the proud inventors of the Hot Key Ring: a unique guide to content, perfect for adult purchasers and for readers themselves and something that completely avoids age banding which, given the variety of reading ability within an age group is not necessarily helpful at all when choosing a book! We are also actively encourage young writers (as illustrated by our Young Writer's Prize in partnership with the Guardian Newspaper).

Addy When will you be accepting picture books?

Emily When a text a comes our way that we have an immediate visual vision for and for which we share a passion. 

Addy I know that 90% of your accepted mss are from agents but you do have a slushpile, so what can all our non-agented readers do to make their ms stand out form the crowd? Your top submission tips, please! 

Emily

• A short, well researched pitch for the ms, and a sample of no more than three chapters, well presented and with a full synopsis/synopses. 
• A letter that shows the reader has taken the time to understand our list and thus whether or not their story will fit. A non-ficton text for example, is not something we do, nor is a book for 5 to 8 year olds (yet), though if the covering letter is persuasive enough we will always look at younger texts. 
• Patience, not necessarily persistence, is also the key. Don’t' nag us, it might put us off, but do feel free to send a reminder after six weeks.

The defining characteristic of our list is 'quality' and the crucial ingredient is the 'Author'. All our authors we want to build, and we firmly believe in publishing something for every reader, whatever their reading ability or their taste for nine year olds and above. 

Hot Key has such a great list and I love your passion for authors and sticking with them! Thanks, Emily!

DON'T try to be funny. An Interview with Jackie Marchant, writer of funny. Apparently.

By Candy Gourlay

It seems a long, long time ago now, in a galaxy far, far away that I first heard of Dougal Trump. I 'd just been friended on MySpace by an unpublished writer called Jackie Marchant, who was active on the British SCBWI list serve. On her MySpace was a very funny blurb about the manuscript she was shopping around, about a boy named Dougal writing his last will and testament.

That was a while ago (I wonder if my Myspace account is still alive?). When The Diary of a Wimpy Kid became big news, I felt a tiny ripple of recognition. It reminded me of something I read a while back ... OMG, Dougal Trump! I got to know Jackie over the years and we've been unpublished comrades-in-arms forever - except Jackie was agented from the start. And now ... well, Dougal is FINALLY alive and well, on the shelves of bookstores everywhere, annoying his big sister. 

Candy Congratulations, Jackie! TWO BOOKS! You wait years for one to be published and then ... but didn't you  start out thinking of yourself as an adult writer?

Jackie I did start writing for adults and had some success (of the unpublished variety, things like having agents ask for a full Ms, competition wins and stuff), then found children's writing by accident, through a competition. It's the best thing that ever happened to me and opened up the whole wonderful world of children's writing.

I definitely didn't aspire to be a writer of children's humour - in fact I think my early sights were set on the Booker Prize . . .

Candy So, Jackie - you call yourself a writer of funny ...


Jackie I never called myself a writer of funny.



Candy  I seem to remember seeing that on your website once.


Jackie Ah yes ... I think I wrote 'apparently' on the website as well. It was an editor who first told me my writing was funny, so now I am obliged to tell people I write humour. But I'd much rather just say I write a character-led series for middle grade.

Dougal came to me by accident, after my son asked me a question about writing a will. I stood in the mess of his room and wondered what he'd put in a will. I wrote (or thought) 'This is the last will and testament of . . . To my mother I leave all the mess in my bedroom, so she can put it into black bin liners and throw it out of the window - I know that has always been her greatest wish.'

Then this character just grew and I called him Dougal Trump. My son will always call himself 'the inspiration' but Dougal is very much his own character. As I said, I had no idea it was funny, so I was not working on any other funny ideas at the time (I was actually trying to write that Booker winner)

At the book launch at Waterstones, Oxford Street, Jackie reads out a note from Dougal which he wrote on the back of a homework sheet.

The fact that people find it funny is lovely, but quite scary. I honestly don't know if what I've written is funny until after I give to someone to read. If they laugh, I heave a sigh of relief!

Candy There seems to be a lot more room for comedy on the younger end of the scale. Why is that?

Jackie Children love to laugh is the simple answer to that. But I think it is a shame there is less humour for older readers. Maybe that's the question we should be asking.

I'd also say the Roald Dahl Funny Prize has done a lot for humorous fiction and I take my hat off to Michael Rosen for that.

Children's authors (plus one lord mayor and one Boris) have a giggle over Dougal. (from top, left to right) Chris Priestley, Katy Dale, Sarwat Chadda, Jon Mayhew, Joe Friedman, Helen Peters, Jasmine Richards, Fiona Dunbar, Candy Gourlay, Tim Collins, Lord Mayor of Ocklesford, Steve Cole, Steve Hartley, Philip Ardagh, Janet Foxley, Malorie Blackman and London Mayor Boris Johnson 

Candy There is definitely a demand for it. But the genre (if it can be called a genre) seems to be dominated by series fiction.

Jackie Perhaps it's because kids love the characters and want to read more. But I can honestly say that wrote my first Dougal Trump book as a one off. Then I had an idea for another. I'm sure that's often what happens. You've now got me trying to think of a one-off funny book!

Candy Ha ha! And character ...  character is key, isn't it with series? How do you design a character that can run and run ... although it sounds like you didn't plan for it to run and run!

Jackie You're right about not planning Dougal - he's just there. In fact he's on Facebook and Twitter as well as having his own website. People think it's odd that I think he's real - but he is! I don't think I could write him otherwise.

Candy I've seen your other, older work in a critique group - which is definitely not funny. In fact quite bloody. How do you go from writing about spiders and naughtiness to high blown, space mad, mind exploding fantasy?

Jackie My YA fantasy writing is completely different. I thought it might be humorous, but it didn't come out that way, and I believe with going with the flow. The fact is, I love living in my fantasy world, although writing it is very hard! But some people have found parts of it (namely my bad-ass alien) amusing, and that's fine.

How do I switch from one to the other? Well, I'm Dougal when I'm writing Dougal and I'm a sword wielding heroine when I'm writing her, or a girl with a dilema whizzing around in space. We can write different characters when working on the same book, so why not different books?

Or maybe I'm just a multi-tasker (I've done the washing, made tea, organised my launch and worked on my new WIP while doing this interview!)

Candy We writers are always looking for what sort of published writer we are ... what sort of writer did you initially think/aspire yourself to be and why?


Jackie I can only say that I'm a published writer of funny middle grade fiction. I'd love to say I'm a published writer of YA fantasy as well, but that hasn't happened yet, so I just say I also write YA fantasy. I don't think it's that unusual for children's writers to write different genres.

Candy I've been in a critique group with you and one of your outstanding qualities as a writer is your world building ... your worlds seem to come out fully formed! Did the same thing happen with Dougal or did you have to work at it a little bit?

Jackie Oh. I've never really thought of Dougal's world as one that had to be built. He lives in an ordinary town in an ordinary street, goes to an ordinary school, plays football on the usual playing fields. So, there really was no world to build there. Fantasy is different, because you are talking about a completely different world, but I think I'd need a whole new interview to go into that! (Maybe if I ever get one published . . . ) Oh, and please don't ask me how I build my worlds, I don't know!

Candy Interesting how you think it's not the same thing - I can totally see how evolving a small boy's funny world would be the same as evolving world of fleet swordfighting, head chopping characters. Now, if you could put your craft hat on, can you give us a checklist - HOW does one write funny?

Jackie Okay. My first tip is ...

DON'T!! Don't try to be funny

There is nothing worse than someone trying to be funny. Humour often comes from situations that aren't funny, like slipping on a banana skin - it's not funny for the person doing the slipping. DON'T flag your humour.  NEVER tell your reader that this is funny, don't have your characters rolling about laughing, it's your readers who should be doing that.

PG Wodehouse is brilliant, because all his characters take themselves so seriously. Not one of them would think of themselves as funny, yet the way he writes them keeps you laughing.

TV's Wooster and Jeeves

Give your character a VOICE. 

The bearded Mr. Ardagh

Don't fight it. If it doesn't come out funny, then don't force it. But if it does, just go with the flow and enjoy the ride. Love being your character. Being your character is one of the best things about writing - you can be whoever you want!

A good example of voice is anything by Philip Ardagh. His humour just leaps off the page. He is an expert at making any situation funny, through the way he writes it.

A Series of Unfortunate Events by Lemony Snicket aka Daniel Handler is a perfect example of great use of the authorial viewpoint and definitely humour in there too.

A Series of Unfortunate Events

It's not what you write that makes humour - it's how you write it!

Be your character

You have to literally jump inside your character's skin. You have to BE that character, see though his/her eyes, smell what he smells, feel what he feels etc etc. Don't just look through their eyes, see they way they do, hear the way they hear, be them. Wherever you are, imagine what it would be like to be your character. Imagine them at the dinner table - and don't worry if your family wonder who you are talking to, they get used to it!

In children's books, Socks are not Enough by Mike Lowery, is about a boy who finds himself in the horrendous situation of having nudist parents who have decided that from now on, they will go around the house stark naked.

Can you imagine the traumatic effect this would have on a 14 year old boy? Not at all funny for him, but absolutely hilarious for the reader. And it was quite rightly shortlisted for the Roald Dahl Funny Prize.

Things have to go wrong to be funny

I heard Hugh Dennis say that on The One Show.

Give it a twist

Humour is also about the unexpected, about giving things a twist. Tim Collins' Diary of a Wimpy Vampire is a great example of that. We all expect vampires to be scary, powerful and sexy - so Tim invents one who is spotty, awkward about girls and lacking confidence. And being a vampire just makes it all worse. And very hilarious to the reader.

Candy Hilarious! There's quite a glut of poo, bum stuff in the market as well though. How do you sort the snot from the truly funny?

Jackie Again, I'd say it's not what you write, but how you write it. Kids do have a certain sense of toilet humour, but just putting poo in a book for the sake of it doesn't work for me. It has to be there for a reason. Morris the Mankiest Monster by Giles Andreae and Sarah McIntyre is a great example of disgusting humour that really works because it is all totally relevant to the story.

Candy Yes, it's proof that disgusting can be adorable. Can you see yourself writing more books like Dougal? Or do you have to wait for another character to leap, unplanned onto your drawing (er writing) board?

Jackie I did write another book, but my agent thought the voice was too like Dougal, so I've decided to stick with Dougal for the time being. I've also written a couple of others, which I may well go back to. But I think Dougal should run his course first.

Candy How do you know when a character has run his course?


Jackie I'll let you know when it happens! I guess it's when you don't feel like writing them any more, but that hasn't happened yet.

Candy Well that was great ... thanks so much.


Jackie Can I go and get the washing out now?



Candy You may go.