A few months ago our letting agency hiked up the rent on our Edinburgh flat, using some flimsy pretext of ‘current market conditions’ to justify themselves. Heartbroken, Mildly irritated, my poet husband and I set about looking for a cheaper garret to hang our moleskines. Continue reading “When Writers Move House”
Yesterday there was an article about Horrible Histories author Terry Deary on the Guardian books page, in which he was quoted as saying that libraries are effectively past it. I disagree with that view, and wanted to address some of his points. You can read the article here if you haven’t seen it yet. His original comments are in the Sunderland Echo.
Continue reading “On Terry Deary’s Sentimental Gush”
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Today is National Libraries Day 2013, which naturally got me to thinking of libraries I have loved and lost. It won’t come as any surprise, I suppose, that I wouldn’t be the person I am if it were not for libraries.
Continue reading “Libraries I Have Known”
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If you were to do a Twitter search on the word ‘publishing’ you might see that there’s a lot of chat on there at the moment about apps and whether they are the future of the industry. In March, Forbes said we were at the dawn of the tablet era which was leading publishers to look at enhanced eBooks and the like. Fastforward to last weekend, when Vicki Hartley wrote on the Future Bookseller that the death of publishing has been greatly exaggerated, and that apps are here to save it.
Continue reading “Apps in Publishing”
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Aurora Cacciapuoti is a Sardinian illustrator currently based in Cambridge. She splits her time between running art workshops and working as a freelance illustrator. Whilst I was writing 12 books last year (or 1,667 words a day) she was drawing 365 faces (or 1 face a day). You can see them all on her tumblr page.
This year Aurora has a new project, to create 52+2 book covers. I asked her a few questions about what she finds inspiring about books.
Continue reading “52 Book Covers (+2) – Interview with Aurora Cacciapuoti”
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Trenton Lee Stewart is the American author of The Mysterious Benedict Society, which is the sort of book a library assistant might recommend to young persons who like warm humour, adventures, puzzles and fun. I asked him if he would do an interview with me by email, and he said yes. So here it is.
Can you sum up The Mysterious Benedict Society books for people who haven’t read them?
After passing a series of mysterious tests, a diversely talented group of four children are recruited by a benevolent genius named Mr. Benedict to go on an important mission. The first book is about that mission and the children’s developing relationships; the second and third are continuations of the Society’s adventures.
I read in one interview with you that the editing process for The Mysterious Benedict Society was quite arduous – was it the same for the other books in the series or did it get easier?
Continue reading “Trenton Lee Stewart Interview”
12 Books in 12 Months 