I Need to Get Out More #5 - Wood Green Literary Festival

I don't normally manage to get out to literary or author events too often, so I was especially pleased to make it to a couple of events taking place as part of the Wood Green Literary Festival a few weeks back. I'm usually pretty clueless when it comes to doing write-ups (I suppose it's a good thing that I don't get the chance to do too many then), so I thought I'd take a different approach with this one as look at a few of the points raised and see how I can relate them to my own writing...


The first talk was about Uncovering Ancient London and featured Lydia Syson and Catherine Johnson. Now, if you follow my blog, you'll know that I'm a big fan of Lydia's writing and you can find out her thoughts on political YA in this interview from a little while back. As you can imagine, it was very interesting to get a writer's perspective on how London history has made them tick. Catherine Johnson talked animatedly about how a trip to the Huntarian Museum inspired her to write Sawbones, a book that sounds delightfully gruesome and rich in the historical detail of the backstreets of this city. Lydia Syson talked about how she is a fifth generation Londoner, something that is quite rare this days, and how she has grown up to appreciate the rich history London has to offer, in particular, surprising facts about her family history.


This got me thinking about stories that my own family have told me. I've lived in west London on and off for the last ten years, but I was brought up in a commuter town after my parents moved away from their original west London haunt. My dad used to tell me stories about when he used to place Underground Hide and Seek on the tube with his friends as a teenager. You might be able to guess what it involved...basically, jump on a train, jump off at different stations and try to remain illusive to the person tasked to find you. I had completely forgotten about this story up until that moment, and now it's taking pride of place in my notes for something I'm planning about London set in the 1960s. It's nice to be reminded that I couldn't live anywhere better in the world when it comes to writing about the past, so thank you lovely authors!


The second talk I attended featured Keren David and Hilary Freeman discussing Edgy YA Fiction. This is of particular interest to me right as I'm currently working on a contemporary YA, although I don't know if I'd describe it as particularly 'edgy', but I suppose that was the whole point of the discussion - what does constitute edgy YA and how do you get the balance right? One of the issues that has been at the forefront of my mind recently (especially now I am at the editing stage) is swearing in YA. A while back, I read this interesting article by James Dawson which got me thinking about whether established authors are in a better position to have swearing feature in their books rather than debut novelists. However, both authors didn't think this was really the case and that all authors need to compromise to a certain extent on this depending on the market.


When I first started working my MS, I was given some advice that I've always found useful - when it comes to swearing, don't censor yourself in the early stages - it's more important to get the first draft done and you can always compromise on this at the editing stage. Needless to say, my first draft was as potty-mouthed as it gets and I remember reading it back and blushing. As I'm going through my chapters now, I can appreciate that a little goes a long way in this respect. I think it's important to get my dialogue as authentic as possible (and this includes using swear words), but perhaps using too many can have the same effect as using none - it might only succeed in distracting from the story.



All in all, this was a great, informative afternoon, and I've very much looking to venturing north again next year. My only criticism would be that the talks were too short! I could have listened to them all for hours...

I Need to Get Out More #4 - FILM REVIEW: How I Live Now

These days, about 90% of my movie-going habits consist of Saturday morning trips to the local old school cinema to watch the kids flick with the cheap tickets. So for me to go and see a new release, on the first day of its release, in the first screening, is a rare occasion indeed. Ok, so I didn't have much choice as to what time I could go to as I had to get back to pick the kids up from school, but whatever...


And by the way, yay from my first film review! To say I've been looking forward to this is a bit of an understatement. I first read How I Live Now a couple of years ago. I'd finished What I Was after picking it up by chance from my local library and then immediately deciding to consume the whole Meg Rosoff back catalogue. Actually, these books were some of the first YA novels I read (in my current period of YA love, not when I was a teenager) and consequently, they've have been burnt on my memory, not only for their brilliance, but also because they are partly responsible for my YA re-discovery.

However, it has also dawned on me that I haven't read How I Live Now since that first encounter a few years back (not sure why) and I have also lent my only copy to my best friend who has yet to return it, so I'm going to have to rely on my not very reliable memory when it comes to comparing the two. But, as you'll soon find out, the whole point of this review is that we shouldn't really be comparing the two at all...

As with any book-to-film adaption, my anticipation is always a mixture of extreme and on occasions, uncontrollable, excitement and a touch of terror, because I reckon it's completely natural to think that any adaptation might not live up to the original prose. But after we came out of the cinema, I realised that when it comes to How I Live Now, this sort of worrying was a bit of a waste of time. Yes, they made some changes to the characters and the story, but that wasn't unexpected. What was more important to me was that the overall power of the story remained intact and it worked as a film, rather than a version of a book. There was one particular addition that I don't remember in the book (but like I said, it's been a while) that was especially moving. And heartbreaking. And let's face it, just horrific. But it also summed up the whole feel of the film for me. I don't know why I wasn't expecting it to be quite as dark as it was (the book is about a war after all), but this was powerful stuff indeed. Made all the more intense by the contrasting images of beauty and despair.


My one quibble is that the central romance didn't quite have the effect I had hoped. I can see why they made certain changes to Edmund's character, but the way their unique bond was shown here didn't really work as well as it could have done. I could forgive the whole insta-love thing in the book because of the amazing prose, but on film, not so much. Saying that, I would have been quite happy staring at Edmond for two hours straight. Top marks for casting on that front...


This is an intriguing and beautiful film in it's own right, as well as a companion to the book, and I'm very glad that my uncontrollable excitement prior to viewing was justified.

Also, I recently found out that the girl who plays Piper also does the voice of Peppa Pig.

MIND BLOWN.

I Need to Get Out More #3: Scottishness

*WARNING: CONTAINS HOLIDAY SNAPS*

So I was mulling over what I could write about for this feature, seeing as I haven't been to any writing or reading-related events recently. And then it dawned on me that I have been somewhere. Somewhere that involved going a bit further than a few stops on the tube (this a rare occasion these days).

Pebble tossing: it never gets old

Yes, you may have already guessed that this post is about a land north of the border. But it's not going to be just me waffling on about what we got up to on our jollies (eating fish and chips for the most part, in case you actually are interested). No, I'm going to attempt to link this into my writing a bit and and also a few things I've been thinking about recently. I don't think I've talked much about my WIP before, only because I live in fear of sounding like a right twonk if I start, but here goes....

Nice chest

My story is set in west London. I live in west London and I love living in west London, but it does have it's downsides, the main one being the cost. And most of my family live in Scotland, relatively near to a very beautiful part of Scotland. So you can imagine that thoughts have turned to the possibility of moving there. However, whenever I travel to places that I love, or that I imagine I will love, it always gets me thinking about where I consider to be home and why I consider it to be home.

In my WIP, I'm trying to explore this - trying to explore a teenager's ties with her home and why these bonds can't always be put into words and no matter how much we desire to go see the world, certain things that we can't always put our fingers on will always draw us back or maybe even prevent us from leaving in the first place.

WHEN THE SKY FAAAALLLLLLLSSSS.....

I've lived in this part of London on and off for the last ten years and we've tried moving away. As far away as possible, in fact, but we're are always drawn back. Personally, I don't consider the town where I grew up as home at all. I barely even give it a second thought and I certainly don't miss it (it's not in Scotland by the way). But I can understand the idea of a place getting under someone's skin and leaving it's mark. Hopefully I'll be able to convey this in my writing, and my recent visit to Scotland emphasised this even more - no matter how beautiful and breath-taking a place is, no matter how strong your ties are with the people who live there, home is home is home.

So London is where we shall remain....

I Need to Get Out More #2 - Event: Young Adult Fiction - Coming Out of the Closet

So if you read my post from last week, you'll know that this is this is the first of, hopefully many in my brand new feature which basically involves me telling you about my adventures outside of my flat. And I use the word 'adventures' in the loosest possible way. Said adventures might involve me only going for a short walk in my local surrounds. You have been warned...

Anyway, my first post is slightly overdue. This event took place a few weeks ago and if I don't write something up straight away, it does tend to take me a while to complete the task. But, I hope this will be no less informative and entertaining than if it were written the day after it happened ;)

Now, before I start, a bit of a warning is required. It occurred to me that this is going to contain some pretty massive spoilers to a book that I went to great pains to review previously without giving away anything. So, if you haven't read What's Up With Jody Barton? by Hayley Long, I really do advise you to stop reading this RIGHT NOW. And then once you have read the book, go and read my review of it (although the lack of spoilers will be wasted on you by this point) and then come back to read this post....right, have you done all of that? Good, now we can begin....

And the other good thing about author events...?

Young Adult Fiction: Coming Out of the Closet was hosted by Booktrust and originally came to fruition in order to try and find out why there are so few LGBT characters in UK young adult fiction and what can be done about this. To find out more background information about the panel, it's probably best to look at their detailed bios on the Free Word Centre website, but participating were authors James Dawson (Hollow Pike) and Hayley Long (What's Up With Jody Barton?), Emily Thomas from Hot Key Books and participant in Stonewall Young Talent Programme, Catherine Hennigan. The event was chaired by children's book consultant, Alexandra Strick.

Why did the authors include LGBT characters in their books?

It wouldn't be completely out of line to assume that the inclusion of a LGBT character in YA book might well be influenced by a desire to promote this issue. However, James Dawson talked about the thinking behind the inclusion of gay characters in Hollow Pike and how he was very conscious about making the sexuality secondary to the plot. He wanted to write a book that was more about friendship than romance. In the case of What's Up with Jody Barton?, Hayley Long described how the character of Jody 'found her' - she was slightly scuppered in her wish to write a YA novel from a male perspective but boredom set in when she started her story about twin sisters falling for the same guy and she decided to be a bit...shall we say, sneaky? Those of you who have this book will know what I mean, and she definitely succeeded in keeping Jody's gender a secret until the big reveal. She told us of how she was motivated as a reader and a writer by this challenge and how she thought it might well be very rewarding for her usual fan base - to think you're going into a certain type of story  and end up some place else.


Do you feel you have a responsibility as a 'gay' writer?

Signed copies!

James Dawson said being labelled as anything was the least of his worries - there were different facets of his book that came with different stigmas. The 'teen' label is often looked down on and some people seemed more concerned with the witchcraft element than the sexuality of some of the characters. At the end of the day, you can't control what a reader will take away from your book. Hayley Long made the point that Jody Barton is essentially a story about a teenager with an unrequited crush, and so this universal theme appeals to all, not just the gay community.





A publisher's perspective...

When addressing the lack of LGBT characters in UKYA, Emily Thomas's first point was that they simply don't have the manuscripts to work with and there are not enough 'proper storytellers' doing this at the moment. First and foremost she is looking for a great story, but when the issue starts to over shadow this, then she steps away - the key is getting the issue and the story woven together effectively. The subject of LGBT YA fiction in the US was raised a couple of times and she made the point that this genre tends to have a more analytical style which doesn't often translate well with UK readers.


A reader's perspective...

x2!

Catherine Hennigan talked about her own experiences as a gay teen, looking for books that she could identify with and what she expects from fiction that contains LGBT issues and characters today. She said she remembered a lot of books focusing on negative issues in the past, such as bullying and mental health whereas as all she was looking for was 'advice' - how to ask other girls out, how to make relationships work - the sort of things that gay teenagers now find on the internet. These days, books with LGBT characters are more for enjoyment, rather information.




One very interesting question that was raised was how should the LGBT elements of a book be marketed? Hayley Long said that leaving LGBT references off the back cover of a book is sometimes as important as mentioning them - some gay teenagers might not want to read anything marketed as 'gay' and not mentioning the LGBT characters or story could help the book reach a wider audience. Catherine Hennigan said she specifically didn't want to see books targeted at gay teenagers, because that would be 'preaching to the converted' - it's more important that everyone reads these books.

One matter of consensus was that this whole process needs to start at and earlier age, by having more picture books and early readers featuring same sex couples.

****

So what do you think? I found the comment about US YA fiction an interesting one - do you agree with Emily Thomas? When I think of LGBT characters in YA, one of the first books that spring to mind is Will Grayson Will Grayson. I agree that the style is very analytical, but I'm not sure this necessarily means it wouldn't appeal to UK teenagers. And the marketing of these titles - one audience member made a very interesting point that the pink cover of Jody Barton might put off the teenage boys - exactly the sort of audience these books should be reaching out to. Do you think it's more important for YA with LGBT characters and elements to appeal to just the gay community or everybody?

What are your favourite books with LGBT characters and why have they left an impression? Or have you encountered any that you think got it wrong? Thoughts and feelings please...

Presenting a new feature... I Need to Get Out More #1

Well, it's been a while since I've introduced a new feature and then not really followed it up much, so here's my latest attempt. And here's the rather muddled thought process behind it....

Well, you may or may not know that I work from home. This mainly involves staying at home a lot. And occasionally leaving home to drop off and retrieve children from schooling places. But generally not venturing much from the confines of Hammersmith. On occasions, I do get the opportunity to leave my flat and mingle with the outside people. And if I'm really, really lucky, my husband might also have the evening off so he can babysit, and it is for these infrequent but lovely times that I've have decided to devote said new feature.

Every time I've been to a book-related event, I always, think 'oh I must do a write up thing about that' but most of the time this never happens. So this is really my way of forcing myself to do write ups.

BUT THERE'S MORE...

A place. Not a million miles away from my front door. 

I have also been thinking about starting a feature to do with places. Yes, that does sound very vague. Let me elaborate slightly. Whenever I start writing something new, or an idea starts to form in my noggin, a lot of the time this is started by visiting a place or remembering  a place. It could be somewhere on my doorstep or somewhere I been to in the past. (I was trying really hard to write this without sounding completely wanky but I'm failing miserably). Ok, I just want to write stuff about writing places because they mean a lot to me. There. Said it. So I've decided to combine the two ideas and create one shiny new feature out of them.

So in my first post (haven't actually written it yet but ho hum) I'm going to be telling you about this great event I went to last week - Young Adult Fiction: Coming Out of the Closet - presented by Booktrust. James Dawson, Hayley Long and Emily Thomas from Hot Key, amongst others, talked about why there were so few LGBT character in UKYA and what can be done about this.

So look forward to that first write up. It will happen, I promise...