Walker Books and a witch with wet hands

As usual it was a case of waving your hands (or in this case, my hands) under the drier for absolutely forever, wipe them on your clothes, or go wet, hoping there’d be no hands to shake. You can guess which I chose, and what happened next, can’t you?

I was at the presentation of Walker Books’ and Constable & Robinson’s Autumn Highlights in Manchester on Wednesday evening, when I came face to face with Jo for the first time, and had to quickly get out of the handshaking she had in mind. This flustered me so much I forgot to mention my name. (But everyone knows me, right?) Besides, I’d already got the decrepit old woman treatment. Staff at the venue saw me negotiating the steps outside (which had NO handrail) and quickly bundled me into the lift before I caused more trouble.

Super-Jake was there, but I forgot to check his footwear. Representatives of our local LitFest and bookshops and that most Wondrous of blogs could also be seen. I was quite restrained prior to the talk, as I noticed there were partybags in one corner, which meant I did no stealing or anything beforehand.

Constable & Robinson went first, and I’d not realised that books on prescription, which I have heard of, is for non-fiction self-help type books, rather than patients being made to feel better after a dose of Pride and Prejudice…

They are big on halogen oven books. (Don’t ask.) They are the leaders in cosy crime. You can have books on WWII pets for Christmas. Obviously. C & R have begun offering children’s books, and they had an instructive video on how to fight zombies. (Head removal is recommended.) Gross. Shaun Ryder on UFOs. (It would have helped if I knew who Shaun Ryder is.) Joan Collins is nearly 80, in case you wanted to know. They have a book titled Going on a Bar Hunt. Droll.

This being very much a presentation for booksellers, I now know a lot more about which books are commercial, something I rarely consider in my narrow little world. There will be joke books for Christmas. And they have just begun a relationship with Brian McGilloway, who I am very interested in.

On to Walker Books, who are planning a picture book party. I think that means they have lots of picture books to offer. Vivian French has something new going; Stargirl Academy. Looks good. Pink. Anthony Browne is a Marmite author, which I can understand. That gorilla still scares me.

Cassandra Clare was there last year, before she grew so big that she doesn’t do this kind of talk. She has a film on the way. Nice for her.

Walker have travel guides, and there is new stuff for fans of GHMILY (Guess How Much I Love You books). Mumsnet have done a story collection. In fact, I reckon there is one thing parents want more than anything else. They want their children to fall asleep. Lots of books for that purpose.

Manatees and bears. A book about someone pecking (I’m thinking – hoping – woodpecker) all the way through.  Going on a Bear Hunt is out again. Michael Morpurgo will be 70, and four of his books are being re-issued, including one about funny old men who are famous artists.

Speaking of funny, Tommy Donbavand has a new series called Fangs. Walker are really really really really thrilled to be working with Anthony McGowan and his new book Hello Darkness. Patrick Ness wasn’t there except on video, where he did his best to sound interesting while not giving too much away about his new novel More Than This. His Chaos trilogy, meanwhile, is being revamped for old people.

My notes say ‘spider skeleton.’ I think there’s a book about things like spider skeletons. Kate DiCamillo and her dog spoke to us all the way from their Minneapolis dining room. While the dog made dog noises, Kate told us about her mother’s obsession with her 1952 vacuum cleaner and what would happen to it after she died. Kate’s new book Flora and Ulysses also features squirrels.

Anthony Horowitz has finally come to the end of his Power of Five books, so has had time to write Russian Roulette, the Alex Rider prequel he has had in mind for absolutely ages. He is quite satisfied with it.

Lizzy Bennet (I apologise for sounding so informal) wrote a diary in her pre-Darcy days, which will give us an opportunity to find out all kinds of stuff.

Finally, Walker are publishing the Little Island imprint, which is foreign fiction. I spied a Swedish title in among the covers they showed us, and think it’s high time there are more books from other countries.

As you can see, they had a lot to tell us. They hadn’t rehearsed, so were surprised to find it took them so long. But at the end there were canapés and more drinks and even a few authors; Steve Tasane, Sarah Webb and Katy Moran. Someone else, too. At least I think there was.

I grabbed my partybag and hobbled away home. There was NO handrail on the way out either…

Fractured

Fractured is at least as thrilling as Slated was. I knew it would be good to return to, but I always have last minute fears that I’ll be disappointed. I wasn’t. Teri Terry has written more of the kind of book you just read and read.

We’re back with Kyla, the girl who was slated for crimes she had – supposedly – committed. And unusually for a sequel, the book races headlong into more plot, instead of chewing over what went before. There wasn’t much of an end to Slated, and you don’t want to hope for an end to Fractured, either. It is simply the – very exciting – middle bit of a trilogy. You will need more.

The dystopian society from Slated has not changed. It’s still really bad. Probably. Maybe it’s that the alternatives don’t look marvellous, either. A world where they kill people for having the wrong thoughts is not good.

Kyla’s beloved Ben is gone, but in his place she seems suddenly inundated with young men, who all like her. Or do they? As with Kyla’s new parents, it’s hard to tell who will turn out to be OK, but you just know someone has to be bad. Really bad, even.

She finds her own resistance group past, and is overwhelmed by not knowing quite where her sympathies (should) lie. Some people turn out to be less bad than Kyla previously thought and not everyone who seems good is. The anti-government group has an agenda, and Kyla has a role to play. But how to keep people close to her safe?

There’s a lot of double-crossing. My suspicions about the young men proved right, for the most part. Kyla’s past and her dreams/nightmares are still confusing, but growing clearer.

I know what I want to happen in the third book. But I can’t see how it will be possible.

A Lily, A Rose

Very romantic. Satisfyingly romantic. Sally Nicholls has written a dyslexia friendly book for Barrington Stoke, and it is really very short, but she has put so much into it.

Set in an era when the heroine’s father had been to war against Robert the Bruce, you know it was a long time ago. So it’s mostly castles and hunting and that kind of thing. And chess.

Elinor is very fond of chess, and beats her beloved cousin Dan most of the time. She is lonely in that castle, with only Dan, her horse and her maid to talk to.

And then her father makes plans for her to marry someone. Not Dan, but an older man. What is she to do? What can she do?

I felt a certain tingling when I worked out what must happen. Very satisfying.

This is a short book with plenty of content.

Smuggler’s Kiss

Hands up anyone who hasn’t secretly wanted to find themselves on a pirate ship, in the company of a desirable male, young or otherwise! I obviously mean this in the romantic, fictional way, that has nothing to do with a smuggler’s reality, which is a lot less attractive. (Or so I imagine.)

It might be a set type of plot, but it’s one that I have enjoyed from long forgotten books via MM Kaye’s Trade Wind, and on to Marie-Louise Jensen’s Smuggler’s Kiss. I’m very grateful to Marie-Louise, because she is taking care of this historical romance writing that I didn’t see enough of for far too long. She writes the sort of books I’d have written, if I’d been able to.

Smuggler’s Kiss starts with young Isabelle who feels compelled to do something pretty desperate, but who ends up being rescued by a group of smugglers, out smuggling. Luckily they don’t throw her overboard again, and so her new life as a smuggler begins.

Isabelle meets the annoying, but kind and handsome Will, who also appears not to be your typical smuggler. He helps Isabelle as she gets involved with the smuggler’s work, and she in turn assists her new shipmates with what little she is able to do. She is very spoiled, so it’s not all smooth sailing.

The trouble with being a smuggler is that it’s illegal and people are always out to get you. So it is for this crew, and for Will and Isabelle, as well. She learns a few lessons, but so do the smugglers. And finally they, and the reader, find out why they have been particularly unlucky.

It’s quite a useful lesson in history (though I’m not sure exactly when this is set…), and as I hinted before, it is romantic, in just the right way.

Bring me more smuggler romances!

Romantic in Leicester

Barely able to remember his name, I still seem to have a very soft spot for Carl Zlinter. His name popped up here last year when the discussion was about hot young men.

For today I wanted to think of something in a book that I have found very romantic, and believe me; I have trawled through hundreds of romances to be able to say this. To have Carl Zlinter turn up in Leicester to be with the girl he loves, is so romantic.

There he was in Australia after WWII, hoping to be allowed to stay after two years’ hard labour. And then he falls in love with a girl who has to go home to Leicester, and he devises a way to follow her, even when it means he has to re-train as a doctor, all over again.

(The Far Country by Nevil Shute did leave me an odd mental image of Leicester all those years ago. But the love story is absolutely fine. A little like the one I gave you for Christmas, in fact. I can’t make you cry in the same way, though.)

Knickers

Q – When is an email trying to sell me sexy underwear actually something else entirely?

A – When it’s from a publisher, wanting me to admire their latest book covers.

Is it so very wrong of me to feel there should be more of a difference between the sales emails I get once a week, flogging Björn Borg knickers, and something from a reputable publisher, hoping I’ll review their shades of grey books for the young?

I especially don’t want the covers to be followed by information on how I can buy the books. I expect them to post them to me for free, after which I will look at them (no, not like that!) and then quickly put them away, never to be seen again.

It’s totally OK for the industry to publish YA versions of sexy books, now that we know readers will go crazy over this kind of thing. (To be honest, I don’t see why people of YA age shouldn’t read the adult books.) But it’s hardly review material.

Did Mills & Boon send out review copies? I don’t see the point. Readers know they like the stuff and it’s cheap, so they buy it, or borrow it off friends.

If I was the author of normal, good quality novels for young readers I would sit down and cry. In fact, I suspect they are already doing that. The next step will be them looking up the guide lines for sexy books for children, silencing their conscience with alcohol, as they sell their souls.

I’m sure most of us have read cheap thrills in some form or other. Most of us grew out of it at some point, too. When we did read it, we weren’t exactly checking out reviews in the media. We just knew. If a reputable reviewer praised a book like that, I’d not have wanted to read it.

So why should we want to review sexy books for young readers? Their parents aren’t suddenly going to sit up and think ‘OMG, I’ll definitely get that for Jade’s birthday!’ Are they?

Seraphina

Seraphina is a story that provides you with romance and crime from an old-fashioned vein which I almost thought we’d never see again. It is also a fantasy featuring dragons, which isn’t the first thing you expect from a romantic mystery. Rachel Hartman writes so well, and with such humour, that I began rejoicing by the third page.

Set in a fantasy past, 16-year-old Seraphina lives with the royal family as the music mistress in a country where humans have had to learn to co-exist with dragons, who can take on a kind of pretend human form, but who are very different from the humans. One of the Princes has just been murdered, and people fear it was done by a dragon.

Because Seraphina has special talents, and has more knowledge of dragons than most, she ends up searching for the murderer along with Prince Lucian and his betrothed, Princess Glisselda. Seraphina’s lifelong mentor Orma provides her with support, as do some imaginary creatures Seraphina needs to deal with on a daily basis.

Needless to say, Seraphina has a dreadful secret, which must remain a secret. And she falls in love. It’s a classic love story, and it’s not until you encounter one, that you realise they are as rare as gold dust these days.

Very satisfying. I believe this is a standalone book. There could conceivably be more, although personally I’d like to leave things here.

(When the paperback arrived, I looked at the cover, read the blurb and skimmed a few pages, and decided it wasn’t for me in more ways than one, and quickly dispatched it to ‘the other room,’ from which it was rescued the next day after some chatter on fb persuaded me to do The Second Look thing. Very glad I did. And I’m a little surprised to have heard nothing about the hardback last summer. Or anything at all.*)

* It is, of course, on the Carnegie longlist…

A true story for Christmas

You must ‘click through’ and read this! Even on re-reading the true story by Eva Ibbotson (from the Guardian) I found that my eyes developed some inexplicable dampness.

It’s about libraries, war, refugees and more. Eva Ibbotson is no longer with us, and our libraries seem destined to go the same way. Wouldn’t it be lovely if stories like this one could stop library closures, while also opening our hearts more to those who have had to leave their homes, through no fault of their own?

Here is to knowledge and reading and friendship and languages, in and out of libraries!

The #1 profile – Philip Caveney

He’s got a lot happening. Philip Caveney won the Oldham book award for his first cinema book – Night on Terror Island – set in Stockport. That was a few weeks ago. Shortly before this Philip had launched his latest book – Crow Boy – set in Edinburgh.

And now that he finds himself on the Bookwitch best of 2012 list with Spy Another Day, there can be no better start for the new feature on this blog than to find out some odd bits and pieces about local boy Philip. Faster and quirkier than a regular interview, this is where I let authors loose on their own.

Over to Philip Caveney:

How many books did you write before the one that was your first published book?

My first published book, The Sins of Rachel Ellis (1977), was my third serious attempt at a novel. But before that, from my teens onwards, I had written scores of short stories, most of which will never see the light of day.

Best place for inspiration?

Train journeys can be good for ideas. There’s something about staring out of the window across empty fields that gets my mind ticking. But ideas can come to you just about anywhere…

Would you ever consider writing under a pseudonym? Perhaps you already do?

I have already published three teen romance novels under a female pseudonym… unfortunately, I signed a contract that prevents me from revealing the name. But the ‘lady’ even got fan letters from young female readers!

What would you never write about?

Umm… I’d write about anything if I genuinely believed I wasn’t being gratuitous.

Through your writing: the most unexpected person you’ve met, or the most unexpected place you’ve ended up in?

I met my German translator at an event in Glasgow once. That was certainly unexpected. And I ended up in Portugal at a medieval festival watching a performance of Sebastian Darke: Prince of Fools. I even had to get up, dressed in period clothing and talk to a huge crowd of people, none of whom could speak any English. Doesn’t come much stranger than that.

Which of your characters would you most like to be?

A lot of people have suggested that I AM Max the buffalope, from the Sebastian Darke books, because of my proclivity for gloominess. But I’d probably most like to be Mr Lazarus, from the Movie Maniac books, a man who seems to live forever and can leave all his infirmities locked up in a reel of film.

Do you think that having a film made of one of your books would be a good or a bad thing?

Good, in that it would raise my profile and bolster my bank balance. Bad, because in all probability, they’d make a dog’s dinner of it. They generally do.

What is the strangest question you’ve been asked at an event?

How long it took me to ‘make all those books on the table.’ Youngsters don’t always have an accurate idea of how publishing works. They think of it as a kind of cottage industry. It’s more of a collaboration.

Do you have any unexpected skills?

Loads! I can sing, play the drums and I qualified as a graphic designer.

The Famous Five or Narnia?

Oh dear. I have to admit to never having read a single Famous Five book. Just wasn’t my kind of thing. As for Narnia, I liked the first two books, but thought they started to get a bit tedious after that. I gave up somewhere in the middle of The Horse and His Boy. Yes, I know. Sacrilege.

Who is your most favourite Swede?

Can I have four? Benny, Bjorn, Agnetha and Frida. It would seem churlish to separate them.

How do you arrange your books at home? In a Billy? By colour, or alphabetically?

There’s a room full of Billys in our apartment, a mixture of my books and Susan’s books, just crammed in to the available space. One of these days, we’re going to put them in some kind of order (or so we keep saying). Then there’s a special red bookcase that has only books that I’ve published. When you add in translations, that’s quite a bit of acreage. Having no more room for physical tomes, we now arrange our latest purchases (very neatly) on her kindle and my iPad. It works.

Which book would you put in the hands of an unwilling eight-year-old boy reader?

Well, one of mine, obviously (we authors are shameless self-publicists) but failing that, I’d go for Ray Bradbury’s classic fantasy novel, Something Wicked This Way Comes. It’s the book that made me want to be a writer and even after all these years, it still delivers.

If you have to choose between reading or writing, which would it be?

Writing, I guess, but it has to be said that all writers should read and that without reading, I doubt that anyone would ever become a writer. I’m always appalled when I meet would-be writers who say they don’t read because they don’t want to be influenced. How arrogant is that? As writers we begin by imitating the best. Eventually we find a voice of our own. Then look out!

I’m surprised he didn’t pick Max von Sydow as his favourite Swede, but what do I know? And Philip has written romances!!! We didn’t know that.

Angel Fire

Lee Weatherly’s Angel Fire continues exactly where Angel left off. (In order to avoid spoilers I can’t say exactly where.) Willow and Alex are still on the road, and the angels are still trying to stop them. In a way this is a dystopia, because we are looking at a society led by angels, even though everything else is perfectly normal.

The action moves from the US to Mexico, which is why Willow senses she needs to go there. She dreams that she meets a(nother) gorgeous young man, with whom she has a lot in common. For me this will always be the book with two desirable love interests, because we already know Alex is irresistible, and now Willow has Seb as well.

Who will end up the lucky guy? She can’t have them both, can she? Maybe one of them has to die? Or turn out to be bad? I know which one I prefer. Alex needs  to start up an Angel Killer group in Mexico, since it appears the angels are concentrating their next big move on Mexico City.

There is less action in this book. Angel was a strong mix of action and romance, whereas here there is a lot of romantic anguish in the middle, between the drama that happened in Angel and the threat that is about to happen in Mexico. If you love romance, this will be perfect (and I’m guessing the ‘love stuff’ is still superior to that famous vampire romance we hear about so much), while there might be too little action for the more thriller-minded reader.

I’d have liked more car mechanics. And there is the inevitable decision Willow has to make about which boy she really loves, when she loves both Alex and Seb.

This is another page turner – all 700 of them – from Lee Weatherly. Although I have to protest her vision of Willow. She is no Amanda Seyfried. I’m still working on who she really is and will let you, and Lee, know when I’ve decided.