Book and Blog News

I meant to post about this last week, but got bogged down in a post-weekend-off work slog; still it's not too late to be relevant. The Bath Festival of Children's Literature programme is now available and amongst the literally dozens of fab events they're holding are the following which made me squeak with pleasure, then moan with despair as I don't think I'll get to any of them. The second one is the one that got me most excited and despairing:

Wednesday 26th September
F1 5.30 – 6.30pm, The Forum, £5
A brilliant performer and one of the most popular writers for young people today, Anthony Horowitz will fire up the imagination with a sneak preview of his eagerly awaited new Alex Rider novel, Snakehead, discuss his bestselling series The Power of Five and deliver a quickfire question-and-answer session covering his writing for page and screen.

Friday 28th September
H2 7 – 8pm, Guildhall, £4.50
Accompanying the current Doctor Who BBC TV Series is a successful range of tie-in novels – brand new and original adventures featuring the Doctor and Martha written by some of the best writers around. This is a rare chance to hear many of these Doctor Who experts talk about how they write for the last of the Timelords. Join Mark Michalowski, Mark Morris, Paul Magrs, Justin Richards and Steve Cole in conversation with Michael Stevens, Doctor Who Range Editor at Bath-based BBC Audiobooks, for an evening of fascinating insight into everyone’s favourite time-traveller.

Sunday 23rd September
C5 11 – 12pm, Assembly Rooms, £5
You lucky people! Come and meet award-winning fantasy author Garth Nix in his first UK appearance for more than two years! Hear him talking about his current Keys to the Kingdom series, plus the legendary Old Kingdom trilogy and Shade's Children. Don't miss your chance to hear this master of storytelling explain all.

Sunday 30th September
K16 6 – 7pm, Guildhall, £4.50
A rare chance to catch together three great fantasy authors discussing their craft. Frank Beddor is a best-selling author who has written two bold fantasies inspired by Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland. Catherine Fisher's past work is popular and very highly acclaimed. Her new novel, Incarceron, is her hugely enjoyable yet terrifying vision of the future. David Clement-Davies unique brand of literary, anthropomorphic animal fantasy has won him rave reviews all over the world. His new novel, Fell, is a sequel to The Sight.

The chance to hear Justin Richards and Stephen Cole, whose Doctor Who novels I've really enjoyed, is fabulous, but 8 pm talk requires an overnight stay and as things stand, I can't afford it...

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Nancy, of the Journey Woman Blog, has just celebrated her Blogiversary (it was mine last week but did I remember? Nope ! That's two years in a row I've missed it!) and she's holding a Lives in Letters Contest during July.

She says:

The prizes:

I'll award 4 prizes, each a $25 gift card. Probably Starbucks gift cards, though I might shake it up a bit and go with Target gift cards too. Plus each winner will get one mystery prize of small monetary but huge sentimental value.

The deadline:

All entries must be in by July 31, midnight. I announce winners on August 2, which just happens to be my 39th birthday.

If you want to know more about how to participate, hightail it over to Journey Woman now !

Book-related news

This week I've been very busy with background reading for my fifth "Doctor Who" novella and with novel reading, so I've got a handful of book-related news items to share with you.

Harry Potter fans will soon get to experience the magic of Hogwarts, at a theme park which Universal Studios is close to finalising a deal to build at its amusement Park in Orlando, Florida. More at Deadline Hollywood.

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The BBC reports that J R R Tolkien continues to generate huge interest among his devoted fans as his final book The Children Of Hurin, which his son Christopher completed using unfinished manuscripts, was launched in London on Tuesday. At the launch at the Waterstone's book store in Piccadilly Circus, fans queued out of the door to meet Alan Lee, who illustrated the book, and hear a talk by Tolkien's grandson Adam.

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Publishers Weekly reports that Science Fiction publisher and Hasbro subsidiary, "Wizards of the Coast", is launching a new imprint in 2008 dedicated to adult fantasy. (And on a completely random, pedantic, note, why is there no apostrophe in the name "Publishers Weekly", hmm ?)

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The Independent reports that the Carnegie of Carnegies shortlist has been announced. The ten titles are (the "blurbs" are the Independent's, not mine):

* SKELLIG David Almond (won in 1998)
A tale of a creature beneath the garage

* JUNK Melvin Burgess (1996)
The lives of young heroin users

* STORM Kevin Crossley-Holland (1985)
Girl discovers the secrets of a marsh

* A GATHERING LIGHT Jennifer Donnelly (2003)
Novel about a real murder

* THE OWL SERVICE Alan Garner (1967)
A terrifying legend re-emerges

* THE FAMILY FROM ONE END STREET Eve Garnett (1937)
Portrait of a working-class family

* THE BORROWERS Mary Norton (1952)
Tiny people live beneath the floor

* TOM'S MIDNIGHT GARDEN Philippa Pearce (1958)
Adventures in a magical garden

* NORTHERN LIGHTS Philip Pullman (1995)
First of the trilogy His Dark Materials

* THE MACHINE-GUNNERS Robert Westall (1981)
Second World War novel

You can vote for your favourite Carnegie (or Greenaway) at their website - I've actually read half of the list (Garner, Norton, Pearce, Pullman and Westall), and I voted for The Owl Service.

The Spook's Battle - Joseph Delaney news

Apparently, The Spook's Battle the fourth book in the Wardstone Chronicles series is out here in the UK in July - at least so Amazon.co.uk are telling me today. Here's the synopsis from Amazon:

In the fourth instalment in the "Wardstone Chronicles", Mam has returned to her own land, Greece, to fight the rising power of the dark there. In a special room in the family farmhouse, she has left behind trunks and boxes only to be opened by her youngest son Tom. Meanwhile, in Pendle, the covens are rising and the three most powerful witch clans are rumoured to be uniting in order to conjure an unimaginable evil. Together, they will be capable of raising the dark made flesh - the Devil himself. Tom and the Spook will need to set off for Pendle quickly to avert the unthinkable but first Tom must journey home. Could it be that the boxes will reveal more about his mother's past? And will these powerful secrets place Tom's family in ever greater danger?

Judging by the numbers of comments I get from teens on my reviews of the earlier books, there are going to be some very happy readers this summer !

Terry Pratchett news

Terry Pratchett fans may be interested in the following news (a quote from Terry himself) received via the Discworld Monthly Newsletter:

"The news here is that Making Money has gone off to the publisher; currently the various works in progress are The Folklore of Discworld, which I am working on with Jacqueline Simpson (co-author of The Lore of the Land, among many other books on folklore). Lu Tse's Yearbook of Enlightenment (the next Discworld diary) and Nation, a young adult book for next year, which is not Discworld, and not what people are usually thinking about when they use the term fantasy. I am about 10,000 words into it already and actually wrote about 5,000 words of it when I was at the Australian convention a few weeks ago. Well, if the jetlag means you are wide awake at three o'clock in the morning, why waste the time!"

Making Money is another story about Moist Von Lipwig, the protagonist of Going Postal, which I thoroughly enjoyed, so I look forward to this novel. And The Folklore of Discworld sounds fascinating !

Also mentioned in the DWM newsletter, was "The Art of Josh Kirby", an exhibition at the Walker Art Gallery in Liverpool which will run from 16 June to 30 September 2007.

It's the first retrospective exhibition of science fiction artist Josh Kirby, who was born in Liverpool in 1928 and trained at Liverpool School of Art. He began his career producing film posters, moving to book and cover art for magazines. Some of his more famous work includes the first cover of Ian Fleming's Moonraker and the poster for Monty Python's Life of Brian; he is probably best known for his cover illustrations of Terry Pratchett's Discworld novels. The exhibition will comprise around 150 works spanning the whole of his career, such as artwork for book covers and magazines, personal studies, large-scale oils, film posters, and preparatory sketches. Selections from the Discworld series will be included, but the exhibition will also reach far beyond that to show visitors the full range of his output. It will be packed with visions of weird worlds, fantastic and magical creatures, monsters, maidens and much more. The incredible detail, imaginiation and skill behind Josh's art will be fully revealed.

British Book News

Penguin have announced that they are reviving the novel in serial form to create a buzz online before the complete work is released next year. The book is Gordon Dahlquist's "fantastical gothic mystery" Glass Books of the Dream Eaters and it will be sent to buyers in the mail in 10 weekly paperback instalments, each with a cliff-hanger ending, before publication of the full hardcover in January.
Only 5,000 editions of the serial version will be sold for £25 ($47.08), each with free delivery, and they must be purchased online directly from Penguin. The hardcover will retail for 16.99 pounds.

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It's been reported that Bloomsbury will be celebrating its 21st year of publishing with some special edition paperbacks. Following the Penguin "Sixties" and "Seventies", Bloomsbury will be publishing titles that will feature a short question-and-answer with the author, an introduction by fellow writers, and a reading guide. Thus Alexander McCall Smith sings the praises of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, Malorie Blackman will introduce Louis Sachar's Holes, Adele Geras will introduce Celia Rees' Witch Child, and Audrey Niffenegger will introduce Susanna Clark's Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell. The full list is available by following the link.

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Waterstone's (which recently took over Ottakers) has announced a new standalone structure for children’s books. Wayne Winstone, the new Category Manager told Publisher's News: "This new structure shows how important children’s books are to Waterstone's. It's a sign of a great deal of commitment to growing the children's offering, and the scale we're now working across is fantastic, much bigger than at Ottakar's." Waterstone's has also taken on Ottakar's Children's Regional Support Managers, and will double the size of the team to mirror the new operations breakdown.

It will be interesting to see what difference this makes to Waterstone's stores.