Introducing Alice Povey

This week I am about to embark on an exciting new venture. I’m going to be working with a very talented illustrator to turn my text about Richard III into a highly illustrated children’s book. Firstly I’d like to introduce you to the illustrator. Her name is Alice Povey and you can see examples of her work on her website at Alice Povey's Portfolio. 

Good, isn't she!

Secondly I'd like to explain how we met. To all those people who still think that Twitter is a waste of time, I got to know about Alice through my Twitter discussions with her mother @Richard1483. As you can guess from her Twitter name, she's even more enthusiastic about 'everything Richard III' than I am. That was how we got talking. She mentioned her daughter. I looked at Alice's website and we were 'in business'. Don't you just love Twitter!

Back to Alice and the book, we're about to have our first meeting to discuss the project. I've never before had the opportunity to work so closely with an illustrator and I'm really looking forward to viewing my work through an artist's eyes. The text follows Richard's life, from when he was a young boy, through the confusions of the Wars of the Roses, to his rule as Richard III, his death at the Battle of Bosworth and his subsequent rediscovery under the tarmac of a Leicester City Council car park, including a bit about the science that was used to properly identify his remains.

The proposed publication date for the book is Summer 2014 which brings me to the only negative point in this blog post, the disagreement about where Richard's final resting place should be. The case was taken to the High Court in London last November but was adjourned because there were issues to be resolved. The next hearing will not be until 13th March 2014. I won't go into all the politics about where he should be buried. I'll just say that I hope they rule in favour of keeping him here in Leicester. It would mean a lot to us Leicester folk and I must admit that I have already written the final page of the book. I do hope I don't have to rewrite it!

Springtime and a Good Read

It feels like spring is on the way. I know it’s only February but the sun is shining this morning. There are flowers struggling through... 

I photographed these Hellebores this morning in our garden.

...and the birds are singing in a slightly different way. I can’t quite say how, maybe a higher note, maybe more cheerily. You know what I mean, don’t you? Anyway all the bushes have new buds appearing and they’ll soon be opening and talking of new things...

[apologies for a truly groan-worthy DJ link] 

Annalisa Crawford’s new book, Cat and the Dreamer, is out this week on Kindle and as a pdf. Here’s the blurb:

Cat and the Dreamer 

published by Vagabondage Press

As a teenager Julia survived a suicide pact while her best friend, Rachel, died. Julia’s only escape from her guilt, and her mother’s over-protection, is her imagination. When Adam arrives in the office Julia’s world takes a startling turn as she realises reality can be much more fun than fantasy. Finally she has someone who can help her make the most of her life. But can she allow herself to be truly happy?

Annalisa told me that her book is now on Good Reads. I’d never been to that site before so I clicked the link and had a prowl around. It seems like a great idea, getting suggestions of books you might enjoy based on the books you've recently read, but when I tried to join up, it wanted to know a lot about me and my contacts. Maybe I’m just being super-cautious but has anybody had a bad experience through joining Good Reads? Or would you recommend it as a the next best thing to having your own personal librarian?

My words through an artist’s eyes

I’m trying something new with my writing. I’m working with an illustrator. I suspect a couple of sharp-eyed followers will already have noticed a contradiction. Two posts ago I wrote of my dislike for change and now I’m about to embrace it. But when it comes to writing, I’m always keen to explore different styles and if I ever stop trying to improve my work then it’ll be time to hang up the keyboard.

Sue Hague

I have my writing group to thank for this idea, yet again. [They’re lovely, are my writing group!] We all belong to a children’s book group which meets once a month to read and discuss children’s books... and to have lunch, of course! One of the members is an artist. Her name is Sue Hague and whenever we have a meeting at her house we are in awe of her artwork, especially the finely detailed flower paintings. She is passionate about observing and recording all those tiny details in the world around us, the details that most people don’t notice... the same details that I, as a writer, try to record with words, whereas Sue uses a mixture of acrylic, watercolour and soft pencil.

Last week Sue ran an art workshop for us writers. We’ve never done anything like this as a group before. It was an amazing experience if a little messy... 

Our first task was to rub oil paint onto an acetate sheet and scratch a picture onto paper which had been placed over the top of the paint. My result was a little smudgy but the activity had been satisfying and absorbing in a compulsive sort of a way.

Alex Gutteridge (left), me in the middle and Debbie White who I suspect had prior art training! 

Pippa Goodhart

We worked with materials that I never thought could go together... like a pen, some bleach and a sheet of soft coloured paper. The effect appears gradually. It’s another fascinating process. This isn’t my attempt. It’s Pippa's.

I didn’t produce anything that would hang on my walls but then that wasn't the aim of the morning. What I did come away with was a lot of inspiration, especially when it comes to looking at those finer details of life that are all around us... but there was more. I had a chat with Sue about the art of illustrating and it was then that we planned our collaboration. I have a number of children’s picture book manuscripts, words only, with written illustration guidelines where relevant. I have a rough idea of what the pictures might look like but I was interested to see if Sue’s expert input would add another dimension to my work.

As soon as I got home I emailed a manuscript to her. She came straight back to me with ideas that were already ‘running through her head’. Changes began to happen, improvements began to emerge, as she suggested some fine tuning to my story line, things that I wouldn’t have thought about on my own. She’s now working on some rough drafts and we’ll be meeting up very soon to merge our ideas. We’re hoping to make a joint submission and although we both know that it could well join my list of rejections, it’s been extremely useful to look at my words through an artist’s eyes... and who knows, it might even be accepted!

    

There's a postman at the door!

Last week the advanced copies of my latest book arrived, A Children’s History of Leicester. I wasn’t expecting them. I had Mum on my mind, her extreme agitation and the beginnings of what we suspect could be cancer-related delirium. I had Rod on my mind, his run of infections following all that chemotherapy, and yet another course of antibiotics for him to take. And I had the new cats on my mind. The postman’s visit meant that the front door was open and the cats were still confined to quarters. In fact, the last thing on my mind was a delivery of books which made their arrival all the sweeter.

The cover was shiny, tactile, exciting. I turned the pages and felt that (almost) familiar thrill that I hope will never pall. All my words are there, all that research and writing, selecting and editing, but I had only ever seen them as black on sheets of white A4. Now the colour and illustrations have brought my words to life.

Two have already been placed on The Shelf. It may not be heaving with books quite yet but it’s starting to look almost respectable, don’t you think!

A new story idea...

... but will it appeal to a foreign ear?

Before I launch into my tirade about UK picture books, I’d like to thank everyone for all your kind messages and queries regarding the many health issues that we’ve been struggling with lately. I’ve included an update at the bottom of this post.

And now for my tirade... I love it when a new story idea appears. It’s hard to say where they come from and sometimes it’s best not to analyse it but somehow, amid all the worry over Mum, I have just completed a new children’s picture book. My critique group loved it. I love it. It’s about to be brave and venture into the big scary world of UK picture book editors. They may not love it as much as we do. This could possibly be because they view picture book manuscripts in terms of income potential. In other words, will it appeal to foreign publishers?

I’d like to think that my writing could be loved worldwide but I’m afraid that a lot of it contains humour and it would seem that humour does not travel well. To make matters worse, I recently read a report saying that a number of countries are now favouring home-grown writers over foreign ones. You can’t blame them but why can’t we do the same? I know that publishers have to make money and money is made from foreign sales but it would be refreshing if we were encouraged to write for UK kids in a style sympathetic to our humour, our interests and our culture and not have to worry about worldwide markets.

Health Issues Updates: 

I have made an official complaint to the Chief Executive of the Leicester NHS Trust regarding the negligence experienced by my mother while she was in the Leicester General Hospital. I have asked for changes to be made and for me to be kept informed of these changes. If you have a personal interest in this issue and would like me to keep you updated then please contact me here. 

 Mum is about to start five days of radiotherapy. It’s palliative. Each session will be for only two minutes but they’re hoping that this will be enough to shrink the tumour. We hope so too. 

Rod’s resistance is still very low even though it’s now six months since he had his stem cell transplant. In the last two weeks he’s picked up a nasty stomach bug and a chesty/sore throat bug. He’s hoping that very soon he’ll be well enough to potter in the garden. I hope so too! 

Important point: I’d like to add that over the last few years both Rod and Mum have received first class care and treatment from all the staff at the Leicester Royal Infirmary Oncology Department. They truly are an excellent team of professionals.

  

What exactly is sparkle anyway?

I arrived home from the shops yesterday to the sound of hammering. It made me smile. Rod was repairing a stool. In the afternoon, while he pottered in his potting shed, I settled down to work on some picture books. Life is slowly returning to some sort of normality.

It’s quite some time since I worked on picture book fiction so I dug out some of my guideline notes from way back. In amongst all the bumf about double-line spacing etc it said to make sure the story had lots of sparkle. I had no doubt faithfully written this from a book I was reading or a talk I attended but I don’t think I stopped to analyse it. I mean, what exactly is sparkle anyway? And never mind getting sparkle into picture books. If it’s so important, then I need to know how I can get sparkle into my life.

In my last blog post I talked about how we felt about ourselves on a scale of one to ten, ten being fantastic. I can’t remember the last time I was a ten. A number of you said the same in your comments. If we could work out how to get sparkle into our lives would it increase our scores? An eight would be good.

As far as writing picture books is concerned I reckon that the way we can add sparkle is to write with an easy-to-read rhythm, to include a fine sprinkling of alliteration and inner rhymes, and to feed the illustrators with many and varied spreads so they can add sparkle too....

Hang on a minute! Maybe I can do the same with my life. Maybe it’s all about an easy-to-live rhythm or maybe I have an inner illustrator who needs to be fed? Now there’s a thought.

p.s. I tried to take a photograph of the sun sparkling on the frosty grass but it wouldn't show. However many times I tried and whatever setting I put the camera on, the grass and frost were there but the sparkle wasn't. Sparkle is elusive - official!

Small portions

When it comes to writing I love small portions. My favourite genre is children’s picture books. This is not simply because of the size, of course, but I do enjoy being able to hold the entire story line in my head and reworking it in the middle of the night without the need of pen, pencil or keyboard. The same is true of my blog posts. I always try to keep them below 600 words. They’re more manageable that way. Unfortunately the opposite is true when it comes to cooking. Quantities seem to expand in my saucepan but this is not good.

At the moment I’m trying to adopt the style of shopping and cooking that would have been more familiar to Mum’s generation than to my own. When I was a kid Mum went to the shops every day. She bought just enough for that evening’s meal and there was rarely anything left over. Of course, Mum didn’t have the luxury of freezers or supermarkets plus she had no microwave to reheat food... and now neither do I. 

While Rod’s resistance is so low following his treatment there are a lot of restrictions on his diet. He’s not allowed anything raw so salads are a big ‘NO’. He’s not allowed soft cheeses, lightly cooked eggs, pâté, but the most debilitating rule of all is no reheating of food. I had never noticed how much reheating I did from chicken that becomes chicken soup to vegetables that turns into a tasty curry. The rest would be thrown into the freezer and packed in little bags with twist top ties. Nothing was wasted. 

Now when I make a soup I have to use half a carrot. Half a carrot! It’d be quicker to munch a quarter of a raw carrot each and be done with it. I only need to add one potato and a mere handful of assorted vegetables. All that chopping and cooking and swooshing up... it hardly seems worth it. Soups in my house have always been grand amorphous affairs, growing ever more voluminous with each extra carrot and leek that I chuck in... and, before my kids log on to comment, yes, my soups are usually a strange orange colour and just a tad gloopy but they’re always very tasty and highly nutritious [at least, that’s what I always used to tell them.]

My problem extends beyond soups. I seem to be incapable of buying and cooking the correct amount of meat for two portions of stew. Stew should be cooked long and slow in a vast pot with herbs from the garden and root vegetables for flavour. Who wants to do all that faffing about for one meal? 

And as for puddings! I’m now mixing 2 oz flour with 1 oz butter and 1 oz sugar to make a crumble which is sprinkled over one cooking apple. No more left over crumbles for lunch next day.

I know this stage of Rod’s recovery won’t last forever and compared to the fact that he’s still neither allowed nor strong enough to go out and about and mix with groups of people, the food issue is a minor irritation, but right at this moment it’s driving me crazy. 

So has anyone got any bright ideas for small portion cooking? All recipes and helpful suggestions gratefully accepted.

Pippa Goodhart: The Challenges of a Children's Writer

Pippa Goodhart is a successful children's writer with 72 books published and more in the pipeline. So what is her secret of success? She's always busy. When she's not writing, she's visiting schools, teaching writing students, supporting fellow writers... but most of all she never refuses a challenge.

Challenge: To take on somebody else's character

Giddy-Up Winnie is the latest in the highly popular series of Winnie the Witch stories. Pippa has been writing Winnie the Witch stories for several years.

'The original Winnie stories were mostly pictures with just a few words,' Pippa told me. 'The author didn't want to write longer stories and so I was asked by the publisher if I would do it. It was difficult for a start, getting to know characters that somebody else had created, but I've become very fond of Winnie. She's a child in an adult body, lots of fun. Korky Paul has continued as illustrator and writing things for him to illustrate is lots of fun too.'

Pippa doesn't have her name on the front cover of the Winnie the Witch books. I asked her how she felt about that. She shrugged and told me with a smile,

'I've made sure that every book is dedicated to a member of the Goodhart family and in Winnie and the Ghost in the Post I've included a ghost writer with the initials P.G. In the story it stands for Post Ghost, but it's really Pippa Goodhart.'

Winnie and the Ghost in the Post can be found in the Mini Winnie book.

Challenge: To rescue a much-loved out-of-print book

Flow was Pippa's first novel published in 1994. She was sad when it went out of print, especially as she regularly uses it for school visits.

'I still have the very first draft, written by hand in the days before computers, which I use with children when I'm talking about the redrafting process. The original publishers had no plans to reprint so I contacted Barn Owl*. There is now a lovely new version with a new front cover.'

Pippa obtained a grant from the Arts Council to further develop the use of Flow in schools. The grant paid for local primary school teachers to create worksheets for use with the book and they are now available on Pippa's website, which was also set up with thanks to help from the Arts Council.

*Barn Owl Books specialised in 'replenishing carefully selected out-of-print titles. Sadly they are no longer operating as the grant funding has been withdrawn.

Challenge: To write an easy-reader book and get it shortlisted for an award

Pippa was a poor reader as a child and so she knows how important it is to have exciting books to read when you're struggling to make sense of a story. Barrington Stoke specialises in producing books for struggling readers. When they issued a challenge to write a funny, fast-paced story about global warming Pippa produced Connor's Eco Den which was shortlisted for a Blue Peter award.

'As well as Barrington Stoke, I've written many short reader books for the Oxford Reading Tree,' said Pippa. 'I sometimes get letters from children who have read one and say it's the best book ever. I know it's because it's been a break-through book for them.'

Challenge: To create a best-selling picture book in the style of a catalogue

'My children always loved looking at catalogues,' said Pippa. 'I wanted to create a picture book that included as many pictures and appealed to as broad an age range as possible.'

Over three quarters of a million copies of You Choose have been sold to date, not bad for a book that was initially turned down by nine publishers.

'It was a real treat, sitting with Nick Sharratt and discussing ideas while he sketched roughs.'

The book was taken up by Bookstart, a charity that aims to procide a free pack of books to every child in the UK to help give children a good start in life.

'So many children arrive in school not able to talk properly,' said Pippa. 'You Choose is the sort of book that encourages children to talk.'

If you like You Choose you'll love this:

Pippa is working with Nick Sharratt on Just Imagine which will be in a similar format to You Choose. It will take several years to complete all the illustrations, so the book won't be out until 2012. I'm ordering my copy now.

If you would like to contact Pippa Goodhart please visit her website at www.pippagoodhart.co.uk

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The Reading Shop – Leicester’s very own independent children’s book shop

‘Independent bookshops can nurture the unknown.’

So you want to buy a book for a nine-year-old boy who loves pirate stories but isn’t too good at reading. How do you decide what to get him? You go into your local independent children’s bookshop and ask their advice. They know the market. They have a shop full of children’s books and can instantly point you towards that perfect gift.

Sadly most UK people don’t have access to such a luxury. There are only twenty independent children’s book shops in the country and I am pleased to say that Leicester has one of them. The Reading Shop is on the main shopping parade that runs through the busy Leicester suburb of Oadby.

I went to meet the owner, Lynn Moore, and her enthusiasm was infectious. She has a passion for children’s books and is dedicated to helping children who have trouble learning to read.

‘When I was a little girl reading books was an object of delight and comfort, an escape into another world,’ Lynn told me. ‘I always had a dream of opening up a children’s bookshop, of being able to help parents choose the right books for their children.’

Lynn trained as an Educational Psychologist and worked for many years in mainstream schools. Together with a friend she developed a literacy programme to help children with reading difficulties, running after-school literacy classes in a small rented room. Things have moved on and up since those days. She now has a dedicated teaching area over the shop with 60 children attending her after-school sessions.

‘The environment is perfect. The children are surrounded by books from the minute they arrive,’ explained Lynn. If enthusiasm really is infectious then these lucky children will be ‘infected’ for life.

Lynn has read all her stock and has learnt from experience not to rely on reviewers.

‘Hotly reviewed books are not necessarily the best sellers,’ she said. ‘Independent bookshops can nurture the unknown. If we notice a gem of a book, we can take it and promote it. No one dictates to us.’

The Reading Shop does more than sell books and run after-school literacy classes. They organise book fairs, storytelling sessions, baby and toddler groups, author signings, both in the shop and in schools, and Lynn is currently working on plans to hold book parties with the host earning a book or two for their help.

We used to have a number of independent book shops in Leicester. Now we only have The Reading Shop. It’s a thriving business at the moment so let’s make sure we keep it that way. Let’s keep on visiting. Let’s keep on taking advantage of her wealth of book knowledge. Let’s keep the independent bookshops alive.


Lynn Moore’s top 5 children’s books (in reader-age order rather than order of preference):

Babies: Peepo! by Janet Ahlberg
Toddlers: The Elephant and the Bad Baby by Elfrida Vipont and Raymond Briggs
4-6 years: Library Lion by Michelle Knudsen and Kevin Hawkes
Young readers: Tom’s Midnight Garden by Philippa Pearce
Older readers: anything by Anthony Horowitz

There’s more to a name than signing a book

The publication of my first book, Bathtime Rap, in 2008 presented me with a dilemma. People kept asking me to sign their copies, but what to put? How to sign? Should I end with a flourish of wavy lines, like Queen Elizabeth? Should I sign my first name only, like Madonna? I thought of all the times I had asked authors to sign books for me. They had calmly written a well-rehearsed message followed by a well-rehearsed signature. How difficult can it be?

I find anything to do with names difficult. I’m hopeless when it come to remembering other people’s names. I know the theory. You’re supposed to see their name written on their forehead and you must use it at least three times as soon as you’ve been introduced. Impossible. Even when I think I’ve got someone’s name right I’ll do anything to avoid using it in case I make a mistake, not good practice for a teacher, and it might even have contributed to the high levels of stress that finally convinced me to leave the profession.

Names are a constant source of confusion and concern for me, even my own name. My mother has always called me Rosalind but my friends call me Ros. I try to be Rosalind at work and Ros at home but that causes confusion. As a teacher I was often called Miss which I hated and sometimes even Sir which was worse. I once worked at a school where the students called the teachers by their first names. For me it didn’t work. It changed the dynamics. The teachers were no longer held in such high esteem. Names are more than just titles. They give us our social identity, but they also give us something more. I can never hear the name Luke without remembering the ‘very naughty boy’ I taught in a Year 6 class. Sorry to all the really nice Lukes out there. I guess I’m the one with the problem.

It’s one thing having name problems at work but it’s far more embarrassing when it happens at home. About ten years ago my sister moved to another part of the country. At the same time she started to use her middle name, Rifka. I couldn’t do it. I couldn’t refer to my sister as Rifka. When I visit her, all her friends, who have only ever known her as Rifka, must think I’m crazy. As a loving sister it’s the least I can do to avoid confusion but the word won’t come out of my mouth. The closest I’ve got is to say to Josh, the dog, ‘Take your ball to Auntie Rifka,’ (yes, of course he knows what that means!) We’ve now reached a compromise. I call her big sis and she calls me little sis. Problem solved.

But now I have a bigger name problem, my husband’s. I call him Rod. Everyone calls him Rod, except his doctor. On his birth certificate Rod is his middle name and it’s the same on his medical records. Because of his ongoing illness Rod has to make regular hospital visits but I don’t know the man who is being called out in the clinic and the consultants are talking about a stranger. Again I have reached a compromise. I have become regal. I refer to ‘my husband and I’. It would be so much easier if he could just tell them that he’s called Rod but he says it doesn’t bother him. If only I could be that easy going.

So what would you like to call me, Rosalind, Ros, Mrs Adam, and why does it matter anyway?