Gill James's Blog, page 10

Night Birds on Nantucket by Joan Aiken

Dido Twite has been shipwrecked but is picked up by a whaling boat.  She sleeps for ten months and  finds herself far away from her home in England whens she wakes, on her way to Nantucket. 
During her continued voyage and a brief stay on Nantucket she befriends the captain’s daughter, unravels a mystery and helps the captain consolidate his relationship with the pink whale. She eventually gets her passage home. 
Dido comes across as a feisty character. She prefers dressing as a boy – denim trousers and cotton shorts are more comfortable than frilly dresses.   She speaks not quite standard English but Joan Aiken does not overload us with dialect.  There is just enough to give her a personality. The words do not hide their meaning.  
The story is full of twists and turns. Some of the characters are larger than life. This novel is perhaps a forerunner of the Lemony Snicket novels except that this one does have a happy ending. The book is just over 200 pages long.  It is formatted in blocked text and in an adult font.  There are a few line-drawings which illustrate the text.   

Only the Ocean by Natasha Carthew

Kel Crew has lived in the swamps all of her life up until now. More fortunate folk live in the Towers. Kel has a plan: kidnap a Towers girl, ransom her for drugs and sell those to pay for a life-saving operation that she needs. She sets off taking her baby with her. She refers to him as “it” at first. We trace her development as the baby gradually becomes ‘he’, gains a personality and eventually a name. She seems at first not to care for him but we note that she is constantly checking that he is still breathing. Her relationship with Rose the girl she captures, with the ocean and with life in general is complex. There is no happily ever after in this story and that is of course quite right in a novel written for young adults. There is however a form of survival.   Natasha Carthew brings us some delightfully refreshing prose: “It was a stupid baby, if it wasn’t it would have put its fist to its mouth and left it there for gumming” (30), “She stepped into the shadows of the low-slung nothing-much sun” (46), “She stood at the door and tried every crack and corner for looking and when she heard footsteps scuffing the stairs down to her she sat backed up on the ground and waited” (134). It’s difficult to like Kel but Rose’s privilege, her growing fondness for the baby and the demanding trials mainly on the ocean that the two girls face make us more sympathetic towards her.              

News 1 August 2019

 Playwriting CourseI’ve signed up for a playwriting course at MMU. I hope my friends from the University of Salford will forgive me. It’s two days in October and will involve analysing Hamlet and Tom Stoppard’s Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead. We’ll also be dabbling in virtual reality. There will be some writing during the course. You can find more details about it here.  Care to join me?       I’m really looking forward to this and I hope it will bring a new dynamic to my writing.           News about my writing My story Grey will soon be published in the Ginoskso literary journal. (Volume 23) My biggest news is that the third story in my Schellberg Cycle, Girl in a Smart Uniform is now out. This is the most fictional to date.  Some characters, familiar to those who have read the first two books, appear again here. Clara Lehrs, Karl Schubert and Dr Kühn really existed. We have a few, a very few, verifiable facts about them. The rest we have had to find out by repeating some of their experiences and by using the careful writer's imagination.

Gisela adores her brother Bear, her gorgeous BDM uniform, and her little half-brother Jens. She does her best to be a good German citizen, and is keen to help restore Germany to its former glory. She becomes a competent and respected BDM leader. But life begins to turn sour. Her oldest brother Kurt can be violent, she soon realises that she is different from other girls, she feels uncomfortable around her mother’s new lover, and there is something not quite right about Jens. It becomes more and more difficult to be the perfect German young woman.

We know that BDM girls set fire to the house in Schellberg Street but got the children out first. This story seeks to explain what motivated the girls to do that, and what happened to them afterwards.Find it here.  At some point I’ll be doing a proper launch though I’m still trying to decide exactly what to do. I’ve also continued to work on The House of Clementine, 280 x 70 and Not Just Fluffy Bunnies. The latter is proving to be huge and I’m wondering whether I should serialise it.  Catalogue of books for children This month I’ve added :Tulip TaylorTake Another Look by Anna Mainwaring. Anna is one of my SCBWIfriends and I’m very pleased for her. This was published just a few weeks ago. It’s definitely YA and is welcomely different from what has now become the norm.
Perfect by Cecelia Ahern . This is also YA.  It was published in 2017 and is extremely fast-paced.      
The School at the Chalet by Elinor Brent-Dyer This is suitable for fluent readers, Key Stage 2.  It’s quite a classic and was first published in 1925.  It contains many familiar tropes from the school story. I reread it in connection with Not Just Fluffy Bunnies.
The Family from One End Street by Eve Garnett  More classics. I’ve included all of the One End Street books here. They were first written in 1937, 1956 and 1962. I read these just out of curiosity. A lot of nostalgia there for me. They would suit the fluent reader Key Stage 2 and maybe early teens.  However I do suspect that the 21st century young reader may find them puzzling. I was looking to see if they were “working class novels”. They’re about the working class, certainly, but Garnett can hardly be classed as working class.    

 Current reading recommendationThis month I’m recommending one of our own writers. I really enjoyed Gail Aldwin’s String Games. I’m not giving anything away when I say there is an abduction and murder involved. This is mentioned on the back cover blurb. The story is in three parts and from the point of view of the victim’s sister Nim / Imogen:At the time of the abductionNim as an adolescentImogen trying to get closure It took me out of my editor’s. That’s always a good sign. I also soon forgot that it was written by someone I knew.  Another good sign. You can read more about it here.     Giveaway This month I’m giving away my book on marketing for indies: So now You’re Published, What next?  The last thing most writers want to do is spend a lot of time on marketing. Yet books don't sell themselves by magic, no matter how good they are. Publishers do what they can but time and money is limited, and inevitably they have to move on to the next project. If you can adapt a few useful routines, especially ones you find palatable and fun, you'll hardly notice you're doing it. There are heaps of useful suggestions here and handy check lists to keep you on track.Get your free mobi-file and lots of other goodies here.  Note, that normally my books and the books supplied by the imprints I manage sell for anything from £0.99 to £10.99, with most on Kindle being about £2.99 and the average price for paperback being £7.00. We have to allow our writers to make a living. But I’m offering these free samples so that you can try before you buy.   Naturally I welcome reviews. Many of the giveaways come as a mobi-file that you need to download to your Kindle. Just plug your Kindle into your computer and save the mobi-file to your Kindle. Or you can transfer it across later. If you don’t have a Kindle here are some instructions that may help:
Mobi files:
Amazon make a range of apps that emulate a Kindle device on other platforms:iPad, iPhone, iPodAndroid phone Android tabletPC (Windows 7, 8, 8.1, 10)MacWindows phone(Note: notLinux platforms)Choose which device you would like to read the .mobi file on. (PCs, Macs, iPhones and iPads are good).Go to https://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeId=GZSM7D8A85WKPYYD and select the device. Follow the instructions to install the app/software.If your chosen reading platform is not the one on which you received/saved the .mobi file, transfer the file across. For most combinations of source and target this will simply involve connecting the two together with the appropriate cable, or via a USB memory stick. For example, for a PC to an iPhone or iPad, connect using the uPhone/iPad power cable and transfer using iTunes.If you only have access to a Linux platform, you will need to use one of the many online ebook converters (Google is your friend here) to convert the .mobi file to an .epub file, then install Calibre to read it.
The Schellberg Project I’ve continued adding to the Discovery Pack, posting the same material on to the web site / blog. I’ve added another page about Käthe Edler, Renate’s mother. Although she was quite a feisty woman she was constrained by the notions of the time of what a wife and mother should be. The posts may be helpful for teachers who are familiar with the Schellberg stories or who are teaching about the Holocaust. You can read the posts here.       School visits I’m still promoting my school visits associated with The House on Schellberg Street project. I’ve now developed a whole workshop for this. It starts off with a board game, includes some role play and creative writing and ends with a discussion. It is now possible to purchase the kit to work on on your own. Find details here.Costs for my workshops = travel expenses plus £400 for a full day and £200 for a half day. This includes all materials and some freebies. Two schools near to each other might consider splitting the day and halving the travel expenses and fees. This is open to negotiation in any case.        I also offer a free half day visit, though you pay my travel expenses, if you allow me to promote my books.       I’m continuously adding materials for schools to the site that are different from the ones I use for the workshops. I’ve recently added in resources and books to do with the topic. See them here:       Query for a school visit here.I’m also happy to tailor a visit for your agreed donation. This can be for either a Schellberg Cycle visit or a creative writing workshop. Any monies raised this way will go specifically to a project I have for a non-fiction book about a journey that will follow the footsteps of Clara Lehrs. I’m hoping to do the whole journey by train, including departing via my nearest Metrolink station. It’s important to feel the rails beneath my feet.       I offer as well standard author visits which include readings from my books, Q & A sessions and creative writing exercises. Please remember, with these as well, I’m open to negotiation if you can’t afford the full price.  Some notes about my newsletters and blogsThey do overlap a little but here is a summary of what they all do.
Bridge House Authors For all those published by Bridge House, CaféLit, Chapletown or The Red Telephone or interested in being published by us. General news about the imprints. News for writers. Links to book performance. Sign up here.
Chapeltown Books News about our books. Sign up here.
The Creative Café Project News about the project and CaféLit – for the consumer rather than for the producer.  Sign up here.   
Gill’s News: News about my writing, The Schellberg Project, School Visits and Events. Find it here.   
Opportunities List Remember I keep a full list of vetted opportunities on my writing blog. See them here. New ones are added several times a day. Roughly once a month I go through it and take out all of the out of date ones. At that point I send it out to a list. If you would like to be on that list, sign up here.  
Pushing Boundaries, Flying Higher News about conferences and workshops to do with the young adult novel. (infrequent postings) Sign up here.  
Red Telephone Books News about our books and our authors. Sign up here.
A Publisher’s Perspective Here I blog as a publisher. Access this here.   
The Creative Café Project Listings and reviews of creative cafés. See them here.   
CaféLit Stories Find these here
Gill James Writer All about writing and about my books. View this here.
Gill’s Recommended Reads Find information here about books that have taken me out of my editor’s head.    
Gill’s Sample Fiction Read some of my fiction here.
The House on Schellberg Street All about my Schellberg project. Read it here.
Writing Teacher All about teaching creative writing.  Some creative writing exercises. Access this here.       
Books Books Books Weekly offers on our books and news of new books. Find them here. 
Happy reading and writing.

Getting the Most Out of Conferences

I was recently able to attend one day of the Mslexicon Conference in Leeds. This was of course organised by the wonderful Mslexia, my favourite writers’ magazine. 
Now, I’m not going to give you a full report on the sessions I attended.  That wouldn’t be fair to those who have paid a lot of money to be there, myself included, and indeed to the speakers who make part of their livelihood from providing content at such events but I will share with you what I came away with. 
It’s always important when you go on a course or attend a conference that you resolve to act on what you’ve learnt and you put in some mechanism for making sure that it happens. 
So, I’m kind of doing that here. I’m stating in public what I will do next as a result of having attended the event. I expect you to hold me to account. 
I was very pleased to hear Claire Malcolm speak. She is from New Writing North.  Now, I still have a few problems with this organisation. It often seems more like it ought to be named New Writing North East and we need a New Writing North West. Those darn Pennines! But her enthusiasm was very convincing and I’m now resolved to use the site more often.   
She also gave a new template for writing bios which I’ll now consider using. 
A plenary included an interview with Sophie Hannah  My goodness, she is enthusiastic. She has instigated The Dream Author Coaching Programme and I’ve signed up for that. 
The final session was “Find Your Tribe” which formalised the networking that is always so useful at conferences. I’ve now found another group of local people with whom to share critiques, another group with whom to work on events and I’ve also volunteered to do some editorial work. 
There was a glorious pop-up book shop: https://www.foxlanebooks.co.uk/. I’m keen to use them for some of my own events.  I picked up a fascinating book by Steven Pinker: A Sense of  Style.  I always like Pinker’s work and this seems to address writing particularly. Yes, treating yourself to a book at a conference is absolutely justified. You’ve paid a lot already and you’re probably attending at a weekend between two working weeks. You deserve a treat. 
As always at these events, you get a few interesting freebies.  This time there was a handy clipboard, a pen, the usual useful canvas tote bag, a copy of the mag and one of Shaun Levin’s Writing Maps – How to Write a Story There was also a very useful Do Not Disturb Sign. One side had “I’m thinking” on it and the other “I’m reading”.  I’ve made use of this for our downstairs loo that doesn‘t have a bolt on the door. It also offers a discount for the Literary Gift CompanyAlso in the bag, and also form the Literary Gift Company was a little yellow duck who was reading a book.  Did someone slip that in whilst we were networking? I only discovered him when I got home. Anyway, it looks great in my new bathroom.

Tulip Taylor Take Another Look by Anna Mainwaring

Tulip is obsessed with make-up. She is a competent well-followed vlogger. As in many texts for this age group she has dysfunctional parents.  She adores her younger brother and sister yet they also irritate her at times.  She has her supportive girlfriends and there is the usual love-interest.  
This text, however, rises above the normal real-life story for this reader. Tulip is challenged to appear on a TV survival show. She seems to be the least likely to succeed in the whole group.   There are other challenges in the rest of her life and she meets them all head on. 
Anna Mainwaring has created rounded believable characters about whom we care.
Tulip finds solutions to all the problems she faces.  She dispels the myth that her generation are snowflakes.    
OIlivia Levez describes it as “A Pride and Prejudice of Our Times’. Maybe.  There is so much more to it than that, though. 
The book offers a solid read.  It is some 292 pages long. The chapters are reasonably short.  

Perfect by Cecelia Ahern

This is the sequel to Cecelia Ahern’s Flawed.  Those that are less than perfect are branded and labelled flawed  in this dystopian near-future.  Yet the whole system itself is flawed: there is corruption and power-seeking and the judgement about who is and who isn’t flawed is very subjective. Horrifically babies can be designated as flawed at birth.  F.A.B.  
Protagonist Celestine North complicates her situation by becoming an evader, one who hides from the law. 
Many know that this is wrong but lack the courage to speak out. Eventually they do and it is in part thanks to Celestine finding and showing the footage of Judge Crevan himself branding her spine without anaesthetic.  She already has five brands.  
There are two love interests for Cecelia. She hooks up with Carrick, another evader. She also still has some feelings for her former boyfriend, Art, who is also Crevan’s son. 
This novel is powerful in that all is not back and white. Art becomes a Whistleblower  - one of the guards who supervises the correct containment of the Flawed. He rejects this role when he realises what his father has done.  There is a moment when Celestine almost feels sorry for Crevan: he is now stripped of his fine robes and his role and she remembers how he just used to be Art’s dad. 
The ending is upbeat.  The Guild is overthrown but we realise that this society will have to work hard to build something humane and effective. The work is only just beginning. 
The stakes are high and pace is fast throughout.  There are plenty of cliff-hangers and twists. This is a long book – 426 pages and the format is 9 x 6 inches. The font is adobe Thai point 13 so the text resembles a book for adults.  However, the chapters are very short with a few of them being just one page long.               

The School at the Chalet by Elinor M. Brent Dyer

This story brings at once the familiar and the exotic.  1920s’ readers will be familiar with school and relationships between school girls. Some aspects of school life will also be familiar to the 21st century reader. We have the story lines of several differently aged girls but as children like to read “up” – often reading about youngsters aged about two years older than themselves, this will appeal to the upper primary reader. Few of them ’ however, will be familiar with boarding school and even those that are and who are 1920s’ middle class or even upper middle class will be less familiar with Austria and the Alps.
For the 21st century reader the exoticism comes in another way.  There is perhaps nothing so exciting about the Tyrol anymore.  Yet the way of life will be alien to them – shared dorms, cold baths and a strange language. Even the young reader may marvel at the relatively young headteacher Madge.  She is only in her twenties.      
There is plenty of tension and pace.  There are complex relationships between the girls. Headteacher Madge Bettany perhaps offers a role-model for the readers to aspire to, offering food for thought as they transit form primary school to secondary school. The text is 204 pages long, blocked and in a tight font.  A real book, but not too long.   

The Family from One End Street by Eve Garnett

There are actually three stories about the Ruggles family: 
The Family from One End Street   (first published 1937) 2014Further Adventures of the Family form One End Street (first published 1956) 2019Holiday at the Dew Drop Inn (first published 1962) 2019    
The Ruggles are an interesting family.  Dad is a dustman and Mum takes in washing. I remember the first book being read to us in the second year at junior school and I was delighted that here at last was a family a little like my own.  Not that my father was a dustman, nor did my mother take in washing and I was an only child: there are seven children in the Ruggles family.  However, the day to day concerns were the same as the ones that my family had and these characters offered something more familiar than the usual middle class ones we read about in domestic and school stories.     
I suspect the Ruggles will be a bit of a puzzle to the 21stcentury child. However, the stories do give some insight into a different Britain and in particular one without a National Health Service.If town-dwellers living in the same era as the Ruggles had read the book they would have been introduced to the country side in the two sequels. This would be exotic and interesting for them. The 21st century reader is more likely to have travelled more.  
The stories certainly grabbed my attention. 
I do have a slight concern that Eve Garnett was not working-class. But then was Charles Dickens? Is any serious writer or reader, in fact?  Do we become middle class when we take on solid literacy? All three books have satisfying spines and are illustrated with attractive line drawings.  Note the nineteen-year gap between the publication of the first book and the two subsequent titles.  All use a blocked text and a sophisticated font with difficult as and gs. The first book in the series uses a larger font.

Exploring through writing

This is something I discovered when I started writing my Schellberg cycle of novels. I had some superb primary resources and was able to gather other information by repeating some of the experiences that my character had.  
A third trick was to use the writing itself to explore.
This sits alongside “write what you know”. That, of course is a little facile: if we all only ever did that there would be no fantasy, science fiction or historical fiction. Yet it is this very writing about what you know that makes the magic happen. 
There are two types of things that you know: what you’ve found out from research and what you’ve experienced yourself. Add into the mix as well all that work you’ve done on your setting and characters you actually know a lot.     
We’re all familiar with the “what if?” question. Next comes the “What would they do in these circumstances?” You write yourself into the character and become a little like an actor. You may discover some startling things. 
A Masters creative writing student of mine already had a Masters in history.  When he wrote a novel set in the seventeenth century, he found out more about the way of life of the people who lived there than he had done from all the history he’d studied. 
I had a real dilemma in the Schellberg cycle: how could Hans Edler cope with being involved in designing of the V2 flying bomb during World War II when his wife and child were living in England? I got into his head and realised that he went as slowly as he could with this work. I was astounded to read a few weeks later that many engineers working on the project deliberately dragged their feet because they thought it was so awful. 
One member of my U3A creative writing group complains that she has no imagination yet when she writes about what she knows her writing is exquisite. She writes with the senses uncovering experiences for us and confirming them for herself. 
Of course when we write about historical characters who no longer have a voice we must use a little humility; we may not represent them the way they would wish to be represented. We must be clear that this is just our interpretation of who that character is. I suspect however that we are more often right than wrong and this is all because we write what we know in order to find out what we thought we didn’t know.            

An Interview with Philippa Rae

I'm very privileged to welcome Philippa Rae to my blog today. We're delighted at Chapeltown to be publishing her enchanting story for children all about a certain Wilma, pictured above.     
1.   What do you write? Why this in particular? 
I have enjoyed writing short stories and poetry. I am an impatient type and get a buzz out of completing something quickly! 
My natural instincts are to write humorous pieces but, in the future, I would love to write a fantasy novel.  This is a challenge to set myself for the next couple of years. I do have two half written longer books in my files, so I must schedule in finishing those. 
For example, I have a complete three act children’s play (written for a school performance for a whole class) which I wrote a few years ago sitting in my files which I am getting workshopped with a school and three fifteen-minute animation scripts, one of which is now honed and ready to be sent out. 
2.   What got you started on writing in the first place? 
When I was in my last year at primary school I used to enjoy writing stories in my lunchtime.  I remember trying to write a Lord of the Rings style piece!   
However, my interest in dancing took over and it wasn’t until I was working in the production team at Cbeebies Radio that I started writing poems and stories in my scripts. Initially it was just one or two, but it developed from there. Since then I have dipped in and out. 
It has been trial and error finding the right format for my style.  Some things come easier than others though obviously practice in anything makes perfect!  Some people find their writer’s voice early in the process.  But initially I wrote for radio for a preschool audience which is a specific craft of words interweaved with sounds. So, in the past I suffered from a tendency to overwrite or be too matter of fact as with radio explaining was the main way of signposting the narrative.  I had to relearn a different way for print production. 
I also learned to let go of pieces and move onto the next project.  It’s very easy to think after I could have done this or that better or keep fiddling with something but sometimes its best to just move on and do something else or hand it over to someone else to look at.
3.   Do you have a routine? 
I often write chunks in long hand and then type it up again on the computer.  I am the sort of writer that likes to write the basic structure first and then keep adding as I hone the work.   
Initially I was fixated on trying to find a totally original idea till I realized that it was the treatment which was the most important.  The pressure of forcing inspiration was creating writer’s block and I found after that things flowed much better.  
If you can find a totally original idea, then wonderful but otherwise most things are often a mish mash of stuff we have picked up. Usually we don’t realize where we have got the idea from!  
I do carry a notebook as inspiration usually strikes when you least expect it.  Story development reminds me of a pickled onion.  It takes a while for things to ferment and then it’s great fun to peel off all the different layers as the story falls into place. 
The hardest thing I found with writing longer pieces is that it is a solitary and disciplined process whereas I come from a background of busy events and media production, so I am used to working in teams with lots of people giving their opinions. Obviously, the publishing team has a big input into the finished product but during the early stages it is mostly a solo job! 
4.   When did you decide you could call yourself a writer? Do you do that in fact? 
I enjoy being involved in creative projects across a range of mediums.  I would probably describe myself more as a content producer than specifically a writer.  I enjoy media production, creating content for websites and charity events and promotions as well as writing for magazines.
I never set out to be a writer, it was being asked to create pieces for my job that reminded me of my childhood.  Even when I was first published I wasn’t really thinking about writing as a full-time career but an enjoyable sideline.  I like entering competitions and have been quite successful.  But it is other people who place the emphasis on this element though it is actually just one part of what I am interested in. It would be nice though in the future to say that I was a full-time writer! 
Writing has been on the backburner for me for a couple of years because of a bereavement. I lost someone very close to me and then unfortunately six months later I was diagnosed with advanced cancer in three places, so I have just ticked along whilst I was undergoing treatment as I wasn’t able to put in the necessary promotional work needed for books. 

We all react to treatment differently and I found the operation, chemotherapy and radiotherapy very invasive and exhausting.  I take my hat off to all the inspirational individuals who manage to achieve great things however challenging their circumstances, but I am a lousy patient and most definitely not very good as a tortured artist toiling away – I write best and usually mostly when I’m happy! 
Now I am in remission I am very grateful to be given a second chance and so I have been working on the number of half-finished projects I have accumulated and dipping in and out of over the last few years.   
5.   What are you most proud of in your writing? 
I have recently been trying classes that are in genres outside my comfort zone to stretch and stimulate myself into some fresh approaches.  It’s a great way to perk up your brain!   
In the past I attended an excellent picture book class taken by authors Chrisytan and Diane Fox which helped me to pin down the style needed for picture books, after having written so many short stories for radio and magazines, this format was ingrained in me and hard to shake off.   
In fact, Cinderella’s Other Shoe (with wonderful cartoon drawings by Tevin Hansen) was originally written as an exercise set in the class so I was delighted that we won the Purple Dragon Fly Awards for best humour book. 
6.   How do you get on with editing and research? 
I was once told that you learn most in the editing process and this is true!  I do have a bit of a blind spot sometimes no matter how much I read something that I have written with typos escaping through! 
I know that my better pieces are usually ones that I let breathe for a couple of weeks before returning to them.  Then I have allowed some distance between myself and the work and am able to spot any mistakes! 
7.   Which writers have inspired you? 
I enjoy reading work by many different authors but people that spring to mind are the wonderful rhyming books of Jeannie Willis as well as the unique picture book styles of Oliver Jeffers and Emily Gravett. I wish I could illustrate!   
I don’t really like naming favourite authors as it means singling people out which is very hard when there are so many great books. But I have been writing reviews for Kidscene for nearly seven years and two classics that spring to mind are Triangle and Wisp: A Story of Hope.
I also love the animated films.  Two films that stick in my mind are Chicken Run and Gnomeo and Juliet! 
8.   Do you have any goals for the future?
I do have three books scheduled for publication in 2019 and 2020 with three more in in development with publishers.  
In my early career, I really enjoyed teaching children dance and so I am in the process of developing some workshops to take on the road which will be fun!   
It’s great to be working with Bridge House and Gill again. I have contributed to their anthologies in the past. Amongst other things, Gill has developed an expertise in the short story market and producing collections for charity.  The stories that she is publishing with me are short chapter books and I am really looking forwards to the first one – Wilma’s Magic Hat with superb spooky illustrations by Ashley James.