L.R. Hay's Blog
May 16, 2020
Some lockdown readings for your young bookworms!
Crikey, what happened? Covid who? We're seeing the phrase 'unprecedented times' an unprecedented number of times right now - and yet it isn't hype. The vast majority of us have never lived through times like these.
Keeping ourselves safe and distanced is also a big part of how we can look after others, to stop this vile disease from spreading as much as is possible. Many of us are shielded and at home, therefore, and many are turning to books.
I've been making an effort to write when I can - Book Three is underway, plus some script ideas. Partly just to try to stay positive and creative, but also because I do believe that stories are more important than ever in a time like this. Not just as escapism, though that can help. They are a way to inspire hope - courage - a reminder of our shared humanity - fun - adventure - laughter.
Writing itself didn't seem enough, though. I felt, back in mid March when some kind of lockdown looked inevitable, that I wanted to carry on engaging with children directly. The situation we are in makes it crucial that kids should feel encouraged, enthused and secure, with chances to connect beyond their households.
My book JAIRUS'S GIRL covers the Crucifixion and Resurrection, and I normally do some public readings around Easter. I didn't see why Coronavirus should stop that, so I took tentative steps to organise a series of live Zoom readings throughout Holy Week, followed by Q&As with the children. Even more cautiously, I started looking into YouTube.
It's been quite a ride, and the results are technically very homespun! - but it's about the story, right? (What am I saying? You're part of the Goodreads community, you know it's about the story!)
The Zooms went amazingly, with participants as far afield as Africa, and the children chatting to each other as well as with me. Plus I did get my head around YouTube - so here we are. Some content, in the hope it might encourage you too.
JAIRUS'S GIRL is a 'funny, imaginative and moving' kids-eye view of the Jesus story. The excerpts last around 2 hours, if you want to follow them through a bit at a time - or you can just pop in for one episode (I've put in the notes which Bible event each one relates to).
I hope they might be useful as an RE resource for online teachers, or parents unexpectedly having to homeschool? Alternatively, they might simply provide some enjoyment for preteen bookworms who like having a story read to them - or anyone, really. Adults seem to enjoy my books too!
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list...
Then I was invited to take part in The Big Kidlit Q&A with other children's authors and illustrators, so here are my answers, in case you have any budding writers in the family who might be interested:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QIhOO...
(You can ask me questions here on Goodreads too, of course)
And I'm about to do the readings all over again with prequel JOSEPH'S BOY (about the births of Jesus and John the Baptist), so keep a look out for that too.
Meantime, look after yourselves and each other, and keep enjoying stories. We'll get through this together.
Keeping ourselves safe and distanced is also a big part of how we can look after others, to stop this vile disease from spreading as much as is possible. Many of us are shielded and at home, therefore, and many are turning to books.
I've been making an effort to write when I can - Book Three is underway, plus some script ideas. Partly just to try to stay positive and creative, but also because I do believe that stories are more important than ever in a time like this. Not just as escapism, though that can help. They are a way to inspire hope - courage - a reminder of our shared humanity - fun - adventure - laughter.
Writing itself didn't seem enough, though. I felt, back in mid March when some kind of lockdown looked inevitable, that I wanted to carry on engaging with children directly. The situation we are in makes it crucial that kids should feel encouraged, enthused and secure, with chances to connect beyond their households.
My book JAIRUS'S GIRL covers the Crucifixion and Resurrection, and I normally do some public readings around Easter. I didn't see why Coronavirus should stop that, so I took tentative steps to organise a series of live Zoom readings throughout Holy Week, followed by Q&As with the children. Even more cautiously, I started looking into YouTube.
It's been quite a ride, and the results are technically very homespun! - but it's about the story, right? (What am I saying? You're part of the Goodreads community, you know it's about the story!)
The Zooms went amazingly, with participants as far afield as Africa, and the children chatting to each other as well as with me. Plus I did get my head around YouTube - so here we are. Some content, in the hope it might encourage you too.
JAIRUS'S GIRL is a 'funny, imaginative and moving' kids-eye view of the Jesus story. The excerpts last around 2 hours, if you want to follow them through a bit at a time - or you can just pop in for one episode (I've put in the notes which Bible event each one relates to).
I hope they might be useful as an RE resource for online teachers, or parents unexpectedly having to homeschool? Alternatively, they might simply provide some enjoyment for preteen bookworms who like having a story read to them - or anyone, really. Adults seem to enjoy my books too!
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list...
Then I was invited to take part in The Big Kidlit Q&A with other children's authors and illustrators, so here are my answers, in case you have any budding writers in the family who might be interested:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QIhOO...
(You can ask me questions here on Goodreads too, of course)
And I'm about to do the readings all over again with prequel JOSEPH'S BOY (about the births of Jesus and John the Baptist), so keep a look out for that too.
Meantime, look after yourselves and each other, and keep enjoying stories. We'll get through this together.
October 19, 2018
So many projects, so little time!
One drawback of writing (and possibly its greatest delight) is having all these stories jostling for attention inside your head. It's incredibly difficult to choose what to work on next! There are writing gurus out there who even specialise in helping writers hop onto the most marketable of their ideas - but I find it tends to be less planned than that.
Sometimes the selection makes itself in a practical way, as a commission comes along and you actually get paid to write something you were desperate to write anyway, which almost feels like cheating. But sometimes a project chooses itself - and all you can do when that happens is rejoice, and run to keep up with it.
That's what's currently happening with my follow-up book to JAIRUS'S GIRL. I decided when that was published at the end of 2015 that I would aim to get the next one ready for Christmas the following year (it's actually about Christmas, so - y'know - seemed to make sense!). I resolved the same the following year, and again this year. I achieved one chapter per year. (And we're talking preteen-size chapters. Tolstoy I ain't)
Now, this was not total laziness: I had a couple of really great commissions for film scripts during that time, a TV project getting serious interest, some fab acting jobs and I even released a DVD of my one-woman show! I also did a fair bit of historical research for the book - which is important too, and doesn't show up in the word count. (Of course, when your month:chapter ratio is 12:1, you find that by next time you come to pick it up, you've forgotten all the research and lost the bit of paper you scribbled it on)
Meantime, the blummin thing kept on writing itself in my head (as did the third book in the series, and the fourth... ), making me desperate to retain all this detail and wishing I could just write it.
Then a couple of months ago, I made a concerted effort at least to do something more at it, if only to double my average for this year to a heady two chapters. It was at a difficult time, but I managed to get some done - and then, amazingly, things opened up recently, and I got a bit of time just to write.
The ideas in my head - always rather noisy, especially at night or when I should be doing something else - all started clamouring, but it was only ever going to come down to 2; pillows, custard pies and bare knuckles at dawn - that particular TV project, and The Book. First off I went at a TV episode I'd got halfway through 18 months before (and had left off with the sound of someone entering and the name of the next person to speak, with ABSOLUTELY NO CLUE to myself as to what I intended to happen. Seriously).
Somehow I hit my stride right away and rattled off the rest of the first draft, and then attacked the book with the same glee. And until real life came back in today with stuff I had to do (as in, earning a living), my productivity rate leapt from a chapter a year to a chapter a day. If JOSEPH'S BOY ends up a similar length to JAIRUS'S GIRL, I'm already over a third of the way through in a few short days.
Will I keep it up? No promises. You should probably continue with your Christmas shopping ;o) But - there's always room for the odd stocking filler, right?
I'm just wallowing while I can in that glorious feeling of actually writing something I've been longing to extract from my head, bringing it into existence as a real thing that other people can look at. (Which is what I'm about to do next; get some feedback. Yikes)
Reader, I'm loving it.
Sometimes the selection makes itself in a practical way, as a commission comes along and you actually get paid to write something you were desperate to write anyway, which almost feels like cheating. But sometimes a project chooses itself - and all you can do when that happens is rejoice, and run to keep up with it.
That's what's currently happening with my follow-up book to JAIRUS'S GIRL. I decided when that was published at the end of 2015 that I would aim to get the next one ready for Christmas the following year (it's actually about Christmas, so - y'know - seemed to make sense!). I resolved the same the following year, and again this year. I achieved one chapter per year. (And we're talking preteen-size chapters. Tolstoy I ain't)
Now, this was not total laziness: I had a couple of really great commissions for film scripts during that time, a TV project getting serious interest, some fab acting jobs and I even released a DVD of my one-woman show! I also did a fair bit of historical research for the book - which is important too, and doesn't show up in the word count. (Of course, when your month:chapter ratio is 12:1, you find that by next time you come to pick it up, you've forgotten all the research and lost the bit of paper you scribbled it on)
Meantime, the blummin thing kept on writing itself in my head (as did the third book in the series, and the fourth... ), making me desperate to retain all this detail and wishing I could just write it.
Then a couple of months ago, I made a concerted effort at least to do something more at it, if only to double my average for this year to a heady two chapters. It was at a difficult time, but I managed to get some done - and then, amazingly, things opened up recently, and I got a bit of time just to write.
The ideas in my head - always rather noisy, especially at night or when I should be doing something else - all started clamouring, but it was only ever going to come down to 2; pillows, custard pies and bare knuckles at dawn - that particular TV project, and The Book. First off I went at a TV episode I'd got halfway through 18 months before (and had left off with the sound of someone entering and the name of the next person to speak, with ABSOLUTELY NO CLUE to myself as to what I intended to happen. Seriously).
Somehow I hit my stride right away and rattled off the rest of the first draft, and then attacked the book with the same glee. And until real life came back in today with stuff I had to do (as in, earning a living), my productivity rate leapt from a chapter a year to a chapter a day. If JOSEPH'S BOY ends up a similar length to JAIRUS'S GIRL, I'm already over a third of the way through in a few short days.
Will I keep it up? No promises. You should probably continue with your Christmas shopping ;o) But - there's always room for the odd stocking filler, right?
I'm just wallowing while I can in that glorious feeling of actually writing something I've been longing to extract from my head, bringing it into existence as a real thing that other people can look at. (Which is what I'm about to do next; get some feedback. Yikes)
Reader, I'm loving it.
February 8, 2018
Who put that there?
I'm constantly tinkering with things I've written. I know they say "Writing is rewriting" but it can get a bit silly! Even if someone asks for the script of a play I wrote 20 years ago - maybe even something that's been produced by several different companies - I do a paranoid polish before I send it out into the world again.
And really, the best way to rewrite is after a distance of time. So much jumps out at you, which you didn't notice before because you were too close to it. Things you can't quite believe you missed! I'm not just talking about typos - clunky phrasing; things that don't make sense, or could have more than one meaning; things that could simply be better. Even if I'm writing to a tight deadline, I try to finish a day or two early so I can at least allow a little break from it before I come back for a final assault.
This repeated revision over time means, of course, that I know some bits of my work by heart - I've read it so often. But what's absolutely magic is when I come across something I've totally forgotten I even put there.
It happened today. I was going through a TV script - last paranoid polish and all that, before submission. Now this is something I wrote years ago, so I really do know whole chunks of it almost word for word without even trying. Then a year ago a producer encouraged me to bring out certain characters more. I thought I'd remembered what I'd added, but I haven't looked at it since I did it. Today - two or three times - I came across something that felt completely new, and it was utterly glorious. I was thinking "Wow, that really works! I wish I'd thought of that!" even though I know perfectly well I must have done.
I can't describe how exciting it was. The vast majority of the time, rewriting seems to be a process of reminding yourself how rubbish your work is - so these little gifts that (very occasionally!) pop up and bite you on the butt in a good way make it all worthwhile.
And really, the best way to rewrite is after a distance of time. So much jumps out at you, which you didn't notice before because you were too close to it. Things you can't quite believe you missed! I'm not just talking about typos - clunky phrasing; things that don't make sense, or could have more than one meaning; things that could simply be better. Even if I'm writing to a tight deadline, I try to finish a day or two early so I can at least allow a little break from it before I come back for a final assault.
This repeated revision over time means, of course, that I know some bits of my work by heart - I've read it so often. But what's absolutely magic is when I come across something I've totally forgotten I even put there.
It happened today. I was going through a TV script - last paranoid polish and all that, before submission. Now this is something I wrote years ago, so I really do know whole chunks of it almost word for word without even trying. Then a year ago a producer encouraged me to bring out certain characters more. I thought I'd remembered what I'd added, but I haven't looked at it since I did it. Today - two or three times - I came across something that felt completely new, and it was utterly glorious. I was thinking "Wow, that really works! I wish I'd thought of that!" even though I know perfectly well I must have done.
I can't describe how exciting it was. The vast majority of the time, rewriting seems to be a process of reminding yourself how rubbish your work is - so these little gifts that (very occasionally!) pop up and bite you on the butt in a good way make it all worthwhile.
January 19, 2018
Cover influences
I've started a new Goodreads shelf, as it recently hit me just how far back the process of designing a cover can go! When I was around the age I'm now writing for (8-12), these books were among my favourites - but I was also particularly fascinated by their cover illustrations. THE YOUNG ELIZABETH and EMMA'S ISLAND still have that effect on me now.
I think what I found so appealing was to have the main character upfront (often looking right at me, which I loved - as if they know me personally, and I'm their friend) - then something of their setting, which I knew so well from the story, over their shoulder.
When I came to start talks with my illustrator, the amazing Brian McGinnis, I took pictures of my own very battered copies of these books and emailed them to him. We explored that format, and I absolutely love his interpretation of it. I was also keen to have another pic on the back, of a different scene - again, as with these books, but also MALORY TOWERS and many more that I loved. And Brian himself added in the little headshot portrait of the main character on the back, which is definitely something I'd like to keep for the rest of this series. For him, it was just a throwaway; he said that before he worked on the cover, he wanted to draw a rough sketch of Tammie - just to check we were on the same page. "Is this what she looks like?" he asked me, and I was bowled over. There was no way that wasn't going on the cover!
It is wonderful the way the work of a good illustrator can stay with you all those years later. I'm thrilled that several reviewers (kids and adult) have already picked out how much they love the cover of JAIRUS'S GIRL.
I think what I found so appealing was to have the main character upfront (often looking right at me, which I loved - as if they know me personally, and I'm their friend) - then something of their setting, which I knew so well from the story, over their shoulder.
When I came to start talks with my illustrator, the amazing Brian McGinnis, I took pictures of my own very battered copies of these books and emailed them to him. We explored that format, and I absolutely love his interpretation of it. I was also keen to have another pic on the back, of a different scene - again, as with these books, but also MALORY TOWERS and many more that I loved. And Brian himself added in the little headshot portrait of the main character on the back, which is definitely something I'd like to keep for the rest of this series. For him, it was just a throwaway; he said that before he worked on the cover, he wanted to draw a rough sketch of Tammie - just to check we were on the same page. "Is this what she looks like?" he asked me, and I was bowled over. There was no way that wasn't going on the cover!
It is wonderful the way the work of a good illustrator can stay with you all those years later. I'm thrilled that several reviewers (kids and adult) have already picked out how much they love the cover of JAIRUS'S GIRL.
