Sophia Bennett's Blog, page 13

It's not just about cake …

Believe it or not, there is more to writing than simply sampling lots of delicious cake when visiting schools and talking about what you do. However, that can be quite a major part of it sometimes, and I have no problem with that.

A couple of weeks ago I revisited St Mary's School in Colchester, to open their new junior school library, and this is what was on offer afterwards:

Reader, I had three. I needed the energy while I was signing. They were accompanied by two delicious cups of tea. St Mary's rocks.

Not only was there cake, there were paparazzi (well, there were 2 photographers from the local press, anyway), and so here are a couple of pictures of the library opening itself. (I mean me opening it. Obviously it did not open itself.) Yes, there really was a ribbon, and yes, I really did cut it. And yes, it was really good fun. The girls were all brilliant and there was lots of enthusiastic cheering. Kate Middleton's going to have a ball for the rest of her life.

(We moved the ribbon for the sake of the pictures. Believe nothing you see in the press. Well, almost nothing – the library looks warm and welcoming in the pictures, as indeed it was in real life.)

Before the ribbon, and the cake, I gave four talks. Four is quite a lot to do in one day without repeating yourself, so I cheated early on and got the Year 8 girls to do a write a story/draw a picture workshop, where they had the choice of starting a story with a title I gave them, or drawing what the front cover of the book would be like.

And we had FUN. Serious fun. Those book cover designs were amazing. They were scary and intriguing, beautifully drawn and just as interesting as the stories themselves. Which is why I'm going to pinch the idea for the competition I'm going to run shortly on the Threads website. (Don't worry – when it's ready I'll announce it here.)

Each year group is a different experience, and I love them all. Year 6s ask the most unpredictable questions, Year 7s are often the keenest readers, and Year 9s are the coolest. They way out-cool me. By the end I was the lady in the corner, signing books and stuffing myself with cake and just happy to be there.

Lots of girls were regularly writing their own fiction. For them, I recommend the Young Writers Program of the now famous 'NaNoWriMo' organisation : here. NaNoWriMo stands for National (but now international) Novel Writing Month, but as it happens in November, I always assumed that the No stood for November, and a part of me still thinks so. The idea is simple: write a novel in a month. Just set yourself a wordcount, use the website to help if you like, and get going. You can do it! You really can. It may not be perfect, but it'll be a story you've written from start to finish, and maybe the foundation of the work of art that will make you famous.

If you're entering, good luck. And don't forget what awaits you if it all works out …

Cake. And lots of it. What are you waiting for?

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Pink books

It's that moment again …

The one when the doorbell goes and it's a nice man with a big brown box and in it are … lots of copies of your new book. Loads. The first time you've seen them in quantity, like a proper, published book …

And they are beauuutiful.

Here they are in the box:

And here they are stacked up on the dining table for me to sign. (We're giving booksellers and reviewers the finished version to look at, rather than a typical ARC, because they are so GORGEOUS. Look at those page edges. Like I said – GORGEOUS.)

 

So I've spent the morning signing and trying to draw a cute little picture of an eye under my signature. And I have learned, in the process, that one of the many things I can't draw very well is eyes. So if you're reading this and you happen to receive a signed copy from me and you're wondering what the weird blob is under my signature – it's an eye, OK? I tried.

Now I have to send them back, and I guess I won't see them again until spring, when The Look comes out, and the only thing that will keep me going until then is writing the new one.

Which is hard, by the way. Very. One of the lovely things about this weekend at the Cheltenham Festival was sitting on a panel next to Melvin Burgess (that would be Carnegie Medal-winning Melvin Burgess to you and me), hearing him say that it never gets any easier. That was strangely reassuring. At least it's not just me.

If you came and saw us at Cheltenham, I hope you had a good time. Tell me what you thought. And if you wore a sparkly outfit, thank you. (That wouldn't have been to the event with Melvin – I don't think he does sparkly. That would have been to the one with Joanna Nadin that we did the next day.) And if you were the girl in the sparkly top, lime green tutu and leggings, a la Crow, THANK YOU, and thank your big sister too!

Because writing may be hard, but meeting fans of the books who enjoy them so much they get their little sisters to dress up as one of the characters makes every single minute of it totally worthwhile.

Have I ever mentioned that I love my job?

I do.

 

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Making Darth Vader out of a spoon

This is one of those special, special weeks that don't come round very often.

I'm starting the new book and right now, it's PERFECT. Perfect, you repeat? Are you sure? Well, yes. Because I haven't written anything that can't be changed yet, and most of it is still in my head, and in my head it's BRILLIANT. It's only when it starts to change into something in the page that isn't quite what I imagined – when I have to start making compromises about who's talking and what happens when – that it becomes, well, an artistic challenge.

But I don't mind the challenge either. When the most difficult decisions you have to make are around point of view, and where to put the jokes, you know your job is pretty fabulous. It will be hard, very hard. I'm not saying it won't be stressful most of the time, and that I'll never be truly happy with it, and I'll probably be sitting here, fiddling with it in a year's time. The thing is, it could be good. There's just a chance that I could make something wonderful. I love this bit.

Meanwhile, the challenge at school (for the boys – although the mummies take it just as seriously) is to turn a wooden spoon into an interesting character. We're doing a three-eyed alien and Darth Vader. Which means the boys doing lots of glueing later on, and Mummy going to the local Sewing and Craft Superstore to buy pipe cleaners, googly eyes and felt.

I've just come back. Each time, I forget how much I LOVE my craft superstore. Almost as much as writing, I think. Probably AS much. It takes me back to that same point in my childhood when I made things with my mummy, and it brings out every creative juice in me.

When I tell you I have just bought a BODKIN, you'll know that they have everything in this place. Including loads of stuff you didn't know you wanted. Plain Venetian masks, for decoupaging? Daffodil-making attachments for cake icing cones? (OK, I didn't want those, but wow anyway.) Hot foil? (I don't know what hot foil is, but it looked lovely and I think I need some.) Multiple varieties of bug-eyed buttons? Neon balloons? I could have stayed there for hours, just admiring the stock and imagining all those things I could make if only I had the time …

But we have a Darth Vader to make, and I have a new book to write, so the bodkin will have to wait.

I love weeks like these.

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TV News

Well, it's been an exciting week. The Look goes to print (very early – it still doesn't come out until spring) so soon we will have actual shiny copies to coo over. And they literally will be shiny. Foil title. And pink page edges. Woop!

My idea for the new book – a girl thriller – seems to be working out. Woop again! I'm busy plotting and scouting locations. I love this bit. When the book is perfect … before you actually start writing it.

And we finally signed the deal on the TV series for Threads. With a fabulous production company I can't wait to work with. Woop woop woop!

If you want to know a little bit more, click on my website, here.

Next week there are two very important family birthdays to celebrate, and some new schools to visit, and I'll go back to being a mummy/daughter, which will be lovely. But this week I was mostly a writer/aspiring screenwriter, thinking up new stories and swanning into town for meetings with my signing pen.

Was it as fab as it sounds?

Guess!

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Kipu

The boys went back to school this week. That means many things in the Bennett household …

It means that last week was the Pre-School-Haircut. We did this at Trotters, who also sell toys and clothes, which is where I discovered this adorable, cloth-eared elephant:

His name is Kipu, which means 'happiness' in Nepalese, apparently, and every sale of him raises money for the Cairn Trust to build a school in Western Nepal, which is desperately poor and where the children need all the help they can get. I've visited the area and it's insanely beautiful. It had the cleanest air, the best food and the nicest people I've ever encountered. And the most mud. A school with a roof that keeps out some of the rain in the rainy season, and a dry floor to sit on – or with chairs, even – would be good. You can find out more about Kipu here.
It also meant we did the traditional Pre-School-Visit-To-The-Launchpad-At-The-Science-Museum. This was, as always, busy, funny and inspirational. Here are the boys, post-haircut, but still pre-school:

And finally, it means that I have managed to start seriously plotting book 5 at last. I tried my latest ideas out on the boys last night. There were lots of suggestions about how to include more twists and introduce new characters – that's what comes from having another aspiring writer in the family. But also, my little one kept asking 'what happened to the boy in the castle? Did he get out?'. These were the RIGHT questions. And his anxious face really needed to know the answers. I'm hoping that bodes well for the new story.

Win 'Brilhos'

It's September! Yay!

I've always loved this time of year. It comes with having been a bit of a swot at school, and loving the idea of new clothes, a new pencil case, carefully choosing my pens, rulers and rubbers (how I would have loved Paperchase and Cath Kidston if they had existed in the 1970s), and going out on autumn walks to check out the golden leaves and developing conkers on the horse-chestnut trees.

I don't know what September's like in Brazil. It probably doesn't feature woolly jumpers and conkers, I'm guessing. But it's still an exciting time for me …. because 'Brilhos' has just come out (Beads Boys & Bangles in Brazilian).

To celebrate the great title, great cover, great excitement and great early reviews*, I'm giving away 4 signed copies of 'Brilhos' to the first 4 people to contact me via my website. (If you go there, you'll find a contact page where you can email me your name and address.) And yes, I'm happy to post them to Brazil.

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The very first person will get a copy of 'Linhas' too. Good luck! I hope you love them.

sophia xxx

Here are some of the reviews. Thank you SO much, to all of you who've written such fab things about the series.

Literalmente Falando

Dear Book

Batalha Literaria

TudoSobreSentimento

 

The Edinburgh Children's Book Festival 2011

Last weekend I took my son Freddie up to Edinburgh with me, so we could wallow in a whole weekend of books.

I was talking at the Book Festival with first Maggi Gibson, author of the Seriously Sassy series (which are fab – read them NOW), and then Lynne McCrossan, author of A Girl's Guide to Vintage (which is as good as it sounds; she writes about affordable vintage looks, so you probably need a copy of that too).

I make this sound as though it's the kind of thing I do every day. It's not. It was VERY EXCITING INDEED and I loved every minute of it – especially meeting other writers, answering questions and meeting readers afterwards in the signing tent.

When I wasn't talking or hanging around in the author's yurt, with my mouth hanging open, seeing so many of my favourite writers just loafing about, eating pastries and drinking coffee … I was off being a fan with Freddie. We saw Cathy Cassidy (for me), Robert Muchamore and Derek Landy (for Freddie). They were all fantastic. So inspirational.

I'll be writing more about that later. But meanwhile, here's a slideshow of what it was like:

Click to view slideshow.

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London in the sunshine

This was the scene at the Victoria and Albert Museum, in Kensington, on Tuesday:

London in the sunshine. It couldn't have been more perfect. (Well, it could if the costume galleries had been open, but they're shut for refurbishment at the moment. They'll reopen in spring 2012 and I'll be at the front of the queue. The shop, meanwhile, was, as always, fab.)

London has been through a lot recently, like other British cities. But what has shone through in the last few days is what a beautiful place it is to live, and how full it is of people who love it, and care about it, and will do what it takes to make sure that goodness prevails.

Which reminds me of the tough but vulnerable girls I imagined meeting up at the V&A a few years ago, and whose story I was talking about while we sipped our coffees in the sun.

People banding together in the face of adversity, and making the world a better place.

This is a now-famous picture taken at Clapham Junction, near where I live, that afternoon. They had come from all over to take part in a massive cleanup operation.

On Tuesday, and much to our own surprise, London was a great place to be.

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