Dan Smith's Blog, page 2

Being an author: It’s all about the parties and clever anecdotes.

I have been asked on more than on occasion, and more than once by the same person, ‘Don’t you get bored sitting on your own all day?’

Well, y’know, because the job ‘Being Han Solo’ was not available, and nor was ‘Space Pirate’, I opted for the next best thing. I’m an author. To some people, that might sound as if I just sit on my own all day waiting for inspiration, but I wait for nothing! What I actually do is sit on my own all day and MAKE UP STORIES.

Yep, I get to spend all day adventuring in the jungle, fighting off bad guys in the wastes of Antarctica, hunting in the forests of Finland, or nudging downriver in the wilds of Brazil. It’s tougher than it sounds. The words don’t always come as fluently as I’d like them to, and sometimes they don’t want to come at all, but I slog at them anyway. I do what Jack London suggested, and I go after inspiration with a club. I usually manage to catch it and beat it into submission. (And no, I don’t watch daytime TV. That’s not how novels get written.)

It’s all about the parties!

When evening comes, I pack away my typewriter, slip into my tuxedo and then it’s off to those wonderful literary parties. Oh, yes, I’m at a party every night, martini glass in hand, regaling my influential friends with some clever and hilarious anecdotes. Oh how we laugh. And usually there’s some sort of fiendish crime that needs to be solved, which is lucky because there’s always a clever crime writer on hand to . . .

Yeah, that’s not quite it. In fact, I’m not sure where that misconception comes from. Why do people think that writers’ lives are glamorous affairs filled with parties and erudite conversation? And why do authors in stories always seem to have such fabulous adventures?

Could it be because writers have created those fantasies? About themselves?

Okay, so the reality is that I spend a lot of time on my own writing stories that I like – and hope other people will like too (especially my publisher!) – and then I pick my children up from school and the erudite conversation goes something like this . . .

Me:                  So what did you do at school today?

My Son:          Stuff.

Me:                  Oh. Okay. What kind of stuff?

Son:                 Y’know. Stuff stuff.

Me:                  Okay. Umm. Tell me three things you did at school today.

Son:                 Lessons, lunch, and . . . I dunno, breathe?

Me:                  *sigh*

 

 

When I reach my daughter’s school, she gets in the car.

 

Me:                  Hello, darling, how was school?

Daughter:       All right.

Me:                  What did you do? Anything good?

Daughter:       Lessons.

Me:                  Anything else?

Daughter:      Not really.

Me:                  Too tired to chat?

Daughter:       Mm.

And people wonder why I spend all day making things up.

Libraries, Schools, and More Books!

It’s been a while – I mean a LONG while – since I last blogged. It’s nothing you’ve done, though. It’s not you; it’s me. Sometimes things fall by the side of the road and it’s a while before you notice you dropped it and then . . . well, it’s too late to go back and pick it up.

Except I have come back to pick it up. Finally.

The last time I was here, it was to say that Boy X was about to be published. Well now it has been published and I’ve been zooming about visiting schools and talking to lots of brilliant young readers about Ash McCarthy’s jungle adventures and about some of my own jungle adventures too.

I always have a little nervous anticipation when I visit schools because I want my visits to be fun and interesting and inspiring for the students, but I always come away feeling uplifted – and I am always amazed at the energy and excitement of young readers. I go to schools in the hope of inspiring young readers, and find that they inspire me.

 

Oh, and the school librarians I meet – the brilliant people who  spend time organising and preparing for the visit – are always SO welcoming. Their love of story in all its forms, from books to comics to films, gives us so much to talk about and share, and they do so much to inspire a love of story in the students who pass through their libraries. It’s always a pleasure to meet them and spend time with them. School libraries and the librarians who run them are essential to the development and the opening of young minds. For many young students, their librarian is the only contact with the boundless world of story – and story is what broadens our minds, helps us to think more creatively, and teaches us about the world.

In April, I was lucky enough to be invited to the School Librarians Group (SLG) Conference and it was inspiring to see the level of commitment and passion held by school librarians despite the huge pressure they now find themselves under.

Every school should have a library and a librarian. Right now.

Okay, so that’s my rant over, and now there’s just enough time to tell you my other piece of news – I’ve signed to write two more books for Chicken House! Working with such an energetic and exciting publisher has been fantastic, so I’m very much looking forward to continuing working with them on my next novels. There will be more action, more adventure, and more mystery!

See you soon – and I promise it won’t be so long next time!

That’s all.

 

Who Is Ash McCarthy?

The thing about writing a book, is that it always feels as if I could work on it for a while longer. Maybe if I read it just one more time, I would find something else I could change, a few words I could rearrange, a sentence I could cut – or perhaps one I could add.

But there  comes a point when I have to let go – I have read the page proofs, made the final changes, and now it’s done. In fact, there’s really no turning back because it has been whisked away and is being printed and bound as I type! This is always both an exciting and a scary moment; it’s almost time for BOY X to go out into the world and meet its audience. And if it’s adventure you’re looking for then you’re definitley going to like this.

There’s a strange jungle island, and a remote black site research facility. There’s action, survival, and danger. There’s a race against time, with high stakes at risk. There are strong friendships, but there’s a touch of betrayal too. And there’s a mystery right at the heart of it . . . who is Ash McCarthy?

 

 

 

Upcoming Events

Well, I’m in the last stages of completing a new novel for younger readers. The copy-edit arrived in my inbox on Friday, and I’m raring to go! The book is an action adventure to rival Big Game, and I think you’re all going to like it. I had a lot of fun writing it, following the main character, Ash McCarthy, as he battles through a strange and frightening jungle on a remote island off the coast of Central America – all in the name of saving the world! The book will be out in February, and I’ll post a picture of the front cover very soon!

In the meantime, I have a couple of events line up . . .

I’ll be at Gateshead Central Library at 6pm on October 16, with fellow author Hayley Long. We’ll be talking about writing, life, and anything else you want to talk about. Come along and say ‘Hi!’. For more details, click the image below.

And on Saturday 17th October, I’ll be at the Gosforth Community Book Festival, held at Newcastle School for Boys in Gosforth, Newcastle. Seven Stories will be there to sell books, and there will be a whole host of other authors! I’ll be speaking to groups of eager readers, and when I’m not speaking, I’ll be waiting to meet anyone who wants to come along and chat!

Hopefully I’ll see you at one or other of these events!

That’s all

The Librarian; Not to be underestimated

Chatting with a friend the other day, I mentioned that I was going to speak to a group of librarians from Youth Libraries Group. He rolled his eyes and said, ‘That sounds fascinating.’ I don’t need to tell you that his words were laced with sarcasm.

When I attempted to explain that yes, actually, it would be fascinating, he leaned over, put a finger to his lips and said, ‘Shhh.’

That’s a pretty clear indication of how people view librarians. As boring book-stampers who sit behind a computer tapping at the keyboard, occasionally looking up to tell people to be quiet.

As an author of books for young readers, I always feel privileged to be invited to schools, to speak to young readers, and to meet the librarians who have organised for me to visit. So, Let me tell you how I see those librarians.

I see them as lovers of books and stories. I see them as dedicated professionals devoted to helping young people find pleasure in reading. They do not force children to read books they don’t want to read. If a child puts a book down because they find it boring, the librarian doesn’t make them read it to the bitter end; they help them to choose a more suitable book – something the child will enjoy. They understand that not everyone wants to read the same kind of book. They understand that it’s okay to read comics, horror stories, adventure stories, romance, sci-fi, whatever the child wants to read. They are excited by reading and they are able to pass that enthusiasm onto the children. They inspire young readers.

It’s impossible to overstate how important it is to encourage young people to read for pleasure. Reading shapes our minds in so many ways. It increases focus, broadens horizons, teaches new skills, heightens empathy, relieves stress, entertains, helps us to escape, enriches lives, increases vocabulary, improves memory, improves analytical skills, improves writing skills, offers glimpses into other cultures, builds self-esteem, improves creativity, improves reasoning skills . . . the list goes on and on.

In short, reading makes you smart.

Many young people lack reading role models at home. The adults in their lives don’t read. For many of those young people, books become associated with the classroom, with learning, with ‘literacy’, with targets and tests, and with the drudgery of having to read a book they find boring. So who becomes their reading role model? Who helps them to find the pleasure in reading?

The school librarian.

For some young people, the school librarian is the one person who can help them to find the pleasure in reading, and it amazes me that libraries and librarians are so often overlooked; that they are seen as boring and old-fashioned. But what could possibly be more important in a place of learning than a library?

The school librarian is helping to shape young minds, to create our future.

So, yeah, I’d say that’s fascinating.

 

That’s all.

Mission: Save The President

When I was offered the opportunity to write a book based on the screenplay for BIG GAME, the film was still in production and I had no idea what any of the characters or locations would look like on screen. Actually, that’s not quite true – I had a pretty good idea what the president would look like; Samuel L Jackson is unmistakeable. I tried not to picture him in my mind, though, because I wanted the book to be a separate entity from the film. As my publisher – the brilliant Barry Cunningham from Chicken House – said, the book needed to be able to stand on its own feet, without the film to prop it up. So I avoided anything to do with the film (other than the screenplay) when I sat down to write about Oskari, the not-very-good hunter who everyone laughs at; the not-very-good hunter who proves himself to be brave, tough, resilient, honourable, reliable, and resourceful.

Movie tie-in edition

I had such a blast writing the book. It’s a great story and I was allowed to change it in all kinds of ways so that it would suit the written form. You see, sometimes things look good on screen but wouldn’t work in a book, so I worked out a way to tell the story entirely from the point of view of 12 year old Oskari, altering some of the details, adjusting the order of some events, giving him a back story with hopes and fears. It took a while to get it just right, editing it for UK and US audiences, and then I had the excitement of watching the foreign rights sales come rolling in – so far the book is to be published in Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, Denmark, France, Finland, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Japan, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russia, Spain (Spanish and Catalan), Sweden, Thailand, Turkey, USA, Vietnam, and there is an audio book in many of those languages too!

And then the book was published in the UK in January and the film was moving closer. I saw stills from the set, a clip, a trailer . . . and then I was finally allowed to see the finished film. I went to Entertainment One in London and sat in a small private cinema, along with a group of publishers and literary scouts, to watch the final cut – although I had to sign a Non-Disclosure Agreement to say that I wouldn’t talk about it.

Then, in May, the film finally hit the cinemas and I went to see it with my family and a big group of friends, and . . . it was fantastic! Onni Tommila is great as Oskari, Samuel L Jackson makes a superb president, and all the other actors portrayed the characters so well. There are some brilliant over-the-top action sequences, there are a lot of laughs, and the relationship between Oskari and the president is excellent.

The film isn’t a big budget movie with a vast sums of money available for advertising, but there was a TV campaign and a poster campaign, so it managed to get itself noticed. Neither did it have the recognition of a franchise like Marvel, so a May release meant it had to work hard against Avengers: Age of Ultron, but . . . well, while Age of Ultron was good, it didn’t look much different from Avengers Assemble or Winter Soldier and it felt empty. Big Game on the other hand is a film that has a huge heart. It knows how to have a good time, how to get you cheering for the good guys and booing the bad guys. It also knows how to make you laugh. If Age of Ultron was a person, it would be a car salesman with a smart suit and a friendly manner about him. If Big Game was a person, it would be your best friend, someone to take with you on an adventure.

If you missed it at the cinema, the DVD release will come in September, and don’t forget, the book is available AT. ALL. TIMES. And the book is different from the film, so if you want to know the whole story, you need to read and watch!

Oh, and if you’re in the USA, Big Game has its theatrical release on 26th June.

That’s all.

The Road to The Child Thief Movie

Now, where was I? Oh yes, I was talking about survival stories. At least, I was a few months ago, but things have run away from me where blogging is concerned. It seems like everything has been SO busy, but I’ve been thinking about The Child Thief recently, because after a lot of back and forth negotiating, I’ve finally signed the movie option agreement. It doesn’t necessarily mean that a film will be made – the film business is something of a mystery to me – but it means there is some intent. So there ‘might’ be a Child Thief movie.

The Child Thief is a survival story. It’s about a man and his sons hunting a child killer across the winter wilderness in 1930’s Ukraine, but it didn’t start off that way. The original idea came to me after reading The Road by Cormac McCarthy.

McCarthy’s setting is built with great skill, and the relationship between the two nameless characters is full of emotion. I was with the boy and the man every step of the way through the endless, soul destroying cold, and the awful, impenetrable dark. And McCarthy’s prose is some of the most beautiful I have ever read. I’ve also always loved the post-apocalypse thing, so was fascinated that McCarthy had used the setting in that way. Usually that kind of environment goes hand in hand with zombies or leather clad, gasoline-worshipping maniacs –  which is awesome because I LOVE those things, but McCarthy’s post-apocalypse is more subdued. It’s a grey, impossible place full of very real horrors. And the man will go to great lengths to protect the boy. Ultimately, it’s a story about a father’s love for his son. Anyway, I got wrapped up in it and, after some time thought, ‘Yeah. Post-apocalypse. If McCarthy can do it, then why can’t I?

Well, because I’m not McCarthy, that’s why. And McCarthy had already done it with such brilliance.

My post-apocalypse felt silly and . . . not right. So I changed it. I found a setting that was just as bleak, and just as difficult. It was a time I hardly knew anything about; the year before the initiation of the man-made famine that starved millions of Ukrainians. As it turns out, whatever terrible things we can imagine, there’s a pretty strong chance that something far worse has already happened.

That’s all.

 

Big Game Poster Competition Winner

So, well done to everyone who sent me a photo of a BIG GAME movie poster. But there can only be one winner of the competition, so I put all the names in a hat, drew one out, and the winner is . . . David Watson! He posted this picture on Facebook, and so will receive a signed copy of the Big Game novel!

 

That’s all.

BIG GAME Hunting Competition! Win!

It has come to my attention that there have been sightings of BIG GAME movie posters around the country. They’ve been spotted running wild in cinema foyers, sunning themselves on the side of buses, slinking onto the London Underground to rest, and even appearing on the television!

The sightings of these wild posters are becoming more common, but we must capture and record them before they become rare or – terrible thought – extinct. As we know, wild posters of this nature often have their habitat overtaken by other, more aggressive posters, so it’s important that we don’t overlook this opportunity.

Here is my call to arms. Or, rather, call to camera.

I need your help to document these sightings, so if you see one, your mission (should you choose to accept it) is to photograph it! Snap that poster or capture that TV moment on camera and send it to me in one of the following ways:

Facebook (DanSmithAuthor) – ‘Like’ my page then DM, or put it on the comments for the post for this competition

Twitter (@DanSmithAuthor) – post the photo, follow and tag me

Instagram (DanSmithAuthor) – post the photo with the hashtag #biggamepostercomp, follow me, tag me, DM me

Email (through my website at www.dansmithsbooks.com)

Blog – post it in the comments section right here!

But if you’re going to stalk and shoot the BIG GAME poster, you need some incentive, right? Well, here’s the reward. . .

Everyone who sends me a photo will have their name entered into a draw to win this copy of the UK movie-tie in edition of BIG GAME, with a hand-written dedicated to you, signed by me!

So what are you waiting for? Big Game hunting never got any bigger!

Closing date: Sun 31st May 2015

Oh, and just to get the ball rolling, here’s a photo my editor took in London a few days ago . . .

That’s all!

Big Game News!

Last week saw the premiere of BIG GAME in Finland, and it looks like it was a great night! Unfortunately I had prior commitments, so it’s a big shame I couldn’t have been there to celebrate it. I would have loved to meet the director and producers, as well as a couple of the stars (Onni Tommila and Ray Stevenson), and the Finnish publishers of the book. Hopefully I’ll get the chance another time.

The event took place in Helsinki, and received some major press coverage, with TV spots, newspaper front pages etc, and the pre-showing interviews were broadcast on a huge screen outside the cinema which is in one of Helsinki’s busiest areas.

I’ve seen one or two reviews online for the film but, being a non-Finnish speaker, I have no clue what they say. I can, however, show you a few photos from the event . . .

Click to view slideshow.

 

But the BIG GAME excitement doesn’t end there. No, no. You see, for years I’ve had a monthly subscription to Empire Magazine and whenever it dropped through the letterbox, I used to say something along the lines of, ‘Wouldn’t it be great to open the magazine and see something about a film connected to one of my books?’

When BIG GAME came along, that changed to, ‘Wouldn’t it be great to open the magazine and see something about BIG GAME in here?’

Well, guess what’s on page 18 of Empire magazine this month?

 

And, as if that isn’t enough to get me excited, I went to the Odeon on Saturday to see Insurgent and spotted this in the foyer . . .

 

And . . . the UK movie tie-in edition of the book will be available from 2nd April!

Oh, and if you want to connect with me and keep up with all my news, you can find me on Facebook and Instagram.

That’s all.