Alexander Gordon Smith's Blog, page 2
November 15, 2013
The Swindon Youth Festival of Literature (Episode 3)!
I’m just back from a fantastic week of events in Swindon – again! It is my third year in a row at the awesome Swindon Youth Festival of Literature. It’s an amazing week of events organised by high school librarians across the city, and is seriously one of the best festivals of its kind in the world. Thanks to the festival countless authors – including Darren Shan, Derek Landy, Charlie Higson, Patrick Ness (and ME, of course) – have visited Swindon schools, bringing the excitement of books and reading and writing to thousands of students. It is always a HUGE pleasure to be a part of this festival, and 2013 was no different!
This year I visited three schools over three days: Nova Hreod (no, I couldn’t pronounce it either…) on Tuesday, Commonweal School (no, there isn’t supposed to be a ‘th’ at the end of Commonweal, I checked) on Wednesday, and Isambard on Thursday. All were seriously awesome events. It’s amazing to see how psyched the students are about books – so many love reading, and are already writing their own stories. It goes to show how a festival like this one can change the lives of so many people in a community. It really has made Swindon a city of book lovers.
I also had the pleasure of a night on the town (well, dinner, but it was night time and we were in town, so it still counts) with Fiona and Ali, two of the amazing librarians in charge of the festival, plus fellow authors Ali Sparkes, the Two Steves and poet Ash Dickinson. All in all, an awesome week! Thanks again, guys, for letting me take part, and hopefully see you all next year!!
One of my favourite photos of the week, mainly because of the expression on the face of the guy to the left! That must be one awesome story he is writing!
September 28, 2013
My Halloween Tour!!!!!!
Halloween is almost upon us!!!!!! (Well, okay, it’s like a month away, but still…) And to celebrate, I’m doing a tour of the US and the UK. Here are the dates – the US ones aren’t confirmed, yet, and I’ll update them as and when. But if I’m coming to your school, or to a bookstore or festival near you, then stop by and say hi!! I’m happy to sign anything that you bring with you (including books, clothing, family pets, foreheads…)!
29th September
Horror Writing Workshop at Bath Festival!
5th October
Horror Writing Workshop at Cheltenham Festival!
8th October
Lingfield Notre Dame School, Surrey!
9th October
Neatherd High School, Dereham!
10th October
Long Stratton High School!
11th October
Pakefield High School, Lowestoft!
14th October
Talks and Workshops in West Bridgford Library, Nottingham!
23rd October
City Academy, Norwich!
25th October
Taverham High School!
12th-14th November
Swindon Youth Festival of Literature!
16th November
Writing for Children Workshop (for adults!) at the Writers’ Centre Norwich!
19th November
Bank Street Books, New York
20th November
Chicago School Events
21st November
Cincinnati School Events / Joseph-Beth Bookstore Event, Lexington
22nd November
NCTE Convention, Boston!
And I think that’s it for now! Like I say, as soon as I get some more info I will pass it on. Really looking forward to seeing some of you guys soon!!!
September 25, 2013
Workshop Wednesday! Horror Prompts!
I’ve been running quite a few horror writing workshops lately – and will be doing two more in the following weeks at the Bath and Cheltenham Literary Festivals if any of you fancy coming along! – and a few people have requested some prompts to help them get started. So here you go!
This list includes a few genre favourites that can be fun to work with. It is by no means extensive, and never feel like you have to stick to any one of these. Try mixing them up, and just have fun!
Okay, here we go…
There’s No Way Out!
One of the best places to set a horror story is somewhere you can’t escape from. Why else do you think I set the Furnace series in a terrifying underground prison! In fact, most of my books have elements of imprisonment in them, because there really are few things scarier than being trapped, with no hope of escape. The thing to do is to try and make the ‘thing’ that is trapping your characters feel like an entity in its own right. That’s what I wanted with Furnace, for the prison to feel like the bad guy, the thing you completely and utterly hated. Hopefully it worked! Also, when you trap your characters in a place where they can’t rely on others to save them, it forces them to use their own strengths to find a way out, which is perfect for a horror story. It’s up to you to imagine where your characters might be trapped – an underground facility, an alien spaceship, a nightmare, in a school after dark with a serial killer – but the scarier the place, and the more secure it is, the more exciting the story will be!
There’s a Killer in the House!
Oh, and a variation of this is the Killer in the House scenario. Essentially, this is the same as There’s No Way Out, but throw in a few monsters / killers / aliens etc as well! Trapped stories work best when there is an extra dimension of fear, something locked inside the same location that is trying to find and attack your characters. Monsters are far scarier when there is no escape from them! It’s one thing to meet a wheezer in a dark alley where you can run away from it, but meet one just outside your cell, where there is no escape… Try mixing locations with different kinds of threats and monsters, you can have loads of terrifying fun!
Don’t Mess With Nature!!
So many horror stories begin with somebody messing with nature – a mad scientist developing a new kind of technology that goes wrong, perhaps, or a new drug that has a horrific side effect, such as turning people in zombies. This can work on any scale. You could easily have a story about a science teacher at school who accidentally mixes the wrong ingredients for an experiment and creates a toxic monster / deadly gas / superpower potion. Or maybe the government claim to have developed a pill that protects you from all diseases, but which actually has a more sinister purpose… It’s totally up to you! Play god, nature is now yours to control! *evil laugh*
I Curse You!
I love these kinds of stories! The ones where somebody, or a group of somebodies, fall foul of an ancient and evil curse that makes life very, very difficult for them. Again, the cause of the curse can be completely up to you! You can go down the traditional route and have your characters trespass in a forbidden place – an ancient burial ground, a pyramid during a school trip to Egypt – or have them break some kind of rule – insulting a witch, dancing on a grave, buying a cursed object – or something completely weird – like accidentally spelling a mysterious word during a game of Scrabble. It’s completely up to you! And think about what effect the curse might have. Does it make everyone hate your characters? Or maybe nobody remembers them? Maybe they grow horns on their head, or all their skin falls off. Ew! Maybe it even has a positive effect, like making them unable to die. When you’re writing a curse story, it’s good to have a way of reversing the curse so that your characters have something to work towards. Do they have to kill the thing that cursed them? Or maybe they need to help it do something, like escape its prison. I’m just thinking off the top of my head here!
It’s Going to Eat the World!
And finally (for today), we’ve got the monster story. I love monsters, the scarier the better. And there’s nothing better than a monster so powerful that it could devour the whole world – which is why I used one in The Fury! I deliberately chose to leave the origin of this creature a mystery. I’d given all the bad guys in the Furnace books an identity and a back-story, which I think makes them more interesting. But there’s something terrifying about the unknowable. We know so little about the universe, and what’s out there, that it’s a little naïve to think we can explain away everything in a story. Giving the Man in the Storm a reason for being, a back-story, an explanation, would have undermined the very nature of it, would have made it knowable. But it’s completely up to you what kind of monster you use, and whether or not to explain its existence. Play around with some ideas. Remember, monsters don’t have to be huge. A monster that can creep into your ear and fix itself onto your brain is just as terrifying as one that can destroy a whole city with a flick of its finger.
Anyway, I hope these ideas come in handy if you’re looking for inspiration! The important thing is to have fun with them. The more fun you’re having the more you’ll enjoy telling the story, and the more active your imagination will be. I’ll be back soon with some more prompts and writing advice!
Oh, and for any of you in the UK who fancies coming along to a horror writing workshop, here are the details of my next two events. It would be awesome to see some of you there!
Bath
Sunday 29th September, 11.00-12.30am, Holburne Museum, Bath – All Abilities Welcome, Age 12+
Cheltenham
September 24, 2013
Gordy and Lucy Tackle Outlast, Part 3!!
Here’s some more of me and Lucy playing Outlast, very, very badly…
I always wondered what I would be like if I was ever trapped inside a penitentiary filled with monsters, a la Furnace. And this, sadly, is the answer. I am not proud… Those screams could shatter glass!
It’s half an hour long, but skip to 12:20, 15:00, 22:00 and, well, just about everything from 25:57 onwards for the good bits!
September 23, 2013
Shipwrecked!!!
If you’re wondering why it has all been a little quiet around here lately, it’s because I have been shipwrecked!! Not literally, of course, but I have been writer in residence for a couple of weeks in the fascinating Time and Tide Museum in Great Yarmouth. They approached me a while back to ask if I’d be interested in teaching creative writing to school groups in the museum, and being a huge fan of all things maritime, I said yes.
The museum is an incredible place, and really worth visiting if you’re in the area. It’s also a little… smelly, as the building used to be a fish curing factory (as in, they were preserved, not as in they were sick and they came here to get better). Even though it hasn’t been used for years, it’s still a bit like getting whacked round the face by a wet herring when you walk in the door. But you soon get used to it, and there really is so much to see and do here.
It may look like Alexander Gordon Smith, but his name is Thaddeus Sampson Ulysses Meriwether, Esquire (and the sideburns are called Hercules and Charles)!
As for my role, the creative writing sessions were all about shipwrecks in the 19th Century, so I didn’t want to be Alexander Gordon Smith, the modern writer. Instead, I donned a top hat and some incredibly hairy mutton chop sideburns (called Hercules and Charles) and became Thaddeus Sampson Ulysses Meriwether, Esquire, the world famous newspaper reporter. Well, he likes to think he’s world famous, but in actual fact he’s slightly rubbish and desperate for the world to take him seriously. It was quite good fun pretending to be somebody else for a couple of weeks, and I’m a little sad to hand Thaddeus over to the freelancers who will be running my session from now on. I got quite attached to the bumbling Victorian gentleman!
And I’m not sure what happened to Hercules and Charles, they escaped before I could get them back in their cage…
The school groups were all brilliant, and did amazing work. The kids were aged from 6-9, so quite a bit younger than the ones I usually work with, but the ideas they came up with for their shipwreck stories were amazing! I think my favourite suggestion had to be the giant clumsy chicken monster wearing a bra, pants and a hat which accidentally sunk the ship while it was out for its morning swim. Genius!! Thanks to all the classes who took part in my session, you were fantastic. And a huge thanks too to John, Liam, Gary and everybody else at the museum for making Thaddeus feel so welcome! All in all, it was an amazing two weeks.
But I won’t miss that smell…
Oh, and I put together some resources for the sessions and I’ll post some of them up here soon in case any of you want to use them for your writing.
Until then, this is the remarkably renowned, incredibly talented, much loved, almost royal, beautifully coiffured and behatted, ever modest Victorian reporter Thaddeus Sampson Ulysses Meriwether, Esquire, saying farewell and good day!
September 10, 2013
Virtually Loads of Gordy Episode 6: The Winners!
Just a short one this time, here are the winners from the 3rd Vlog! (Sorry it has taken me so long!!) Prepare to marvel at how organised and prepared I am!
September 9, 2013
Gordy and Lucy Tackle Outlast!!
So yeah, I know the summer holidays are officially over, and I should be doing some work. But it’s pretty hard trying to get back into the swing of things. Instead, Lucy (my daughter, for those who don’t know) and I have been playing video games, which has been awesome fun!! We have just started playing a new one, called Outlast, which is rumoured to be the scariest game of all time. Of course, I don’t get scared by anything, ever (hahahahaha), so I don’t see what all the fuss is about…
Anyway, if you’re interested in video games, here’s our first Outlast video. More to follow soon!
And I’ll be writing again any day now, I promise!!!
July 23, 2013
LET THE FURY… BEGIN!!!!
My HUGE new book! It's seriously bigger then my head!!
It has been so long since I’ve posted a blog here, rather than a VLOG, that I’ve almost forgotten how to do it!!!! I just wanted to let you guys know that the moment has finally arrived, The Fury is here!!!!! And it’s bigger than my head!!
It feels like I have been waiting for this book for so long. I’ve been nervous, too, because this is something a little different for me. I mean, it’s still fast paced, and gory, and has the same relentless action and pace and horror as the Escape From Furnace series, but it’s much bigger (681 pages), and the story is told from a number of different viewpoints. I’m not going to say much more, just that I put my heart and soul into this book, and I really, really hope you guys like it!
Oh, and I know some of you will be wondering – this is now the only edition of The Fury that will be for sale, both in the US and the UK. It contains BOTH BOOKS, and is one complete, stand-alone story. Sorry again to those of you who bought the original UK edition of The Fury, and who were looking forward to buying The Storm – it won’t happen now (except as an ebook), and I am really sorry. But the upside is that the original print run of that book was very small, and if I ever become truly famous then it might be worth a fortune! So hang onto it. (Every cloud has a silver lining, and all that!)
And I’d also like to say a HUGE thanks to everyone who helped shape this book, especially my awesome editor Wes Adams, without whom The Fury would be the size of a horse trailer and I would be going crazy in an asylum somewhere. Also HUGE thanks to Rebecca Lee, my editor here in the UK, who helped turn the original manuscript from a big lump of Fury into something much more elegant. Thanks so much, guys!!!! Also HUGE thanks to all the team from Farrar Straus Giroux and Macmillan, you guys are simply the best!!!!! And a HUGE thanks to my family, for going through this with me (especially you, Lyns!), and HUGE thanks to my agent, Sophie. And, most of all, a HUGE thanks to all you guys out there who have read the books and supported me, I love all of you, and could never have done this without you!! You all rock!
Join me on Reddit!!
If any of you have any questions about The Fury, or about anything else, I’ll be on Reddit tonight, between 5-7pm EST, answering questions live as an AMA. I’d really love for you to join me if you’re around! You can leave questions at any time.
And really all that’s left to be said is another HUGE thank you for supporting me and my HUGE book, you guys seriously are the best! I really hope you enjoy it!
STAY FURIOUS!!!!!
June 29, 2013
VLOG (Virtually Loads of Gordy) No. 3!
In which I GIVE OUT A TON OF EXCLUSIVE PRIZES!!!!!!!
June 10, 2013
VLOG (Virtually Loads of Gordy) No. 2!
As if the first one wasn’t bad enough, here’s another!! In which I:
- Visit the Tower of London!
- Answer some of your questions (such as what is the most scared I have ever been, and why is my voice so weird).
- GIVEAWAY SOME SIGNED COPIES OF THE FURY!!!!!
- Make loads of mistakes.
- Wear an old fashioned helmet.
- Moan about my jingle.
- And generally talk WAY too much.
Hope you guys enjoy it!!
