Claire Fayers's Blog, page 9

The Voyage to Down Below. A Christmas story.

‘Tis the season of giving, and also pirates and monsters.

You may remember a discussion on the relative merits of pirates and monsters. To settle the matter once and for all (until the next time, at least) I got together with Sarah Reida, author of Monsterville, to write a holiday special for the Children’s Book Review.

When Trudi and Ewan fall off the Onion and end up in a strange, sandy place called Hawaii, they don’t think life can get much more bizarre. But soon they’re off on rescue mission to Down Below where monsters roam free and all your worst nightmares are waiting to turn you into something resembling one of Trudi’s casseroles. Or maybe Trudi’s casseroles are your worst nightmares.

If our heroes are to triumph they’ll need more than swashing and buckling. They’ll need to use their brains. This may not go well…

A Swashbuckling Holiday Tale | Short Story

 

Merry Christmas!

2016 has been a strange year. So many awful things happening in the world, but some bright spots of loveliness too. The journey to publication has been exciting and stressful and wonderful and terrifying all at the same time. I am very grateful for the support of my husband and my friends, my editors and my agent, and, of course, Waterstones. Being picked as their July book of the month was a tremendous experience and I had great fun visiting stores to sign books and tell pirate stories. I’ve been very lucky to make some wonderful new writing friends through the year, too. Most of all, though, I’d like to thank everyone who picked up this book by an unknown author and read it.

Thank you!!

To round off the year, here is Dramocles the Dragon proudly posing with one of my newly-arrived review copies of book 2. I will run a giveaway or two in the new year. Until then, happy holidays and happy reading.

Journey to Dragon Island

Exciting news!  I’ve been closeted away for the past month working on what will be my third book but I’m allowed to emerge briefly to share this: the very incredible USA cover for The Journey to Dragon Island.  There are dinosaurs and explosions and… well, a book cover that has dinosaurs and explosions doesn’t really need anything else. My ten-year-old self would have leaped on this with shrieks of glee.

Once again, the artwork is by the amazing Oriol Vidal.

 

The Journey to Dragon Island will be published in May 2017.  An enormous thank you once again to the team at Henry Holt.

You can already order it. Links are available on my publisher’s website.

The UK cover will be revealed soon – watch this space!

Pirates vs Monsters UK Giveaway

AND THE GIANT PIRATE HAT ANNOUNCES THE WINNER TO BE…

SARAH MACKAY!!!! (Sept 24, 8:29 am)  Arrrrr!  Rawr!!

Congratulations, Sarah. Your prize awaits you. Send me a message via the contact page on this website and I’ll get it in the post to you.

 

Yesterday, I promised a giveaway, and here it is.

I am very sure that if you like this book:

You will also love this book:

And I’m willing to put it to the test.

Leave a comment saying whether you prefer pirates (arrrr!) or monsters (rawr!).  A winner will be selected at random and will win a signed hardback US edition of THE VOYAGE TO MAGICAL NORTH and an (unsigned) hardback US edition of MONSTERVILLE.

The competition will close 5pm Friday 30th September, UK time.

Because of postage costs, this competition is for UK readers only. My apologies to those further afield.

Read a sample of Monsterville here!

PS. If you’re on twitter, you can follow me @clairefayers and Sarah @sarahsreida

 

Guest Interview – Sarah Reida

Today, I am delighted to welcome my friend, critique partner and all-round fabulous author Sarah Schauerte Reida to the blog.

Behind the smile, this woman dreams up monsters

Sarah’s debut novel, MONSTERVILLE: A LISSA BLACK PRODUCTION launches today.

Thirteen-year-old Lissa Black is miserable when her parents force her to move from New York City (the perfect home for an aspiring writer/director/actress) to Freeburg, Pennsylvania, nowhere capital of the world. There’s nothing to do there, except play her little sister Haylie’s favorite new game, Monsterville, and hang out with her new neighbor Adam.

But when a walk in the woods lands her face-to-face with a swamp monster hungry for brains and then a Sasquatch that moos, even Lissa can’t call her new home totally boring. With Adam’s help, she catches the culprit behind the drama: a shape-shifting goblin who’s fled from the monster world of Down Below.

And what do you do with a creature that can be literally anything? Make monster movies, of course!

Here’s what MOSNTERVILLE looks like:

And here’s what I think about it:

Yes, this is me on the back of the book, just like a real author.

 

Describe Monsterville in five words

Fun, fast, unconventional, funny, scary.

You’re clearly a big movie fan. What’s your favourite movie? Did it influence Monsterville?

My all-time favorite movie is A Fish Called Wanda, period. I have lists, like, here are my favorite dramas, and rom-coms, and comedies, etc., which I’m pretty consistent about, but Wanda has been my unwavering #1 since I was about ten. Thank you Mom and Dad, for imposing no filter whatsoever on my movie-watching! (Wanda is rated R).

Alas, Wanda, which is an English/American heist movie written by John Cleese of Monty Python and earning Kevin Kline an Oscar (“WAKE UP, SLIMY FISH!!!” “K-k-k-ken’s! P-p-p-pets!”), did not really influenceMonsterville. It makes me sad to admit that. Tim Burton’s work did, especially Beetlejuice (I’m a very visual person, and the entire time I was writing it, I was picturing how it would play out if it were a Burton movie); and Goonies. One of the escape scenes toward the end was very specifically inspired by Goonies. See if you can identify it!

I love that Lissa is a writer as well as a film-maker. Does she take after you at all?

Oh, sure. Like Lissa, I love and respect the craft of film-making, and I always imagine how things would look onscreen. It was great fun to research film-making and make the book semi-educational (mrahahaha!) by imparting Lissa’s knowledge/thoughts on the readers. I’ve also been told that Lissa and I speak in a similar manner, which may be unfortunate given that I am supposed to be a grownup.

Monsterville is home to all sorts of different monsters. (Hurrah for monster diversity!) Do you have a favourite monster?

Ooh, that’s a tough one. The monsters are so different! To cop out and simply name a type of monster I find fun, I’d go with Pennywise the Clown, the Stephen King creation wholly responsible for making the clown industry plummet in the 1980s. Go, Stephen! (When I got married, it was a Halloween theme with individually-themed tables. One was Pennywise. He now haunts our house).

Moving quickly on from scary clowns. How did you come up with the idea for Monsterville? And how long did it take to write?

I’ve been asked that a lot, and I really do not remember. At all. I had always wanted to write a Jumanji-esque book where kids used a board game to escape from a monster world, but I don’t know what specifically made it all come together. That is kind of unfortunate, because other writers have these beautiful stories about the plot coming to them in a dream, while I have to shrug and say “dunno.”

In terms of time, Monsterville took about six months, but that’s from starting to going on submission with my agent  – not any of the edits that happened later. That one was fun, because I didn’t have an outline. I had a piece of construction paper I used to draw the board game on, and I went from there. It looks like a five-year-old drew it. As proof, here it is!

If you had to descend into Monsterville, what three items would you take to help you?

My pit mix, Archer; my invisibility cloak; and my silent four-wheeler.

What are your favourite middle-grade books this year?

Of the ones that were JUST released, I really enjoyed The Last Boy at St. Edith’s and Voyage to Magical North (for the record, people, Claire and I became crit partners BECAUSE we really liked each other’s books).

I can confirm that. In fact, Sarah and I started talking because I saw the blurb of Monsterville and loved it. Finally, Sarah, what are you working on now?

Right now, I’m working on revisions to a MG book about a boy who finds himself stuck in an alternate reality where he can only go home by using video game smarts to beat “levels” where he has to be someone else. I’m still working on the hook, but I’m actually enjoying the writing process!

 

If you liked VOYAGE TO MAGICAL NORTH you will love MONSTERVILLE and I’m willing to prove that. Check back tomorrow for details of a special competition for UK readers!

How the Onion Defeated the Dreaded Great Sea Beast of the South

“It’s Talk Like a Pirate Day today,” said Cassie, bouncing onto the deck of the Onion.

The crew looked less impressed than she’d hoped.  “We’re already pirates,” Ewan Hughes pointed out. “Anything we say is talking like a pirate.”

“Not quite,” said Cassie. “We’re supposed to say things like ‘Shiver me timbers’ or ‘Avast!’ or ‘Ahhhh!’”

“Ahhhh?” said Bill Lightning.  “Don’t you mean ‘Arrrgh’?  As in ‘Arrgh, this twenty-tentacles monster is trying to eat me.”

“No, it’s definitely ‘Ahhhh’,” said Cassie. “As in ‘Ahhh, what a lovely day we be having.”

“What a lovely day we are having,” muttered Tom, looking up from his book.

“There you go,” said Cassie triumphantly.  “Ahhhh!”

But nobody was listening because Bill Lightning had already launched into the tale of how the Onion defeated the Dreaded Great Sea Beast of the South…

We were sailing around the Andromeda Ocean in the south when we saw the island. “What do you think, Captain?” asked Tim Burre, who never liked new places.  “It looks a bit odd.”

It did look odd.  Most islands are wiggly round the edges, but this one looked quite smooth and round.  It was mainly flat, rising up into a shallow hill in the middle, and the slopes were covered in a thick, dark green, mossy grass.  It looked to be deserted.

“Let’s go ashore,” said Cassie.

We all cheered. We’d been sailing for over a month without a break.  For the past week, the only thing we’d had to eat was fish.  Fish cereal for breakfast, fish sandwiches for lunch, and then as a special treat for tea we had fish sausages with fishy mashed potato and fish jelly and ice-cream for afters.  And the only seasoning she had left was pepper.  If you want to try melted, fish-flavoured ice-cream that makes you sneeze, I have some advice: just don’t.

About half the crew stayed on the ship and the rest of us made our way ashore. The island was very strange indeed.  The grass felt springy but the ground was quite hard underneath.

It was starting to get dark, so we settled down for the night. I found some bits of driftwood around the shore and we made a fire. While Trudi tried cooking some of the grass to see if it would make it taste better, the rest of us just sat.  It was peaceful, doing nothing, watching the fire burn and the sun sink down into the sea.

Trudi tasted her grass casserole. “Too bland,” she said and she scrabbled around in her pockets and found a big bag of pepper.

Right at that moment, the ground shook. It was followed by another tremor, more violent this time, and then the island started to move.

And we saw that it wasn’t an island at all.  It was a monster.  Half a mile across, with tentacles flapping everywhere.

This wasn’t any old monster. This was the biggest, the deadliest, the most-tentacled monster of them all.  We’d heard all the stories about it: it ate a hundred ships for breakfast every day, and another fifty for supper.  It was as big as an island with a thousand tentacles and ten thousand eyes, but nobody really knew what it looked like, because no one had ever seen it and survived.

It was the Dreaded Great Sea Beast of the South.

The fire scattered and so did we. The Dreaded Beast scrabbled at its skin with its tentacles, just like it was trying to scratch an itch on its back.

“Back to the ship!”  Cassie cried and we all ran.

Tentacles thrashed around us and the great body jerked and heaved. Pirates tumbled into the sea. I drew my cutlass and started cutting through the tentacles, but for every one that fell into the sea, another two swarmed in.  I ran up one and jumped.  For a second or two, I thought I was going to land in the sea, but then I smacked right into the deck of the Onion.

Tentacles were grabbing at the ship now.  This didn’t look good.

“What do we do?” shouted Trudi.

“The monster woke up when we lit that fire,” said Cassie. “Is it afraid of fire?”

I doubted it was afraid of anything, but I grabbed a rope dipped the end of it in oil, and set fire to it. (Don’t try this at home – it’s dangerous.)

I ran at the monster, which didn’t actually take long because it was right on top of us.

“Take that!” I cried, and whacked it with the burning rope.

Nothing.

The many tentacles kept slapping the ship. One of them caught fire briefly but the monster didn’t even seem to notice. More tentacles wrapped around the main mast and started to pull.  We were going to go over into the sea, that’s if the monster didn’t tear the ship apart first.

It looked as though we were doomed. The monster hadn’t minded all of us tramping over its head and setting up camp there.  It hadn’t even moved when we lit a fire.  It didn’t wake until…

“Pepper!”  I shouted.  The monster had slept peacefully until Trudi had got her pepper out.

“Wait here,” said Trudi, and she raced down the steps below deck.

She appeared again a minute later with a saucepan on her head and a large earthenware pot. By then, the beast had grabbed both ends of the Onion and it was trying to tear the ship in half.  A monstrous head rose out of the water, covered with seaweed and a great beak of a mouth opened up, ready to swallow us whole.

Trudi hurled the pepper straight into the monster’s mouth.

The dreaded beast paused.

Its mouth opened wide and then, instead of swallowing us, it sneezed.

All the tentacles let go and the Onion shot backwards. The beast bellowed in rage and started after us but before it could reach us, it sneezed again and the blast sent us racing away, far out of reach of the angry tentacles.

“Well,” said Cassie, looking around at us all, covered in bits of tentacle and slime from the monster’s sneeze, “that could have been worse.”

As for the Dreaded Great Sea Beast of the South, it disappeared under the waves, and to this day it has never been seen again.  Maybe one day it’ll come back.

US Round-Up

It’s been a manic (and very rainy) summer in the UK. Meanwhile across the Pond, Cassie O’Pia and crew have been gathering reviews at cutlass-point. Here are some of our favourites.

“With memorable characters, extraordinary adventures, and a world that will stay in the reader’s mind long after the book is closed, The Voyage to Magical North is one of the best middle grade fantasy books of the year so far.” – Barnes and Noble Kids’ Blog

“A robust debut, well stocked with heroic exploits, monsters, pirates, explosions, magical transformations, and life-changing adventures, and a promising series starter.” – Kirkus starred review

“Welsh author Claire Fayers buoys her seaworthy series debut The Voyage to Magical North with agreeably understated humor, over-the-top sea monsters and nuanced characters. This finely spun adventure is the very definition of swashbuckler, but also thoughtfully examines ideas of story, good vs. evil, instinct vs. rules and self-discovery. A treasure.” – Shelf Awareness starred review

“This pirate yarn rollicks with the best of them, led by the convincingly legendary Cassie but handily assisted by Peter’s magic and Brine’s quick thinking. Fayers’s fantastical world—complete with invisible polar bears, man-eating penguins, and vengeful whales—makes the voyage north fraught with dangers, but the crew is stouthearted and true and quite funny, and Brine’s quest to discover where she comes from lends depth to the madcap events.” —The Horn Book

“The beautiful cover design reflects the charming adventure within; this multilayered fantasy handles a variety of themes, including the meaning of family, the ability of power to corrupt, and the importance of stories. VERDICT Upper elementary and younger middle grade fans of Lynne Jonell’s The Sign of the Cat will be enchanted by Brine’s high seas adventure.” – School Library Journal

 

 

The Month of the Book

Phew, that was the best July ever. And the busiest.  I have many big thank yous to say.

Thank you all the fantabulous Waterstones booksellers who promoted The Accidental Pirates, created the most wonderful displays and got the book into the hands of readers, especially the lovely Seonaid who started this off.  Thank you friends, family, fellow-writers and readers who came to my launch events and made them so successful. I really appreciate your support. And thank you everyone who cheered me on over the Internet, sent messages and offered endless help, advice and encouragement.

And, finally, a massive THANK YOU to all at Henry Holt and Macmillan Children’s Books.

I will be doing a round up of US news next, but here are some photos of the UK excitement.

What’s on in July

I’ve had quite a few extra events booked in this month so here’s the complete up-to-date list of everything I’m doing.

Saturday July 16th, Waterstones Cardiff, Pirate Day.  I’ll be in the store from around 11am and signing books from 12pm.

Friday July 22nd, 3pm. Waterstones Finchley Road, London.  Meet the author.

Saturday July 23rd, 2pm.  Wellfield Bookshop, Wellfield Road, Cardiff. Book signing, followed by drinks in the Juno Lounge next door. This is also part of the British SCBWI 20th birthday celebrations.

Wednesday July 27th, 5pm-6.30pm, Octavo’s Book Cafe and Wine Bar, Cardiff Bay.  Pirates, Prosecco and pizza party.  This is also part of the British SCBWI celebrations.

Thursday 28th July, 2pm Waterstones, Oxford Book signing and meet the author.

Friday July 29th, 2.30pm Waterstones Bedford.  Book signing and meet the author.

Also, advance notice that on Saturday 6th August, I’ll be joining Waterstones Carmarthen from 11am-12pm for their pirate day.

Phew!  That’s all for now.

Hope to see you!

 

 

Waterstone’s Book of the Month

Ahoy, avast and arrrrrgh!  I am whole treasure chests of excited today because The Accidental Pirates has been chosen as the Waterstones Children’s Book of the Month for July.

My most grateful thanks to all the fantastic staff at Waterstones who made this happen, especially Seonaid at Waterstones Oxford.  I owe you a vast chest of pirate gold.

Here be the link to Waterstones

I’ll be visiting some Waterstones stores during July for book signings and piratey fun.

Pirate Day in Cardiff:  Saturday 16th July.  Waterstones Cardiff will be holding a pirate day.  There will be prizes for fancy dress and pirate fun and games throughout the day.  I’ll be there from around midday for stories, quizzes, pirate jokes and signings of books.