“Spooking” Out Today

Well, today’s the day. Friday 13 April. Always good things happen to me on Friday 13 – for instance, Martin and I married on Friday 13 September.

Today’s big event is that Spooking is out! (YA paranormal romance.) Actually, it’s very romantic and the paranormal bit isn’t scary or irreverent.    

It’s possibly the fluffiest, most light-hearted story I’ve ever written. I really look forward to all of your comments. I’m especially interested in hearing from my students in my Writing Novels for Young Adults class. Is this a proper YA book? Does it obey the rules or does it bend them? And if you can’t afford it, guys, there will be one given away later. I’ll also be reading excerpts from it at the Prestwich Book Fest on 23 May, Prestwich Library 7.00 p.m. she says, unashamedly plugging another event. I’ll be there with Sherry Ashworth form MMU – another YA writer who is also an academic and she will also read from her latest e-book.   

It’s always a strange feeling when a book comes out.  A mixture of excitement and nerves. The type of useful feeling that makes you give a better performance when you’re on stage. Mind you, as a prolific writer and as a creative writing teacher I suffer from Constant Editor Syndrome and I have to stop myself editing as I read out loud.

But back to Spooking. It’s a nice little tale and I am rather fond of it. I think it sits well with Alex Smith’s Calling for Angels, published by TheRed Telephone. It’s a similar sort of story. We’ll gloss over the difference in age between the writers!

I hope you’ll read it … and give it a nice review, if you feel that’s appropriate. And come and join me later on this site, 4.00 to 6.00. British Summer Time for the real-time launch if you can. Bring teenagers!            

The Children’s Collection at Manchester Metropolitan University

The Children’s Collection at Manchester Metropolitan University
I spent a fascinating time viewing this collection this afternoon. It is a very random collection and therefore leaves researchers to make up their own minds. There are modern books and books going back to the nineteenth century. There are collections of magazines for children. I was intrigued to see copies of the encyclopaedias that were my father’s and we have only just, sadly, disposed of. I was also intrigued to find a copy in paperback of a book I own in hardback. It was a Sunday School prize for my grandfather.
There is this strange relationship between trade books and education. Books are sold and produced along commercial principles. Yet they have an educational use, and that is part of their commercial value. Does that all come from the time that books had those two very specific educational purposes – to teach children how to read and also to teach them morals?
It’s also interesting to reflect how over time the child was invented, then the teenager, and now the young adult. Will there be something else?
There are some gaps in the collection. No Enid Blyton. Most of the collection middle class, or at least very moral. The collection is continued by picking just books that have got awards. That worries me. I know I too tend to read the books which have got awards or good reviews. But what of those that are not even reviewed? Thank goodness for Amazon, that great equaliser. I don’t know how it communicates with this collection.
Nevertheless, a fascinating place to browse.
It’s just a five minute ride form here, at Salford University to Oxford Road and a five minute walk at either end. I met my equivalent over there, Sherry Ashworth. We had lunch together in The Eighth Day Café. Fabulous food. Good company. And yet it’s great to get back to Salford which seems quiet after the bustle of Oxford Road.