Teresa Flavin

The Crimson Shard Book Launch

In spite of rain and wind, a great crowd of well-wishers joined me on 1 October to celebrate the publication of The Crimson Shard, the follow-up to The Blackhope Enigma. I was pleased to see old and new friends, artists, librarians and teachers among them. Lindsey Fraser, of Fraser Ross Associates, gave a lovely introduction and I did a short reading. It was a fantastic send off!

(Photos by J Jamieson.)

WASPS Artists Open Studios Weekend 2011…

…and the launch of THE CRIMSON SHARD!

Next weekend’s Artists Open Studios event coincides with the publication of my second illustrated historical fantasy novel for age 9+, The Crimson Shard, published by Templar Books. I’ll be opening my studio and displaying original paintings, drawings and limited edition prints, but I’ll also be taking time out to read from The Crimson Shard in the Gallery area of our building. These will be short tasters and will take place at 1pm and 3pm. Both The Blackhope Enigma and The Crimson Shard will be on sale and I’ll be signing them, of course! If you can’t make it to the Studios this weekend, but would like to read a sampler or buy either book, click here.

Click here for information on how to find the building.

A Visit to Doon Hill

In which I encounter fairies.

Clooties tied to trees on Doon Hill

It started as a typical forest walk in the Stirlingshire countryside. We passed the Old Kirk cemetery (of that, dear reader, you shall hear more close to Hallowe’en.) and set off past a few houses towards a path leading up the wooded mound that is Doon Hill. I have always wanted to visit because of its strange legend. A seventeenth-century clergyman, the Reverend Robert Kirk, is said to have either died or disappeared there after conducting lengthy research into the fairies that he believed lived on the hill. His spirit is said to reside in the ancient pine in the background of my photo (left).

As we climbed, we noticed the dirt path glittered with silver and purple metallic fairy silhouettes that previous visitors has strewn. This was just the start. After the short climb we arrived in the clearing at the summit and found all the trees and many bushes festooned with clooties, strips of cloth covered with handwritten wishes.

A clootie branch

Clootie wells and clootie trees are a fascinating part of Scotland and Ireland’s Celtic heritage. I couldn’t help but be touched by the variety of cloths tied to the trees and tiny talismans tucked into the moss.

Pilgrims had left letters in sealed plastic bags, half-burned candles, scraps of paper wedged between branches. The place was alive with visitors’ hopes and intentions. And even the mass-produced fairy figurines placed there seemed to have developed individual personalities.

One or two of them looked almost sinister in their hideaways of dead leaves. Under the green canopy of trees, the air was still and we felt far, far away from the town, which was only a fifteen minute walk away. We decided to head downhill along the same path we had climbed. But it became clear we were on a different path when we got to the bottom and found a grassy crossroads.

We agreed that we should turn right and set off. We came to a bend in the river which was so quiet and dark, I thought it was a pond. There were no footprints in our path, only hoof prints, and the reeds grew taller and taller. We could no longer see the town or hear traffic. Suddenly we turned around and saw that we had left Doon Hill behind. It loomed on the horizon as dusk began to fall. I wouldn’t say I panicked, but I felt distinctly odd. There was that slight ‘Blair Witch’ sense of having consulted the map, known where to go and still ended up someplace one shouldn’t. The idea that a fairy horse would come swooping down and take us away to meet Queen Mab would not have been out of place.

We quickly turned back. The hill took shape on our left and it felt like we were being watched by a thousand eyes. When we got to the crossroads, it was obvious that we were just a few paces away from the main path back to town. Somewhere behind us, the owners of those thousand eyes were laughing at us.

New Competition!

I’m celebrating my Facebook page achieving 100 followers AND Blackhope‘s publication in the USA by launching a little competition.

You can win a signed paperback copy of both The Blackhope Enigma and The Crimson Shard (which will be published on 1 October in the UK), plus a hand-cut raven silhouette (made by me) and a leather-bound notebook with an original sketch on the first page (also by me). The deadline is 5 September at midnight UK time (that’s 7pm US time).

It’s easy to enter. Go to my Contact page, type in your name and email address (so I can contact you if you win) and answer this question in the message box below:

What bird is on The Blackhope Enigma cover?

If you are under 16, please fill out the Children’s Contact form here.

I won’t keep any of your information after the competition ends. If you are the winner, I’ll email you to ask for your mailing address and who you’d like the books to be dedicated to.

Looking forward to getting your entries! And if you’d like to follow me on Facebook, click here.

Ravens and The Blackhope Enigma

My latest post at The History Girls blog.

©Teresa Flavin

The Blackhope Enigma Published in the USA!

In bookstores today…hooray!

The US cover

The Blackhope Enigma has been chosen as a Fall 2011 Junior Library Guild selection and has received a wonderful review from Kirkus Reviews, which included it in its ‘New and Notable’ section for this month.

It was long-listed for the Branford Boase Award and has been short-listed for numerous book awards in the UK, including the Leeds Book Awards, the Waverton Good Reads Award and the West Sussex Book Awards. Reviews have been fantastic on both sides of the Atlantic. Here are some links to recent reviews by book bloggers.

The Scotsman newspaper said The Blackhope Enigma “is sure to appeal to the X-box generation withs its fast-paced plot, constantly twisting and turning, and its strong, well-drawn characters.”

I have had great feedback from children in the UK about how much they enjoyed The Blackhope Enigma. This review came from EC in Lancashire, and sums up what quite a few children have said:

“This book was absolutely amazing. It had a really good start and the ending was just perfect. It left you on a bit of a cliff-hanger and was really gripping. The characters were very interesting and I couldn’t put this down. The artist Fausto Corvo sounded as if he was a real artist and not just a fictional character.”

I could not be happier at having written a first book that young people are enjoying so much – and I’m looking forward to hearing what young Americans think, too!

The History Girls

A brand new blog from award-winning historical fiction writers.

I am delighted to be a part of The History Girls blog and to publish my first post today. Stop by and have a look!

Borders Book Festival 2011

A fantastic literary festival in the beautiful Scottish Borders.

Queueing for an event

Melrose Abbey

The Abbey is a stunning Gothic structure. It’s extremely atmospheric, especially when the weather is overcast. The cemetery adds to the moodiness, with its crooked, weathered monuments. In contrast, Harmony Gardens are full of bright flowers and small sculptures sited in various nooks and crannies.

Harmony House

Setting up!

All in all, it was a very successful day and I really enjoyed seeing this lovely town for the first time. Big thanks to the organisers and patrons of the Borders Book Festival!

Creative Writing Resources for Young People

While I was signing books at the Leeds Book Awards, I had a chat with a pupil who asked me for tips on writing and illustrating stories and poems. I had an idea that the Scottish Book Trust website would have just the thing and promised the pupil I’d post links here.

Sure enough, the SBT site is a great place to start! If you are a young person who really wants to write stories, check this page out. There are video podcasts by authors Cathy Forde and Keith Gray, who both write for young adults. And at the bottom of the page is this great link, which will take you to a whole list of online resources and competitions.

As for illustration, I can direct you to my Links page for lots of book illustration resources!

There are probably loads more items I’ve missed, so if you know of a good resource for aspiring young writers and artists, please do leave a comment with your suggestions.

“Chicken, asparagus and ice cream”…

…and other answers to Random Questions at the Leeds Book Awards.

I need a new camera to replace my dead one. if I had had one, I could have taken lots of fun photos at the 2011 Leeds Book Awards ceremony yesterday, like Candy Gourlay did on her blog. Meeting Candy and the other short-listed authors was one of the many excellent aspects of the day.

I was really pleasantly surprised when The Blackhope Enigma was nominated in the 11-14 category and impressed with how well organised the Awards are. That’s because Leeds has some very together and lovely librarians who oversee the whole process. Once the short-list of titles is created, Leeds pupils read as many of them as they can and vote for the winner in their age category: 9-11, 11-14 and 14-16. They also review the books and many of these reviews are on the Leeds Book Awards website.

The whole process culminated in yesterday’s gala event in the very classy Banqueting Hall at the Leeds Civic Hall. This venue really made the event special, and once it was full of cheering kids, the atmosphere was superb.

I was hosted by the lovely librarian Michelle Ackroyd and pupils from Boston Spa High School. We had time for a quick Q & A session before the afternoon ceremony and it was the pupils who asked me the Random Questions. Here are two of them:

What would your last dinner be? Chicken, asparagus and ice cream. (Upon reflection, I might have said lasagne instead but I had to think on my feet.)

What’s your shoe size? 6 (depending on what country I am in. Since I am currently in the UK, it’s a 6. If the Boston Spa kids asked this because they would like to send me some new shoes, I gladly accept.)

I liked the Random Questions, but I really liked their questions about The Blackhope Enigma, including:

Which of your characters would you like to meet? Marin. What girl wouldn’t? (But then I had a rethink and said I’d also like to meet Fausto Corvo, which is true.) This is a question that could be answered in a number of ways, because I like all my characters, even the evil ones. But yesterday the answer was Marin (and you’ll have to read the book to know why).

Are any of the characters based on real people? No, but the two main characters, Sunni and Blaise, who want to become artists, are a bit like some of my friends from high school. We were crazy about art and hung out in the art classroom whenever we had free time. Luckily we had an inspirational teacher who put up with us being there a LOT.

Are you working on any other books? Yes! This was the shazam moment when I could pull out the cover proof of The Crimson Shard and inform everyone that it will be published on October 1st by Templar Publishing.

After the Q & A, the Master of Ceremonies, Paul Seem, kicked the event into high gear and the golden envelopes were ripped open, revealing David Gatward and LA Weatherly as the worthy winners for their books The Dead and Angels, respectively (in the morning ceremony, Jon Mayhew won for Mortlock in the 9-11 category). Lee Weatherly couldn’t attend the ceremony, but it was great to witness David’s excitement and experience his ‘evil laugh’, which spread through the audience as you’ll see on Candy’s blog photos.

Even though Blackhope didn’t win this time, I still feel like a winner because Leeds made me so welcome and I met so many fans at the book signing after the ceremony. My hand was about to cramp up permanently from signing so many autographs, but I can think of far worse things to complain about. On top of the great ceremony, lunch and nice cups of tea, each short-listed author also received a cool diamond-shaped crystal trophy. Mine went straight onto my shelf of honour in the studio and I will look upon it with gratitude at having been included in the Leeds Book Awards.

And a little note about the city of Leeds: interesting place with quite a variety of architectural styles, old and new. Since my photos are non-existent, I can only tell you that Leeds is the kind of place where you want to walk around staring upwards. While doing this, I spotted stone cherubs, gargoyles, gryphons and two giants holding up a roof on their backs. I also saw The Black Prince statue, which is awesome. But what stood out were the owls. There were carved owls everywhere, including four gilded ones on plinths outside the Civic Hall. Apparently owls feature prominently in the local heraldic tradition. If you are a carved owl collector, head for Leeds!