The Blackhope Enigma Book Launch

Debut book, debut book launch!

Photo by J Jamieson

Photo by J Jamieson

While we were celebrating the book, we also celebrated the virtual launch of The Blackhope Enigma website. Not only is it a handsome looking thing, but it has cool features on it, like downloadable wallpaper, a bookmark and some book plates that I drew, and which can only be found on the site. I also contributed an audio clip, produced by Cheer Productions, and a video clip made by Oak’s Bark, with the additional assistance of Pablo the sound man. Thanks to all those gentlemen, as well as Lighthouse Photographics, who took my publicity photo!

Last but not least, you can register to win a visit from me to your school (or your child’s school). So please do check it out!

I would like to thank everyone who came to the launch, especially those who traveled from far afield. They all made it a wonderful success and reminded me what great friends and colleagues I have. And I can’t thank Templar Publishing enough for all their support and hard work in bringing my book to the world!

What’s The Blackhope Enigma About?

A fine question indeed.

The Blackhope Enigma is a historical fantasy-mystery-adventure and it’s suitable for readers age nine and above. Read more about it on the Templar website, including an excerpt.

I just did a guest blog for the Scottish Book Trust about my path to becoming an author, and you can read that here.

I am really delighted that The Blackhope Enigma has been chosen as their July Book of the Month!

Tomorrow is Publication Day! The next couple of days will be busy, busy, but I shall be back with updates and photos forthwith.

More from Independent Booksellers Week 2010

In which The Blackhope Enigma appears at Atkinson-Pryce Books.

Armed with the book, postcards and laptop containing a riveting (I hope) presentation about labyrinths, Renaissance paintings, Venetian galleys and early maps, I had a fine old time introducing the children to some of the story’s background and inspirations. We even did some drawing together (mermaids, monsters and mice) while lying on the carpeted floor. I can’t think of a nicer way to spend an hour on Saturday afternoon. Thanks to all the children for coming and to Atkinson-Pryce Books for arranging my appearance there.

Psst, by the way, only one more week till The Blackhope Enigma is launched!

Independent Booksellers Week Events 2010

Support your indie bookseller!

Photo by K Ross

I love all book stores but I am particularly fond of indie bookshops like Blast-Off Books, which specialises in children’s books and provides an amazing service to its local community and schools. That’s why I volunteered to participate in IBW events this week.

We headed out into the gorgeous countryside in the sunshine and visited the lovely Dalmeny Primary School, where the pupils were already well into The Blackhope Enigma, being probably the first school on the planet to have had almost half of it read to them by their excellent teacher. That’s me in the photo, showing one of the illustrations inside the book. I was bowled over by their positive response and great questions. Wow, is all I can say.

The roadshow headed next to Torphichen Primary, another lovely school with keen pupils, who are now clued up on all things Blackhope. Again, excellent questions and comments all round.

The roadshow heads out to Biggar on Saturday, stopping in at another indie bookshop, Atkinson-Pryce Bookshop, at 11:30am. I’ll be doing a Blackhope-inspired workshop-talk for children age 9+. It’s free but ticketed, so if you are interested, contact them.

Both Blast-Off Books and Atkinson-Pryce will be stocking The Blackhope Enigma.

Counting Down to July 1st

Things are ramping up big style here at HQ. Only a few weeks till The Blackhope Enigma is released into the wild in the UK, and there is lots to do. I am spinning quite a few plates in the air for the time being, but each of those plates has a mountain of goodies on it. Some of the goodies will be unveiled to all on July 1st, when a certain new website goes live. Needless to say, it’s all very exciting.
I am extremely grateful to my posse of talented friends, who are giving me all sorts of help in getting things off the ground. When the time comes, I will shine a spotlight on each of them for all their good humored assistance!
And the folks at Templar are just great. It is wonderful to work with such a dedicated group of people!

A Cardboard Box Arrives..

..and the contents are thrilling!

The mail has been good to me today. Not only did the cardboard box yield ten copies of Blackhope, but I received a copy of its first review in The Bookseller, calling it an “impressive début”! Blackhope is included in a list of top picks for July publication and I am really gratified that my first book was chosen.

This has been a brilliant week, percolating with buzz. My London trip generated lots of new inspiration for The Next Book, and I will be getting back to that with gusto. Sometimes you have a day or two or three where you get immense clarity about where you are going and what you’ll be doing when you get there. Maybe there’s some fairy dust in the atmosphere (although it’s more likely to be volcanic ash). Whatever it is, keep it coming.

London Book Fair 2010

Keeping calm and carrying on.

Well, I lucked out this time. I bought a train ticket to London and worried that there might be a train signalmen’s strike…but who knew that the volcano would blow and suddenly trains looked pretty good?

This was my second time ever at the London Book Fair, but my first time as an Author. The Fair was a lot quieter than usual, since so many people were stranded elsewhere, but it was no less impressive. I got a new insight into the work that takes place on Templar’s stand: rights being sold to other countries, events being set up, orders being taken. And it all happens in a pretty small area. Kudos to everyone working so hard to make Blackhope a success!

It was exciting to see The Blackhope Enigma up there on the shelf with all of Templar’s stunning range of books for children. I positively drooled over the new picture books especially. And the new Vampireology (Ology Handbook)! I thought I was tired of vamps, but when I saw it, I knew I’d have to have it. That, and Dracula (Collectors Classics), illustrated by Anne Yvonne Gilbert. Wow, and double-wow.

I was pretty amped to meet up with a couple of great people from my Arvon course last year. It was over a fleeting falafel sandwich in the Terrace Cafe, but grand nonetheless.

I fairly floated home yesterday, under crystal clear blue skies, the train racing through the blooming countryside. It was a good time to catch up with myself, make a mental list of all the exciting stuff coming up, and of all the writing and drawing I am anxious to get back to!

Climbing the Mountain

And reaching the sky.

Recently I added this photo to my Powerpoint presentation for school groups. It’s a mountain of Blackhope Enigma drafts, intermingled with comments from my agent. The oldest draft is on the bottom and the most recent at the top. Actually, this photo doesn’t even include the later revised versions I did after my editors commented on it. The pile is even higher now, and I look at it from time to time in awe.

Writing the book took all the guts I could muster. I never had the feeling I should give up on it, though I certainly had my dark moments from time to time. I really felt I HAD to write this book, even though I had never attempted such a thing before. Besides, I was already used to persevering in my illustration career. It took years of marketing my work to New York publishers, and reworking my portfolio, before I was taken on to illustrate my first children’s book way back when (a chapter book for the lovely folks at Knopf, by the way!)

If I had needed to be inspired 24/7, I would never have finished The Blackhope Enigma. I just had to show up at the desk and focus. Some days it worked better than others (some days it didn’t work at all), but I just kept going.

I’ve read some excellent essays by other children’s and YA authors about sticking to the job. I particularly like this one by Cassandra Clare, author of The Mortal Instruments
and Infernal Devices fantasy books.

There is nothing like the feeling of holding your printed book in your hands. But it is almost as boggling to look at the pile of drafts or the folders of mind maps, flow charts and outlines - and recognize that you worked your way, the best you could, through plot problems, unconvincing dialogue, faults of logic and a whole host of typos.

Thinking on this idea of climbing a mountain, I remember my first big climb up Ben More on the isle of Mull. I was with a group of very experienced walkers and had done pretty well in keeping up with them. As we neared the top, it became clear that we would have a steep scramble over boulders. I watched a woman being hoisted up a huge rock and knew I couldn’t do that. I panicked. I wanted to stop and go back - but, as the others told me, I’d come too far to turn back. One of them gave me the best advice: find a different way through the boulders, and then keep your eyes on the path directly in front of you. Don’t look forwards or backwards - keep your eyes on the path before you and go step by step.

I did it. Twenty minutes later, I was drinking tea at the summit. It hadn’t been easy, but it had not been the nightmare I imagined. I looked back down the mountain and thought, I came from there. Not unlike looking at a very significant pile of papers on my desk.

Craigmillar Book Festival

Thanks, Castleview P7, for this snappy drawing of a mouse who looks like a certain super-famous pop singer!

After showing examples of my children’s book illustrations, I read out excerpts from The Blackhope Enigma for the first time, which I really enjoyed.

Thanks to the organisers of the Festival and to all the staff and pupils!

Ideas Within Ideas Within Ideas…

Why my writing is a bit like a nesting Matryoshka doll.

I had a very funny ‘Aha!’ moment when I found the doll, because when I tell people about the stories I write, I often describe my plots as being like Matryoshka dolls. Just like my paintings, which I often build up with layers of pigment, I like to write stories within stories. The Blackhope Enigma is all about layered paint and stories hidden inside other stories. I am busy working on my next novel (with a top secret title) and it’s shaping up to be another nest of interlocked stories. I just can’t help myself! I like to write what I would want to read myself - and that means secrets, twists and things not quite turning out the way you thought they would!

So I find myself with a new two-inch tall ‘writing talisman’, or lucky charm. The little Matryoshka doll, with her half-smile and otherworldly half-eyes, is a powerful reminder to me of where I am going with my stories - and where I have come from. A few years ago I would never have imagined writing a novel, and yet here I am with my creative life transformed and a new moniker: author-illustrator.