The Fiction Desk are delighted to announce the winners of their 2013 Flash Fiction Competition. They are:
Gavin Cameron, with 'A Big Leap'
James Collett, with 'The Clever Skeleton'
Damon King, with 'Simmo!'
Paul Lenehan, with 'For Joy'
Matt Plass, with 'Invisible Them'
Ian Shine, with 'Love Stops at Ten Metres'
And the overall winner is:
Tania Hershman, with 'A Call to Arms'
To see the full announcement, visit their blog.
... and The Fiction Desk's new ghost story competition ...
Today they've launched The Fiction Desk Ghost
Story Prize.
The top prize is £500, with a second prize of £100; both winners will feature in an upcoming anthology.
Further details about the ghost story competition.
'What Frozen Fingers Need' by Mark Grist
‘Ketchup?’ said the first cannibal.
‘Not ketchup, no,’ said Jen.
‘Mustard?' offered the second.
‘Oh no, mustard tastes awful,’ she shivered.
‘Then what should we add?’ they asked,
looking perplexed.
‘How about you don’t add anything?’ said Jen
'How about you don’t eat my fingers at all?'
The cannibals looked at each other.
‘We are being referenced to as first and second cannibal,’
said the first cannibal.
‘It would be a little strange if we didn’t eat you,’ agreed the second.
‘That doesn’t mean anything,’ said Jen. 'This isn’t really even a poem.
It’s just a conversation
That's been given unnecessary line breaks.’
'Screw you,' said The Poet. And they ate her up.
© Mark Grist 2013
Please do not use without the poet’s permission.
For further information about Mark Grist and his work please visit Mark's page here.
You can find out more about the Dead Poets here.
Check
out the reviews section of our website for the latest recommended reads
- from children's fiction to poetry and classic reads we're sure there
is something for everyone. We also welcome your reviews too - email them
to 'Reviews' at info@bookapoet.co.uk and we'll let you know when we use
it!
Below are the titles we recommended during February 2013. (You can read our reviews and recommendations here.)
‘Star Paws Animal Dress-Up’ Published by Macmillan Children’s Books
‘The Moon Jet and Other Stories’ (Biff & Chip Series) Created by Roderick Hunt and Alex Brychta Published by Oxford University Press
‘My Phonic Flashcards’ Published by Oxford University Press
‘Fun With Words Flashcards’ Published by Oxford University Press
‘Deceit’ By Deborah White Published by Templar Publishing
Ruby, Blue and Blanket By Jane Hissey Published by Scribblers Books
‘Space Penguins: Star Attack!’ By L.A. Courtenay Published by Stripes Publishing
‘The Flip Flop Club: Midnight Messenger’ By Ellen Richardson Published by Oxford University Press
‘Duck Says Don’t’ By Alison Ritchie and Hannah George Published by Little Tiger Press
‘Unremembered: Book 1’ By Jessica Brody Published by Macmillan Children’s Books
‘Wereworld: Nest of Serpents’ (Book 4) By Curtis Jobling Published by Puffin
‘Dark Warning’ By Marie-Louise Fitzpatrick Published by Orion Books
‘Farm Babies’ By Liz and Kate Pope Published by Caterpillar Books
‘Jemmy Button’ Words by Alix Barzelay Illustrations by Jennifer Uman and Valerio Vidali Published by Templar Publishing
‘The Odds Strike Back!’ By Adam Perrott Published by Stripes Publishing
‘Song Hunter’ By Sally Prue Published by Oxford University Press
March's
recommended reads will start to appear on the website from next week. A
selection of reviews will be published here too, as well as on our
Facebook page (www.facebook.com/BookaPoet) and links from our Twitter account (@bookapoet).
Looking for a creative writing guide out there that will tell you how
to write better? A book to tell you how to structure a perfect plot,
create great characters, use language in a powerful and poetic way? This
is not that book.
100 Ways to Write Badly Well is an adventure in drivel. It
will teach you how to botch a plot, how to create characters that no one
in their right mind would identify with and how to reduce the beauty of
the English language to an incoherent mush.
Using one hundred practical examples, each awful in its own unique
way, blogger and creative writing tutor Joel Stickley will lead you
methodically up the creek and carefully remove your paddle before
running off and leaving you stranded. The route is lined with mixed
metaphors, terrible plot twists, piles of adjectives and characters
staring at themselves in mirrors for no apparent reason.
Based on the popular blog and live comedy show 'How To Write Badly
Well', this book is an invaluable guide to the art of awful writing that
no would-be author should be without. Remember – if a thing’s worth
doing badly, it’s worth doing badly well.
Joel Stickley is the author of the hit blog How To Write Badly Well,
which has dispensed bad advice to over half a million visitors since its
launch. (See Joel's page on our website for further info.) With long-time collaborator Luke Wright, he wrote the book 'Who
Writes This Crap?' which The Guardian called “an inspired piece of
parody,” and the animated film 'Crash Bang Wallow', which won the NFBC
Short Film Award at the 2010 Cannes Film Festival. He is Poet Laureate
for the UK county of Lincolnshire and teaches creative writing at the
Open University.
You can purchase '100 Ways to Write Badly Well' in softback format from Nasty Little Press
Or you can purchase the ebook from Momentum Books.
You can find more out about Joel and his work by visiting www.bookapoet.co.uk www.bookapoet.co.uk
The shortlist for the Waterstones Children’s Book
Prize, created to reward and champion new and emerging talent in
children’s writing has been announced. Now in its ninth year, the Prize
consists of three categories: picture books; fiction for ages 5-12; and
teen books, to reflect the breadth of quality in children’s books. Six
books will compete within each category to be crowned category winner,
with the three category winners then vying for the overall title of
Waterstones Children’s Book of the Year 2013.
James Daunt, Managing Director of Waterstones said: “Within these
shortlists are books containing great beauty, humour, intrigue,
imagination and important things to say, but most crucially all are
fantastically good reads. Their diversity and quality, carrying with
them the stamp of excellence as awarded by our expert booksellers,
demonstrates that the world of children’s books is as exciting and
innovative as ever.”
The 18 shortlisted titles competing for the coveted award this year are:
Picture Books:
- Lunchtime by Rebecca Cobb (Macmillan Children’s Books)
- Rabbityness by Jo Empson (Child’s Play)
- Oh No George! by Chris Haughton (Walker)
- The Worst Princess by Anna Kemp & Sara Ogilvie (Simon & Schuster)
- The Journey Home by Frann Preston-Gannon (Pavilion Children’s Books)
- Can You See Sassoon? by Sam Usher (Little Tiger Press)
Fiction 5-12
- The Wolf Princess by Cathryn Constable (Chicken House)
- Atticus Claw Breaks the Law by Jennifer Gray (Faber and Faber)
- Wonder by R.J. Palacio (Random House Children’s Books)
- The Secret Hen House Theatre by Helen Peters (Nosy Crow)
- The Chronicles of Egg: Deadweather and Sunrise by Geoff Rodkey (Puffin)
- Barry Loser: I Am Not A Loser by Jim Smith (Egmont)
Teen
- Seraphina by Rachel Hartman (Random House Children’s Books)
- Skin Deep by Laura Jarratt (Egmont)
- Insignia by S.J. Kincaid (Hot Key Books)
- Throne of Glass by Sarah J. Maas (Bloomsbury Children’s)
- Ketchup Clouds by Annabel Pitcher (Indigo)
- Geekhood: Close Encounters of the Girl Kind by Andy Robb (Little Tiger Press)
The Waterstones Children’s Book Prize is unique in that it is voted
for by booksellers across the country. Final judging is currently
underway.
The winners will be announced on Thursday 21st March. The winner of each category will receive £2,000 with the overall winner picking up an additional £3,000.
You can find out further information here.
Guest Questions from Year 2 at Newborough Primary School, Peterborough (who are currently doing an author study on Lauren)
Where do you get your ideas from?
Ideas come from everywhere. Can be from just looking out of my window, or from books, films and often my memory. It may be from little things I notice when I visit people’s houses or things I overhear when standing in the supermarket queue. It can be things people tell me, funny things, strange things or touching things or things that are totally imagined, things that just float through my mind.
How long do you take to write your stories?
I am never exactly sure how long it takes me to write my books as I am usually working on several stories or ideas at the same time as lots of other things. For my Clarice Bean novels, it took me about 18 months, once I had properly started writing them. For the Ruby Redfort novels I have to be a bit faster.
What made you base your ideas on fairytale stories and characters?
My book 'Beware the Storybook Wolves' was inspired by a reader who wrote to me and told me the lion on the front of my book, 'I Want a Pet' had frightened him. This made me think about characters coming out of the book. Then with 'Who’s Afraid of the Big Bad Book', I reversed this idea and had the character fall into the book. When we did 'The Princess and the Pea', I had wanted to work with the fantastic photographer Polly Borland, and thought about a story that would work well in photographs, something familiar which we could give a different approach to. We decide to use a classic fairytale but have everything in miniature.
What is your favourite book that you have written and why?
There are a few that I am very close to. 'Clarice Bean That’s M'e was the book that launched me as a writer. I stretched myself a lot when I did it. I wrote something that really appealed to me and was about me. At the time it was quite different from what picture books were usually like.
Is there anything you would like to write about that you haven't written about yet?
Yes, there are quite a lot. I’d like to write for older children and adults. I think a lot about quite serious ideas that humour could be added to. I’d like to write about tough subjects, but address them in a humorous or comical way, a bit like the way children can talk about serious subjects in a matter-of-fact way.
Questions from Book a Poet:
What is your favourite medium of art to use?
When I’m illustrating, I like to be able to use all kinds of medium so I don’t restrict myself to one thing. I would find it very hard to just work in watercolours, for example. Collage suits me well, cutting out and sticking paper, different fabric patterns, but I also use oils, watercolours, gouache.
When you create your books do the pictures or words come first, or do the words change as you draw the illustrations?
I think a lot in pictures so I very rarely need to draw when I’m thinking about an idea. I can see it all in my head.
Your new book, ‘Ruby Redfort 2: Take Your Last Breath’ is just out – and we’re enjoying reading about the schoolgirl detective’s latest adventure at sea. Is it a challenge to write for different age ranges?
Don’t really think it’s a challenge. I try not to think about the age-group that I’m writing for too much because everybody’s taste, reading age is different so I don’t really write for a particular age-group – I always feel that a book is for anybody. The challenge with the Ruby books is plot as they are very plot-driven. The structure and tying up the different threads is the tricky thing.
Ruby’s character is from your Clarice Bean novel, was it easy to write the novels for Ruby, as a much-loved character, or did that make it harder to do?
I think what was hard was working out who she was. I had always talked about her from Clarice’s perspective. if Ruby was too silly, the books would be boring so it took some time to work out what kind of book I wanted to write.
Why do you think the spy genre is so popular with young readers?
I think the spy genre is popular with all age readers. The Ruby books are as much thrillers as secret agent books. Reading them you can explore a dangerous and exciting world, of jeopardy, danger and adventures, from a safe place.
What’s the best thing about being an author / illustrator?
It’s the best thing and the worst thing at the same time. You are sort of in charge of your own working life so you can work when you like. You have to motivate yourself and generate ideas. The hardest thing can be fitting it all into the time schedule you’ve got – that can feel like pressure. But coming up with ideas can be a really lovely job as well.
Do you have any tips for budding authors / illustrators?
My advice would be to write what you enjoy. You need to write about something that interests you. It might be something funny that you see out of the window or something that you’ve imagined or about your family. When I was young I wrote and created comic books with a friend – I loved that. You’ve got to enjoy what you’re writing or you won’t be able to carry on.
Do you have any projects in the pipeline you can share with us?
I’m working on the third Ruby book at the moment. Ruby’s in training, learning another agent skill and it will involve another code based on a different sense.
Where can fans find out more about your work?
There’s my own website www.milkmonitor.com where you can find out more about the books. There are some frequently asked questions here too. The Ruby website is www.rubyredfort.com. It’s got some great games and codes to crack.
Lauren Child Biography
Lauren is the author of the phenomenally successful CHARLIE AND LOLA books, (as well as Associate Producer on the TV show of the same name), Clarice Bean and Ruby Redfort books. Lauren’s books have been translated into dozens of languages around the world and she has won many prizes, including the Smarties Prize (four times), the Kate Greenaway Medal and the Red House Children’s Book Award. Lauren was appointed Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in the 2010 New Year Honours.
‘Ruby Redfort 2: Take Your Last Breath’
Published by Harper Collins Children's Books
RRP £12.99 (hardback)
ISBN 978-0007334087
Hey, buster! Normal life is a total yawn. So break out boredom with
multi-million-copy bestselling author Lauren Child, and meet your new
favourite heroine… Ruby Redfort: detective, secret agent,
thirteen-year-old kid.
Everyone’s favourite kid detective is back
for a second mind-blowing instalment, packed with all the off-the-wall
humour, action and friendship of the first book. This time, though, it’s
an adventure on the wide open ocean, and Ruby is all at sea…
Can
she crack the case of the Twinford pirates while evading the clutches
of a vile sea monster as well as the evil Count von Viscount?
Well, you wouldn’t want to bet against her…
Reviews
“The new Ruby Redfort book is utterly exceptionordinarily brilliant” – Clarice Bean
“Lauren Child has put imagination and fun back into the real worlds of childhood.” – Julia Eccleshare, Guardian
“Lauren Child is so good it’s exhilarating” – The Independent
“What more could adventure-loving girls want?” – The Sunday Times.
“The Promise of Freedom” consists of a series of events marking the
60th anniversary of the coronation of Her Majesty the Queen, that will
focus on the relationship between British and American culture from
1953-2013. How did the creative arts in the UK impact on the American
cultural scene, and vice-versa? And what was the nature of the
contribution made by poets, visual artists, musicians and playwrights
to the wider political, social and economic life of these two
countries? The themes to be explored therefore reflect the Legatum
Institute's characteristic emphasis on a comprehensive understanding of
social progress.
The Legatum Institute is based in
London and is an independent non-partisan public
policy organisation whose research, publications, and programmes
advance ideas and policies in support of free and prosperous societies
around the world.
Lecture Series 2013
February 26th - Grey Gowrie, Poet, former Cabinet Minister
with responsibility for the Arts under Margaret Thatcher and company
Chairman, will deliver the inaugural lecture in the series. He has
published several acclaimed collections of verse, and he will be
concentrating on how British and American poetry influenced each other.
Grey Gowrie will be discussing the work of T.S. Eliot- a poet who moved
from the U.S. to live and work in Britain as well as W.H. Auden who
travelled in the other direction.
March 14th - Sandy Nairne, Director of the National
Portrait Gallery, will be discussing the changing face of royal
portraiture and how the iconography of the Queen as portrayed in the
immense variety of portraits that have been painted of her since 1953
has reflected the changing relationship between the Sovereign and her
subjects.
April 21st - Sir John Tavener will premier three
choral works he has composed and which have been commissioned by the
Legatum Institute. The concert will be held in Washington DC, at the
National Cathedral. Tavener's choice of three works by the early 17th
century poet George Herbert as the words to be set to music, take us
back to an earlier chapter in the transatlantic story- the time when
religious and political radicals fled the Church and State establishment
of England in order to embrace the freedom promised in the new American
colonies.
May 23rd - Dame Harriet Walter will be delivering a talk on
changing attitudes towards women, and the evolution in the
understanding of women's theatrical roles in the recent history of drama
in Britain and America.
June 20th - Lieutenant-General Simon Mayall, Senior Adviser
Middle East, Ministry of Defence will be discussing 'The Arts of Peace
and War 1953-2013'- analysing the differing perspectives of British and
American commanders during that period. This concluding lecture in the
series may serve as a reminder that no aspect of the life of a society
can be studied in isolation: the arts and the humanities flourished
during this period first under the shadow of the cold war, and at the
turn of the millennium the conflicts in the middle east became an
inescapable part of the public and cultural debate in the two great
countries.
If you would like further information or would like to attend please contact info@li.com .
You can also find out further info here.
