Happy Christmas and an Alaskan Chorus!

Happy Christmas Wishes from  

the Awfully Big Blog Adventure. 

We will be back on the first of January 2017

Meanwhile, here's wishing you all an enjoyable holiday, with plenty of time for all sorts of reading pleasure, for words if you feel like writing, for dreaming of good things

and for listening to Joan Lennon's "Hallelujah Chorus",

all the way from Alaska.

 
Joan wrote, thanking teachers:

I love this video and, at this time of looking back and looking forward, I'd like to dedicate it to teachers.  Teachers are a huge part of the community of adults who influence our children.  Thank you for the good you do!

(Elephant in the room - those awful apostrophes - I'd never forgive them from somebody not so sweet, but this lad, well, I'll let him off with a sigh.)

Happy Christmas and a Hope-filled New Year to you all!


Joan Lennon's website.
Joan Lennon's blog.
Silver Skin.

Moomins, Midwinter - Lucy Coats

Who doesn't love a Moomin? They were an integral part of my childhood, and as soon as I could I shared the magic with my own children, who loved them just as much as I did. To this day, my daughter is known as Little My, hairknot, intrepid attitude and all.

I am therefore, dear ABBA readers, delighted to share with you the news that the Moomins have descended on London, and on the Southbank Centre in particular. We all, I think, need some cheering up at the end of a very distressing year, so what better remedy than to journey through no less than seven interactive Moomish landscapes, including clambering through forests, huddling in caves and setting sail on the high seas, risking the perils of the Hattifatteners? It's the perfect antidote to the midwinter blues, as far as I'm concerned, and it's all narrated by the soothing voice of Sandi Toksvig.

As an adult reader, I now know Tove Jansson's books aren't just good stories. They were also far ahead of their time in touching on matters of sexuality and freedom. Think about Thingummy and Bob. They seem so otherworldly and innocent, with their strange language and their passion for what is hidden in their suitcase. If you realise that Jansson had a brief lesbian affaire with a woman called Vivika Bandler, and that homosexuality was illegal in Finland, the symbolism of that hidden, precious ruby becomes obvious. Look too at Snufkin, that free spirit who cannot be trammeled or tied down by the normal rules of society. Of all the characters Jansson came up with, he is the one I wanted to be. He's the one who escaped and had marvellous adventures.

Everyone has their favourite Moomin book. I was always torn between Finn Family Moomintroll and Comet in Moominland, but it's the latter I would probably choose now. The quest novel has always been a passion of mine, and every scene of that book is engraved on my brain like a series of jewels, even the more scary ones. I think it's a particularly apt book for the times in which we live. Will we manage to avoid the world-searing political comet this time around? Who knows? But whatever happens, I hope we all have a cave to retreat to with our friends and family - and enough Fire Spirit Oil to see us safe!

What's your favourite Moomin book and character, and why? I'd love to know, so do reply in the comments!

Adventures in Moominland, 16 December - 23 April at the Royal Festival Hall

OUT NOW: Cleo 2: Chosen and Cleo (UKYA historical fantasy about the teenage Cleopatra VII) '[a] sparkling thriller packed with historical intrigue, humour, loyalty and poison.' Amanda Craig, New Statesman

Also out:  Beasts of Olympus series "rippingly funny" Publishers Weekly US starred review

Lucy blogs at An Awfully Big Blog Adventure (No. 1 UK Literature Blog) 

Lucy's Website - Twitter - Facebook - Instagram

A leap of faith, why do it? - Linda Strachan

Every time I start a new book and every time I go back and rework something that has been lurking in a drawer (or more likely these days hiding in a file on my computer) I am making a leap of faith as  all writers do.  Unless every book you have ever written has been commissioned, you also make that leap of faith.

As a writer one can spend hours, days, weeks and often years with the shiny new exciting idea that demands attention and devours our lives as we craft the story, breathe life into the characters and then go back and revise and re-write, edit and polish it.   We do it whether it gets published or not, and whether or not it will ever reach the kind of readership we dream of.
Still despite rejections we walk that path of hope and encourage our colleagues to do the same.

People who do not suffer from this affliction (writing) often cannot understand how we can spend so long, so much of our lives seemingly wasting it working on something that might be rejected multiple times, and never get published and, almost immediately after we have started sending it out to the world, go back and write another.
Yet we do.
 Hope springs fresh each time the misty idea of a story grabs the jugular and will not let go, characters talking in our heads demanding to be written, scenes playing out like a film on the page. We blithely dive into this massive workload with excitement and joy although admittedly sometimes, dread.

What is it that makes us do it, are we lemmings? No, we are writers; we have heart and soul and invest it all in the stories we write, carving it from our very hearts and baring our souls and laying it out before a wonderful and heart-warming public, at least we hope so!

But there are other things that require that 'leap of faith' and also take time away from actual writing. I was reminded of this recently by a friend who said she had forgotten quite how much time it took preparing a submission to a publisher or agent, and she never knew if it would be a waste of that time and energy.

Submitting to a publisher or agent is one thing, but do you feel the same way about the amount of writing time that may be wasted by making unfruitful applications?
Writers will often, during their writing/working life, apply for a variety of things.  I am thinking specifically of Writer in Residence posts, Retreats or Fellowships that involve travel and a place to write/share your work, and applications for funding from  public or private Arts funds and organisations.

These applications usually entail a lot of form-filling that may take anything from few hours to a few days of work (time that could be spent writing), in the hope that they will give the writer time to write, but frequently come to nothing and appear to waste as much time as they would provide.

I have nothing against the people who design forms or have to make the decisions between who to accept or decline, it can be difficult.  I am sure they deliberate long and hard but often the forms are usually very long and difficult to fill in, but worse are the unknown specific criteria used, and reasoning behind the decision of the judges.

It may seem obvious to people familiar with producing these forms or used to filling them in, but for most creative writers I know, they are a real headache. I have heard many say that they spent so long on an application and have no idea why they were not chosen, or what the judges were looking for.

The reality of being a writer these days is often that these kinds of applications are the things that allow them to survive and spend time writing, but surely they could be streamlined and the criteria used by those who judge them could be made clearer, rather than having applicants wondering if it was their work, or the way they filled in the form, or some other set of criteria that they did not meet that caused them not to be successful in their application.

Writers will often default to the decision that their work is not good enough, when at times it could just be that overwhelming odds were against them, or perhaps the way they filled in that time-consuming form.

Have you any thoughts on applications and any ways they could be made easier and quicker to fill in and give writers more of a sense of why, if they were not successful?

How do you feel about that Leap of Faith when you are writing?

Linda Strachan is the author of over 60 books for all ages from picture books to teenage novels and a writing handbook - Writing For Children.

Linda is currently Chair of the SOAiS - The Society of Authors in Scotland 

Her latest YA novel is Don't Judge Me . 

She is Patron of Reading to Liberton High School, Edinburgh.

Her bestselling series Hamish McHaggis illustrated by Sally J. Collins who also illustrated Linda's retelling of Greyfriars Bobby.

website:  www.lindastrachan.com
blog:  Bookwords 

A Grown-Up's Christmas in Wales by Susie Day

Do you have an obligatory festive read? A book that you read every winter, or that the family share together?

When I was small, my mother would read us the ten daily stories leading to the 25th from Enid Blyton’s  A Christmas Book (since republished, along with other seasonal offerings, as Christmas Stories). I was especially fond of the Yule Log (if disappointed year after year that it was not the chocolate kind), and mistletoe-victim Balder the Beautiful, which gave my small self angsty pangs and a bit of a crush.

More recently, I’ve tried to reread Susan Cooper’s magnificent The Dark Is Rising - a classic I only read after my sister took me to an amazing theatre production when I was a teen - on Christmas Eve, usually leaving it far too late to get past the first few chapters. Then there’s a slight cheat: The Children of Green Knowe is a book I find hard going (despite loving others in the series as a child) but the BBC 1980s adaptation is the annual soundtrack to putting up the tree, wobbly soundtrack and all.

I write for children; it’s not unusual for me to read - and reread - children’s fiction. But my nostalgic urge come December to recreate something - an atmosphere, a feeling - from that time of my small angst-pang self feels like something more akin to homesickness, or its Welsh cousin, hiraeth: a longing for a past place, perhaps one that has never been. I feel it whenever Greg Lake’s I Believe in Father Christmas twiddles along and revives my strange kidlike adoration for ‘eyes full of twinkles and smiles,’ and complete obliviousness to the ENTIRE REST OF THE SONG.

I am reminded of my niece who, on her first Christmas of ‘knowing’ (perhaps a year younger than might have been ideal), declared mournfully, ‘It’s not the same.’ I think I want it to be the same.

And of course it’s not the same. Our families grow and shrink and grow around us; the places we call home shift. New traditions come and moss the gaps. Not the same, but good, and ours, and before long beloved.

So this year - when I feel as human beings we’ve all done quite a lot of ‘knowing,’ maybe a bit more than we’d have liked - I think I’ll read something new.


Susie Day - books for kids about families, feelings, friendship and funny stuff
https://susieday.com/
Follow @mssusieday on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook

2016 and All That by Miriam Halahmy

Quiz winners with some of the Scattered Authors Society ( SAS): the writers'group which set up ABBA.

This is a rather poignant post to write. After six years or so blogging monthly on ABBA I have decided to step down... time for a new voice methinks. I have thoroughly enjoyed being part of this great literary community and the group behind the blog, The Scattered Authors Society. Fortunately there will still be many opportunities to meet up with author friends in this amazing society.

The Scattered Authors' Society has given me such tremendous support since I joined in 2010 just before my first Y.A. novel, HIDDEN, was published. The wealth of experience in the group has been my benchmark ever since, showing the way and providing support through the peaks and troughs of the writer's life. Writing for ABBA once a month was so important as it encouraged me to organise my thoughts  and write a coherent piece on writing on a regular basis. When one is part of a group for a long time it is easy to take things for granted. So just writing this final blog has allowed me to reflect on how much I have benefited from being part of the SAS and how much I look forward to continuing the relationship in different settings.

For my final blog I thought I would reflect on what has been quite a momentous year for me.
After two years in the wilderness with no book contracts, losing a publisher and changing agents suddenly everything happened in 2015 and as a result 2016 has been a richness of publication.

The year started with HIDDEN being optioned for the stage by Theatre Director, Stuart Mullins. Over the year a script writer has been chosen, the wonderful Vickie Donoghue and funding applied for. Rebecca Hayes Laughton,  Producer, and Temor Al-Kaisi, Iraqi Theatre Maker, have joined the team and our meetings have been exciting and tremendous fun. The play will tour schools, community centres and small theatres from September 2017.

HIDDEN was published in America this summer by Holiday House and was chosen by the Junior Library Guild as one of their Fall books. To cap it all, I then received two copies of the audio book in the post! I've listened to the whole book and its terrific.

HIDDEN has also been bought by Danish publisher, Turbine.

In May this year my very first historical novel and very first Middle Grade novel, The Emergency Zoo, was published by Alma Books on their brand new children's list. We had a great launch in Camden Waterstones and I was invited to speak at the Edinburgh Festival. I have had several other events around the book this year and my diary for 2017 is already bursting with festivals and author talks. The Historical Novel Society reviewed the book, "Lovely and moving book. Highly recommended."

In August my other writer group, The Edge, brought out our very first anthology of short stories, Stories from the Edge, Albury Books. My story, Next Stop, The Eiffel Tower, is set during the Paris attacks and reflects on student responses to the situation. "I guarantee that these stories will leave readers gasping for more. " Joy Court, Chair, CILIP Carnegie and Kate Greenaway Medals.

My final publication of 2016 is one that perhaps I'm the most proud of : Yasmin's Journey, Ransom Books. This is a story about a fifteen year old Syrian girl forced to flee the war with her six year old brother. The story is for teenage girls with low reading ages and is 5000 words long. I was a Special Needs Teacher for 25 years, heading up departments in comprehensive schools and so I know the difficulties of struggling readers. It was very exciting for me to actually write a book which will challenge the maturity of these readers but also help them to develop their reading skills.

In between a new grandchild has arrived, inspiring a poem.

 Other poetry has been written and after 35 years as a member of Highgate Poets I was made an Honorary Lifetime Member, which makes me incredibly proud. I have also been asked to write song lyrics for a project in the Midlands that encourages choirs in primary schools. My song, Seven Billion Candles for Peace, will be performed in 2017.

Years come and go and sometimes we forget what a journey each year can be. This one has had many different journeys interwoven into it but as a writer it has really been a year of joy and publication, only outstripped by the new grandchild!

I know that there will be writers reading this blog who are in the trough right now and perhaps my words will feel at the very least unhelpful. All I can say is that I have been there and so I really do know how it feels to watch everyone else succeed and feel left behind and ignored. But just as things turned around for me, I hope and wish the same for anyone out there who is feeling in the doldrums. Writing, as all creative arts, is a precarious journey to embark on and I have certainly needed all the writer friends in the SAS and elsewhere who have generously continued to support me and have never let me give up.

Happy writing, happy reading and a very happy and rewarding journey in the coming New Year.

www.miriamhalahmy.com

Books for Babies - by Lynne Benton

Recently we had a new grandson, which was wonderful.  His name is Noah, and he is a little poppet (well, we would think so, wouldn't we?)  And I was further delighted when I asked what we should get him for Christmas, and my son said, without hesitation, “Books!”

Given that Noah will only be 2 months old on Boxing Day, he is unlikely to be reading for himself just yet, but it's great that he will learn from birth that books are a GOOD THING!  His parents decided that as his big sister loves books and reading, they assume Noah will love them too. Which is also a GOOD THING.

So I had a brilliant time in our local bookshop looking through the huge variety of books for babies, but realising how different it is choosing a book for the second child in the family, rather than for the first.  All the old favourites, like "The Very Hungry Caterpillar" and "Peter Rabbit",

 are already in the house, as Big Sister has already got them and knows them inside out.

The other thing to consider was that said Big Sister, having reached the advanced age of six, may possibly feel that her new, cute baby brother is getting rather more attention than she is.  So I thought choosing books for Noah that she could read to/with him might help with sibling bonding.

In the end I came up with a clutch of real baby books, but ones which I hope they will both enjoy.

These three are all Touchy-Feely, partly because babies love them, and partly because even if Big Sister had them once, she has probably forgotten them by now, and is unlikely to feel particularly proprietorial about them.  And with luck they will all elicit smiles and gurgles of delight from Baby Brother, which will be another GOOD THING.

There is also a “Peekaboo” book for lifting the flaps and seeing the surprises underneath.

And lastly, because I just couldn’t resist it, “Noah’s Noisy Ark”, which includes buttons to press to make appropriate animal noises.  (He has to know about the other Noah sometime, after all, and what better introduction could he have?)

I hope he (and Big Sister!) will enjoy them as much as I enjoyed choosing them.



website: www.lynnebenton.com 

Old Friends Sheena Wilkinson

At a dinner party last week, a family friend said she was getting rid of an old bookcase. ‘And I’m just getting rid of the books too; after all, I’ve already read them.’  When I had recovered from spitting out my wine, I admitted that I have seventeen bookcases in my house (which is perhaps half the size of hers), full of books I have mostly read.

‘But why do you keep them?’ she asked.

‘I just – have to.’

There are two kinds of people: re-readers and non-re-readers. I became a re-reader out of necessity: as a child the local library couldn’t keep up with me, and besides, re-reading was fun. Reading a new book is like going to a party with strangers – it might be wonderful; you might meet exciting new friends; but it might equally be a disaster as you turn the pages sadly, finding nothing to tempt you and wishing you had stayed at home. Re-reading is like curling up by the fire for a gossip with old friends.

I have certain books which I reread every few years. I don’t know when the need will descend or what will spark it off. Sometimes a new book by a favourite author will inspire me with the desire to catch up on her backlist. Sometimes real life will throw something at me that can only be dealt with with the help of fictional old retainers – Antonia Forest’s Marlows got me through being laid up after an accident ten years ago; the months surrounding my father’s death were partly assuaged by daily escapes to the Chalet School.

But you know what happens! But there are so many new books! non-re-readers proclaim.

Yes, I know. I read lots of new books too. Maybe a hundred a year. And have a ‘to-read’ pile in double figures piling up in one of the seventeen bookcases.

But last week, I don’t know why, possibly because things weren’t going well in my WIP, I found that the only thing I wanted out of the thousands of possibilities in my bookshelves, was the Gemma series by Noel Streatfeild. Nothing else would do. Not her best books, and certainly not a model of good editing (Christmas happens twice in Gemma And Sisters within a couple of months.) I know every line of every gorgeous Betty Maxie illustration; I know not only what event is coming next but often every syllable of dialogue, but it doesn’t matter. I enjoyed every word. Again.

                                 

Lazy? Maybe. But sometimes you just want what you want. One day in 2012 I was walking down the Cromwell Road in London when I thought, This is where the Fossils live. And suddenly I needed to read Ballet Shoes. That moment. (Or at least when I got on the tube.) Because I had my kindle with me, I was able to gratify that. Maybe such instant gratification isn’t good for the character, and I probably stopped reading some worthy tome in order to wonder (again) which of the Fossils I would rather be (Pauline, though I know I’m meant to want to be Petrova); but I didn’t care. I was enjoying Ballet Shoes too much.  

Of course it’s comfort reading, and thank God for it. Christmas is coming, and I expect Santa will bring some new books. Possible new friends. But it’s OK if he doesn’t, because I’m going to be curled up by the fire with the Cazalets (again).

Joy To The World – Ruth Hatfield

I was stuck between two subjects this month, but it really is nearly Christmas (please don’t shoot!), so I’m going to go for the happier subject, and make it brief.

On the 17^th of November (coincidentally - shameless plug alert - the publication date for my new book), I was invited to Thurston Community College in Suffolk to help launch their latest Reading Challenge. I was vaguely aware that things like this went on in schools, but it was a superb reminder of how much the enthusiasm and drive of schools matters in all our lives. The staff at Thurston think that emphasising the unique pleasure of reading is the best way to persuade students to read, and to that end have even appointed a ‘Reading Tsar’, Mr Harrison, who organises the Reading Challenge (other staff are involved, too, but unfortunately I didn’t get any of their surnames in the bustle). 

There were readings – some from me and some from a few talented students, and talk and tea and biscuits and book sales and book passports, but the highlight for me was being given the opportunity to stand up in front of an audience of interested children and parents and tell them how much I love reading, and how important I think it is.

When I was preparing for the visit, in spite of the fact that I can bore on for England about how much I, personally, love books, I had to think long and hard to explain the reasons why, exactly, I consider reading so important. Despite the fact that I write every day, it wasn’t easy to find the words for something I feel so deeply. But in the end I boiled it down to this:

Reading is the best way to join the universal, vital quest to understand human nature. When you open a book, you are opening yourself up to the possibility of trying to understand someone else’s ideas. It’s incredibly important, right now, when there’s so much rubbish spoken in the media and over the internet about how the opinions of a majority are the only ones that count and everybody else should just shut up because their opinions are worthless. This isn’t the way to a peaceful world.

We need hope and faith not only in ourselves but in our fellow humans, and to that end, it’s so important that we try to listen to other people’s ideas. Books are the biggest, most detailed, oldest, newest resource we’ve got to help us understand each other. All human life is in books – people have been writing for thousands of years, they’re writing today, and they’ll be writing on and on into the future.

I so believe it’s true. If we watch the world as it whizzes by, it often feels like we’re just being shouted at. If we read, we have autonomy, and time to think and analyse. Reading is how the past talks to us, authentically, in its own voice, and how the murky future sometimes flashes ominously before us.

Reading is great.

And being invited into a school and asked to say that out loud? Such a massive privilege. 

The Book of Storms - picture by Nicolas Delort