Something's Coming From the Edge...

Over the last year the Edge authors have been working on a very exciting idea! 

It was an idea that grabbed us all. It made us think about writing in a different form, a form that might be interesting and exciting for us as well as teen readers, young adult readers, schools, libraries, and pretty much anyone who loves to read teen or young adult fiction.

We've almost reached the final stages of taking the original idea and developing it into something new and different.

Things we can tell you now:
There will be books!
There will be events!
There will be EIGHT stories!

But keep it under your hat for now.

Much more will be revealed later, so stay tuned...

Reading and Writing—Two Essentials for a Happy Writer!

This week Edge Author Dave Cousins asks how much does the ability to write, depend on your dedication as a reader.

Finding time to write alongside the demands of a family and a job—even if that job is being a writer—can be a balancing act. Before I was fortunate enough to be published and had to squeeze writing time into early starts, late nights, train journeys and lunch breaks, I sometimes found that I didn't have time to read. Free time was so scare, it seemed more important to spend it creating my own stories rather than reading somebody else's. I eventually found that logic to be somewhat flawed – in my case at least. Now I firmly agree with Stephen King, who said, “If you don’t have time to read, then you don’t have the time (or the tools) to write.”

It may look like I'm taking it easy with a book.
In reality this is an intensive training workout!

Over the years I’ve noticed that when I’m not reading every day, my writing flows less freely. An obvious analogy would be the sporting one: that reading is an important part of maintaining a level of writing fitness, like an athlete training every day. When I’m reading a lot, my writing feels natural, instinctive – fitter, if you like. Or as The King puts it: “Constant reading will pull you into a place where you can write eagerly and without self-consciousness.” For me, it’s about filling my subconscious with words and stories – the rhythm of sentences and paragraphs, the pace of a well spun yarn.

“Every successful writer I know is also a great reader.” – Robert Cormier

When I started to write, I worried that my own stories, or rather my voice, would start to sound like whatever I was reading, but that didn’t happen. Instead, I find that reading somebody else's words helps to clear my head, and stops me thinking about my own for a while, so I'm fresher when I return.

But what about you? Here at the Edge we are always interested to hear other people’s experience. How does reading sit alongside your writing? Does it help? Does it interfere? Does it matter what you read? Leave a comment in the box below and let us know. Thanks.

Meanwhile, here are a couple of posts you might enjoy by fellow Edge authors on a similar theme:

Reading For My Writing by Miriam Halahmy

Writing Tips Part 6 by Sara Grant

Dave Cousins is the author (and sometimes illustrator!) of a number of award-winning books for young people. Visit www.davecousins.net for more info.

WRITING TIPS – PART 7 FROM EDGE WRITER SAVITA KALHAN

For the past six weeks the Edge Writers have been sharing their writing tips. Here’s a brief run-down, but to get the full benefit of their wisdom, check out their blogs here on The Edge:



Bryony Pearce – Go be a DORK – as in Day-dream, Observe, Read, and Query, and most importantly to then Write.

Dave Cousins – Amongst his fifteen amazing writing tips, one of the most important is to ENJOY what you’re writing.

Katie Dale – People watch, listen, carry a notebook, enter writing competitions, and READ, READ, READ.




Miriam Halahmy – When you’re drained, take a complete break and do no writing at all until you’ve recharged your batteries. It’s a risk well worth taking.






Paula Rawsthorne - My tip would be to gather tips and ‘rules’ from the various writers that you admire (and some you don’t) and then see what works for you.




Sara Grant - My top writing tip – Buy LOTS AND LOTS of great books – and study them! The only creative writing teachers you will ever need are on bookstore and library shelves.






And now it’s my turn to share mine. Last year I blogged about Pulitzer Prize winner Jane Smiley. “Nobody asked you to write that novel.” These words were said to her by a friend and they resonated with her in a way that they resonate with many writers, and have done so for me.



Writing is such a close and personal encounter with your imagination that to lay it out in the open for others to read, criticise, and, hopefully, enjoy is a major deal. But that’s what writers do. So bearing that in mind, I have only two writing tips to add to all the other great tips from the Edge authors.


Enjoy the process of writing regardless of the rewards. Don’t think about whether those rewards might involve getting a publishing contract, winning awards, receiving accolades, getting big advances, because you may be in for troubling times. The writing process itself can be hard work, all the more harder if you’re not enjoying what you’re writing, trying to write or rewriting for the seventh time!

Be patient and persevere. Being a writer also means being in for the long haul. The publishing industry is nothing if not slow and long-winded. Nothing happens today or tomorrow; nothing happens without several people in a publishing department being totally committed to your book, and then they have to get it past several other people in other departments such as Sales and Marketing. So bide your time and don't ever give up.

We hope you’ve all enjoyed our WRITING TIPS series. Please do come back to us if you have any questions or leave us your thoughts in the comments section below. 

HAPPY WRITING FROM THE EDGE!

 

 

Books on the Beach—The Edge Guide to Summer Reading! by Dave Cousins

I write this in haste. We go on holiday tomorrow, and I should be packing. Clothes aren’t a problem, but choosing which books to take requires time and some serious thought. No e-reader for me, so there are space and weight issues to consider.

Summer breaks have always been a great opportunity for reading. Memories of childhood holidays tend to blur into one compilation vacation, but I often remember places we visited because of the book I was reading at the time. I doubt Hound of the Baskervilles would have affected me quite so much had I not read it while staying in a remote cottage on a wind-blasted Cumbrian hillside. Each night I peered from my bedroom window convinced that the lights from the houses across the valley were signalling to me!

Here at the Edge, we like to spread the word about good books, so in honour of the season I asked a few friends for their favourite summer reads, and what they would be taking wrapped up in their beach towel this year.

Natasha Radford from the Chicken and Frog Bookshop in Brentwood 

So much to choose from! I took E. Lockhart's We Were Liars and loved it. It had a fantastic twist that I didn't work out and was, quite simply, an enchanting read. Set in a beautiful location, there are vivid descriptions which whisk you away. My 12 year old is working through the Death Note graphic novels by Tsugumi Ohba, at an alarming rate. Great illustrations and a gripping (very dark) plotline.

Fellow Edge writer and author of the superb Salvage, Keren David 

Helen Grant’s Silent Saturday and the Demons of Ghent, both atmospheric thrillers set in Flanders. Rae Earl's  My Mad Fat Diary—Funniest teenage diary ever. Better than Adrian Mole. Keris Stainton's Starring Kitty—A sweet romantic first love story, about a girl with a crush on another girl.

Librarian and CKG Judge Matt Imrie 

I recommend The Shining Girls and Broken Monsters by Lauren Beukes—for people who would like a chill over the high summer. Serial killers, time travel and the monsters that humans can become! Grown up reading for anyone who wants to be drawn into a web of darkness. This One Summer is a graphic novel by Jillian and Mariko Tamaki—a coming of age story set over a summer “about the awkward transition from carefree childhood to jaded, self-conscious young adulthood” beautifully drawn and gripping.

Edge author Miriam Halahmy’s Hayling Cycle of young adult thrillers set on Hayling Island off the south coast of England, make perfect summer reading—sea, sun and lots of action! She would also recommend:

For children: Five Children and It by E. Nesbitt, about a grumpy sand fairy who offers them one wish each day which will turn to stone by sunset. This sets the children near impossible choices.

For teens: This year I loved Eleanor and Park by Rainbow Rowell, a thoughtful romance to get lost in on the beach.

For adults: The Lie by Helen Dunmore, set in Cornwall after WW1. Beautiful descriptions and a different take on life after that terrible war.

Beth Khalil, LRC Manager at Charles Thorp School in Ryton

The books I would recommend with summer themes are That Summer by Sarah Dessen, Jim Carrington's Drive By and Jackdaw Summer by David Almond. I love any books by Sarah Dessen, they are perfect for teen readers to relax with when away from school and this was an ALA Best Book for Young Adults. Drive By was excellent and the characters stayed with me for ages after I’d finished reading it, especially Summer whom I loved! It was the first book I’ve read by Jim Carrington and have now bought the others. Jackdaw Summer is a great read especially for lads who want something particularly engaging. I loved in particular the first line: "It starts and ends with the knife …" Highly recommended!

The books I have piled up to read this summer are: RIOT by Sarah Mussi (I read that. It was brilliant—Ed.); The Bubble Wrap Boy by Phil Earle; Haunt – Dead Scared by Curtis Jobling; Exposure by Kathy Reichs (Virals – 4); Rockaway by Charlie Fletcher; The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman

My full summer reading list is here http://bethreads.wordpress.com/

Megan, who writes The Book Addicted Girl blog
My perfect summer read … if you're into contemporary, I think a great one would be We Were Liars: set at a beach, full of mystery. Don't read it on a beach though—unless you enjoy crying in public … Ooh, I'm also reading Simone Elkeles' new book Better Than Perfect—which is a brilliant beach-side read if ever there was one! But for me, a paranormal addict, my perfect summer read would be either the Grisha trilogy by Leigh Bardugo or Paula Weston's Rephaim series. The Grisha series has a Sun Summoner (suitably summery, right?) along with loads of action, romance and magic. The Rephaim series is set in Australia: insta-sun!! As for what I'll be taking on holiday …well, that'll probably be Jennifer L. Armentrout's Opposition and the second in the Game of Thrones series. What can I say? I'm just a fantasy girl! 

SCBWI Undiscovered Voices winner and author of the extremely funny Who Ate My Brain blog, Nick Cross 

I recommend Lousie Rennison's Georgia Nicolson books - they're perfect summer reading. Teenage Georgia is self-obsessed, but in no way self-aware, which makes her diary especially hilarious. As a forty-two-year-old man, I should probably be embarrassed at reading about fourteen-year-old girl stuff like boys, spots and unexpected leg hair, so I shall have to claim that I'm doing it all in the name of research. This is because I have my own fourteen-year-old daughter, although she reads the same books with a furrowed brow, as though it's all a true-life documentary about the misunderstood plight of modern teenagers!

The Edge’s own Savita Kalhan author of the chilling YA thriller, The Long Weekend

The Girl Who Saved the King of Sweden by Jonas Jonasson: Light, funny and ridiculous in equal measure! Loved the main character - a young black orphaned girl from the slums in Soweto who's ever changing circumstances, and extremely high IQ, take her on a path that leads to hobnobbing with presidents and royalty. Thoroughly enjoyed it. How to Get Filthy Rich in Rising Asia by Mohsin Hamid: This comes highly recommended by a friend. It's received great reviews too, so really looking forward to reading this. And looking forward to a re-reading of The Earthsea Quartet by Ursula Le Guin.

Edge author Sara Grant, whose Half Lives was one of my summer reads of last year, just returned from holiday with our third recommendation for E. Lockhart's We Were Liars.

My wife Jane, is my first reader, harshest editor and best critic! It takes a good book to win her praise so I’ll certainly be stealing this from her pile. 

My holiday reading this year has been Tove Jansson’s The Summer Book. Famous for her Moomins series of childrens’ tales, the author also wrote ten novels for adults. The lives of the inhabitants of a small Finnish island are documented through snapshots of odd days and events. It is ideal as a ‘dip-in’ book as each chapter can be read in isolation; but the parts add up to a fascinating portrait of the two main characters: a grandmother and her grandchild, Sophia. The book has a quietness to it that echoes the long summer days, but covers much more than relationships. Philosophy, religion and comments on the environment are touched upon through the conversations and actions of the characters. The wisdom, wit and imagination of the old woman and young girl appeals to all generations, and it reminds us not to dismiss those at either extremes of their lives. I can see why it is regarded as a classic in Scandinavia and look forward to reading the The Winter Book when the weather turns.

Finally my own book of the summer:
Butter by Erin Lange was one of those special stories that grabbed me on page one, and didn’t let go—or let me down. A potentially dark subject handled with subtlety, humour and heart. The voice and characters are particularly well crafted, in fact I can’t praise this highly enough—one of my reads of 2014 without a doubt. Great cover too!

Now all that's left is to choose which of my stack of "books to read" will make it into the suitcase. After much deliberation I've gone for: Tape by Steven Camden (I’ve heard good things about this, but Keri Smith’s cover alone would have made me read it!), The Bubble Wrap Boy by Phil Earle (I’m a big fan of Mr Earle, and this one sounds great), plus Dark Satanic Mills, written by Marcus and Julian Sedgwick, illustrated by John Higgins and Marc Olivent (I do like a good graphic novel, and I’ve been waiting to get my hands on this since I bought it back from Hay for my lad.)

So, that's it. If you wouldn't mind just sitting on this case while I try to close it … 

Huge thanks to everyone for taking the time to offer their recommendations. Have a good summer and happy reading.

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Waiting for Gonzo by Dave Cousins recently won the Grampian Children’s Book Award. It is out now in paperback and audiobook—read by the author!

Edward Thomas on The Somme ...... by Miriam Halahmy

This is my first blog post of 2014 and it is the year which marks the centenary of the outbreak of WW1. So it seems both apt and edgy to write a post about my visit to the Somme last summer and my pilgrimage to the grave of one of our greatest poets, Edward Thomas.

 My brother Louis, a keen photographer and also with a great interest in  WW1, drove us to stay in Arras as our base for visiting the battlefields. 

I knew that Edward Thomas was buried nearby. I had been reading about Thomas almost obsessively for two years; biographies, books by Eleanor Farjeon who was in love with him, poetry by Thomas and Robert Frost with whom he had a great and influential friendship and I had seen a play about them all at the Almeida Theatre. Thomas is thought to have walked more than any poet since Wordsworth and he went to war to save the countryside of England which he covered inch by inch during his too brief lifetime.

 It was a beautiful July morning when we drove to Agny Cemetery where Thomas is buried. The cemetery is just a few miles south of Arras, and probably only a few hundred yards from the trench where he was killed by a stray bullet on April 9^th 1917, on the first day of the Battle of Arras, Easter Monday.

 In his notebook the day before he was killed, Thomas wrote a few notes :-

The light of the new moon and every star

And no more singing for the bird...

I have never understood quite what was meant by God

The morning chill and clear hurts my skin while it delights my mind

As we walked along a path towards the graves, poppies were nodding bright red amongst the high green corn and tears were welling in my eyes.

Thomas’s grave is well cared for as are all the graves in all the British cemeteries we visited. The War Graves Commission has honoured our dead as we should wish it.

I stood in front of the stone and read the last three stanzas of Thomas' two page long poem,

Roads

Now all roads lead to France

And heavy is the tread

Of the living; but the dead

Returning lightly dance:

Whatever the road bring

To me or take from me,

They keep me company

With their pattering,

Crowding the solitude

Of the loops over the downs,

Hushing the roar of towns

And their brief multitude

Edward Thomas

Over the next two days as we drove and walked around the Somme and saw the cemeteries, memorials, craters and trenches and collected pieces of ordnance which still surface in the fields, I wrote in my notebook, as a writer must do.

Here is my poem: :-

Agny Cemetery  early morning  July

The corn is high and green

poppies blare their old familiar red.

Today I am a poet on the Somme.

I find your grave and choke back tears

read aloud the lines which open,

... Now all roads lead to France...

We know you Thomas, your beauty,

your black mood, striding step across the Downs.

We know who loved you, Helen, Eleanor, Robert.

But to your left lies Soldier of the Great War

the white stone empty except for Kipling’s line

Known Only to God.

No-one comes to weep for him

read poetry and sigh

wish that he had lived.

I close my book to silence;

only the wind in the pine

and the quiet grass nestling at your feet.

© Miriam Halahmy

2012 Review: Books, Libraries and Writing – A Year on The Edge

In the final blog post of 2012, Edge author Dave Cousins takes a look back over a few highlights from the last twelve months at the Edge.

The year started with a flurry of Edge books hitting the shelves: Sara Grant's Dark Parties, my own 15 Days Without a Head, plus Someone Else's Life and the first two titles from the Fairy Tale Twist series from Katie Dale. January also saw the first of two guest posts by Caroline Green.

As the year draws to a close, I'm sorry to have to write that our national library service is still in a perilous state. The current government seems either unaware or ambivalent to the vital role libraries play in society and has done little to stop closures and reductions in services across the country. To mark National Libraries Day in February, each of the authors at the Edge wrote a short piece in support of libraries.

March saw the publication of Illegal – the second book in Miriam Halahmy's trio of books set on Hayling Island. Author Mary Hoffman wrote: "Miriam Halahmy has pulled off a difficult trick - a second novel as good as her first."

During events we are often asked for writing tips, so in April the Edge scribes each offered a nugget of wisdom we hoped might be useful to fellow writers young and old.

Late Spring saw a trio of fine authors guesting at the Edge. We were delighted to welcome Nik Perring, Jane McLoughlin and Conrad Mason. If you missed their posts the first time around, here's a chance to catch them again.

Edge authors and the My Voice Libronauts in Warrington

The Edge Summer Tour kicked off with a trip to meet the My Voice Libronauts in Warrington. This was followed by events in Blackheath, Hounslow and Westminster. The final date saw Dave and Sara performing a double-act of live storytelling at the Edinburgh International Book Festival in August.

We are keen to have a wide variety of voices at the Edge, and were pleased to invite a quartet of book bloggers to give their perspective of teen and young adult fiction. Read what Paula from PaulaSHx, Beth from Page-Turner, Cicely from Cicley Loves Books, and Jeremy from Book Engine had to say.

September saw the publication of Another Life – the eagerly anticipated third book in Keren David's trio of urban thrillers that started with the acclaimed When I was Joe. More good news followed, with the announcement that new Young Adult imprint Strange Chemistry will be publishing Bryony Pearce's The Weight of Souls in the UK and US in August 2013.

We rounded off the year with A Night on the Edge at Foyles bookshop in London, in association with Foyles and the Youth Libraries Group, plus an impressive line-up of  award-winning guest authors: Ruth Eastham, Celia Rees and Anne Cassidy.

Paula and Bryony at the Leeds Book Awards

We are delighted that a number of books by Edge authors have been recognised with award nominations in 2012. These include: SCBWI Crystal Kite (Dark Parties, winner); Cheshire Schools Book Award (Angel's Fury, shortlisted); Leeds Books Award (Angel's Fury, winner 14-16 category  and The Truth About Celia Frost, winner 11-14 category); Anobii First Book Award (15 Days Without a Head, Dark Parties, Someone Else's Life, all shortlisted); Sefton Super Reads Award 2012 (The Truth About Celia Frost, winner); Branford Boase (Angel's Fury, nominated); Carnegie Medal 2012 (Hidden and Lia's Guide to Winning the Lottery, both nominated)

Finally, a huge thank you from everyone at the Edge for your support, for visiting the blog and leaving comments. We hope to see you again in 2013.

Happy New Year!

The Edge, an uncomfortable place to be … by guest author, Celia Rees

This week we are delighted to welcome award-winning author, Celia Rees as our guest at the Edge.

I have to thank Miriam Halahmy for introducing me to The Edge and asking me if I’d like to contribute to a site devoted to ‘Sharp fiction for young adults and teens’. I have always believed that there is a place for just this kind of fiction, positioned between children’s books and fully adult writing, offering a staging post, a stepping stone between the two. It is a vitally important, necessary fiction, but a tricky area. The Edge can be an uncomfortable place. Get it WRONG and you will be accused of preaching, patronizing, being out of touch in an embarrassing ‘Dad Dancing’ way. Get it RIGHT and you might delight the readers but dismay the gatekeepers and risk not being published at all.

Tricky lot, older teens.

I began writing as a response to just this difficult group. I was an English teacher and my 14 – 16 year old students seemed to have turned themselves off reading because, they said, there was nothing for them, nothing that reflected life as they experienced it. They were almost adults, but the fiction on offer did not treat them that way. There wasn’t much to intrigue, engage, engross them on a grown up level. This didn’t mean that they read nothing. 

There were authors they consumed with great appetite. American authors like Robert Cormier, Lois Duncan, Patricia Windsor and Ursula Le Guin but their output was relatively small and when these readers wanted to, they could read fast. It seemed to me that what these writers had in common was an ability to write exciting, genre fiction with teenage characters at the centre of the action but with added value. These books were uncompromising, not just in subject matter but also in the complexity of the story telling, the way they were written. I liked that. I enjoyed reading these books myself and that is still my test. If I enjoy the book as an adult reader, it is YA. If I don’t. it’s not. A rough rule of thumb, biased I know, but there it is.

My first novel, Every Step You Take, was based on a true story about a group of students from another comprehensive school in the city who got mixed up in a murder hunt. I wrote it like a thriller because I knew that was a popular genre (and I like thrillers) but it had ‘added value’: strong themes - a continuum of male violence from date abuse and rape to murder and powerful female characters (these were the days of early Val McDermid and V.I. Warshawski).

My latest novel, This Is Not Forgiveness, is also a contemporary thriller, taking in events happening now, soldiers returning from Afghanistan, post traumatic stress disorder, other kinds of social disorder, all mixed into the complexities and stresses of 21st Century teenage life. I’ve written in a lot of other genre, notably historical fiction and horror, but I’ve always kept those first principles in mind: strong stories, added extras, keep it real, be honest, don’t patronize. Even with all that, you still might not get it right…

The Edge can be a difficult place and uncomfortable, but then how comfortable should it be?

For more information please visit Celia's website, her official Facebook Fan Page, or follow her on Twitter @CeliaRees. 

Huge thanks to Celia for being this week's guest author at The Edge.

At Night on the Edge with the Youth Libraries Group at Foyles Bookshop

Last night, six Edge authors joined members of the Youth Libraries Group at Foyles bookshop in London, for an evening of flash readings, panel debate and breakout sessions to explore the edges of teen and young adult fiction. 

Here are some of the highlights.

The iconic Foyles bookshop on Charing Cross Road

A frenzy of activity preparing the gift bags

Foyles rock – literally!

Foyles Gallery – ready and waiting

Our guests add their thoughts to the Edge Graffiti Wall

The audience weren't expecting …

YLG's Matt Imrie to start the evening off with a song!

All too much for Miriam, but Bryony enjoyed it.

Waiting to see what would happen next.

Whatever it was, Sara and Katie enjoyed it …

Video evidence of Matt's musical intro …

Thanks to Neil, Emily and Helen at Foyles, for hosting the event and to Matt Imrie at YLG for making the idea a reality. Much appreciation also to our publishers for their generous support – shout-outs to Orion, Egmont, Oxford University Press, Simon & Schuster, Usborne, Meadowside and Andersen.

Finally, huge thanks to everyone who battled through the downpour to attend – it would have been a very quiet night without you.

Edge Authors meet Hounslow Library Summer Reading Challenge Team at Paul Robeson Theatre

On Saturday afternoon, four Edge authors joined the Summer Reading Team based at Hounslow Library for an event at nearby Paul Robeson Theatre. Throughout the summer, the group, led by librarians Rachel and Navi, will be working with young readers in libraries across West London as part of The Reading Agency Summer Reading Challenge.

Organised by The Reading Agency and the UK public library network since 1999, the Summer Reading Challenge is the UK's biggest annual reading promotion for four to eleven year olds and last year 780,000 children took part (43% of which were boys).

Research shows that reading for pleasure is central for children's life chances, * yet children in England do not read as independently or enjoy reading as much as their international peers.**

Here are a few highlights from the day …

Louis, Rachel, Niki, Navi, Abigail, Sarah, Miriam, Monica,
Sara, Dalia, Anika and Zab.

The Edge make their first appearance in a theatre!

The group made their own graffiti wall
with some (really) tough questions!

Edge authors Sara Grant, Bryony Pearce, Dave Cousins and Miriam Halahmy

Another first for the Edge – an audience of guinea pigs – literally!
Introducing Snow White and Rapunzel.

A huge thanks to Rachel and the team at Hounslow Library for a great event and for making us so welcome. Wishing them all the best for the Summer Reading Challenge.

Don't forget, if you'd like to get involved in the Summer Reading Challenge, visit your local library or the Story Lab website here.

* Reading for Change, OECD, 2002
** Progress in International Literacy Study (PIRLS), 2006