Five Get Edgy in Winchester

This weekend five-eighths of The Edge will be appearing at the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators Conference in Winchester. Bryony, Dave, Miriam, Paula and Sara will be on an Edge panel discussing current trends in YA and looking at the benefits and pitfalls of writing edgy fiction, as well as answering questions from the audience. The weekend will also see the first unveiling of the Edge Graffiti Wall. Delegates will be invited to write questions, comments, slogans and even draw pictures on the wall, which the panellists will then discuss during the session. Our authors are all looking forward to the event and have promised a couple of surprises, including the introduction of a new member of The Edge!

Photos and video evidence to follow on our return.

The Next Big Thing

Dark Parties author Sara Grant considers trends in teen fiction and asks ‘what’s next?’

Tis the season for trend pieces. A look at the year behind and a prediction for the year ahead. What’s hot? What’s not?

Unfortunately my crystal ball is busted. I thought I’d try the Magic8Ball app on my iPhone, but when I inquire about teen fiction trends, the only response I get is: ‘ask again later’. So I decided to do a little informal research. What I found was no surprise. Dystopian, supernatural and urban fiction will continue to be popular in 2012. More generically, most of my sources agreed that teens want lots of action paired with a little romance. [One of the best teen fiction trend articles I found was from Teen Librarian’sToolbox.]

My debut novel Dark Parties is dystopian. It’s one of seven dystopian novels by debut writers published in the U.S. this year. I’d love to say that in 2007 when I started writing what would become Dark Parties, I knew that dystopian was going to be the next big thing in 2011. But nobody knew it back then. The first agent who read Dark Parties told me she didn’t think she could sell dystopian fiction. The truth is I was writing the story I felt compelled to write – and I got lucky.

I’d suggest that writers shouldn’t be worried about what’s hot in 2012. The publication process is typically a long one. Even if your manuscript is done and dusted, it could be a few years before it appears on bookstore shelves. My next novel is scheduled for publication in 2013. The book I’ve just started – if I’m lucky enough to sell it – most likely won’t be published until 2014. That means I’m writing for readers who are in their tweens (11-13 years old) now. If you are interested in tapping into the future teen zeitgeist, consider how current tweens and the world will change over the next three years. (How’s that for an impossible and mind-blowing assignment?)

Because mash ups were popular on Glee and in bookshops, I wondered if I could unearth a future trend by pairing some of the bestselling books of all time with current tween fads and faves. I’m not sure I’ve uncovered a blockbuster – but you never know:

 

·         A Tale of Two Biebers

·         Le Petit-Prince William

·         The Vampire, the Zombie and the Wardrobe

·         Anne of Twitterland

In all seriousness and based on nothing but my gut and obsession with all things teen fiction, I have a feeling that space, westerns, and thrillers might be staging comebacks. I’m also hoping that soon we’ll see something uproariously funny storming the teen charts.

Having said that, my next project doesn’t fall into any of the above categories. I’m writing what inspires, obsesses, and challenges me. My best advice is: don’t worry about trends. Write and read what you love. Originality and great writing will win out. Don’t follow trends. Be the next big thing!

 

What are your predictions for teen fiction in 2012 and beyond? What do you hope or fear will be the next ‘hot’ read for teens?

Dark Parties will be published by Orion in January 2012. Find out more about Sara and her book at www.sara-grant.com. 

STORY TIME FOR TEENS

Paula Rawsthorne wonders whether we should be reading to our teenagers?

I attended a Spoken Word event this week.  The theme (very appropriately) was Halloween and writers got up and read passages from their ghostly  novels, a professional story teller enthralled us with a macabre fairy tale and (as it was held in our local art house cinema) we got to watch old footage of an exquisite reading by Tom Baker of ‘The Emissary’ by Ray Bradbury.  It was just Tom, sitting in an old leather arm chair, staring down the lens of the camera with his wild eyes and hypnotic voice, telling us the story.   The room was packed, the tension mounted and mounted and you could have heard a pin drop.   I don’t think I was the only one who gave an involuntary shudder as Mr. Baker uttered the final line. 

The whole evening made me think what a wonderful experience it can be when someone reads to you and, how being read to in a group has the added benefit of that warm glow of shared experience.   I began to think about childhood experiences of being read to and how that all seems to peter out once you get into secondary school.

During pre school days there are opportunities to take your toddler to story time at the local library (if it hasn’t been closed down!).  It’s a great habit to get into.  As the librarian sits in front of the squawking crowd and begins to read from the oversized picture book, quiet descends and little terrors, who only minutes before had been having a tantrums in Iceland, suddenly become entranced by the soothing voice and appealing pictures.

In primary school the importance of reading aloud to pupils is undisputed.  Many of us have happy memories of ‘carpet time’ when the whole class bunched up on a scratchy piece of industrial carpet and listened at the feet of our teachers as they read to us.  If this occurred after lunch when your stomach was weighed down with semolina and the classroom was hot and stuffy, you’d often be fighting to keep your eyes open or (to your horror) you’d find the head of the boy next to you, lolling on your shoulder.  But whether you were captivated, or sent to sleep, by the story, it didn’t matter because this was always a comforting, relaxing time in the school day.

And what lovelier childhood memories are there, than having a bedtime story read to you by your mum or dad; and now, if you’re a parent yourself , you have the chance to read stories to your own kids.  You have the pleasure of choosing books together from the library or bookshop, spending precious time together snuggled up on the sofa or sat on the bed trying out your ‘character’ voices on an uncritical audience.

What a shame that that experience tends to end during your secondary school years.   Of course, the chances of your teenager asking you to snuggle up to them and read is nil but (in my utopian world) what if you sit then down with some popcorn and launch into Lord of the Rings or Jane Eyre, what if, before they even realise it, they’ve listened to a couple of chapters a day and are actually quite enjoying it (and enjoying spending time with you?!!)

And what about in secondary schools?  I’ve been lucky enough to do a number of school visits now and within my talk, I read an extract from Celia Frost and it seems to hold people’s attention.   Teachers have commented to me that watching the teenagers as they listened to the extract has reminded them that they really should read aloud more to their pupils but, it’s something that tends to get lost within the pressures of secondary education.

 Being read to, at any age, can be an enjoyable, absorbing experience and has been shown to develop and improve literacy skills.  So, what do you think?  Do most teenagers enjoy being read to?  Would ‘story-time for teens’ (I’d have to think of a cooler title) work within schools and at home?  Do you enjoy someone reading to you?  

Taking a risk at Stanage Edge ......... Miriam Halahmy

One of my excuses for writing contemporary gritty teen fiction is that I convince myself it gives me the licence to revisit the risks of my youth. So in my current cycle of novels set on Hayling Island I have teenagers falling into dangerous seas, riding motorbikes and going rock climbing.

I’m working on the edits to the third book in the cycle, Stuffed, at the moment, which is why my rock climbing days on the gritstone edges of Derbyshire such as Stanage Edge, are very much on my mind. I’ve sent my characters off to Derbyshire on a freezing cold weekend in November. Their leader is nineteen year old Max who has had a lot of experience but none of the others have ever climbed before. That means extreme, scary, risky and ultimately a mega-accident. Great fun!

To write these chapters I had to do some serious research of course. I spent quite a bit of time at the climbing walls in North London, watching beginners and speaking to more experienced climbers.

This is Mark 'Zippy' Pretty setting a new climb on the wall at Swiss Cottage, North West London. He's one of the UK top climbing instructors.

I then took myself off to Derbyshire for a couple of days, taking photos, asking millions of questions about equipment and watching climbers abseil, overcome terror and sometimes, skid back down to the ground again.  It was all great fun and I came home with enough notes to write my chapters. 

I even wrote a poem.

Severe at Stanage Edge               

There are three kinds of sweat;

effort sweat as you jam upwards, hand over hand,

inching the crack, feet skintight in rock shoes.

A curlew calls overhead, you tip,

feel the hallucinatory pull of gravity

the easy fall, effort done,

nothing coming up to meet you

but ground. Then in reverse,

cheek pressed to the grazing rockface,

you breathe, damp all the way to the fingertip

and you’re in prickly sweat;

flowing like a river from armpit to bra,

drenching pants, knees, socks,

until fear sweat breaks out.

This is the worst, when you know the rock rules

and it’s not fear of height or the fall

but of failing at the crux

if you don’t go for it, have it and to hell with gravity.

This is climbing, this is vertical, nothing comes close.

©  Miriam Halahmy

What risks do you take when you write?

Words on the Edge by Keren David

Ricky Gervais has made a career out of teetering on the edge of comedy -  by portraying himself and his fictional characters as cringe-making blundering idiot. He's clearly got a genuine and intelligent interest in testing the limits of acceptability. That,one assumes, is why he's decided to make a prat of himself by using the word 'mong'.
Many, many people have pointed out how hurtful, bullying and wrong this is, how it's a step back to the time when people with Downs Syndrome were seen as less than human. I recently read the excellent Westwood by Stella Gibbons, written in the 1930s which conveys rather chillingly the distaste and disdain felt for Downs Syndrome children.
I have a particular hatred of the word 'spaz'. In the UK, it's generally recognised as a derogatory term for people with Cerebal Palsy, people who used to be known as spastics. When I was at school, spaz and spastic were very regularly used cruel insults. As the sister of someone with cerebal palsy, I feel sick when I hear those words.
However, in America, 'spaz', while coming from the same root, has evolved to mean -  apparently -  a geeky or clumsy person. It's explained here. And as British teens hear the American use of the word on American TV shows, it's gradually coming back. Which horrifies me.
Part of me feels that we should be robust enough to cope with language as it is used, and not censor ourselves too much. I thought long and hard about whether to use 'gay' as an insult in When I Was Joe, and felt it was so much a part of why Ty was who he was -  and did what he did -  that it was unavoidable.
My writing group (female, middle-aged, politically left-leaning) would sometimes complain about my male characters' sexism (so very mild compared to, say, The In-Betweeners), and I'd defend it, in the name of realism.
The In-Betweeners is a great example of offensiveness rendered very funny by its framing. Does it still offend? Does it matter?
So, readers and writers of YA fiction, how offensive is too offensive? What should we reflect, what should we censor? And can our decisions make a difference?

Music and Lyrics

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Someone Else's Life author Katie Dale asks: What's your favourite book playlist?

Paula's blog about ebooks with soundtracks got me thinking about the relationship between words and music. They go together like, well, music and lyrics, don't they? Or is music disruptive to the reading process? Do you like to listen to music while you read or write? Does the muse like music? If so what kind of music? Is it whatever happens to randomly come onto your radio or mp3 player? Or do you have particular music you like to listen to whilst reading/writing particular books? Do you have play-lists for specific books, even? After all, film soundtracks have long proven effective, practically essential, tools in capturing and enhancing the atmosphere of a story, so why can't songs/music do the same for books?

Some books feature music heavily in the narrative itself. Nick Hornby's High Fidelity is centred around the playlists of its protagonist, and how the songs reflect different moments in his life. And likewise, many songs are based on novels - Wuthering Heights by Kate Bush; Moon Over Bourbon Street (Anne Rice's Vampire Chronicles) by Sting; Romeo and Juliet by Dire Straits, Love Story (also Romeo and Juliet) by Taylor Swift.

But while music can enhance and inspire our books, and likewise many lyrics are inspired by novels, you'll notice that lyrics themselves rarely feature in novels. Writers beware! There is a reason for this. It's because record companies impose hefty fees for inclusion of their lyrics - a fact I was totally unaware of till my fellow Edgars gave me a heads up - thank you! I had wanted to include four words from "It's Raining Men" in my debut novel, Someone Else's Life, for which the record company were going to charge me over £600! Song titles, however, are fair game, so I'll stick to those in future!

Stephanie Meyer says she can't write without music, and has compiled a playlist of "music I hear in my head while I read the book", consisting of:
1. "Why Does it Always Rain on Me?" — Travis
2. "Creep" [radio edit] — Radiohead
3. "In My Place" — Coldplay
4. "I'm Not Okay (I Promise)" [video edit] — My Chemical Romance
5. "With You" [reanimation remix] — Linkin Park
6. "By Myself" — Linkin Park
7. "Dreaming" — OMD
8. "Please Forgive Me" — David Gray
9. "Here With Me" — Dido
10. "Time is Running Out" — Muse
11. "Tremble for My Beloved" — Collective Soul
12. "Dreams" — The Cranberries
13. "Lullaby (Goodnight, My Angel)" — Billy Joel

I wonder if her readers would all agree? Or come up with any alternatives?

What playlists would you choose for your favourite book? It would be interesting to compare what different people choose for the same book, so I'd love to hear your suggestions, either for your own favourite book or (to compare) how about Twilight? Romeo & Juliet? The Hunger Games?

I'd love to hear what you come up with.

Someone Else's Life will be published by Simon & Schuster in the UK and Delacorte Press in the US & Canada in February 2012.

Banned Books: On no account should you read this …

Edge author Dave Cousins on the curious incident of the dog in the locker.
 
A couple of weeks ago I read an article about a student in an American high school, running a library of banned books from her locker. What started as a small act of rebellion against censorship, turned into something much more significant and interesting, when she discovered that her classmates wanted to borrow and read the books because they had been told they shouldn’t.

“Before I started (the library), almost no kid at school but myself took an active interest in reading! Now not only are all the kids reading the banned books, but go out of their way to read anything they can get their hands on. So I’m doing a good thing, right? ”   


A few days later I read in the press about the cancellation of  an appearance by award winning children’s author, Meg Rosoff, at an independent school in Bath. Having somewhat belatedly realised that the novel she would be talking about, There Is No Dog, explored the idea of God as a nineteen year old boy, the school felt that inviting Rosoff to speak would not be an appropriate reflection of their Christian ethos.  

The discussions that followed this news, both publicly and amongst friends and fellow writers were passionate and wide ranging in opinions. As far as I was concerned this reaction served as a perfect illustration as to why young people should be encouraged to read and discuss books such as There Is No Dog, precisely because they are thought provoking and stimulate debate.  

In an interview on Radio 4’s Open Book programme some weeks before her event was pulled, Meg Rosoff said that her intention when writing the book had been to simply pose questions that would make readers realise that somebody else was thinking about these issues. And that she believed it was part of the writers job “to look at the dark questions of life.”  

I don’t wish to enter into a specific debate about There Is No Dog, or the school’s decision to cancel Meg Rosoff's visit. I would like to suggest however, that books tackling some of these “dark questions” provide an excellent opportunity for schools to engage students in informed debate. Hiding away from an issue or a difficult question won’t make it go away. Ignorance, fear and prejudice will merely continue as a result. Whereas a generation of young people who read widely, and are encouraged to explore different viewpoints and ideas, will surely be better equipped to shape our world in future.  

A final thought. The library in the locker clearly showed that young people like to read what they’ve been told not to. The question is – how can we stimulate similar interest in books that haven’t been banned? Your thoughts on this would be most welcome.

Dave Cousins' debut novel for teenagers, 15 Days Without a Head comes out in January, published by Oxford University Press. On no account should you read it … 


Please note that all opinions in this post are those of the author alone.