Here she is, Elv Moody of Scholastic, editor of INVISIBLE CITY and ICE SHOCK.
We’re in the bookshop tent at the Edinburgh book festival, a little while after my event. Hopefully I’ll receive copies of photos taken at the signing by Don the Headteacher at the Aberdeen-based International school whose pupils queued so politely.
I don’t think we look too bad considering that I was tired and hung-over from the partying of the night before. And Elv had a poorly eye.
Anywho. I enjoyed Edinburgh so much, esp hanging out with the Scholastic crew.
Ooh and I was able to tell the audience that finally, the title of Joshua 2 is indeed ICE SHOCK (sorry Es, but it will make sense when you read it and it’s inspired by a famous Doctor Who adventure – EARTHSHOCK).
And the glowy slipcover will be neon yellow…!
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So yeah….me and Keith Gray (author of ‘The Ostrich Boys’) hanging out being Fabulous Children’s Authors together, hanging out with our publishers at the Edinburgh Book Festival.
It’s a right laugh. We were just at a party for the Teen Titles magazine where lots of Scots teens got merry on Irn Bru while we swigged fizzy wine and signed autographs.
Hurrah. Let’s hope I don’t oversleep tomorrow and miss my event. Keith is on before me….
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I’ve been getting ready for the Edinburgh Book Festival, much excitement, yay!
My event is on Wed 21st – sold out, I’m surprised and impressed to see. It’s a heck of a marketing machine, the Edinburgh Festival. Most of the Schools Events are sold out.
I have been getting my multimedia stuff up to scratch, cutting DVDs of my videos and rejigging my Powerpoint slideshow with one new slide – all about 2012. Apart from that, I have now booked my schedule solid between seeing friends who are visiting the Festival and hanging out at parties and lunches with my lovely publishers.
And I’m flying there! I will feel rather fabulous…
Meanwhile my sister has made us all very proud by giving birth to a bouncy boy, Benedict. I’m seriously thinking of going to his christening, all the way in Australia. Since we all live so many squillions of miles away from each other, my brother and sisters, these sorts of events are starting to be the kinds of excuses we can use to justify the increasingly terrifying expense of meeting up.
But maybe Scholastic Australia would like me to do some book events and schools visits….
That makes it much more justifiable, doesn’t it?
Meanwhile despite some very good news (apart from a new nephew) – which I’ll share in the next few weeks – I’m feeling rather melancholic. It’s been far too long since I went dancing – not since the Oscar D’Leon concert on July 12th. I think the doctor may order a trip to Mambocity soon. Damn salsa for being so addictive! I’m good and hooked.
Listened to BBC Radio 4 last night; Grevel Lindop reading from his book Travels On the Dance Floor – also on listen again. For a UK-based salsera like me his experiences are very familiar. It made me think nostalgically of Cuba. Especially when he played a song which played often when we were in Cuba. Whenever I hear it I feel a kind of desperate, romantic ache for Havana.
Well I listened to the lyrics, searched for the first line on Google and found this video: it’s the late guajiro Polo Montanez singing “Un Monton de Estrellas“.
Very romantic song. And turns out he’s dead – in a traffic accident in 2002, when he was 47. *sob*
I NEED TO DANCE TO THIS SONG SOON OR I WILL BURST!
Well, today was the last date of my summer book tour. In honour of the tour’s end I’ve compiled some of the best photos with Animoto.
We (Kirstie from Scholastic and I) visited Borders Milton Keynes, which is a beast of a store – huge! You could spend hours there. Very interesting, intelligent questions from students at four different secondary schools in the MK area. Including two I’ve never been asked before – “How did you set about writing about Josh losing his dad?” and “Are you going to be a series writer.” (I thought for a moment the questioner had said ‘Are you going to be a serious writer?’ – a question which I’d have had no idea how to answer!
Some tour stats – 9 towns/cities, 9 bookstores, children from 23 schools, over 1000 school children…phew. Including my old primary school Beaver Road in Didsbury, Manchester. Thanks to the teachers, librarians, booksellers and children who made it all possible. Thanks also to the publicity department at Scholastic Children’s Books!
Thank goodness it was spread out…I’m a teeny bit tired now. Tomorrow it’s back to the manuscripts. Two now…the second draft of Book 2 (with helpful notes from Editor) and beginning Act 2 of Book 3.
Next stop Edinburgh Book Festival at the end of August. No rest for the wicked and luckily I’m a workaholic so I’m bloody mad for it, like.
Author Tour Report 3: Gorgeous Thing – the cover of ‘Invisible City’Originally uploaded by mgharris
My editor Elv said it best, I believe…it is a gorgeous thing. And nothing to do with me…except very indirectly as the author of the story which inspired this artistic vision of Andrew Briscombe from Scholastic.I’ve visited a school every day for the past three days of my author tour…photos to follow when I get home. A big talking point is always the cover, which the young readers adore, but also teachers including one Headteacher and an award-winning librarian…Now a couple of reviewers have been a bit sniffy about the cover, whilst being perfectly lovely about the novel itself. That’s okay…its success in attracting readers might lend the impression that it’s what such reviewers have decided is simply a ‘marketing gimmick’. Not that there’s anything wrong with that…to quote a famous Seinfeld episode…
But in fact, as I’ve discussed with almost 400 school students in the past three days…the jacket of Joshua Files is a genius tactile intrepretation of some key facets of the story.
Allow me, Umberto Eco-like, to offer a semiotic analysis of this remarkable piece of packaging:
1. ‘Invisible City’ features a mysterious ancient Mayan book whose cover is deadly to touch…hence the removable cover in dangerous-looking neon orange.
2. The J symbol denotes the Maya…in a highly subtle way. Mayan ruins impress immediately with their terraced temples of stone rising from the jungle…the parallel lines of architecture. Hence the lines of the J symbol. And when you slide the slipcover across the J, white lines appear next to the black ones…steps in shade and light.
3. The J also represents hieroglyphic writing. It is in fact a glyph – symbolizing Josh.
Umberto would have had said something much cleverer and brought in some eclectic references from art history and maybe quoted Deleuze…but, yanno.
At a school in Romiley, Stockport today, a year 11 boy showed me up for the slow-witted, former Rubiks wannabe I am. He finished the cube 60 seconds before me, in true Rubiks-kid fashion, hardly even glancing at the cube as he whooshed the pieces into place. By comparison I was staring at the cube, slowly turning it much as a caveman might handle a one-for-all TV remote.
Nice going pal, but as we say in Mexico…’Como me ves, te veras.’ (as I am, you one day will be)
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