Category: Joshua Files

MG and ‘The Joshua Files’

Categories
book awards ramble zero moment

A Writer’s Potpourri* (inc Leeds Book Award 2009 update)

As you know, Bob, the blog is commonly used as a vent for the author’s random experiences and emotions.

I’ve been feeling the need for a bit of spillage so here goes. But concise, like. Bullet point-style:

  1. Went up to Leeds where Invisible City had been shortlisted for the Leeds Book Award. There were some totally fab presentations by children of Leeds, using display cards, artwork, Powerpoint, music and even a Dragon’s Den format to talk about the books. The winners were ‘Blood Ties’ by Sophie McKenzie and ‘Before I Die’ by Jenny Downham. All shortlisted authors received a totally ace jewel-shaped ornament engraved with the ‘Leeds Book Award’ logo.Thanks especially to the students from St Mary’s Menston who did the Joshua/MG Harris presentation. It’s the first time I’ve ever seen such a presentation about one of my books so was very exciting! You can see a photo of the St Mary’s gang below. Thanks to Abbey for the photo!

    Students from St Mary's Menston School in Leeds with MG Harris at the 2009 Leeds Children's Book Award.
    Students from St Mary's Menston School in Leeds with shortlisted author MG Harris at the Leeds Book Award ceremony.
  2. Writing Joshua #4 and editing Joshua #3 (ZERO MOMENT). My editor must wonder why it[‘s taking so for long for the latter but the truth is that I’ve only had 4 sessions with the manuscript. It’s the lightest edit I’ve ever had, so of course instead of cracking on with it as I should I’m procrastinating. Must finish by end of next week! However Joshua #4 was really humming along, until I hit a hard part yesterday. I wrote the most dramatic scene in the ms so far…but since it’s not even halfway through, somehow I will have to top it. Plot hints? NO WAY! I’m not even telling you the title!
  3. Looking forward to the Hay-on-Wye literary festival. It’s my first time there and I’m very honoured to be asked! My event is on Thursday 28th May at 10am and you can book online now.

  4. Taking bookings for engagements next year already! Wow. That really makes me feel FABULOUS dahlink!
  5. Starting a totally new thing! Yes, I blogged about this and will again. I don’t have much mental space to devote to it yet but right now I am concentrating on the opening and the title. Many decisions to make still, like the name of the main character and the voice of the narrator. Slow progress but getting there…

*Salsa bands love to slap a potpourri song on their CDs; it’s what English-speaking musicians call a ‘medley’. But we latinos as highly prone to whimsy and sentimentality, hence the more evocative term ‘potpourri’.

Categories
Joshua Files

Summertown Arts Festival, again

Summertown Arts Festival, again

Originally uploaded by mgharris

Hurray for the artisticness of Summertown which even now sprawls across the main street.

The coffee shops are filled to bursting, too. I’m in Joe’s café right now, about to tuck into French toast and maple syrup. Yum.

Here’s my little video of capoeiristas in Summertown, recorded in 2006.

It seems such a long time ago that I wrote a scene where Josh performs in the Summertown Arts Festival with his capoeira group. In retrospect, capoiera may not have been the most effective martial art with which to equip a teen action hero. Capoeira is meant for fun and play, not for combat. Although there are tales of its use by slaves fighting in a war, as well as in the streets of Rio.

The film ‘Only The Strong’ was my introduction to capoiera. There was talk of using the sport in anger there too.

But some capoeirista will look at you very funny indeed if you tell them it’s for fighting. Youtube vids of capoeira are full of comments from rival martial arts practicioners dissing the Brazilian dance fight.

For readers who enjoy the fighting and action sequences in Joshua, I hope you’ll be pleased to see lots more in Zero Moment, book 3. Unlike the first two books, books 3 and 4 are not quest plots…they are more traditional action/adventure.

I’m blogging less frequently btw, because Twittering is fulfilling much of my urge, well, to witter. If you are interested in the everyday life of a children’s author, jump aboard!

www.twitter.com/MGHarris

MG Harris

Emailed from my BlackBerry

Categories
youtube zero moment

Glad to be back

How to adjust to being back from what may well be the best holiday of my life…? Yes – it was perfect. And so was the company of my sister, brother-in-law, niece and nephews.

Cos sometimes it can be a right downer, getting back to the everyday disorder of life. And I live with people who have decided to torture me on a daily basis with their flagrant disregard for my OCD. Everywhere I look in my house I see things which make me sad.

I do have a choice, obviously – I can give up all notion of doing anything else with my life other than cleaning and tidying after my children. Or I can try to ignore it by writing stories.

(Btw you wouldn’t know I have OCD-levels of tidiness tendencies to look at my house, you’d think ‘what a family of slobs.’)

That’s why I don’t invite people to my house. (A Stygian stables of housework or stories. Can’t manage both.)

Luckily I have a job I totally love – I write children’s books and I’ve just started a new one. A few nice literary festivals coming up – Stratford, Hay-on-Wye, West End Festival in Glasgow.

Joshua 3 (ZERO MOMENT) to revise. Joshua 4 (title under wraps) to write. I met Editor Polly for coffee and cake in Oxford yesterday. We chatted about what needs doing on ZERO MOMENT and then I told her The Entire Plot Of Joshua 4.

That’s right. Someone apart from me now knows what is going to happen in the next two Joshua books.

Ahhh but. I know that some of you are watching this blog for any hints of what is going to happen. Well there’s a lot I won’t reveal because it’s part of the Puzzly Twisty Mysterious side of the story. But maybe I can let spill that the Sweet Lurve side of the story is going to develop over the next two books. And mostly it will be agony for Josh. I’ve been listening to a lot of songs about boys in love with girls they can’t have. heh heh.

Frank (German translator of Joshua) says I am ‘evil’. Or was it ‘cruel’? It’s true. I am. But what am I gonna do? Unrequited love is the only romantic kind.

Been watching lots of YouTube too. Seinfeld, salsa dancing. I hear there’s a bigscreen version of this where the shows go on for ages! Must investigate.

Here’s a YouTube clip of cute Northerner, Anthony Hill, a student who is also a singer-songwriter. Does a lovely line in covers of other songs too. Sings while playing guitar, sitting on his bed.

This is his version of Scouting for Girls ‘She’s So Lovely’. All about a guy in love with a girl – who has a boyfriend. “She’s so lovely…” he sings and wonders, “I don’t know how we’ll make it through this…”

Yep. That’s Josh in the next two books. *evil laff* Can you guess who the girl is?

If you enjoy this, be sure to watch some of Anthony’s own songs. My new favourite is Ode to Sangria.

Categories
ARG

The DESCENDANT ARG concludes

Phew, we’ve had a month of Gabi video blogging, Josh and Gabi watching and commenting on each other’s blogs, secret (or not-so-secret) meetings in Habbo Hotel with mysterious messages left on sticky notes on the walls…we’ve had a strange old geezer who calls himself TheOldMan49 tweeting away as he follows Josh and Gabi around the Web and tries to help.

There’ve been increasingly hysterical news stories in El International de Mexico about murders, unexplained disappearances and a kidnap. Secret surveillance documents revealing that in the world of The Joshua Files, no meeting is secure, no telephone conversation goes un-bugged… Some bizarre organisations have emerged too; the conspiracy theorists at archaeologyconspiracies.com, the Sect of Huracan and Chaldexx BioPharmaceuticals.

And some suspicious names are cropping up; names that might be familiar to you if you’ve read THE JOSHUA FILES…

If you don’t know what I’m talking about – where have you been?! It’s not too late to play THE DESCENDANT – the mystery is still unsolved. But the clues and evidence are now out in the open.

Find them if you can!

Anyway, it’s been fun (and exhausting!) for those of us running the show behind the curtain…

There’s going to be a virtual wrap party so that players can meet and chat to the game writers and lead developer. Check back here for details. Ooh and vote in the poll – would you like a virtual wrap party on Mogulus, Habbo Hotel or both (at different times, obviously)?

Categories
2012 ARG movies

Let’s play: 2012 movie virals

Okay, time for some fun on someone else’s ARG after all the work on the DESCENDANT…

As-you-know-Bob, the 2012 movie from Roland Emmerich of awesome STARGATE fame, is due out later this year. Emmerich is also known for his disaster movies INDEPENDENCE DAY and THE DAY AFTER TOMORROW.

Mmmm, apocalypse. He wants his apocalypse now. There, that’s the apocalypse jokes over with.

2012 will be another disaster movie, with the good old Mayan Long Count final date as the prediction for this movie’s end-times. It shares that and at least one other thing with The Joshua Files: the notion that the 2012 scenario is detailed in a still-to-be-found ‘fifth’ codex of the ancient Maya.

In the 2012 movie though, we’re cutting to the chase: codex, prophetic doom, disaster, one hero to save his family. Y punto. Oh and John Cusack as the lead. John Cusack! Could it be more perfect? I LOVE HIM! In my mind, he’s Jackson Bennett. (This won’t mean anything to you unless you are playing THE DESCENDANT ARG)

Okay so let’s play.

First, watch the teaser trailer for 2012. Fully awesome! Now isn’t that the way you would like to die…watching that terrifying wave washing over the Himalayas? It sure beats dying in a bed.

Then look at the two linked sites: This Is The End and The Institute for Human Continuity

At This Is The End you can watch nutty old Charlie Frost, a character played by Woody Harrelson, ranting on about the end is nigh on his cable TV show. Brilliant!

At the marvellously-named The Institute for Human Continuity you can watch a video report of the discovery of a fifth codex. I also recommend Joshua fans to look at the IHC’s section on E.A.R.T.H Initiative for a round-up of general 2012 hokiness. It’s a big-budget version of the 2012 page on DESCENDANT in-game site Archaeologyconspiracies.com. So definitely check it out!

They don’t seem to mention the Galactic Superwave though. Huh.

The principle of the Institute for Human Continuity is this: when the apocalypse arrives, we’re mostly doomed. There will be a lottery to choose survivors. You can take a number right now. Oooh, pick me!

Some snooty sci-fi folk have criticised this movie’s marketing campaign for being cheesy. But that’s just what a disaster movie requires! You can’t serve up a dish as scary as worldwide terror and doom without a side-dish of daftness. At least, you shouldn’t. Not if you want young people to enjoy it.