Category: Joshua Files

MG and ‘The Joshua Files’

Categories
appearances

Festivals and Prizes (part 1 of 2)

Posing for the press at Park Community School, Barnstaple

So I’ve been knee-deep in a week of literary festivals and prizes. Pretty fun way to make a living compared to doing experiments and running a business!

First up was the Appledore Book Festival, a gorgeous week of literary events in the church and village hall, run by a group of pals in the North Devon town. I say ‘pals’ – it’s pretty much the brainchild of Horrible Science author Nick Arnold, his family and their fellow villagers, who decided to club together to save their library.

If you wondered what David Cameron’s ‘Big Society’ might look like, this is it. Instead of a closed library or a measly handout, now they have a festival which attracts big names, like Jacqueline Wilson, Norman Tebbit, Stella Rimington, Robert Goddard and many more. Also, in this year’s school programme, me…

And yes, the library is saved!

Thanks to everyone at Appledore and especially to lovely stewards Karen and Polly who drove me around four schools over two days.

The following week it was off to Shoreditch for the StarLit festival – a quietly spoken, thoughtful reading group from Year 9 at Petchey Academy, to discuss ‘Invisible City’, the book they’re reading right now. Then off up north to Ilkley with Lisa Edwards and Alison Green, two publishers from Scholastic Childrens Books UK, for more author events.

Tony de Saulles and MGH doodle at brunch (tweeted by Lisa Edwards of Scholastic Children's Books)

Lisa took the other half of the Horrible Science duo, Tony de Saulles, and I to brunch at the famous tearooms of Betty, where scrambled egg and bacon muffins fortified us both for author events.

I know mine isn’t very good. But it’s for charidee. A friend asked me to get some illustrations on postcards for an auction at New College School, in aid of the Princes Trust.

In other news, the week was dominated by exciting announcements in the world of bookish prizes. Including TWO announced by the little Mexican girl!

So in part 2 tomorrow there will be a Nobel prize winner, a young poet and TWO school librarians of the year.

Categories
Joshua Files writers

Decoding Joshua, with Chris Maslanka

A few months back, my good friend Bill Heine (he of the shark house and BBC Radio Oxford) had lunch. Bill double-booked me with another friend of his, Chris Maslanka, a top puzzlist who writes the puzzles for the Guardian and The Oxford Times.

Oxford being so tiny, the degrees of separation are usually 2. It wasn’t much of a surprise to Chris and I to learn that we were connected through St Catherine’s College, also my own wonderful literary agent. And Bill.

Bill has turned interviewing me into a sport – you can listen to some of our previous encounters on my interviews page.

Joshua Files in Guardian puzzle page

Anyway, thanks to Bill I made a new friend. Chris and his evil twin, Mikhail, proved to be great allies when I needed a way to visualise some of the puzzles in the first three books of “The Joshua Files”. Code-cracking workshops are now part of my school-visit repertoire…it’s surprising what you learn to do as a children’s author!

‘Mikhail’ Maslanka provides the solutions to all the puzzles in extended videos on the Joshua Files puzzles page at themgharris.com

And in this week’s Guardian puzzles, you can find the first in an exclusive series of Joshua-themed puzzles!

Solution in next week’s paper…

I’ll update this blog entry to include the puzzle after publication.

Btw Mikhail isn’t so much evil as eccentric. Chris is very normal though, a rum-tee-tum sort of fellow.

Categories
translations travel

When MG met Frank…in Berlin

Frank Boehmert and MG Harris

Ultra Secret New Project features a key sequence which takes place in a French town shown in this blog post.

But at the end of summer, my travels took me back to Europe, this time to Berlin. I walked the streets where the final scenes of the novel will be set, plotted a course for the Big Chase, and had a good look at the (secret) location of  the novel’s climax.

My first time there, imagine! All those years visiting Germany, I never visited Berlin. I rather regret not visiting before 1989 now, or soon after. The city has utterly transformed since then. In my lifetime few major cities have changed quite to much. I’d quite like to have seen it before.

I’d like a chance to have a bit of Osstalgie (newish German word meaning nostalgia for the good-old-days of the DDR, when they were properly Communist and austere.).

But no Goodbye Lenin for me and my good pal and long-time travelling buddy, Rebecca. We sampled the delights of Europe’s coolest capital city: cafe life (Kaffee und Kuchen, Berlin cuisine, the best Mexican tacos I’ve eaten outside Mexico) cultural life (museums and a performance of Pergolesi’s Stabat Mater in the Marienkirche of Alexanderplatz).

Not neglecting, of course, Cuban salsa! Where else but Berlin’s fabulous Havanna nightclub. One of the best salsa nights I’ve been to In The World! Lots of cute guys to dance with…

Another great pleasure was that I finally met the wonderful German translator of Joshua Files, Frank Boehmert! Here is Frank’s own version (auf Deutsch) of the event, featuring the same photo taken by my pal Becs.

MG in Berlin

So here’s some of Berlin’s new architecture. I’m standing in front of a glass wall on which is etched the German consitution.

Das ist Extrem Cool.

Categories
appearances fangirling

I talk about mobile phones vs book for kids, and swoon at Avon from Blake’s 7

MG Harris at Sky News radio

Some book publicity events are planned months in advance…and some spring up on you all surprising, like.

Last Thursday I’d planned to be in London to renew my Mexican passport at the embassy, after a bit of a saga as you might know if you follow me on Twitter. Suddenly a little new story broke, about some research collated on behalf of Scholastic Children’s Books UK, that in the UK more under 16s own a mobile phone than own a book.

The research was based on a survey of 17,000 under-16s in the UK. Apparently almost 9 in 10 young people in the UK own a mobile, whilst fewer than 3/4 (73%) own a book. 80% of children who read above the expected level for the age have books of their own. This drops by 22% for those that read below the expected reading level (58%).

It was the last day of term for most maintained schools in the UK, so what better chance to stir up some interest in summer reading for kids?

Scholastic wanted one of their authors to be available for comment, so I was invited to stay over until Friday and do some radio interviews. Sixteen, actually, some live, some pre-recorded.

One interview was at my local radio station, JackFM of Oxford. It’s just down the road from me actually, so Sophie Bruce had a bit of fun teasing me about being in London in a recording studio, when I could have just popped in. And guess who does the in-betweeny-voice bits for JackFM? It’s Paul Darrow, aka Avon, the sexy heart-throb star of BBC TV’s Blake’s 7.

Paul Darrow sent all the girls in my class this photo. *swoon*

Now if you’ve read my bio, you know that I heart Blake’s 7 but I specially heart Avon, spent most of my teenage years (ahem and a bit longer too) dreaming about being a crew member on the Liberator and having my wicked way becoming really good chums with Avon.

Paul Darrow, a charming and very lovely guy, was always most kind to his fans. Once for his 40th birthday I got all my school friends to sign a card to Paul. He replied with a signed photo for every girl in the class, how cool is that? And a letter addressed to the Ladies of Fallowfield.

Sophie of JackFM asked me if I’d like her to get Paul to record a message for me, and I said that I’d like to know that he remembered the Ladies of Fallowfield. Who are now the dowagers of Fallowfield, but never mind.

Paul, being full of awesome and everything, did just that. Ladies, listen to this without swooning, if you can.

Click to listen: Ladies of Fallowfield

Thank you Sophie and Paul for making this recording! I love it!

BIG HINT about Ultra Secret New Project. The guy in it is a teeny bit inspired by Avon. He is a Bad Boy. Kind of a lot worse than Avon, if I’m honest. But Avon, I suspect, would have understood him only too well.

Categories
dark parallel Joshua Files translations

Summer 2010 newsletter – Joshua giveaways and contests

If you haven’t finished school yet – hang in there! It can’t be much longer. I did my last school visits of 2009/10 academic year a week ago. Great to meet readers of all ages! Now I need to crack on and write for a bit…

Here’s the summer Joshua Files news:

1. Mere DAYS remain for the big contest to DESIGN A MAP OF EK NAAB – the ‘invisible city’.
The contest closes on 31st July. Great prizes for runners-up, plus the winner gets their design printed in DARK PARALLEL – Joshua #4.

For HINTS and TIPS read this post on the BookBabbler’s website:
http://bookbabblers.co.uk/2010/07/the-joshua-files-mg-harris/

2. Joshua book and goodie-bag giveaway on BOOKBABBLERS.
There’s an easy contest running on BookBabblers, winner gets a set of Joshua books and a goodie bag of Joshua stuff.
http://bookbabblers.co.uk/2010/07/the-joshua-files-mg-harris/

3. The Joshua Insiders exclusive group of dedicated fans is growing. Still a few places left!
How to join the Joshua Insiders.

4. I have finally finished DARK PARALLEL!
Now Scholastic Children’s Books are deciding how to give the book a really cool, dark cover…

5. INVISIBLE CITY finally published in the USA by Walker Books for Young Readers.

Also in Turkish! It’s always great to see a foreign editions of Joshua. But with another in English, hopefully we’ll soon be able to welcome a bunch of new members from the USA and Canada.

YOU CAN HELP INVISIBLE CITY SUCCEED IN THE USA!

Why not tell your friends and relatives in the USA about Joshua Files via Twitter and FaceBook?

OK everyone, have a great summer, and if you haven’t already I hope you get a chance to read Josh’s latest adventure over your summer holidays. Meanwhile I will get on with Ultra Secret New Project…

very best wishes,
MG
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