Ten-Minute Blog Break - 7th May

Tuesday seems to have come around faster than ever this week, thanks to the bank holiday weekend. So pull up a chair, a cup of tea and a biscuit and let's have a look at this week's Blog Break selections.


Fresh from winning the SCBWI Crystal Kite for his debut novel 15 Days Without a Head, Dave Cousins gets a whole week(!) devoted to his new novel Waiting for Gonzo at Space on the Bookshelf. It kicks off with an interview with Dave, who talks about his favourite books and admits to loving the Scott Pilgrim graphic novels (thus winning extra geek points from me). I'm sure that some authors would react to all this attention by growing an enormous ego, but Dave is so self-effacing that he probably wonders what all the fuss is about!

Everyone has their moments of doubt. Let Jane Heinrichs tell you about how "I Almost Gave Up" and why she's glad she persisted. Shana Nieberg-Suschitzky is talking about Undiscovered Voices (as indeed is Words & Pictures) but looking at it specifically from an illustrator's perspective. And I have to give a shout out to Amanda Lillywhite, because I know she gets very excited when she features in the Blog Break! More pertinently, she also wrote a nice post about Free Comic Book Day, which happened last Saturday.

I discovered a wonderful blog this week and then hesitated about whether to include it. On the surface of it, there are lots of reasons why I shouldn't feature Jo Wyton's Let's Get Serious in this Blog Break - she's one of my close friends, she got a mention last week and she blogs for Space on the Bookshelf who got a mention above! But Jo's blog about teen fiction is (much like her) incredibly passionate and enormously likeable. So I'm including it anyway.

Finally, I wanted to take a moment to talk about two SCBWI members called Margaret, who were both remembered in different ways this week. Juliet Clare Bell wrote a beautifully heartfelt post in tribute to her mother Margaret Storr, who died in March this year. And at Sara Grant’s launch for her new YA novel Half Lives, she asked us all to raise a toast to Margaret Carey, to whom the book is dedicated. Both Margarets have a legacy that lives on in their families, their friends and the writing they left behind.

Nick


Nick Cross is a children's writer, blogger and all-round digital guru. In 2010 he was a winner of Undiscovered Voices with his zombie comedy Back from the Dead.
Read Nick's latest blog post, a story of grand ambition, serious pressure and major disappointment: How Not to Write the World's Greatest Book.

4 comments:

  1. I've just found out that Margaret Carey's daughter Clare is running in the Race for Life in memory of her mum, if anyone would like to sponsor her: http://www.raceforlifesponsorme.org/cms680

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  2. You're too kind, Nick. How will I ever repay you? Cake, you say? Coming right up...

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  3. Thank you, Nick. I look forward to reading the other blogs.

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