A new story begins to emerge...

Alright, we’ve had quite enough about other authors…though there is a whole lot more coming. Yep, watch this space for something new on Absolute Vanilla, and starting in a few days time. Uh-huh, be sure to come back here on Wednesday, 1 June.

I have to confess that, in part, interviewing so many brilliant children’s authors has just been a whole lot easier than wittering on about what I’ve been up to – mostly because what I’ve been up to equates to STRESS. I can’t say, given my post about being glass half full, that I’m particularly proud of that, but I guess sometimes life just gets in the way and gets overwhelming.

A variety of other things aside, most of the problems pertain to Building a House – which has involved Being Awash in Brochures and Catalogues, Visiting Décor Expos, Getting Plans Done, Plans Going Awry - and then, Tempers Flaring. There should probably be an entire a blog about Building The House. But I don’t think I’m up for the challenge.

The long and the short of it, however, is that The Writing Has Suffered. Yes, I’m also wondering why on earth I’m writing with capital letters. I suspect it may be an after effect of the Stress (or Insufficient Chocolate and Vanilla this morning).

What I’ve learned in the last month or so, however, is that without my writing, without some creative output (architectural and interior design decisions notwithstanding), I take major strain. I’ve been loathe, for a very long time, to say “I write because I have to”. It just sounds so clichéd. But I regret to say, it appears that I do “have" to write. I find if I go without writing for too long I go into a withdrawal space, life seems to lose its colour and the ideas, which just won’t go away, become so out of control that I can’t think straight.

So, I made the decision the week before last that things had to change. Blow the demands from project manager, the architect, etc; I needed to instill some discipline. Mornings would be for writing, the rest of the day for other things. The only trouble is the writing, having been neglected for so long, simply took over, and I’ve been happily doing the hermit thing, scribbling throughout the day, only realizing at about 3pm that I’m still in my pyjamas and haven’t eaten anything. Ah the writing life…!



But all this “hermitry” means that the new novel is finally happening! It is taking shape, there are 7000 words and the plot is evolving nicely. The only problem I currently face is that a secondary character, a hardnosed bitch of an astrophysicist, is trying to take control. You know, it's one thing hearing the voices in your head, it’s a whole other matter when they start bullying you. There is going to have to be some serious reigning in. Characters need to know their place.

Still, I can’t tell you how much fun I’m having, and how much of a treat and a joy and pleasure it is to be immersed in the wild madness of writing a new story!

An interview with teen and children's author, Tamsyn Murray

I read Tamsyn Murray’s My So-Called Afterlife in a few hours and totally loved it (and promptly read the sequel My So-Called Haunting). Both books crack along at a terrific pace and are vivid and gripping. Despite the darker side of murder and loss in My So-Called Afterlife, the book is really funny courtesy of the contemporary and lippy voice of the main protagonist, Lucy Shaw. Likewise, My So Called Haunting offers up the same reading pleasures, and I have to say, reading Tamsyn’s books, put me very much in mind of the writing of Louise Rennison and Cathy Cassidy.

My So-Called Afterlife

“Fifteen year old Lucy has been stuck in the men’s loos since she was murdered there six months ago and Jeremy is the first person who’s been able to see or hear her. Just her luck that he’s a seriously uncool geography-teacher type – but at least he’s determined to help. Once he’s found a way for her to leave the loos, she’s soon meeting other ghosts, including the gorgeous Ryan. However, when Jeremy insists that she helps him track down her killer, she has to confront her greatest fear…”

My So-Called Haunting

“Skye, a fourteen-year-old who can see ghosts, is feeling very stressed. Not only is the ghost of a sixteenth-century witch giving her fashion tips, but she’s struggling to settle into life with her aunt, and is developing a crush on the most unattainable boy in the school, Nico. When her aunt asks for help with a troubled teen ghost called Dontay, she’s glad of the distraction, and she’s soon facing a battle to keep her love life and her psychic life separate. As things get ever more complicated, it looks as though Dontay’s past might cost Skye her future.”

I’m delighted that Tamsyn Murray has agreed to be interviewed on Absolute Vanilla.

Author, Tamsyn Murray

My So-Called Afterlife , My So-Called Haunting, and your recently released My So-Called Phantom Love Life, all deal with ghostly subjects. What’s the appeal of the supernatural for you? Do you believe in ghosts, and have you had any ghostly encounters?

I think everyone is a little bit fascinated by the unknown and the supernatural definitely qualifies as the unknown! I enjoy writing the Afterlife books because the usual rules don’t apply and your characters can end up in all kinds of scary or funny situations.

I’ve never met a ghost, although I keep an open mind about their existence. When I was twenty-one, I met a psychic who told me I would be a writer – that was quite spooky as no one knew I liked to write!


What was your inspiration for My So-Called Afterlife and which came first, the plot or the character?

One day, I was idly wondering what happened to a ghost if the building they haunted got knocked down – did they haunt the building site? And what if something icky was built on top, like a toilet? Then the character of Lucy Shaw stepped forwards, stamping her Uggs and demanding I told her story. She even gave me the first line of the book and I never looked back.


You’ve created a vivid and delightfully lippy voice in Lucy Shaw, and in Skye Thackery (the main character in My So-Called Haunting). What is your secret to creating such a wonderfully modern teen voice, and, how important is that voice for you in writing the kind of stories you write?

My secret? I’m not sure I really have one! I was a bit of a lippy teenager myself once and now I live with my teenage daughter so I draw on experience to create my characters. Nothing beats having a member of your target audience on hand to check whether your dialogue is right or wrong.

It’s really important to me to make sure the voice behind the novels is authentic – teens seem to be able to smell when an author doesn’t believe in their characters and I wouldn’t want to disappoint them. Besides, that lippy teenager isn’t so far away – she’s still part of me.

Character sketch of Lucy, from My So-Called Afterlife

Lucy, despite her wicked humour, has to deal with some pretty big issues as the My So-Called Afterlife evolves. Aside from the obvious - her murder - you also make her think about suicide and the afterlife, while Skye in My So-Called Haunting has to deal with gang related murders and sinister cults. Did you feel it was important to raise issues like this for teen readers and did you have a specific motivation in doing so?

I can’t say I had specific motives – when I was writing My So-Called Afterlife, there was a lot of knife crime among teenagers being reported in the news, particularly in London. So obviously that influenced some of the themes of the book. Similarly, teen suicide was making the headlines, with a particular town in Wales having seen an unusually high number of deaths over a short period of time. Coupled with my own school experience, I could easily imagine a teenager being driven to desperation by bullying. If Hep had spoken to her parents earlier, she might have found a way out of her nightmare without dying.

Skye’s involvement with Dontay comes about after he dies in a gang shoot-out and I read a lot of heart-breaking stories where teens had died because they were in the wrong place at the wrong time. I don’t have a solution but it felt right to highlight the issue.


Did you do much research into the supernatural in writing your books or did you just make up stuff as you went?

The best thing about writing a supernatural story like My So-Called Afterlife was that I didn’t need to do much research - everyone knows what ghosts do. I did do some light reading about spiritualist churches, and I researched Romanian folklore for My So-Called Haunting, which is explored more in the third book in the series, My So-Called Phantom Lovelife.


What is your view of people who are or who claim to be psychic – like Skye, or those who attend the Church of the Dearly Departed in the My So-Called After Life?

As with the existence of ghosts, I try to keep an open mind. I have no logical explanation for the psychic who predicted I’d be a writer – he really couldn’t have known. So who’s to say there aren’t people who can contact the dead? Although there are plenty unscrupulous people making the same claim and I think that’s pretty low.

In the My So-Called Afterlife you make being stuck in limbo quite cool – your ghosts have parties, hang out, have a ghostly mobile network – it’s pretty much like real life but pretty much without responsibilities. Yet that “coolness” is also coupled with how they died and the need to find what is keeping them in limbo – this is particularly obvious in the case of Dontay in My So-Called Haunting. It raises some interesting points about unfinished business and letting go. To what extent did you want to write something that was just plain fun, and to what extent did you feel you actually had something important you wanted to say – and do you believe you achieved that? Was it a difficult balance to achieve?

Well, making the right or wrong choices was something I wanted to write about but the last thing I wanted to do was preach to readers so I incorporated as much fun as I could to counteract the darker themes. I get a lot of positive comments about the Afterlife world and I think it worked out really well. It made the books a lot of fun to write.

Character sketch of Skye from My So-Called Hauting and My So-Called Phantom Love Life

All three of your teen novels have “My So-Called…” in the title. What is the reason for this?

It was kind of an accident – the first title fitted the novel really well and after we experimented with a few titles for the second book, we settled on My So-Called Haunting. The third one was a no-brainer!


Your new book, My So-Called Phantom Love Life has just been released and is a sequel to My So-Called Haunting – can you tell us a bit about it?

It continues the story of Skye and Nico but there’s an added complication in the shape of Owen Wicks, a ghost who catches Skye’s eye. Eventually she has to choose between the two, as the shadows of Nico’s past threaten to envelope them all.




Certain YA paranormal series have been getting some bad press lately, what are your thoughts on the importance of strong plots and characterization in YA novels? And what is your view on YA series appearing to be more popular with publishers than stand alone books, even if the writing and structure in those series are less than brilliant?

I try to steer clear of judging other peoples’ work unless I’ve read it for myself and the sad truth is that I don’t have much time for reading at the moment. But I think it’s perfectly possible to have a series which maintains characterization, structure and quality, as long as the author knows where to stop. Sometimes, publishers seem so keen for one more hit book that they don’t consider whether the story has reached a natural end. That’s when the author needs to take a stand.




What was your journey to becoming published like? And how have you found the experience of being published and marketing yourself?

It was actually quite smooth – I found an agent almost immediately and a publisher a few months later. Being published is fab – I’ve met so many amazing people. The marketing is harder than actually writing the books but you do get to see the rewards after a while!


You have also written picture books - the Stunt Bunny series – which do you prefer to write, pictures books or teen fiction, and why?

I like writing for different age groups because the challenges for each are different but one of the best things about my younger reader series is working with an illustrator who really gets my sense of humour. His name is Lee Wildish and I feel very lucky to have him bring my stories to life.

Stunt Bunny: Rabbit Racer (for younger children) - due out in August 2011

What next for Tamsyn Murray?

I’m thinking about the fourth and final Afterlife book, and working on a couple of ideas for 9-12 year olds, but mostly, I’d like to finish the chick-lit book I’ve been working on for a while now. Whatever the future holds, I hope it’s wordy!


Many thanks to Tamsyn for the interview!


To find out more about Tamsyn Murray
Visit her website
Read her blog
Join her fanpage on Facebook
Follow her on Twitter - @TamsynTweetie

You can find Tamsyn’s book on Amazon (US and UK) and in all good bookstores.

You can read a recent review of my So-Called Afterlife on MC Rogerson's blog

An interview with YA author, Keris Stainton

Della Says:OMG! by Keris Stainton

I first encountered Keris Stainton many years ago in the blogosphere, where we tended to visit several of the same blogs. I knew Keris was writing a young adult novel and was delighted when I read that she’d been published. Her novel, Della Says: OMG! was published last year and Keris’ second novel Jessie ♥ NYC is due out in July this year. I’m pretty sure it’s going to be as much fun to read as Della Says:OMG!

Della Says:OMG! is a story of first love and betrayal but instead of being heavy it’s written with a remarkably vibrant voice and in a style that is so contemporary, witty, and freshly teen that I constantly thought the book must have been written by an eloquent teenager.

"Della’s over the moon when she kisses her long-standing crush at a party – but then she discovers her diary has disappeared...When scans of embarrassing pages are sent to her mobile and appear on Facebook, Della’s distraught – how can she enjoy her first proper romance when someone, somewhere, knows all her deepest, darkest secrets?"

I’m delighted to welcome Keris Stainton to Absolute Vanilla.

YA author, Keris Stainton

Keris, you spent several years on your journey to publication, what was that like and what was it like to when you landed your first contract?

It wasn't too bad. Really. The hardest thing was finding the right book, I think. I had a lot of false starts with adult books and that was frustrating, but once I started writing YA it all fell into place relatively quickly. Getting my first contract was amazing, of course. I still remember getting the phone call from my agent and dancing and squeeing around my office!


Although it was Della Says: OMG! that landed you your first deal I know you have a number of abandoned manuscripts lying around. What do you think it was about Della Says:OMG! that found success for you?

It wasn't actually Della that got me my deal. I got the deal with a book called FORGET ME NOT and then Orchard asked me to write something different, which turned out to be Della.


What was the inspiration for Della Says:OMG! and how did the initial idea develop for you?

Della was originally going to have three POVs - Della's, Maddy's and Jamie's. I wanted to look at three important stages in a teen girls love life: first love, first sex and first heartbreak. But after I wrote about 15,000 words, it was obvious that Della's story was the strongest and so I rewrote it. After that it came pretty easily, although I still didn't know who'd taken Della's diary until I was almost at the end of the book!

Keris Stainton on the cover of Writers' Forum

You have created in Della a particularly strong teen voice and for me, it is one of the key things makes the novel particularly appealing. Was it easy for you to find Della’s voice or was it something you had to work at?

Thank you so much! Honestly, it came easily. I think the reason I struggled with adult books for so long is that I think and write like a teenager!


One of the key elements of Della Says: OMG! is betrayal, yet you also deal with some other pretty big, and important, issues including first love, teenage desire, and first sexual experience. Not many authors are brave enough to tackle these issues and there is often controversy surrounding the subject. How important is it, do you think, to write about these aspects of being a teen? And how did you decide on the manner in which to handle what is potentially, particularly for parents and publishers, a high risk element – I think, in this instance of how other writers like Melvin Burgess (Doing It) and William Nicholson (Rich and Mad) have approached the subject of teen sexuality.

I think it's an incredibly important thing to write about. I went to see Melvin Burgess and William Nicholson at Waterstone's just before Della came out and they were saying that society's become so sexualised, but it's not something that's really addressed in books all that often. I think it's actually addressed in books aimed at girls a lot more than it is in books aimed at boys, but still not quite as much as it probably should be. Particularly in a positive way. It was really important to me that Della's first sexual experience was a good one. Because, you know, sometimes it is! All teen sex doesn't have to lead to pregnancy, STDs or angst and regret. The one thing I do think is almost entirely missing from teen fiction aimed at girls, is female masturbation. There are only a few novels that even mention it at all and that's just baffling to me because it's such an important part of female sexuality and something that you discover - and often struggle with - as a teen.


How important do you feel it is for authors of children’s and YA novels to have “messages”, however subliminal, in their novels? I refer to the following comment made on the Book Lantern blog recently: “I believe strongly in the power of subliminal messaging in YA books. Whether you believe in messages or not, the fact remains that as an author, you have a responsibility towards your readers to make sure you aren’t sending the wrong signals.”

It's funny, my immediate reaction to that was "Hell no!" but I do actually agree to a certain extent. The phrase "subliminal messaging" suggests brainwashing to me, but I do agree it's important not to send the wrong signals. For example, I'd never have a character talk negatively about her weight (or anyone else's) and there are certain words I'd avoid even though teens use them ("retard" is the main one that springs to mind or using "gay" to mean crap). The argument is that books should reflect reality, but I'd rather reflect positive aspects than perpetuate negative or damaging stereotypes or behaviours.


The very nature of Della Says:OMG! is very contemporary – you refer to texting, IM and Facebook in the novel. Again, how important was it to you to have these aspects in the novel – and does it any way hinge on your own experience of being digitally connected via social media?

Social media was part of the original inspiration for Della's plot. My diary went missing when I was a teen and back then (in olden times…) the worry was people reading it out at school whereas nowadays it could be shared all over the world in moments. But, yes, you're right - social media is such a big part of my life, it seemed completely natural to include it in the book.

Keris' website

You have used social media very successfully to get your name into the marketplace; you’re on Facebook, you’re prolific on Twitter and you’ve been blogging for years. Can you tell us how you’ve been so successful marketing yourself in this way and what social media means to you? Are there any tips you can share with other writers?

Well when I started blogging it wasn't about marketing because I didn't have anything to market. I started blogging just as a way of writing every day. It turned out to be the best thing I ever did: I met some amazing people, made great friends, and actually got quite a few writing opportunities. Twitter is the same really - like blogging, but in miniature - and I did it before I had anything to promote. My top tip would be not to do it simply for self-promotion. You need to engage with people. Chat, make friends. Someone recently described Twitter as an ongoing cocktail party you can pop in and out of and that is dead on. I know some people join Twitter and get disheartened because they "can't keep up". There's no way you can keep up. Just follow people who interest you, tweet things you find entertaining or informative and don't be afraid to chat, even to people you don't know.


Your presence on Twitter recently led you to an interview on the Vanessa Feltz show, which I know wasn’t a great experience for you. What did you learn from that sort of exposure and are there any cautions you’d offer other writers?

It did actually turn out to be a brilliant experience for me personally, but basically I was naive. It was the first time I'd been asked to do anything like that and I ignored my first instinct (which was that it would be a stitch-up) and then was too open with Vanessa when she was asking me questions before the interview. My best advice would be not to think "Woo-hoo! Telly!" and book your train ticket, but to make sure you're fully appraised of what you're going there to do. And read Jane Wenham-Jones's book Wanna Be A Writer We've Heard Of because she's been on TV loads of times and can give much better advice than I can.


Who would you say have been your greatest influences in your development as a writer and who or what really taught you to hone your craft?

Oh dear "hone your craft" makes me giggle because I really don't feel like I have a craft to hone. I really just feel like I sit down and write stories, the way I've done since I was about 13. Back then I was writing about meeting George Michael and then having him and Andrew Ridgeley fighting over me (*blush*), now I just write the same kind of thing, but with - I hope - a bit more realism. The greatest influence in my development as a writer is almost certainly NaNoWriMo. I had never finished a novel before doing NaNo for the first time in 2004. I wrote Forget Me Not during NaNo and I wrote Jessie during NaNo (and in between I wrote a few other books that may or may not see the light of day). Writing 50,000 words in 30 days seems daunting and you may think you'll just have 50k of crap at the end of it, but it almost seems like magic. You have to ignore your inner editor and push yourself on past the point you'd normally stop and that seems to be when the good stuff comes through. I love it. Anne Lamott's Bird By Bird was also a big influence, not least for permission to write a "shitty first draft", and last year I read Russell T Davies's The Writer's Tale, which is specifically about writing Doctor Who, but is completely brilliant about writing in general. So funny, clever and reassuring - I didn't want it to end. Actually, I've just thought of something that does come under "hone your craft" and that's Holly Lisle's One-Pass Manuscript Revision. Even while I'm writing the shitty first draft I comfort myself that Holly Lisle's method will make it all okay.

The space where Keris works

What motivates you to write and do you find you ever experience writer’s block?

I have to write. I don't feel like I've really understood or experienced something unless I write about it. As for fiction… I'm not really sure. I want to say it's fun - and it really is when it's going well - but I whine and flail and kick up such a fuss before I actually get on and do it that I'm not sure what the motivation is! Maybe it's just that I love books so much and once I realised I could write them, I just had to get on and do it. I'm not sure I believe in writer's block. I totally understand what writers mean by it, but I think it's Anne Lamott who says that when writers feel "blocked" they're actually empty and need to go and fill themselves up with things that inspire them.


Some writers say all novels are autobiographical in some way, others deny this – to what extent would you say there is some of you in your novels?

Do some writers deny that? Blimey. I'd say all writing is autobiographical, if only in that everything you write is written through the prism of your own experiences and influences. I don't think there's anything overtly autobiographical in any of my novels, but there's definitely a lot of "me" in them. If that makes any sense at all…


You are represented by Alice Williams of the David Higham Agency; how does being agented make a difference in your life?

I guess at first it feels like it legitimises you as a writer, you know? I felt more like a "proper" writer because I had an agent. Now I see Alice more as an advocate for me and my writing. Writing is my job, after all, and Alice is obviously much better at the business side of things than I am. Also, she's lovely and she doesn't mind when I moan on at her down the phone. Well, if she does mind, she doesn't say.




Jessie ♥ NYC will be out in July 2011 – can you tell us a little about it?

It's my 'love letter to New York' book. I'm obsessed with the place and had to set a book there. It's about Jessie who goes over there for the summer following a break up, Finn who thinks he's in love with his best friend's girlfriend, and fate, which brings them together.


And finally, what next for Keris Stainton?

Er… I don't know yet. I've just started writing a new book as part of Kaz Mahoney's Spring into Summer 50k in 50 days challenge (couldn't even wait for NaNoWriMo this year) and there are a couple of other things in the pipeline, but they're secret at the moment.


Many thanks to Keris for this interview!

Thank you so much. I really enjoyed it (even though the questions were HARD!)


To find out more about Keris Stainton and her books:
Visit her webpage
Join her fanpage on Facebook
Follow her on Twitter
Read her blog
And buy her books at Amazon

An interview with Chris Priestley

“When Michael Vyner goes to spend the Christmas holidays with his distant and aloof guardian, he finds himself in a dark and desolate East Anglian house – a house that harbours a terrible secret which it will fight to retain. Michael’s lonely task soon becomes clear as he is haunted not just by a solitary woman in the mists but by the terrible reason behind her death.”


Darkly sinister, Chris Priestley’s The Dead of Winter, is a shiveringly delicious tale of terror which will be thoroughly enjoyed by all children from 9 and older who love a good horror and mystery story. I’ve never been a fan of horror but I found the Dead of Winter, with its rich, gothic voice “unputdownable”

I’m delighted that Chris Priestley, who I “met” via Facebook, has agreed to be interviewed on Absolute Vanilla.

Chris Priestley
photo courtesy of Judith Weik

Facebook interactions with you are brimful of wicked humour and you are clearly a really nice guy – so what draws you to writing tales of terror and the horror genre specifically?

Thank you! But I have always been attracted to the darker side of things. Who really knows why? I think its something you have a predisposition for or you don’t. That’s not to say that I don’t like sunshine, chirping birds and the laughter of little children! I don’t sit in a black room scowling all day. Well, not every day.


The narrator’s voice in The Dead of Winter is unashamedly gothic and reminded me of novels like A Woman in White, Great Expectations and even Stoker’s Dracula. What is the appeal of the gothic voice and are there any particular gothic novels that have inspired you?

All of the above. The Woman in White was definitely in the mix and I reread Great Expectations and David Copperfield not long before I wrote it. My original pitch to Bloomsbury was that I wanted to write a kind of ‘Jane Eyre for boys’ (not suggesting that boys can’t enjoy Jane Eyre, of course!). But I was also inspired by the memory of watching The Haunting (the original Jack Clayton adaptation of Shirley Jackson’s wonderful novel, The Haunting of Hill House).

Chris says this old photo, in part, inspired The Dark of Winter

Marcus Sedgwick has said that place can also be a character in a novel and in The Dark of Winter, Hawton Mere and its mysterious marshland setting are so richly evoked as to make them palpably alive. Would you agree that place can be a character and is Hawton Mere based on a particular place and the effect it had on you?

Absolutley. Edgar Allan Poe said that he wanted the house in The Fall of the House of Usher to be a character in the story, and I definitely wanted that for The Dead of Winter. I imagined the house to be almost like a mind – a damaged mind.


What was the inspiration for The Dead of Winter and what came first – the concept of a place, the events, or the character of Michael?

I think I often start with location - that and a few scenes. I may have no idea at all about what these scenes signify at first. I have to write the book to find that out.

The Cambridgeshire fens in which The Dead of Winter is set
(images copyright Sean Crawford (1 & 2) and Martyn Fordham)

In writing The Dark of Winter what was your relationship with your protagonist and narrator of the story, Michael Vyner? How did he first “appear” to you and how do you feel about him as a character?

I like Michael. The first image I had of him was of the boy standing beside his mother’s grave, alone and forlorn. It is one of the really magical things about writing – when a character really starts to come alive. Suddenly you find yourself saying, ‘No – he wouldn’t do that’ and it forces the story into a place you might not have gone.


You make regular references to Michael’s love of reading and his discovery of the library at Hawton Mere. Given the current library controversy and library closures in the UK, how important do you believe books, reading and libraries are to young people?

Well they are indispensible of course. I don’t know of a single writer who did not start out with a love of books – as objects as much as anything else – and who did not use libraries as a child. If public libraries go, they will never come back and that will be a tragedy.


The Dark of Winter is a supernatural tale of terror - do you believe in ghosts? Have you ever had any ghostly encounters?

No. And no.


You’ve recently gone through your own very scary health experience, do you think this will impact on the stories you write and how you write them?

Yes, absolutely. As you know, I had a mini-stroke earlier this year. I was lucky in that I am relatively unscathed – but it could have permanently affected both my speech and my right hand. Scary. It has changed me as a person. I know that, without quite knowing how yet. Inevitably it will also change me as a writer. The specifics of the events may also find their way into one of my books. There seems a kind of inevitability about that.


You have also written a collection of stories called Tales of Terror. Can you tell us a little about them and their inspiration?

I loved short stories as a teenager. I still do. Some people find them unsatisfying, I know. But for me, a good short story is a special thing and when I first started wondering if I might be a writer, it was short stories I experimented with.



Did you enjoy scary stories as a child, and if so, what was the particular appeal, and what do you think is the appeal of the horror genre to children?

Not as a young child, but certainly as a teenager. I read short creepy fiction in compilations like the Pan horror collections, but I also read short stories by people like Ray Bradbury and John Wyndham who are harder to classify. The appeal to young people is – I think – in its format. Horror short stories are structured rather like a joke, in that they have the satisfying pay-off at the end.


The advice always given to new writers is to “read, read, read” – what sort of books do you enjoy reading and which do you draw particular inspiration from?

Well I read less and less these days. It is something I am determined to do something about. I love reading – non-fiction or fiction. I tend to read little of what is going on in the YA market. I think that the books that inspired me to become a writer, I read in my teens and twenties. That’s not to say that I can’t still be inspired by a good book, it’s just that I think that period is so formative. You are so receptive at that age and your character is still in a state of flux. Books shaped my idea of what kind of person I wanted to be and what kind of life I wanted to live. They – maybe more importantly – gave me an insight into the lives of others of a different age, culture, sex. I can’t imagine what my life would have been like without books. They are far more than mere entertainment.


Aside from writing, you are also a cartoonist and artist – how do these different creative endeavours find balance in your life and do you find that one affects the other in any particular way, and if so, to what benefit to you as a creator?

I’m not sure that it isn’t a distraction most of the time. I just don’t have the time to do each of these things to the level I want to. Writing is my job now and the thing that pays the rent and I have contractual obligations. From being a full-time illustrator and painter, it’s hard to now fit it in around my writing. I would love to do something Shaun Tan-like that makes use of my writing and painting ability in one book.

Poe by Chris Priestley

Monster Underground by Chris Priestley

What next for Chris Priestley? What are you currently working on and what other stories would you perhaps like to write?

I am currently editing the proofs for Mister Creecher, my new book, published by Bloomsbury in October. I am also writing a contemporary ghost story set in Amsterdam, called The Mask. But I am always – always – thinking of short stories. It seems to be in my DNA.





Many thanks to Chris for this interview!

My pleasure. Thanks for asking me.


You can find out more about Chris Priestley at his blog.
You can become a Chris Priestley fan on Facebook.
You can read Chris Priestley's biography at the British Cartoon Archive.
Want to know more about the Tales of Terror ?
Chris Priestley's books are available on amazon.co.uk and amazon.com

And here's what happened when I showed The Dead of Winter to a curious seagull...

Ooh la, what's this then
*gull sidles closer*

Dead of Winter?! Winter? Eek! Dead? Dead... Is it still edible...?
*PECK!*

An interview with children's author, Savita Kalhan

The Long Weekend by Savita Kalhan

I devoured Savita Kalhan’s debut novel, The Long Weekend, in a couple of hours. Aimed at over 12 year olds, The Long Weekend is a gripping and terrifying read which is not only a first rate reality horror story, but also a singularly cautionary tale about the terrible things that can happen when you accept a lift from a stranger… Without being overly explicit, The Long Weekend is a warning to children about bad men.


This is an interview which is long overdue - unfortunately the original copy of The Long Weekend sent to me by Savita was gobbled up by post office goblins. So I’m really delighted to finally welcome Savita Kalhan to Absolute Vanilla.

Hi Nicky! It’s great to be here. I’m a real Absolute Vanilla fan, so I feel honoured to be here. (And I am so glad the post office goblins didn’t nab this copy too!)

Children's author, Savita Kalhan

Savita, what inspired you to write The Long Weekend and how did the story develop?

A flyer went round the local schools warning that a large flashy BMW or Merc had been seen cruising outside the schools and the driver had tried to snatch children. Parents and children were urged to be extra careful. It set me wondering about what it would be like for a kid to get snatched. Most schools give talks about stranger-danger, the police come in and talk to kids about being safe and aware when they’re out, and so on. But, as we all know, child abductions still happen.
I started to visualize a scenario in which an abduction could happen. I had a long conversation with my nephew, who was then aged 11 and he confirmed that sometimes at pick-up time, kids don’t know who’s coming to collect them or whether a friend’s parent will be dropping them home.
A moment’s distraction, a moment of not thinking, is all that a predator needs. That’s what happens in The Long Weekend.





In reading The Long Weekend it struck me that you had really got into your protagonist’s (Sam) head – the voice is pitched so realistically and credibly. How did Sam develop for you as a character and how is it that you capture the voice of an 11 year old boy so well?

As soon as the scenario came into my head, Sam arrived – complete with voice and character. I know it might sound corny, but his voice was so clear right from the beginning, his character so formed, His thoughts and actions, and fear, almost wrote themselves as the book whizzed along at break-neck pace. I felt I knew Sam, knew what he was capable of and what he wasn’t. Why his voice was so clear, I don’t entirely know.
I used to teach English to kids aged between 8 and 16 a long time ago, and my son was a very sociable eight years old when I wrote the book, and I’ve got lots of nephews and nieces, but I guess I’ve always known kids, I’m the eldest of seven kids myself, so maybe it all helped.


In many senses one might say that The Long Weekend is both a horror story and a psychological thriller. In writing the story what struck you most forcefully – the inner fear and demons that each boy had to face or the outer horror of their abduction? Can these even be separated? And wherein, do you think, lies the greatest lesson for the characters?

Initially it was the outer horror of the abduction that hit me. What can be more terrifying than realizing that you’re trapped somewhere with a stranger? You don’t yet know his motives, and you don’t want to guess at them because that would paralyze you. But you’re not alone. You’re best friend is with you – only he either doesn’t want to see the danger, or is still in denial.
Then came the full brunt of the demons that I was about to visit upon the boys. For Sam it was about feelings of self-preservation in the face of his friend’s denial, to feeling betrayed by him, and then having to bear witness to his trauma. There were scenes in the book that were hard to write, upsetting even, particularly Lloyd’s.
The greatest lesson, I think, is never to give up no matter how terrifying the situation or predicament. There is always hope and by the end of the book the characters, and the reader, reach that realisation.
At the beginning of the story we meet a Sam who has little self-confidence. He struggles to overcome his fears as the story unfolds and by the end of the book he is essentially still Sam, but a stronger, confident teenager who knows he possesses the resources within himself to face almost anything. Lloyd’s fear and paralysis is overcome too late, but although he feels all is lost, it is not. Years later the boys ultimately transcend the horror of their long weekend, but they do transcend it and this is the greatest lesson for them both.




Apart from the very obvious point of the story, is there anything you’d particularly like your readers to take away after reading The Long Weekend?

Only that they found it such a good and memorable read that they’d want to recommend it to everyone they know! I think that in the end if the book is not a good, absorbing and satisfying read, whether it’s a kids’ book or adult book, then the writer has somehow failed to engage his/her audience. It makes me very happy that the vast majority of the people who have read The Long Weekend have absolutely loved it.
One reviewer even said that the book should be required reading for every secondary school kid as it brought home the message of stranger-danger more acutely than any school talk could hope to do, and in a way that was immediately accessible.


Do you feel you were trying to make a particular point in terms of the story and the character’s development in juxtaposing the cool and popular kid, Lloyd, who has everything, and the new boy, Sam, who is kept on a tight rein by his parents?

I don’t think so. I’m not really sure how much I thought about that. I do think kids need boundaries, but every kid comes from a different background, as do their parents, so there will always be differences in what kids are allowed to have and what they’re allowed to do. In terms of that affecting their development as characters in the book, for each boy, although from very different backgrounds, the response to the situation was initially the same – denial. Then came the desperate grasping of straws to explain away their fear. Then came the full assault of fear. Lloyd’s denial went deeper whereas Sam, who had lived a pretty cocooned compound life abroad, saw the danger more clearly.


What happens to Sam and his friend, Lloyd, must be every parent’s worst nightmare – did you do any particular research into families who had experienced child abduction and molestation?

Speaking as a parent, it really is every parent’s worst nightmare, and, yes, I have talked to many survivors of child abuse. When I was about eleven and walking with my younger sister, a car with a couple of blokes inside pulled up. They tried to force us into the car. Luckily my dad was further up the road, so they drove off in the end. But that experience, amongst other far worse experiences, has stayed with me. I can still feel the fear I felt then.




The story is a very modern one with many present day references. Does it concern you that this may date the story?

Not really. Yes, all the techno-gadgetry is well out of date now! I think I foresaw the advent of the iPhone when I wrote the book, although sadly I’ve never been credited with it! I think the basic premise of the book is pretty universal, and it’s a thriller and hopefully a very good read. Those things should be enough for kids to want to come back to it in the future.


We’ve met in person and you’re lovely, yet in The Long Weekend you’ve written something intrinsically dark. What influenced you to write a story of such a grim and cautionary nature?

Thank you, Nicky! I don’t entirely know what influences me to write about the darker side of life! I think I must have a very dark side to me that only emerges when I’m writing! But I’m well aware that I write for kids and teens, and so although naturally drawn to the terrible stuff that can happen in childhood, I try to deal with the more grim elements in a sensitive, non-graphic way, (which some people have found more frightening in itself!). The imagination is a very powerful thing and never to be underestimated. There doesn’t have to be blood and gore and vampires for readers to be chilled to the bone.


Flowing from the previous question, many say that all writing is in some way autobiographical, are there any particular instances from your own life on which you drew in the creation of The Long Weekend, even if they were fundamentally unconscious influences?

I’ve thought about this long and hard, and a comment a friend made to me a while back was that it would be unfair to kids who have suffered in the way that Lloyd had, for me not to be honest. I was subsequently put on the spot and asked the question by a 13 year old boy in a large group discussion at a book award, and, with my friend’s comment in mind, I said yes – there were experiences in my childhood that I drew upon in writing this book. I had no one like Sam there for me, which is may be why Sam’s character came so clearly to me.




Writers often talk about the imperative of some element of hope in children’s literature, no matter how grim the subject matter. What is your view on this – do you think it’s important and if so, why?
For me it is very important that some element of hope remains at the end of a book. Yes the subject matter of The Long Weekend is very grim, and if at the end I killed of both the boys too, well who would want to pick the book up and invest all that emotional energy in the plight of the boys? They would feel utterly let down at the end. (They’d probably fling the book across the room and hate me forever more!) But that’s not really why I believe that there has to be an element of hope at the end of a children’s book. When my son was much younger and he came across a sad ending in a book, he would find it upsetting and get very cross with the author for destroying a good character. Kids want a light at the end of the tunnel; adults often do too, but they have far wider reading experiences than kids do and could handle a devastating ending. Even though the subject matter in The Long Weekend may be difficult, I would not want to put kids off from reading my books. I think reading is so vital, so important, and if children’s writers didn’t take heed of what’s important to kids, then why write for them?


The Long Weekend is your debut novel – how have you found the process of getting published and marketing yourself? Are there any particular lessons you could share with budding authors?

When Andersen Press said they wanted The Long Weekend, I literally choked on my sushi, which I was eating while I was working! I would say that you have probably never met any debut author as naïve as me. To say I wasn’t internet savvy would be a gross understatement. I didn’t know any writers, was not a member of any writing group, had never heard of SCWBI or the SAS, or SoA, and as for Facebook and Twitter, or any other type of social networking, well, they were utterly alien to me!
As for marketing myself? I did not know that the onus would be on me to do any of that. I thought the publicity people at the publishers took care of sales and marketing. Duh!
So that’s several lessons shared there already! Get internet savvy, know everything there is to now about publishing and marketing yourself, about how to sell yourself and your books. Meet people, go to events, and basically do as much as you can because no one else is out there doing it for you. It is a continuous learning curve, and a continuous balancing act!

A map from Savita's first piece of writing - an epic fantasy tome...

I know you are agented, so what role do you feel the agent plays in a debut writer’s life?

If you have a good agent, it takes the pressure off you. They fight your corner, they have contacts at most of the publishing houses, they sort out contractual details. Some writers manage very well without an agent, but for me it has been good.


There has been much discussion of late among writers about being a plotter or a “pantster” (i.e. not plotting but writing by the seat of one’s pants) – what sort of writer are you? And what do you think is the benefit of the way you write?

I definitely fall into the ‘panster’ group. The Long Weekend was not planned or plotted at all. I simply sat down at my laptop every morning and wrote until school pick up time, and then repeated it the following day. I was lucky because the story flowed so beautifully. That’s the way I like to write, but there have been times when planning has its merits, particularly if you’re stuck or not sure how to develop an idea into a book. I’ve done a very brief outline for the first part of a book, but usually stop there so the story can develop any which way it wants.

Are there any particular books or authors who you feel have had a particular influence on your writing journey?

When I was young, we couldn’t afford to buy books, so our local town library was our source and we were lucky because it was so well stocked. I read everything in the children’s library, from Enid Blyton to Noel Streatfeild, from J R R Tolkein to John Wyndham. I loved reading. To choose a particular book is so hard, but Lord of the Rings did have a dramatic influence. The first thing I ever wrote was an epic fantasy trilogy which ran to several hundred thousand words!

Wycombe Library, where Savita says she practically lived when she was growing up and where she developed her love for books

If you weren’t a writer what else do you think you’d like to be?

I would love to own a bookshop! Maybe one day I still will…


And finally, are you working on something new and can you tell us about it?

I’m working on a novel about a boy who wakes up with no memory, but I can’t tell you anymore about it just yet! You’ll be the first to know though!
If any of your readers are interested in finding out more about me I have a website they can visit. I try to keep it as up to date as I can. Or they can visit The Long Weekend Facebook page, or follow my random ramblings on Twitter!


Many thanks to Savita Kalhan for this interview!

It has been a real pleasure, Nicky! I’ve really enjoyed answering your insightful questions, even the really tough ones! Thank you so much for inviting me here!

Savita Kalhan with fans and fellow authors, Rachel Ward and Alexander Gordon Smith at the shortlisting for the FAB Book Award 2010

You can find out more about Savita Kalhan at her website
Or you can become a fan on The Long Weekend Facebook page
You can also follow her on Twitter @savitakalhan
You can buy copies of The Long Weekend on Amazon.co.uk and as an ebook at Amazon.com

Images courtesy of Savita Kalhan (and some nicked from the internet...)