Ferryman by Claire McFall Extract

Today I'm really happy to be taking part in the Claire McFall blog tour celebrating the re-release of Ferryman as well as the publication of the sequel, Trespassers. I remember I wasn't entirely sure if this book would be for me when Ferryman was first published but I'm so glad that I gave it a chance. If you too are unsure or on the fence about reading it then perhaps the extract below will help you decide! 

Ferryman extract

“Wait, stop! Where the hell are we going?” Dylan huffed to a standstill and cemented her feet to the ground, folding her arms across her chest. She ’d been blindly following him, but they had been marching for twenty minutes in total silence now, going in who knew which direction and he hadn ’t said a word since the curt “Come with me.” All of the questions, all reasons for staying at the tunnel mouth that had inexplicably vanished from her head when he ’d ordered her to follow had now returned with full force.

He continued on for a few strides, before turning and looking at her with his eyebrows raised. “What?”

“What?!” Dylan ’s voice rose an octave with incredulity. 

“We’ve just come out of a train crash where everybody else seems to have disappeared. I have no idea where we are, and you are marching us halfway across the middle of nowhere, away from the place where they are going to be looking for us!”

“Who do you imagine is looking for us?” That arrogant half-smirk snuck back onto his lips.

Dylan frowned for a moment, confused by the strange question, before launching into her argument once more. “Well, the police for one. My parents.” Dylan felt a little thrill at being able to say that in the plural for the first time. “When the train doesn ’t arrive at the next station, don ’t you think the train company might wonder where it is?”

She raised her eyebrows here, secretly pleased with the strength of her line of reasoning, and waited for him to respond.

He laughed. It was almost a musical sound, but underpinned with a hint of mockery. His reaction confounded and infuriated her again. Dylan pursed her lips, waiting for the punchline, but it didn’t come. Instead he smiled. It changed his entire face, warming his natural coldness. But there was still something not quite right about it. It looked sincere, but it didn’t stretch to his eyes. They remained icy and aloof.

He walked over to Dylan and ducked down slightly so that he could look into her eyes, shocking blue into startled green. His closeness made her a little uncomfortable, but she stood her ground.

“If I told you you weren’t where you thought you were, what would you say?” he asked.

“What?” Dylan was totally confused, and not a little bit intimidated. His arrogance was maddening, making fun of her at every turn and coming out with nonsense statements like that. What could be the point of his question except to bamboozle her and make her doubt herself?

“Never mind,” he chuckled, reading her expression. “Turn around. Could you find the tunnel again if you had to?”

Dylan looked over her shoulder. The landscape was empty and unfamiliar. Everything looked the same. Stark, windswept hills as far as the eye could see, dipping down into gullied valleys where vegetation revelled in the shelter from the constant gales. There was no sign of the tunnel entrance or even the train tracks. That was weird; they hadn’t gone very far. She felt a tightening in her chest as she realised that she had no idea what direction they had come from, that she would be completely lost if Tristan left her now.

“No,” she whispered, grasping how much trust she had put in this unfriendly stranger.

Tristan laughed as he watched the realisation trickle across her face. “Then I guess you ’re stuck with me.” 

Claire McFall is a writer and a teacher who lives and works in the Scottish Borders. She is the author of paranormal thriller Black Cairn Point, winner of the inaugural Scottish Teenage Book Prize 2017. Her debut novel Ferryman won a Scottish Children’s Book Award, and was nominated for the Carnegie Medal and shortlisted for the Branford Boase award. Her other books include dystopian thriller Bombmaker.

Trespassers, the much-anticipated sequel to Ferryman, will be published on 14^th September 2017. 

Ayisha Malik on A Refuge in A Change Is Gonna Come #ChangeBook

I'm so happy and honoured to be today's blog tour post for MY favourite book of the year so far, A Change Is Gonna Come. This is an anthology published by 12 BAME authors: 8 already established authors and 4 debut for a YA audience. I loved the mix of genres and topics that each author chose to cover and I really think there is something in this anthology for everyone.

I absolutely jumped at the chance to host a blog tour stop for this book, especially one from Ayisha Malik, author of Sofia Khan Is Not Obliged and The Other Half of Happiness. Her story, A Refuge, is a story of friendship and empathy and I adored it.  Over to you, Ayisha...

There are certain memories that linger more than others, evoking a rather strong feeling, capturing a part of the past you call upon when feeling reflective. I think often about my visit to the Calais refugee camp. I went a few times; the first time because I was in Paris for a month and it felt like an omission of conscience not to; the second time because, selfishly, I wanted to recreate the first experience. I went again a year later, this time taking a bunch of friends, because I wanted them to feel what I had felt.

The thing about volunteering is that you take away from it far more than you give. Because of this, sometimes people’s lack of empathy can confuse me – although it’s an emotional thing, it feels almost illogical. I wanted to write a story about how someone is changed through their experience at a refugee camp, not because of this condescending idea of helping others, but because of the impact it can have on you. Even volunteering is a selfish act, but my character, Sabrina, is forced to do so by her parents. I wanted to focus on the unexpected relationships that can be formed in places where there is tragedy; how intense they can be, yet how transient. Her relationship with Homa in some ways reflects the redeeming nature of friendship, however short-lived it might be. Sabrina, like so many of us, is lonely and suffers feelings of emotional displacement, not least because her parents are always at each other’s throat. So, it felt fitting that I should put my character in a situation where her life is mirrored by someone who is physically displaced.

It’s often in the worst of situations that you’ll be able to see the best of humanity. For me, visiting the camp and writing this story just reminded me of the lessons we can teach each other about resilience, defiance and, most importantly, hope.



Thank you, Ayisha! Do follow Ayisha on Twitter and check out the other #ChangeBook blog tour stops listed below! A Change Is Gonna Come is published by Stripes Publishing on 10th August. 

Wedding Playlist by Lisa Williamson - All About Mia Blog Tour

I am very happy today to be taking part in the blog tour for UKYA book, All About Mia by Lisa Williamson!  I really loved Lisa's debut book, The Art of Being Normal and I'm hugely excited for All About Mia.  A story about sisters is a story that I will pretty much always want to read.  Not convinced? 

One family, three sisters.
GRACE, the oldest: straight-A student. 
AUDREY, the youngest: future Olympic swimming champion. 
And MIA, the mess in the middle. 
Mia is wild and daring, great with hair and selfies, and the undisputed leader of her friends – not attributes appreciated by her parents or teachers. 
When Grace makes a shock announcement, Mia hopes that her now-not-so-perfect sister will get into the trouble she deserves. 
But instead, it is Mia whose life spirals out of control – boozing, boys and bad behaviour – and she starts to realise that her attempts to make it All About Mia might put at risk the very things she loves the most.

Today Lisa is here to share with us all the All About Mia wedding playlist!  (Listen along to the actual music here while you read why Lisa chose each song) Weddings! They're so my favourite, even - especially - if dramatic things happen.  Over to you, Lisa... 

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Wedding Playlist by Lisa Williamson

I love a good wedding. Always have, probably always will. Ever since my beloved Auntie Joyce got married when I was seven and I wore a yellow dress and straw boater hat and ate so many sausage rolls I was almost sick, I've been hooked (seriously, it was one of the best days of my life). I've since been to more weddings than I can count and enjoyed every single one. I love having an excuse to dress up for once and stick on a pair of sparkly shoes. I love seeing all my mates wearing their best outfits and looking all shiny and smiley. I love watching the happy couple get the giggles exchanging their vows. I love that magical hour between the ceremony and the wedding breakfast where you get to stand around drinking prosecco on an empty stomach. I even love the speeches. But the thing I love most of all, the bit I really look forward to, is when the tables are pushed aside, the lights go down and it's time to dance.

Wedding DJs are generally considered the bottom of the DJ hierarchy. Which is madness. The perfect wedding playlist is a work of art and I’m prepared to have it out with anyone who thinks differently. I once went to a wedding where the groom (a self-confessed music snob) hired his mate (a fellow music snob) to DJ the reception. For the next three hours he played all his favourite records to a deserted dance floor, ignoring every single one of my requests. My disappointment was acute. There's a time and place for so-called 'cool' music and a wedding is neither. Weddings are about shared joy and nostalgia. They're about dancing like no one's watching. They're about doing the Macarena and the Locomotion and discovering you still know the routine to 'Saturday Night' by Wigfield. Wedding discos are the polar opposite of cool and this is why I love them so much. It’s also probably why I was so keen to write a wedding in All About Mia.

The wedding in question is that of Mia’s parents. Having become engaged as teenagers, twenty years later they finally get round to tying the knot. Unfortunately, their day doesn’t turn out as picture-perfect as they planned, largely thanks to the drunken antics of their middle daughter Mia. One thing that is on point though, is the disco.

I was delighted when my publisher liked my suggestion of including the wedding disco playlist in the back of the book. After much deliberation, here are the twelve songs I narrowed it down to:

Back for Good - Take That

This is Mia’s mum and dad’s first dance. The lyrics are actually a bit sad considering the happy occasion:

Got fist of pure emotion

Got a head of shattered dreams

Gotta leave it, gotta leave it all behind now

However, it was number one when they got together twenty years earlier and has been ‘their song’ ever since. Grace performs a version of it during the wedding ceremony, much to Mia’s annoyance.

I Wanna Dance With Somebody - Whitney Houston

Pretty much the perfect pop song, I think I’ve requested this at every single wedding I’ve ever been to. The second Whitney goes ‘woooooooo!’ over the opening bars, I’m in musical ecstasy. ‘How Will I Know’ (also by Whitney) has the same happifying effect.

A Little Respect - Erasure

I LOVE eighties music. It’s the music of my childhood and makes me feel instantly nostalgic for disco floors filled with dry ice and dancing rainbow lights. The bit when Andy Bell sings ‘I’m so in love with you’ gives me proper intense feels every single time.

Sex On Fire - Kings of Leon

A modern classic. Best played towards the end of the night, by which point the female guests have kicked off their heels and the blokes have abandoned their suit jackets and wrapped their ties round their foreheads like Rambo and everyone’s jumping around like idiots.

Single Ladies (Put A Ring On It) - Beyoncé

No explanation required. Dance routine compulsory.  

Got My Mind Set On You - George Harrison

I picked this one in tribute to Mia’s mum and dad and their epic twenty-year engagement. The lyrics were just too perfect to ignore:

It's gonna take time

A whole lot of precious time

It's gonna take patience and time, um

To do it, to do it, to do it, to do it, to do it

To do it right child

Walking On Sunshine - Katrina and the Waves

Who can resist that beat? Not me. I asked a few friends for their favourite wedding disco songs and this was fellow YA author Non Pratt’s excellent contribution. This is another one you can’t help but dance like a crazy person to (the only way to dance at a wedding in my opinion).

We Are Family - Sister Sledge

‘We are family, I got all my sisters with me!’ The perfect soundtrack to a story about three sisters, this was a no-brainer. In an alternative version of the Campbell-Richardson wedding, where things don’t go completely tits-up, I like to imagine Mia, Grace and Audrey having a ball dancing to this together.

You Make My Dreams Come True – Hall & Oates

My friend Dale is a wedding DJ and was kind enough to share his most played songs with me, of which this was one of them. Indeed, it featured prominently at Dale’s own wedding. Immortalised in the film 500 Days of Summer, this is total musical sunshine and makes me smile every time I hear it.

Higher and Higher (Your Love Keeps Lifting Me) – Jackie Wilson

Romantic and uplifting with a great beat, this is THE perfect song to play at a wedding.

You and Me Song – The Wannadies

Another song designed for jumping up and down to with your mates. The unassuming verses make the rousing chorus all the more joyous to yell along with. A cheesy must.

Shake It Off – Taylor Swift

Mia’s anthem. If you read the book, you’ll probably work out why.

 

What I Write To by Rebecca Denton - This Beats Perfect Blog Tour

Today I'm really happy to be hosting this wonderful guest post by debut author, Rebecca Denton, for This Beats Perfect.  This Beats Perfect sounds really amazing. I'm loving books about music and fandom lately. Here is the summary for this book, then over to Rebecca...

Amelie Ayres has impeccable taste in music. Bowie. Bush. Bob. So when she finds herself backstage at The Keep’s only UK gig she expects to hate it; after all they are world’s most tragic band. In fact she feels a grudging respect – not (obviously) for their music, but for the work that goes in to making them megastars. And when lead singer, ‘Maxx’, is not dressed up as a cross between Elvis and a My Little Pony, he is actually rather normal, talented and has creative struggles not too dissimilar to her own.

But the next morning she wakes up rolls over and discovers a million new @’s on social media. Overnight a photo of her backstage has made her a subject of global speculation. Suddenly the world needs to know #Who’sThatGirl? – but for all the wrong reasons.

All Amelie wants is to play her music. She’s got the guitar, the songs, the soul and, in the safety of her bedroom, she’s got the voice. But when it comes to getting up on stage, she struggles with self-doubt.

Immaculate’s a concept. Flawless is fake. But just sometimes music – and hearts – can rock a perfect beat. 

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I’m one of those people that works well with a ton of distraction. The TV on, the radio on, music, whatever - for some reason I’m more comfortable working when there’s noise. There’s something nice about dipping out of the world you’re creating and having a constant atmosphere of inspiration to dip in and out of.

Last year, the Nobel’s caused great controversy by awarding the prize for literature to Bob Dylan.  There were lots of book folk angered by this for various reasons, the New York Times had a piece that simply argued by giving the award to him, a musician, a writer missed out.  And in these times of declining long form reading, that is a damn shame.

But when it comes to telling stories, in my opinion lyrics can be as potent as any poetry.  Here are a couple of the artists that inspired me when I was writing This Beats Perfect.

Regina Spektor

You might know her as the writer of the OISTNB theme song, but there’s so much more to her than that track. If there was ever an artist that made me want to start writing, Regina Spektor was the one. When I saw her play in a pokey little place off Tottenham Court Road over 10 years ago, she sat at a piano and sang/told these brilliant, eccentric stories that were just so mind-blowingly creative.  After a decade of guitar rock I felt like someone blew open a door to a whole new room.  I feel the recorded music sadly lacks that raw brilliance I saw live back then. But it’s still magic.

Tom Waits

Nothing makes me happier than songwriters who are theatrical and flamboyant storytellers and therefore I heart Tom Waits. As an artist, he is the *real deal* my friends – and there is no one I’d rather see live right now. Preferably in a dark, dingy wine bar in Berlin or Paris.  Prepare for heartbreak:

Get a taste of his theatrics; check out this classic interview with a perplexed Australian. This interview was apparently the inspiration for Heath Ledgers The Joker.

Wing Jones Photo Blog Tour

I absolutely adored Wing Jones by Katherine Jones! Which is why I'm hugely pleased to be on the blog tour, AND to be the final tour stop. Below we have Katherine Webber sharing one of her favourite quotes, I hope you enjoy it.

Wing Jones is the much anticipated debut novel from Katherine Webber, publishing 5^th January 2017 in the UK. With a grandmother from China and another from Ghana, fifteen-year-old Wing is often caught between worlds. But when tragedy strikes, Wing discovers a talent for running she never knew she had. Wing's speed could bring her family everything it needs. It could also stop Wing getting the one thing she wants…

Katherine Webber was born in Southern California but has lived in Atlanta, Hawaii, Hong Kong and now in London. For several years she worked at the reading charity BookTrust, where she worked on projects such as The Letterbox Club which delivers parcels of books to children in care, and YALC, the Young Adult Literature Convention. You can find her on Twitter@kwebberwrites

Throughout January, over 40 bloggers will be participating in the #WJphototour – a photo blog tour documenting Katherine’s path to publishing her debut novel. From childhood memories that inspired her writing to her time living in Atlanta and Asia that influenced the book to authors she’s met over the years right up to receiving her first finished copy of the book, follow along to see Katherine’s author life unfold! Keep an eye on the hashtag to see the latest photos! Now, over to Katherine Webber...

Whew! If you’ve been following along this whole time, WELL DONE! I hope you aren’t bored of my face and that you enjoyed finding out about my path to publication and what inspired me! I wanted to end the #WJPhotoTour with something to inspire other aspiring authors and writers. This is one of my favorite quotes, I have it on a postcard next to my bed. Being a published author is a dream come true, but I started writing because I love it. Because it makes me happy. Everyone’s path to publication is different and unique. Don’t get discouraged. Maybe it won’t be by the time you thought you would, or it won’t be with the first book you write, or even the second. Have hope. You’ll get there.

The YA Sisterhood: Writing Positive Girl Friendships in YA by Catherine Doyle

I'm really happy today to be sharing with you a guest post by Catherine Doyle, the author of both Vendetta and Inferno. Inferno was published at the beginning of this month and both books are incredible exciting and addictive and action-packed. There are wonderful characters and relationships and friendships. Sophie and Millie are such an amazing pair of best friends, so I'm glad Catherine chose to write about their relationship and about girls' friendships in general today. 

Over to you, Catherine...

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The YA Sisterhood: Writing Positive Girl Friendships in YA 

by Catherine Doyle

When I set out to write the Blood for Blood trilogy, I had a very clear goal in mind. I wanted to write about that bright, positive light a best friend brings into your life, to explore that deep sense of loyalty within female friendships. I wanted to write about the relationships that have been most important to me, the ones that anchor and nourish.

I didn’t want to write about petty jealousy, or boy-stealing, or fat-shaming, or ‘mean girls’. I didn’t want to write a best friend who hovered in the background while the protagonist had all the adventures, nor did I want to create a cardboard cut-out character or a love rival. I wanted to write something real, something lasting, and most importantly, something aspirational.

Positive female friendships often feel like a rarity in YA fiction. Usually there’s a boy in the way, or an agenda, or, in the case of thrillers, an impending death. They don’t seem to last very long, or run very deep. Romantic stories and platonic friendship stories, for some reason, often seem to be mutually exclusive. If there’s a love interest in the story, the friendship aspect suffers. If there’s a friendship taking centre stage, romance doesn’t get much of a look-in. As much as I wanted Sophie’s story to be about romance, I also wanted it to be about friendship, too.

In the search for romance, the YA best friend often gets relegated to the back of the plot, where she waits for an occasional high-five, to give out a well-timed scolding or to turn her back on the protagonist at the first sign of strife. Or she’s the shoulder to cry on, the phone call in the night-time, always kept slightly out of the loop. She is a supporting character. She is very rarely the lead. And she should be. Romance cannot be the only thing that matters.

I’m not saying this isn’t indicative of some people’s teenage experience. At a time when young girls are trying to figure themselves out, the quest for boys can often override the desire to maintain a healthy, committed friendship. People drop the ball. It happens. And so it happens a lot in YA too. The problem with this is that it sends a message and it repeats a message that’s already out there: romantic relationships will fulfill you, and friendships should come second or third. No. No no no no no.

When I was a teenager I fell for a slightly sociopathic boy and didn’t heed my friends’ advice on the matter. I became enamoured with the idea of being in love – with the idea of being wanted. My priorities went askew. It took me a while to realize my mistake, and to learn a very important lesson: female friendships are a constancy – romantic partners, especially during your teenage years, are not. At the beginning of Vendetta, Sophie Gracewell might be a bit naive, but one thing she is sure of is her best friend, Millie. The greatest bond is their own. It is absent of resentment or jealousy. It’s a sisterhood. It’s important.

After Vendetta came out, I received emails from readers declaring themselves ‘Team Nic’, or ‘Team Luca’ (and even some, randomly, ‘Team Dom’). Inferno has just been released, and already I am getting feedback that diverts a little from the ‘I want a Luca’ and settles a little more firmly on the ‘I want a Millie.’ I’m not saying you can’t have both (wouldn’t that be great?!) – but to wish for a strong, empathetic, mutually-supportive friendship in your life is definitely a good thing!



Inferno by Catherine Doyle was published 7th January by Chicken House Books, I highly recommend that you go out and find a copy! 

J is for JANGALA A-Z of Railhead by Philip Reeve

I am so happy to be taking part in the A-Z of Railhead by Philip Reeve blog tour today! Railhead is a scifi adventure story from the author of the Mortal Engines quartet. It looks spectacular! It's already available in hardback. Find out more about Railhead and Philip Reeve by visiting Philip Reeve or follow Philip Reeve on Twitter!

Over to you, Philip...

J is for JANGALA

by Philip Reeve

There are many different types of world strung like beads along the lines of the Great Network. Some, barely habitable to begin with, have been terraformed just enough to allow miners and industrial workers to live there, extracting and refining raw materials for richer, kindlier worlds which don’t want to scuff up their own ecosystems. On the planets where large numbers of people live, park-like garden cities sprawl around the K-bahn stations. And here and there there is a planet which is purely used for leisure; resort worlds, and the game preserves of the powerful Corporate Families.

No family is more powerful than the Noons, and the Noons are famous for their forests. The station cities of their worlds are greener than most, and their resort-world of Jangala is one planet-wide forest; tropical jungle at the equator giving way to broadleaf woodland in the temperate zones and vast pine forests near the pole. Small towns and lodges nestle among the trees, welcoming visitors from other worlds and important guests whom the Noons want to impress. Maglev trackways carry picnickers and hunting parties into the deepest parts of the world-forest. 

21st Century nature-lovers might be shocked by how popular hunting has become in the age of the Network Empire, but life on the Great Network is complex and technological, and the Corporate Families like to get back in touch with nature by tracking large, dangerous animals for days through dense jungle and then blowing them away with high-powered guns. Generations of bio-technologists have laboured to stock the forests of Jangala with some truly impressive beasts, some familiar from Old Earth, others more-or-less new, and genetic templates fashioned by the Guardians have allowed them to revive creatures from prehistory. In different parts of Jangala you might meet woolly mammoth, giant elk, or actual dinosaurs - not the sweet little miniature triceratops and stegosaurs which people keep like lapdogs, but Jurassic giants, red in tooth and claw, a challenge for even the most experienced hunter…

Railhead by Philip Reeve is published on 1st October by OUP.

One Transplant, Two Books and Seven Days to Say 'I Do' by Maria Farrer

Last week I got a message from both Emma Carroll and Maria Farrer about a topic that, honestly, isn't one I've given much thought to until recently: that of organ donation and the fact that this week, the 7th - 13th September is National Transplant Week. And to celebrate and to help spread awareness and to start a conversation about organ donation and transplants, Maria Farrer is here with a very emotional story of her family's experiences and how her nephew's heart transplant has inspired two books.  I think it's fascinating and thought-provoking and I do hope that it encourages more of you to consider registering to become organ donors with the NHS.

This comes just a couple weeks after I watched Dawn Kurtagich's transplant story and heard how much it had changed her life and inspired her own story, The Dead House, and made me remember a little boy that used to be friends with my son who was on the transplant list. It made me realise that organ donation/transplants is something that so many of us have experience with or in contact with in some personal way. And it is a reminder that more needs to be done in order to help and also a great way to show just how very much becoming an organ donor helps out people and families.

ONE TRANSPLANT, TWO BOOKS AND SEVEN DAYS TO SAY “I DO”

by Maria Farrer

It is spring 2013 and I am on the motorway driving towards Cambridge. My sister sits beside me, pale and tense and, for once, it is nothing to do with my driving. Suddenly the traffic parts and an ambulance screams through, blue lights flashing, sirens wailing. In the back of that ambulance is my sixteen-year-old nephew. My sister blinks back her tears, winds down the window and I wonder if she is about to be sick.

Even as I re-read that first paragraph, it sounds like something from a novel, but sadly there was nothing fictional about this scenario - it was a real life (and death) situation.

As a writer, I tend to avoid writing too specifically about anything or anyone I hold very close and dear, but today I am going to ignore all that because this week is National Transplant Week and I want to encourage everybody, young and old to discuss their thoughts on organ and tissue donation. The story of my nephew, Max, was the inspiration for my most recent YA novel, “A Flash of Blue”, but it turns out that Max was also the inspiration behind a character and plot-line in Emma Carroll’s magical MG book, “In Darkling Wood.”

Emma and I met up a few weeks ago and, given the thread of heart transplant running through both our books, decided that we would like to help publicise the organ donor campaign and to support it in any way we could. We would both like to thank the generosity of Michelle for allowing us to do this.

Just over two years ago it seemed like a pretty average Sunday morning in my house. I did a bit of writing and we had friends coming to lunch. The phone rang - as phones do - and as soon as I heard my sister’s voice, I knew something was very wrong. She told me, as calmly as she could, that my 16 year old nephew’s heart had stopped working and he was fighting for his life in critical care. Within a few minutes, I had sent messages to colleagues at work, had packed a bag, jumped in my car and headed straight for the hospital in Southampton. As the situation deteriorated, it became clear that my nephew needed to be moved to a specialist transplant unit. Within hours he underwent emergency surgery to allow his heart function to be carried out by a machine outside his body. It was a roller-coaster time and as soon as he was stable enough, he was put on the list to receive an emergency heart transplant; a transplant that was his only hope of a future. A few weeks later a donor heart became available and was successfully transplanted. He was one of the lucky ones and if I could, I would share my gratitude with the world.

There aren’t enough donors and that is the sad and simple fact of the matter. Every day in the UK three people die while waiting for a transplant. Three people every day. To become a donor is probably the most personal of personal decisions and every person’s choice should be respected. When my nephew went into hospital, I wasn’t a registered organ donor - not because I didn’t want to be, but simply because I hadn’t really thought about it or got round to it. But a few days in a transplant unit focuses the mind, I can tell you. I went home, registered as a donor and it felt like one of the most meaningful things I had done in my life. If the unthinkable happens to me, how do I want my story to end? With nothing? Or with the hope that I may be able to give someone else the chance of a better life? And as I looked around at all those brave people in the critical care unit waiting for a transplant - many of them very young - how did I want their stories to end? Happily, of course.

I often feel as if I put a small part of my heart into every story I write. If you could write your story, from the point of view of a donor or a recipient, how would you want it to end? My hope is that all of us will live a long and happy life, but my hope is also that all of you will think about becoming an organ donor and, if you decide it is something you want to do, to register on https://www.organdonation.nhs.uk and make your family aware of your wishes.* There is no age limit, young or old. Any one of us could help to save or improve more than 5 lives. How incredible is that? Is there anything greater than the gift of life?

Thanks to one amazing person, my nephew is now 18 and off to university. Thanks to the promise I made to him when he was waiting for his transplant, I wrote “A Flash of Blue” and he was by my side at its launch in April (no prizes for guessing where the title came from!).

SEVEN DAYS TO SAY I DO: From Max and Maria and Emma, please support organ donation and pass it on.

https://www.organdonation.nhs.uk

Can characters be unlikeable but still loveable? by Alexia Casale

Absolutely pleased and honoured to be sharing this guest post from Alexia Casale today. Alexia is the author of The Bone Dragon and House of Windows (published this month!) as well as the organiser of upcoming literary 'festival' for MG/YA #YAShot. 

House of Windows is one of my favourite books I've read all year. You can read my review of it here and I'm so glad that Lexi chose to write about the likeability (or not) of her main character, Nick. I think it's really interesting and I hope you enjoy it too! 

Find out more about Alexia Casale, her books and YAShot using the following websites: 

Alexia Casale ... Alexia on Twitter ... YAShot

Can characters by unlikeable but still loveable?

by Alexia Casale

         

A while back, I did an interview about The Bone Dragon that included the question ‘Why will readers like your protagonist, Evie?’ I remember blinking at the screen and realising I’d never even thought about it before because it had never occurred to me as an issue. I love some of my characters and hate others, but I never think about whether they’re likeable. It seems such a low bar to set – and, at the same time, it’s so hard to achieve a general ‘likeability’ that everyone will agree with. Likeable characters are like bread: very pleasant, but also very easy to get fed up with unless you add something to the mix. How could any writer ask people to read an entire book about bread-people? Books need to be about marmite-people: people love or loathe. People readers will have a strong opinion about.

            Nick, the protagonist of House of Windows, is a prickly, touchy, difficult, largely self-centred smart-alec. I don’t expect the majority of readers to like him. Instead I hope most will slowly come to love him, not because they discover he has a hidden heart of gold but through gradually coming to understand him: to see why he’s self-centred and why such a smart person is so dumb when it comes to people. There are reasons that Nick is as he is, but during the book he starts making different choices and becoming a slightly different person. But his choices aren’t a matter of him saying ‘Oh, I guess I’m a bit of a jerk: better do something about that’, they’re about him coming to understand that there are other ways of behaving.

As we slowly realise, Nick needs some help learning enough about other people to know how not to be selfish. I love Nick and I feel for him because I understand why he hasn’t seen the other choices he could make before. Also, he’s still a child and I think there’s a lot to love about a person who is doing his best, as he approaches adulthood, to find a way to be a better person when he’s really not had any help figuring those things out. The things we learn about why Nick as he is don’t excuse his behaviour, but they explain it. It’s easier to have sympathy for people when we understand where they’re coming from. Often we see that when people aren’t nice to us, they’re not trying to be hurtful: they’re just try to deal with stuff going on in their own lives. When we see that people don’t mean us harm, it’s easier to see past their actions. That’s the journey I hope to take readers on with Nick.

            Meanwhile, one of the others characters is presented as a ‘nice chap’. But then there’s a bit of stereotypical, slightly cartoonish ‘comedy’ with one girl and then another… and over time I hope readers will see that this ‘likeable’ ‘funny’ ‘nice chap’ isn’t really either of those things. In his way, he’s a much less pleasant person than Nick – he’s just got a shinier, smoother surface. He doesn’t prickle at everyone and periodically sneer, but he is much more deeply unkind. More deeply selfish.

And that’s another issue I have with ‘likeableness’. Often the people who are overtly likeable aren’t actually that nice or kind or decent. Yes, they make nice and they smile and they never actively say anything horrid and they try to avoid conflict… but those things aren’t always good at all. If someone stamps purposefully on your foot because they fancy it and then smile and make an apology, it’s harder to call them on it. But I’d say that person is worse than the one who just comes up and stamps on your foot while glaring at you and then swears at you and walks off. We often mistake slick for likeable. After all, how can anyone be ‘likeable’ and still challenge implicit prejudice from someone who is smiling and oblivious when this will doubtless mean upsetting people and ‘causing a fuss’? On the one hand it’s not likeable to do otherwise, but upsetting people and causing a fuss are antithetical to the appearance of being agreeable and smiling and getting on with everyone that we often associate with likeableness.

Likeableness is a mask people wear when you first meet them. It doesn’t tell you much about what’s going on underneath and that’s what I care about in creating characters: I don’t want them to be a small list of traits but feel like real people - complex and contradictory and all the more wonderful because of it.

            It’s not that hard to love people who act in selfish and difficult ways provided they’re not cruel and you understand why they’re behaving that way. Liking people is all about surface impressions: it’s relies on not knowing very much about someone. Love relies on complexity: it’s about liking some bits and not others, but understanding how all the bits fit together and appreciating the whole person as more than the sum of their parts. That’s what I strive for with my characters. I want them to be interesting. I want them to gradually come to make sense. Then you can like them or not, love them or hate them, but I hope you’ll see them as I do – as people on page, not just characters acting out a story.

The Trouble With Brothers by Emma Carroll

Today I have a very special guest post for you by Emma Carroll, the author of lovely middle grade books Frost Hollow Hall, The Girl Who Walked on Air and In Darkling Wood.

One of the things that I loved so much about the book are the family relationships. Especially between the main character, Alice, and her little brother who is need of a heart transplant. And so I'm super glad that Emma is here today talking about her own relationship with her brother. I can relate to this post so very much (my brother lives 3000 miles away from me and has done for the past 15 years!) 

In Darkling Wood is a beautiful, magical story and I definitely recommend it. 

Emma Carroll ... Emma on Twitter

The Trouble With Brothers

by Emma Carroll

Though they don’t get much page time, brothers are a major part of the story in ‘In Darkling Wood’. Sometimes, for me, a person’s absence has more impact than their presence. Certainly, that’s the case with my own brother.

Growing up, I didn’t like my brother much. He was two years older than me and quite fancied himself- a lot of girls did too, which didn’t help. While I was galloping around the garden on my imaginary horse, he was hanging out in the high street wearing drainpipe jeans and a The Clash t-shirt. And if he wasn’t in town ‘posing’, (the family name for it) he’d shut himself in his bedroom and play music so loud, I couldn’t concentrate on my pony books. No wonder then, that the dog was known as ‘my sister’- I spent far more of my childhood with her.

Then we all grew up.

I started uni. The dog died. And, out of the blue, my granddad did too. My parents were on holiday in America at the time. We couldn’t get hold of them, so we- the kids- had to deal with it. I rushed back from uni and the brother who met me at the station was different. Or maybe I was. He was softer. Kinder. Funnier. From that point on, we sort of ‘found’ each other.

For the next few years we became very close. We hung out together, had mutual friends, went backpacking around Turkey in the summer hols. It seemed hard to think we’d not been that close growing up.

After uni, I moved to Brighton. And he went to Australia. He stayed there. Twenty years on, he’s still there, with his English wife and two brilliant daughters. At first, I was completely gutted. I got angry.

Then I got cancer.

It was a massive, life-changing experience, and one he wasn’t there to see me through. I missed him. Yet it also made me realise that his life wasn’t here with us anymore, but on the other side of the world. I learned something else too- and it really helped.

 

Getting ill was a bit like my granddad’s death: it brought everyone together, only this time it was with my friends- good, gorgeous, funny friends who became like family because of how rock solid they were. Friends like my dearest buddy Karl who bought joke chemo wigs, and who I think of as a brother. I’ve never forgotten what a difference those people made. Never will.

 Family is flesh and blood. But it’s also the people who are there- the partners, the best friends, and yes- the dogs. It can be as big, as varied and as vibrant as you want it to be. Just so long as it works.

Andrew from The Pewter Wolf about #YALC

Andrew from The Pewter Wolf is here today, on the first day of YALC, to talk a little bit about his upcoming blogging workshop at YALC. If you see him, give him a hug and tell him he's going to do brilliantly!

The Pewter Wolf ... Andrew on Twitter

This coming Sunday, I will be at YALC. For the first time. Am oddly excited over this. But, at the same time, I am quite worried over it.

My main reason is an odd one. Someone, I will be taking part in a panel about blogging. I, along with 5 other bloggers (Michelle from Tales of Yesterday, Laura from Sisterspooky, Lucy from LucyTheReader on youTube and Queen of Contemporary online, Vivienne from Serendipity Reviews and Jim from YA Yeah Yeah) will be doing panels, chatting about blogging and our love for YA.

For those of you curious, Michelle, Laura and myself will be the panel “Blogging 101” (Book Blogging for Beginners) on Sunday about half 12 to quarter past 1. And Lucy, Vivienne and Jim will be doing “Taking Your Blog To The Next Level” (I think i will be lurking in the crowd, taking mad notes) at half 1 till quarter past 2. Both events are hosted by Andy Robb.

Now, you must be thinking this is awesome. And it is. I am thrilled and honoured to be asked to talk about blogging and share my experience with the crazy blogosphere known as YA Book Blogging. This is a wonderful community to be part of and our love for reading and blogging is something we should be celebrating!

But, I’m a little scared. I have several reasons. Well, several small reasons which comes from public speaking (What if I freeze on stage? What if I vomit on stage? What if I say something stupid and very Andrew-like? What if I get banned from YALC for [insert stupid reason here]? What if what if what it?)

But my main reason for freaking out is this: I don’t know exactly what advice I’m going to give you guys who decide to come to the event.

I will give out advice and some funny one-liners, I hope. But I’m not sure what advice I will actually give you. When I started blogging, I made it up as I went along. Hell, until very recently, I never thought of myself as a book blogger! And Michelle broke the news to me a few weeks ago that, because I do videos for Bookish Brits, I am now a book vlogger as well.

When I started blogging, I would just type and hope for the best. I had no idea if anyone was reading my blog. I would tweet and chat about books but who, in their right mind, would read my blog?

I guess, because I never really thought about who my blog’s primary and secondary target audience were, I just did what I did. I had fun and tried to write something I would enjoy reading. And, somehow, that has worked. I’m here, about to do a panel and am trying very hard not to freak out or get stage freak (Laura and Michelle will have to give me hugs if things get too much…)

So, I just wanted to write this post to say thanks. And sorry in advance if my worse fear comes true and I vomit in my shoe.

But what the day represents - YALC and our love and passion for books - that is the most important thing. And I can’t wait to sit down with you guys (either one to one, in a big group or via the mighty Twitter) and get excited over that book. Yes, that book. You know the one I’m talking about…