Today we are taking part in the Opal Moonbaby blog tour and have a guest post from author Maudie Smith…

Writers under my skin

Some writers, I find, have a way of getting under your skin and staying there.

The first writer to do this for me was probably Dr Seuss. We were big Seuss fans in my house. The rhythms and rhymes of his language lend themselves brilliantly to being read aloud again and again. His strange and slightly spooky characters such as Sam I Am of Green Eggs and Ham fame and the eponymous Cat in the Hat have stayed with me. I think the books we learn more or less by heart when we are very young instil in us an instinctive grasp of how stories work. That’s something I cling to now when I’m writing and wondering if I’m heading in the right direction. I try to trust that the structure and workings of story are somehow inside me. The story will come out right in the end. It’s almost a mantra, like Horton’s in Horton Hatches the Egg. “I meant what I said and I said what I meant. An elephant’s faithful, one hundred percent!”

I used to be an actor and I love dialogue. I’ve always liked ‘doing the voices’. Anyone passing by my open window when I’m working on a scene could be forgiven for thinking there was a madwoman in the house. I suppose that love of dialogue is the reason I liked Catherine Storr’s books so much. Clever Polly and the Stupid Wolf is full of wonderful and very funny conversations between down-to-earth, pragmatic Polly and the wolf who is so desperate to eat her.

I was one of those children who thought there was a monster in the cupboard most of the time and that’s another reason why Storr’s books appealed to me. The big black wolf is quite scary, continually turning up at Polly’s door, trying to find ways to get in and eat her. No one but Polly seems to notice him much but Polly always manages to be one step ahead of him, seeing through his plans and thwarting them just in time. You don’t want the wolf to get Polly but you actually start to feel quite sorry for him. He has just the right blend of scariness and silliness.

This might be where my love of mixing fantasy and reality began. Mrs Pepperpot helped with that too. I adored the way this resourceful little party managed to get herself out of difficult fixes each time she was inconveniently reduced to the size of a condiment container. I loved to see how, out of necessity brought about by her shrinking, she used ordinary objects differently.

This was also the main attraction of The Borrowers. Chests of drawers made from match boxes, walls papered with old letters – all that paraphernelia ‘borrowed’ from the human world really captured my imagination and held onto it. Opal Moonbaby, the alien character in my book isn’t small but she does have a different take on the trappings of human life. She juggles food rather than eats it; she likes books for the way the print is so well-trained, standing in such straight lines, and she definitely doesn’t have the hang of the usual way to operate a shopping trolley.

Other childhood favourites were Frances Hodgson Burnett, Lewis Carroll, Nina Bawden, Richard Adams, Noel Streatfield, Elizabeth Enright, E Nesbit, Joan Aiken and C S Lewis. All of these great storytellers contributed to my love of a satisfying yarn. If I were forced to single out one book I would choose E Nesbit’s Five Children and It. The weird and magical psammead was a wonderful addition to the Victorian world of the ‘ordinary’ children; both worlds were quite alien to me though and I lapped up this story and the ones that followed.

Roald Dahl wasn’t part of my childhood but I’ve been lucky enough to read all his books to my own children and his darkly comic, straight to the point style is often in my mind when I’m writing. Not all modern young readers will put up with the leisurely pace and lengthy descriptive passages of some of the older classics. I think Dahl put up a literary signpost pointing us all in a new direction, calling for a new contemporary style of story-writing that engages closely with its reader and never patronises them.

I’m still being influenced by writers now; I don’t think it’s something that ever stops. Michael Morpurgo, Jill Murphy, Jacqueline Wilson, Andy Stanton, Eva Ibbotson, Michelle Paver, Catherine MacPhail, David Almond, Tanya Landman, Lauren Child, Patrick Ness…..and that’s only the children’s authors. The list just goes on growing. I only hope my skin can accommodate them all!

We have two copies of Opal Moonbaby to give away. Just retweet this post or leave a comment to enter. Open to UK only. Closes 27th January at 5pm

You can follow the Opal Moonbaby blog tour tomorrow by visiting www.chicklish.co.uk

Opal Moonbaby is available to buy now: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Opal-Moonbaby-Maudie-Smith/dp/1444004786/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1326232541&sr=8-1

Design a cover for Puffin Post magazine!

If you love art or are bursting with creative ideas, this is the competition for you. Design a sporty cover for Puffin Post – the world’s best book magazine for children – and your work could be flying into thousands of homes and displayed in the Southbank Centre in London!

About the competition
Puffin Post is inviting children across the country to design a cover for the two Puffin Post magazines. A selection of shortlisted designs will be displayed at the Imagine Festival at the Southbank Centre, and everyone who visits the festival can then vote for their favourite designs, which will be printed and posted to book-loving children across the world.

How to enter
Your entry must have a sporty puffins theme and fit onto a piece of paper that measures 211mm high x 168mm wide. You can use paints, pencils, crayons, collage or any materials you like, but try to leave a space at the top so the magazine’s logo doesn’t cover your design.

Get your whole class involved and design some really brilliant sporty covers!

Send your entry to: Design a Cover Competition, , Catteshall Manor, Catteshall Lane, Godalming, Surrey, GU7 1UU
Closing date: 31st January 2012

For more information visit www.puffinbookclub.co.uk

Today we hear from Bookbabbler Luke:

“So why do you live in the cellar?” asked Linda, now eying the green goo oozing slowly in her direction, from the edge of the closed door.
“Mainly it’s the smell. Your aunt doesn’t wash all that often, you know. Partly ‘cos she says I have worse table manners than the goat, partly ‘cos of the philosophy, and mainly ‘cos of the jazz.”
“The jazz?”
“Well that’s how I got my name. Fungus the bogeyman.” The bog troll pulled a large and only slightly battered saxophone out from under a pile of sacks. “Course, I play some rock and blues too. Comes with being a rolling stone.”
“A rolling stone? The band?”
“No, I’ve just got a bit of a weight problem”

What can I say about this book; apart from I think it’s brilliant. The characters are funny, believable and very charismatic. We follow the story of the dwarf king who loses an amulet which is used to power the dwarf mansion. During the quest to find the amulet we meet characters such as Grizelda the white witch who is constantly surrounded by frogs and Fungus a bog troll. There are many characters in the book which initially I found confusing, but after a quick re cap of the character lists at the beginning of the book I quickly remembered who was who and their role in the story.
This book will have you laughing out loud with its humour and wit and you will quickly relate to the characters. Anyone who enjoys fantasy books with humour will love this. Highly recommended.

Thanks Luke and thank you to Safkhet Publishing for sending us a copy to review.

Tempest is the first in a trilogy by debut author Julie Cross.

The novel begins in 2009, Jackson Meyer is a college student leading a relatively normal life with a girlfriend and a summer job. However, he also has an unexplained ability to travel back in time. These trips back in time seem harmless until one morning when strangers burst into his girlfriend Holly’s room and shoot her. Jackson jumps back in time away from the scene and lands in 2007 where he gets stuck. Will Jackson be able to change events through time travel and what will he learn about his abilities?

Tempest is a fast paced, action packed thriller starting in 2009. I really enjoyed this book and Cross has done an excellent job of creating a YA thriller with a different edge. There are so many surprises and mysteries in this story that I could not put it down.

I loved Jackson’s character, he is clever and always trying to think of doing the right thing even if that wasn’t what he might have done in the past. I also thought the way that Cross makes him deal with his emotions worked really well with the story line.

This is a great novel and I really can’t wait to read the next two instalments. I liked that this is told from a male point of view (Jackson), as this made it feel a bit different to other YA books. I would love to see this made into a film – it would be fab!

We have two copies of Tempest to giveaway. To enter just retweet this post or leave a comment below. UK only. Closes 31st January at 5pm.

Julie Cross is our Author in Residence this month. To find out more about Julie read our interview here http://bookbabblers.co.uk/2012/01/q-a-with-julie-cross/
Julie is on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/FansOfJulieCross
and on twitter: JulieCross1980

Sarah Alderson’s debut novel Hunting Lila was one of my favourite books of 2011, so you can imagine how excited I was to receive a review copy of her latest title Fated and it really did not disappoint.

Fated is an explosive paranormal thriller which sees heroine Evie Tremain being attacked by a group of demons as she puts out the trash at the diner where she works. Evie doesn’t understand what is going on and is even more confused when a stranger comes to her rescue. What Evie soon finds out is that her life has changed beyond recognition and she is actually a hunter.

I loved Evie’s character, she is hard working with two jobs in order to save for college in New York and escape her hometown. She also has a real attitude and is very determined and these were probably my favourite things about her.

Lucas is half shadow warrior half human and he is from the Brotherhood (a group of unhumans who are constantly at war with the hunters). Lucas is sent to spy on Evie and ultimately to kill her, but after getting to know Evie can he go through with it?

Alderson is such a fantastic writer she draws the reader right into the story and makes you feel that you are actually there. It is a totally different story to Hunting Lila, but is still written in what I think is Alderson’s trademark gripping and action packed style. If you are looking for a great read then buy Fated, as you won’t be able to put it down.

I have a feeling that Fated is going to be one of my top books for 2012 and I really hope that there will be a sequel!

Fated is published today and you can buy a copy here..

Thank you to Simon and Schuster for sending us a copy to review.

Today we are a blog tour host for Michael Gerard Bauer and his novel Don’t Call Me Ishmael.

Give us a little intro to yourself
I was born at a very young age and grew up in Brisbane Queensland about an hour or so from the beautiful beaches of Surfers Paradise and the Sunshine Coast. In primary school my dream was to become either a Samurai Warrior or a Ninja. Tragically when I got to secondary school I was informed that I had taken the wrong subjects to study Samurai-ing or Ninja-ing so I went to Uni and eventually became an English and Economics teacher. Fairly close to a Samurai or Ninja I think you’ll agree.

What made you start writing and how did you get published?
I liked reading and writing at school but I can’t remember ever making up stories or writing anything just for myself back then. At Uni my new dream was to become a singer-songwriter like Bob Dylan, so my early attempts at writing were songs. Around that time I also wrote some poems and a comedy sketch that I sent off to a magazine and TV show. Neither was accepted. I stopped sending things away after that. I didn’t have much self-belief at the time and I figured I just wasn’t good enough. I went on to become a teacher which I loved, but I always thought ‘one day I’ll write some short stories and have another go at being a writer’.

One of those short stories that I never got around to actually writing eventually grew into what would become my first novel The Running Man. I was so desperate to have a go at writing it that I resigned from my teaching job half way through 2000. I hadn’t written a single word of the story at that point. It was just all in my head. Thanks to my wife working full time, I was able to take regular breaks from teaching and eventually I finished the manuscript in 2003 and sent it to a number of publishers fully expecting to be rejected. To my amazement the first reply I received was an offer to publish. That phonecall changed my life.

Tell us a bit about Don’t Call Me Ishmael and what was your inspiration behind the book?
Don’t Call Me Ishmael is about a 14 year old boy called Ishmael Leseur who claims to be the world’s only sufferer of Ishmael Leseur’s Syndrome. The major symptom of this syndrome is that horribly embarrassing things happen to anyone unfortunate enough to contract it. This sums up Ishmael experiences perfectly! His life seems to be a magnet for humiliating episodes and it can be traced way back to his birth where for some bizarre reason his father decided to dress up as Captain Ahab from Herman Melville’s classic whaling novel Moby Dick and his parents end up naming him, Ishmael, after the sailor who narrates that story.

Apart from the fallout from his unusual name, Ishmael also has to deal with a school bully who is determined to make his life miserable, a terrifying fear of public speaking, a secret unrequited love affair with the girl of his dreams Kelly Faulkner, and an assortment of strange friends including James ‘No Fear’ Scobie and the irrepressible Orazio ‘my special subject is hot chicks’ Zorzotto.

The inspiration for this strange story all started because of a picture I’d torn from a magazine and pinned on a big noticeboard beside my desk. It was a still image from the movie Moby Dick starring Gregory Peck. I’d studied Moby Dick at Uni and one day when I was looking at that picture the book’s very famous opening line came into my head. That line is “Call me Ishmael.” For some reason I imagined someone – a young by – saying the opposite, “Don’t call me Ishmael.” I began to wonder about this boy called Ishmael and why he didn’t like his name and that’s how the story started.

What are you working on at the moment?
At the moment I’m working on a comedy for younger readers which will also contain cartoon illustrations – possibly drawn by my son Joe who designed and created the original covers for the first two Ishmael books in Australia. (Proud dad alert!) Joe’s actually a young film maker. His independent film, a horror/comedy called The Killage, has been shown at a couple of film festivals in the UK recently. It won best film at the Crystal Palace International Film Festival last year. He wrote the script, directed and acted in it and did all the special effects and editing. (He’s much more talented than his father, but don’t tell anyone!)

What do you like to do outside of writing?
In my spare time I like to take part in extreme and cutting edge sports such as underwater base-jumping, cold air ballooning and uphill slalom. Last year I actually ran against the bulls in Pamplona!

Or perhaps you’d be more interested in the truth?

Well I love music so I play guitar (badly) and sing (even worse) and occasionally like to try to write songs. I rarely torture people by performing in public but I did so recently at the White Ravens Children’s Literature Festival in Munich. You can see a (thankfully) brief clip of me doing this in the following video made by the fabulous American author John Green: http://youtu.be/rTzsShHWGPE .

Naturally I also like reading, as well as watching TV and films. Sometimes I even get to play bit parts in my son’s films. Twice recently I’ve played the part of a bus driver. I like to think this is because of my superb acting ability but it just might possibly be because I’m the only person Joe knows with a bus licence.

I’m also a big sports fan – Rugby League, Rugby Union, Football, Cricket, Tennis etc. When I’m not writing, I spend quite a lot of time doing school visits.

Do you have any advice for young people who would like to become authors?
Read a lot, especially the types of books you want to write, and write as much as possible to practice your craft. Most importantly, write for the love and fun of it. Write first and foremost for yourself. Write what you’re passionate about and what you feel you couldn’t bear not to write. Don’t write something just because you think it will be popular or because it is the latest trend. And don’t write to be famous. And certainly not to be rich! Write because you love words and stories. If you do that, there’s a chance other people will fall in love with the words and stories you write. Finally, be persistent and determined and believe in yourself.

Thanks for having me at Bookbabblers. Hope I haven’t babbled on for too long!

We have three copies of Don’t Call Me Ishmael to give away. To enter just retweet this post or leave a comment below. The draw is open to UK only and closes on the 9th January.

You can find Michael on facebook: Michael Gerard Bauer Author
and on his blog: http://michaelgerardbauer.wordpress.com

You can catch the next part of the tour tomorrow if you head over to Read Between the Lines at www.cynical-believer.blogspot.com

Don’t Call me Ishmael is a fantastic novel from Michael Gerard Bauer. Originally published in Australia in 2006, Don’t Call me Ishmael follows the school life of Ishmael Leseur and his friends; James Scobie, Ignatius Prindabel, Razza Zorzotto and Bill Kingsley as well as those who’re not such good friends, namely Barry Bagsley and co.

The central theme of the novel is bullying. Ishmael starts secondary school and is picked upon by Barry Bagsley, the school bully because of his unusual name.(Those of you who have read Moby Dick will recognize the name Ishmael). Thus begins Ishmael’s journey through the school year trying to keep himself out of Barry’s way.

When new pupil James Scobie arrives, it seems that Barry may have a new victim in his sights. Ishmael and Scobie soon strike up a friendship with a group of other boys in their year and try to learn how to deal with events that are thrown in their path.

This is a hilarious book that I think would be most popular with boys. Bauer’s writing is so easy to read and fun that it will turn the pages for you. I sat down and read this in a day, I just couldn’t put it down.

I loved this novel and can highly recommend it. I think readers will find it deals with issues facing today’s schoolchildren.

Thank you to Templar Publishing for sending us a copy to review.

You can find Michael on Facebook: Michael Gerard Bauer Author
And on his blog: http://michaelgerardbauer.wordpress.com

Tell us a little bit about yourself
I’m a mom of three kids, wife to an awesome husband, and now a former gymnastics coach turned writer/stay-at-home mom. I love reading more than any other hobby or activity. But I also enjoy running, swimming, roller blading and years of ballet have made it virtually impossible for me to walk across a smooth kitchen floor in my socks without attempting a few pirouettes. Listening to music is must for me at almost all hours of the day, but I’m completely tone-deaf and no amount of voice lessons could improve my efforts.

How did you begin writing and what was your journey to publication like?
My writing journey began in May of 2009 and it started with scenes from a story in my head. I wrote them in random order in a small notebook, before deciding to start typing and creating a bigger plot.

I finished my first novel and starting submitting it to literary agents by the August, 2009. Really, I only did it for fun at first. Just to see what would happen. I sent tons of query letters and then dove into a totally new book. I had many requests for more material and also MANY rejection. I kept writing and having friends and family read chapters and sometimes entire manuscripts. I didn’t do much editing or rewriting in that first year. There were so many stories I wanted to tell that moving on to the next project was very easy for me.

By April of 2010, I had completed seven young adult novels…each one very different and showing some kind of growth from the last. Then an editor who requested my very first novel got back to me with a couple rejections and suggestions before asking me if I was willing to do a complete rewrite and work on a true YA time-travel story with him. Of course, I said yes. And it was such a blast to bounce ideas and create something totally new. By June of 2010, I not only had an agent, but a three book deal with St. Martin’s press and studios interested optioning TEMPEST for possible film adaption. It was quite a wild ride.

Tell us about Tempest and your inspiration for the book
My inspiration for TEMPEST comes from the very basic love story. Two characters who are very different, meeting and falling in love. If I compared TEMPEST to a big pot of soup, the love story would be broth. Then of course, time-travel would be the main ingredient…like the noodles. After I had that established and I began writing it, it was like tossing random items from the fridge into the soup and hoping it creates a brand new dish that many people would like. A little government thriller. A dash of family drama and emotion. A pinch of mystery. It sounds kind of silly, but that’s really how it happened. In layers, one idea at a time.

What are you working on now?
Right now I’m working on a third draft of book 2 and a first draft of book 3 pretty much at the same time. I go back and forth between the two depending on when I get edits from my agent or editor on the second book.

What do you like to do outside of writing?
Reading! I love GLEE and a few other regular shows that I watch. I have different volunteer projects that I work on and that’s really enjoyable because being a full time writer means no co-workers and it’s nice to be around people that aren’t related to me sometimes.

Thank you Julie for the opportunity to do this interview!

Tempest is published on the 5th January. You can order a copy here

You can find Julie on facebook: https://www.facebook.com/FansOfJulieCross
and on Twitter: @JulieCross1980