Frances Hardinge is our May Author in Residence. Here is our interview with Frances…

Tell us a little about yourself
By the time I was about five, I knew I wanted to be a writer. Mind you, back then I also planned to teach myself to fly, and to master the language of cats. I suppose one out of three is better than nothing.

Even when I was young I was writing stories that tended to feature twists, turns, murder and mayhem. My sense of humour is darkly weird, and I’m incurably odd. I’m a friendly oddity, however. I love people – I find them fascinating, inspiring and incredibly funny. Although I wear black nearly all the time (including a black Trilby hat) I’m actually pretty cheerful by nature.

I started writing my first children’s novel on the advice of a good friend of mine, fellow author Rhiannon Lassiter. When I had written five chapters (which I thought were dreadful), she prevented me from hiding or burning them by stealing them away and showing them to her own editor. A week later, to my huge surprise, I had my first book contract.

Although I write for younger readers, I don’t plan to have children myself. Being a mad auntie is much more fun. I have a nephew, a god-daughter, and various ‘honorary’ nephews and nieces.

Tell us about ‘A Face Like Glass’ and your inspiration for the story
The book is set in Caverna, an underground city which nobody is allowed to enter or leave. The elite are the Craftsmen, producing delicacies so extraordinary that their effects seem magical – perfumes that enslave the mind, cheeses that give you visions, spices that let you see in the dark.

There is something wrong with the faces of those who are born in Caverna, however. The babies do not smile, and without training their faces would remain blank forever. Every person in Caverna has a collection of expressions that they have been taught, slowly and with difficulty. Each time they change their expression it’s a deliberate act, like putting on a different hat. There are no natural smiles, no genuine frowns. Everybody is a perfect liar.

The one exception is Neverfell, a scatterbrained, amnesiac twelve-year-old with a face that shows her every thought, a girl that cannot lie. Plunged into the decadent and treacherous Court of Caverna, she soon becomes the latest novelty, and finds herself surrounded by those who wish to own her, show her off, use her as a pawn, even kill her…

I’ve always been fascinated by underground places, and the idea that there could be mysterious worlds hidden away beneath the ground. When I’m walking around in Oxford, I love knowing that the tunnels from the Bodleian library are stretching unseen beneath my feet, full of books many centuries old. I’ve seen the underground streets of Seattle which
were once full of illegal speakeasies, the (scarily dark and narrow) Cu Chi tunnels that Vietnamese guerilla fighters used as hidden bases, and Chislehurst caves where a whole ‘town’ was set up during WW2, full of people hiding from the bombing raids.

At the same time, the idea of living underground makes one nervous. There’s a gut-level fear of being buried alive.

Where is your favourite place to write?
I live in both Oxford and Isleworth, and divide my time between them. When I’m in Oxford, I write at a desk in my bedroom. In Isleworth, I am lucky enough to have my own study (though it also serves as a storeroom for random junk).

What are you working on now?
At the moment, just as an experiment, I am writing two books at once. Usually I find that by the time I finish writing a book I’m thoroughly sick of it. This time I’m hoping that by writing two novels simultaneously I can avoid hating either of them. Any time I get bored of one, I can get on with the other.

One of them is best described as a dark fairytale set in the 1920s. The other is a pirate story that takes place in an otherworldly ocean where all our memories take solid form.

What do you like to do outside of writing?
I love travelling to new countries, because it shakes up my ideas, and forces me to throw aside everything I think I know. When I’m in warmer climes I enjoy scuba diving and snorkelling. (Sharks have never been a problem, though a triggerfish once bit a piece out of my flipper.) I’m also completely obsessed with volcanoes, and seize every chance to run
up, around and inside them.

I’ve done a certain amount of historical re-enactment, and I’m perfectly happy dressing up in old-fashioned costumes and pretending to be somebody else for a bit.

Every Thursday I go for a hike of at least ten miles. For some reason I find it easier to think through plot ideas while I’m walking. I’ve got no sense of direction and I get lost all the time, but that just means I discover interesting places unexpectedly.

Aside from that, I like reading, spending time with my friends, playing board games and trying things I’ve never done before.

We have one copy of ‘A Face Like Glass’ to give away. To enter, retweet this post or leave a comment. Open to UK residents only. Closes 31st May at 5pm.

Michelle Harrison ? A day in my life

8.30am ~ Alarm. Ignore.

9.00-9.30am ~ Wake up. (Yes, really. I am not a morning person. I’ve been known to cry when forced to get up, but admittedly that was to go to school.) Remove cats: one from my feet and the other from my head. Force myself out of bed and get ready. Feed cats, feed self. This, endless cups of tea, and making dinner later on, are usually the only consistent parts of my day.

10.00am-1.00pm ~ Work.

There’s no average day when it comes to work, it all depends on where I am in a book’s schedule and the variation is part of the appeal. The past few weeks and those ahead have been dedicated to promoting my next book, Unrest. This has meant shooting promo videos, writing newsletters and updating my website, as well as guest posts, numerous Q&As and even compiling an Unrest play list. When you’re used to writing about other people, especially ones you made up, writing about yourself can feel a little weird.

I try to tackle at least part of my email in the morning. Anything from my publishers or agent is a priority (although I am terrible for checking email throughout the day on my phone. This must stop). I clear stuff that’s urgent and congratulate myself, then hear the postman knock. I sign for one envelope containing train tickets and an itinerary for next week’s tour. I think of the early mornings and shudder. The second envelope is full of reader mail. I think of my cleared emails and try to sigh and feel all busy and overwhelmed but secretly I’m pleased. I love hearing from readers.

1.00pm-1.30pm ~ Lunch. Check Facebook, Twitter, and comments on my website guestbook. You didn’t actually believe that this is for the first time today, though, did you? I’ve already checked them at least twice while I was supposed to be working.

1.30pm-5.00pm ~ More work.

Being self-employed occasionally involves tedious things like sorting out paperwork for my accountant. I try to keep on top of it by shoving all my receipts and income advice into an envelope as I receive them. Hating numbers as I do it’s the worst part of my job, even though someone else does it for me. If there’s one thing that can ruffle me it’s an email from my accountant prodding me for stuff I should have sent weeks ago – even gathering the material is enough to give me a headache.

If I’m writing – which I will be in a couple of weeks when I start my new book – then I tend to write for long periods at a time. I don’t write every day, and nor do I think I should. It might work best for some people but not for me. I enjoy the space that editing and promoting brings and I find it important. It’s like closure on the last book, and it’s also thinking time in which my new ideas and characters can brew until they’re ready to make an appearance on the page.

I write in the same way as I read, which is not particularly fast. Up until now I’ve generally aimed for a thousand words per day, minimum. However, I cut over 20,000 from my last manuscript, and so for the next book I want to focus on getting a scene written rather than a specific word count as it’s easy to get hung up on and not all of those words are actually moving the story forward. If my deadline is creeping closer then I’ll write as much as possible, so I’m often still tapping away at midnight (hence the late morning starts).

Once I’ve got a decent amount of writing done, and after repeated removal of cats from my keyboard and manuscript, I’ll return to answering emails, this time from readers. Usually, I’ll end up carrying on with this later into the evening. At 5.00pm I’m thinking about putting dinner on when my phone bleeps a reminder that I need to put out a ‘Teaser Tuesday’: a weekly short excerpt from my book to give readers a taste of what Unrest is about. I’m still skimming pages fifteen minutes later when my hungry boyfriend arrives home from work to find me apparently reading, amidst protestations that, actually, yes, I have been working . . .

As part of the Goddess Interrupted blog tour, we have an interview with Aimee Carter:

Tell us a little about yourself
I’m Aimée Carter, and I wrote The Goddess Test series. I’m from Michigan, part French, and an Aquarius.

Tell us about Goddess Interrupted
Goddess Interrupted is the second book in the Goddess Test series, continuing Kate Winters’ story. It picks up right after her
summer away ends, and she has to deal with a struggling relationship, a Titan, and a vengeful goddess who refuses to go down easy.

Which characters have you enjoyed writing about the most?
Henry and Ava are two of my favourites, though James likes to get a little squirrely every now and then as well. They all add a certain dynamic to their scenes that I thoroughly enjoy writing about.

Have there been any twists in the story that have taken you by surprise?
A few, but I can’t talk about them specifically without spoiling anything!

Can you give us any hints as to where the story will take us in book three?

To be obnoxiously literal about it, the characters spend nearly the entire book in two places we haven’t seen yet, as of the end of the second book. But both of these places will be seen in The Goddess Legacy (#2.5).

Thanks Aimee!

We are today’s hosts for The Fury blog tour. Here is our interview with Alexander Gordon Smith…

Tell us a little about yourself
Um… I don’t know where to start! Okay, I’ve been a published writer since I was six years old, although my first book – The Silly Monster Book – was published by me, with a stapler. I’ve always been fascinated by monsters, even though my gran made me watch The Texas Chainsaw Massacre when I was six and that almost put me off scary things for life. When I was eleven I tried to spend a night in a haunted house as research, and lasted seven minutes before vomiting all over myself in terror and running away. I wrote my first proper book aged twenty-five, alongside my brother who was nine. It was called The Inventors, and we actually tried to build most of the inventions in the book ourselves (I nearly exploded several times). My next series was the Furnace series (Escape From Furnace in the US), about a fourteen-year-old boy who gets sent to a prison full of nightmare creatures. Writing Furnace made me realise how much I love horror (it gives you unlimited creative freedom because anything can happen), and The Fury is my latest attempt to give people nightmares! I also own a horror film production company with my sister, called Fear Driven Films, and we’re trying to make our first horror movie this year.

Tell us about The Fury and your inspiration for the book
The Fury is a horror novel, and an action thriller, about what would happen if one day, without warning, the world turned against you, if the entire human race tried to kill you. I love zombies, and I wanted to write a zombie novel, but so many people have already done the zombie thing really, really well. I was struggling to think of a unique, original angle to approach the story from. I was going over the different things that could be responsible for a zombie outbreak – the virus, the chemical, and so on. Then it struck me: what if the catalyst was you. What if you turned people into feral, bloodthirsty, mindless freaks just by being near them? And what if, as soon as you died, or you escaped, those people went back to their lives as if nothing had happened. For me, that idea is even more horrific than a zombie apocalypse, because you’re the only person who knows something is wrong. For everybody else, life is normal; they go shopping, they watch telly, they hang out with friends. But you have to hide, have to fight to survive, because every single person you meet – friends, family, strangers – will try to murder you.

There were other inspirations too, and the main one was a game that we used to play at school. It was called Murderball, and it really lived up to its name! Our sadistic PE teacher would give you a rugby ball and a five-second head start, then he’d send the rest of the class after you. You’d literally be attacked by thirty people – thirty friends – who would pile on top of you and punch you and kick you and bite you and try to stop you breathing. Every time it happened I honestly thought I was going to die! The memory of my friends, chasing after me with demonic expressions, looking as though they wanted to rip me to pieces, was certainly a big help when I was writing the book!

What are you working on now?
Quite a few things! One of my favourite parts of the writing process is the ‘big shiny new idea’ stage, where you suddenly have this huge flash of story inside your head and you just can’t wait to get started. When that happens I tend to drop everything and begin a new project, and often I’ll get a few thousand words in and suddenly that white heat of excitement cools down. The good thing about this is that I have a dozen or so books that are waiting to be finished. The downside is that, well, I have a dozen or so unfinished books! I will sometimes drop whatever I’m doing to start a new project, which means I lose the momentum on whatever I’m working on. I need more willpower and patience with my writing (I need more willpower and patience full stop, come to think of it)!

So, right now I’m working on the sequel to The Fury, which is called The Storm. I’m about halfway through and it’s non-stop action so far, I’m having such a blast with it. When I came back from my recent tour of the States, however, I discovered that while I was away a cat had been living in my house, bullying my cats and eating their food. One morning I woke up with an entire novel inside my head about a family who are terrorised by an evil cat. So I have been writing both books side by side!

Where is your favourite place to write?
I’ll always write at home. I know quite a few writers who like to work in cafes or other public places, but if I do that then I’ll spend five minutes gazing around aimlessly for every minute I spend actually writing – I’m quite easily distracted! So I’ll sit at home and write, usually in the morning. During the winter, when it’s cold in the house, I’ll often get up early, make coffee, then head back to bed and write for a couple of hours. It’s a tough life!! Then I’ll get up, have breakfast, and work in whatever side of the house has the sun. I tend to write my books quite quickly – usually around a month from start to finish, although The Fury took about four months because it’s a bigger, more complicated story. It’s an intense process, and during that time I don’t get out much, I just lock myself in the house and write!

Of course, if I could choose any place to write, it would be in a gazebo on the beach on my private island in the Caribbean… So I’ll have to keep hoping for that multi-million pound film deal! ?

What do you like to do outside of writing?
What do you mean? There are other things to do besides write? Nobody told me this!! Actually, joking aside, if I’m not writing I’m usually either thinking about writing, or talking about writing. It’s like water, it takes up every available iota of space in my life. I think my friends and family get annoyed because I often have one foot in the real world, and one in whatever world I’m writing about, so quite a few conversations don’t really sink in and people end up having to repeat themselves several times (and even then I’ll forget what they’ve said). I love touring as well, I’m so lucky to be able to travel around the world and talk about the books. When I’m not doing that, I love to read, watch movies, and play video games, but even that really counts as research for books. My girlfriend is a writer too, so there’s no getting away from it. But that’s cool, I love that writing is my life. I wouldn’t want it any other way! ?

You can find out more about Alexander Gordon on his website: http://www.alexandergordonsmith.com/
You can follow Alexander Gordon Smith on Twitter @AGSmith_Author

The Spark, Faber’s online community for teenager’s, has launched a fantastic new competition in association with The Fury.
If you’re between the ages of 13 and 18 and fancy trying your hand at filmmaking, all you need to do is send a script and storyboard for the trailer of THE FURY, by 2 July. You don’t need filmmaking experience or equipment – if your script is selected in our top five you’ll win a Flip camera with which to bring your trailer to life!

Go to the competition page http://www.facebook.com/stayfurious to find out more about the book, how to enter and tips on how to write the storyboard for your book trailer. Closing date Monday 2nd July 2012.

Barbara Mitchelhill is our April Author in Residence. Here is our interview with Barbara…

Tell us a little about yourself and how you began writing
I’ve always dabbled in writing and worked briefly as a reporter for the Manchester Evening News. But I began writing professionally quite by accident when I wrote to the BBC asking to be a presenter on children’s television. Rather cheeky but it paid off. To my surprise I was invited to go Television Centre where I spent a marvellous day with a producer, shown around the studios, taken to lunch etc etc. Wonderful! Until I was asked if I had an Equity card which was necessary for all performers in those days. When I said that I didn’t have one, the producer asked me if I had thought of writing for the programme. I replied that I hadn’t – but I would. I sent eight stories, hoping to keep my name in front of him. I never did get to be a presenter but the stories were accepted and so began my writing career. I have never looked back although my writing has changed hugely. And I love it.

Tell us about Road to London and your inspiration for the book
I had decided to write a book set in Tudor times – a period I’ve always found colourful not to mention smelly and dirty. I love the theatre and I love Shakespeare so it was clear that these would be a large part of the story. I knew it must be an adventure (I love adventures!) and I wanted to reflect the hero-worshipping tendencies of teenagers today who hope to emulate the success of pop stars or footballers or Simon Cowell. So my protagonist, Thomas, who lives in Stratford upon Avon in 1599, is no different. He hero-worships the town’s famous son, William Shakespeare, and is determined to join Shakespeare’s Chamberlain’s Men in London.

What are you working on now?
I’m working on an adventure (surprise!) set in 1850. I know I give myself a hard time by fixing a specific date but it really is important when doing the research that I have something to link to. For instance, Euston station was opened at that time and I needed the children in my story to travel 3rd class in the middle of the day. But last week I found that in 1850 there was only one train from Euston carrying 3rd class carriages (which were open to the elements) and that went at 7.45 am. I had to rewrite a whole chapter, sending them 2nd class instead.

Where is your favourite place to write?
I had my first office in what was laughing called a bedroom and was more of a cupboard. But now I have the best office I’ve ever had. It has a large window overlooking fields of sheep, faces south and is filled with light and sun. I have a huge desk which is a complete mess – covered in papers, maps (19th century London) and piles of reference books stuck with post-it notes. Oh yes, and there’s a computer, of course.

What do you like to do outside of writing?
I love theatre and music, reading, walking, singing and meeting with friends. I have four wonderful grandchildren who keep me busy and away from my desk – but I wouldn’t have it any other way.

Thanks Barbara!

You can find out more information about Barbara Mitchelhill at www.barbaramitchelhill.com

We have two copies of Road to London to giveaway. Just retweet this post or comment to enter. Open to UK residents only. Closes 30th April at 5pm.

As part of the Skin Deep blog tour, we have an interview with Laura Jarratt…

Tell us a little about yourself
I definitely don’t fit that old writer stereotype of a withdrawn individual typing away, alone and tormented. I’m confident and outgoing, though I’m quite difficult to get to know well as I prefer having just a few very close friends and I tend to keep acquaintances at something of a distance. I’m an animal lover, particularly dogs though I don’t have any since my last one died because he’s irreplaceable. I do have a crazy ginger cat who was born with no tail but despite that is the most agile cat I’ve ever owned. I’ve got an over-developed sense of the ridiculous that can get me into trouble but I firmly believe that life’s too short to be miserable so better to laugh too much than not enough.

Tell us about Skin Deep and your inspiration for the book
I was in the middle of mulling the idea for a possible new book over in my head when a writing friend sent me the clip of Susan Boyle’s first performance on X-Factor. My friend was raving about how inspirational it was. I thought it was the worst display of how revolting we can be as humans that I’d seen for a long time. It influenced my decision to make Jenna’s disfigurement a more central theme in the book.

Skin Deep is in essence about how it’s okay to be or look different to others. It’s also about how first love feels and it’s about being strong even when you don’t think you can be.

What are your top five books?
In no particular order:
Boy A – Jonathon Trigell
The Call of the Wild – Jack London
The Eagle of the Ninth – Rosemary Sutcliffe
Dogsbody – Diana Wynne Jones
The Changeover – Margaret Mahy

Three of them are children’s books but they’re wonderfully written with powerful themes.

What are you working on now?
I’m about to start working on the editing of my next book for Egmont, which is about a girl who has to enter the witness protection programme. Her whole family is uprooted. Not only does she have to try to build a new life in a place she hates, but she’s still in danger from violent criminals.
 
What do you like to do outside of writing?
I work in education, quite long hours, so writing is my down time as well as a job. But given it’s such a sedentary occupation, I like to get out in the open air as much as possible and also I hit the gym and the swimming pool several times a week. I’ve been doing Pilates for years, and it’s great because you can make it as tough a work-out as you want. I’ve just started Yoga recently too. Also at weekends it’s good just to relax and do stuff with the family. We went to visit a Shire horse centre last week to see the new-born foals, which were awesome – they had the longest legs with big hooves and knobbly knees, totally defining cute.

Thanks Laura!

You can find out more about Laura on her website: http://www.laurajarratt.com/

Skin Deep is available to buy now: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Skin-Deep-Laura-Jarratt/dp/1405256729

Leigh Hodgkinson is our March Author in Residence. Here is our interview with Leigh…

Tell us a little bit about yourself
I studied animation direction and worked in the animation industry till around 2006 In that time, amongst doing commercial and tv projects I made lots of little films. I love combining sound, motion, characters and story to make magical things that take you somewhere else. (This is true of picture books also!)

I used to make my books in a shed called Bernard (after “Not now Bernard”). We had to give the shed a name as we had two sheds and it got confusing. Now I work in my house and sometimes wear my slippers all day long!

I am a real hoarder and find it hard to throw stuff away am still living in denial that one day I will be allowed to be a Blue Peters presenter and make things with sticky back plastic and washing up bottle tops (of which I have a huge jar of). My golden day of hoarding was when I discovered a skip full of buttons in London. I thought I was dreaming and filled up my bag and pockets.

I love finding smooth round stones on the beach, I hate slugs, I love making soup, I hate doing tax returns and other boring groan up things, I love staring at my little girl when she is asleep, I hate making sensible telephone calls, I love pressing my face against cold rainy windows, I hate time whooshing by so very fast.

Tell us about Goldilocks and Just the One Bear and your inspiration for this
I always wonder what happens to the lives of characters when you close the book. Are they stuck in limbo forever or do they secretly carry on living and learning. I wondered what sort of person Goldilocks turned out as…. Did she have a family? Where did she live? And I liked the idea of little bear inadvertently stumbling into her cosmopolitan life and being completely out of context. I always thought that “Goldilocks and the three bears” was an unusual sort of story- as it was the little girl, goldilocks that was the “baddy”. As a child I found it hard not to judge her for being so rude, self centred and thoughtless… but in my book I wanted to explore what it would be like if the boot was on the other foot. So this book is my own little way of readdressing the goldilocks karma balance!

Where is your favourite place to write?
I always have a notebook with me wherever I go. In it I scribble down words, phrases, names and doodles that stick in my mind and strike me as being something interesting. At that early stage they might not be a fully fledged super duper idea… but over time little collections of these words, phrases, names and doodles clump together and seem to be telling me something. I find that writing is sort of like a puzzle… there is always an answer or an idea in there- it is the rooting it out and realising what it means that is the real challenge and fun.

When I get down to the nitty gritty of making sense of all this notebook scribblings- I do this on the computer. Computers are wonderful as they act as an extension of your brain. My brain is very flighty and zips about. So working editorialy in a non-linear on the computer way suits me down to a tee. The only rules I have when working on texts at this stage is I have to be alone, and I have to have complete silence. Not even music, as that changes the emotion of the writing and I am prone to inadvertently type words that I hear in lyrics, and then it all goes very pear shaped indeed.

Do you read your stories out aloud to see how they sound for parents reading to children?
I always read them aloud. They sound so different when spoken words. This can be a bit embarrassing when I am in public (like on the train) as people must think I am completely bonkers.

I always cram too many words into my text… so the challenging part is to be a brutal editor and not be precious of certain phrases that you like the sound of. What remains in the text has to be more than texture and window dressing. It has to add to the narrative in some way.

Now that I am a mummy, I am more conscious than ever about the act of reading a child a story. It is most likely to be read at the end of the day when both child AND parent are tired- so now I am thinking that simplicity is the key.

I like to be playful with the visual representation of words. I guess this links in to my animation days when the words would be the voice and soundtrack. I like to give the way words look a dynamic flair to indicate how they are intended to be read. I hope people don’t think I am being too bossy but that it makes the performance more fun and dramatic!

What are you working on now?
I am making my second book with the lovely Nosy Crow publishers. I am lucky enough to be able to work with my dream team there- designer Giselle Gimblett and editor Kate Burns. They are so brilliant and make it really fun.

The book is about a rubbish troll and a not very good little girl. It is all written and now I am onto the artwork stage. This is the fun bit as it involves snipping and sticking painting and making the characters real. I always have to give the characters a proper full name (with surname) whether it stays in the book or not. It makes them real and they become really good friends of mine when I am working on the book. The girl in the book is called Tabitha Lumpit and the troll is called Timothy Limpet

What do you like to do outside of writing?
I just like making things and being creative. I am not very good at sitting still and twiddling my thumbs. If I sit still for more than one minute then I start daydreaming and plotting my next hair brained scheme… (could be a book/cake/stuffed toy/ picture/ crocheted animal or whatever).

I love swimming. Having a nice stretch in some water is the perfect time to ponder about things.. but on the move. I suppose I am a bit like a basking shark (but not as scary).

I am in the process of setting up an etsy shop (called Wonkybutton) for my stuff. Prints, cards, tea towels, bags and lovely crafty sewing things to make- that sort of thing. My idea of heaven would be to have a magical shop/studio where I would make frothy coffees and nice people would drop in and nibble yummy things (banana bread for sure). We would have 1940s records playing and people would make things out of papermache and sticky tape on big old tables then buy some of my things on their way out. (Mmmn… maybe I am a bit of a head in the clouds type of person

As part of the Falling Fast blog tour, we have an interview with Sophie McKenzie…

Tell us about your latest novel Falling Fast
Falling Fast is a love story about teenagers River and Flynn. They meet when River auditions for a part in Flynn’s school production of Romeo and Juliet. River is desperate to play Juliet, just as she is desperate to experience romantic love. Flynn seems like the perfect Romeo, in every sense, but River is worried that her best friend Emmi will get to be his Juliet…

Where did your inspiration for main characters River and Flynn come from?
I don’t really know! The whole story started because I was interested in writing a book from the point of view of a girl who really wants to fall in love. I remember when I was River’s age feeling that life was passing me by and I STILL didn’t know what True Love felt like – so I guess part of the set-up comes from personal experience. With Flynn, I just wanted to make him very attractive and a total enigma. I knew he had a troubled past and a bad temper and that he saw himself as an outsider. Even more than River, Flynn just sprang into my head, fully formed, right from the start.

What are you working on now? Can we expect to hear more from Flynn and River?
Yes! I loved writing Falling Fast and am so excited I’ll be able to keep telling Flynn and River’s story for another three books. Burning Bright and book three will come out in 2013 and the fourth book should be published the year after that.

What were your favourite childhood books?
I read a lot as a child. There wasn’t much teenage fiction then and my favourite books were by authors such as Nina Bawden, Elizabeth Goudge and Laura Ingalls Wilder. I loved the What Katy Did series and, in particular, Little Women, by Louisa M Alcott.

What do you like to do outside of writing?
I love stories, so reading books, watching TV dramas and going to the movies are definitely my favourite past times. I also enjoy catching up with friends, listening to music, watching football with my son (who’s a big Arsenal fan!) and eating out. I don’t really have any proper hobbies. Writing stories is just too much fun to do very much else.

Thanks Sophie!

Falling Fast is released on the 1st March: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Falling-Fast-Sophie-McKenzie/dp/0857070991

You can find out more about Sophie on her website: www.sophiemckenziebooks.com

As part of the blog tour for If I Die, we have an interview with the author Rachel Vincent…

Tell us a little about yourself and the latest installment in the Soul Screamers series; ‘If I Die’.

If I Die is the fifth book in the Soul Screamers series, and it’s a bit
of a game-changer, in a couple of different ways. Early on (first
chapter), Kaylee finds out that her lifeline is nearing its end, so she
spends most of the book dealing with her impending death, while trying
to stop an evil math teacher from preying on her fellow students. But
that’s all I can say without spoiling it.

Where did your initial inspiration for the series come from?
There wasn’t a single, specific inspiration. It was more of a long
brainstorming session, during which I decided I wanted to write about
bean sidhes, which led to the world building foundation, which, in turn,
fed the evolving plotlines.

Characters can take on a mind of their own – was Sabine
particularly hard to keep a hold of, or did you let her have free reign?
Sabine is actually the easiest character for me to write, because she
doesn’t require a verbal filter. She says whatever she’s thinking, and I
find that liberating, even though I’m only experiencing it vicariously.

There are plenty of surprises in If I Die. Without giving away
any spoilers for those who haven’t read the book yet, was it a surprise
for you, or did you always know how it would turn out? Did the
characters themselves draw closer?
I didn’t know until I sat down to plot that specific book. I also didn’t
know at the time whether or not I’d get a contract for any more books in
the series, so my goal was to give the book an ending that could also
work as a series ender, if need be.

Do you have any particular characters you love to write? Emma
and Tod are a blast, I love it when they are around

I love writing Sabine and Tod. And Avari!

Thanks Rachel! Scroll down to read our review of If I Die.

Elizabeth Wein is our February Author in Residence. Here is our interview with Elizabeth…

Tell us a little bit about yourself
I’ve lived in Scotland for 12 years, which is longer than I’ve ever lived ANYWHERE at one go. I grew up in New York City, Manchester (England), Kingston (Jamaica), and Harrisburg (Pennsylvania). I think of myself as Pennsylvanian; that is my home place. People often ask me if I would like to go back to the US some day, and I don’t honestly know the answer to that. I would miss Scotland terribly—just as I miss Pennsylvania terribly.

A few years ago I became fascinated by the osprey at a local wildlife reserve here in Perthshire, who has been returning to the same nest for 21 years, laying eggs and raising family after family of chicks. She’s reckoned to be the oldest osprey in the UK. I really relate to this bird, who migrates 6000 miles back and forth from Africa every year, always returning to the same place. She is at home wherever she is. I like that. I want to be able to live my life to a sort of osprey philosophy, doing the things I know instinctively to be right, living without fear of what will happen in the future, sure of myself, and always feeling like I’m in the right place—wherever I am.

I have two children, a girl and a boy aged 14 and 11. Most of my spare time is involved with kids! My husband and I are both civil pilots (as opposed to commercial pilots—we fly as a hobby). I learned to fly in Scotland, so I feel like I know Scotland from the air as well as from the ground. It is one of the most beautiful places I have ever lived. If anything ever drives me out, though, it will be the weather. It is not warm enough in the summer for my taste, and too dark in the winter!

Tell us about Code Name Verity and your inspiration for the book
This book is really, really hard to talk about without giving away huge spoilers! I will say, though, that it’s a ‘spies-n-pilots’ World War II thriller, and that it’s about friendship. The pilot and the spy in question are both girls. I’ve talked about the inspiration for the book in a bit more detail in my guest blog post, but I ought to add that I wrote the book in what can only be called a frantic cloud of inspiration. My husband would tell the kids, ‘Don’t try to talk to mum, she’s in Book World.’ When I finally came up for air at the end of a wildly emotional 7 months, during which time no laundry or cooking or any kind of housework got done, my husband asked plaintively, ‘Can we have a rest before you start the next one?’

The characters in the book do get put through the mill, and that was hard to write at times. The book ought to come with a health warning. Or at least a free box of tissues.

Code Name Verity is set during World War Two, how did you research this period?
I already knew a little bit about it because I’d written a short story, ‘Something Worth Doing’ (in Firebirds Soaring, edited by Sharyn November), which is set in England during the Battle of Britain. While I was doing the research for that story I discovered the Air Transport Auxiliary (ATA), the men and women civilian pilots who did the ferrying and taxi work for the Royal Air Force during the war. So I started out the research for CNV by reading up on the ATA – and at the same time reading up on the SOE, the Special Operations Executive, who were the British spies and saboteurs that assisted the Resistance movements in Nazi-occupied Europe. I started with really obvious books like Lettice Curtiss’s The Forgotten Pilots and Giles Whittell’s Spitfire Women of World War II, which are histories of the ATA, and Marcus Binney’s The Women Who Lived for Danger, which give several portraits of SOE agents. The bibliographies in these books were extremely helpful in pointing me to other useful books. I also did a lot of on-line research, but the basic way I research things is to read actual books.

I also try to visit places where I can see some real stuff from the right time period, such as Dover Castle and the Imperial War Museum in London – and then there are plenty of visits to collections of aircraft, like the Shuttleworth Collection and Scotland’s National Museum of Flight at East Fortune. And I read books and watch movies that were popular at the time—they’re great sources for period detail.

Real people are also incredibly helpful! It’s amazing how easy it is to find sources—my husband’s parents are the first stop for stories of the home front. Last May I was lucky enough to attend a seminar at the Royal Aeronautical Society where I got to meet four real-life ATA women, now in their 90s.

What are you working on now?

I’m writing a book about another ATA pilot, also a girl—this time it’s an American who has come to the UK to help out with the war effort. Eventually, after a series of (shall we say) ‘unfortunate events’ she is forced to land behind enemy lines and ends up in Ravensbrück, the largest women’s concentration camp in Nazi Germany. It’s not a ‘typical’ concentration camp but it’s got an incredible history in its own right, not least because of some of the rebellion that went on there toward the end of the war.

Sending my poor unlucky character to Ravensbrück gives me the only sensible opportunity I can think of to introduce her to a Russian woman combat pilot. I would love to write about these incredible women, but I don’t know enough about Russia to pull it off from the pilot’s point of view. So I will have to approach the story from a different angle.

I put off starting this project for a long time because the research into Ravensbrück was so dauntingly harrowing. But the spirit of the survivors really makes the work worthwhile.

What do you like to do outside of writing?
I like being outside—I like being a tourist. I think that all my hobbies and activities really come down to traveling. I bicycle, I fly planes, I like to go to the beach and explore castles and countryside. I also ring church bells (the big ones). I learned to ring in Bredbury, which is just outside Stockport, and then rang in Philadelphia in Pennsylvania for many years. Now I ring at Dunkeld Cathed
And of course, I read!

Can you give any tips for young aspiring authors?
I am sure that my best tips are the same ones everyone has heard before: READ. And WRITE. The best way to improve your own writing skills is to read as much as possible, and the best way to get something decent written is to sit down and get to work. It helps if you’re organized; but the main thing you need is self-discipline.

If you’re having trouble getting started, one of the things I find helps is to set yourself little tasks or goals. Write one page in half an hour. Or write one scene a day. If you actually keep at it, it really does add up over a year. Lately I have joined in Internet dates with other writers, and we all agree to write for an hour and try to reach 1000 words—they call it ‘writingsprint’, I think. I like to have company when I’m working.

Thanks so much for the invitation to blog here—I’ll be stopping back from time to time to answer comments.

Thanks Elizabeth! You can find out more about Elizabeth here: www.elizabethwein.com