Thank you, YA Critique

Writing is often a lonely business, yet I think one of the most heartening things about the children’s writing community is the overwhelming support which is shown to all. And the fact that it comes with friendship and camaraderie, which is offered unconditionally, makes it doubly worthy. I have said it before and will say it again, finding myself amongst the members of the British Isles chapter of the SCBWI (despite living on the opposite side of the planet) has been something of a homecoming. I find myself in a space where I am accepted, and amongst like-minded nutcases, I mean, people (oh and a few werewolves and crow collectors too). I love the way people encourage one another, the way they cheer for one another, participate in each others’ ups and downs. I think there must be a particular “thing” about children’s writers that makes them stand out from the crowd – perhaps it’s because children’s writers are still very connected to their own inner child and haven’t lost their sense of fun and wonder at the world. What I find fascinating is that this happens despite the fact that the world of children’s book publishing is tough and competitive. I think that being able to be competitors and friends at the same time shows a remarkable degree of emotional maturity – which I suspect many would believe children’s writers to be lacking. Not so at all. Some of the most insightful, aware and thinking people that I have met, come from the world of children’s writers – and I’m happy to call many of them my friends.



A particular case in point is my critique group who get a huge thumbs up for the support and encouragement they provide me and each other. (A note to all scribblers - if you are a writer or wannabe writer, get yourself into a critique group, make sure it’s the right critique group - and watch yourself and your work grow). My critique group, made up of outstanding writers, has an online existence, but we nonetheless get together to discuss work in progress, successes and even personal stories. We encourage, we nurture, we comment, we criticize (constructively, I hasten to add) in an environment of mutual respect and trust – and we all have one end goal, to write the best possible children’s fiction that we can.

I’m feeling particularly warm and fuzzy about my critique group at the moment. For the last few months they’ve trudged with me through the rewrite and edits of my current manuscript. They’ve told me what’s not working and what is. They’ve kept me going with constructive feedback given in the most positive and encouraging manner. With their help I’ve honed and polished - and then polished and honed some more. While I’m not naïve enough to think that the manuscript is perfect (is it ever that?), I know that with their input and support I’ve come away with something pretty decent. I know too, that because of them my writing has grown, as has my own ability to critique.

So, this isn’t really a blog post in the ordinary sense, this is really a thank you letter to my wonderful critique partners – for their insight, their good humour, their support, their caring and their sense of fun. Girls, may the journey long continue. Onward and upward - and economic circumstances and rhubarb-blah-fishpaste notwithstanding – here’s to publishing contracts, and maybe even awards!

My heartfelt thanks to Candy Gourlay, Ellen Renner, Kathy Evans, Jackie Marchant, Jeannie Waudby, Jeannette Towey and Carmel Waldron – and, until recently, Tracy Ann Baines and Beverley Johnson.

The Usual Suspects...

Oh, so you're a writer...

So, there was this discussion on the SCBWI-BI group a while ago – about how people respond when you say, “I’m a writer.” The responses are a study in psychology, with possibly enough material for an entire convention...of psychologists, not writers – we-ell, then again, maybe both.

There seem to be two distinct types when it comes to responses, and it depends on how well people think they know you. The better they think they know you, the tougher the experience.

Family members or family acquaintances either provide pitying looks, roll their eyes or pretend they have a gerbil stuck in their ear when I tell them I’m writing a novel. These responses appear to be based on one or more of the following thought processes:

a) she couldn’t string a coherent sentence together if she tried. Poor deluded dolt.
b) writing a book? Yeah, right - what a waster!
c) shame that she will eventually have to realise that she’s just not “famous” material. Her? The next JK Rowling? Ha!
d) she’s never got over being retrenched from “corporatedom”, poor thing.
e) she’s just trying to make out that she’s “different” and better than us. Always been a stuck up little beast. Why can’t she just go off and be a secretary.
f) oh crap, I hope she’s not going to want to tell me about it. I so don’t care.

Occasionally, I’ll get a vague, “Oh, that’s nice, dear.” At which point a jam doughnut is conveniently stuffed into their mouths and masticated with sticky gusto thus preventing further discussion. Very rarely, they may ask, “What’s your book about?” You can rest assured that in this instance their eyes will glaze over before I’ve uttered four words. (Note to self – work on 3 word pitch.) God forbid I should tell them I’m writing for children. Because that, really, is just proof that I:

a) can’t string a coherent adult sentence together,
b) really am just goofing off,
c) am a seriously deluded wannabe,
d) am incapable of holding down a proper job and,
e) am just pathetic and have never grown up,

In the almost unheard of instance when an aunt asked what I was writing, a conversation very nearly ensued. It went something like this:
“Oh, you know cousin X’s ex-girlfriend...?”
“No.” (I’m unsociable like that.)
“Well, she’s just published a picture book. It’s all about sharks. It’s very good, you know. When’s your book going to be published?”
When I muttered darkly about how tough it is to be published (especially somewhere other than my own country), the aunt in question gave me a look which indicated I may well have been some noxious substance on the sole of her shoe, and then stuffed a ham sandwich into her gob.

I have, however, learned to find the positives in these situations; relatives are magnificent fodder for stories. Remember this: everyone is fair game in a writer’s twisted mind. Piss me off, and you may end up as a villain in my next book – and you can be sure my hero will bring you down – hard.

The second type of response usually comes from strangers.

They are lovely – mostly. Strangers are infinitely more supportive and often wide-eyed with wonder that they’ve actually met a real writer (we’ll get to the unpublished bit later). They’re inclined to be interested, fascinated and seriously impressed. I have to tell you, it does a girl’s ego the power of good. Of course, the trade off is they do also want to tell you about this great idea they have for a book (doesn’t everyone) and maybe you could help them write it.

Sitting on the train a couple of months ago, having visited a dear writer pal in Wokingham, the bloke next to me kept trying to make conversation. Now, my mother always told me not to speak to strangers, and when it suits me, I heed her advice. Given that the guys in the next row of seats were as drunk as skunks after a day out at Ascot, I was keeping my head well down. But my fellow passenger was persistent and eventually he asked the inevitable, “Why are you in England and what do you do?”
So I told him.
“Wow… Wow… Wow!” Pause. “Wow… So you’re a writer? Wow!”
(This is the point where girl raises hand to hide smile.)
“So what do you write?”
"Ficion for young adults, you know, older teens."
“Oh wow… That’s…that’s just so amazing. I wish I’d started speaking to you earlier. This is my stop but, wow… I just met a real writer!”
He left the train in a cloud of wonder.

I couldn’t help but imagine what would have happened if I’d been a published author and could have offered him one of my books - which brings me to the point when strangers say, with tremendous earnestness, “So where can I buy a copy of your book?” or "Have I read your book?"

It’s at this point that I feel I’m letting them down terribly. I shuffle a bit, and mutter that thing about how hard it is to write for children, how competitive the market is, how tough it is to get published, how it’s even tougher in the current economic climate – and then we both look embarrassed and run out of words. I try to mumble about the encouraging editor and agent feedback I’ve had, but really, I feel like I must, after trying for so long, be totally rubbish, and I know they think they same. And they smile then, and it’s sort of pitying… and the moment is entirely ruined and I have to turn into the clown and dig us both out of the hole.




See, here’s the thing, the longer one is a writer-in-waiting, the tougher it becomes. People are less inclined to believe you’re doing a “proper job” and are more inclined to believe that you really can’t string those two coherent sentences together. (Because, really, that is all that writing’s about, isn’t it…? Just stringing sentences together…). And so the pitying looks increase, and ultimately, they stop asking you how the book is going. My non-writer friends stopped asking me years ago about my writing – I think they just find it too embarrassing. In some ways, this is a blessed relief - though, sadly, it limits my opportunity to bore them witless about the exploits of some or other make-believe person. Ultimately, it may all go a long way to explaining why I spend a lot of time hanging out in cyberspace with my writer pals and being increasingly reclusive in the real 3D world.

Oh no, wait, I’m not reclusive, I’m very busy working, doing my job - writing and writing and rewriting and rewriting… and then writing again!

Cue Stage Left: enter batty writing recluse

I am in grave danger, I realise, of becoming a Grade A batty recluse. Aside from two trips to the gym, one of which involved a quick dash for some grocery supplies, I have not left the house for the past eight days. I’m sure it’s not healthy.

Instead, each morning has seen me shuffling down the passage in my pyjamas and wrapped up in a manky old cardy, cashmere pashmina and what can only be described as increasingly rank slippers. A note on the slippers: I fear they are due for exorcism and burning on the pyre. Note to self: do not wear furry slippers day in and day out without socks. ‘Nuf zed.

Writing pyjamas and gardening wellies...

At the end of the passage is my writing cave in which I fear there may be a cranky old bear or two. Oh, no, wait, that’s me. Sorry.

But I’m getting sidetracked. Did I mention “batty”? Yes? Right.

So, enter the writing cave, switch on the computer. Shuffle from cave to kitchen to create rocket fuel brew of chocolate. Recipe here. Shuffle back to cave clutching brew.

Take quick trawl around Facebook. Play a couple of games of Wordscraper and Scrabble with Janey and Val. Direct attention to matters in hand.

And here, you see is the problem.

There’s a new manuscript in progress.

Or, rather, there’s a complete rewrite of a manuscript first drafted two years ago. And it’s dark and gritty. It’s deep and intense. It’s shot through with bolts of lyricism.

And it has consumed me.

The writing cave on a non-writing day...

Picture this: Writer, in pyjamas, swathed in blankets, in darkened cave. Note, the blinds are remain drawn and the protesting orchids have had to be moved out. The blankets, I should add, are frequently over the writer’s head. The heater is on full blast. The writer, it appears, has created some sort of bookwomb. No, not bookworm (though there might be some of them lurking between the covers too).

The writer stays like this until about 14h30 when she realises she’s forgotten to eat and she’s starting to smell something less pleasant that a camel’s armpit. (I have smelled a camel from up close. I know.) At this point she scuttles down the passage and throws herself under a steaming shower.

The trouble is, the shower acts like a psychic phone-booth, so the ideas start to flow again.

At this point, the writer flings on a mangy dressing gown and hurtles down the passage to capture the new ideas before they take wing into the stratosphere.

By now it’s 16h30 and the writer still hasn’t eaten.

However, it’s at approximately this point that a modicum of sanity prevails and the writer gets dressed. Usually in her “writing pyjamas”. In case you’re wondering, pyjamas are the fundamental element of a writer’s wardrobe. (I will be putting in several tax claims for pyjamas.)

A short break ensues while the writer nibbles on fruit and cheese and rice cakes and stares, somewhat blankly, at the television screen.

Inevitably something will trigger an idea or a solution to a problem in the plot.

And it’s off again.

The writer’s husband has realised it’s probably best to a) get his own dinner, b) accept starvation or c) hope like hell she’ll cook something that will last several days. It’s usually a or c which prevail. (I’m not such a bad wife.)

Where it all happens...

So. This blog post written, the washing in the machine and on the line, I will step back slowly from the computer and take the day off. I have flung open the doors and windows, despite it being only 12 degrees outside and I am going to sit in the sun and read some other mad writers’ ramblings/words of wisdom/lyrical prose/insane witterings/seering insights. I’ll decide just what after I’ve spent several minutes staring at the pile of books that have been breeding next to my bed. Tomorrow, I will no doubt enter from stage left, again, clad in my jammies and descend upon the cave. But that’s tomorrow and today the batty recluse needs to grasp at the straw of sanity drifting in the wintery breeze.

An interview with children’s author, Ellen Renner

Introducing children's author, Ellen Renner

I know many lament social networking and in particular the productivity sink that is Facebook. But for me, it has been a godsend - as aware as I am of its shortcomings. As you will have gathered from the various interviews with fellow writers, Facebook has been a fertile meeting ground, and I’m happy to introduce to you yet another of my writer pals found through the connectivity of social networking.

Ellen Renner was kind enough to send me a copy of her debut novel Castle of Shadows when it became blindingly obvious on someone’s Facebook wall that I hadn’t read the book. What a treat!

Castle of Shadows is shortlisted for the West Sussex Children’s Book Award and on the Times and Independent newspapers’ lists of suggested summer reading. For readers aged 9+, it’s a beautifully written story, full of political intrigue, derring-do, wit, imagination and has a plot that twists and turns through chapters filled with smoke and mirrors. It is a story which is filled with evocative imagery and has a feisty heroine whose life story pulls at the heartstrings. It is a thoroughly enjoyable romp of a read!

The blurb reads as follows: The day Charlie discovers a scrap of paper that could solve the dark mystery of her mother's disappearance, her world changes. Forever. Charlie and her friend, Toby, must race against time on a dangerous mission to uncover the sinister truth. But in this shadowy world of secrets and lies, there is more to fear than they can possibly imagine...

But without further ado, let me introduce to Ellen Renner.

Children's author, Ellen Renner

Ellen, the clarity of your descriptions gripped me from the start. You paint the most vivid images with words and without lapsing into rambling prose. You do that thing that writers are always admonished to do – you show rather than tell. Examples which spring to mind are: “His voice was soft and sharp, like a slice of lemon cake.” “The dress was made of silk the colour of cool water.” “The pain was too fierce for tears. It burnt them to ash.” Did you find it easy to show, was it something that came naturally to you or was it something you had to work on?

Hi Nicky,

First, thanks so much for interviewing me. There’s nothing writers like more than talking about their books!
Show-not-tell. That’s the mantra, isn’t it? But you have to know how to do both. Sometimes you need to tell. However, it’s certainly true that if you want to write for the children’s or YA market these days, you must be able to show. It’s partly a fashion for filmic writing. But for me it’s also the most effective way to accomplish what I want to do.
I want the reader to experience, as much as is possible, what it feels like to ‘be’ my character. If I keep jumping out of their point of view and into an authorial voice with loads of objective description, back-story or telling, I not only slow the pace, I yank the reader out of my character’s head.
I do tell in several places in Castle, just to get some information in there the reader has to have and which I can’t do any other way. But I keep those sections to an absolute minimum. I try to work them in as seamlessly as I can and I always know when I’m doing it.
I’ve been teaching creative writing for a few years and show-not-tell is the number one problem most beginning and intermediate writers have. It’s like maths, it just has to click and then you get it. You must always know when you are telling and why. After that, by all means break the rules if that’s what’s best for your story – form should follow function – as long as you’re in control of the technique and not the other way round. Editors and agents tend to immediately reject any manuscript that starts off with back-story or telling, especially if you’re a new writer, so use with caution.


Castle of Shadows is a very rich story, a layered tapestry of political intrigue, emotion, and the heartfelt quest of one girl to find her mother. How did the idea for the book develop and what came first – the character of Charlie (Princess Charlotte Augusta Joanna Hortense of Quale), the setting i.e. the castle, the political intrigue – or something else – and, what was your inspiration?

The characters came first, the mad king and his neglected daughter. The image of the king dangling from his scaffolding about to put the last card in place on his enormous card castle just popped into my head one day.
I started off by staying in my comfort zone. I was thinking fables, a short book for younger readers, nothing too big or ambitious. Then something happened and I realised that playing safe was not an option if I ever wanted to get anywhere with my writing. I had to try to write the sort of book I actually wanted to read. I knew I had the germ of a good idea and I didn’t want to waste it.
Castle, as you say, has layers. There are some pretty heavy themes going on in the background: bad parenting, the threat of war, political and scientific responsibility, and what happens to children when grownups do the wrong things for what they think are the right reasons. It has a complex plot set in an alternative world and the hardest thing of all was to juggle all of that and keep the narrative moving forward at a page-turning pace.
The book might never have been finished if Helen Corner hadn’t run the 2007 Cornerstones Wow Factor competition. A writing buddy encouraged me to enter and then I had to write to speed to keep up with the deadlines. Castle of Shadows won and I got my agent as a result.


The depiction of the Charlie’s father, the king, swinging from the scaffolding building his castles in the air, his castles of cards is a particularly powerful image, and in multiple ways. Can you tell us more about this and what it means to you?

It is the book. It was the genesis and yes, it’s loaded thematically. My original title was Castle of Cards. Worlds built on lies, crumbling castles, political intrigue, personal relationships, identity, the king’s own fragile emotional state – it all refers back to that first image. And then there’s the climactic scene …
I feel quite tenderly towards the king: he’s gentle, kind, well-intentioned – and a bad parent. Life has proved hard and he’s opted out, neglecting the kingdom and his child, leaving her to cope with the loss of her mother on her own. She’s lonely, isolated and abused by the housekeeper, although he doesn’t know about that – or to be more accurate, he hasn’t noticed.
There’s a bit of him that’s about parents who become obsessed with their work to the point that they neglect their children. My son suffered some benign neglect while I was writing the book and some of my guilt is in there, although he was probably very pleased that Mum had something else to worry about for a while.




There is a lot of detail in terms of cloth and clothing, the castle layout, the pneumatic railway in the story. Did you have to do a lot of research and could you see clearly in your mind’s eye what you wanted to describe?

I did a lot of research. I write visually so I want to be able to see a scene, like a film playing before my eyes. The book is set in an alternative Victorian kingdom, and as much as possible corresponds to 1840s England – a fascinating period of political, social and technological upheaval. A time of boom and bust, extremes of poverty and wealth, mass migrations to the cities. The French revolution still loomed large in the imagination of the English political class: they were terrified of mass unrest and the Whigs begin the process of political reform and extending the franchise as a way of addressing these fears. Pneumatic and atmospheric railways existed. Isambard Kingdom Brunel built the only working atmospheric railway in Britain in the 1830s between Teignmouth and Starcross in Devon. It only ran for a year because rats ate the waxed leather seals and the vacuum kept failing. Vulcanised rubber was invented 10 years later. If that timing had been different, we might still be riding on atmospheric trains. There’s a working one in South America somewhere.

You’re an American who has lived in the UK for many years and your story has a quintessentially English feel to it, is this because you are completely at ease with the language and literary style of your adopted country, or because you set out to create a particular style?

I’ve lived in the UK for twenty years now. I’m doubtless pretty anglicised, although I try to keep that detachment which is one of the great benefits of being an ex-pat. My vocabulary is a mixture and I forget these days whether a term is American or English. I grew up reading a lot of English fiction, which is one of the reasons I headed to the UK first when I started traveling. I come from the Ozark mountains of southern Missouri and live in Devon now, where the local accent and dialect remind me of the Ozarks (as does the countryside). I use a vernacular for Tobias; his words may be anglicised but his rhythms and tone have a bit of Ozarks in there, I think. And that’s the lovely thing about alternative worlds: anything goes as long as there’s an internal logic.


There were many aspects of Castle of Shadows the reminded me of the classics of English children’s literature. To what extent have you read and been influenced by those English classics?

Massively. I discovered I wanted to write for children after I moved to the UK. My husband and I are always buying books; our house has piles of them everywhere because there are never enough shelves. We spent a lot of our pre-parent days trawling through second-hand book shops. He’d disappear into history, biography and social sciences, and I’d head for fiction. I bought lots of lovely old Puffins and dug in. Sometimes I’ll revisit a favourite, like Tom’s Midnight Garden or The Way to Sattin Shore, by Philippa Pearce, or John Gordon’s The Giant Under the Snow, or Leon Garfield’s brilliant Smith. I’ve read everything by Joan Aiken, Margaret Mahy and Diana Wynne Jones many times over, and I’m kept busy these days reading people like Garth Nix, Jonathan Stroud, Charlie Fletcher and Sally Gardner. My current to-be-read pile is nearly as tall as the king’s card castle and contains Halo by Zizou Corder, Hootcat Hall by Lucy Coats, The Ogre of Oglefort by Eva Ibbotson and Amazing Grace by Mary Hooper, to name just a few. There are so many good books out there!


Castle of Shadows is the first book of a quartet. Did you know from the start there’d be more than one book or did the ideas evolve as you progressed through the Castle of Shadows?

I fully intended to write a stand-alone. The message was clear: publishers do not want trilogies or quartets. But the characters hadn’t finished with me. Castle does work as a stand-alone, but I wanted to write Tobias’ story before I’d finished the first draft of Castle and as soon as that was winging its way to the Cornerstones competition I set down and wrote the first draft of City of Thieves in about six weeks.
There are four books. Each has its own villain and contains a complete story which is resolved, but at the same time there’s is a larger villain and over-arching story for the entire quartet. That has been great fun to work out. I don’t like series where a book just stops with a ‘to be continued’. There can be a sense of the larger story continuing, but I want that specific story to have a finite shape and resolution.

Ellen signs books for fans

Castle of Shadows is rich with political intrigue; the entire story revolves against this backdrop of deceit, machinations and the lust for power. What prompted you to choose politics as your canvas for Charlie’s story? And do you think it’s the sort of scenario young readers can readily appreciate?

I don’t think any subject is out of bounds if handled appropriately. My readers are 9+, same age as Harry Potter and Dark Materials. Speaking of which, ‘deceit, machinations and the lust for power’ figure pretty largely in both of those. Politics is everywhere. It affects most aspects of children’s lives and kids are not stupid or unaware, especially these days.
But the book isn’t overtly about politics. Grownups reading it will see the political aspect; many kids will be reading it purely for the adventure. At that level it’s no different than any other book with a big villain. Most villains are after power in some form: Voldemort, Lord Asriel, The Wicked Witch of the West, Aladdin’s uncle. Castle of Shadows is enjoying a wide readership; because it has levels, kids and grownups both seem to like it. At the most basic, it’s a fairy tale: mad king, neglected daughter, evil advisor. Mostly, the kids are responding to the characters of Charlie and Tobias. They are living the adventure with them.


Were you, in choosing a political backdrop, deliberately intending to parody the machinations of government or a particular state or system of government?

No. The book started with the image of a king building a castle of cards. If you have mad king you have a kingdom in trouble. It begs the question of who’s running it. Enter a prime minister. It’s that simple.
But it’s certainly true that my own preoccupations determine the slant a story will take. I was around ten when I learnt about the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in WWII. Ever since, I’ve been obsessed with the question of whether or not scientists have moral responsibility for their discoveries.
So yes, the world of my book contains a weapon of mass destruction and impending war. During the Iraq war the news media in the UK reported on ‘collateral damage’. It was no surprise to learn that the majority of those killed and injured were women and children. It’s always been the weakest in society – women, children and the elderly – who suffer most in wars. So an obvious question is: Can you be an effective politician in an imperfect world and remain a moral being? Windlass does bad things for what he believes are good reasons. Is he right? Are there levels of morality where shades of grey slide into black and when does that happen?
Again, these were some issues I was thinking about as I wrote the book, but it’s part of that thing about levels. It’s background. Adults may see some of it, but I doubt many children are aware of these themes as they read. Page-turning adventure is what they want and what I was determined to provide.




Returning once again to your fabulously evocative descriptions, I laughed out loud at the image of the “fishy” Esceanian ambassador, I couldn’t help but love the loyal Mr Moleglass, the butler, and I bristled in indignation at the malevolent and scheming Mrs O’Dair in her bustling bombazine. You have a wealth of brilliantly depicted characters and I have to wonder, are any of your characters based on real people? And, how do you go about getting to know your characters?

I think the best fiction is character-led. My characters are the heart of my books, although I love plot twists and shamelessly manipulate my readers to keep them turning the pages. I don’t draw on real life for my characters. I don’t know where they come from and I don’t enquire too closely. They always seem to show up as needed, often fully formed. Only one of the minor characters in Castle is partially based on a real person, and he was added in the very last draft for plot reasons.


I was intrigued throughout the story by Charlie’s maturity. You’ve made her 11 but in many ways, despite her tomboy-ishness, she reads more like she’s 14 or 15 – both in her manners and her interactions with other characters. What made you settle on 11 as her age when the book could easily have been targeted at a Young Adult audience and might even be said to be a little too mature for a 9 – 12 year old market?

I see this rather differently. Charlie’s rising 12. Her mother’s a scientific genius and Charlie is no slouch in the brain stakes, but that’s really beside the point. Her circumstances have formed her: she’s had to raise herself since the age of six, living by her wits and facing a formidable enemy in Mrs O’Dair. She’s lost her mother and is emotionally abandoned by her father, who is a burden of care to her rather than a parent. I would be surprised if she didn’t seem older than her years. I’m sure that Elizabeth the First, who lived her childhood in traumatic and dangerous circumstances, was precocious as well. She would have had to be to survive. (btw, the red hair is not coincidental.)
Adults tend to forget what it was like to be ten or eleven or twelve. I remember that age vividly: what I was reading and thinking about, my moral and philosophical preoccupations, the conversations I had with friends. At 9+ brains are fully formed and functioning; it’s only experience and context which is lacking. I would always rather err on the side of over-estimating anyone, especially children, which is why I also don’t simplify language past a certain point. If the story is good enough, kids will skip over words they don’t know, getting enjoyment from the sound of them and meaning from context. It’s how you learn.
Also, I don’t think this is a teen idea: it’s classic adventure story territory, no more complicated than the setup in the Harry Potter or Dark Materials books. And quite frankly I didn’t want Charlie and Tobias snogging! There aren’t enough adventure books for 9+ with strong female leads. Girls are often ghettoised into pink and sparkly. Publishers are worried boys won’t read about female characters. Well, they do if you give them the right one. Pullman proved that with Lyra, and boys seem to be loving this book as much as the girls.


Castle of Shadows’ sequel, City of Thieves, in which Charlie’s friend, Tobias Petch plays a starring role is due out in August this year. What made you want to write about Toby in particular in the sequel?

Yes, the second book belongs to Tobias although Charlie is still a strong presence. She returns to the foreground in the last two books. I can’t say very much about my reasons without giving away a plot twist in Castle of Shadows, but Tobias is a boy with secrets. He has a pretty big problem as well as an unusual talent, and both those things were begging to be written about. It was also necessary for the overall narrative arc that his story be told next. I loved writing him. In some ways, he’s easier to write than Charlie, because his personality is simpler and more direct.




Castle of Shadows is your debut novel; what has the journey to publication been like for you and what advice would you give aspiring authors?

That’s a huge question; we could do an entire interview on that. My journey has been untypical. I’d only ever previously submitted one other thing to an agent, a short book for 7-9 year olds (which was rejected). But I had spent years learning to write and studying what was being published. I only started to submit once I felt I was writing at a professional level. Castle of Cards (as it was then) won the 2007 Cornerstones/Writer’s News Wow Factor competition for best unpublished children’s book, which brought me to the attention of my agent, Rosemary Canter. There was luck involved as I very nearly didn’t enter the competition. There’s been bad luck too, of course. Some debuts may have stress-free and magical journeys to publication, most of us do not.
As a pre-published writer I didn’t really look past the goal of getting an agent and then a book deal. It’s such a huge, difficult thing to achieve, especially these days. Things happened fast after the Cornerstones win, and I found that my journey had only just started. The learning curve is huge and no one has time to tell you anything, so you wing it. Possibly the worst thing is that it becomes increasingly difficult to find time to write, which is what you love doing and is the only reason you’re here in the first place.
Advice? First, make sure you know what you want out of your writing. There’s nothing wrong with writing for pleasure and if you want to share your stories with friends and family, internet self-publishing is much easier now. If your ambition is to be published traditionally, then make sure you want it badly enough, because unless you’re very very lucky, there’s little money in it and a great deal of stress. You will have to promote. You will have less time for writing and your family. The positive side is worth it for me: seeing your book in shops and libraries and meeting readers is all fabulous, as is a glowing review in a national paper. Best of all is the fact that people are reading your story and giving it life beyond you. The first time I saw a copy of my book in a public library was one of the most thrilling of my life!
But do be aware that the climate is very harsh right now. Publishers are forced by current market conditions and the power of retail monopolies to take a scatter-gun approach to writers. They throw a number out there every year and see who sticks. Unless they’ve paid mega-bucks for you in a huge auction (probably becoming a thing of the past as most of these advances fail to pay back), you’ll be doing most of the promotion yourself. And if you don’t sell well enough, you’ll find it very hard to get another publishing deal.
Still want to find an agent and get a book deal? Okay, write for yourself and write the best book you can. In order to do that, join SCBWI, find a good critique group, learn to re-write and develop a very thick skin for rejection.
And when you are getting close to publication – when you are getting personalised rejections – get a website up, start blogging, get on FB and Twitter and build relationships. Don’t just promote yourself: be interesting and supportive. You need to be doing that at least six months before the book comes out. I didn’t. I was too busy writing, the family was very busy, I’m shy and don’t like the idea of self-promotion. Well, six months on and I’m still struggling to catch up. You have to get yourself out there. On the positive side, I love school visits and working with the children almost as much as writing. It’s a rare privilege

Ellen on a school visit, with some of her readers

Tell us what it felt like when you landed an agent and then a publishing contract?

It was great, of course, but in hindsight I wasn’t ready for either. I’d been a member of SCBWI for five or six years and thought I was clued up, but I was dreadfully naive. Again, if I had been on Facebook talking to all you lovely people I would have been a whole lot wiser. When Rosemary Canter told me she wanted Castle to be a ‘big’ book, at first I thought she meant longer. Duh! What I hadn’t realised (although I thought I had) is how fast the industry is changing and will continue to change. We’re in uncharted waters.


And finally, where to from here for Ellen Renner?

City of Thieves is out in the UK August 2010 and has an amazing cover. I can’t wait to hold a copy in my hands! The autumn is already booking out with promotional events: school visits, festivals, library visits, book store signings. And I get to go to Sussex in November to visit schools taking part in the West Sussex Award process: 74 schools are studying the 9 shortlisted books over the autumn term. So it’s going to be very busy. I have to write a book as well. And it needs to be brilliant. So it’s all pretty fantastic, really.


Many thanks to Ellen for agreeing to be interviewed and here’s wishing her all the very best of luck and success in her ongoing authorial adventuring!


For more about Ellen Renner see her website

Order Ellen’s books from Amazon

Follow Ellen on Twitter

Or keep up with Ellen on her Facebook fanpage

All images courtesy of Ellen Renner

An interview with debut children’s author, Candy Gourlay

First off - go and get a cup of coffee or tea or whatever - we're settling in for a long and very interesting chat.

Tall Story, by Candy Gourlay

Unlike many of my other interviewees whom I’ve only met via Facebook, I’m happy to say that Candy Gourlay and I have actually met – twice! – in real life. I first encountered Candy on the Wordpool and SCBWI-BI children’s writer’s groups and then met her at a conference in Winchester and again last year in London. Candy and I are also in the same critique group (I’m hoping only good things can come from this sort of illustrious shoulder rubbing…).

Children's author, Candy Gourlay

Candy is wonderful – she’s funny, feisty, exuberantly energetic, industrious, professional, kind and caring and there is far, far more to her than meets the eye. Are you blushing yet, Candy…? But aside from all that, the way Candy writes, well, it’s magic!

For years Candy has kept a blog called Notes from the Slushpile, in which she talks about the difficulties of getting published. She’s provided her readers with humour and loads of tips and insights. She has done an inordinate amount for her fellow writers. So it’s only right that Candy now gets her chance in the limelight – and my god, she’s done it with style.

Candy's debut novel, Tall Story, is a bittersweet, funny, poignant and magical story. It will make you cry and it will make you laugh out loud. It is a story about wishes and being careful what you wish for. It is a tale of basketball, mythology and of a brother and sister separated by bureaucracy and bound by love. It is told from both points of view – the sister, Andi Jones, born in London (Candy’s adopted city) and her brother, Bernardo Hipolito, born in the Philippines (Candy’s home country). It is a cross-cultural novel but without being heavy on cross-cultural issues. It is the very best kind of story, beautifully told and powerfully written. Buy it and read it. You’ll love it.

But without further ado, here’s Candy Gourlay…

Candy Gourlay with her publisher, David Fickling, at the book launch of Tall Story

Candy, her publisher, the Philippines ambassador, and fans at the launch of Tall Story

Candy, you’ve written about your inspiration for Tall Story in several places on the internet, but for the benefit of Absolute Vanilla readers, please tell us what inspired Tall Story.

Nicky, thanks very much for having me on your brilliant blog. Yes, I have talked about the inspiration for Tall Story in several places already but today, I suddenly remembered something that I haven’t ever mentioned before.

When I left the Philippines to live in England, my two younger brothers were only just so tall … they were little boys. I visited Manila only a year later and who should open the door to my family home but a young man. It took me a long minute to realize that it was one of my brothers, grown tall in the months that I’d been away.

It’s a little bit like that, living away from your family. You visit, there’s a babbling baby. You return, the baby has morphed into an articulate boy with a penchant for singing the theme songs from Marvel superhero cartoons.

In Tall Story, one of the big moments is when 12 year old Andi, a mouthy, basketball-mad Londoner, meets her gentle Filipino half-brother Bernardo for the first time and realizes that he is eight feet tall.

I’ve always been fascinated by gigantism, and when I told my sister, Joy, that I would like to write a teen novel featuring a giant, she told me the story of Ujang Warlika, a seven foot four inch tall Indonesian Boy. Joy’s husband, a basketball coach, was asked to turn Ujang Warlika into a basketball star like the Chinese giant, Yao Ming who is seven foot six and earning millions as a player for the NBA in America.

But the problem with Ujang was that he was not tall, he was a giant – he suffered from a pituitary tumour that produced abnormal amounts of growth hormone.

Basketball player, Yao Ming
(image nicked off Wikipedia)

Along with the story of Ujang Warlika, you also tell the story of Bernardo Carpio, the mythical giant. Woven together with Bernardo Carpio’s story are elements of Filipino folklore. To what extent does the mythology of the Philippines influence and underpin your writing and how important do you feel it is for children to understand something of mythology?

I think mythology enriches our perception of who we are. Think about any myth and it will reveal so much about the people who originated it – myths are all about life and death and taking the measure of where the power lies in our environment.

In places like Indonesia and the Philippines on the earthquake/volcano/typhoon belt, our mythologies attempt to make sense of calamity. And with the passage of time, the stories continue to live and breathe as the storytellers adapt them to current events.

Bernardo Carpio’s mythology may have risen from earthquakes but he has also been portrayed as a revolutionary (when Filipinos were struggling against Spanish rule) as well as a hero who fights to release Filipinos from poverty.

The first novel I ever attempted had English characters and European locations – partly because I perceived my ethnicity as a barrier to publication. Then I met an agent who pointed out that unless I somehow used my Filipino-ness in my writing, readers would find it difficult to make the connection between the book and the author.

“But I’m writing what I know,” I pleaded. Isn’t that what all writing books tell you to do? Looking back, I realize that all those books were wrong. James Scott Bell, one of my favorite writing gurus, says: “It’s not about writing about what you know, it’s about writing who you are.”

In my own country, folklore and mythology still hold powerful sway, to what extent is this true of the Philippines, or have generations of religious influence erased the impact of mythology – and if so, what is your view of that?

The Philippines is the only Catholic country in Asia – a result of 300 years of colonization by Spain. But all that religious and cultural influence has been assimilated into our folklore – in the same way that Filipino Catholicism is an amalgamation of our ancient animist practices and modern belief.

We cannot escape our mythology because it lives and breathes in the natural environment of the Philippines.

What does endanger Philippine mythology is the fact that most of it is not written down. But children’s publishing is burgeoning in the Philippines and I have high hopes that the rise of publishing will result in the archiving our folkloric heritage.

Through mythology and his size, you give Bernard Hipolito almost godlike qualities, yet at the same time you juxtapose “ordinary” people’s responses to anything which is out of the ordinary, responses which are invariably less than charitable. Andi’s own initial reaction to meeting her brother is a case in point. It seems to me that you make some critical social observations in doing this, can you tell us more about that?

People are always making assumptions about other people before they know who they are. If you met me on the street, for example, what assumptions would you make about me? Would you think I’m an author? Or someone’s cleaner? Does it matter?

It’s not just how you look but what you sound like. Anywhere in the world, accents send out clues to someone’s social status and upbringing – I blogged about it recently.

I am acutely sensitive to how assumptions are made based on an accent – here in London, I often help a Filipino friend by making phone calls on her behalf because she finds that people – like her doctor and council workers – change their behavior when confronted with someone who has an accent that is not as “other” as hers.

In Tall Story, Bernardo speaks in hilarious, broken English. But half the book is told in his voice, showing his thoughts and feelings to be as complex as anybody’s. I guess this was me trying to tell the reader not the judge a person by his accent!

You used to be a journalist, to what extent do you feel this has influenced how you write and the subjects you choose to write about?

I feel really lucky to have been a journalist at a seminal time in the Philippines. There was so much going on, and my reportage took me all over the country – I wrote about famine in the sugar cane growing regions, I toured the countryside interviewing witches, I witnessed utter poverty and shocking wealth, I saw the effects of guerrilla warfare on the lives of people who lived in the countryside, I’ve been tear-gassed while covering opposition rallies, I was exposed to values and issues that made me question my own place in the scheme of things … and made me realize that nothing is black and white, everything is a complicated shade of grey.

At the time, I was very young - I could report what I saw, but I couldn’t tell you what something meant. Coming to live in the so-called First World allowed me to see my world from different eyes. I can’t say I am wiser – but certainly, it was easier to see the stark contrasts between a developing country like the Philippines and comfortable, cozy England.

A photo Candy took during her time as a journalist, of soldiers and village people

Candy and her best friend - newbie journalists saluting,
while in the background a riot assembles

You write with a social conscience because, I suspect, this is “who” Candy Gourlay is. How important do you feel it is to bring social commentary/observations into children’s writing?

I was recently involved in a Carnegie shadowing event, where children were discussing the books that were shortlisted for the Carnegie prize.

The children were so amazing in that they just get what the books are about. They don’t miss a thing and they embed a book’s message in their hearts. Kids who read good books are packing a lot of good stuff that will be useful some day. As Newbery winning author Richard Peck says, children should read because the words that build a story become theirs to build their lives.

One of Candy's photos taken during the Marcos years - a woman singing in an evocation of hope and despair

Candy arrives in Pyongyang to cover the 40th anniversary of Kim Il Sung

One of Candy's photos of crowds in Pyongyang celebrating the 40th anniversary of Kim Il Sung. She says, "It was a strange and amazing experience to see a million people in the thrall, or so it seemed, of one man."

Tall Story contains several themes, one of them is the issue of migration to Britain. Bernardo and his mother, Mary Ann, are separated for 16 years while bureaucracy takes its course. What is your view of how this is handled, has there been any improvement over the years and do you have a view on how new immigration policies might impact upon this?

When I first visited England in the Thatcherite eighties, immigration and asylum were already raging issues.

I remember arriving in Heathrow, very excited to be in my first cold country. I told the immigration officer at the desk that I was there to visit my boyfriend and she became very hostile. “You’re not going to marry him while you’re here,” she said.

Later during the trip, sitting alone in a restaurant somewhere near Trafalgar Square, a man suddenly sat at my table and began to shout things at me. It took me a while to decipher what he was saying because I wasn’t used to the British accent yet. He was telling me to get out of his country. The waitresses chased him away and apologized to me.

On that trip I met a lot of Filipino women who entered the country with foreign employers who brought them in on tourist visas but treated them like slaves. There was a woman hiding in a church who was fighting to stay in England with her baby, fathered by her British pen pal who subsequently decided not to continue with the relationship. When my husband and I decided to get married, we discovered that it was usual for a bride’s visa to be delayed – officialdom hoped that this would discourage any marriages of convenience.

I met many Filipino workers who never went home for fear of not being allowed to return to England. When my own brother applied for a visa to visit me, he was turned down because he was deemed likely to become an illegal immigrant.

Are things better now? Well yes and no. In Europe, the anxiety over immigration continues but the law has changed so that the slavery stories are rare (though not non-existent). Nurses are now allowed to bring their immediate family into the country to live. Many long term workers have been given proper status that allow them to work and pay taxes in England.

But the forces that drive people to leave their families are just as strong. It is an act of total desperation to leave everything you love behind. And yet in the Philippines, which was once regarded as one of the most successful countries in Asia, migration to seek better jobs/future/livelihoods is the norm. How can a successful economy be built in a country where leaving is the only path to prosperity?

I wonder what would happen if the energy and resources put into keeping migrants out of Europe were poured into helping migrants stay in their home countries?

The plight of Mary Ann and of Bernardo, separated from one another by bureaucracy, is the story of a mother trying to improve her life and that of her family. It doesn’t take much to imagine how very hard it is, and having recently watched a documentary about Filipino women who leave their country I have to ask: how do you feel about the need that drives people away from their homelands and the way many are subsequently treated by their host nations?

For a few years in the nineties I was the editor of a pan-European magazine called Filipinos in Europe. I got to visit Filipino communities all over Europe, interviewing women who decided to leave the Philippines. Are their lives better for it? Some do have better lives. But there are many who have only experienced heartache as a result of their decision to leave. Children who don’t know them. Husbands who stray. Money that is frittered away by relatives.

The Philippines is the only Catholic country in Asia and Christ-like sacrifice is elemental to our culture. Leaving is one such sacrifice.

But I really, really wonder if the sacrifice is worth it. What is clear to me is that this kind of sacrifice is an unsustainable way of bringing up children.

I couldn’t help thinking when I started reading Tall Story that Andi and Bernardo’s mum seemed so much like the mothers Amy Tan writes about, particularly in the Joy Luck Club. Is this depiction of Asian/South East Asian mothers something of a caricature or is there more to it?

No, it isn’t a caricature – I recommend Amy Tan’s books to anyone with an Asian mum. It’s nice to know that you are not alone.

Amy Tan's The Joy Luck Club gives a fascinating insight into Asian mothers, so similar to Mary Ann, the mother in Tall Story
(image nicked off Amazon)

There is much about Tall Story which is undoubtedly a reflection of your own life and your own life experiences clearly influence what you write. This is visible in the weaving together of the magical mythology of the Philippines with the gritty realism of London and the juxtaposition of life in a small Filipino village with life in a London suburb. How easy, or difficult, have you personally found it to integrate two worlds and then to write about it?

Coming home to the Philippines from England is like moving between two fantasy worlds with two different sets of rules and boundaries. In England, life is secular, practical, say what you mean. In the Philippines, it is spiritual, everything is personal, and nobody says what they mean – you have to be good at mind-reading and guessing at the feelings of other people.

If my mum says, “No, I won’t go shopping with you.” She might well mean: “I’d really like to go with you but I don’t want to say I will because I don’t want to be a burden so please could you persuade me just a little bit more.”

In England, there is an invisible space around each person that you have to respect. It’s all about being an individual.

In the Philippines it’s about being part of a group, all for one and one for all. Maybe that’s why I try to turn everyone I like into extended family. It’s because I miss my herd.

I think anyone who moves away from their home experiences a kind of push-me-pull-you, love-hate thing with the life they left behind.

At the beginning of living away you spend a lot of time comparing your new home with your old home. Moving to a first world country as I did, you marvel at how life is more comfortable, services more efficient, the future more predictable. You feel more acutely all the many inferiorities of your old life.

Then as time passes, the comparisons become more emotional. Do you laugh as much now as you used to? Are your friendships more true?

And then you put down roots and the new home isn’t so new anymore. You know all about the little imperfections, the cracks beneath the surface … and the odd thing is you have come to love them in the same way that you realize you will always yearn for your old home – and everything that comes with it.

Candy's family - 1986

Candy on assignment for a destinations article - she claims she was working...

Candy on one of the white sandy beaches of the Philippines

You evoke an incredibly vivid image of life in the Philippines – do you think you could have created the same effect had you never moved to London or do you think that being away from your homeland gives you a unique insight and perception of the Philippines that you could never have had, had you not moved away?

I think my writing would have been very different had I never left the Philippines. I read my old stuff now and like my current writing, they reflect a social awareness that probably comes from being a journalist as well as growing up in an environment where social inequalities are constantly in your face. What my writing has acquired is a kind of yearning that probably comes from being homesick all the time.

Images of reality from Candy's home - a sleeping volcano in the Philippines...

The aftermath of the awakening of a Filipino volcano...

The volcanic theme is powerfully evident in Tall Story

Despite the fact that you show and interconnect two different worlds, in many ways they remain very separate. As Andi says at one point in the story, “The blank faces on TV are not people either”. As much as we live in a global village, we still live separately in our own villages. Living with a foot in two worlds, how does that make you feel? And do you believe that Tall Story and cross-cultural stories like it can make any kind of difference to bridging that gap?

Whenever I see a Far Eastern calamity on the news, I see myself in the close ups of brown faces. I guess I wrote that bit about blank faces because I wanted to make my readers aware of the humanity behind the TV screens. That these people who don’t look like you and speak the same language have mothers and fathers and complex feelings like you do.

At first Andi does not see herself at all in Bernardo – but there comes a point in the story when she’s watching him sleeping and she realizes that yes, they are just like each other.

Will Tall Story bridge any gaps? I don’t know, but I hope children who have read Tall Story will realize that there is no such thing as Us and Them because we are, all of us, just people.

Some of Candy's favourite scenes from her homeland, the Philippines

Despite the bittersweet moments in Tall Story, your novel is ultimately one of love, acceptance and hope. How important to you feel these elements are in children’s writing?

I think the American author Richard Peck puts it best: “A story for the young must move in a straight line with hope in the end.”

Hope is what differentiates writing for children from other forms of writing. Our readers are looking forward, not back, and it’s our responsibility to give them lots to look forward to.

You have created two very distinct voices in Andi and Bernardo, something which is not always easy to do. To what extent did having a daughter around Andi’s age influence Andi’s voice, and which character did you find easier to write?

My daughter is no way as lippy as Andi. Andi came from … Andi! I just positioned my hands over the keyboard and everytime it was her turn to speak, she spoke. It was far more difficult to write Bernardo’s voice. I was very worried that I would not find his voice while I was writing the scenes in the Philippines. And then Bernardo landed in England and opened his mouth and said: “I am glad you meet me.” Suddenly he too began to speak and writing the book progressed easily after that!

I’m not inclined to classify Tall Story into a particular genre but… Although the story is very much one of realism, it might also be said to fall neatly into the genre of magical realism. How do you feel about such a classification and would you agree with it?

Someone in a critique session mentioned magical realism to me and I’m sorry to say I had no idea what it meant. I went home and googled magical realism and still I couldn’t be sure. I really can’t describe what sort of story I wrote – magical realism sounds lovely but I didn’t set out to write Tall Story any particular style.

Who or what have been the most significant influences on the development of your writing?

Well, I have to say that my husband Richard is my inciting event. My life in the Philippines had a very clear trajectory until I met Richard. He took me out of my comfort zone and everything has been unexpected since.

Candy and her husband, Richard, at her book launch

And who, if you could throw a literary dinner party, would you invite to dinner and why (you can invite six guests)?

A literary dinner party? Well!

I would have Jo March of Little Women and have a little moan with her about rejection and manuscripts (every dinner party has its quotient of whining).

I would have Bernardo Carpio, the giant, and we will laugh about how storytellers (including me) twist his story to suit our ends.

I would have Samuel Clemens, who by the way, was a great champion of Filipinos when America annexed the Philippines. We won’t just talk about Philippine history though because I’d love to hear about how he wrote the Prince and the Pauper.

I would have Philip Ardagh, just because I’d like to see how he and Samuel Clemens (another great humourist) get along.

I would have Frankenstein’s Monster. I’ve always felt he got a raw deal and I’d like to make things up to him as long as he doesn’t leak formaldehyde all over his plate.

I would have Spiderman. And I don’t care if you say comic books aren’t literary.

Candy and Tall Story
(image courtesy of Paolo Romeo)

You are actively involved in the British Isles branch of the Society for Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators, and you’ve been extraordinarily generous with your time and insights on your blog – what motivates you to help your fellow writers in this way and what is your view of the community of children’s writers that you connect with?

I decided to join SCBWI when I became serious about getting published. I was attending a lot of talks and I thought all that good information was going to waste so I started blogging. I was deep in nappies at the time and I enjoyed blogging because it had the edginess of journalism a deadline which I missed.

I was amazed to make friendships via my blog and SCBWI – amazed because I had no idea that there were other people out there like me. The children’s writers I met were generous and fascinating and I felt blessed to be part of the community. When I started hearing the work of other people I also realized that there were a lot of really good writers out there and I had to raise my game.

People tell me I’m really good at marketing because I’ve been writing a blog for years but the truth is I was just a lonely housewife desperate to get published. The fact that I became totally enamoured with all the new technology is another story.

Tall Story on display at Candy's London launch party

Candy and the Philippines ambassador at the launch of Tall Story
(image courtesy of Paolo Romeo)

Magic and superstition are woven throughout Tall Story, do you believe in either? Do you have any of your own personal magical stories?

Moving to England, I was amazed at how one plus one equaled two. Life in London seems to be so full of certainties compared to life in the Philippines. I grew up in a middle class household constantly struggling against the odds. I always had the feeling that I had no control over my fate – good or bad, the future was beyond my control.

25 years ago, I had occasion to travel across the countryside, interviewing witches with a view to publishing the stories in a coffee table book. The coffee table book was never made but I came away from the experience realizing that for many poor women in the countryside, becoming a witch, faith healer or seer gave them better prospects than most. Magic gave them an edge.

Filipinos are often described as ‘fatalistic’ – we have an expression “Bahala na” – which roughly means, “Leave it to fate.” And yet, during that trip, I realized that many people were not leaving their lives to fate. Through magic they were making something of themselves. So no, I don’t believe in hocus pocus … but magic certainly has other uses.

One of the so-called spiritists/witches whom Candy interviewed

And finally, I have to ask this, given I know how “tall” you are… did you play basketball?

Height of course is relative. Though I was by no means the tallest, I was one of the taller girls in my class, always sitting at the back, always standing near the end of the line. Basketball was our p.e. in those days but the truth is, I was never a contender. I just couldn’t shoot straight!


Many thanks to Candy Gourlay for agreeing to this interview. It’s been a real pleasure watching Candy reach publication and a thrill to hold and read her book. I wish her huge and exuberant dollops of success with Tall Story and the manuscript she’s currently working on. Yes, that does mean I’m getting sneak previews. No, I’m not telling you about it! Not just yet, anyway…

Candy with a young fan at her book launch in London

For more about Candy Gourlay:

Browse Candy’s website

Mooch around the Tall Story website

You can read Candy’s blog

Follow Tall Story news on Facebook

Follow Candy on Twitter


And, most importantly, you can buy your own copy of Tall Story either at Amazon or the Book Depository


You can read other Candy Gourlay interviews and Tall Story reviews at:

Scribble City Central

Tall Tales and Short Stories

My Favourite Books

The Bookwitch

All images courtesy and copyright of Candy Gourlay, unless otherwise indicated.