David Maybury | Blog

Yes… I am blogging from a field. Next to my half put-together tent at Electric Picnic and looking for a distraction. So here it is!

The winners of the Booktrust Early Years Awards 2010!

Broken into their respective categories the winners are:

The Best Book for babies under one-year-old: I Love My Mummy - Giles Andreae, illustrated by Emma Dodd

The Best Picture Book for children up to five-years-old: One Smart Fish – Chris Wormell

The winner of The Best Emerging Illustrator for children up to five-years-old: The Django – Levi Pinfold

Congrats to Chris, Giles, Emma and Levi – and the folks at Booktrust for putting the list/award together the and huge energy into last nights announcement!

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This may be the saddest picture…

via Brown Bag.

Tomorrow see’s the publication of Derek Landy’s new book in the Skullduggery Pleasant series – Mortal Coil.

Are you itching to know more about Darquesse? Wondering whatever happened to Scapegrace? How Finbar survives with the help of a cushion… or just can’t get enough of Valkryie?

Wait no longer – the book hits shelves this week (already up in some stores) and I’ve got a free, SIGNED, copy to give away thanks to the nice folk at HarperCollins.

(Derek wouldn’t answer my calls after the last video we did… luckily his publishing folk are waaaay nicer and convinced him to sign the book and drop the lawsuit)

To win – all you have to do is leave a comment answering this VERY simple question:

In Skulduggery Pleasant: Dark Days Valkyrie finds herself falling for a boy. What is his name?

Drop your answer in the comments below and I’ll choose a winner at random on Monday 6 September. (Major hint lies beyond this link)

I’m just sorry someone thought of this first. Avery Monsen and Jory John’s All My Friends Are Dead:

via Sean.

Sky News are reporting that JK Rowling has donated £10 million to a new multiple sclerosis research clinic in Scotland, based at the University of Edinburgh. The clinic will be named after Rowling’s mother Anne, who suffered from MS and died at the age of 45.

Sky News has more.

If you happen to find yourself in a field in Stradbally this weekend (namely at Electric Picnic), enjoying the music, comedians, art, dancing and literary what-nots – then this is for you.

Backwards spelling maestro divaD euhonoD (David Donohue) will be on stage at noon on Sunday (5 September) at the Arts Council Literary Stage.

But wait… there’s more.  Sharing that very same stage will be the egg juggling, joke telling and terribly nervous – David Maybury. (That’s me!!)

Yup – it’s finally happened. I’m headlining (ha!) at a rock festival.

You can check out the full list of readers for the Arts Council Literary Stage over at leviathan.ie (Pic by IGI member Rodger O’Reilly – who brilliantly sketched last years picnic)

Teachers! (And/or students who can bully their teachers into submission) Fancy the chance to meet an international bestselling author? Say… a swashbuckling ex-rock musician, graphic artist and computer game designer who grew up in the Bahamas.

Yes – now is your chance to meet Alex Scarrow. Alex is in Dublin as part of the Mountains to Sea Festival – to talk about writing, life as a rock star and of course to tell you all about his TimeRiders series!

Sound like something you might want to get your head into? Get clicking! (This is a schools only event so teacher-folk, get the finger out!)

I’m not number four, I wouldn’t last 5 minutes with a Mogadorian chasing me. But if there is one blockbusting, big budget, thrill-a-minute, movie-already-in-the-making action book you read this year – make it I am number four.

The premise is easy:

In the beginning we were a group of nine.
There are six of us left. The first three were
killed in the order of their numbers.
They won’t stop until they’ve killed us all.
I Am Number Four.
I know that I am next.

I am Number Four sees Pittacus Lore (James Frey and Jobie Hughes)  join the ranks of Eoin Colfer, Michael Scott, Lemony Snicket, Joe Delaney, Derek Landy and Darren Shan. It’s an epic! Aliens hiding on Earth to save us and themselves (smacks of Superman doesn’t it?) as well as super-powers (legacies) and some teenage angst thrown in for good measure.

Kim ‘Lion’ Harte has drafted in a book-shopper to review I Am Number Four. Introducing 13 year old Suzi Burns:

This book is a great read and although it’s about aliens the author managed to make it seem really believable… …This book is action-packed, gripping and has a touch of romance and  is the first sci-fi book I’ve ever read and it was so much better than I expected. I would highly recommend you read it!

Go get your own Legacy powers – g’wan!

The Diary of a Wimpy Kid movie is out in cinemas this weekend – and to celebrate the release there is a new Wimpy Kid Club site for the officiandos who can’t get enough of the Heffster. Okay, no one calls Greg the Heffster… except maybe himself.

The movie isn’t a direct transcript of the book but it keeps the story (avoid the cheese touch) and it has got some great laugh-out-loud scenes that will make you cry with giggles (as well as some gringe-behind-your-seat-and-squirm type gross moments)

And of course… it has a song:

Another reason for the quiet week this week – Mercier Press asked me to write a synopsis of Hatched.

Of course, I said.
No problem, I said.
Piece of cake, I said.

How wrong could I have been?

Reducing a story of thirty thousand words to one page sounds remarkably easy, doesn’t it? Not as easy as I thought.  It took me nearly a week to write something  I was happy with! A week.

There are some great cliffnotes out there that definitely helped – I bought a copy of the Children’s Writers and Artists Yearbook 2011 thanks to a tip from Laura – and had a nose around Bubble Cow and read some other books that live on my how-to shelf.

Have a read of the draft blurb I sent along with it:

Hatched

“Why can’t I stay home for the summer? Seriously, there’s nothing to do out here. And Grandad smells like he’s gone stale.”

Jamie hates how boring summer with her grandparents is – she misses her friends and is nearly bored enough to miss school. Her parents insist on a ‘break’ every summer, but seriously, she is nearly 12 – practically an adult! Worse still Jamie has been drafted in to make tea all day in a pokey salon next door to the weirdest shop in town, The Hatchery. Things aren’t as simple as they seem as everyone in town drops by for a trim before going to collect an egg or two.

Mo Mills works in The Hatchery – mostly he just listens to his uncle, Mr Grimes, chant “there’s nothing that can’t come from an egg” as he hatches eggs to fix peoples problems. When Grimes is called away to help lay some new eggs Mo is left with a bubbling gelatinous blob ogling him and more hatching surprises.

Jamie egg-cidentally drops a new arrival letting the hatchling escape – now it’s up to her and Mo to clean up the shop and get the hatchling back before Grimes returns.

Why do you think they call it hatching a plan?

Sorry it has been so quiet round these parts this week – of course you have all been losing sleep wondering what I’ve been up to offline…

We’re moving to a new secret studio location overlooking the River Liffey.

Yup – we’ve been busy packing boxes, piecing together flatpack whats-its and cleaning out sinks since Monday – and finally there is a new work space for davidmaybury.ie.

Curious? We’re only halfway through painting etc, but check out the video tour (yes the creepy heavy breathing is me with a cold):

Fancy having lunch with some of the best children’s writers out there?

I mean some REALLY great writers – Kate DiCamillo (Tale of Despereaux), Marita Conlon McKenna, Don Conroy, Joe O’Brien, Judi Curtin, Sarah Webb, PJ Lynch, Sarah Rees Brennan, Niamh Sharkey, Gordon Snell, Mary Murphy, Tommy Donbavand, Claire Hennessy, Oisin McGann and a heap of other folk?

Now’s your chance! Walker Books have just gone and rounded up these folks to help celebrate their 30^th birthday.

Everyone who makes it along will nab themselves a goody bag and (handily) a bookshop will be there so you can buy signed copies of all the authors’ books.

So when is this madness?? Saturday September 11 at the Royal St George Yacht Club, Seafront, Dun Laoghaire (from 12 – 3)

Tickets are €15 (€20 for adults) Recommended age: 9+ (Children under 9 must be accompanied by an adult)

Get clicking to mountainstosea.ie to get some tickets! (Hurry though – tickets are nearly gone!)

Suzanne Collins’ Mockingjay – the last book in the Hunger Games trilogy goes on sale in the US next Tuesday at midnight. While the rest of the world has to wait an extra day…

But there is some good news – Collins’ debut novel Gregor the Overlander is now available in the Ireland and the UK (it was previously only available in the US). Aimed at a younger (9+) reader the die hard fans are sure to enjoy Gregor to whet their appetites!

Expect thousands of tired teenagers next Tuesday!

A report from the Association of American Publishers has listed hardback sales for the Children’s/YA up by 19.6 per cent on this month last year. That’s a whopping $60.6 million in sales. (Over-all hardback sales are down by 16.7 percent compared to 2009)

Children’s/YA Paperback sales increased 1.5 per cent in June ($51.5 million) and overall sales are at 5.0 per cent below this time last year.

The report makes for interesting reading if you have 5 minutes to spare.

/via GalleyCat

Wales is where it is at for paranormal activity. Seriously. The Dyfed Powys Police have recorded 86 calls of witches in Mid and West Wales over the last five years.

Reading the police incident log reveals even more oddities – one call about a werewolf, seven about vampires, 19 about UFOs, 13 about big cats, 73 reports of ghosts, 16 of zombies, 35 of demons, five regarding big foot sightings, 33 of monsters and 18 about wizards.

Madness!

Durham University are offering a module on Harry Potter as part of the their Education Studies undergraduate degree. Not quite potions in the Snape’s cellar or quidditch practice but it’s close!

The Harry Potter and the Age of Illusion module requires students to set the series “in its social, cultural and educational context and understand some of the reasons for its popularity”.

Alison Flood covers more:

The registrar of Durham University, Carolyn Fowler, called it a “serious but innovative” academic module. “A huge amount of work has gone into developing it, and we are extremely excited to be offering it as a study option to our undergraduate students, who have already expressed a high level of interest,” she said.

Fancy yourself as a would comic book maker? How about giving Neill Cameron’s challenge a go?(Neill is the man behind the brilliant MoBot High)

Neill is challenging any willing to finish the story he has started…

And what’s more – the challenge has mirgrated to twitter – with young Cameron scripting a panel in 140 characters (or less):

1: woman, masked, asleep on sofa. Caption: AND THIS IS HOW THE WEIRDEST DAY IN MY LIFE BEGAN… SFX: BANG! #emergentcomics

Think you could do it?

The folks at Warner have let slip some new pics of the upcoming Harry Potter flick  – 36 no less!

Click to see more.

Warner Brothers are suing the makers of a Swiss condom brand “Harry Poppers” for copyright infringement. Gawker has the full story… in all its untranslatable glory.

Do you like the odd picture book? Fancy writing one? Or just want to know what goes in to making them?? Now is your chance!

Temple Bar Cultural Trust, Children’s Books Ireland, Kids Own Publishing Partnership, Young at Art, and the National Youth Council of Ireland have convinced the Department of Tourism, Culture and Sport to fund this great project!

As part of Culture Night folks are invited to visit the studio of Niamh Sharkey, Marie-Louise Fitzpatrick and Annie West from the comfort of The National Library in Dublin, Sligo Library (in Sligo) and in the University of Ulster in Belfast.

Each artist/writer will be broadcast live to give you a tour, talk through the process and answer your questions.

So where will you be on Friday 24 September?

I love this! The very clever folks at The Horn Book have drafted in Dean Schneider and Robin Smith to draw up the brilliant When A Is for Xbox: 26 Ways to Prevent Summer Reading poster.

Don’t bother reading All of the book—just enough to write the report.

You can download it free – or order it from Horn Book direct.

The Beat has some analysis of how the ticket takings of Scott Pilgrim versus the World compared to the rest of the releases last week – including Stallone’s The Expendables.

The comments are interesting – taking apart the approach the comic book underworld (sounds like a seedy underbelly of society) took in releasing the movie. The huge number of tickets given away through comic book stores in the US may have sliced its audience. And while being a large voice online -  Pilgrim officiandos are not the only folk who go to movies…

Good reading for those interested.

Repribate and general rabble-rouser* of the radio Rick O’Shea had the cast of Scott Pilgrim in studio for a chat… and you can listen to the whole 18 minutes of awesome-osity online.

And as if all that wasn’t enough for you… Sci-Fi-London has some things to say about the very same flick:

the video game inspired fights were similar to the song and dance scenes in musicals (notwithstanding the first fight in SCOTT PILGRIM actual is also a musical number, perhaps to make that very point) where these scenes are of heightened emotions and if used well, such as in the BUFFY musical, also sources of character development…  …Wright has made a groundbreaking film that is, to use an often abused phrase, a game changer.

*One who rouses rabble by night

The eclectic music/arts/culture/food festival Electric Picnic is just around the corner – and as the days tick by more names are confirmed on the weekend bill. If you haven’t been convinced to tag along – how about some literary incentive?

Mindfield – the spoken word wing of EP – presents comic book gurus Philip Barrett, Emma Vieceli, Pat Mills, Steve Bell and Dr Mel Gibson talking up a storm about what they know best.

Our intrepid and esteemed panel will cheerily dissect and debate the “sequential art” scene as it and was: offering thoughts, opinions and recollections on a wide range of topics, including: Classic British comics, Manga, Bande dessinée, Girls’ comics, John Major’s underpants, the Irish small presses, and much, much more. Masked and caped crusaders may also get an occasional mention…

If you find yourself in the middle of a field in Stradbally on Saturday 4 September (at 5pm) tag along to hear some of the most informed folk from all sides of the spectrum.

(Pic by IGI member Rodger O’Reilly – who brilliantly sketched last years picnic)

I’m catching up after last week and the madness at the Inkwell Junior Writers Week (8 year olds, books and writing… I may never recover)

The Lethbridge Herald says it all: Comic books, graphic novels can help get boys to read – while the Convention of the American Psychological Association are questioning the current generation of superheroes.

The Irish Times caught up with Alan Moore – the comic book guru:

Away from comics is certainly an accurate depiction of where I’m headed, but what it’s towards is perhaps a bit more difficult to define, because it seems to be heading towards several different areas at once. I mean, I will always love and continue to work in the comics medium. On the other hand, a couple of weeks ago I did tell an emissary of DC Comics that I didn’t want the rights to Watchmen back, so that’s pretty final.

In the Irish Independent Eamon Delaney celebrates the Dublin Unesco City of Literature announcement -

For this is what the city’s Unesco honour is all about. It is not just about putting James Joyce on a tea towel or Oscar Wilde on an ashtray. It is about nurturing and supporting new talent so that we live up to our literary heritage.

Dave Hannigan writes about writing a children’s GAA story – Kicking On:

I can’t recall too much about my life as a 10-year-old but I can still picture the moment I blatantly pushed a full-back named Pat Cuthbert in the back before scoring a goal in a street league final in Bishopstown.

The New York Times has a nice, if easy, piece on summer reading for younger readers:

If your child is turned off by reading, getting them to read anything is better than nothing

The UK Independent covers the start of the Edinburgh Book Festival.

You really should vote Sue Townsend as ruler of the known world:

We said we can have it all and do it all: I can have four children, write three plays a year and a book, go from Leicester to London and come back at midnight. But you can’t do it all.

Ben Child gives his thumbs up for the Scott Pilgrim film adaptation:

The dialogue seems a little snappier than in the graphic novel, suggesting the forthcoming film may mimic the excellent Kick-Ass (which in my view surpassed its comic-book origins), yet the heart and soul of O’Malley’s vision seems to be intact.

Jim Henson is coming under the spotlight – with not one but two books about him.

Publishers Weekly covers Artists on the Rampage – a new Dave Eggers experiment.

Marcus Sedgwick reviews Bernard Ashley’s Ronnie’s War.

Ricky Gervais is being sued for allegedly stealing the idea of his Flanimals children’s book from the 1998 book Captain Pottie’s Wildlife Encyclopedia.

Worlds collide as Tolkien and Dickens descendants work on project together.

Wes Craven – horror film stallworth – is writing a graphic novel (with a little help from some friends)

Kirkus have a billion kids book reviews to sieve through.

Derek O’Connor celebrates the rise and rise of graphic literature.

The Herald Sun has a chat with Alexandra Adornetto – this sounds like fun!

Graphic novelist Gerry Hunt is back with a new creation!

Mandatory pic of Stan Lee from the UK Independent.

Neil Gaiman appeared on the ABC Radio National Book Show in Sydney last week.

Babar is coming to the silver screen – but no one is blowing any trumpets… *badum tsch*

Linda Newbury talks about writing – and following the Walking Man.

In other film-type news: Jason Reitman is directing Diablo Cody’s new screenplay – Young Adult | Rambo may be getting a revisit | Paul Murray’s Booker Prize long-listed Skippy Dies is being adapted/directed by Neil Jordan

A Scott Pilgrim comic/film mash-up just because I can (and the cast/director are in town today for the premiere)

With a little help from the folks at Twentieth Century Fox and Easons (thanks gang!) I’ve got TWENTY tickets to give away – your chance to see an exclusive preview of Diary of a Wimpy Kid before anyone else!

Yup – now is your chance to see Greg, Rowley, Rodrick, Manny, Fregley and the CHEESE in their first adventure on the big screen. All the action from the first book of the series will be released in cinemas nationwide on August 25 2010 – and you can see it before anyone else. Sounds good doesn’t it?? It is!

All you have to do to be in with a chance is leave a comment below – naming your favourite character from the Wimpy series and why.

Make sure you’re free on August 22 – and able to make it to the Savoy cinema in Dublin at 11 am (doors open at 10.30 am) Closing date is Thursday August 19 – one entry per person, tickets cannot be exchanged.

Following the success of CBI and The Ark’s one-day presentation skills workshop for published and soon-to-be published children’s authors – Stand and Deliver - they’re back with the aptly named Stand and Deliver 2!

Running in conjunction with Conor Kostick’s residency at Farmleigh there will be a host of folks on hand to answer questions and coach anyone who will listen in engaging readers (Enda Wyley will be there to talk about younger-intermediate readers while Conor will be there to talk about his experience of working with older children and teenagers)

Running from 1.30 – 5.30 on Saturday 28 August – the entire day is FREE – and with only a few limited places you need to get your name in the hat now!

Here’s a run down of the specific focus the workshop will take:

• Starting your event effectively
• Selecting an extract and reading from your work
• Structuring your session
• How to handle Q&A
• ‘Tricks of the trade’ and problem solving

Sound like this might right up your street? Get clicking!!

Before the links, reviews and mayhem starts – you should really read Frank Cottrell Boyce on art after children. How real is Conolly’s pram in the hallway?  Cottrell Boyce may be the exception to the rule – father of seven – he has still managed to write some of the best books for young readers (Cosmic, Millions, and Framed)

we should turn Connolly’s equation upside-down and say that maybe what’s in the pram – breathing, vulnerable life, hope, a present responsibility – is actually more important than good art. It might make us produce less art, but maybe it would be art with the future at its heart.

Now for a VERY brief look at the papers from elsewhere – Kate Kellaway rounds up some of the summers best picturebooks, Olivia Laing talks up a storm over some younger fiction and Geraldine Brennan reads some of the best teen fiction – including I am Number Four:

I Am Number Four [is] a tense and exciting story that’s full of energy.

The review of the week award goes to Philip Ardagh for his take on John Grisham’s Theodore Boone:

Grisham can write. He’s a master of his craft, and there’s much to like about Theodore Boone. It’s very readable but, despite the boy himself being in the middle of the story, he isn’t really at the heart of the action. Why? Because there is no real action, apart from the turning wheels of justice. Let’s hope in the next book there’s more of a real sense of personal danger and urgency, not just lawyer talk.

Emma Donoghue discovers her inner child – well… the child narrator anyway.

Pamela Paul has a refreshing take on adults reading kids books -

I am not embarrassed by my, shall we say, immature taste in literature. And I wasn’t much concerned when, barreling through “The Hunger Games” at the hospital after giving birth to my third child, I hardly noticed whether he ate or slept. When will the rebellion begin, I wanted to know. Which suitor will Katniss choose? Nor am I alone.

Jean de Brunhoff’s Babar is set for a revival – on the silver screen!

Tired of not getting any mail? Have a look at some of Kaye Webb’s letters – very swoon-worthy! (Especially the get-well cards!)

Two posts about Oliver Jeffers in two days… can you tell where my head is at? Maestro* Mac Premo cornered mister Jeffers for to make a short how-to/intro/where-do-you-keep-your-ideas kind of video.

It should be watched by all (and their respective sundries):

job of the day from mac premo on Vimeo.

*Emmy winning maestro at that!