David Maybury | Blog

Fancy a chance to win a snappy special edition by Kyle Baker? The Guardian is running a competition to mark the launch of Danny Finderoth’s The Rough Guide to Graphic Novels (pretty much what it says on the tin). To win one of the prints (or the runner-up prize of Fingeroth’s Rough Guide) all you have to do is answer one quick and easy question…

In Art Spiegelman’s graphic novel about the Holocaust, Maus, the characters are all presented as various types of anthropomorphic animals, according to nationality or race. What animal are the Germans? (Hint)

As a bonus – Fingeroth has a feature choosing his top 10 graphic novels (more books added to the list). Enjoy.

It’s not out until November 21 but the first teaser trailer for Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince is in the wild. It certainly looks darker than the other releases – following the trend of the books…

What do you think?

I got a sneak peak at the Boy in the Striped Pyjamas trailer today and felt very privileged – little did I know that all I had to do to see it was log on to John Boyne’s blog – so, without anymore of my winding go and have a look see.

(Odd that they have such strong English accents – but otherwise, it looks good.)

Those very clever foxes over on the Vulpes Libris blog have an interview with Keith Gray. A sneak peak at what Keith is planning next:

So… what’s next for you?  Another book?  More virtual projects?  Holiday in the Bahamas?

What’s next for me is another book.  It’s a job, I’m afraid.  If I don’t write the books, I don’t get paid.  My deadline is the end of this July with a pencilled publication date of next July.  It’s another book aimed at teenagers and so far it’s called ‘Hoodlum’ but that may change.  None of my books have ever kept the same title throughout the whole of the writing/editing process.  Ostrich Boys was originally called Painted Black, then it became ‘Ash’, and was even ‘Still Death’ for a short while.  My publishers loved ‘Ash’  – but I fought for my own way.  I’m very happy with Ostrich Boys.

The interview covers a lot of what Keith discussed with Kate Thompson in Dublin last month (a month already? Time flies) Age Branding and suicide and being the writer-in-residence for the Scottish Book Trust… Go on, have a read.

Couldn’t make it to San Diego last week? (No me neither – the jet was in for repair) But there is a lot of noise about it around the web – here’s a few quick links -

• The Times UK has a piece on it – here.
• Time Magazine have a decent run through
• The LA Times has pics and a huge archive of bits and pieces
• Comics Reporter has the Eisner Award Winners
• Neil Gaiman couldn’t make it – but the Coraline figurines did! (ps – Mr Gaiman is in Dublin on 27 October, have I mentioned that already?)
• And of course there is the comic-con website for more.

The most notable absence was Star Trek – no previews, no panels… nothing? But the big winner was Hugh Jackman (X-Men/Wolverine) who wowed the crowds when he went streaming after Marvel Comics’ Stan Lee (funnily enough, Wolverine is one of the only X-Men that Lee didn’t create). Here’s a clip -

If you’re near a TV today at about 4pm switch over to the Den on RTÉ 2. Patrick Ness, the man behind The Knife of Never Letting Go, is on The Buzz with Sonagh and Declan.

>> Go watch the clip on RTÉ.ie

Speaking of sleuthing – here – the Sunday Tribune had a feature yesterday, Around the world in 80 sleuths. Seems crime fiction is taking hold around the globe as never before. Ireland features a bit (are we criminal masterminds?) but the rest of the list is pretty comprehensive – who knew the South Pole had a crime graphic novel?

And if you fancy some crime fiction – head over to Declan Burke for some news, reviews and the gripping A Gonzo Noir novel.

Spotted in the Irish Times that Eason’s bookstores are having a Stephenie Meyer/Twilight themed breakfast on Saturday (August 2) to celebrate her new book Breaking Dawn. Costumes aren’t mandatory (I’d at least slap a set of fangs in, just in case) The event is by invitation only – there are no details left on easons.ie but after a bit of sleuthing  I managed to dig out the list of participating shops. Give them a call to see if there is any space left.

TO ALL STEPHENIE MEYER FANS! Celebrate the worldwide publication of ’Breaking Dawn’, the 4th part of the ‘Twilight’ series by joining us for Breakfast in the following stores on SATURDAY 2 AUGUST from 8AM-9AM. ADMITTANCE BY INVITATION ONLY.

O’Connell St, Dublin – 01 858 3811
Shop St, Galway – 091 562284
O’Connell St, Limerick – 061 419588
Rushmere Centre, Craigavon – 028 3834 2031
Blanchardstown Centre - 01 822 1117
Portlaoise – 057 8620466
Swords – 01 890 0978
Dungarvan - 058 24660
Drogheda – 041 983 8654
Ashbourne – 01 835 9117

ASDA sold Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows for £1 last week… Nicholas Clee wonders if it devalues the book for future generations by turning into a commercial battle between supermarkets and publishers and sending it to limbo on the bestsellers lists…

Surely it is usual for supermarkets to discount at levels that conventional booksellers cannot match? Yes, it is; but there have continued to be book buyers prepared to support bookshops, buying the HP novels at higher prices than they would need to pay elsewhere. The recommended retail prices may have been devalued, but the HP “brand” was not. – guardian.co.uk

More on bookseller.com about HP too.

Damien threw down the gauntlet to build your fluffy links… I came up with this, all fromThe Guardian’s Top Ten Series:

• Julia Golding’s top 10 characters from children’s historical fiction
• David Almond’s top 10 children’s books
• Georgia Byng’s top 10 books to feed the imagination
• Cornelia Funke’s top 10 bedtime stories
• Rob Grant’s top 10 comic science fiction novels
• Jacqueline Wilson’s top 10 children’s books

And while trekking through the guardian site I found two more articles on recommended reading for younger readers – For children 0-3 and For children 4 – 7 year olds.

We got to see The Dark Knight last night (thanks to the Movies.ie). I was left pretty much speechless after watching it and am still putting it all together in my head today. DC and Marvel have both raised the bar – Iron Man comes in a very close second – but for now Christopher Nolan is the man on the top.

Nice to see so many bloggers last night too. The post mortem afterward was, nearly, as much fun as the movie.

Off to learn some magic pencil tricks…

Rick, Darren and Darragh have all had some muppet appreciation going lately… Here’s another muppet clip: (not quite as fun as Feist though…)

Not new but worth a mention – introducing Lego Stephen Hawking. (via Kottke)

Nick Park (the man behind Wallace and Gromit) is heading to the rank and file of the Beano for it’s 70th birthday issue. Well, he won’t quite be rank and file, more editor in chief…

My dream was to draw for The Beano. When I was 10 years old, I started drawing cartoon strips with The Beano in mind. – Nick Park

Time for a trip down memory lane – remember The Bashstreet Kids, The Numskulls and Billy Whizz ? Or the mad looking Gnasher badge that you got when you joined the club?

The new issue is out on Wednesday. Ah, go on.

Fancy the chance to land a publishing deal with one of the UK’s most notable houses? Here’s your chance – The Times/Chicken House Children’s Fiction Competition is back for another year.

Plenty of time to knock out a book (no more than 80,000 words) with the deadline not until 13 October. There are loads of tips, interviews with judges and more over on the Times UK site. Go have a read and then nip to the shop for a pen, some paper and a large envelope.

A few pics from the Children’s Books Ireland – Summer Day Out in Farmleigh on Sunday. Jack Lynch and Len Graham told tall tales, Jen Murray (of CBI fame) blowing up balloons and the stomach turning Gabriel Fitzmaurice read some of his really really rotten rhymes.

Well done to everyone at CBI and to all of the storytellers, writers and illustrators who put on a great day of stories and madness.

PS – this is officially post no 200!! (with nearly 577 comments on the site so far -I’m flabbergasted at that- thanks to everyone who reads!!)

The new all singing, all dancing Tor.com site is up. Covering all things, Science Fiction-y, Fantasy-y and the rest of the Universe – with new stories from John Scalzi and Charles Stross. (If that doesn’t do it – have a look at the gallery)

Seen the Watchmen Trailer yet? Alan Moore has an interview about the new movie here. (via FP blog.) The first question sets the mood pretty well:

Don’t you have the slightest curiosity about what Watchmen director Zack Snyder is doing with your work?

I would rather not know.

Neil Gaiman is planning a trip to Dublin as part of a UK tour to promote his new book. Huzzah! Sometime around Halloween – something to look forward to…

And before I forget: Niamh Sharkey, the abundantly talented mastermind behind I’m a Happy Hugglewug, has a blog. With videos, pictures and some news too. Go read…

And just because it is that good – the Watchmen trailer! (via Rick and Monscooch)

This Sunday will see a clattering of book-world who-be-whats-its invade the salubrious surroundings of Farmleigh for Children’s Books Ireland’s Summer Stories Day.

Ronke Arogundade, Jack Lynch, Gabriel Fitzmaurice, Jack Lynch, Eddie Lenihan, Niamh Sharkey and Adrienne Geoghegan are all going to feature with illustration workshops, storytelling and author readings. And of course, I’ll be there with a radio doing something pertaining to work…

Fingers crossed the rain holds off and the sun comes out!

(Apologies for the skewy layout at the minute – technical difficulties!)

News is out on the longlisted for the Booktrust Teenage Prize. The judges have their work cut out woth some steep competition:

• The Declaration by Gemma Malley (Bloomsbury)
• Newes from the Dead by Mary Hooper (Bodley Head)
• Creature of The Night by Kate Thompson (Bodley Head)
• Before I Die by Jenny Downham (David Fickling)
• The Knife That Killed Me by Anthony McGowan (Definitions)
• The Crossing of Ingo by Helen Dunmore (Harper Collins)
• Broken Soup by Jenny Valentine (HarperCollins)
• Dirty Angels by Andrew Clover (Hodder)
• Incarceron by Catherine Fisher (Hodder)
• The Red Necklace by Sally Gardner (Orion)
• Bad Blood by Rhiannon Lassiter (OUP)
• Black Rabbit Summer by Kevin Brooks (Puffin)
• What I Was by Meg Rosoff (Puffin)
• Snakehead by Anthony Horowitz (Walker)
• Apache by Tanya Landman (Walker)
• The Knife of Never Letting Go by Patrick Ness (Walker)

Great to see Kate Thompson’s name up there already – I think Creature will be featuring on plenty of lists this year (and next)!. Still, The Knife of Never Letting Go, Before I Die or What I was would all be deserving choices…

Darren, of darrenbyrne.com fame, has tagged me with a potential rant, I mean tag meme. So here goes:

It’s called Getting Your Goat and the rules are easy enough to follow:

1. List two things that irritate you for a reason (followed by the reason)
2. List two things that irritate you for no apparent reason whatsoever (see easy enough to do)
3. Give credit to the person who tagged you. (That’d be the afore mentioned evil blogging mastermind Darren)
4. Link your answers to the original blog, that’s here (Say hello to Keiron over at: http://www.skillett.com)
5. Tag four new people to participate (I’m going to skip this part, if you feel like ranting… rant away, that’s why you have a blog – right?)

It is to my own shame that I have let my Irish slip to nearly nothing. I don’t need other people to ashamed of me because of it. So, the first thing I’m going to rant on about are the few unhelpful/snobbish and often blatantly rude Irish language speakers out there. (Not every Irish speaker fits this description – in fact the majority are friendly, helpful and patient as I try to muddle through a chat and most people never refuse a conversation in English) That said – there are those who refuse to help or to speak English no matter how you are struggling.

While I’m on a roll here: take the recently closed Síopa Leabhar on Harcourt Street – they have always been as unhelpful as possible and have occasionally ignored me if I spoke in English at the till. How does that help encourage anyone to learn Irish or to buy books…?!?

That’s as far as I’ve gotten with my rant. I’ll come back to the rest of the tag later – but I thought I’d vent after a frustrating phone call with someone who refused to speak English!!

Remember the eighties?

Ricky Gervais wishes he didn’t…

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I never made it to Oxegen. (I never had a ticket so that explains why I never made it.)

BUT. I did turn 24.

Still in recovery. Back tomorrow, maybe.

The annual summer deluge of ‘What to read on the beach’ feature articles have started cropping up (such as – here, here and here). Now it’s the bloggers’ turn to name their books of the summer:

Sinéad C got the ball rolling with Wordpress for Dummies, Malcolm Gladwell’s Blink and Jeff Lindsay’s Dexter in the Dark. Monscooch followed up with Sebastian Faulks’ Devil May Care and a copy of Malcolm Gladwell’s Blink and a Jeff Lindsay book too – are these two the blogger favourites?

Rick has his nose in JRR Tolkein’s Lord Of The Rings Trilogy and Flann O’Brien’s The Third Policeman (nice choice!), as well as some great others. Kevin, the smartest man in blogging, is reading the inexplicable Thom Gunn and Fyodor Dostoevsky. Meanwhile RP has Ray (Carver?), Johnny (Irving?), David (Eggers?) and Chuck (Palahniuk?) all on the back burner…

>> Is there a blogger beach recommendation for the summer?

Meanwhile over my side of the bed is a spring/summer reading collection that amasses to a total of 65 books (not including advance review copies for magazines and newspapers). I couldn’t quite fit all of the leaning tower in one picture so I had to get up on a chair to take the second shot…

Here goes:

Aidan Higgins – Langrishe go Down, Axel Munthe – The story of San Michele Brendan Behan – The Hostage, Brian Dillon – In the Dark Room, Chimnamanda Ngozci Adiche – Half of a yellow Sun, Chuck Palahniuk – Diary, Colin Thubron – Shadow of the Silk Road, Conor Kostick – Saga, David Almond – Heaven Eyes, David McWilliams – Pope’s Children, DH Lawrence – Love among the haystacks (and other stories), DH Lawrence – The Rainbow, Emile Zola – For a night of love, Eoin Colfer – Benny and Omar, Frank Cotrell Boyce – Cosmic, Gabriel Garcia Marquez – One Hundred Yers of Solitude, GW Dahlquist – The Glass books of the Dream Eaters, Herodotus – The Histories, Irvine Welsh – Glue, Jack Kerouac – The Town and the City, Jean-Paul Sartre – What is Literature?, John Irving – Until I Find You, Kate Moss – Labyrinth, Kazuo Ishiguro – Never Let me Go, Kazuo Ishiguro – The Unconsoled, Keith Gray – Ostrich Boys, Kingsley Amis – Jake’s Thing, Kurt Vonnegut – Cats Cradle, Thomas Mann – The Magic Mountain, Marcel Proust – Pleasures and Days, Marcus Zusack – The Book Thief, Marjane Satrapi – Persepolis, Mark Bennett – Joe Rat, Martin Amis – Money, Meg Rosoff – Just in Case, Meg Rosoff – What I Was, Michael Ondaatje – Anil’s Ghost, Michael Ondaatje – The English Patient, Michel Houellebecq – The possibility of an island, Oscar Wilde – Plays, Prose Writings and Poems, Pat McCabe – The Asylum, Roddy Doyle – Paula Spencer, Philip Reeve – Here Lies Arthur, Philip Reeve – Larklight, Richard Adams – Watership Down, Robert Muchamore – Mad Dogs, Robert Muchamore – The Fall, Robert Muchamore – The Sleepwalker, Ross O’Carroll Kelly – The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nightdress, Thomas Pynchon – Slow Learner, Thomas Pynchon – The crying of Lot 49, Thomas Pynchon – V, Tim Bowler – River Boy, Tim Bowler – Starseeker, Toni Morrison – Song of Solomon, Trudi Canavan – High Lord, Trudi Canavan – Magicians Guild, Trudi Canavan – Novice, Truman Capote – In Cold Blood, Umberto Eco – On Literature, Vladimir Nabokov – Pale Fire, Yann Martel – Life of Pi and Zadie Smith – On Beauty…

Lucky it’s raining a lot this summer.

A couple (literally just two) of comic/illustration/art-work/visually-pleasant launches out and about in Dublin.

First is the joint launch of The Comic Cast (the new place for all things podcast and comicbook) and Gazebo (a new indy comic, this time from Philip Barrett and Liam Geraghty – who just happens to be one half of the The Comic Cast). All the who-be-whats-its of comics will be there, as well as some musicians (Mary Bellos and Schmackey and the Salads) and other people. The madness kicks off tonight at half seven downstairs in Thomas Reads on Dame Street.

And secondly Mr Alan Clarke, that kinda/sorta/maybe/really talented art guy, is opening an exhibition in the Winding Stair Bookshop next week – where, no doubt, all the who-be-whats-its of art, comics, books, publishing, newspapers and meeja will be clambering to get themselves a glass of sparkling rosé and a look/see/ogle at the walls. (The floodgates open at half six on July 17 and will be on display in the bookshop ever after)

>> Also worth a mention: the second best blog name in existence, Liz Maybury.

Writers talk about submitting manuscripts and waiting for replies a lot. You hear encouraging stories of manuscripts being accepted by the first publisher who reads it. You hear ‘light at the end of the tunnel’ stories, most famously from JK Rowling, who was accepted by a publisher at the eleventh hour and has gone on to be massively successful. But less often you hear about writers who are plagued by rejection letters, who spend years trying to get off the starting block.

I got my first rejection three weeks ago. It’s taken me this long to write about it – mostly because I wanted to wait it out and see how it affected things (mostly my own outlook). Three weeks on, here is where I’m at:

A rejection comes from a subjective reading. Each publishing house has a different ethos and each reading editor is different. (Just as every potential reader is different.) If one editor, or ten, rejects a manuscript you should take on board their suggestions, maybe redraft, before trying again with a different reader. But not stop trying.

This is all easier said than done. One (now highly accredited) writer I spoke to recently said he has one wall of his office covered completely by rejection letters and prides himself on the collection he acquired when he was starting out. This was meant to encourage me – I think – to keep going.

Yvonne, looking forward to reading that book, posted last week about panicking before she sent out a synopsis. I’m panicking about getting the responses. (That said the letter I did receive was friendly, honest and encouraging.)

So, back on the horse. Anyone have Penguin’s number?

Image © (the brilliant) Andre Jordan
>> click for larger version <<

Those very clever clogs on the Vulpes Libris blog are playing host to a children’s books week. (It started on Saturday with a post on Keith Gray’s Ostrich Boys.)

As part of the week, Rosy of Mock Duck fame, has an insightful and extensive (so extensive it comes in two parts) interview with Julia Donaldson. (Part two is up on Wednesday)

There is very little room for manoeuvre in picture book writing – set amount of pages, text on a page, etc. What is the most important aspect to get into this narrow brief? And how do you decide what’s needed?

The editors and designers are brilliant at working on the pagination and design, and it’s amazing in fact how even quite a long story can be told in only 12 or 14 double-page spreads. Picture books are incredibly versatile, which is one of the things I love about them. But I think that the writer does need to be aware (subconsciously anyway) of the format, and to some extent to think in terms of those double-page spreads, and the mini cliff-hangers which you can sometimes have before a page turn.

Read more over on Vulpes Libris.
>> Update: Part two of Julia’s interview is here. <<

Alan Moore was on RTE last thursday (the Dave Fanning drivetime show – presented by Eoin Sweeney)

Discussing Lost Girls, his other graphic work, magic and his new novel. Genius (and the only person I know, or well, don’t know really but have seen pictures of, with more beard than Eli Mordino)

Click to listen.

Spotted via Bookslut. An incredibly honest interview/conversation with Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett.

I ask him how much happens on the page and how much happens in the planning.

‘Planning, planning, planning,’ he deadpans…

…I don’t know how much is planned and how much isn’t, really, and nor do you and this isn’t the sort of question that one writer should ask another writer because we both know it doesn’t work like that. I can’t explain why one invents a character who is quite interesting but not particularly important, or writes in a little event that, towards the end of the book, turns out to be exactly the right thing, exactly the right person required yet at first you didn’t know why you’d invented them.

I was concerned that I’d find myself talking to a Terry who was less sharp, less smart, than the friend I’d known for quarter of a century, and was relieved to find him as bright as ever. I asked about the Alzheimer’s.

I type badly, worse than I ever did, and that’s a big drawback, as you and many journalists will appreciate, because the process of typing is the process of thinking: one activity drives the other, so I find myself hunting and pecking and that makes the thinking and the flow jerky.

More on the Waterstones website. Terry has a standalone book for children, Nation, due out in September.

Teeth is the kind of B-movie horror that I wish I was brought up on. (Instead I got Batfink, Magnum PI and **MASH**, which is a different kind of horror). It is a train wreck movie while at the same time managing to be gut wrenchingly funny. And to make things even better I bumped (very briefly) into Suzy afterward, which made me smile because she knew who I was.

If you haven’t already – get yourself over to movies.ie and register for the Dark Knight Screening Competition on 22 July!! (A whole two days before everyone else)

And just because of her sheer genius in interwebology, RP has the first five minutes of the movie. Go see!

Only managing to write about Monday’s event with Kate Thompson (KT) and Keith Gray (KG) now. As promised the talk was lively and interesting – graciously led by the nicest man on earth, Robert Dunbar (I’m paraphrasing Roberts questions here. He delivered them much more eloquently on Monday than I can reproduce).

Both Keith and Kate’s books are tagged with ‘Not Suitable for Younger Readers‘ on the back cover. Do you have a say on whether or not that appears on the cover?

KG: Unfortunately I don’t. On my first book Warehouse was one of the first books that carried the label and the publisher hoped that it would make the book look more dangerous and appealing.

KT: ‘Not suitable’ isn’t quite the same as age branding. I feel that the content in both books [Ostrich Boys and Creature of the Night] need a certain understanding.

‘Are there any taboos left in teen writing?’

KT: There shouldn’t be. That may not be the case, but there shouldn’t be. It is really more about how it is dealt with.

The talk also gave some insight into how each writer works. For instance, Kate doesn’t think about her readership as she is writing – admitting that she writes mostly for herself – while Keith is mindful of his audience as he writes.

Another difference between the two: Ostrich Boys took Keith 3 years to complete whereas Kate often drafts her books in one long all night writing spree.

That Very Hungry Caterpillar was there too and has some ideas from the night.