David Maybury | Blog

How cool does the Indie’Go World Music and Arts Festival sound? Not heard of it yet? Pffft! This is where things are at – with proceeds going to Barnardos no less!

And the folks are giving away some family tickets – and all you have to do is enter their competition. Fear not, there are no questions about some obscure band and the release date of their first demo… Instead, they want you to hand over that camera sitting in your top drawer (crayons & paper will do, too) to the youngest member of the household and ask them to get creative.

Interested? Click to find out more about the competition!

Want to know more about the festival? Well… there’s Hakuna Matata, Lungi the Travelling Puppeteer, Higgledy Piggledy,  Eddie Lenihan, the Swash Bubblers and the world famous fools of street performance The Gombeens!

I’ve mentioned it before – but really you should probably enter yourself into the Chicken House Love Writing 10th Anniversary Competition for creative writing postgraduates. Yes it could do with a snappier name but like Ronseal (which seals Rons) the competition does exactly what it says on the tin.

You need to be 18 – and be studying, or have studied, as part of a post-graduate writing course since 2000. Full length manuscripts are expected – fiction 7-10 (40k) and fiction 10+ (80k)

BUT WAIT – I haven’t mentioned the Times/Chicken House Children’s Fiction Competition yet. (Entering the post-grad competition doesn’t exclude from the Times comp either so keep reading)

Deadline for both competitions is the end of October – and details are here!

It’s the last day of the book giveaway week! And I’ve saved a big surprise for last – a signed copy of Caroline Lawrence’s The Roman Mysteries Mini Mysteries.

As the other giveaways  – there is no question to answer – just post a comment below and I’ll draw a name at 10pm this evening. It’s that easy!

Flavia, Nubia, Jonathan and Lupus combine to make a likeable quartet of young people, their powers of deduction given entertaining outlet against an authorial backcloth of colourful and authoritative insights into everyday life in ancient Rome. And, by way of introducing some measure of variety, the concluding story features Threptus, an eight-year-old beggar boy, who turns out to have some detective skills of his own. It all amounts to a pleasurably relaxed and engaging read, complete with a useful glossary for those not quite certain of the whereabouts of the triclinium or the precise function of the paedagogus.
- Books for keeps

Another day – another book giveaway! Today sees Catherine Forde’s Fifteen Minute Bob up for stealing.

Just as before  – there is no question to answer – just post a comment below and I’ll draw a name at 10pm this evening. It’s that easy!

Sounds like a must-read? Well… I was certainly hoping to love this book. I’m really interested in music, I’m hooked on my iPod and on the internet in general, and while I’ve never read any of Catherine Forde’s previous works, I’ve heard lots of good things about them… …Aside from the speed seeming to be a little on the rapid side, the plot is pretty good. The descriptive writing is also enjoyable here, to be fair. It’s easy to read, and passes the time fairly well. I do think that it’s a book that would be enjoyed by teens with an avid interest in music – there are two or three pupils I teach who I’d generally class as reluctant readers who I’d imagine would devour it.
- Bookbag.co.uk

Day three of the great book giveaway – and up for grabs is Jim Carrington’s Inside My Head. I started reading Jim’s book yesterday and can’t recommend it enough (so far anyway.)

Just like yesterday – there is no question to answer – just post a comment below and I’ll draw a name at 10pm this evening. It’s that easy!

Once I began reading, I found it hard to stop. It was very well written and though I have no experience of living in the country and I don’t know my way around a farm, I had no problem in picturing all the settings. I was completely sucked into this story. I’d recommend this book to anyone who enjoys a thought-provoking novel and anyone who has witnessed someone being bullied and is wondering what they can do to make a difference. Well written and worth a read.
- Kate, Chicklish

Another book giveaway – one every day this week. This time it is Garrett Carr (who is just as exquisitely lovely as  Sophia Bennett) and his  Badness of Ballydog that is up for grabs.

It’s a wet Tuesday morning. What better way to make yourself feel better?

Just like yesterday – there is no question to answer (unless you have a question about there not being a question to answer) – just post a comment below and I’ll draw a name at 10pm this evening. It’s that easy!

…cracking story, full of post-tsunami, post-boom, post-9/11 anxiety about impending doom. It has its share of plausible teen tensions and macho cruelties. It also has a crass teacher, Heiferon, and a factory owner, Fitzpatrick, straight from clichéville. Ewan, however, is made of singular stuff. Only he and his companions, mechanically-minded Andrew and Meg, who hears voices, grasp Ballydog’s fate. Carr knows how to marshal his retelling of a primordial myth, right to its Bond-like climax.
- Mary Shine Thompson, Irish Times

The exquisitely lovely Sophia Bennett sent a signed copy of her book Beads, Boys & Bangles – not for me – but for YOU!

What better way to kick the week off than with a free book?

There is no question to answer (unless you have a question for Sophia) – just post a comment below and I’ll draw a name at 9pm this evening. It’s that easy!

Beads, Boys and Bangles is a magical tale of four best friends and their adventures in the fashion world. Sounds pink and fluffy, well it’s not. The girls travel to Mumbai and find their collection is being produced in child labour camps, so they vow to return to London and take on the fashion mavens. Ideal for socially aware teens.  - Sarah Webb

The inimitable Celine Kiernan has got a great competition – offering 1 copy of The Rebel Prince (the final installment to her bestselling Moorehawke trilogy) four months in advance!

And to win this coveted prize?

All you have to do is cast your favourite people as Razi, Wynter and Christopher for the Moorehawk movie.

You can cast all three roles or you can just chose your favourite  - it’s up to you. All you need to do is find a photo of the actor you feel best suits the part. Though you don’t have to find a photo of the actor in period costume or anything impossible like that, it would be great if  you could find a photo which somehow captures the essence of the role.

Best of luck to everyone who enters! (I’ll just wait for the photo requests to roll in… of course I’ll play Christopher!)

The very clever folks over at Small Print are giving away some free tickets to this years OFFSET – all you have to do is turn up at next weeks (13 May) OFFSHOOT night in the Sugar Club.

OFFSHOOT next week features Red Dog, Studio Output and Unthink – how else would you want to spend a Thursday evening? (Other than meeting Patrick Ness and Sarah Rees Brennan that is)

Click for more – g’wan – sure what else would ye be doing?

The Londis Write Up My Street Competition is back – and this time they’ve brought Jedward along for the ride.

Just as last year – the competition is aimed at anyone living in Ireland and aged between 5-18 years.  If you fit that bill – then all that’s left is to get writing a story with the theme, ‘The people, the place, the pride.’

There are some great prizes up for grabs – including €5000 for your library – a €250 voucher for you AND a €250 for a teacher too!  And of course there is the chance to be published in the next Write Up My Street book.

Head over to the site for more – and to read Maeve Binchy’s 10 tips for a great story. Deadline is Friday 28 May – so get scribbling!

Vintage Classics has launched a competition for 7 – 12 yr old budding artists to draw the new cover for The Secret Garden.

The competition launched on Monday – and the prize – other than having your picture on the cover of the book includes £100 worth of books from Random House Children’s Books.

But it isn’t all that easy – entries will have to get past the eyes of the judging panel. Including Jacqueline Wilson, Katie Cleminson, Chloe Lambert,  Suzanne Dean and Laura Hassan.

There is loads of time to get entries in though – the deadline is 23 July!

Those clever folks at Children’s Books Ireland have done it again. Not only have they nabbed Philip Reeve in Dublin – but they’re offering the chance to pick up a complete set of the Mortal Engines quartet. (Nice!) *Five runners-up prizes of A Web of Air will also be awarded.

To be in with a chance of winning, simply answer the question:

Philip Reeve is most famous for his bestselling Mortal Engines books. But for which of his books was he awarded the Carnegie Medal?

Answers should be emailed to CBIThis e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it before 12 noon on Friday 9 April, along with you name, age and contact details.

Have a look see at the CBI site for more details.

The Ark has a great prize up for grabs – two tickets (for folks aged 3 – 6) to Spring up! (The Ark’s pop-up workshop with Liz Smith)

The workshop sounds incredible – how to make 3D pop-ups: springing lambs, jumping rabbits, blossoming flowers and anything else that springs up! Watch as your illustrations can hop, jump, swing or spring.

To enter all ye have to do is drop a comment on the Culture Corner blog -  and tell ‘em what you are most looking forward to this spring.

The competition closes on Thursday 25th March so get clicking!

Pighog Press are searching for new writers of children’s fiction to feature in a new anthology to be published later this year. (The competition is only open to writers living in Sussex, Surrey, Hampshire and Kent.)

Application forms are at pighog.co.uk and deadline for entries is 31st March 2010.

Michael Morpurgo and Gregory Maguire are championing the relaunch of what used to be the WH Smith’s Young Writers’ competition (it stopped running in 1990). The Wicked Young Writers’ Award is open all British young people aged from 5 to 25 with four age categories – and they are free to choose what they write about and whether to write it as prose or poetry:

• 5-7 years
• 8-10 years
• 11-13 years
• 14-16 years

And there’s more – the fifth category is open to 16 to 25-year-olds and is where the award picked up its name – after Gregory Maguire, the man behind Wicked. The older category is seeking entries that reinterpret well-known stories in an original way. Think you are up to the task? Deadline is July 23rd – plenty of time to get the creative juices flowing! (Entries are closed to folks outside of the UK and Northern Ireland)

All children are born with a sort of spark of genius. What growing up should be doing is to fan that spark into a flame. Very often it does the opposite. It stifles it.

To celebrate their 10th anniversary the folks at Chicken House have opened up a new competition – for Creative Writing Postgrads to win a book deal.

But that’s not all – 10 of the best will attend an all expenses paid workshop with Barry Cunningham, a top children’s author and the Chicken House publishing team for a day of book editing, designing, printing and marketing expertise.

You need to be 18 – and be studying, or have studied, as part of a post-graduate writing course since 2000. Full length manuscripts are expected – fiction 7-10 (40k) and fiction 10+ (80k)

Best part? Entering the competition does not exclude you from entry to the Times/Chicken House competition.

Sound like you cup of tea? Click to find out more.

The folks at CBI have another great competition – this time it is for the greek god in all of us.

Yup – they are offering ten pairs of tickets to see Percy Jackson and the Lightening Thief before anyone else. But there is a snag – you have to answer a question first. Think ye can manage it?

Poseidon is the mythical god of which element?*

a) The Air
b) The Sea
c) Cheesecake

Click here to send your answer – along with contact details (name, email address, telephone number) by 5pm Thursday  4 February. Drop by Children’s Books Ireland for details of when the screening is on.

*HINT: It really isn’t cheesecake… who writes these questions?!

What is the name of the final book in Patrick Ness’ Chaos Walking trilogy? (The book isn’t out till May! Click for a hint)

Pop your answer in the comments and
the winnerwill be pulled from a hat on
Friday 29 January (more…)

It’s that time of the year again… Time to announce the winner of the Book Fest Cover Competition! (Well, technically the winner has already been announced, notified and had their prize shipped to them. But ye get the idea)

Who could forget last years winner? No wait… what was her name again?? And this year the folks at O’Brien Press needed a new cover for Sam McBratney’s The Lough Neagh Monster and the students of Ireland responded with some brilliant entries:

But there can be only one winner. (No really there can, I’ve asked…) And the new cover of The Lough Neagh Monster was drawn by Sophie Courtney (aged 10):

Congratulations Sophie!!

*** AND THE WINNERS OF THE 2009 CHRISTMAS BOOK GIVEAWAY ARE***

Boys Set: Annie | Girls Set: Jonathan | Mixed Bag: Gill and the exclusive boards.ie set goes to….  Macros42

Thanks so much to everyone who entered, and to boards.ie – the feedback has been great!! Will be running new and exciting comps in 2010. Enjoy the prizes folks!!

Today is your last chance to get an entry into the Junior Painter of the Year Awards! Quick – get the paints out, prop up that easel and start scribbling!

The Junior Painter of the Year Award has kicked off with Sightsavers with the brilliantly fun Niamh Sharkey as one of the judges.

There are some really decent prizes, as well as the chance to be included in an exhibition. The competition is open to anyone in primary school – but the deadline is looming… well it’s today really so get your skates on! Click to get your info pack and find out how to enter.

Yesterday had enough links to shake a stick at (why would you be shaking a stick at your computer??)

So for a change of pace I think it’s about time I gave away another book. This time it’s from Colm and the team at Hawk Hill Publishing – Ancient Folks Tales of Ireland.

It’s a great big ‘aul heap of an illustrated book with stories collected by Douglas Hyde and great illustrations by Paul Bolger. Fancy getting your paws on a copy? It’s easy! Just drop a comment below and your name goes into the hat (yes folks, there is a real hat).

G’wan – sure what have ye got to lose??

Fancy getting your hands on some girlishly fun goodies before Christmas?? Now’s yer chance!

The lovely Laura Cassidy is giving away a Christmas Goodie Bag brimming with fun things – diaries, bookmarks, books, sparkly pink reindeer and a christmas card… (I did mention it was girly, right? Don’t worry – I’ll put together a very boyish alternative!)

So reckon this is something ye might fancy? It’s easy – drop a comment on Laura’s blog and you’re in with a chance to win! (How easy could it be??)

Best of luck!!

So ye think ye can paint? Then this one is for you – the first (ever!) Junior Painter of the Year Award has kicked off with Sightsavers (sponsored by Easons and the Irish Times no less). But it gets better – the brilliantly fun Niamh Sharkey is one of the judges.

There are some really decent prizes, as well as the chance to be included in an exhibition! The competition is open to anyone in primary school – but the deadline is looming… ye only have until 20 November. Click to get your info pack and find out how to enter.

I’m free to pose for the odd portrait – I promise to make as many gross faces as I can!

Another Wednesday, another competition! This time it’s the folks from Mercier Press who fancy giving away some free books.

Up for grabs this week are two new Irish writers, Kiearan Mark Crowley and Susan Connolly. Both had books published earlier this year and are the first of some interesting new Irish voices in the up and comings.

(Of course there is Bob Burke, Sarah Rees Brennan, Laura Cassidy, Paula Leyden, Juliette Saumande, Tom O’Neill, Debbie Thomas and a heap of other new Irish writers coming out too. No shortage of future good reads!)

So fancy getting your hands on this pair? Drop your name in the comments – g’wan! Lines close on Sunday – but we’ll let ye know before hand. Honest.

UPDATE: I have a love/hate relationship with announcing winners… on the one hand there is the ‘YAY! you’ve won a book’. But there is the inevitable typing of: ‘BOO, sorry to everyone else – better luck next time’. But there really can only be one winner… so plucking up a little, this weeks winner is Julianna.

The loverly Sophie McKenzie was in Dublin last week and I managed to corner her long enough to sign a copy of her new book The Set-Up (the first of great series the Medusa Project).

Fancy getting your hands on a signed copy? Or know someone else who would? Drop your name in the comments before Friday evening and our independent adjudicator will choose a winner (ie – a name will be pulled out of a hat).

this story is a crazy rampaging teen adventure involving doing what’s right in the adversity of wrong-doing. It has great action moments, super goodies and evil doing baddies. – Mr Ripley

But wait… there’s more! The nice people over at scamp.ie have a golden ticket! To OFFSET! (The amazing sold-out 3 day conference with national/international artists, illustrators, designers and generally visual folk). Fancy getting your hands on one? Head on over and get hunting.

UPDATE:
We have a winner! This one goes to….. >drum roll< Claire Hennessy.

Midnight has come and gone and the names have all been thrown into the hat. There can only be one winner though – so congratulations to Eolaí!

It might be the spring board for yer own book!!

Chapters are at it again.

First it was Neil Gaiman. Then Dacre Stoker. And there was the HWCH last weekend… and now they’re back. This time with Gerry Hunt, the man behind Blood Upon the Rose – O’Brien Press’ new graphic novel.

Gerry will be in Chapters (Parnell St, Dublin) on Saturday 24 from 3pm signing copies of the new book. (Heartily recommended that ye tag along!)

But wait! There’s more… The clever people at O’Brien Press have given me a free copy – and it could be yours! Leave a comment below, before midnight Friday 23, and your name goes in the hat.

Update: Midnight has come and gone and the names have all been thrown into the hat. There can only be one winner though – so congratulations to Eolaí!

It might be the spring board for yer own book!!

The Guardian are running a competition, all based around Terry Pratchett’s tome Nation. They want YOU, yes you sitting at the back scratching your name into the desk. They want you to make a video inspired by the book… and here they are to tell ye about it.

But wait! There’s more. Mark Ravenhill spills more about the bits and pieces of the competition here. So if you know your ‘wherefore art thous’ from your ‘alas poors’ then this might be for you. Or, like me, you’re more of a Goonies, Rambo and Ironman fan this could be your chance to shine… Philip Pullman and Michael Morpurgo both have some sage words for any budding script writers.

It’s Friday! To celebrate the end of the week,  thanks to the nice folks at Macmillan books, I have a copy of Tom Kelly’s brilliant debut The Thing with Finn to give away.

Fancy nabbing yourself a hardback copy of the 2008 Eilis Dillon Award winner? Leave a comment telling me why and it could be yours! (Comp is closed – check back for more soon!)

There’s plenty elsewhere happening again this week to keep ye busy – Saturday will see Pearse Street Library in Dublin overrun with aspiring/new children’s writers all looking for hints/tips and the occasional nudge in the right (write?) direction.

And Books 09 continues with Derek Landy, PJ Lynch, Roddy Doyle, Sarah Webb and more!

UPDATE:
They think it’s all over! (It is.) Random.org has done all the hard work and chosen the winner – Laura the very lovely hardback of The Thing with Finn is all yours! (Email sent to let me know where I need to send it) I think a few more competitions will be in order – stay tuned for more.