Authors Electric

I'm about to order Jan Needle's: RUMP OF RUMP HALL - THE RISE OF RONALD T RUMP.   Having always loathed "THE WIND IN THE WILLOWS" (all the animals seemed to be middle-aged or elderly clubbish gentlemen - not my scene) I love Jan's satires, and know I'm going to enjoy this one. Having said that, I do, accidentally, own a copy of one of  Kenneth Grahame's lesser-known works: THE GOLDEN AGE, first published in 1899, with illustrations by Maxfield Parrish ( I believe he went on to p ro duce biscuit tin lids which are now collect ors' items). Here is Graham's lost childhood in idyllic English countryside. I n parts, i t's a funny book, with small boys' fantas y games along with inscrutable aunts and amusing elderly gents, but it's also sad, full of nostalgia for a world that was rapidly vanishing, and as with everything written around that period and later, there's the shadow of the First World War just around the corner ...

Papa Bear, Mama Bear and Baby Bear go for a walk in the woods. Possibly for a picnic. The picture is from PriceClan's latest picturebook, Goldilocks and the Three Bears. I originally published the text with Cambridge University Press as part of their early reading series, but the illustrations are new, by my brother Adam. When I commented that Papa Bear and Mama Bear reminded me very much of Papa Price and Mama Price, Adam said, "Well, yeah . Obviously."      But soft! Who comes here, into this woodland glade? Goldilocks discovers the bears' house.        These images are by PriceClan's younger brother, by the way. Adam, not Andrew. Concentrate. Three Billy Goats Gruff                 Andrew is the older brother , and illustrated my Three Billy Goats Gruff. The Runaway Chapatti    Adam is the younger, and illustr...

I came across this book in my local charity shop last week, with a title I could not resist - Publish or Die. The bargain price of 20p is well within my current book-buying budget, so I picked it up, took it home and read it over second breakfast. It turned out to be a teen title written by Alan Durant and published on Scholastic's Point Crime list in the 1990's, a few years before my first book was published. Scholastic did several of these lists as I remember... Point Horror, Point Fantasy, etc... bringing together well-respected YA authors to create what seems to have been a successful publisher-led brand. Publish or Die  is set in the offices of a small publishing house, where the heroine Calico has just started as an editorial assistant - for which read coffee-maker, slush pile reader, photocopier of manuscripts, and general gofer. Still starry-eyed with her love of books, she walks straight into a cut-throat office dispute between two of the senior editors, who di...

October 8 th and we are heading north. It’s that time of year; the annual gathering of a group of friends brought together by Di, no longer with us and much mourned. We come from Southampton, York, Alnwick, Berwick-on-Tweed, drawn by powerful associations and the beauty of the Cumbrian lakes and fells. On a cloudy, moonlit evening we visit Di’s grave in Dacre churchyard. It overlooks fells where the larches are always standing out against the other trees, as if marching to their own individual beat of time. Her Lakeland slate headstone is dwarfed by the Norwegian maple now. Fourteen years ago it was a spindly sapling. We toast Di in Bollinger and pour a libation. It disappears rapidly into the earth.  Usually, at this time of year, we meet autumn as we drive northwards. This year, the colours in the trees are hardly changed. It hasn’t been cold enough yet to work the magic of turning green to gold, russet, scarlet. When we’re there, on the shore of Ullswater, green is st...

Muses are tricksy creatures. They come and go at the slightest hint of change and occasionally desert you entirely for no apparent reason. People refer to those arid spells as writer's block, but would probably be more precise to call it writer’s mind-is-elsewhere. There are many causes for a haitus in the force, and asking around brought me as many suggestions for bringing it to an end. Here are just ten of the most popular suggestions: 1.       Take some exercise . Yoga and tai chi seem to be favourites for this one, though a walk can be as good or better. As a meditational healer I can't stress the benefits that walking meditation can bring whether you are a writer or not. 2.       Free writing . Sit at your keyboard or notebook and write whatever comes into your head, however trite or non-sensical and keep writing for a set period, at which time you down tools and turn to something else. Some people find this incredibly...

Imagine: you need a certain something that's become a missing link for you. Now, yours could be most anything: an entry in a series you're reading...a special product you use on your hair...a part for something you adore. The two things I needed this weekend were: a refill packet for my thick-barreled Dr. Grip pen and what I'll call a jibbergiver. Or let's shorten that to a JG: a secret ingredient I needed for a promotion I'm planning. I began at the downtown Office Depot, where I'd bought the pen two months ago. This time I saw Store Closing signs. And, sure enough, at Clearance prices the shelves had been pretty much emptied. I tried Target and several drug stores--but they did not carry the refill or pen. Bummed out, I moved on to the JG. I figured Hallmark would be my best bet and went to the downtown location. Permanently closed. Again I tried Target and drug stores. No luck. I began to see a pattern here based on facts of life: Office Dep...