Authors Electric

Here’s a tip for new writers.  When, in a creative writing workshop or author talk, a bright-eyed, successfully published author assures you -‘There are no rules in writing! Write whatever you want, how you want. No one can tell you what to do!’ - don’t believe her. She’s trying to be positive and encouraging but actually this is a pretty unhelpful thing to say.  Of course writing has rules. And of course you can break them if you want. It just means you haven’t a snowball's chance in hell of being published if you do.  So what are these rules?  Well, if I list some of them, chances are you’ll throw me a puzzled look and say well of course, doing X/not doing Y is a given. As one of these cheery speakers said to me, years ago, when I picked her up on her blithe statement.  The Pursuit of Love by (rule breaker) Nancy Mitford OK, so here are a few of these Not Rules That Are Rules Really: 1. You need a strong main character. If telling the story, she/he can’t be ju...

Recently, a headline in The Times caught my eye:  Make boys read books with girls in says Chocolat author Joanne Harris .  At the Hay Festival , Harris announced: ‘We’ve got to stop giving them the message that it’s wrong for a boy to read books about girls, because even schools are giving them this message.’ The Tragickall History of Henry Fowst by Griselda Heppel Ante's Inferno by Griselda Heppel As a children’s author, this is an attitude I wrestle with. I don’t consciously create characters to suit a supposed readership; they spring to life according to the needs of the story.  My first book, Ante’s Inferno , had a 12 year-old heroine, Ante, while in The Tragickall History of Henry Fowst , the main character is a boy. The Fall of a Sparrow by Griselda Heppel With The Fall of a Sparrow , I was back to a female protagonist, Eleanor, and arguably taking an even greater risk of limiting my readership by setting the story in a girls’ boarding school, as this meant the ...

Setting up for the Creative Writing group, Headington School. One of the best things I get to do as a children’s writer is visit schools.  I love these visits. There’s nothing like getting together with a group of 9 – 13 year-olds and their teachers and introducing them to the ideas behind a particular book, drawing them into the excitement of story creation and giving tips on how to make strong, believable characters and a gripping plot. Ante's Inferno by Griselda Heppel Because my books tend to be inspired by other, much greater works, there’s plenty of background information young people find fascinating. Ante’s Inferno , for instance, in which 12 year-old Antonia finds herself on a dark journey to the heart of Hell, is based on (can you guess?) Dante’s Inferno. Dante, in turn, drew  deeply from Greek and Roman legend of the afterlife, rendering my school talk full of references to monsters like the Minotaur and Harpies, and giving my audience the chance to tell me what the...

  The Fall of a Sparrow by Griselda Heppel Well, The Fall of a Sparrow  is out at last, hip hip hooray! Officially, that is. Publication Day was three days ago.      But given that copies have been available (online at least) for a couple of weeks already, the actual date feels less significant than it used to; and since the pandemic, even insignificanter. (Yes that is now a word. I have used it.)      Because there's something missing.  Ahhh those were the days. Traditional launch of  The Tragickall History of Henry Fowst at Blackwell's bookshop, Oxford That great JOY of bringing out a book, the fizz of excitement of a launch, the wonderful opportunity for a party with friends and book lovers queuing up to your table piled high with fresh, gleaming copies which you sign away merrily, glass in your other – third? – hand … gone. All gone. It’s hard for even the most well-known authors not to feel a sense of deflation; but they at lea...

Not having had a book published recently, I didn’t expect any bookings for World Book Week this year, in fact I hadn’t even clocked exactly when it was. So two requests for author visits landing in my inbox came as a lovely surprise. Clifton Lodge School, West London The first was from a charming, small prep school in Ealing where 61 children from 8 - 13 years old squeezed into a front room to hear my talk on Dante, Hell, Greek mythology, and World War 1, and what all these elements have to do with my fantasy adventure story, Ante’s Inferno .  It can be tricky to cater for such a big age range, with fidgeting indicating that I’m either floating somewhere above their heads or aiming annoyingly low, but there was no sign of this here. Perhaps being such a small school gives the pupils a feeling that they’re all in this together, resulting in less need than usual to assert their age differences. Whatever the reason, they made a wonderful, alert group who as...