UKYA Extravaganza: Dawn Kurtagich

Welcome to our stop on the UKYA Extravaganza blog tour where Dawn Kurtagich, author of the forthcoming YA novel, The Dead House, is our guest.  UKYA Extravanagaza is one of the first big author organised events outside of London and the home counties. Well done to author Kerry Drewery for spearheading it. And now to Dawn who you can meet alongside 34 other YA authors in Birmingham on 28^th February. 

And look, there’s a heart on the UK cover: just as well it’s Valentines Day (though Dawn is really a writer of creepy, spooky and psychologically sinister YA fiction!). 

Left: UK cover; Right: US cover

Because The Dead House isn’t out in the UK ’til August (& we haven’t read it), here’s what Dawn says about it (nothing quite like whetting an appetite on Valentine’s, is there?): 

“THE DEAD HOUSE is a twisty little book full of half untruths and a broken girl who doesn't exist.

Three students: dead.

Carly Johnson: vanished without a trace.

Two decades have passed since an inferno swept through Elmbridge High, claiming the lives of three teenagers and causing one student, Carly Johnson, to disappear. The main suspect: Kaitlyn, “the girl of nowhere.”

Kaitlyn’s diary, discovered in the ruins of Elmbridge High, reveals the thoughts of a disturbed mind. Its charred pages tell a sinister version of events that took place that tragic night, and the girl of nowhere is caught in the center of it all. But many claim Kaitlyn doesn’t exist, and in a way, she doesn’t – because she is the alter-ego of Carly Johnson.

Carly gets the day. Kaitlyn has the night. It’s during the night that a mystery surrounding the Dead House unravels and a dark, twisted magic ruins the lives of each student that dares touch it.”

Dawn Kurtagich sporting 'Watson'

And now here’re a few things you probably never knew about Dawn:

WSD: "I wrote a letter to my love and on the way I dropped it." To whom would you write and where would you drop it? 

Dawn Kurtagich: Hm… I'd want a very clever homing pigeon to find it and fly it to my love (so he'd think I had all kinds of mad Cinderella skills). Either that, or I would hope it could find its way to someone who really needed it.  

WSD: What book would you recommend someone else read on Valentine's Day and why? 

DK: I make no secret of the fact that I am a big fan of Juliet Marillier's work. Her Daughter of the Forest is definitely the most romantic book I have ever read (I've linked to the Goodreads page if you want more info). A little magic makes it even better. I love this book because of Sorcha, the main character. She is so strong, but so alone. Everything is taken away from her, yet she has strength enough to try and get it back, and it nearly costs her even more. Then, after all she's been through, she has to give up the person she loves most. It's beautiful. It's romantic in every way, with a capital "R"—and a fictional medieval Ireland? Yes, please. A second really good choice is Spirit Fox by Mickey Zucker Reichert and Michelle Wingert. Very readable. For YA: Anna and the French Kiss. CUTE!

WSD: Apparently your accent is a bit of a hodge-podge (welcome to my world!). What places might we detect in it?

DK: It is! You might detect an English accent, a little South African, a little American and possibly a little Australian. Though, when my Canadian friend comes to see me, I take on her lilt, apparently! Growing up in so many places means that I can't really answer the question "where are you from?" very easily. It's a problem. A very interesting problem! 

WSD: Why is orange your favourite colour?

DK: I’d say that orange is definitely one of my favourite colours—it's a colour for passion and warmth. But my favourite is a very specific type of green. Green is the best colour, anyway. The end. ;)

WSD: How and why did your hat get named Watson?

DK: Watson named himself. You'll need to ask him why... (though he's a cheeky bugger and may evade questions with more questions). He even makes an appearance in The Dead House!

The Dead House is forthcoming from Orion/Indigo (UK) and Little, Brown Books for Young Readers (US) in 2015. 

Illustrator Victo Ngai and The Time Out of Time Cover

It's blog tour time! Illustrator Victo Ngai talks us through designing her eye-catching cover for the first book in Maureen Doyle McQuerry's Time Out of Time saga. Ngai has been named one of Forbe's 30 Under 30 for Outstanding visual artists. Victo is short for Victoria and she often illustrates covers for the New Yorker.

 

Time out of time

the horned man rides

with the forest queen,

the greenman dies,

the heavens bear witness,

the great wolf flies

and Timothy James stands alone. 

 Over to Victo…..

I have been working on a new book series called Time out of Time by Maureen Doyle McQuerry. Book 1 Beyond the Door has just come out!

Time out of Time is an imagination packed fantasy story which draws inspiration from Celtic mythologies. Our hero is a shy bookish boy named Timothy who is fairly certain nothing interesting will ever happen to him. However, everything changes on one dark spring night. A mystery knocks on his door and starts revealing his role in an ancient prophecy…

Time Out of Time: Beyond the Door - full cover illustration by Victo Ngai

Choosing a moment from a book as cover is always a fun challenge. It has be a true representation of the story without spoiling the plot, while being visually stimulating. I decided to go with the Wild Hunt because:

a) There’s a giant golden flying wolf, who wouldn’t like that?

b) We introduce our main character - Timothy. 

c) The chase set the stage of adventure and the storm set the mood of danger.

d) It’s a perfect moment to show the parallel existence of Timothy’s ordinary world and the fantastical world “beyond the door”. 

This art has been featured on the American Library Association Booklist cover, what an honor! 

An early sketch by Victo Ngai

Another sketch by Victo Ngai

 

Big thanks to Maureen McQuerry for this great story, Chad Beckerman and Editor Howard Reeves for all the great input.

I hope you would enjoy the book as much as I do!

 

Don’t forget to decipher the secret code which comes with the book! 

 

******

 

 Thanks to Victo Ngai for this. I love that cover!

 

Time Out of Time: Beyond the Door by Maureen Doyle McQuerry is published in the UK by Abrams.


Next stop on the tour - Serendipity Reviews on 16th June.


 

 

Memoirs of a Neurotic Zombie - Cover Reveal & Exclusive Extract

Jeff Norton read an early extract from his Memoirs of a Neurotic Zombie to us at a Faber brunch earlier this year. The audience response, including ours, was loud and frequent laughter. We delighted to host an exclusive extract and the cover from his forthcoming novel.

“My name is Adam Meltzer and the last thing I remember was being stung by a bee while swinging at a robot-shaped piñata on my twelfth birthday. I was dead before the candy hit the ground.”

Here's Faber publicity introducing the novel:

Memoirs of a Neurotic Zombie is narrated by the hilarious Adam Meltzer - pre-teen, worrywart, and now zombie. Adam's family gets the fright of their lives when he turns up at their door desperate for a shower . . . three months after his funeral. When most people think zombies, they think of eating people, and unintelligent monsters.

But Adam doesn’t like germs. Or dirt. Or things being disorganised. So waking up as a zombie was definitely not in his plans, and the idea of eating people is disgusting. Getting stung by a bee doesn’t normally lead to becoming a zombie, and it seems incredibly unfair that it’s happened to Adam.

Soon Adam's back at school trying to fit in and not draw extra attention to himself, but when he sees his neighbour Ernesto transform into a chupacubra, and the beautiful Corina (Adam's number one mega-crush) turns out to be a (vegan) vampire, undead life is never going to be the same again.

A hilarious adventure caper - if Ferris Bueller met Shaun of the Dead - all about friendship and being yourself . . . even if you're undead.

 

And, now, here’s a never-seen-before extract from the novel:

 

The object of Adam’s undead affections turns out to be a vampire.

 

“Corina hovered in the night sky, silhouetted by the full moon. And then she flew straight towards us.

She actually flew.

It was incredible to watch. Sure I was relieved that she wasn’t going to smash into the ground and that I wouldn’t have to make a police statement, but I was also gripped with envy.

She could fly!

‘That’s not fair,’ I uttered.

Ernesto grunted, ‘Huh?’

Flight was the one superpower I’d always wanted; and Corina Parker had it. I mean, not event NinjaMan could fly. And he was the best. But somehow my weirdo, Goth European neighbour could defy gravity.

‘She’s flying this way.’ I said. ‘Stand up straight.’

‘Just great,’ Ernesto sighed. ‘I finally get to talk to her and I’m covered in scales.’

He had a point. He was not about to make a good first impression. And the scales were the least of his problems. But then again, I wasn’t exactly ready for the yearbook photos.

What if I totally grossed her out?

But when Corina touched down and looked at me, she didn’t even bat an elongated eyelash at my decomposing skin. It may not have been eye contact, but it was the closest I’d ever got to acknowledgement of my existence in an entire year.”

 

Extract ends

 

 

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Red House Children’s Book Award blog tour: Rick Yancey

Welcome to the next stop on the Red House Children's Book Award 2014, an award where children get to do the voting. We've a special guest post from Rick Yancey about the origins of The 5th Wave!

The Origins of The 5^th Wave

- guest post by Rick Yancey

 

A few years back, I asked my wife to describe her greatest fear. Without hesitation, she said, “Aliens!” This sparked a long discussion that lasted long into the night. Why aliens? My own view (and why aliens didn’t even make my top ten of things-to-keep-me-up-at-night) was our species would most likely never encounter a civilization from another planet for several reasons, the chief being the vast distances between planetary systems. In other words, why bother? Time passed, as time does, and I ran across an interview with the physicist Stephen Hawking, who stated his personal hope that aliens never find us, believing the results of an encounter would be disastrous – for us. That remark got my creative juices stirring.

What if our popular culture, books, film, TV, got it all wrong? Wasn’t it true that for over a hundred years we’ve been imagining the “safe” aliens, the kind of aliens we would like to attack us? What if I wrote a story about the kind of aliens who most likely would?

 

There is only one reason they might hazard an interstellar journey: to find a new home. Just as our planet will one day die, so would theirs.

 

So imagine you’ve picked out a new home. Before you move in, you discover your beautiful new abode is infested with vermin. What do you do? Do you say to yourself, ‘Oh, these are disgusting creatures with whom I’m completely incompatible, but I’ll live with them anyway, despite the fact they won’t like it and do all in their power to make my life miserable?” Or do you call in the exterminator to cleanse the place of the pests?

 

That was my starting point of The 5^th Wave. To a species thousands if not millions of years more advanced than ours, we would be nuisances and pests. The idea of the waves begins with the fact that our species numbers in the billions and is spread out over every continent. They would do all in their power to preserve the earth – to do as little damage as possible. Each wave is designed to whittle down the human population without permanently damaging their new home.

 

The 5^th Wave is, of course, more about us than them. More about what remains than what’s destroyed. My first image of the story was of Cassie, my heroine, trapped, injured, terrified, and certain that no matter what choice she made – run or hide, fight or flight – she was doomed. Her quest to find her brother – the human bond – keeps her going, because that would be the fundamental thing after everything else has been taken away. As Cassie realizes, the only way to rid the earth of humans is to rid humans of their humanity.

 

 
 The 5^th Wave by Rick Yancey has been shortlisted in the Older Readerscategory of the Red House Children's Book Award 2014. The Red House Children's Book Award is the only national children’s book award voted for entirely by children. It is owned and co-ordinated by the Federation of Children's Book Groups, and sponsored by Red House.

To help you make up your voting mind, go and find out more about the books that have been shortlisted. Check out the rest of the Red House Children’s Book Award blog tour.

 

FCBG Blog http://www.fcbg.org.uk/blog/

The Book People Blog  http://www.thebookpeople.co.uk/blog

Storyseekers  http://storyseekers.wordpress.com

Nayu’s Reading Corner  http://nayusreadingcorner.blogspot.co.uk/

Rainy Day Mum  http://rainydaymum.co.uk/

Mammasaurus  http://mammasaurus.co.uk/

Childtasticbooks  http://childtasticbooks.wordpress.com/

Library Mice  http://www.librarymice.com

Playing by the Book  http://www.playingbythebook.net/

Chicklish http://www.chicklish.co.uk

 

 

 

 

 

 

Day in the Life...of a book publicist

It's the month of May and we love YA - that's what Headline Publishing have been shouting from the rooftops (or book blogs!) this past month. We love all sorts and are delighted to let them shout it all out here today by giving us the lowdown on a book publicist's life and books she likes: welcome Vero Norton!

 

A Day in the Life with Vero

 

"I am Vero and I am a publicist at Headline.

 First things first, at the start of the day – I make myself a cup of tea. Usually in an oversized vat-like mug so that it will tide me over for a while and help me forget the usually fraught cycle to work.

Next (once I feel slightly more human after the caffeine hit kicks in) I meet and greet my lovely Publicity colleagues. The team comprises half a dozen of us, though the nature of the job means that morning meetings, events, author tours etc etc take us away from our desk and publicity corner can be bereft of chatter at times.

Next, the inbox is opened like Pandora’s Box. Kidding! Sort of.

Each publicist looks after a wide range of titles so emails cover a spectrum of topics and come from many different sources such as journalists, booksellers, event organisers, authors, bloggers. They could be anything from ‘would xxx like to come and do an afternoon tea event in xxxx’ to ‘could xxx come and talk about the role of the female in politics’ or ‘What is the next Andrew Hammond novel’ to ‘Would you like another cup of tea*’ *this sort of email is only ever sent from my lovely tea-minded buddy Sam.

As well as answering pitches, there are a lot of pitches to be done to get publicity for our fab authors and lots of suggesting and organising author events.

The mid-morning dip is often filled with another cuppa and then there might be meetings in the office or out and about in the wider world.

On days when we are out with authors we could be anywhere – a school event in Crawley; a food festival in Bishop Auckland; a Girls Night In event in Plymouth or an afternoon tea in the middle of the countryside. Variety is the spice of life and I think it’s fair to say the job of a publicist is especially spicy. I love this job!

Fave YA

My favourite YA book is a tough call. So I’m going to cheat and pick two. Can I do that? I’m gonna.

An oldie but a goodie – The Enemy by Charlie Higson. What a book! Ever wondered what might happen if a deadly disease decided to make its mark on the UK wiping out anyone over the age of 14, killing them dead, or worse, turning them in to staggering zombies, oozing with puss and a passion for revenge. Wonder no more – this is exactly the ghoulish world the Young Bond author creates.

This is the first of the series and introduces us to the brilliant characters that Higson deftly creates (Little Sam’s my fave). The action’s all set in London: there’re battles, there’re brooding teens, there’re famous buildings filled with danger and even a little romance thrown into the mix. Just a little mind, Higson doesn’t let the mushy stuff get in the way of the fighting.

Next up is a YA book I’ve recently read: Forgive Me Leonard Peacock by Matthew Quick. Quick is the mastermind behind the book that was made into the film called The Silver Linings Playbook which scooped up lots of awards a couple of months ago. We meet Leonard on his 18^th birthday. Unusually instead of receiving presents, Leonard has his own to give, and each of these has its own story to tell. Brilliantly written, painstakingly sad and dark in parts but at the same time laugh out loud funny. You can meet Leonard yourselves when the book’s published in August. It is worth the wait!"

 

****

Oo, Little M liked Charlie Higson's SilverFin (Young Bond). And, we haven't read the book but quite enjoyed The Silver Linings Playbook movie.

 

 

 

More Diverse Universe Blog Tour

Aarti at BookLust is hosting A More Diverse Universe blog tour which celebrates speculative fiction written by people of colour.

Malorie Blackman: Noughts & Crosses

 

For my post, I've chosen Malorie Blackman's Noughts & Crosses. Noughts & Crosses was Malorie Blackman's first direct treatment of racism in her novels. It is based on an alternative history which pretty much amounts to a flipped apartheid. It's a harsh and brutal story that doesn't hold back its punches. And it's great for teens today.

The reason I've chosen Noughts & Crosses is for three reasons:

1) It's a book that really gets under my skin because although speculative, much of the material in the book is based on past and current happenings (just switched);

2) No matter how often I remind myself that Noughts are white and Crosses are black, in my mind's eye, I flip them back. Just an observation......;

3) New editions for the four book sequence have just been published in the UK and the new jackets are still quite stark but with a splash of colour and more grit. Covers that, in my opinion, reflect the content of the novels perfectly.

Here is the link to my earlier review of Noughts & Crosses, the first book in the sequence (you'll see how the cover has changed too).

The new covers for the Noughts & Crosses sequence

 

 

You can find out more about Malorie Blackman on her website.

 

Raimy-Rawr has been running a Noughts & Crosses week on her blog, Readaraptor.

This the schedule for A More Diverse Universe Blog Tour 23-29 September 2012.

 

Thanks to Corgi (Random House UK) for sending me copies of the sequence.

 

 

Hannah Harrington's Saving June Blog Tour



Saving June by Hannah Harrington

We're delighted to welcome author Hannah Harrington here as part of her blog tour for Saving June.  Saving June is a roadtrip novel for older teens. Sixteen year old Harper is grieving about the death of her sister June. She sets off on a road trip across America with Jake, her bestfriend Laney and June's ashes.

Hannah tells us a bit about herself, roadtripping and being a teen.

***

M: If you were on a roadtrip and had to stop off to get a meal, what would you choose to eat and why?

Hannah: I love old-fashioned type diners! I’d probably pull over to one of those and ask for something simple like a club sandwich with chips.

M: If you were on a roadtrip with Jake, how many bags would you take and what would your must-have items be?

Hannah: I’m a pretty light packer, so if it were only a week-long trip, I could probably do with one bag. Besides clothes and a toothbrush and hair supplies, I’d probably be packing a few books to read and my iPod. And a camera, of course!

M: Harper is a rebel with a cause. Were you ever a rebel with (or without) a cause?

Hannah: I had some moments during my teenage years you could classify as “rebellious.” I cut class a few times to go to political protests with some friends of mine. Sometimes I would either sneak out of my house or lie about where I was spending the night and go to college-aged parties instead. I think I got at least one detention per school year, for various reasons.  I’m not proud of it though! And it’s something I definitely outgrew as I got older.

M: Harper has many views on what makes a girl independent and strong.  What do you think are some of the biggest challenges facing teen girls today?

Hannah: I think for girls just figuring out how to be ourselves is a big challenge. There’s a lot in our culture and our society dictating how we should look and how we should behave, and we all end up being very self-critical with how we express ourselves, especially when it comes to negative emotion. For example, a man who gets angry isn’t going to be labelled with a gendered slur—he’s just called angry. A woman who gets angry is called… something else, even if her anger is completely justified. And that kind of culture leads to women being much more reluctant and careful in how they express themselves. So I think being able to recognize our own feelings and thoughts as legitimate alone is a pretty big hurdle.

M: There are references to many US cultural icons throughout the novel: Harper Lee, Jack Kerouac, Truman Capote, James Dean, Marilyn Monroe, Jimi Hendrix. Who or what in the world has influenced you most?

Hannah: I can’t really narrow it down to just one person of influence, but one of them was Kurt Cobain. By the time I found out who he was, I was in high school and he’d already been dead for about ten years. This friend of mine was really into Nirvana, and so one day I went and downloaded some of their music and gave it a listen, and they became the first band I was somewhat obsessed with. My best friend and I would listen to their music together, watch documentaries, read his biographies, all of that. It opened up a new way of listening to music for me, and it also led me to finding other bands I loved. Basically it just felt like by getting into Nirvana, it opened a door to a lot else for me. 

****

Thanks, Hannah! 

Hannah Harrington's novel, Saving June is published in the UK this month by Mira Ink. You can read my review of it here.

Blog Tour - Keris Says: Emma Hearts LA

Here's something to put a bounce in your step. As part of her Emma Hearts LA blog tour, we're delighted to welcome author Keris Stainton to We Sat Down. She's fresh and she's fun. Just perfect for a spring day. And it's our first time hosting a blog tour stop too - yippee!!! Keris' is the author of Della Says: OMG! and Jessie Hearts NYC. Her new book, Emma Hearts LA, is published this month by Orchard Books.

Keris Stainton

Little M: Why did you write this book?

Keris: I wanted to write a book with a bit of a bolshy main character and Emma – the best friend of the MC (main character) in Jessie Hearts NYC – kept popping into my head. So then I knew I'd have to send her somewhere and I thought LA would be a good contrast to New York, really take her out of her comfort zone.

Little M: How long did it take you to write this book?

Keris: I wrote the first draft during NaNoWriMo – National Novel Writing Month – and then there was a LOT of rewrites and redrafting. I think from start to finish it was probably five months.

Little M: What ages do you think it will suit?

Keris: Anyone from 12 on will enjoy it, I hope.

M: First New York, now LA.  Why did you choose these locations for your novels?

Keris: I chose New York because I'm obsessed with it and I really wanted an excuse to wander around the Upper West Side on Google Streetview and call it work. LA was the opposite – I didn't have any love for it, couldn't even really imagine it as a real place, didn't even particularly want to go. But then I was lucky enough to be able to make a really short trip to research the book and I totally fell in love with it.

Emma Hearts LA by Keris Stainton

M: Where was most of Emma Hearts LA written? Is there a particular chair in a particular coffee shop that you think could be auctioned in the future?

Keris: Ha! The original draft was written at home, but the rewrites, copyedits and edits were all done in my local Starbucks. I actually thank them in the acknowledgements because I spent a lot of time there and not very much money.

M: Did your parents ever move you to someplace you didn’t really want to go?

Keris: My parents emigrated to Canada in 1966 and then moved back to the UK when I was four months old. As a teenager, I resented that because I thought I would have had a much more interesting and exciting life in Canada!

M: You say you’d like to fly.  So would I!  Have you ever taken part in an airborne extreme sport/activity?

Keris: I haven't. I'm too chicken, I think. I saw a video of sky surfers years ago and it made my heart race – it just looked like the most incredible, inspiring, life-affirming thing – but I can't imagine ever doing it myself. Would you?

M:  Ooh no, I'm chicken too. I'll just wait for my wings to grow :)

M: Have you ever managed to complete a Rubik’s cube successfully?

Keris: No! And it was a terrible source of disappointment and frustration. My sister claimed she had, but it turned out she'd peeled all the stickers off, the big cheat.

M: It’s the Spring Bank Holiday.  Do you have a favourite season and why?

Keris: I love Spring. New beginnings and rebirth and everything. I love cherry blossom and the huge lavender bush in my garden. I love Autumn too though, for the back-to-school feeling.

M: Do you still keep a diary?

Keris: Not a paper one, no, but I blog and tweet and facebook, so barely an experience – barely a thought! - goes unrecorded :)

M: If you were writing an autobiography, what title would you choose?

Keris: Ooh. Hard question! How Oprah Changed My Life? I'm rubbish at titles.

M: What question would you like to have been asked but weren’t?  And what is your answer?

Keris: When I interview people, I ask: Russell Brand or David Mitchell?

         Answer: Please don't make me choose.

**********

Thank you Keris!

You can read M's review of Emma Hearts LA here.
You can find out more about Keris on her website.

Emma Hearts LA, is published this month by Orchard Books.