4. Crowham Martyrs
5. Goosebumps in the Laundrette
6. Books
7. Witches
8. Editing
9. OMG
10. Secrets...
5. Goosebumps in the Laundrette
6. Books
7. Witches
8. Editing
9. OMG
10. Secrets...
Ghosts don't scare Maddy Deeprose – she's seen them all her life. So when her mum sends her to creepy old boarding school Crowham Martyrs, Maddy isn't worried.
But when her friends start disappearing, Maddy knows it's time to be scared.
Something is lurking at Crowham Martyrs. Something evil.
Is the place that is supposed to keep Maddy safe about to become the hunting ground?
I love this book and am terrifically proud to be its editor. I was quite tempted to just fill this post with 'I LOVE CROWHAM MARTYRS' over and over again, but I thought instead I'll be a proper, coherent human and explain to you why I love it. I am going to update this each day with one of the Ten Things I Love About The Crowham Martyrs!
1. Maddy
For me, a story is as fun as the characters living it, so, you know, NO PRESSURE MADDY. Luckily, Maddy is Pretty Damn Awesome and I loved her from the moment I started reading. Maddy confides in the reader and feels like a friend, and her dry sense of humour is perfect for guiding us through the weird goings on. She's also not afraid to sneak out of bed and run through the creepy corridors of Crowham Martyrs searching for clues (which is lucky really, as I would definitely be too scared to do that and would have just ended up staying in my room and having no adventures if it wasn't for Maddy.)
2. Jane
As the woman who birthed Maddy from her brain, it was a safe bet that Jane was going to be Pretty Damn Awesome too. And she is! Our editorial meeting was a
3. The cover
Designed and illustrated by the completely fantastic Pip Johnson, this cover is so lovely looking I want to run outside waving it in windows
and and thrusting it into people’s faces in the street.
I think it completely captures the feeling of the book –
when I write the cover brief I try to sum up how I think it feels to read the
book, and the things that I want people to know are in there. With this book I
wanted people to know that there were spooky, witchy things going on, that
there was a crumbling old boarding school, but also that the story was fun,
funny and exciting. That’s rather a lot to cram into a cover (sorry Pip!). The
design went through a few versions and we took feedback from the sales team and
booksellers. And Pip’s final version I think has combined all of that into a
fabulous jacket that does justice to the story inside.
Now if you’ll excuse me I’m off for a spot of book-waving.
One of the reasons I commissioned this book is because I
used to walk around old houses and castles desperate to see ghosts. So when I
discovered that this book was set in a centuries-old boarding school, cut off
from the outside world and full of secret passageways, forbidden rooms and spooky
portraits of stern-looking gentlemen in wigs whose eyes follow you around, I
was delighted.
And I can confirm that my lifelong search for a
ghost-sighting is now successful…
5. Goosebumps in the laundrette
5. Goosebumps in the laundrette
This book already has a good track record of spooking people in interesting places. It frightened Jane’s agent on a crowded bus, the marketing director and cover designer Pip was overcome with fear in the laundrette, and someone who wishes to remain anonymous was reading a particularly scary bit on a train and then looked around with a wide-eyed expression as if to say ‘wasn’t that terrifying’, forgetting that the other people on the didn’t know what she was reading and so would just think she was weird.
We would like this book to keep scaring people in odd places, so if you get spooked in the bath, terrified on the toilet or petrified in the pantry* do let us know!
*I am not totally sure what a pantry is, so perhaps you could let me know that as well.
6. Books
SPOILER ALERT
This book contains a secret library. And the books in that library might just hold clues to the mystery of what is happening at Crowham Martyrs. And when Maddy finds them you might just get to glimpse inside…
Basically I couldn’t not love a book with books in. And Jane has also kept alive my dream of one day discovering a secret library.
Basically I couldn’t not love a book with books in. And Jane has also kept alive my dream of one day discovering a secret library.
7. Witches
Witch trials are, I think, one of the most strange, fascinating and mind-boggling strands in history. When this book landed in my inbox, knowing that the story involved witches was one of the main reasons I started reading it immediately.
I am jealous of Maddy and her classmates having a history teacher like Mr Casey, who hijacks a lesson to tell them about witch trials. I don’t think a book set in my school, touching on the themes of crop rotation in the middle ages, would have been quite as exciting.
8. Editing
I have already mentioned how much fun I had working with Jane on this book, but I thought that the editing process deserved its own mention. I knew I loved Maddy’s voice, the characters – Missy, Mr Casey, Hannah to name my favourites – leapt out of the page full formed, and I completely believed in the world of the book.
So that paves the way for the most fun kind of editing. Which is really just being an irritating house guest. It is walking around inside the book, prodding stuff, looking behind doors and curtains, picking up interesting looking objects and asking annoying questions.
9. OMG
There’s YA, NA, MG and while obviously we would classify THE CROWHAM MARTYRS as RAAGP (readers of all ages and general people), Jane came up with the brilliant term OMG for Older Middle Grade, which I absolutely love, because for me the age of 10/11/12 was a magical reading age, when I was realising just the sheer amount of books there were awaiting me and I could get completely swept away in a story and a world.
And I really enjoy that I get to write ‘OMG’ on the Advance Information sheets as part of my job.
10. Secrets...
There is someone hiding in this book. Will you find them?
Witch trials are, I think, one of the most strange, fascinating and mind-boggling strands in history. When this book landed in my inbox, knowing that the story involved witches was one of the main reasons I started reading it immediately.
I am jealous of Maddy and her classmates having a history teacher like Mr Casey, who hijacks a lesson to tell them about witch trials. I don’t think a book set in my school, touching on the themes of crop rotation in the middle ages, would have been quite as exciting.
8. Editing
I have already mentioned how much fun I had working with Jane on this book, but I thought that the editing process deserved its own mention. I knew I loved Maddy’s voice, the characters – Missy, Mr Casey, Hannah to name my favourites – leapt out of the page full formed, and I completely believed in the world of the book.
So that paves the way for the most fun kind of editing. Which is really just being an irritating house guest. It is walking around inside the book, prodding stuff, looking behind doors and curtains, picking up interesting looking objects and asking annoying questions.
9. OMG
There’s YA, NA, MG and while obviously we would classify THE CROWHAM MARTYRS as RAAGP (readers of all ages and general people), Jane came up with the brilliant term OMG for Older Middle Grade, which I absolutely love, because for me the age of 10/11/12 was a magical reading age, when I was realising just the sheer amount of books there were awaiting me and I could get completely swept away in a story and a world.
And I really enjoy that I get to write ‘OMG’ on the Advance Information sheets as part of my job.
10. Secrets...
There is someone hiding in this book. Will you find them?
