tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-70923351985255565932024-03-13T08:30:14.346+00:00From the Editor's deskCatniphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03261357856358849018noreply@blogger.comBlogger70125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7092335198525556593.post-4012032271016849572015-08-12T10:45:00.000+01:002015-08-26T15:02:13.333+01:00Patricia Leitch<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">We are very sad to announce that the author Patricia Leitch passed away on 28 July. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Pat's humour, ability to capture the beauty of the natural world in her words, and sense of the strong and healing power of friendship touched readers all over the world. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Pat was born, and spent much of her life, in Scotland - where she found the wild and beautiful setting that would feature in many of her books. She had many jobs, including being a teacher and (like the fantastic Miss Tuke in the Jinny at Finmory series!) working at a riding school. But running through all of this were her lifelong loves of horses, nature and language and - to the gratitude of many future readers - she decided to put these into stories.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Her books were a part of the childhood of so many readers, and Catnip are terrifically proud to have been able to bring the Jinny at Finmory series back into print. We felt very honoured and very grateful to Pat for allowing us to do this and for her very enthusiastic support. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Over the years, we have received so many letters and messages from readers all over the world who wanted Pat to know how much her books meant to them. (If there was a rosette for 'most fan mail', Jinny and Shantih would definitely win!) It was clear that it wasn't just that readers enjoyed the stories, but that the friendship which Jinny and her Arab mare Shantih found in each other really meant something and gave people hope.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">It was my predecessor at Catnip, Non - along with the author Lauren St John - who first made this happen. They both had treasured these books in their childhoods and wanted a new generation to be able to experience the same thing. (To find out more about what the books meant to Non, <a href="http://catnipbooks.blogspot.co.uk/2011/06/why-i-commissionedjinny-at-finmory.html">here</a> is her blog post from when the new editions first came out). And I hope that Pat knew just how much it meant to all of us to have the chance to share these books. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">A tribute from Lauren St John: </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><i>As a horse-mad child growing up in Zimbabwe, Patricia Leitch's Jinny at Finmory series had a profound impact on my life. She was a writer who was decades ahead of her time in terms of her passion for animals, nature and the environment, and, most crucially, her understanding of the minds of horses and children who are outsiders. She promoted Natural Horsemanship before it had even been invented. To me, she is one of the most underrated and consistently brilliant children's authors in history. When I read her books now, as an adult, they are as fresh, important and beautifully written now as they were twenty or thirty years ago. I shall always be grateful to Catnip for reissuing them and for publishing them so wonderfully, and I'm tremendously honoured to have written the foreword to the books. After Catnip's edition of For Love of a Horse was published, Pat wrote to me and said how much pleasure it gave her to know that Jinny and Shantih were running free once again. I firmly believe that, wherever she is now, she'll be with them. Running free. </i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Pat cared deeply and passionately about animals and the way we treat our environment, and so any donations in her memory can be made to </span><a href="http://www.hessilhead.org.uk/" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Hessilhead Wildlife Rescue</a><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> in North Ayrshire.</span></div>
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Catniphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03261357856358849018noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7092335198525556593.post-36817717720498778652015-06-11T11:55:00.000+01:002015-06-24T11:08:10.397+01:00Ten Things I Love About THE CROWHAM MARTYRS by Jane McLoughlin<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Here are the Ten Things I Love About THE CROWHAM MARTYRS!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><a href="#Maddy">1. Maddy </a></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><a href="#Jane">2. Jane</a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><a href="#Cover">3. The cover</a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><a href="#School">4. Crowham Martyrs</a></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><a href="#Goosebumps">5. Goosebumps in the Laundrette</a></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><a href="#Books">6. Books</a></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><a href="#Witches">7. Witches</a></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><a href="#Editing">8. Editing</a></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><a href="#OMG">9. OMG</a></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><a href="#Secrets">10. Secrets...</a></span></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Ghosts don't scare Maddy Deeprose <!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<![endif]--><!--StartFragment-->–<!--EndFragment--> she's seen them all her life. So when her mum sends her to creepy old boarding school Crowham Martyrs, Maddy isn't worried. </span></i></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></i></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">But when her friends start disappearing, Maddy knows it's time to be scared. </span></i></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></i></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Something is lurking at Crowham Martyrs. Something evil. </span></i></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></i></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Is the place that is supposed to keep Maddy safe about to become the hunting ground?</span></i></div>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">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!</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><a id="Maddy">1. Maddy</a></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">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.) </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><a id="Jane">2. Jane</a></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">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 <strike>big chat over a glass of wine</strike>highly professional discussion on the nuances of language and the editing process was so much fun, with me getting to ask lots of nosy questions about the characters and the wonderful world Jane had created. As well as being a rather brilliant author (her first book, AT YELLOW LAKE, was long listed for the Carnegie and the Branford Boase and shortlisted for the Amazing Book Award), Jane is also an enthusiastic member of the author community, doing tonnes of stuff with SCWBI, lots of school events and generally shouting loud about books. I am not quite sure where she finds the time to sleep and eat among all this and so I think she could well be a vampire.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><a id="Cover">3. The cover</a></span><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Designed and illustrated by the completely fantastic <a href="https://twitter.com/purelimejuice">Pip Johnson</a>, 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.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgL9SYkcOX41vcOi2RiyMiEb-Ipk-gfmHYWXnR0KDo1dE8PYCUyq-C-tuYvK8uN8nlpxXpcRXldgjI8oaEb1jGb0ULpxanazIw7IEWT74OHqkGchDc55BMCrJhfIzpyvqzgvjJZ_PLXTyIQ/s1600/Crowham+Martyrs+Cover+Full.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="280" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgL9SYkcOX41vcOi2RiyMiEb-Ipk-gfmHYWXnR0KDo1dE8PYCUyq-C-tuYvK8uN8nlpxXpcRXldgjI8oaEb1jGb0ULpxanazIw7IEWT74OHqkGchDc55BMCrJhfIzpyvqzgvjJZ_PLXTyIQ/s400/Crowham+Martyrs+Cover+Full.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">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. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Now if you’ll excuse me I’m off for a spot of book-waving. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span><o:p></o:p></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><a id="School">4. Crowham Martyrs</a><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">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.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<o:p><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span></o:p></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">And I can confirm that my lifelong search for a
ghost-sighting is now successful…<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span><o:p></o:p><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><a id="Goosebumps">5. Goosebumps in the laundrette</a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br />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. <br /><br />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!<br /><br />*I am not totally sure what a pantry is, so perhaps you could let me know that as well.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /><a id="Books">6. Books</a><br /><br />SPOILER ALERT</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">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…<br /><br />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. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><a id="Witches">7. Witches</a><br /><br /> <br />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. <br /><br />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. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /><br /><a id="Editing">8. Editing</a><br /><br />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. <br /><br />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. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br /><a id="OMG">9. OMG</a><br /><br />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. <br /><br />And I really enjoy that I get to write ‘OMG’ on the Advance Information sheets as part of my job. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><a id="Secrets">10. Secrets...</a></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">There is someone hiding in this book. Will you find them? </span></div>
Catniphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03261357856358849018noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7092335198525556593.post-84496775798080434402015-04-21T11:07:00.001+01:002015-04-21T11:07:22.809+01:00NEW BOOK! ANGELA'S GHOST by Sarah Baker<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Catnip and the DKW Literary Agency are delighted to announce that Catnip have acquired two middle-grade titles from debut author Sarah Baker. Liz Bankes acquired UK & Commonwealth rights in ANGELA’S GHOST, a haunting coming-of-age story with a timeslip twist, and a WWII set prequel, ELOISE’S SECRET, via agent Bryony Woods. <br /><br /><i>Twelve-year-old Angela doesn’t have a family – not since the tragic accident that tore her life apart. Living in foster care, suffering from survivor’s guilt and unable to face the truth of what happened that night, Angela is offered a chance: a holiday to France with her cold, distant Aunt Cece and horrible cousins Kitty and Fliss. If she behaves, she’s told that she might be allowed to stay with them, to have a family again.<br /><br />But faced with the constant taunting of her cousins and still unable to accept the truth about the accident, Angela finds herself more alone than ever. Until she stumbles into a disused room in the crumbling French manor house, and meets a boy from 1898: Julien. But Julien’s time is running out. He is dying of typhoid. </i><br /><br />A tale of survival and friendship beyond all odds, ANGELA’S GHOST is set to become a children’s classic.<br /><br />Sarah Baker has worked extensively in film, with roles at Aardman Features, the Bermuda Film Festival and as Story Editor at Celador Films.<br /><br />Sarah Baker said: 'I'm thrilled to have signed with Catnip and to be working with such a fantastic editor as Liz. My books are in good hands and I am so looking forward to seeing them in print soon!'<br /><br />Liz Bankes said: 'From the moment this book arrived in my inbox I was transported into Angela’s world. Sneakily reading my kindle under my desk reminded me of the books that I used to read under the duvet with a torch because I was meant to have gone to bed! I am absolutely delighted to be able to work with Sarah and bring this brilliant book to its many future readers. Make sure your torch batteries are working!'<br /><br />Bryony Woods said: 'Angela's Ghost is such a wonderful book: it's bursting with timeless charm, warmth and a good dose of spookiness. I'm thrilled to have found the perfect home for it at Catnip.'<br /><br />Catnip plans to publish ANGELA’S GHOST in March 2016, with ELOISE’S SECRET to follow in 2017. </span>Catniphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03261357856358849018noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7092335198525556593.post-62602586599254168332015-03-05T10:37:00.000+00:002015-03-05T10:37:33.835+00:0010 Things I Love About . . . SPOTLIGHT ON SUNNY by Keris Stainton<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">A very merry World Book Day and a happy book birthday to SPOTLIGHT ON SUNNY by <a href="https://twitter.com/Keris">Keris Stainton</a>! </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Here are 10 things I love about Sunny: </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>1. Book friend!</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I have to confess a bit of nepotism here – the main reason I published this book is because Sunny is my friend. And Hannah and Kitty are too. This is one of those books where you feel an instant familiarity with the characters and I have to remind myself that I didn't actually hang out with Sunny, Kitty and Hannah when I was 14. I love that friendship is at the heart of this series – as I feel it can often get elbowed out when romance comes along. But here friendship is firmly elbowed in. Sunny, Kitty and Hannah are totally comfortable around each other and know each other inside out – so when they keep secrets you know it's a huge deal. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>2. Sunny</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Which is lucky really, because it would make the whole editing thing a bit awkward if I didn't like Sunny. We'd be there scowling at each other and mouthing obscenities while Keris tried to smooth things over and make polite conversation. But luckily it was completely the opposite and the editing process was more like me going up to Keris and saying 'Can you tell Sunny she's really cool?'</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">In STARRING KITTY I thought that Sunny really sparkled in the background </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">–</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> Keris kept enough from us to make sure she didn't distract from the love story between Kitty and Dylan, but gave Sunny enough funny lines to get us to notice her – and feel she had a story to tell. With her perceptiveness and dry humour book one Sunny came across as a girl who knew her own mind, but in a quiet and thoughtful way. This is still the Sunny we meet in book two, but when we get inside her head we find lots of questions. There are things she knows </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">–</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> like she isn't going to have a boyfriend now and that she's going to study medicine at uni </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">–</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> but when she finds she enjoys making films so much and she meets a boy that she really gets on with she starts wondering. Is she making these decisions for her parents? Or for her religion? Or for herself? And can you really separate all those things out?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>3. I WANT TO GO ON A FILM COURSE</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The film course that Sunny and her friends go on sounds so much fun. They try out different ways of writing scenes, come up with TV show ideas and get to make their own film. I would love to go on this course (if it weren't for the fact that I'd be asked to leave for being really old). </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>4. Story of my life. And other people's lives. And just life. </b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Something that I think is so important in Keris's books is something that isn't even a thing. In these books you find, as the lovely Kirsty says in this <a href="http://www.overflowinglibrary.com/2015/03/spotlight-on-sunny-by-keris-stainton.html">review</a>, a truly diverse cast of characters. You know, like in real life. And it probably says something that I notice this and find refreshing, rather than it just being what all books are like. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">That Sunny is Muslim is a vital part of this story, but it is not the story itself. It is a story about discovering who you are and what you want in relation to the people you love and, for Sunny, in relation to her faith. But it is so important to represent the diversity of readers in characters </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">– particularly main characters </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">–</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> and so it still important that this is a thing that is not a thing. (Until this is just what all books are like). </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>5. Will</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I don't want to do any plot spoilers, so I will just say there is a new character called Will and I can't wait for you to meet him!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>6. Danielle</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">There's also a character called Danielle, and she is another reason I love this book – I wonder if you will agree!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>7. It's good to think</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">It's very easy not to think. I do it all the time (usually while eating crisps and watching awful TV). And knee-jerk opinions abound with Twitter and the general internet making it easier to react to things immediately. This book sits you down, hides your phone, snatches the crisps and makes you think. It questions the assumptions so many of us will have made about what women choose to wear – and about people's choices in general.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>8. That's what makes you taboo-tiful</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I've been to a few talks and read lots of articles on 'appropriate' content in children's and YA books. And a bit of a trend in some of the articles was that we publishers are all queueing up to outdo each other in putting in more shocking stuff and cramming in the taboos in books for young people. But one really big taboo that people don't tend to talk about is *whispers* religion. It's the one thing Sunny doesn't really talk about with her friends, because she's worried they will think she is weird. And as Kirsty also says in her review (sometimes I think she steals thoughts out of my brain) there are plenty of negative stereotypes around – stories, with thought, humour and living, breathing characters, are the antidote. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>9. It's all these little things </b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">(I have realised that the titles for the last two points are One Direction songs. I may have just revealed a bit too much about my working-from-home playlists...)</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The next thing is lots of small things </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">–</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> I love that in Keris's books she gives us those tiny, everyday moments that capture exactly how two characters feel about each other, or show a friendship sparking off or secret being hidden. Keeping with the no-spoilers theme, I will just say that in this book my favourite ones involve gold sandals, a gorilla and pringles (not all at the same time).</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>10. A big papery hug</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The final thing is being able to share this book with all you lovely bloggers! We want to shout loud about our books, but being so tiny it isn't always easy to be heard – so when you guys love the books as well and get behind them it means the absolute world to us. One of my favourite descriptions of the previous book in this series, STARRING KITTY, was from Sister Spooky, who said it '<a href="http://www.sisterspooky.co.uk/2014/05/review-starring-kitty-by-keris-stainton.html">felt like a cuddle in a warm blanket in book form</a>'. So here, from the wonderful Keris Stainton, and everyone at Catnip, is another big book hug! </span>Catniphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03261357856358849018noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7092335198525556593.post-59002055613976452522015-01-07T12:32:00.001+00:002015-01-07T12:32:03.236+00:00FIVE WAR-TIME READS FROM CATNIP<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Hello and Merry New Year to you all! And talking of New things, I (Editor Liz) would like to introduce the lovely Beth, Catnip's new part-time editorial assistant. As well as helping with all things Catnip and fishing me out when I disappear under piles of paper and books, Beth will also be sharing blogging duties. Today she is writing about Linda Newbery's SOME OTHER WAR, which we reissued at the end of last year.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">FIVE WAR-TIME READS FROM CATNIP</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">In 2014 Catnip reissued Linda Newbery’s wonderful WW1 novel, SOME OTHER WAR</span><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">. So below is our selection of five Catnip books that tell stories in times of conflict. You can also find Booktrust's list of WW1 books </span><a href="http://www.booktrust.org.uk/books/children/booklists/187/" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">here </a><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">and those brilliant people at Barrington Stoke have set up </span><a href="http://www.readingwar.co.uk/" style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Reading War,</a><span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"> a site providing online resources for the WW1 novels they published last year: Tom Palmer's OVER THE LINE, and TILLY'S PROMISE, also by Linda Newbery. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">SOME OTHER WAR by Linda Newbery</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">The story follows the lives of twins Jack and Alice, as war tears them apart and changes their lives. Alice is caught between hope and fear as her brother and Edward (Alice’s blossoming romance), go away to fight, leaving her wondering whether war has taken the two men she loves most. Linda’s writing is gritty, realistic and stimulating and allows children to explore the tragic chaos of the Great War.</span></div>
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TROUBLE ON CABLE STREET by Joan Lingard</div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">1936 . . . London’s East End . . . Riots are brewing as economic depression rages and the British Union of Fascists grow increasingly powerful. Fourteen-year-old Isabella is facing her own troubles when her brother William runs away to fight for revolution and her other brother, George, is being lured in by the fascists. Isabella wonders what kind of a future she can hope for in a time where nothing is certain and trouble lurks on every corner. Joan’s engaging and fast paced story perfectly captures how life was for people at the time. </span></div>
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EVERYONE A STRANGER by Victor Watson</div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">*Winner of the Children's category in the East Anglian Book Awards 2014*</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">War is over and the soldiers are returning. Some are strangers, some are friends. Molly and Abigail must accept the changes around them, but when something happens to their friend Adam it turns their world upside down. Victor crafts an atmospheric and fascinating story about a post war society looking forward to a brave new world.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">THE WAR AND FREDDY by Dennis Hamley</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Freddy is three years old when the war begins, and soon he realises that blackouts and rations are all he really knows. Freddy knows that life during war can still be fun, but he misses his father and wonders if he will ever get to see him again. Dennis’ story brilliantly brings history to life for young children. Through Freddie’s eyes, Dennis reveals the truth about wartime life in a sensitive (but sometimes humourous) way.</span></div>
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THE FILE ON FRAULEIN BERG by Joan Lingard</div>
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Kate, Harriet and Sally love to read spy stories and imagine themselves dropping over enemy lines. So when Fraulein Berg arrives to teach at their school the girls decide that she must be a spy and make it their mission to discover the truth. But what the girls find will haunt them for the rest of their lives. Joan tells a powerful and intriguing story of wartime prejudice.</div>
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Catniphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03261357856358849018noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7092335198525556593.post-48176224314534215012014-11-27T18:04:00.001+00:002014-11-28T09:42:16.763+00:00Two new authors for Team Catnip! (part 2)<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">I am Terribly Excited to announce that my second new author is Sophie Plowden, author of JACK DASH AND THE MAGIC FEATHER, a hilarious, anarchic adventure for 7+ readers.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">If you found a golden quill pen that would make anything you drew come to life, what would you draw?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Sweets? A pet dog? A racing car?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">This is exactly what happens to Jack. Except Jack isn't that good at drawing. And he ends up with a massive sealion in his room.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Now Jack has to work out how hide the sealion from his parents and his dad's scary boss, the Mayor, while drawing lots of fish for her to eat (the sealion, not the Mayor). It looks like Jack may have to enlist the help of the irritating - possibly insane - girl next door, Coco. With only Coco and his (questionable) drawing skills on his side, will Jack save the day (and the sealion)?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">As soon as I started reading this, there were two things that I absolutely loved (obviously all the other things about it were brilliant as well, but I just took that for granted, lucky, greedy editor that I am).</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">1. The magic feather (I WANT ONE). A quill is already so much cooler to write with than a pen, so a magic quill that makes everything you draw come to life is probably the coolest thing ever. You can add it to the list of things I wish were real (Bernard's watch, the psammead, time travel, Ron Weasley). The magic feather opens up unlimited possibilities. You could draw ANYTHING! Sadly, like Jack, my drawing skills aren't brilliant, so I would probably end up faced with a load of real-life stick men, which would actually be quite scary.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">2. Jack and Coco. One of my favourite double acts ever. I just loved that Jack immediately tries to avoid Coco, while she charges around after him like a crazed Violet Elizabeth, determined to be his friend. It's the perfect set-up for a comedy adventure. These two also provided me with my favourite line in the book (possibly all books), when Jack says to Coco, 'Are you out of your ginger mind??' When I met Sophie, I was interested (worried?) to hear that she'd based Coco on a younger version of herself.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Catnip have bought World English rights from Ben Illis at the BIA. JACK DASH AND THE MAGIC FEATHER will be published in September 2015. The sequel, JACK DASH AND THE SUMMER BLIZZARD, will follow in 2016.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">You can follow Sophie on Twitter <a href="https://twitter.com/sophieplowden" target="_blank">here</a>.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">So please join me in welcoming Jane McLoughlin and Sophie Plowden to Team Catnip! </span>Catniphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03261357856358849018noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7092335198525556593.post-16138610969484026652014-11-27T18:04:00.000+00:002014-11-28T09:52:06.063+00:00Two new authors for Team Catnip! (Part 1)<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Today is Terribly Exciting Thursday and I am delighted to announce that Catnip have signed TWO fabulous books to be published next year!</span><br />
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This is also Terribly Exciting for me personally, as these two lovely new authors are my first signings as Catnip Editor. I feel a bit like Jose Mourinho. (I am assuming Jose also dances happily around the room when he signs new players). </span><br />
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First up is Jane McLoughlin, author of THE CROWHAM MARTYRS, a brilliantly frightening - and frighteningly brilliant - ghostly thriller for 9-12 year olds.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Maddy Deeprose is your average thirteen-year-old. If your average thirteen-year-old could see ghost. But it’s not the ghosts that are bothering Maddy. Because something far worse is lurking at Crowham Martyrs boarding school.</span><br />
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Could there really be witches and demons here at
Crowham? Are the badness and ‘fings’ real? And do all these things have
anything to do with Hannah going missing? Do they have anything to do with me?<o:p></o:p></span></i></div>
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When I was a child I was desperate to see a ghost - on trips to old houses and castles I used to lurk about in the corridors, willing the ghosts to come out and scare me. So not only am I quite jealous of main character Maddy, I've also been waiting a long time for this book. THE CROWHAM MARTYRS is genuinely spooky (I think the best measure of this is that one scene had me completely spooked while sitting on a crowded train). It has the markings of a classic ghost story - the crumbling old school building with its many secrets and the ever-fascinating theme of witches - but with its own truly original twist and truly awesome, contemporary heroine in Maddy.</span><br />
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Catnip acquired World rights (excluding US and Canada) from Sallyanne Sweeney at Mulcahy Associates. THE CROWHAM MARTYRS will be published in June 2015. </span><br />
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You can follow Jane on Twitter <a href="https://twitter.com/jbmcloughlin" target="_blank">here</a> and read her blog <a href="http://janemcloughlinwriter.blogspot.co.uk/" target="_blank">here</a>. </span><br />
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Catniphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03261357856358849018noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7092335198525556593.post-30639913560493372162014-08-26T11:20:00.003+01:002014-08-26T11:20:48.761+01:00SNEAK FREAKS PEEK! Sam Hay's Battle of the Beach Freaks<br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Sam Hay's hilarious and tons of fun new book, BATTLE OF THE BEACH FREAKS is very nearly here and so I thought I would give you all a sneak Beach Freaks peek (eek!).</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">When her aunt Gloria gets jilted, bridesmaid Jess is out of a job. So she decides to put herself up for hire. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">But Jess soon discovers that in a seaside ghost town the path to true love does not run smooth. In fact it runs spooky and very weird. Will Jess manage to outwit the dastardly Duke of Spooks and get a couple of lovesick ghosts to the church on time?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Battle of the Beach Freaks is a story set in Screaming Sands - the world's spookiest seaside ghost town! Two other Screaming Sands titles are available now, so if you fancy spot of spookiness beside the seaside while you wait for the Freaks you can discover the origins of Screaming Sands. (It all begins with a zombie donkey named Doris).</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">THE DAY THE DONKEY DROPPED DEAD</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">ATTACK OF THE BALLISTIC BLANKET</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">And here is an exclusive extract from BATTLE OF THE BEACH FREAKS!</span><br />
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<a href="http://www.scribd.com/doc/237736221/Battle-of-the-Beach-Freaks-by-Sam-Hay" style="text-decoration: underline;" title="View Battle of the Beach Freaks by Sam Hay on Scribd">Battle of the Beach Freaks by Sam Hay</a></div>
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Catniphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03261357856358849018noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7092335198525556593.post-18445177883206353322014-07-14T14:14:00.000+01:002014-07-14T14:14:56.437+01:00BATTLE OF THE BEACH FREAKS by Sam Hay: COVER REVEAL! <span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Good day Catnip friends!<br /><br />As the weather turns lovely and sunny you might find yourself taking a trip to the seaside. <br /><br />But BEWARE. <br /><br />If you find yourself in Screaming Sands, the town that's full of spirits, you may find a few strange folk lurking on the beach. Ghosts, ghouls, witches, zombie donkeys and dead circus people to be exact. If, like I do, you actually think that sounds rather fun, then you should definitely read this book:<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;">
BATTLE OF THE BEACH FREAKS by Sam Hay</div>
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<i>When her aunt gets dumped, bridesmaid Jess is out of a job. So she decides to put herself up for hire in local newspaper the Darkington Times. </i></div>
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<i>But Jess discovers that in a seaside ghost town the path to true love runs far from smooth and she soon finds herself in the middle of a scare-raising adventure.</i></div>
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<i>Can Jess outwit the dastardly Duke of Spooks and get a couple of lovesick ghosts to the church on time?</i> </div>
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(And there are two other hilarious books set in Screaming Sands, which are available now - THE DAY THE DONKEY DROPPED DEAD 9781846471575 and ATTACK OF THE BALLISTIC BLANKET 9781846471643.) <br /><br />Today I am thrilled to be revealing the TRULY BRILLIANT cover. (And I am allowed to say that, because I didn't design it, the fabulous Tim Rose did, and all illustrations are by <a href="http://www.inkymess.com/" target="_blank">Tom Morgan-Jones</a>.) To mark the occasion I thought I would interview Sam and what better place than Screaming Sands's spooky cafe, the Whistling Kettle?<br /><br />Hello Sam! Welcome to Screaming Sands, the town that’s full of spirits. (But then you know all about that, being the author and all!) Pull up a scare – sorry, I mean a chair – in the Whistling Kettle café. Would you like a drink?<br /><br /><span style="color: red;">Oh...err... Snot Chocolate please! Or maybe something stronger. A Gin & Toxic, please or perhaps a Bloody Mary. Must keep out the cold! Oh, wait... I see they do milksnakes! Clawberry please! </span></span><div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Super! While the Snot Chocolate is very tempting, I’ll have champain. So, for readers who’ve never visited, could you tell us a bit about this seaside ghost town?<br /><br /><span style="color: red;">Oh it’s great. It’s got everything the undead could ever want... rain, cold, dark - lots of dark! Did I mention the rain? Oh and then there’s spiders... Enormous spiders!!! Hey...? Where are you going? ...Don’t leave...STOP!</span><br /><span style="color: red;">[Sam rugby tackles interviewer and sellotapes her to her chair]</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">See, Catnip friends, I told this town was full of oddballs!! Could you at least feed me my champain Sam? Thank you. Now, along the oddball theme, this book is called BATTLE OF THE BEACH FREAKS. Could you introduce us to some of the freaks we are going to meet?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="color: red;">Well, there are lots of freaky ghosts, such as the Flying Leep-aleenies - the best acrobats ever to have lived. Or died! They broke their necks when a high wire trick went wrong. They still like to tumble though sometimes they get their heads and legs jumbled up, a bit. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="color: red;">There’s also the Duke of Spooks. He’s sort of dead but isn’t. And he’s really bad! He’s got really big hair, too. </span><br /><span style="color: red;">Oh and there’s Jess, the hero of the story. She’s not actually dead yet. She’s about to be a bridesmaid when the bride gets jilted. So she hires herself out to dead circus people. Jess is funny and fast and great at kicking her annoying older brother. (A useful life skill, I always think). </span><br /><span style="color: red;">Then there’s the spiders... Did I mention the spiders? </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Well that all sounds terrifying. If I wasn't sellotaped to this chair I would make a run for it. Apart from Jess - Jess sounds fun, if a bit kicky. Time to order food! I think I’ll have ghoulash with a side of dready salted crisps. What do you fancy?<br /><br /><span style="color: red;">Well, as this café is famous for i-scream, I’ll have one scoop of shock-late and a scoop of vankiller please! <br /><br />BONE APPETITE! </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">And to you! So, where did you get the idea for this story?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="color: red;">Er...um...well, [author searches the filing cabinets of her brain] ... I love the seaside, but I don’t like sun or crowds much. So I tend to go on wet, cold days when no one else is there. Seaside towns in the winter have loads of atmosphere and it’s easy to imagine a different type of customer (the pulse-less variety) hanging out there. Plus when I was a kid I always wanted to be a bridesmaid. But I didn’t know many brides so I considered hiring myself out! I used to daydream about attending weird weddings! </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">If you could be any character from your books, who would you be?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="color: red;">I love Jess. She impetuous and fiery! She does stuff without worrying about the consequences. Whereas I tend to leave the house with a giant bag bulging with stuff I might need, just in case. Stuff like spare clothes, snacks, money, passport, lucky pebbles, six blunt pencils, emergency mint cake, because you never know... Also Jess gets to fly and wear a dress made of cobwebs. Did I mention the spiders?</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="color: red;">I’d also quite like to be Brimstone, the chameleon from ATTACK OF THE BALLISTIC BLANKET (Screaming Sands book 2). He’s a shape-shifting magical lizard. Then I could be anything I want to be... dog, cat, giant woolly mammoth! Imagine!!! </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I'd love to be Brimstone! He was my favourite character in book two. And I could shape shift out of this sellotape. What about a character from another book?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="color: red;">I have an enormous sweet tooth (and loads of fillings!), so please may I be Charlie from Charlie and the Chocolate factory and then I could go and live in the factory and eat and eat until I pop and my teeth dissolve. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="color: red;">I’d also quite like to be Danny Woo from the Mysterium series by Julian Sedgwick. He’s a magician and escapologist and he can do this awesome hypnosis trick that makes people do what he wants!! That would be super useful - I could get my family to do all the chores! </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I’ve just heard that the dastardly Duke of Spooks has derailed all the trains out of Screaming Sands! Looks like we are going to be stranded here for a few years, possibly eternity (the noticeboards just say ‘delayed’ at the moment). It’s lucky you’ve brought a suitcase with your favourite book, person and luxury item inside! So what will you have accompanying you on your endless stay on this spooky beach?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="color: red;">Oh, I don’t mind staying. I love cold, wet, dark places. And spiders! And i-scream! But it’s good to have some stuff from home with me... I brought along a giant encyclopaedia, because I’m super nosey and always need to find out lots of things about a lot of stuff. I also brought Martin, our Cat. He’s not at all useful. He’s dim and scared of everything. But he is a black cat. So he’ll help me fit in with the witchy folk staying in Screaming Sands. It’s always a good idea to blend in with the crowd when you go on holiday - especially when the crowd could turn you into a two headed toad if they didn’t like the look of you. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">What would you be doing if you weren’t a writer?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="color: red;">I’d quite like to be magic. Is that a job? <br /><br />No. Okay... Librarian, then. But only if I can work in a small, dark, dusty old library that no-one ever visits, then I could just read all day, unbothered by people!<br /><br />Alternatively I love pencils, so could I be a pencil tester in a pencil factory please? </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Do you have a favourite place to write? And where will you write now you are stranded in Screaming Sands FOREVER?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="color: red;">I can write anywhere. I’m not fussy. I don’t go out much, so most of my books are written in my messy cupboard. It’s small and dark and I’ve got so much paper and junk stacked up on the desk that I can barely see my computer screen! I have to shove it off each morning, before I start work. Actually, I’d quite like to stay here in the café... I can have endless cups of coffee and buckets of i-scream! Actually, my tummy’s rumbling. Can I have another sundae? I’ve heard the ‘Doris’ is very good. Want to try one? Did you know it is named after a dead donkey?</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I did! I read all about Doris in THE DAY THE DONKEY DROPPED DEAD. She's my all-time favourite zombie donkey and I lurk around Screaming Sands hoping I'll catch a glimpse of her! Oh, I’ve just heard they’ve put on a replacement bus service. You can go home! Don’t worry about the bill – the folks at the Whistling Kettle Café say it’s on the house as thanks for the screamingly funny books you are writing about the town. But before you leave, could you introduce the brand new cover for Battle of the Beach Freaks?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="color: red;">Sure. Here goes... What do you reckon? The magic pixies at Catnip have done an awesome job, haven’t they??!!</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">I quite agree! Those pixies are terribly helpful. And here's an extra surprise - we are going to show you the back cover too! Isn't the Screaming Sands sign lovely? They cleaned it especially for the photo. That's it from me for now - Sam never untied me and now everyone has left the cafe and turned the lights off. I hope none of the ghosts come to get me.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">What's that noise?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">ARGHHH!!!</span><div>
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Catniphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03261357856358849018noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7092335198525556593.post-4204355071297145442014-07-10T11:40:00.000+01:002014-07-10T11:40:20.197+01:00STARRING KITTY BLOG TOUR: Exclusive first look<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Hello and Happy Thursday!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">At the beginning of the week we had to announce the very frustrating news that the fabulous STARRING KITTY by the also fabulous Keris Stainton had been held up and wouldn't be arriving for another two weeks. These faces all round at Catnip Towers: >:( <br />(Particularly for me - I have the proof cover and pages on my desk and want to share!)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br />So to stop me running out into the street and reading the book aloud to strangers, Keris has something rather exciting for you all while we wait for Kitty to arrive - the Starring Kitty blog tour! There are ELEVEN posts for you to read and the chance to find out a bit more about Kitty, and her best friends Hannah and Sunny before you are properly introduced to them on 24 July.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">To kick off the tour, I am rather excited to be posting the opening chapters of the book. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">So I hope you enjoy the chance to meet Kitty, Sunny and Hannah (plus someone else rather special) and follow the tour for plenty more fun Kitty-related stuff!</span></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Sometimes the greatest love stories happen behind the scenes… </span></i></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Kitty's keeping secrets. Like how she's struggling to cope with her mum's illness. And how she's falling for the girl with the purpley-red hair... A fun film competition with her friends Sunny and Hannah seems like the perfect distraction. But then Dylan wants to be more than Kitty's secret. Is Kitty ready to let her two worlds meet or will she risk losing Dylan forever?</span></i></div>
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<a href="http://www.scribd.com/doc/233325898/Starring-Kitty-by-Keris-Stainton" style="text-decoration: underline;" title="View Starring Kitty by Keris Stainton on Scribd">Starring Kitty by Keris Stainton</a></div>
<iframe class="scribd_iframe_embed" data-aspect-ratio="undefined" data-auto-height="false" frameborder="0" height="600" id="doc_17048" scrolling="no" src="//www.scribd.com/embeds/233325898/content?start_page=1&view_mode=scroll&show_recommendations=true" width="100%"></iframe>Catniphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03261357856358849018noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7092335198525556593.post-70564177284662209362014-06-08T16:44:00.001+01:002014-06-08T16:50:01.247+01:00Romance Festival 2014: Interview with KERIS STAINTON<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_ah-DowkHV9IG0uRb1HMpBv1Zd1EgJYa_T9zsGtvEHRzvGqoPvE9FivBFwq-IJC7tPo7OxeITcwxMb4PevA6Wbz5FUZPGhmXM2w5bdtX6S9Jc45NEYMeYS56y_ptdaQRIdO7IPZgvPQKg/s1600/romancefestival_red_final-590x275.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_ah-DowkHV9IG0uRb1HMpBv1Zd1EgJYa_T9zsGtvEHRzvGqoPvE9FivBFwq-IJC7tPo7OxeITcwxMb4PevA6Wbz5FUZPGhmXM2w5bdtX6S9Jc45NEYMeYS56y_ptdaQRIdO7IPZgvPQKg/s1600/romancefestival_red_final-590x275.jpg" height="186" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 13px;">To celebrate this weekend's Digital Romance Festival, fabulous Catnip author Keris Stainton and I are going on a blog date. I put on my best, most romantic outfit and my most seductive facial expression (I will leave you to imagine that) and then I locked Keris in my interview room (currently decorated in hearts and renamed The Catnip Lurve Cafe).</span></span></h2>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">We talked about Keris's heart-melting and fabulous new book Starring Kitty (out 10 July) and then we played a game of 'Make Your Own Romance Novel'. Enjoy and feel the lurve!</span></h2>
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<br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 13px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: x-small;"><b>Hello Keris and welcome to the Catnip Lurve Cafe! Feel free to have a coffee or one of my homemade Catnip love buns. </b></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><b><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: x-small;">So first, tell me a bit about you and Starring Kitty.</span></b></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Just give me a minute to stop sniggering at "love
buns"... Hello! I'm Keris, I live in Lancashire with my husband and two
small-ish sons. I'm obsessed with American TV and Twitter. My new book,
Starring Kitty, is about three friends who enter a film competition and what
happens when one girl (Kitty) finds she has feelings for another girl... </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<!--EndFragment--><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><b><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">Do you have a storyline in mind or do you create your characters and see what they do?</span></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white;"><b><br /></b></span></span>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">I hardly ever have any story in mind. Maybe a tiny bit. I
almost always start with a character or setting. I start writing and after a
few thousand words, panic that the book's not about anything. Eventually, I
start to see patterns and connections and ideas pop up (usually when I'm in the
shower or washing the dishes) and, eventually, it's all fine. This happens
every single time, but I never get used to it. </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<!--EndFragment--><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><b><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">Tell us a bit about Kitty, Hannah and Sunny and how you came up with them.</span></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><b><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222;" /></b>Kitty is a worrier, dealing with her mum's illness and her
fears about her feelings for this girl she barely knows. Hannah seems much more
confident, but she's the kind of girl who keeps everything inside... until it
bursts out. Sunny puts herself under a lot of pressure, not least because she
wants to keep everyone happy. They've been friends since primary school and
live in a slightly faded seaside town.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">I can't really remember how I came up with them. Kitty and
Hannah were partly inspired by a photo I saw in a magazine. All three were
partly inspired by girls I've met on school visits. And one of them was also
partly inspired by a book blogger I know and love. So they're a bit
Frankenstein's monster-ish. But in a good way. </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<!--EndFragment--><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><b><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">I felt like Kitty's relationships with her best friends were just as important as her relationship with Dylan. Is this something you thought about?</span></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><b><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222;" /></b>Oh absolutely. I still remember those intense teen
friendships, how you can spend all your time together, but still not
necessarily know what's really going on with each other. Something I think
about a lot is how when I was a teen, I was often scared to talk to my friends
about more serious things because I wasn't sure whether they were
"normal" or not, I didn't know how they were going to react. You
don't want to risk the friendship.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<!--EndFragment--><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><b><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">Something I've found hard in writing romance is building the sense that two people have fallen in love when you have only the length of a book! (Whereas we had plenty of episodes to make us really care about Pacey and Joey or Tim and Dawn). Do you have any tips for romance writers for creating those couples that the reader roots for?</span></b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Ummm... no? I'm glad you've mentioned Tim and Dawn though,
because that relationship definitely inspires me when I'm writing. Just the
little looks, noticing things about each other. I think that makes all the
difference. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b style="color: #222222; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">I'll be cryptic to avoid spoilers, but my favourite Kitty/Dylan moment involves Google Maps! Do you have a favourite scene or one that you think really sums up their relationship?</span></b><br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><b style="color: #222222; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><br /></b>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Aw, I love that scene too - thanks! (Also, I spend a lot of
time "travelling" via Google Maps.) I have a soft spot for the bit
near the beginning where they meet on the beach. Kitty's discovering how
expressing her feelings (by throwing rocks) can actually make her feel better.
And Dylan jumps off the wall to the beach, rather than clambering down
cautiously, like Kitty does. That probably doesn't make any sense to anyone who
hasn't read the book...</span></span><br />
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<b style="color: #222222; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">The next book is Spotlight on Sunny, out early next year. Can you give us a taster of what is to come?</span></b></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><span style="background-color: white;"><b><br /></b></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Er. You know above when I said about not knowing what the
book's about? And panicking a bit? That's where I am with SOS (!) at the
moment. Even you saying "early next year" gave me the wiggins. Also,
almost anything I say will be spoilery. I can say that there's a new setting
and some new characters, including a very lovely boy and a not so lovely girl.</span><br />
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<b style="color: #222222; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">MAKE YOUR OWN ROMANCE</span></b></div>
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><b style="color: #222222; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><br /></b>
<b style="color: #222222; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Now we are going to play a little game of Make Your Own Romance! We are each going to select our favourite fictional ingredients to make our ultimate love story recipe. </b></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><span style="background-color: white;"><b>Favourite couple (I will allow TV shows as well as books):</b></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Keris:</span> </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Coach and Tami Taylor from Friday Night Lights. Adore them
both. </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><span style="background-color: white;">Liz: </span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><span style="background-color: white;">Georgia and Dave the Laugh from the Georgia Nicolson Diaries by Louise Rennison. I spent ten books wanting Georgia to forget about the Sex Gods and the Lurve Gods and realise Dave and his clown nose would be the one to have her laughing away on a fast camel. </span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><span style="background-color: white;"><b>Supporting characters - you need to populate the book with some of your favourite fictional romance characters otherwise the main couple will get lonely. These can be hilarious characters, evil people to stir things up, people you really fancy - anyone! Please pick two (although more are allowed).</b></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><span style="background-color: white;">Keris: </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Because I just mentioned Friday Night Lights and then you
just mentioned "people you really fancy" I literally can't think of
anyone but Tim Riggins. The most perfectly gorgeous misunderstood bad boy.
*fans self*</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Amy Poehler is my dream best friend, so I'll have her too.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white;">Liz:</span></span></span><br />
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><span style="background-color: white;">Lydia from Pride and Prejudice (because she seems like fun), the nurse from Romeo and Juliet because none of my characters so far are very organised and she can make sure the plot stays on track, and Dawson Leery from Dawson's Creek, to analyse everything and because if things got all intense and emotional, he could break the tension and make everyone laugh by doing this:</span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><span style="background-color: white;"><br /></span></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><br /></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><b>Favourite romantic moment</b></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Keris: </span></div>
<span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0); font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Keris: *tries to think of a book* *fails* The declaration at the end of When Harry Met Sally (my favourite film): "I came here tonight because when you realize you want to spend the rest of your life with somebody, you want the rest of your life to start as soon as possible.”</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Liz: Lizzie and Darcy's eyes meeting over the piano in the BBC Pride and Prejudice. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><b>Favourite kiss</b></span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Keris:</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Helvetica Neue Light, HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;"> </span><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">When Nick and Jess first kissed on New Girl. I rewound it and watched it again. And again. And again. That was a heck of a kiss. I also always always well up when Rachel crosses the room to kiss Ross in The One With the Prom Video. </span></span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Liz: Ron and Hermione. I think I actually yelped mid-read. </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><b>Favourite love song (to be in the soundtrack when it is made into a film)</b></span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Keris: </span><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Weekend in New England by Barry Manilow. Shut up.</span> </span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">Liz: All I Want is You by Barry Louis Polisar</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;"><span style="background-color: white;"><b>Happily ever after (or not) - favourite ending</b></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white;">Keris: </span></span><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0); font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Even though I have some issues with the film (waah for her beautiful shop!), I always cry at the end of You've Got Mail. "I wanted it to be you." Sigh. I'm such a Nora Ephron fangirl. </span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Liz: </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">THE. NOTEBOOK. Although it was difficult to see because of MY SOUL SPILLING OUT OF MY EYES.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><b>Keris' ultimate romance:</b></span></span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0); font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Eric and Tami are just friends (they claim) and spend their time coaching a football team, misunderstanding their bad boy friend Tim and talking to each other on the Internet without realising it's them. Their friend Amy, who works in local government, turns a local quarry pit into a football pitch and to celebrate locks Eric and Tami in a cupboard. They refuse to kiss, but then they do kiss later and it is the BEST KISS EVER and Barry Manilow's Weekend in England is playing. Eric runs across the football pitch to get to Tami's new year party and makes a passionate speech. Then she realises he is the man from the Internet and Phoebe says 'he's her lobster!'</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><b>Liz's ultimate romance:</b></span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif; font-size: x-small;">Georgia and Dave's eyes meet over a piano and they start to fall in love, but are distracted when Georgia's sister Lydia, helped by an organised nurse, elopes with a sobbing Dawson Leery and shames the family. Georgia and Dave get past that and finally kiss in the middle of a war with an evil wizard (while the Juno soundtrack plays). Then it ends in heartbreaking Notebook fashion, with the crying led by Dawson. </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">What do you think of our homemade romances? Have we missed any key romantic bits? Let us know your chosen bits below! </span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">There are lots of lovely love-shaped things going on right in the Romance Festival - just head <a href="http://www.romance-festival.com/" target="_blank">here</a> to take a look and follow all the action on Twitter with #Romance14. Also check out Lydia Syson's amazing blog post on putting the political in to romance - <a href="http://www.lydiasyson.com/celebrating-romance/#more-3425" target="_blank">here</a>! </span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">And look out for Dylan and Kitty (described by one blogger as 'ridiculously cute') - coming your way on 10 July!</span></span><br />
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Catniphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03261357856358849018noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7092335198525556593.post-33155080712139432922014-05-22T09:22:00.002+01:002014-05-22T09:22:36.074+01:00INTERVIEW WITH A WEIRDO: Publication day musings with Natasha Desborough<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><b>Welcome to the Day of the Bumskulls! </b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><b>This is day that WEIRDOS VS BUMSKULLS (by right weirdo Natasha Desborough) is unleashed upon the world. </b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;">WEIRDOS VS. BUMSKULLS by Natasha Desborough </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Catnip 9781846471827 £6.99</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><i>Funnier, weirder, ruder - Blossom is back. </i></span><br />
<i style="background-color: white; line-height: 18.200000762939453px;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Blossom and Petrina, school weirdos, are on a (natural) high after their band Camel Toe shared the bill with International Rock God Josh Raven. Now they have the chance to perform at a real festival when they enter Battle of the Bands</span></i></div>
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<i style="background-color: white; line-height: 18.200000762939453px;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">But then Blossom meets Vince (AKA MANCAKE), sexy lead singer of rival band Bumskulls. And supposedly loved-up Petrina has been spotted staring (dribbling) at the bass player... </span></i></div>
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<i style="background-color: white; line-height: 18.200000762939453px;"><span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">Amidst a churning whirlpool of love, sex and music, can the Weirdos keep their quest for musical domination on track or will it all go norks up?</span></i></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Trebuchet MS', sans-serif;"><b>To celebrate the publication of this hilariously funny, delightfully rude and utterly brilliant book (which I am ridiculously proud to be able to publish), I thought it would be nice to interview Natasha and get an insight into her strange mind. I knew she would be difficult to pin down now she's a super-awesome author busy doing author things, but all it took was a few emails, some phone calls and a threatening letter that I wrote in my own blood and then Natasha kindly agreed. </b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><b>So I channeled my inner Jeremy Paxman and asked the deep, probing questions that everyone needs to know. </b> </span></div>
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /><b>1. Hello Natasha and welcome to the Catnip blog! I've locked the door so you can't leave. Could you please start by describing yourself in three words. (None of them can be swears.) </b><br /><br />A bit odd.<br /><br /><b>2. Let's play Snog Marry Avoid. We'll start off with some characters from the book.<br /><br />Josh Raven, Vince Aston-Granger and Matthew Ludlow</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><b>(AKA an international rock god, a local sexy MANCAKE and Matthew Ludlow.) </b><br /><br />OK, first of all, let’s pretend that I’m not a withered, saggy middle-aged woman so that this answer doesn’t sound too revolting. Are we ready? OK - I’d snog Vince – as I dreamed him up to look like just the kind of boy I would have fancied when I was sixteen. He’d never have looked at me back then as I was a chubby, pale-faced teenager who dressed like a farmer. Then I’d marry Matthew as he is LOVELY and I’d avoid Josh Raven because he’s a rock star and having kissed a few in my time, I know there is no point and I might catch a cold sore.<br /><br /><b>3. Now we'll try it with some proper famous celebs.<br /><br />Dave Grohl, Robbie Williams, Dougie Poynter</b><br /><br />This is TOO easy. I’d marry Dave Grohl. When I interviewed him for my breakfast show on Xfm he gave me a kiss ON THE LIPS (though he didn’t give me a cold sore) and then gave me a special gift (which I still have and keep under my bed). I interpreted this as a sign of his love for me and I am ready to divorce my current husband whenever Dave says the word. Then I’d snog Dougie Poynter from McFly because he is GORGEOUS and looks like I imagined Vince would in Bumskulls (look at the Bumskulls cover. It’s Dougie). And finally, I’d avoid Robbie Williams because he looks like a big hairy baby. I’d have had a rethink if it had been Jason Orange instead. He’s HOT.<br /><br /><b>4. Would you rather… have trotters for hands or the face of a pig?</b><br /><br />I had the face of a pig when I was a teenager. I had a porky face that went bright pink when I was embarrassed or fancied someone (which was ALL the time). My nose was a bit too long and pointed to be an actual snout, but otherwise I could easily have passed as a pig in DMs and a lumberjack shirt. I survived the ‘pig face’ phase once and I could do it again so I’ll take that option and give the trotters a miss.<br /><br /><b>5. Now imagine you are Blossom at the beginning of WEIRDOS VS. BUMSKULLS. Would you rather… win Battle of the Bands or get a hot sexy rock star boyfriend?</b><br /><br />Win Battle of the Bands of course. That way all the hot rock star boys would want to snog me anyway. I’d have the best of both worlds. And loads of cold sores.<br /><br /><b>6. Let’s play I Have Never. I’ll go first. I have never strapped any processed foods to my chest. How about you?</b><br /><br />I see what you’re doing there. You know that the scene in WEIRDOS VS QUIMBOIDS where Blossom ends up with two pieces of processed ham Sellotaped to her chest is based on an event from my own real life. You obviously want me to spill the beans. Well, I can’t. It’s top secret. Let’s just say that the real event was much, much worse than the scene in Quimboids and that the ham wasn’t Sellotaped to my chest. We’ll leave it there shall we? Next question.<br /><br /><b>7. YOU ARE ON A DESERT ISLAND. Which book, luxury item and person would you have with you?</b><br /><br />Okay, I’m going to strike you a deal here. Can I swap the book for a couple of great Bluetooth speakers? Because my luxury item would be an iPod crammed full of new music and classic albums. Is it bad that as an author I’d rather take music than a book with me? But I would be making up stories in my head to amuse myself too. And as for the person? Well, I’d need another music lover to chat for hours/days/years about music. I suppose that’s what I do with my husband anyway, but I fancy a change. So Dave Grohl please. No, actually Chris Packham from Springwatch. He’s lovely and grumpy and I quite fancy him at the moment. He’ll do nicely.<br /><br /><b>8. YOU ARE IN PRISON. What crime did you commit to get there?</b><br /><br />I once said a really, really bad swear word on primetime live TV and during the horribly severe telling off that I received afterwards, I thought they might send me to prison. So perhaps I would go to prison for doing bad swears. My swears are pretty badass. <br /><br /><b>9. If you could be any character from your books, who would you be? And how about from someone else’s book? </b><br /><br />I’m already in the Weirdos books. I’m sort of spread over a few of the characters. A bit of Blossom, a dash of Walter and a LOT of Matthew. If I could be a character in someone else’s book – well I hate myself for saying this but I’d like to find out what it’s like to be cool and have hot boyfriends. So I’d be one of the twins from the Sweet Valley High series. But just for one day and I wouldn’t want to be Elizabeth, the boring frigid one. I’d be Jessica so that I could snog the boy with the moustache on the cover of ‘All Night Long’. Is it weird that I once actually fancied a drawing of a fictional boy?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><b>I wanted the Catnip blog readers to be able to make an informed decision on this, so I have found the boy with the moustache. </b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><br /><b>10. Finally, could you describe WEIRDOS VS. BUMSKULLS in a sentence? (All the words must be swears.) (Joke.)</b><br /><br />I’m not going to lie – I just spent over an hour trying to answer this stupid question. And you know what? I can’t do it. The best I came up with was ‘A weirdo encounters a massive bush’ which is true but I don’t think really does the book justice. WEIRDOS VS. BUMSKULLS is funny, rude and I’m extremely proud of it.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><b>And we at Catnip are proud to a ridiculous degree that we are able to bring the Weirdos out into the world. </b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><b>If you haven't already seen what Natasha was up to before I locked her in my interview cupboard, then do go and check these out!<br /><br />Tuesday 13th May </b><a href="http://www.overflowinglibrary.com/2014/05/weirdos-vs-bumskulls-extract.html" target="_blank">SNEAK PEEK chapter extract</a> on The Overflowing Library</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><b>Thursday 15th May </b><a href="http://www.wondrousreads.com/2014/05/exclusive-weirdos-vs-bumskulls-song.html?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter" target="_blank">Reveal of 'Nork-Grabbing Quimboid'</a> the new single by Blossom's band, Camel Toe, on Wondrous Reads</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><b>Tuesday 20th May </b><a href="http://www.readaraptor.co.uk/2014/05/weirdos-vs-bumskulls-guest-post.html" target="_blank">Character playlists</a> - listen to the soundtracks for all the main characters in WEIRDOS VS. BUMSKULLS on Readaraptor</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;">And keep an eye out next week for:<br /><br /><b>Tuesday 27th May</b> Battle of the Bands! Musical talents from the character playlists battle it out in front of judge Natasha Desborough and hosted by <a href="http://www.sisterspooky.co.uk/" target="_blank">SisterSpooky</a></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif;"><b>Thursday 29th May</b> Online dating - Weirdos style with Natasha Desborough and <a href="http://www.yayeahyeah.com/" target="_blank">YA Yeah Yeah</a>.</span>Catniphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03261357856358849018noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7092335198525556593.post-38422698166993168812014-04-17T18:00:00.000+01:002014-04-17T18:00:08.822+01:00COVER REVEAL! WEIRDOS vs BUMSKULLS by Natasha Desborough<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Hello and happy Thursday!<br /><br />We on the good ship Catnip are very excited to reveal (along with lots of lovely bloggers) the cover for WEIRDOS VS BUMSKULLS by Natasha Desborough, the hilarious follow up to last year</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">’</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">s WEIRDOS VS QUIMBOIDS. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Flippin</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">’</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> awesome illustrator/designer Vicky Barker (http://vicky-barker.co.uk/) has come out with another cracking cover . . . and here it is:</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Funnier, weirder ruder . . . Blossom is back.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Blossom and Petrina, school weirdos, are on a (natural) high after their band Camel Toe share the bill with INTERNATIONAL ROCK GOD Josh Raven. Now they have the chance to perform at a real festival when they enter Battle of the Bands. <br /><br />But then Blossom meets Vince, lead singer of rival band Bumskulls and TOTAL MANCAKE. And supposedly loved-up Petrina has been spotted staring (dribbling) at the bass player. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">In a churning whirlpool of love, sex and music, can the Weirdos keep their quest for Musical Domination on track? Or is everything about to go norks up?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">In the next few weeks there will be lots of exciting Bumskulls material around (including the brand new Camel Toe single, NORK-GRABBING QUIMBOID, described by a Radio 1 producer as </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">‘</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">The Horrors + The XX on huge amounts of steroids</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">’</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">) Get ready to laugh your bumskulls off!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Words of praise and wonder for WEIRDOS VS QUIMBOIDS:</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">‘This is the third most important publication in the world after The Beano and Steve Brookstein - My Struggle. It’s </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">also flipping funny. In fact, it should come with a free pair of socks because you’ll laugh off your current ones.’</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>Greg James, Radio 1 DJ</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">‘I LOVE it! I’m hooked...think Georgia Nicolson meets Adrian Mole. B.U.M. is my new literary heroine – sort of – a </span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">bloomin</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">’</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> delightful read!’ <br /><b>Nemone Metaxas, BBC 6 Music DJ</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">‘This book is as good as all the others I haven’t read.’ <b>Karl Pilkington</b> </span></div>
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Catniphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03261357856358849018noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7092335198525556593.post-64797988679485471132013-12-13T12:01:00.000+00:002013-12-13T12:01:23.126+00:00It's goodbye from me... & hello from her<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
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<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Hello. it's been a while, sorry about that. Anyway, I (Non) have news:</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">I'm leaving Catnip Publishing at Christmas. It’s been a truly fantastic five years working with a range of wonderful and talented authors, building relationships with agents, booksellers and reviewers and hunting out new books to bring to new audiences. It has also been five years of very hard work, which has only become harder the more things I’ve tried to commit to outside of the office.</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">In 2014 my first book is coming out with Walker, and my first child will start school. I am lucky to have the opportunity to do some<i>thing</i> I love (writing and talking about books) on a schedule that will fit around some<i>one</i> I love. It may not be for ever – no one knows how hard it is to make it work as a full-time author than someone who’s worked in the industry already – but for the next two years, that’s what I’ll be doing.</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">So from the end of next week (<a href="x-apple-data-detectors://0" x-apple-data-detectors-result="0" x-apple-data-detectors-type="calendar-event" x-apple-data-detectors="true">20</a><sup><a href="x-apple-data-detectors://0" x-apple-data-detectors-result="0" x-apple-data-detectors-type="calendar-event" x-apple-data-detectors="true">th</a></sup><a href="x-apple-data-detectors://0" x-apple-data-detectors-result="0" x-apple-data-detectors-type="calendar-event" x-apple-data-detectors="true">December</a>), the utterly awesome Liz Bankes will be the person behind the twitter feed @catnipbooks, the (maybe slightly less neglected) blog and all the important editorial decisions. Liz is fantastically knowledgeable about all things children's bookish, efficient and inspired – with a great eye for comedy – and I have no doubt that everyone who’s been a proud and passionate supporter of Catnip will get behind her as much as they once did me. Catnip has some extremely exciting books coming out next year with long-established Catnip authors such as Joan Lingard, Patricia Leitch, Margaret Bateson-Hill and Sam Hay; second books from this year’s debut authors Jason Beresford and Natasha Desborough and two wonderful authors to welcome to the list: the ever-popular Keris Stainton and debut author Anne Booth.</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">I will still be very much shouting about children’s books on twitter as @NonPratt (and on any other forum if I get half a chance), and I’m sure you’re all forgive me if I retain a slight Catnip-bias.</span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Merry Christmas – and here’s to new eras.</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">NoN</span></span></div>
Catniphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03261357856358849018noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7092335198525556593.post-47857469824737102692013-09-25T15:18:00.000+01:002013-09-25T15:18:00.227+01:00What a Weird night...<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Last night we welcomed a book into the world, dousing its head in Prosecco and christening it: </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">WEIRDOS VS QUIMBOIDS (actually, we christened it before that, but for the sake of the metaphor...)</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPNaI6Ys6InxeLBVpCeIYlwS2gV729JntBBYuiK2syWoAQk8Du2ve3SCRX6GqqEcQKXm9LMou8K_qG9DOaPEfgqnS8NC0lRTuIsqHPVi3gjaZDN3vHu_zLkprZMmzE1JS53IerJ0gzKs2N/s1600/Non+Vicky+and+Tash.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPNaI6Ys6InxeLBVpCeIYlwS2gV729JntBBYuiK2syWoAQk8Du2ve3SCRX6GqqEcQKXm9LMou8K_qG9DOaPEfgqnS8NC0lRTuIsqHPVi3gjaZDN3vHu_zLkprZMmzE1JS53IerJ0gzKs2N/s400/Non+Vicky+and+Tash.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Editor Non (looking like a massive quimboid), Illustrator Vicky & Author Tash</td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">I won't bother with a write-up of the event itself - there are some fantastic ones already live complete with a reading from Nastasha Desborough (the author) on <a href="http://teenlibrarian.co.uk/2013/09/24/weirdos-and-quimboids-launch-event/" target="_blank">Teen Librarian</a>, or for a thorough overview not only of night, but also Catnip and the list (as well as some truly beautiful photos) head over to <a href="http://www.achuka.co.uk/blog/weirdos-vs-quimboids-a-catnip-launch/" target="_blank">Achuka</a>.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"></span><br /><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">There was a lovely mix of people there - smooth-voiced Radio people (as promised on the invitation), family, friends, industry types and bloggers and it was lovely to see a lot of hard work turn into a fantastic evening. Thank you all very much for coming, those who could make it - had you not, it would just have been me (Non), Liz and Tash drinking our way through the bar tab and cackling at our favourite bits of the book. (Not that different from the editorial meetings, then...)</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">We also ran a wee twitter game yesterday, encouraging people to share their stories of teenage weirdness using #teenweirdo - we printed these on sheets that were spread about the room and then, at the end of the night, we picked a guest of honour (Ella, AN ACTUAL TEENAGER) to pick three winners:</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixfwqp_tfmuanV7t8oJdZU2Yo2_yTSIIMgh3FTr4UyqL3TMn_uNVQvSw4wkU69CPsWYQ5K6UzEFP794l3g3iwHdwCTdyW9QrOkgIzrsCcjhzEtg5SqG48l-2kFz4bbpV5klqvDHu8wYqmQ/s1600/winning+s.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixfwqp_tfmuanV7t8oJdZU2Yo2_yTSIIMgh3FTr4UyqL3TMn_uNVQvSw4wkU69CPsWYQ5K6UzEFP794l3g3iwHdwCTdyW9QrOkgIzrsCcjhzEtg5SqG48l-2kFz4bbpV5klqvDHu8wYqmQ/s320/winning+s.jpg" width="238" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Look what you've won, you weirdos!</td></tr>
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<span style="color: #a64d79; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">"I was annoyed that everyone else had an allergy and I didn't, so I pretended I was allergic to oranges - until someone pointed out that I drank orange juice, at which point I claimed I was only allergic to the peel." @Char_Ronald</span><br />
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<span style="color: #674ea7; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">"At youth club I persuaded everyone that there was a mummified cat in the loft that we had to find and “release”" @KatyjaMoran</span><br />
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<span style="color: #6aa84f; font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">"I used to spend lunchtimes trying to hypnotise myself" @BBookLBook</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">There are more hilarious stories of teen weirdness on twitter, some gathered from the Catnip team as well as the Bounce bunch, so feel free to check out #teenweirdo - if you feel compelled to contribute, we might do another giveaway next week...</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">In the meantime, you can find out more at <a href="http://www.natashadesborough.co.uk/" target="_blank">www.natashadesborough.co.uk </a>and if you feel so compelled, why not hunt down copies of WEIRDOS VS QUIMBOIDS in the wild, capture them and drag them home for devouring? You will not be disappointed.</span></div>
Catniphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03261357856358849018noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7092335198525556593.post-25925811213084105342013-09-06T12:46:00.001+01:002013-09-06T12:46:41.059+01:00New blog post! New book! New Author!<span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #333333; display: inline !important; float: none; font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', Times, serif; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 22px; orphans: auto; text-align: left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px;"></span><br />
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Non Pratt at Catnip Books has signed Anne Booth's GIRL WITH A WHITE DOG, a novel that "will change hearts and minds".</div>
<span style="background-color: white; font-weight: normal;">Catnip has UK and Commonwealth rights through Anne Clark of the Anne Clark Literary Agency, and will publish in March 2014.</span><br style="font-weight: normal;" /><br style="font-weight: normal;" /><i style="font-weight: normal;">Girl with a White Dog</i><span style="background-color: white; font-weight: normal;"> is the story of Jessie, who desperately wishes for a dog. But when her gran gets a white Alsatian puppy, a mystery starts to unfold. At school Jessie is studying the Nazis' rise to power, and she starts to make connections, uncovering something long-buried, troubling and somehow linked to another girl, and another white dog . . .</span><br style="font-weight: normal;" /><br style="font-weight: normal;" /><span style="background-color: white; font-weight: normal;">Pratt said: "Jessie's voice is entirely authentic as a child on the cusp of realising how the world works. Anne's passion for her characters and the themes that inspired her to write this book bubbles fiercely under the surface of a beautifully told story - one with the power to move me, and the sales team, to tears." </span></div>
Catniphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03261357856358849018noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7092335198525556593.post-90164023581526120652013-06-11T13:49:00.001+01:002013-06-11T13:49:34.613+01:00PUBLISHING vs. THE WORLD: PART I<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Hi. So. There's been a decent-size discussion of late about book covers and gender: Maureen Johnson’s <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/05/07/coverflip-maureen-johnson_n_3231935.html" target="_blank">cover flip</a> was a very persuasive exercise
in demonstrating how books by female authors are marketed differently from
how they would be if penned by a man. James Dawson’s subsequent <a href="http://www.jamesdawsonbooks.com/2013/06/gendered-covers-and-cover-flipping/" target="_blank">blogpost</a> on how his own covers have been jacketed nudged our attention towards
the fact that the jacketing of book covers has less to do with the gender of
the author, and more to do with that of the target audience.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Surely the publishers who jacket the books </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">(as well as the people who write the insides)</span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">believe that </span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">boys and girls want the same thing from a book? A
good story; well-drawn characters the reader can identify with; accessible language. Well, yes, I think publishers do believe that – these are the cornerstones of commissioning, but even before an editor makes an offer on a book, he or she must think of how to sell this to the
reps, who must think of how to sell it to the booksellers, who must think about
selling it to their customers…</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">And there’s the rub.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Despite the fact that the books are written for a young
readers, they need to be sold to adults. Admittedly, teens have significant
buying power, but they are still of an age where the adults around them are
trying to nurture a love of reading by buying books for them. Obviously the
younger you go, the greater the influence of adults over the contents of a
child’s bookcase.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">No one in my office, or who I follow on Twitter, or who I
meet at book launches would dream of defining a potential reader by their
gender (or race, or sexuality), but this is only a small subset of the
purchasing population: what about the sales assistant who told my daughter,
“But those are boys shoes”? Or the friend who apologised for only having boys
toys for her to play with? Or every stranger in a queue who tells me I have a
very pretty son because the 'son' in question is wearing combats…?<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Publishers aren’t just selling to those of us engaged in this
debate. They’re selling to those who aren’t. By asking them to move more
strongly towards gender-neutral jacketing (which, FYI, mostly seems to suggest eliminating pink – a subject to be discussed in another blog post) we’re asking the industry to forego
income in favour of ideals. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">I like to think books can change the world, but people still
have to read them. If adults who want pink books for their little princesses
can’t buy them, does that mean they buy something else pink instead. Something
that isn’t a book? </span><o:p></o:p></div>
Catniphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03261357856358849018noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7092335198525556593.post-65459276165499107922013-05-28T21:10:00.000+01:002013-05-28T21:10:00.345+01:00Keeping it pro, yo.<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">So here's the thing:</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">I've noticed of late that my twitter feed has entirely degenerated into whimsical musings about the Hot Postie, photos of cats, updates of what children's book character my small child is currently obsessed with, and <u>far too few</u> tweets of a professional nature.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">I'm pretty sure that many of the people who come to follow @catnipbooks have done so because they want to know about how a small independent publishing house works and really, I owe them a bit more than the occasional bit of publishing opinion. (And a lot fewer of the Ryan Gosling links...)</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Although Catnip used to consist solely of me – and therefore my thoughts – we've recently expanded to include another member of staff. The fantastic Liz Bankes (blogger over at <a href="http://lizbankes.blogspot.co.uk/" target="_blank">Books, bonnets & full frontal blogging</a> and author of the excellent YA debut <i>Irresistible</i>, published by Piccadilly Press) joined in February as an Assistant Editor. Since then, we've been working hard divvying up Important Editorial Duties and hatching Awesome Publicity Plans in a way I've never been in a position to do until now.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">This marks a new era for Catnip – we've DOUBLED the workforce – and we're taking it up a level. On every level. Including our facebook page, this blog and twitter. These things will happen piecemeal, because despite DOUBLING our workforce, there's still a huge amount for two people to do. But I think a first, easy step is for us to change the way @catnipbooks is used.</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQd3z_rZiRfB_kuzYzrssjMOtKpI4RJhkn70yPTK66IhBhZc4PijNHx83PsImatlvxsoTAjRTlb2IBXOqsq_xumU7I4VnVU6QJtIx-Bh4o-7lBSHztfQWqH9nC9N5T7LcsZ4ar37-ev8wE/s1600/TWITTER+FEED+CHANGE.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><img border="0" height="275" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQd3z_rZiRfB_kuzYzrssjMOtKpI4RJhkn70yPTK66IhBhZc4PijNHx83PsImatlvxsoTAjRTlb2IBXOqsq_xumU7I4VnVU6QJtIx-Bh4o-7lBSHztfQWqH9nC9N5T7LcsZ4ar37-ev8wE/s320/TWITTER+FEED+CHANGE.jpg" width="320" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">From now on, the twitter feed will be focusing on the things we think people really want to know about:</span><br />
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<li><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Insight into editorial life</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Tips on submissions and writing</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">News on exciting new projects</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Opinions on The State of Publishing</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Sharing interesting links from other publishers, editors, writers, illustrators and bloggers (and anyone else, really – you don't have to be connected to books to be interesting!)</span></li>
</ul>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">It might be me behind the tweets – or it might be Liz. We're still people with personalities and we'll happily banter with other users (in which case, we'll make sure you know who you're talking to!), but we'll try and keep it focused on books, rather than buff postmen.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">(And for those of you who will be devastated by a lack of Hot Postie updates, who want to know some of my more shouty opinions on publishing and books and who might be interested in my writing as well as my editing, you can follow me over on @NonPratt.) </span>Catniphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03261357856358849018noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7092335198525556593.post-11282650037823931992013-03-07T21:31:00.001+00:002013-03-07T21:31:28.539+00:00MUG SHOT #4 (or #7... if you see what I mean)<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUY9h6gfPwUMpK1xujnV02-ZscacwWRle7HHx7dRqjw5sWVXOzRbHd4n0wlaWAhZiaVBQhL4j5S_HMuc1mznxd0UdRFyKZOeh66XFDqbZQ-8Q965lluL2l2ZizhTZWtvZhotF2gIYfmD8M/s1600/Saracen+7.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUY9h6gfPwUMpK1xujnV02-ZscacwWRle7HHx7dRqjw5sWVXOzRbHd4n0wlaWAhZiaVBQhL4j5S_HMuc1mznxd0UdRFyKZOeh66XFDqbZQ-8Q965lluL2l2ZizhTZWtvZhotF2gIYfmD8M/s320/Saracen+7.JPG" width="240" /></a>It's been a while since I did one of these posts... But it was my birthday the other day and I received this little beauty from someone who knows me very well indeed. For anyone out there as yet unaware of the awesome that is <i>Friday Night Lights</i> then get thee to a DVD-vending place and purchase seasons one-five <b><u>immediately</u></b>. Go on, do it, I'll refund you the cost of the DVD if you don't fall in love with everyone and everything in Dillon, Texas within the first episode*.<br />
<br />
There's a lot of talent in this show – both euphemistically and truthfully – and it's hard not to fall in love with one of the characters. For me, it will always be Matt Saracen. Always and forever – not least because of the way he says 'football'. And he can draw. And he looks like this:<br />
<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEin7L_u2zrHLzPjxEt2bj-FxTVI6eifXva_yZveBJAfI1b3E_VV_PTQKFAmS4X-2XAQ6r8-38wthX7bZ43bK9CUAfE_fP8PDdI6c4ZmUKfIqYGWKiHyL686JVld_rPdr4wLd-XnhjTRabz_/s1600/Friday-Night-Lights-TV-32.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEin7L_u2zrHLzPjxEt2bj-FxTVI6eifXva_yZveBJAfI1b3E_VV_PTQKFAmS4X-2XAQ6r8-38wthX7bZ43bK9CUAfE_fP8PDdI6c4ZmUKfIqYGWKiHyL686JVld_rPdr4wLd-XnhjTRabz_/s400/Friday-Night-Lights-TV-32.jpg" width="300" /></a></div>
So pretty.<br />
<br />
Clear eyes, full hearts... You really cannot lose.<br />
<br />
<br />Catniphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03261357856358849018noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7092335198525556593.post-43986359570283557782013-01-15T21:30:00.001+00:002013-01-15T21:30:42.665+00:00Guess who's back?<br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Yo. I’m back, y’all.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Communicating, like most things, requires regular exercise
and working largely alone, my communication muscles are less the toned sixpack
of Taylor Lautner and more the… well, they’re more like my own abs. A bit,
ahem, lacking. So when I took a sabbatical from Catnip duties, I didn’t really
announce it very well.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">But now, having enjoyed a refreshing break from all things
editorial/marketing/publicity/production, I am back and raring to go.</span></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">I know the new year has become a bit old, but for the
record, here’s what 2013 is going to mean to me:</span></div>
<ul style="margin-top: 0cm;" type="disc">
<li class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Focus.
I’ve enjoyed my downtime – I’d like more of it in future, which means
making my working hours count harder than ever before.</span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Discipline.
I will not procrastinate (as much – let’s be realistic, this is an
intrinsic part of my character inherited from my father and I’m not about
to have a procrastinatectomy). This means I will tackle at least one
‘unwelcome’ job a day, that way they won’t all pile up on me to deal with
before I next go on holiday.</span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Anticipation.
The world of publishing works further ahead that I currently do and in
order for Catnip to defend and develop its place in that world, then we’ve
got to get out there the same time as the bigger houses. Because we are
that awesome and everyone else needs to know this.</span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Perspective.
As in not worrying that the purples in my sales presentation font have
slightly different CMYK mixes and saving the worry for covers, that other
people will actually see. </span></li>
<li class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">TELL
PEOPLE STUFF. Like blogging more than once in a while, emailing people and
making sure the authors I work with know how much I love them* and
generally exercising my flabby communication muscles. </span></li>
</ul>
<div>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">So here's to being less lonely and more badassier in 2013. Whoop!</span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">*(If you’re a Catnip author reading this, then know that I
love you LOADS.)</span></div>
Catniphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03261357856358849018noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7092335198525556593.post-55431341956235125332012-09-28T16:36:00.001+01:002012-09-28T16:39:53.542+01:00Gay writes<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">So the lovely Louie (@louiestowell) tweeted a link to the <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/sep/20/stranger-young-adult-novel-gay-hero" target="_blank">Guardian article</a> about the acquisition of <i>Stranger, </i>the book that caused a bit of a storm when the authors indicated that a literary agent had asked them to straighten a gay character (<a href="http://ht.ly/6so27" target="_blank">link here</a>). Viking Penguin have picked it up without such a change.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">In linking to the article Louie asked for "Moar gay YA please".</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">And here is my response:</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">SOMEBODY HAS TO WRITE IT!!!</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">I do not necessarily see all the manuscripts. Of course I don't. But I do see some - and I often see the ones that other (bigger) houses might have deemed unsuitable. So, in my unique position as Commissioning Editor for a small publishing house, you might think that I'd be seeing some of those gay manuscripts that everyone (except Viking Penguin) are so scared of publishing.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Well I don't.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">I think there are two reasons. The first is short and speculative:</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">1) I don't think bigger houses are actually scared of publishing YA featuring gay characters at all. For instance: James Dawson's <i>Hollow Pike</i>. A MASSIVE title for Indigo and a hotly sought after manuscript - I don't think I'm spoiler-ing to say there's some gay characters in there. Cat Clarke's new book <i>Undone </i>(Quercus) - the blurb <i>tells you</i> that one of the main characters is gay. That's just two examples (who also happen to be two of the biggest names in UK YA at the moment).</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Which leads me to my main point...</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">2) No one is writing them. By which I also mean, no one is writing them well. Featuring a gay character should not be a 'thing', they should just be. I don't want a writer to stand above their character with rainbow lettering and a giant arrow saying THIS ONE'S GAY! Sexuality is not a character trait any more than having brown hair, or eyes or skin is. A raging crush on your mate's sibling, a constant need to change your hair colour, wearing eyeliner to attract attention to your eyes, pride in your family's heritage - those are things that tell you about the person. Knowing someone is gay only tells me that they fancy someone of the same gender. This isn't news. Teen readers want subtly nuanced, clearly drawn, <i>real</i> characters whether they're L B G T or S. The requirements are the same across the board.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">I don't have a diversity quota that needs filling and I'm not going to commission a badly written book because I have an agenda. I am waiting - <i>desperately, desperately</i> waiting - for a manuscript to drop on my desk that will help me demonstrate that publishing really doesn't need any straightening out.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">All you have to do, is write it.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
Catniphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03261357856358849018noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7092335198525556593.post-59290574105261906352012-09-26T10:36:00.001+01:002012-09-26T10:36:17.216+01:00Thoughts provoked by the Bookseller Children's Conference<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">I went to the <a href="https://www.eventsforce.net/bookseller/frontend/reg/thome.csp?pageID=12200&eventID=41&eventID=41" target="_blank">Bookseller Children's Conference</a> yesterday –
if you follow me on Twitter you might have noticed my sporadic (lame) attempts at live
tweeting. (In my defence, I was mostly trying to write notes with an actual pen
on actual paper… 70% of which I can actually decipher today!) It’s the first
time I’ve been in a position to go to this particular conference and I found some
of it informative, some of it funny, some of it irrelevant. But most of all
(and I think this is the point of an industry conference) it got me thinking.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Here are some of the things I’ve been thinking about:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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</div>
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">TIME</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">MONEY</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">GENDER</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">ENGAGEMENT</span></li>
</ul>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><o:p></o:p></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><b><u>On the matter of MONEY</u></b><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Crap. You need a lot of it. We don’t have a lot of it… WE’RE
DOOMED!!! But hang on – remember you old adage, Non – you don’t need money to
have a good idea. You don’t even need to have the good ideas when a whole platter
of them have just been laid out for you by some of the best in this, and other, industries. Sure those guys laugh at a budget of £20,000 for app development
(*gulps*), but you don’t need a big budget to adapt the concept of a style
guide for branding the identity of a book beyond the physical object…
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><u><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">On the matter of TIME<o:p></o:p></span></u></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Crap. You need a lot of it. We don’t have a lot of it… WE’RE
DOOMED!!! OK. So this is a real problem for me. I barely have the time to edit
the manuscripts I’ve commissioned inside/outside of my working hours, brief the
covers, provide the sales material, prompt the publicity & marketing
initiatives, <span style="font-size: x-small;">answer emails, meet with agents, read submissions</span>, <span style="font-size: xx-small;">write the POs,</span>
<span style="font-size: xx-small;">check the proofs</span>... I’m going to have to think about this one (but quickly,
because I don’t have much time!). Right. Got it. I am going to copy some of
those clever things that other people do ergo avoid spending time learning by making my own mistakes. That’s basically point one again isn’t
it? (Yes.)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><b><u>On the matter of GENDER</u></b><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Well. You can’t fight this one – here are Bowker’s findings
on the gender/genre reading habits of children:<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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</div>
<br />
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</div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
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</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9CZIUtPwGeIB366tADa8awFRYBIG1DfEUCbdVveFXBoBJBTtAha6x-IZJql1GVQBN1aoDeJtIJydTRR4-ZZ-2Iveo16LXSF00038bMafvf4jz8rWp4W2CQ4-IPT9YsK_FtkddOZ9vyff3/s1600/Bowker+figures.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><img border="0" height="167" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9CZIUtPwGeIB366tADa8awFRYBIG1DfEUCbdVveFXBoBJBTtAha6x-IZJql1GVQBN1aoDeJtIJydTRR4-ZZ-2Iveo16LXSF00038bMafvf4jz8rWp4W2CQ4-IPT9YsK_FtkddOZ9vyff3/s400/Bowker+figures.jpg" width="400" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">And although I’d like to say the quote of the conference
came from the witty and entertaining Chris Riddell or the presentation perfect
Sharna Jackson from Tate Kids, the one that sticks with me is Nickelodeon’s
market research video where a little boy is asked why he prefers one website to
another: “Dora’s for girls.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Although… Dora <i>is</i>
for girls. It’s targeted at girls, it presents information in a way that
appeals to girls and well, perhaps this gender-bias is a self-fulfilling
prophecy... *stares off into middle distance stroking chin thoughtfully*<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Maybe there is room to fight the bias after all?</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<b><u><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">On the matter of ENGAGEMENT<o:p></o:p></span></u></b></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The marked difference between these games and TV types and
these bookish types is that the former do an awful lot of market research. As
far as I’m aware (and correct me if I’m wrong), publishers don’t do this. And,
do you know what? I don’t think we should. Online games, TV etc… these are
meant to be pure entertainment forms, their sole purpose is to give children
what they want so that they come back again and again and again. These
industries <i>have</i> to do this because
they rely on advertising for their revenue, and if they can’t gurautnee a
large audience, advertisers won’t pay the money.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Free from the bonds of advertising (I say 'free' because I am putting a positive spin on the difference in revenue directed towards the industry I love so much), children’s publishing has a different agenda. It’s
not solely about giving the children what they want. It’s about getting them to
expand their minds. It’s a feeling of being ‘in this together’ across the whole
industry: we just want one book – <i>any</i>
book – to cause a child to want to pick up another, and another, and another.
Obviously if you’re getting the commissioning right you want them to pick up
ones you’ve published, but really, we just want them to become voracious
readers of <i>all</i> the books. And to
nurture the reading habit requires giving a reader a challenge that they might
not know that they’re willing to rise to meet, so that they start reading
different books from the ones that they’ve already mastered. So they move around the smorgasbord of books on offer and become more engaged as they evolve as readers. They aren't just candyfloss for the brain.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Eric Huang (@dinoboy89) from Penguin finished the conference on a fantastic statement about curating stories and encouraging children to go out into the world and find their own. Or something like that. (It's in the 30% of notes I can't read, sorry.)</span><span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> And if there’s one thing that
I took away, above all else, it is that stories matter.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
Catniphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03261357856358849018noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7092335198525556593.post-43808188569974446622012-08-22T19:08:00.002+01:002012-08-22T19:08:51.463+01:00Slow Non<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">I am struggling a bit at the moment.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">I say "at the moment" but the moment feel <i>very</i> long - especially if you are someone I'm struggling to find time for. It's a lot of factors - too boring, too long and too time-consuming to list - but if I weren't working largely on my own, then some of the pressure would be alleviated.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Of course I don't work completely alone. I have the support and enthusiasm of a great team of reps and marketeers at Bounce Sales and Marketing who recently launched this <a href="http://www.bouncemarketing.co.uk/" target="_blank">amazing website</a>. (Check it out, there's a world of information there that makes my mind boggle when I think of how much work went into creating it.) And I work with some great freelancers - one publicist working one day a week, one editor working one day a week and another who has taken a whole book on board to develop with the kind of consistency of care that every book on our list deserves.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">But teams of freelancers do not a workforce make. I am the workforce, and I work four days a week producing 22 books a year - not to mention the reprints and the special orders that don't get the same fanfare as a new title. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Sometimes - frequently - I feel that I am not doing enough. I should be faster, stronger, more amazinger. "Look at the great books we publish!" I say. "These books deserve <i>everything</i> I can give them. Give them more, Non. MORE I SAY."</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">But I am finite and I get frustrated at how <i>slow</i> I am all the time. Can't I just be much faster? At reading? At editing? I'm getting faster at emails to the point that my brevity borders on rude - unfortunately I don't think anyone will forgive me one-word answers in the subject line alone.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">And then, just now I read this blog over at Brooklyn Arden and it made me feel a lot less rubbish. Because it turns out that there's a reason why I'm slow. And that's because I'm actually doing it properly.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">I love this blogpost, because it made me feel better about myself. So, check it out, and you'll see a life an editor's life in publishing:</span><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<a href="http://chavelaque.blogspot.co.uk/2012/08/six-reasons-why-everything-in.html" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Six Reasons Why Everything in Publishing Takes So Long</span></a><br />
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">And for anyone wondering how I found the time to write this blogpost, it took me 8 minutes between replying to my last email of the day and before the Catnipper emerged from bathtime ready for me to read her three stories and kiss her good night.</span><br />
<br />Catniphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03261357856358849018noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7092335198525556593.post-60292612033634433882012-08-13T14:22:00.000+01:002012-08-13T14:22:09.540+01:00The art of losing<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Some <insert favoured noun for idiot here> wrote a thing in the Guardian about why non-gold-medal-winning Olympic competitors should not be applauded. It's an opinion piece on why athletes should not be heralded as successful without succeeding and that we should not cast the achievements of non-winning competitors as being anything other than failure.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">I don't have a problem with someone earning a living by pitching up to an athletics track and coming in last each time, if they do it with all the commitment and professionalism of the person who crosses the finish line first. Without losers, you don't have winners. Fact. If there weren't any silver or bronze medallists in the Olympics, then there wouldn't have been any competition in the first place. And without competition, there'd be no reason for the winner to be that good. Without worthy opponents, what's the point in upping your game?</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">This doesn't just speak for sportspeople but for all awards, all businesses, all industries, all governments. Competition breeds a better quality of competitor <i>all round</i>. So we should celebrate the losers for trying every inch as hard as the winners. Today may not be their day, but tomorrow might be if they keep up that commitment and professionalism that got them there in the first place.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">On behalf of not-yet-winners everywhere: go team.</span><br />
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<br />Catniphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03261357856358849018noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7092335198525556593.post-29446248253947801842012-08-01T16:31:00.000+01:002012-08-01T16:31:23.677+01:00Why I commissioned… RAW BLUE<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8z2TRQxb8Meid5USSK8AmXXCE8SUOOWxyngHpvjE24NHk60nFpoUENYdEUWEKqRX8yu8inmMDrEaUo1-Z7BlEhp8MlOAz8iIawmZNZjNtAnFIoFLoXDn_mU9bRmqO_RyJaCRU8RwP4UCd/s1600/9781846471551.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8z2TRQxb8Meid5USSK8AmXXCE8SUOOWxyngHpvjE24NHk60nFpoUENYdEUWEKqRX8yu8inmMDrEaUo1-Z7BlEhp8MlOAz8iIawmZNZjNtAnFIoFLoXDn_mU9bRmqO_RyJaCRU8RwP4UCd/s400/9781846471551.jpg" width="262" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Twitter-style summary: </span><i style="font-family: Georgia, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Carly
lives her life on the surface, not getting involved or noticed. Only when she
surfs does everything else drop away – even her past.</i></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">This is me dipping my toes into commissioning a book with
strong crossover appeal – it’s a YA novel, but the protagonist is 19 years old
and this is a very personal narrative about how she lives her life in
Australian coastal town Manly. There’s swearing and there’s sex, both of which
can sometimes bring a gatekeeper out in hives, but are nonetheless important
for teenagers to read about in a responsibly published setting. (Yes, I know that sounds pious, whatevs.)<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">I first heard about this by reading a post on <a href="http://thecrookedshelf.blogspot.co.uk/2011/09/review-raw-blue-by-kirsty-eager.html" target="_blank">The Crooked Bookshelf</a>, where Carla raved about an Australian book that I’d never heard of.
I’ve always felt a strong connection with YA from that corner of the world,
finding the voice to sit perfectly between <st1:country -region="-region" w:st="on">US</st1:country>
polish and <st1:country -region="-region" w:st="on">UK</st1:country>
grit (to talk in sweeping terms) and I started doing a little investigating…<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">The result of which is Catnip acquiring the rights to publish
this emotionally engaging, beautiful piece of contemporary writing by Kirsty
Eagar.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">Kirsty has Voice. In her intimate first person narrative the
reader is balanced on a knife edge: you’re really getting to know a
person yet all the while sensing that they’re pushing you away. This book is not
‘about’ anything; I don’t view it as an issues book (the issue that Carly is dealing
with is hard to read about but it’s presented as part of her history, not the
focus of her story); I don’t see it as a ‘coming of age’ novel (living on her
own and working a late shift at a kitchen to support herself I’d suggest Carly
is already of an age); it’s not even about surfing itself, although when Kirsty
Eagar writes about it, I can feel my bare feet on the board and taste the salt
on my lips. It’s a snapshot into a life that isn’t yours and it’s painful to
read at times, a note of melancholy tempered with the possibility of hope that
in time all things will fade, that whilst your past shapes you, it doesn’t own
you…<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">This book feels real – emotions are complex, forging
friendships can be hard and when connections are made they may not work out
perfectly. I didn’t know where the book would take me, but Kirsty Eagar’s
writing led me onwards, sucked me in and left me moved. I feel very strongly
that there should be more books like this in the UK market for teens to read,
books that neither protect the reader nor push an unrelentingly harrowing
agenda.</span><o:p></o:p></div>
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<span style="font-family: Georgia, Times New Roman, serif;">I am desperately proud to be in a position to publish this one.</span></div>Catniphttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03261357856358849018noreply@blogger.com4