Literature Festival with a difference!

This weekend 9th and 10th July a very special event is taking place.
The Awfully Big Blog Adventure blog  is celebrating its 3rd Birthday and holding the very first ever  ONLINE LITERARY FESTIVAL,  run entirely by children’s authors, and we want YOU to get involved in supporting us!

On 9th and 10th July 2011 40 (yes FORTY) children’s authors from the Scattered Authors’ Society, will be bringing you something new and special every half hour from 9.30am to 7.30pm.


There will be:
• Amazing Blogs
• Stunning Videos
• Exciting Giveaways
• Fascinating Interviews
• Mind-boggling Competitions

Join all the fabulous guests & contributors at the exciting ABBA Online Litfest!
To join in the conversation! Follow @AwfullyBigBlog on Twitter, tweet about us on the day and before, using the special hashtag #ABBAlitfest 
Crime Central's  very own criminal masterminds Anne Cassidy, Gillian Philip, Keren David and Linda Strachan are all taking part, as are some of our favourite contributors.

Look out for Anne Cassidy's blog Post: To Blog or Not To Blog? at 9.30am on SATURDAY morning.
 Gillian Philip will be there At 12.30pm on SATURDAY with a  Competition: Win 'Bloodstone' and 'Firebrand'
At 2.30pm on SUNDAY Fiona Dunbar & Keren David Video: In Conversation
At 5.00pm on SUNDAY Linda Strachan & Cathy MacPhail Video: In Conversation- tutoring creative writing at Arvon

And there are so many more fabulous authors taking part - There's something different every half hour on each day!   See the  Full Programme here.

Naturally, there will be virtual champagne and cake on the day, so come and join in on this fantastically fabulous literary party!  

Interrogation - -Gillian Philip puts Linda Strachan and DEAD BOY TALKING under the spotlight

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Linda,Dead Boy Talking is not only a fast and gripping read, but an extraordinary perspective on an all-too-common phenomenon. 

What made you decide on that particular and unique narrative voice?
I was thinking about what I wanted to write about next , after Spider, and I had this image in my mind of a young boy sitting propped up against a wall -  all alone - and bleeding out from a stab wound.  
Going around in my head was the question - What is he thinking?   
What if he was not someone who normally got into trouble, who hadn't gone out looking for a fight - but here he is bleeding to death in the street.  
The title Dead Boy Talking and the first line 'In 25 minutes I will be dead'  both seemed to come to me together when I was on a train, and I still have it scribbled in the notebook I was using at the time. 
 The first line gave me the structure which works as a countdown, building the pressure as we hear what Josh is thinking.  But I didn't want to tell the entire story in his voice I wanted to tell the back story and be able to keep going back to Josh and his thoughts as he bleeds out.



The novel has a harrowing storyline and you don't shrink from the horror of events, with some brutal description. But you chose not to show the crucial moment of Josh's stabbing and to keep it  "" o""ff-screen".  Was that something that seemed natural from the outset or was it a deliberate choice? 
It was not something I actually thought about very much, it seemed natural to do it that way.  By the time we get to that point in the story I think I wanted to reader to find things out slowly, not spoon feed  them, to keep them wanting to discover a bit more. 
It is easy to imagine that you have to describe everything  but it's not always the best way to tell the story.


Skye is an original and fascinating character. Where did she come from inside your head?
I honestly have no idea, as sometimes happens, she seemed to grow organically as she came into the story and became more and more important. 
I knew I wanted her to be someone who was always a good friend to Josh and possibly wanted to be more, but who had her own issues to deal with, but she is not the kind of person to throw them open to the world.  
What happened to her as a child just came out of nowhere, but it seemed to be right.

We get some very vivid pictures of what goes on inside Josh's head as his life slips away. Did you research the physical and psychological aspects of the dying process, or was this something you wrote by instinct?
Josh tells us that he has heard that it takes 25 minutes to bleed to death, so we only have his word for it. In fact it can take more or less time, depending on where you are stabbed, if you are running about etc etc.  
I did do some research into the physical aspects of someone who is losing a lot of blood and how their body reacts- I asked the medics in the family who were very helpful, but most of the psychological aspects have come from trying to put myself into Josh's head - and hoping I got it right!

I found Gary a hard character to like (which isn't to say I didn't find him fascinating, even in his absence!) How did you feel about him and what he'd done to Josh? 
Ah, Gary! Well, he was never supposed to be in the story at all.  But I found I was having a problem trying to make it seem realistic for Josh to lose his friend Ranj and go off the rails a bit, when he seemed like such a nice ordinary boy with a good caring family and a happy life. 
Then Gary walked into the story (well, he walked out, really) and I realised he was the reason Josh's life changed and that was the catalyst for the whole thing.  Josh had looked up to Gary and felt he'd been let down by him, and his parents, even by his best oldest friend, Ranj. So Gary became a focal point and crucial to the story.  
I didn't dislike Gary for what he did, because in some ways he was also the victim and he was only doing what he felt he needed to do for his own life.  I don't think he had considered what his actions would do to Josh, or the rest of the family.



And the crucial question:  Were you ever tempted to make the ending different - at any point in the writing process?

There were of course two possible endings but while I was writing it I had no idea how the book was going to end. It could have gone either way. 
I really don't like planning. I start with a beginning, some characters and a vague idea where it is heading.  The excitement of writing, for me, is to follow the characters whereever they lead and to be as true to them as I can.  
I think if you know your characters well enough they will dictate what happens in a story and Dead Boy Talking was exactly like that.   When I came near to the end I did have to decide, but I think I chose the right one!  I hope the readers do too.
                                                ---------
Many thanks Linda, and here's hoping the book has a huge impact. 

What do I know about crime fiction? - The Bookette

Becky- The Bookette

 When Linda Strachan asked me to write about what makes a good crime novel I was more than a little apprehensive.

I mean, what do I know about crime fiction?

I thought about this more and more, I’ll be honest I don’t like to let people down. I figured there must be a reason she asked me for an opinion piece.

Am I opinionated? Probably.

The thing is I don’t really think I know anything about crime fiction. That’s because when I think about crime fiction I think of the following:

• Adult fiction  

• The crime bit in Waterstones

• Authors that I have never read including: Jo Nesbo, Karen Rose, Colin Dexter?

But then I thought well Linda can’t want me to have an opinion on these people. This would be just weird. I’m a children’s librarian. So then the penny drops and I realise she wants my opinion on crime in teen or preteen fiction.

I guess I can do that because now I think about it, I really do read such novels. Here are the crime authors I’ve read fairly recently: Keren David, Gillian Philip, Sarah Singleton, Anne Cassidy, Jenny Downham, Andrew Lane, Andy Mulligan and of course Linda Strachan!

You see I was thinking of crime fiction as a thriller, a whodunit, but in actual fact crime is a theme running through many contemporary teen novels. The issue of crime is relevant to teens today in a way that is so far removed from the murder mystery concept.   The issue of gangs and knife crime has been all too relevant to our young people in the last decade.  

Contemporary teen fiction explores many different examples of crime and deviance:

ILLEGAL POACHING in Sarah Singleton’s The Stranger

SHOPLIFTING  in Hilary Freeman’s - Lifted

INCEST in Tabitha Suzuma’s Forbidden

                   

RAPE in Jenny Downham’s You Against Me

PROSTITUTION in Kevin Brooks’ Candy

 
Crime and deviance feed into contemporary teen fiction novels because this is surely the time when teens experience peer pressure to try smoking, drink alcohol and experiment with illegal substances.


But crime is not a theme that is strictly for contemporary fiction, I have noticed a trend towards exploring the theme through paranormal fiction too.

Kimberly Derting’s The Body Finder is your traditional whodunit with a girl who senses corpses.


I’m sure we’ll be seeing crime feed into many more genres in the next few years if it hasn’t happened already.





So what makes a good crime novel? In my mind the same things that make any book a good book -

• A main character that you can relate to

• A significant problem that the main character must overcome

• A plot that twists and turns and is fast paced

• Witty dialogue

• Description which makes you feel as if you are living the story

• Humour

• The author’s own unique way of telling the story

And for me personally,

• A really dramatic opening scene!

Perhaps a novel about copyright theft would be a good place to start teens talking about the morality of illegal downloading. That could be the most relevant crime novel of the next decade. In case anyone is looking for an idea...

I guess Linda was right.............. I am opinionated!

(But in a good way, Becky! ..Ed)

Becky, The Bookette is a Children's Librarian in a London prep school and an excellent reviewer of children's and young adult fiction at thebookette.co.uk

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Researching crime might be a dangerous business - Linda Strachan

Writing about crime can be fascinating especially when you start looking in depth into exactly to how the crime might be committed and you discover there are lots of things you really do need to know.
Such as -

• How do the police investigate a crime

• How do you break in and steal a car? 

• How do you get it started? 

• How do bank alarms work? 

• But most of all how do you go about asking all the right questions without it looking like you are planning the next big bank robbery or murder? 

'Honestly Officer, I was just doing a bit of research for a book.....!'

 

When I was writing Spider I did quite a bit of research .  I went to meet a boy who had a history of stealing cars and 'joyriding'.  He was nervous at first but once he started speaking he seemed quite happy to answer anything I asked. I got the 'voice' of Spider from him.


I interviewed a youth liaison officer to find out what he could tell me about youth car crime.

I went out as an observer with paramedic crew from the Scottish Ambulance Service and also found out how calls were taken in their control room.



I also went to watch the Fire Service training school as they set up a practice scenario for extracting people from crashed cars.










This was really useful to get the sound of crunching metal, and other noises, and I got a sense of what it must be like for those trapped inside a car after a crash.


Then there is the victim -

• How does it feel if you work in a bank that is being robbed?

• How does it feel if someone stabs you?

For Dead boy Talking I needed to find out what the physical signs were when someone is bleeding heavily from a stab wound,  how quickly do they start to lose consciousness, and what other symptoms appear as time goes on. 

How long would they have to live? 

I had heard (and the main character Josh tells us this, too) that it takes about 25 minutes to bleed to death.  But in reality it would depend on where you have been stabbed and how much you are bleeding.  It can all happen much more quickly  and take a lot less time than that, but Josh doesn't know this.  As happens to many of us at times, we hear a snippet of information and assume that we know the whole story.




Research can be not only interesting but also quite a lot of fun. 

The Society of Authors in Scotland have organised several tours of police stations for authors with the Lothian and Borders Police.


 
I went on a couple of these and had a chance to get on a police motor bike - okay - so they were wise enough not to let me drive it anywhere!!






We spoke to the armed police who demonstrated all the gear they have to carry around with them.

But we also got to see the police dogs and horses in training, probably my favourite part of the day.







Research into crime is fascinating and can be fun,  but just watch out how you ask those potentially incriminating questions.

Someone might get the wrong idea.

What makes you a criminal? - Linda Strachan

Il ne s'appelle pas Napoleon

definition: One that has committed or been legally convicted of a crime.


What this basically means is that you are a criminal if you break the law.

The first 5 are fairly obvious,

1          Commit bodily harm - stab, punch, kick, hurt or murder another person.

2          Steal - a car, a DVD, someone’s personal possessions (phone, wallet, jewellery, coat, shoes).

3          (In some countries) it is illegal to drink alcohol under 21 - in others it is illegal at any age.

4          Destroy someone else’s property or destroy someone’s reputation.

5          Don’t pay your taxes, claim benefits from the state that you are not entitled to.

............but some laws are ancient and almost forgotten and others are just plain weird!

6          To enter the Houses of Parliament wearing armour.

7          drive cattle through the streets of London.

8          It is illegal to die in the Houses of Parliament.

9          In France it is illegal to call a pig Napoleon.

10        In London it is illegal to flag down a taxi if you have the plague.

Over to you…

Crime doesn’t just happen here.  They might be modern or ancient laws, from anywhere on this world or perhaps in another fictional or even fantasy world. 

Have you heard of any weird laws?

It's not funny, sometimes it's criminal - April Fools Day

April

    1    It's April Fool's Day today and I must admit I am not a fan of practical jokes. I think I probably stopped finding them funny when I was about 10.

Don't get me wrong I love a good joke, or a laugh, but practical jokers rarely seem to take into account the effect their pranks can have on other people.

To those who are inclined to practical jokes April Fool's Day must appear like a golden opportunity and a good excuse to get away with murder! (Apologies- couldn't help myself that just crept in!)

But BEWARE not everyone is so forgiving and when pranks are ill-conceived the result might be a criminal record.

A few years ago after the local McDonalds in a town in Santa Barbara closed for the night, the police got a call saying the premises were being robbed and the staff were being held at gunpoint. The police closed local roads and set up diversions to contain the situation, clearing all radio transmissions etc, until it was discovered that the call had been a prank in the name of April Fool's Day. As you might imagine the police were not amused and the caller was being traced. It was treated as a serious crime.

As a writer all the 'what if's' come into my head....

• What if the caller was let off with this and then did it again- but this time it was really happening and a lives were in danger? Would the police be quite as quick to believe it wasn't another prank?
  What if the police were so busy closing roads and dealing with this fake crime when a real crime was going on elsewhere?
• What if the perpetrators of the real crime had heard about the prank and were using it  as a cover, knowing the police would be busy elsewhere?
• What if someone couldn't get past the closed roads and they were rushing to hospital and had to take a longer route which took too long?

So many possibilities.

Do you hate April Fool's Day, or are you a joker yourself?
Tell us your story..

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