Some great feedback

My last post was about feeling rather nervous about having adults read my 2 novels, and since then a few offered, and I've had some really, really positive feedback.  Some great feedback and questions on my first novel, Hacking the Dragon, raising some questions which I expected to come up, and which I hope to discuss with an agent and/or editor, when I find them.  Thanks very much, Stephen!  The best compliment he paid me was to want to know what happened to the characters - and the society - next.  The next best was to want to read the second novel, Big Brother's Little Sister, which he's now doing.  A very different read, in a different world, with different problems.

Another friend is currently reading BB'sLS, as is his 13 year-old daughter.  I've just got the first comments from her: she particularly liked the characterisation, which is very gratifying, as it's an area I worked hard on this time round, particularly.

Huge thanks to Sylvie, and to everyone else who's reading it.  I look forward to your thoughts!

State killings

There's a lot in the British social media at the moment from people calling for the hanging of two parents who killed 6 children in a fire at the home.  We don't have the death penalty in the UK, and haven't had since before I was born - so that's over 40 years - and there's little likelihood that we ever will again.  Although certain parts of the UK political scene would like to repeal the European Convention on Human Rights, part of the deal with that piece of legislation is that any state that signs up for it must remove the death penalty from its statue books.  In other words, any country that accepts the ECHR isn't allowed the death penalty.*

For me, this is a completely non-negotiable point.  I never approve of state executions.  There are times when I can see that it seems to be the only option, but there are too many reasons not to execute.  The first reason not to allow executions is that you can get it wrong.  And executing the wrong person would always, always be a tragedy.  The second is that the death penalty is not a deterrent.  Look at the figures: it just isn't.  The third is that historically, poorer, less educated and more socially disadvantaged murderers are, in all jurisdictions, more likely to be executed than their more privileged peers.  The last is that by being part of a society which condones killing, we become killers ourselves.  It's really that simple.

And what right do I, an author of YA books, have to talk about this?  Well, not much.  But it is a topic which I deal with in my second novel, Big Brother's Little Sister.  I don't go into the ethical issues above at all - partly because I suspect that for most of my intended readership, the idea of state killings would be anathema.  The killing of a character in the book is central not only to the plot, but also to our view of at least one other character.  For me, it was such an obvious device to use that it didn't require much thought.

We don't kill people.  No matter what they've done.  It's not what people do.  It's not what good people do: it's not what people even trying to be good people do.  Don't sign up for it.  Not in my name.



*This is my understanding - IANAL (I am not a lawyer), and could have it wrong.

Big Brother's Little Sister - revision finished

It's done!  I took advantage of a quiet couple of days with the rest of the family away to complete the first revision of my second YA novel, Big Brother's Little Sister.  It's written for a slightly older audience than Hacking the Dragon, and at a little over 117,000 words, it's a lot longer too (Hacking the Dragon is currently around 65,000).  The main difference, though, is that it's a lot darker.

The themes they have in common is that they both have strong female protagonists, and in both cases, there's only so much help they can get from the adults in their lives to resolve the major problems that arise in their lives.  Pretty much everything else is different, though, including the worlds which Lena (Big Brother's Little Sister) and Kate (Hacking the Dragon) live.  Lena's world is technologically very similar to ours, though the political milieu is more right-wing, whereas in Kate's world, there are computer systems running people's houses and most adults have the Chip, a direct brain interface which, well, can cause problems.  That said, computer systems feature heavily in both - I'm keen to encourage characters (and my readers!) to engage with technology, whether they're boys or girls.

Now I need to decide what to do with it.  Hacking the Dragon is currently seeking an agent, but I've not got that far with Big Brother's Little Sister yet.  I think I need to find a few friendly readers to get their views, and to decide whether J, my eldest, is going to be happy with the darker outlook presented by this novel.  I think she'll be fine, but I suspect we'll spend quite a lot of time talking about the more adult themes that the book presents.

More later, but for now, it's time for a cup of tea (and maybe that chocolate éclair that's sitting in the fridge downstairs).

On bad timing - Bologna

It seems that people don't expect you to be an expert in the Sitz im Leben* of the whole literary/publishing world when you're just starting out, which is a relief.  Obviously, if you're looking for an agent (as I am), then you might want to do things like study their submission guidelines**, and read the obvious canonical works (the most obvious one), but you can't be expected to know all the ins and outs.  I think that agents will cut people a bit of slack.  Well, I really hope they will.

There are, however, some huge pieces of misfortune that can befall you if you don't know some of the basics.  And I've just fallen into one of them.  As any new author would, I'm very keen to find out whether I can find representation and to get feedback on my efforts (which I have, natch, submitted according to the relevant agents' guidelines).  I realise that despite my sparkling covering letter and fascinatingly revealed personality, it may take a while for them to get round to reading my 2 chapters/3 chapters/first 20 pages/first 10 pages [delete as applicable].  I even realise that 6 weeks is pretty much the standard time that I should have to wait.  What I didn't appreciate was that I was sending out my lovingly (and painstakingly) crafted submissions just before the Bologna Children's Book Fair.

"But it's only 4 days long!" you cry.

"That's a working week or more including travel," I reply.  "And there's the week beforehand for preparation, and the week before that when they'll be ignoring anything new that's come in because they know that they've got a week of preparation due.  And after the week of the Book Fair (if my experience of conferences and trade fairs is anything to go by***), there will be several days required for recovery.  And the wine over in Italy is generally more than passable.  And then at least a week to catch up on all the important things that didn't get done at the book fair.  And then another week for them to read the manuscripts that they got from the many authors they met at the conference****."  And that's lots of weeks.  I can't be bothered to count them, partly because I've been exaggerating for dramatic effect, but it feels like I've made a newbie mistake here, and I probably won't hear back from any of them before sometime in July.  Next year.*****

Heigh-ho.



* Yes, I'm going out of my way to be somewhat pretentious here, and I'm also aware that it's not really the right phrase, but I nearly wrote Weltschmerz instead, so it could have gone a whole lot worse.

** Search online for using terms like "agent" "submission guidelines" and "ignore" if you don't believe me.

*** As I used to work for an academic publisher, I'm going to pretend that the children's book fair scene is similar, but it could be even more extreme.

**** There may be none, but I'm fearing the worst now.

***** I should point out that one agent, who shall remain nameless but is, in my brief contact with her, clearly brilliant and generally perfect in all aspects of her personality, contacted me to suggest that I re-sent****** the submission after the Book Fair was over, because she was very busy, and was having IT problems.  I salute you.

****** I first wrote this as "resent the submission", which made the whole sentence read rather differently.  See - re-reading your work is useful.