The Enid Blyton of Murder! Tanya Landman at the Abingdon Joint Author Event

Tanya Landman started off receiving some fantastic career's advice at her school - nurturing, inspirational - which can be summed up as 'if you don't know what you want to do in life, you're doomed!". Luckily for her - and us - she wasn't too freaked out by this mentoring-from-hell experience, and after working in a bookshop, Arts Centre, Bristol Zoo and travelling performer - she became an author.

Her breakthrough book was 'Apache' - shortlisted for the 2008 Carnegie Medal - and the seed of an idea from that book grew, several years later, into 'Buffalo Soldier' which won last year's Carnegie Medal and, quite rightly, elevated Tanya to the Pantheon of contemporary children's authors. It was a huge coup to get her to come to Abingdon, and groups from eight schools in Abingdon came to visit over three sessions.

Tanya is funny, wise and inspirational - and (with the help of a large globe) gave the children a crash course in geo-politics and the history of colonialism in North American. She shared her own journey of understanding of American history, from facts gleaned from the pages of 'Gone with the Wind' and watching Westerns, to the stories of remarkable native americans - and the freed slaves who fought against these brave warriors in the aftermath of the American Civil War.

In her own words she felt that these hidden stories of the American Deep South were "a piece of the jigsaw dropped down the back of the sofa of history" and felt compelled to tell that story.

Along the way, we discovered the real reason Tanya started writing murder mysteries for kids (no spoilers here, but we will say that this story is worth asking Tanya to come to your school all on its own), the inspiration behind the children - and dog - in her Sam Swann books, and why you wouldn't want to be up against her at an award's ceremony...

Tanya enjoys writing about murder (possibly a little too much, according to her publisher). In ‘Mondays are Murder’, her child sleuth Poppy Fields goes on an activity holiday to a remote Scottish island. She is looking forward to a week of climbing, hill-walking and horse riding. But things take a bad turn when their instructor has what appears to be a fatal abseiling accident. When Poppy discovers that his rope was cut, and more of the instructors start to have "accidents", she and best friend Graham suspect foul play and decide to investigate...

Tanya's crash-course in colonialism and
'places not to go if you are
a sailor in the 15th century'...

There are now ten books in the series, so the description of her as the 'Enid Blyton of Murder' may not be too far-fetched...

Tanya also talked about her latest book ‘Hell and High Water’. This is a fantastic book for teens, a thrilling adventure story set against the backdrop of smuggling and conspiracy, and based on research Landman did around the notorious villain Thomas Benson, owner of Lundy Island, corrupt merchant and MP for Barnstaple in the 18th century.

When a body washes up on a beach, Caleb Chappell finds himself involved in a dastardly plot: a plot that places him and his family in mortal danger. With his father falsely accused, it is up to Caleb to save him.

Drawing parallels with modern political corruption, this tells a gripping tale with plot twists galore and strong, believable characters that stay in the memory.

In between sessions, we asked Tanya to tell us a little bit about her writing life...

Five Questions with...Tanya Landman's Writing Life

1.    What are you working on at the moment?
Not telling you!

2.    What is the best writing tip you’ve ever been given?
Daydream! Get it all started in your head first, before putting pen to paper. Writing it out is just technique, but you need to get the idea ready in your head. It needs to get you excited – it’s why I didn’t want to tell you about what I’m working on at the moment actually, because I feel if you talk about it too soon when it’s still in your head, you ‘deflate the cake’!

3.    What’s the best thing and the worst thing about being a children’s writer?
Getting out to schools, book events, or the Carnegie Shadowing. It’s incredible how much energy and enthusiasm you encounter. The worst thing? Every author has days when, what you are writing, isn’t just the worst thing you’ve ever written, but the worst rubbish any author has ever written, ever. You have to write through it of course – but those days are really tough.

4.    Do you have a writer’s survival kit, eg a place, thing, or snack essential before you can start work?
Cup of tea!

5.    What was your biggest breakthrough?
With Apache, it was really the moment when an idea was triggered in my head, and my fingers started twitching, and I had an image in my head. This had never really happened before, and was very different to things I had written before.

The Abingdon Joint Author Event has seen some fantastic authors over the years - Caroline Lawrence, Alan Gibbons, Julia Golding and Marcus Sedgwick - and yesterday's event with Tanya was a splendid addition to this tradition.

As always there is an incredible amount of hard work behind the scenes from the Abingdon school librarians and teachers who accompanied children to and from the event - we honoured to be asked to get involved. We know just how much time, effort and planning goes in to taking children off timetable - but hopefully listening to an inspiring, award-winning author is worth all the effort!

Thanks also to the awesome help from Jo and Sally, and finally, thanks to Tanya for being such an amazingly inspiring speaker, writer (and incidentally passing the Mostly Books "authors-you'd-most-want-to-go-down-the-pub-with' test!)

To discover more about Tanya, come into Mostly Books to discover what she has written - or visit her website to learn more about her writing.

Detectives, Desperados and Dr No: Caroline Lawrence at the Abingdon Joint Author event 2015

Yesterday nearly 600 children from ten Abingdon schools were inspired by tales of Greek heroes, locked-room mysteries and sharp-shooting Wild West cowboys...

The annual Abingdon joint-author event took place at Abingdon School's Amey Theatre with bestselling children's author Caroline Lawrence. The event is a bit of an Abingdon institution, and previous authors have included Alan Gibbons, Marcus Sedgwick, Julia Golding and The Two Steves. 

Caroline enthralled the audience with tantalising mysteries to solve and how she came to write her own books. She also shared some top screenwriting secrets and powerful tips on how to write compelling stories that work in any medium, from books to films.

Caroline is best-known as a writer of some of our best-loved historical mystery stories. She has a reputation for distilling her passion for art, history, language and travel into cracking mysteries for children. She published her first book, The Thieves of Ostia, in 2001 and there are now seventeen books in the series. It was also filmed as a highly successful children's series for the BBC.

Her latest series, the P.K. Pinkerton Mysteries, are set in Virginia City, a Nevada town that grew up in the years after the California Gold Rush. Whatever images are conjured up by the phrase 'The Wild West' you would have found them in Virginia City - so when 12 year Old P.K. Pinkerton sets herself up as a Private Investigator she's in one of the most wild, unruly, unholy and downright dangerous places in America...

Caroline explained that she was not allowed to bring her six-shooter (or possibly a seven-shooter) in to show the children (something to do with health and safety) but she did display slides of various artifacts from the period, including something called a spittoon that - if you really want to know more about, you can go visit Caroline's website.

Caroline signed copies of her books afterwards...

...as well as posing for photos of one of her infamous roman artifacts - a sponge on a stick.

Everyone had a chance to guess *exactly* what this might have been used for in Roman times, but we'll give you a clue: it wasn't for brushing your teeth...

Naturally we took the opportunity to find out more about the California-born author who we now happily claim as our own...

Five Questions with...Caroline Lawrence's Writing Life
1.    What are you working on at the moment?
Well, it's very exciting. I'm about to sign a four-book deal for a new series called 'Seekers' set in Roman Britain. It involves five children, and it takes place in 94 AD (towards the end of the reign of the emperor Domitian). The first book is called 'Escape from Rome' and they will be investigating all kinds of mysteries!

2.    What is the best writing tip you’ve ever been given?
Oh wow, I've got lots of writing tips! But only one? OK - read your work out loud as a form of self-editing. You've got to know how your words sound when read out.

3.    What’s the best thing and the worst thing about being a children’s writer?
The best thing is the children! I love writing for children, and I'm basically a permanent 11 year old. I love the response you get from children, and when they give you feedback on your books. The worst thing? I really can't think of anything (when I suggest some authors hate the fact that kids read in a day what took a year to write, she exclaims "No, I love that! We need more children reading like that!")

4.    Do you have a writer’s survival kit, eg a place, thing or snack essential before you can start work?
Not really, but it's always a challenge to stay off the Internet. I'm training myself to go into a different room or work on a different machine. But I'm not like Shakespeare (in 'Shakespeare in Love') where I have to turn around three times and spit on my hands. The other challenge I have when writing is not to start snacking!

5.   What was your biggest breakthrough?
When I was introduced to a man called John Truby who is a script doctor. He has something called the 22 steps (or beats) to telling a powerful story. Seven of these are absolutely key. and once I knew these, I have been guided by them in all of the books I've written.

---

Thanks very much to Caroline, and on a personal note - having seen it many times on the Internet - I feel incredible privileged to have been photographed with her and the famous sponge stick!

"You only enter a dark room if you think you can light the way out": Alan Gibbons at the Abingdon Joint Schools Author Event 2013

Last year it was The 2 Steves. Before that it was Julia Golding and in 2010 Marcus Sedgwick. This year over 400 children from five Abingdon secondary schools came together to welcome Alan Gibbons for the annual Abingdon Joint Schools Author Event - easily one of the highlights of our school's event year.

Officially, Alan Gibbons is 'a Blue Peter Award-Winning Children's Author'. Unofficially he's a hyperactive bundle of subversive ideas and creative energy who by turns gripped and entertained his audience over two sessions last Thursday. Those lucky enough to be on the end of his fizzing, rapid-fire romp through his writing life didn't just discover about his books - they got tips on a whole host of important life lessons, ranging from what to read and why, to the correct application of foundation, and 'where to put your nose when kissing'.

Alan is the author of over fifty books, and he has been unafraid to tackle often dark and disturbing themes which at times makes his writing challenging - but he's such a natural and optimistic storyteller that readers inevitably emerge on the other side of his books, changed - but full of hope.

Alan was talking about his latest title - 'An Act of Love' - but he also took students through other books he has written. He estimates he does nearly 200 school events a year, not just in the UK, but around the world.

He won the Blue Peter Award in 2000, and if you had to draw up a more intimidating list of authors to have been against, then I challenge you to pick a line-up better than Jacqueline Wilson, JK Rowling, Michael Morpurgo and David Almond (a sort of 'Real Madrid' of children's authors if you like).

As an ex-teacher (and one with some serious firebrand pedigree – he once jumped up on stage, grabbed the microphone from Keith Joseph and was ‘helped’ offstage by security) he’s both vociferous and uncompromising when it comes to children and learning. Believing that children shouldn't do comprehension ("children should read 'Of Mice and Men' for example, then write what they think as a result, with no rules...and that’s it") he nevertheless had a great tip for any budding writer to improve their writing.

With a book that you like, where you respect and admire the author, take a chapter that you particularly liked and read it through again very carefully. Try to tease out those elements which work well. Learn from the masters...

His own recommendations of classic children's literature included 'Emil and the Detectives', 'Treasure Island', 'Danny, The Champion of the World' to 'To Kill a Mockingbird' and 'Jane Eyre'.

There were some great questions from the audience, including "How old were you when you first started writing?" (37), "How many books have you written?" (53) and "If you had a hamster, what would it be called?" (Darth). My personal favourite – which character in literature would you have wanted to have been. The answer: Rochester from Jane Eyre ("gets to marry Jane Eyre") but not Heathcliff ("far too destructive").

He signed books after both sessions, and we naturally tried to pin him down with five questions about his writing life...

Five questions with...Alan Gibbons' Writing Life

1.    What are you working on at the moment? 

My next book is called 'Raining Fire', it's now written and is going to be published on March 7th. It's about gun crime and gangs in the North of England. The book I'm currently working on is 'Hate Crime' which is a novelisation of the real-life murder of Sophie Lancaster, killed for wearing alternative clothing. However, I'm already planning my next novel, and (although my publisher doesn't know it yet!) it's an alien invasion story which is an allegory of the war in Iraq. So I'm keeping busy, writing lots of stuff really.

2.    What is the best writing tip you’ve ever been given?

Do it a lot! You learn to write by writing, and also making mistakes.

3.    What’s the best thing and the worst thing about being a children’s writer?

The best thing about writing for children is that most kids are charming, and therefore school visits are the absolute highlight of my writing life. The worst thing is that there are not that many kids around, so you don't get as many sales. But that's not a problem, I love what I do and I'm totally committed to children's education and literacy.

4.    Do you have a writer’s survival kit, eg a place, thing of snack essential before you can start work?

No, not really. I write anywhere, I'm a complete writing traveller. Give me a laptop, I'll write anywhere, hotel rooms, on the stairs...

5.    What was your biggest breakthrough?

'Shadow of the Minotaur' which won the Blue Peter Book of the Year. Winning that award, when I was up against Michael Morpurgo, JK Rowling, Jacqueline Wilson and David Almond it was (laughs)...I still don't know quite how it happened. That book went on to sell 100,000 copies, more than all my other books put together at the time...