Describe the place where you write.

I write in libraries.  I love them: they’ve got everything I need.  I would be totally lost without libraries.

Heart-breakingly, my favourite library is about to be shut down.  It’s the saddest thing in the world when something you love stops existing.

I wanted to put a nice picture of it here, but this is the only one I’ve got, taken a few years ago.  It’s strange; it looks so ghostly, as if it’s already dissolving away.  Maybe the camera knew what was going to happen?

What times of the day do you work?

There isn’t a set time.  Usually I give myself a goal for the day – say, writing 1,000 words, or editing a couple of chapters – and when it’s done, I’m free.

What distracts you?

Everything.  It’s so much easier to be distracted than it is to concentrate – and that’s why I love libraries, because there are no distractions there!

But my favourite distraction, as I’ve mentioned before, is photography.  I’ve just started using a wooden box camera from the 1930s, and I can’t stop making pictures like this:

Read the rest of this entry »

This post is late. Please bear with me while my brain shifts gears.

Ah. That’s much better. Sorry about that. I had to finish writing a novel.

This one.

If you’re a writer yourself, you might be interested in this piece I wrote revealing what I learned while writing it.

If you’re a reader please ignore the link. We authors don’t want you to know how much we suffer for your sake.

But what’s this? We’ve been asked to fill out a questionnaire! I’m terrible at answering Q&As because:

1. There is no right answer.

2. I lie.

Nevertheless. I will have a go (but don’t say I didn’t warn you). Read the rest of this entry »

Describe the place where you write/draw.

I work all over the place. I like to ‘go’ to work, so I often take my laptop off to libraries. When I lived in London, I used the British Library a lot. It’s a wonderful place, worth every penny of tax I have ever paid

Now I live in Scotland, I have been trying out the National Library of Scotland (lovely staff/very uncomfortable chairs), various local libraries and assorted coffee shops.

When I do work at home, I use whichever room is not completely full of rubbish at the time.  We are in quite a state at the moment.  Kitchen work in progress.  Hence the condition of this desk.

I dream of setting up an office in the garden (like Linda Newbery’s). We’ve got the shed, but at the moment it’s full of old bikes, etc.

What is your most treasured possession?

The remains of my favourite Teddy bear, Bobby.  When my dog was a puppy she tore him to shreds, and all I could salvage was the essence of his face.  Here he is, in a frame:

People who come to my house often think this is a rather sinister work of modern art, but in fact this image encapsulates years of unconditional love, shared problems and treasured secrets. Read the rest of this entry »

As Custodian of Charlie Small’s Journals, I was lucky enough to be able to speak directly to the lost boy adventurer on his crackling, hissing mobile. I put Tilda’s questions directly to him, and here are his answers:

Describe the place where you write/draw.
I write up my journals wherever and whenever I can. I might be a prisoner of the great apes of Gorilla City; I could be on a mission with Snipe and his rodent-like, pickpocketing gang in Fortune City, but if I get a moment I’ll scribble down all my latest adventures.

What is your most treasured possession?

My rucksack! It contains my explorer’s kit – all the things that might come in useful on my amazing adventures. I’ve got a tube of instant super-glue, the skull of a Barbarous Bat, the bony finger from an animated skeleton, a penknife, the glass eye from a steam-powered rhinoceros, the tooth from a monstrous megashark, and loads of other stuff!

What times of the day do you work?
I’m on the go 24/7, unless I’ve been taken prisoner of course – like the time I was turned into a performing marionette. I spent ages trapped in my own skin, which had been petrified by the dastardly Puppet Master!

Read the rest of this entry »

Describe the place where you write/draw.

JON: When I moved into the house where I live, I picked a very nice room to write in. It has two big windows which get sun for most of the day, it’s large enough for my desk, my filing cabinet and a sofa to fit comfortably, and it’s painted a beautiful shade of light blue.

Until recently, however, it was a disgrace: boxes of books, dead flowers, plates with pizza crusts still stuck to them, empty coffee cups everywhere. Then I got some shelves put in, and was too embarrassed to let the carpenter see it. It’s still a bit of a mess, but it’s now also a room I enjoy being in. One wall is completely covered in books. The other is decorated with a combination of postcards, prints and a crow’s skull I found one day while walking in the lake district. (It was buried beak down, only the back of the skull showing – it looked like an egg – but when I went to pick it up out came the beak. I’ve treasured it ever since)

ANDY: My working room doubles as my daughter’s  bedroom.  It has been painted bright blue, which gives it a lively energy.  There is a strong smell of nappies, and a view out the window of a brick wall.  My desk is small and covered with books, bills and half-empty coffee mugs.  My favourite thing in it is my swivel chair.  It has a bouncy give that lets me rock slowly back and forth.  I jiggle a lot when I write.

I covet Jon’s new shelves – they are very fine indeed.

What is your most treasured possession?

JON: My piano. It’s a family heirloom – my mum and her sisters all played on it when they were children, and I think it belonged to my grandfather before that. It smells of varnish and old wood, weighs a ton and nearly crippled me when I was helping the piano movers get it upstairs and we dropped it on my big toe. There’s a special bond that exists with something that’s caused you that much pain.

ANDY: I have a small wooden box given to me a long time ago by my father.   It has an elephant carved in the lid.  Every autumn I catch a leaf and put it in there to give me luck for the next year. Read the rest of this entry »

When I first saw the topic for this round of blogs, I thought, ‘this will be nice and easy, Just need to answer a couple of questions and I’ll be done until the next round…’

Then I saw Sarah Mcantyre’s post. She had decided to illustrate each answer out. That was a cool idea. But now I had to answer it using illustrations, I couldn’t copy her idea (though in hindsight, I should have). So I decided to come up with another way of answering it using illustrations.

After deliberating for a while, I came up with something. Something that I thought would be cool. I decided to do a single illustration which was going to answer all of the questions at once. It was going to be amazing!

Trouble was, I didn’t have time to figure out how I was going to make it- so had to just make it up as i went along…that didn’t quite work out as planned.

The combination of my camera not photographing too well at night and a generally bad sketch made sure that I will have to answer the questions as originally planned.

So here they are:

Describe the place where you write/draw

On my desk, in the spare room of our flat. There are a few cracks on the ceiling and the electricity supply was fitted before they invented the lightbulb. I used to sit on a swivel chair but that broke. From my window you can see where the Eiffel tower would be on the horizon except someone built flats opposite us, so i just have to imagine it now.

What is your most treasured possession?

I have two, but they are consumables (so I don’t know if this counts). Dairy Milk, and Coca Cola, but only in the glass bottles.

What times of the day do you work?

I work from around 10am until 4am. Need to change that really.

What distracts you?

Cleaning the fingerprints off my Ipad.

What is your favourite smell?

Vicks. Spaghetti Bolognese.

Cat or dog?

Dog, in particular giant Jack Russells. Read the rest of this entry »

Describe the place where you write/draw.

In my studio at my computer, surrounded by mountains of paper and with my son poking me with sticks and demanding that I let him watch Transformers instead. At a giant drawing board I liberated from a landscape gardener who gave up on their dream. On massive canvasses propped up on the dining room chairs, while forcing my family to eat off garden furniture. On the sofa, lightbox balanced on my knees, watching Masterchef. In any number of local cafes and coffee shops. On trains, trains are good. Episodes of Pirates of Pangaea, in fact, have been produced on planes, trains AND automobiles. And with sheets of paper held up against a large window in Cyprus.

All over the place, really, is what I’m saying.

I have decided to illustrate this post with photos of the various parts of my house that are becoming overwhelmed by the crushing geological force that is My Work Mess.

Read the rest of this entry »

Describe the place where you write/draw.

What is your most treasured possession?

What times of the day do you work?

What distracts you?
Read the rest of this entry »

Describe the place where you write/draw

I’m incredibly spoiled because I have a room above our garage that I use as an office and I tend to go there to when I’m at home. The view is lovely, and makes me have to pinch myself, but in the winter it is ridiculously cold.

What is your most treasured possession?

I think probably at the moment it is the felt bear puppet that my son Joe made. It is without doubt the best felt bear puppet in the history of that honourable craft (no maternal bias there whatsoever).

What times of the day do you work?

If I’ve got a ‘writing day’ I work 9 to 5, or 8 to 6 if I’ve set myself a hard task. Then in the evenings I try and do admin.

What distracts you?

Oh god, everything these days. I was really good at concentrating until about two years ago and now I’ve finally succumbed to the 21^st century disease of distraction. Currently I’m trying the Pomodoro technique, which is basically where you set a timer to 30 minutes and keep working until it beeps. One of my friends has this thing that switches his internet off. If you’ve got any other suggestions please do bung them my way.

What is your favourite smell? Read the rest of this entry »

I’ve tried to resist plugging my own book on the storyblog (really, I have), but today is publication day (HURRAH!) so I’m going to abandon my dignity and go for it.

Actually I can claim some relevance to the nautical theme, because The Demon’s Watch is set in a port and has loads of ships and sailing in it. So with that in mind I thought I’d share with you the very first scene I wrote for the book. It didn’t make it into the final version, but I’m still fond of it.

‘What’s wrong? Scared of a little water?’

The cabin boy clung to the mast, his face white, his shirt drenched with spray. Captain Clagg gave the lad a shove with his boot and sent him sprawling across the deck.

Another flash of lightning; another crack of thunder.

Clagg glared at the sky and drew a bottle of firewater from his sodden pocket.

‘Is that the best you can do?’ Read the rest of this entry »