Archive for the ‘raves’ Category

Posted on October 13, 2010 - by MG

Festivals and Prizes (part 2 of 2)

From festivals – to prizes!

Last week was off to a cracking start when I was lucky enough to be the guest speaker at the School Librarian of the Year Awards for 2010.

If you watch this video from Teacher’s TV you’ll see my shock and delight that I was able to announce TWO winners. And that’s from a very strong shortlist! It was a joy to be able to see the work that all the honour list of librarians has put into the ‘Learning Resource Centres’ in their schools. I quite envied the kids at Kevin Sheehan’s school in Offerton, Stockport, who got to enjoy, amongst many other activities, a Doctor Who theme day.

Then it was on to St. Gregory the Great School, Oxford, where a House competition was run to find the best school poet for National Poetry Day. Four talented young poets stood up to represent their houses before a packed hall at lunchtime. The brilliant Raymond Pelakamoyo won for Benedict House with a poem about Home that brough the house down. (You can watch the video of Raymond Pelakamoyo below or on Youtube)

Then…back home to hear two exciting announcements – the fabulous news that fellow Redhammer client, author Michelle Paver had won the Guardian Children’s Book Prize. And that one of my favourite authors, Mario Vargas Llosa, novelist and former Peruvian presidential candidate had finally won the greatest prize in Literature, the Nobel Prize.

• FT reports Mario Vargas Llosa wins Nobel Prize
• Time reports Mario Vargas Llosa wins Nobel Prize

Huzzah and thank goodness! For those of us who carry resentment that Jorge Luis Borges and Graham Greene were never given their due recognition by the Nobel Committee, Mario Vargas Llosa was another thorn in our side. Now he’s won! Now he is officially the literary equal of his former friend and subject of his doctoral thesis (until he punched him in the face in Mexico City), Gabriel Garcia Marquez!

I’ll confess that I have yet to finish the two books that are considered to be Vargas Llosa’s greatest contributions to the American Novel.

• The Green House
• The Feast of the Goat

And I haven’t yet read Conversations in the Cathedral, which Vargas Llosa told an audience at the 2009 Oxford Literary festival, was his own favourite. Or The War at the End of the World.

But! I have read and loved The Time of the Hero, Aunt Julia and the Scriptwriter, Captain Pantoja and the Special Service, Who Killed Palomino Molero, The Storyteller, The Real Life of Alejandro Mayta and The Bad Girl.

Readers who know their onions are now nodding and thinking, yes, she’s a lightweight, only read the shorter, more entertaining novels. That’s what makes Vargas Llosa such a genius and such a worthy winner! Unlike most Nobel winners he can write dense politico historical epics, comedy, thrillers and murder mysteries. As the guy who announced the Nobel said, Vargas Llosa is a STORYTELLER.

He can write ANYTHING and make it awesome.

If you haven’t read anything by him, start with Aunt Julia and the Scriptwriter. And yet again, thanks to Alan Hoyle, former boyfriend of my mother’s for giving me this book for honeymoon reading over 20 years ago and introducing me to your literary hero and now mine.

Three cheers for Vargitas and Peru!

Posted on July 29, 2010 - by MG

I talk about mobile phones vs book for kids, and swoon at Avon from Blake’s 7

Some book publicity events are planned months in advance…and some spring up on you all surprising, like.

Last Thursday I’d planned to be in London to renew my Mexican passport at the embassy, after a bit of a saga as you might know if you follow me on Twitter. Suddenly a little new story broke, about some research collated on behalf of Scholastic Children’s Books UK, that in the UK more under 16s own a mobile phone than own a book.

The research was based on a survey of 17,000 under-16s in the UK. Apparently almost 9 in 10 young people in the UK own a mobile, whilst fewer than 3/4 (73%) own a book. 80% of children who read above the expected level for the age have books of their own. This drops by 22% for those that read below the expected reading level (58%).

It was the last day of term for most maintained schools in the UK, so what better chance to stir up some interest in summer reading for kids?

Scholastic wanted one of their authors to be available for comment, so I was invited to stay over until Friday and do some radio interviews. Sixteen, actually, some live, some pre-recorded.

One interview was at my local radio station, JackFM of Oxford. It’s just down the road from me actually, so Sophie Bruce had a bit of fun teasing me about being in London in a recording studio, when I could have just popped in. And guess who does the in-betweeny-voice bits for JackFM? It’s Paul Darrow, aka Avon, the sexy heart-throb star of BBC TV’s Blake’s 7.

Now if you’ve read my bio, you know that I heart Blake’s 7 but I specially heart Avon, spent most of my teenage years (ahem and a bit longer too) dreaming about being a crew member on the Liberator and having my wicked way becoming really good chums with Avon.

Paul Darrow, a charming and very lovely guy, was always most kind to his fans. Once for his 40th birthday I got all my school friends to sign a card to Paul. He replied with a signed photo for every girl in the class, how cool is that? And a letter addressed to the Ladies of Fallowfield.

Sophie of JackFM asked me if I’d like her to get Paul to record a message for me, and I said that I’d like to know that he remembered the Ladies of Fallowfield. Who are now the dowagers of Fallowfield, but never mind.

Paul, being full of awesome and everything, did just that. Ladies, listen to this without swooning, if you can.

Posted on May 27, 2010 - by MG

Anyone else get lost in LOST?

On Monday morning we set the alarm and woke early to watch the LOST finale live from the USA. I made berry smoothies and marmalade toast and coffee, it was well worth the effort!

When it was over, we weren’t happy. We didn’t understand. It was all very fulfilling on an emotional level; all those lovers reunited in the Sideways world. But what did it mean?

Not since X-Files have I actually had to resort to programme notes to understand a TV show. My instinct is that TV entertainment should be simple enough not to require you to RTFM (read the ahem manual).

But actually why not? Why can’t a mainstream TV show be pitched at a deep enough level that you need to discuss it afterwards?

So I’ve spent some time looking for the best articles about the finale, which might help me to explain what happened, what was going on all along, because really, we weren’t trying hard enough. We had just been watching it an assuming that every t would be crossed and i dotted.

Well, it ain’t!

Last night at dinner I sat down with husband and 17-year old and explained the show/finale based on the various theories I’ve read. 17-year old in particular was delighted and is going to spread the word at her school, where the overall reaction to the finale was negative. Like mine initially. They were all dead? It was all a dream? Dammit, give me back my time!

If you were a keen Lostie who lost it a bit with the finale, maybe like me these articles will help you find your LOST love again.

LOST finale recap: And In The End

Lost Finale Explained Well – allegedly written by a writer who worked on the show

But first here’s a little glossary to Lostie terminology:

• MIB – Man In Black aka the Smoke Monster, Smokey
• FLocke - False Locke aka MIB
• Sideways world – the world that seemed to be ‘created’ when the nuclear bomb went off and the Oceanic flight never crashed.
• Lostaways – the passengers who crashed in the same part of the island as Jack, Sawyer etc.
• Island Magic – anything at all that is a bit weird/magical
• Holy Wormhole – the source of light at the centre of the island.

Just like with X-Files, we’re left with many questions. For example:

1. Why is Aaron a baby in the church at the end? We know he was at least three in Real Life. I don’t want to be a baby in the afterlife! Fair enough if you died as a baby but if not…
2. Desmond became some kind of super-being immune to EM powers and Island Magic, who didn’t get smoked when he went into the Holy Wormhole, OK. So how come Jack didn’t get smoked?
3. How did Jacob manage to leave the island to fetch up all the Candidates?

Not that I have a problem with threads being left untied! The glimpses of backstory that we did see about the island’s long, mysterious past were tantalising; the temple, the statue etc, Mother, only make me enjoy it more.

It’s good to have this to share with the Teenager. I think we’ll be talking about it for a few evenings to come.

So – if you have any answers, theories, etc, let me know!

Posted on March 13, 2010 - by MG

The ZERO MOMENT blog tour

Here is the list of articles in the ZERO MOMENT blog tour which ran throughout May 2010, along with the kind blogs run by friends of mine who have kindly agreed to host a rant, ramble, book review or intelexshull think-piece.

Z is for Zany Orange Puffles and social networking sites for children here at mgharris.net

E is for Elektra Assassin – the baddest comic book grrl ever at bookzone4boys.blogspot.com

R is for Richmal Crompton and the genius of Just William at bartsbookshelf.co.uk

O is for Om nom nom – the nommity meme at chicklish.co.uk

M is for Mayan myths in popular culture (2012 and all that) at scribblecitycentral.blogspot.com

O is for One Hundred Years Of Solitude – a bluffers guide at viewfromheremagazine.co

M is for Motivating your characters – the secret to success? here at mgharris.net

E is for Everything I Know About Plotting I Learned From Aristotle at myfavouritebooks.blogspot.co

N is for Numbers in the Dark by Italo Calvino – a short story collection review at nextread.co.u

T is for Ten Things That Helped me Get Published at howpublishingreallyworks.com

Posted on January 26, 2010 - by MG

Up In The Air (I’ve Been There)

Up In The Air (I’ve Been There)

Originally uploaded by mgharris

There’s a lovely Clooney movie out just now, "Up In The Air" which features a key scene in Detroit Airport (also the airport destination of the latest Al Qaeda nutso, the Underpants Bomber.) Now who’da thought that an airport that I had never visited in years of travelling, at least 5 times to the USA, would suddenly become so ubiquitous, months after I happen to spend several happy hours there?

The simple answer is probably that it’s the major hub for American Airlines, who feature prominently in the Clooney film.

Is "Up In The Air" good? For a movie that purports to be a romcom it’s being taken quite seriously. But that is only because it isn’t actually a romcom. There is one important convention to romcoms, you might even say it’s the defining characteristic and it isn’t followed in this movie. Then again, "Annie Hall" ends with the lovers apart too.

It’s a good comedy drama though. With a rather nice, poignant twist at the end.

I took this photo in Detroit Airport, next to the jumping fountain. In the movie Clooney and his young co-star stand in almost exactly the same place, also with a sunset.

Meanwhile, "Zero Moment" is effectively published early, with online promotions starting this week at Waterstone’s and swapitshop.com

I spent today writing my 2010 author talk. First school event on Wednesday. Krispy Kreme party for the Joshua Facebook group on Friday. Big launch party next Tuesday. Much excitement and cake, then down to editing Dark Parallel.

Wednesday 27th also sees Joshua’s first outing in Polish!
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