Keith Charters: Landing on the Sand

We welcome author and publisher Keith Charters to the blog. Keith tells us about the odd, far-flug and often perilous locations that being a writer takes him to.


As some of you will know, I’m both the author of the LEE series of humorous novels and the MD of Strident Publishing. But today, I want to wear my author hat and I want to talk about travel.
You see, I do a lot of it, dashing around the country presenting in schools and libraries and at festivals.. Happily I love going places (and coming back from them). And every so often I get to go somewhere…well, if not exactly exotic, certainly far flung.

This coming school year will begin with me boarding a disturbingly small plane of the bring-your-own-elastic-band variety as I head off to Barra (where you land on the beach – yikes!), Benbecula, Orkney and Shetland. I was invited to the first two; I invited myself to the latter two, precisely because I have never been to them before.

Why do I love this sort of travel when I could just as easily stay at home in front of my computer? Well, we have 6-month-old twins and a 3-year-old in our house. Happily the twins have yet to work out how to open my study door. Unhappily the 3-year-old learned that trick a long time ago and now only the lure of chocolate raisins in the kitchen keeps him out of the room.

As a result, these days I write almost exclusively when I am travelling. And since I love writing I have to love travelling. So I can’t wait to get on those flights to the isles. I have tightened my elastic bands to breaking point, so we should be able to get off the ground. It’s just that landing on the sands of Barra that I have some misgivings about.

Other News

We have two fantastic book trailers for you. First up, Catching Fire, the sequel to Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins. Followed by a stunning piece of Play-Doh animantion for Shiver by Maggie Stiefvater.

Room on the Broom, the best-selling children's book by Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler is going to be available as an "ePlayBook" later this year. It will feature the original story along with animation, audio tracks and activity sheets.

Louise Reid, 91, is certainly an avid reader: she has just taken out her 25,000th book from the Castle Douglas library, surely this must be a world record?

John Ryan, who was the creator of the Pugwash books which were subsequently turned into a cartoon has died at the age of 88.

Don't forget to test your knowlegde of all things booky in our Quiz.

January Survival Kit: The West Wing and books

If December is about celebration January is about survival: you just have to get through it. And, according to my colleague Clare, last Monday was officially the most depressing day of the year. Well, we got through that so things must be getting better…


There are two things helping me survive Edinburgh’s dark January days: series 3 of The West Wing and books. Now I’m going to tell you a secret. My colleague Jasmine deals in books. Like all dealers, she runs a slightly covert operation. She’s not one to shout about things. And the currency is enthusiasm, not hard cash. But, gradually, over a few days, you suddenly realise pretty much everyone in the office is reading the same thing, and that their supplier was Jasmine. One of her most recent offerings has already made a brief appearance on this blog, The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins, but I was so struck by it I thought you wouldn’t mind my mentioning it again. It’s reality TV taken to its very extreme – read it. You won’t be disappointed. Also on my reading list at the moment is Bad Faith by Gillian Philip – another dystopian world where this time the Church has taken over. I’m only 100 pages in but it’s gripped me – I can’t wait to get to the end. And, because it’s January, there’s got to be some comfort reading. And mine, I’m almost ashamed to say, is Jane Austen. Not Pride and Prejudice – that’s good on telly, not so good in book form – but Mansfield Park. You can’t beat it.


There are two other readers in my household. The first is deep in Stamping Butterflies by Jon Courtenay Grimwood. For the second, perhaps 'reader' is stretching it a bit … she’s only 2. But she does love her picture books. She can be fickle in her taste – her favourites change daily. Currently top of her list are Follow that String, A Lark in the Ark, Natalie Russell’s beautiful new book Donkey’s Busy Day and Viv French’s first two books in her new series Sparkle Street. But there’s a couple of books she comes back to again and again … an ancient edition of Babar’s Big Book of Words, given to her by my cousin, now 16, who loved it when she was 2, and the Janet and Allan Ahlberg classic, Each Peach Pear Plum, at the end of which she always clammers “again, again” (either because she loves it so much or because she has worked out it delays bedtime by an extra few minutes – sometimes I suspect the latter).


But January hasn’t all been doom and gloom … here’s Jenny Watson, coordinator of the wonderful Aberdeen Reading Bus, to tell us about her January highlight:



“The Reading Bus and team had a fantastic day out at the Scottish Parliament on Thursday 15th January 2009.


“The Reading Bus had a spectacular parking spot under Arthur's Seat and hosted a Scots Reading Champion Session. The guest class from Newcraighall School enjoyed an enthralling hour with Sheena Blackhall, Matthew Fitt, Bill Wilson, MSP and youngsters from Hanover Street School and Kittybrewster School.


“Inside the Scottish Parliament team members, including pupils, showcased examples of the innovative practice developed by The Reading Bus to an audience of MSPs, Scottish Book Trust representatives and a wide variety of guests from literacy organisations, authors, illustrators and poets.


The Reading Bus is extremely grateful to Maureen Watt, MSP for North- East Scotland for hosting this fantastic opportunity. It was a grand day out for all and a wonderful opportunity to share the work of The Reading Bus with a national audience.”

Enjoy the rest of your January!

Anna

Frohes Neues Jahr!

As 2009 kicks off, we hand the blog reins back over to Keith Gray, to tell us a bit about his holiday reading...

Hello. Hope you all had a good time during the holidays. ’09 already! Kind of scary. I didn’t manage to finish half the stuff in ’08 that I was planning on doing...

I’ve got to admit, however, the last few days of the year were excellent. I went to Vienna, to stay with my partner’s family (because that’s where she’s from) and to experience Weihnachten and Sylvester - or Christmas and Hogmanay Austrian-style. So I could tell you about all the Schnapps I drank, the Wiener Schnitzel I ate and the waltzes I danced. But this is a Scottish Book Trust blog so I reckon rather than talk about how drunk, greedy and two-left-footed I was I’d tell you about the excellent books I read while I was away.

First up is ‘The Hunger Games’ by Suzanne Collins. It’s a brilliant slice of sci-fi dystopia, where the rulers of a post-apocalyptic America punish the citizens with a deadly, reality-TV style, gladiatorial fight for survival. 12 boys and 12 girls are chosen randomly, and these 24 ‘tributes’ are put into a wilderness arena before having to fight to the death in front of the cameras. There’s echoes of traditional folktales with the idea of sacrificial virgins, as well as new twists on recent stories (Stephen King’s ‘The Running Man’ or ‘The Lottery’ by Shirley Jackson), and it’s possibly the most exciting book I’ve read all year. I should have been enjoying snow and Sauerkraut with my in-laws, but I was many years into the future willing Katniss and Peeta to make it to the end.

And the other book I read was something a bit different. Don’t get me wrong, I’m a bit of a ‘Doctor Who’ fan, but I’m definitely not a nerdy obsessive (a Whovian). But I have been interested in the Russell T Davies book about the writing of the programme and was lucky enough to find a copy in my stocking. And what a great book ‘The Writer’s Tale’ is! If there is anybody out there interested in writing (stories, books, scripts) it’s an insight into how writing works, about ideas, about characters, about re-writing, about re-writing, about re-writing... It’s also a fascinating glimpse of a hugely successful writer who’s possibly a bit mad, definitely obsessive, sometimes egotistical, but mostly genuine and warm. I reckon it should be the new Bible for all writers out there, professional or wannabe. And it’s so big I was able to use it as a duvet to sleep under in the freezing Viennese temperatures.

So there’s two quick recommendations to kick off ‘09. If you read them, get in touch and let us know what you think.

Prosit Neujahr.

Keith

What have you been reading over the holidays? Add your reviews and recommendations below...