Marcus Sedgwick and the Zombie Killer Rabbits

This week we welcome a guest blogger, award-winning novelist Marcus Sedgwick. To get a sample of his work, read his exclusive short story on the Scottish Book Trust website.

I think being a writer has got to be one of the best jobs in the world. But that’s because I’ve just handed in a new manuscript and my editor has given it the seal of approval. If you asked me a month ago I might not have been so charitable. With a deadline looming and that tricky last section to get down, I was an unhappy and nervous author. Happily for me it went to plan and I finished the novel that will be published in over a year from now, towards the end of 2009, Revolver.

In the meantime, I’m left in what has to be the best moment of a writer’s lifecycle – current project done, I can set my mind free and wonder what in the whole world wide to write about next. Zombie Killer Rabbits? Telepathic Tortoises? Tooth floss murders? It’s all out there waiting for me, and the thrill of deciding what to do next is certainly easier than actually doing it. That’s not to say that my work is done on Revolver yet – I’ll need to do two or three redrafts of it at least to really get it right, and redrafting is Not Fun, but I always think that that’s the time you earn your money as a writer, when it gets hard, because otherwise, to be paid for thinking up things that aren’t real and writing them down seems really unfair on everyone else. So that’s to come in the next few weeks, but meanwhile, I have a little clear space to ponder my next move. I have absolutely no idea what it is yet, and that’s more than half the fun.

Marcus Sedgwick
Author of My Swordhand is Singing, The Book of the Dead and many more...

Disappointment of the week:
The week began with the news that the release date of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince has been shifted from this November to July 2009. Normally, if a film's release date is pushed back it means the film company are worried that it's not good enough, but surely that can't be the case with HP... can it? It certainly looks pretty cool from the trailer:

How do I love books? In many, many ways...

Why is it that at the beginning of the summer holidays it seems like the school year will never start again, and then towards the end you are left wondering what happened to all that time? Here we are again: in Scotland schools start again next Monday (if you’re reading this south of the border count yourself lucky! You have another 2 weeks to go!)

The school holidays for us are our quiet time: to plan our forthcoming autumn projects and events (keep an eye out for our autumn schedule … we’ve got some really fantastic authors appearing) and to think about what we’d like to do in the coming year, and how we’re going to do it!

Next week sees the re-launch of our Writer in Residence programme, in which writer Keith Gray is getting the best teen fiction writers to write short stories appearing exclusively on our website … just up is Marcus Sedgwick’s story … have a read if you haven’t come across it already. A spooky tale about a near-death experience – not to be missed! But the best thing about the project is that we want teenagers aged 12-16 to send in their own stories … and as it’s all online you don’t have to be based up here in Scotland to enter. Go to the competition information here.

It may be quiet in our office but outside Edinburgh is bustling, bursting at the seams with festival attendees and performers. I’ll be at the book festival later this week for Lari Don’s event about her First Aid for Fairies and Other Fabled Beasts, a fabulous tale including a centaur, a fairy, a Pheonix, a journey from the Borders to Orkney and back again and, best of all, a really feisty heroine.

Festival season is also party season, and I went to my first last night, the launch of Joan Lingard’s new book from Catnip, The Eleventh Orphan, a happy and chatty evening in Joan’s own house, making it a really special atmosphere. What I love about a book launch is buying your crisp, brand new copy and getting it signed – a really special thing to keep.

One of the best things about this job is that brand new, often not-yet-published books arrive on mine, Jasmine’s and Chris’s desk every day, and, although I’m not nearly as efficient as Chris and Jasmine at getting through them, the summer is a great time to catch up on some overdue reading! I’m very much enjoying Life, Interrupted by Damian Kelleher (due to be published by Piccadilly Press in January), although I know it’s going to make me weep. I’m also taken with Joe Donnelly’s original blend of thriller writing and fantasy in the second of his Jack Flint trilogy, Jack Flint and the Spellbinder’s Curse. Debi Gliori’s new picture book, The Trouble with Dragons, a timely warning about human destruction of the earth, is absolutely stunning. Finally my colleague handed me the latest Diana Wynne Jones book, The House of Many Ways, last week. I am a HUGE fan and exercising the largest degree of self restraint in saving it for a long plane journey on Friday! I cannot wait!

Anna
Children's Programme Manager

Next week: author Marcus Sedgwick drops in to the blog...