Being a writer is never easy. Things take too long, and there's little to show for it. Long silences, endless waiting and wondering, a general feeling of isolation ... Yet, the highs are so high that they make everything worth it.In 2019, among the biggest highs for me was the discovery of warm, supportive groups on social media. I didn't even know that this was something part of me needed, simply because I'm so used to the feeling of submitting stories into the void and never hearing back from editors and publishers. Rejection, too, is equally normal. Form rejections are terrible, but silence is worse.Then, I discovered that people set targets for themselves - of how many rejections they will get each year. A hundred rejections - that's a normal target.And this was new to me. It opened my eyes to wonderful new possibilities. Instead of agonising over perfection, why not send … [Read more...]
The Charm of Children’s Literature
I read and review books all the time. A glance through my blog shows me that I've written over 300 posts about books! Though I didn't look through all of them before writing this post, I'm sure a majority of them are reviews of children's literature. I've written about fictional teachers, rereading old favourites, writers who have influenced me, and so much more. Last year, I did a series of top ten - picture books, books for young readers, books for middle-grade readers and YA books.This got me thinking. I don't read children's literature simply because I'm a children's writer. There's a lot more to it than that. Children's literature is magical, and I wanted to write about that magic. The Curious Reader was the perfect place to write an essay about it. Do give it a read: I enjoyed writing it!Read another essay of mine on TCR - The Problem with Monster Stereotypes in … [Read more...]
Monsters and Stereotypes
I'm so happy with all the lovely responses I've been getting to my essay, "The Problem With Monster Stereotypes In Literature"! Thank you for the love. It's been ages since I wrote something remotely academic, so I was nervous about this piece.The writing of the essay started with all the monster posts I've been writing here on my blog, particularly after workshops I conduct with children and adults.How do we imagine monsters? What forms the bedrock of our imagination of monsters?With all my activities around the creation of monsters, it was time to take the idea further, examining why children so often create monsters that are fat, ugly, dark-skinned and male.The word count did not allow me to include everything I would have liked to, particularly as there are so many books that do try to create new kinds of monsters. One book that comes to mind featured in an earlier … [Read more...]