Out on the event trail again today, this time to Borders in Lakeside, Thurrock, for a /particularly/ excellent bookshop-type bash. Seven awesome authors – and me! – were given the opportunity to speak to students from eight schools in the local area. In an unusual twist the audience were divided up into small mixed groups and the authors gave our talks simultaneously, until a whistle blew and everyone changed places. If you examine the photo below – with the eye of faith! – I think you can just about see Stuart Hill doing his stuff for another group in the distance!

The talks were short – half an hour each – and a longish journey meant I only had the chance to do two, but both were great fun. In fact at one point I got so excited that my head exploded.

Ahhh, all right. Technically, it’s true, my head didn’t explode: when this pic was taken I was standing in front of a window, with the sun shining strongly behind me. But I’ve got exactly the kind of dopey, surprised expression that I’m certain I’d be wearing if I ever did get so excited my head exploded. And I was certainly happy enough! 😉

My thanks to Sue for inviting me, and to everyone I spoke to today – but especially to JAKE, pictured here on the far left, for asking some terrific questions and generally being a thoroughly splendid fellow (cheers, Jake!) And thanks, too, to the magnificent Mr Graham Marks, one of the aforementioned awesome authors, for kindly giving me a lift back home. 😉

Today was great, but I’m enormously excited about /tomorrow/. I’ve got another Carnegie event (see previous post) in the morning, which I’m thoroughly looking forward to. Then in the afternoon I’m travelling to Leicester, to attend a fabulous-sounding awards party (there are going to be jugglers, and everything!) where the winner will be announced of the Leicester Book of the Year Award for Teenage Fiction.

And – get this! – Black Tat is on the shortlist! Together with:

BEING by Kevin Brooks

THE ANGEL COLLECTOR by Bali Rai

JUST LISTEN by Sarah Dessen, and-

BERSERK by Ally Kennen.

I have read all the books on this list, and was massively impresssed – not to say intimidated – by every one of them. And Bali Rai and Kevin Brooks are going to be at the do. Wha… [pauses to wave arms in the air like a highly caffeinated Muppet-!] …it should be a brilliant evening! I’ll keep you posted. 😉

This Thursday the winner will be announced of the Carnegie Medal – one of the most prestigious British annual awards for young people’s literature [click on the link above to check out this year’s shortlist]. Schools and libraries all over the UK have been ‘shadowing’ the award – reading the shortlisted books and organising their own events to celebrate and discuss them – and today it was my great pleasure to attend the first of two such do’s I’ve been invited to this week!

Now, I’m not on the list! ;p But as anyone who’s been following this blog will (or should!) know by now, I’m always up for doing anything I can to support the cause of young people reading, especially in my local area. So it was an honour and a privilege to come out to the wonderfully grand Council Chambers of Hackney Town Hall for this terrific event.

Teams of students from schools all over the borough had prepared presentations about the Carnegie shortlisted books. The presentations themselves (particularly, imho, the Cardinal Pole team’s one for Philip Reeve’s HERE LIES ARTHUR – my favourite book from the list!) were all AWESOME. But where I and (pictured) authors Anne Cassidy, Catherine Johnson and Linzi Glass (shortlisted for RUBY RED) came in, was in helping to kick-start the students’ discussion about the books afterwards.

Well they didn’t seem to need much pushing from me, I can tell you! 😉

There’s almost nothing I love more than a spirited exchange of opinions about stories, so witnessing this whole roomful of passionate and enthusiastic young people all arguing their case for which book on this list should win was absolutely brilliant. Just when I thought I had a handle on which one people generally preferred (Tanya Landman’s APACHE say, or Jenny Valentine’s FINDING VIOLET PARK) someone from another group would chime in with another view that would reverse things completely (WHAT I WAS, by Meg Rosoff, or the aforementioned RUBY RED). It was EXCELLENT – not to mention hugely inspiring. My thanks to Jo at Victoria Park Books for inviting me.

Hey!

Writing this at what’s (for me at least) fairly tremendous speed as I’m about to shoot off out the door again, but I’ve just returned from a TERRIFIC school visit, this time to St Augustine’s, in Kilburn, London.

I was booked for two sessions, and spoke to around sixty Year 7 students in each. I also had the chance to chat to some fascinating Sixth Form students at lunchtime. I was enormously impressed throughout my time at this school. Despite it being quite a muggy and hot sort of a day everyone’s attention was impeccable, and the questions were just AWESOME! The standout one – and one of the weirdest for a while! – was “If Philip Pullman asked you for your autograph, what would you do?”

I don’t know. Probably giggle uncontrollably, like the total fanboy I am, and then sign whatever he liked of course. But (heh!) if it ever actually happens, I’ll be sure to let you know! 😉

My thanks to Ms Collins, and everyone I met at St Aug’s. I’m hoping to get the chance to come back for another visit later in the year. Looking forward to it already!

Right! Realising (ahem!) that I haven’t given it a kick up the bum in – yikes! how did that happen?? – nearly eighteen months, I’ve just posted about half a dozen more little blurb wossnames on my LibraryThing Review Page.

I’d hold up anything on that Five Hundred Fine Books list as being well worth checking out – that’s the idea! But if it’s more detailed book recommendations you’re after, by any chance, then I reckon that review page is a good place to start. Heh: the right hand side of the page even displays reviews of the FHFBs by other readers (isn’t LibraryThing great??) — so you don’t even just have to take my word that these are good books, if you don’t want to! ;p

Anyway, do take a look. And if you do, don’t forget to leave me a message on my profile page!

Favourite human words of the day: STALWART; STANCHION [yeah, been thinking of the bridge scene from Cloverfield! 😉 -And, particularly pleasing to say…] SMOLT

Yesterday I was doing my stuff at The Marlborough School, in Oxfordshire. It was my second visit to the school, and a fantastic day – every bit as good as the first one, maybe even better!

To my great glee and delight, Marlborough’s awesome librarian Alicia Marshall had invited me back for three double sessions – of an hour and a half each – to speak to the whole of Year 8. Now: I don’t normally speak for that long at a stretch, but all sixty students in each group were so attentive, and their questions so good, that the time zipped past just fine. There were just two minor hitches…

In the first session, a member of the audience got a terrible nosebleed and had to rush from the room: I hear she’s fine, no worries, but a casualty in one of my audiences was sort of an unwelcome first for me! And in the third session, my rambling was suddenly interrupted by some ominous DONK DONK DONK-ing sounds coming from the library ceiling.

The culprit turned out to be a crow, pecking on one of the skylights as if trying to get our attention. Well, it worked. Initially I thought that maybe the bird was signalling approval of how the day had been going: appreciative reactions to my work are always welcome, from all species, so I felt kind of pleased. But the true nature of this corvid’s feelings about my bletherings was about to become all too clear. Abruptly the young lady sitting beneath the skylight looked down at me with a terrible look of horror and disgust.

‘What?’ I said. ‘What’s happened?’

‘It pooed,’ she said.

Well, I’m glad I got a better reception from Marlborough’s students than I did from its bird population! ;p

Today’s big Guestbook shout goes out to Katherine, who asks: Why did you want to write?

Hi, Katherine! Thanks for your question.

The reason I wanted to write is the same reason I’m still writing – the reason that being a published author is my dream, and I’m pedalling to keep up with it as fast as I can: I write because I love it.

I love imagining things – making up fantastical situations, characters, stories and, heh, monsters!

I love the way that there’s always something new to learn about writing – new skills and techniques to develop and, one day (I hope, if I’m lucky and work hard enough), to master.

Best of all, I love the effect that good books have on me – and the tantalizing prospect of one of my stories having that effect on someone else.

Writing suits me. It gives me things that seem worth hanging big chunks of my life on. For anyone reading this, I hope you find something that does the same for you.

My thanks to Alicia Marshall for inviting me back, and to the Year 8 students of the Marlborough School for giving me such a warm welcome.

Out on the school visit trail again today, this time to Broxbourne School, in Hertfordshire. In pretty quick succession I did three talks (of around fifty mins each) to sixty Year 9 students, sixty Year 7s, and sixty Year 8s — yep, a hundred and eighty young people in total!

I was delighted and honoured to get the chance to talk to so many…

…and to be honest, when I’d managed to get through all three sessions without spitting on anyone by mistake or spilling my drinking water down myself (both serious dangers with me!) I have to say I felt pretty /relieved/, too! ;p

My thanks to Sue Shaper for kindly inviting me, and to anyone I spoke to who’s reading this, thank you for listening.

At the end of each session I handed out (my latest thing-) some business cards that I’ve had printed up with the Sam Enthoven portal page address on them. This was to encourage anyone who had any follow-up questions to get in touch with me, either through my various social network profiles (see my previous post!) or through the Black Tat and Tim Guestbooks. Speaking of which…

To my great glee, on returning to my desk I discovered some AWESOME new Guestbook entries! Today’s big shout (or giant monster roar) goes out to Sienna from Toronto on the Tim Guestbook (thank you so much, Sienna!) but also to Linda from Germantown, Maryland on the Black Tat one, who writes:

Hey, I LOVED the book. It was imaginative, suspenseful [which, ahem, led me to flip to later events] and just….kinda fills up a little hole in ya,…ya know? And I totally loved the London speeches in it like git. I don’t know if you know it but your humor in the book made me laugh laugh. Not in my mind haha-let’s-read-on.
Anywho, I have a few questions I hope you answer:

1. How do you figure out names or looks for the monsters? Like the Chinj? [They’re actually kinda cute in my mind lol]
2. How do you imagine the dragon’s inside? It seems kind of hard…
3. How do you find a publisher [or agent first?] to read your manuscripts? I know I’m young but I really do plan on becoming an author. Although I’m actually procrastinating quite a bit. But I really wanted to know how to get one and do you have to pay them? Thanks for reading and/or answering my questions! :] LOVED the Black Tattoo. Can you just make a small book about Jagmat coming into Earth and Jack and Esme’s relationship? If you don’t, then, ah well, I tried. 😛

oh P.S I still don’t know what the password’s for!

Hi Linda! Thanks for getting in touch, and thanks so much for the kind words!

1. Thinking up names and looks for monsters is something that I personally don’t find too hard. In fact – as you’ve probably guessed from my stories – there’s almost nothing I love better! Dreaming them up and giving them personalities is an absolute delight, for me. And once you’ve done that, finding names for them is a matter of picking something that best suits that particular monster.

One trick that I found worked well for several of the demons in Black Tat was to write lists of words that /sounded/ close to the sort of effect I was after. I’d then take individual syllables or letters from those words and recombine them in different ways until I had something that fit. ‘Chinj,’ though, came from a billboard ad I passed when I was on the bus one day! The word caught my eye, I did a double-take and realised I’d misread it, but by then the word ‘chinj’ was stuck in my mind – and my weird brain was already whirring into action! Monster names can come from all sorts of places. /Human/ names, however… wow, now those are /hard/. 😉

2. Imagining the Dragon’s insides? Nothing to it: just go to Google Images and type ‘Endoscopy’ – though you’d maybe better not try it if you’re eating. HEE HEE HEE! ;p

3. How do you find a publisher? Or an agent? Hmmmmmmm. Actually, again, ‘finding’ them is easy. There are various books (depending on where in the world you live) which list details of where to send your stuff, and what to send. You should be able to find those in your local public library, or on the internet. Looking at who publishes (and represents) your favourite authors is a pretty good place to start, too.

The hard bit, of course, is getting a publisher or agent to take you on.

First, concentrate on creating the absolute hands-down best book you can possibly write. This, really, is the most important step. Until you get past this stage – and have a complete, finished book that you are proud of and you think might stand up against other books – things like agents and publishers are very unlikely to follow. So, to reiterate: first, write your book.

If your book is good enough and you find a proper publisher who loves it, you won’t need to pay them. Your agent (if you have one – I think they’re crucial, but not everybody agrees) will only be paid when he or she sells your work. This will be in the form of a commission percentage taken from whatever money the publishers pay /you/.

But really, I’m sorry to harp on, but it’s stage one that counts. Write your book. [For some tips about procrastination, click here]. Make your book as good as you can possibly make it. With determination, and luck, everything else comes /afterwards/.

…And the password in Black Tat? Go to the site, click on ‘What Is The Black Tattoo?’ and click on ‘Locked’.

OK Linda, hope that’s helpful! And thanks so much again for getting in touch!

Anyone else want to ask me something…? 😉

OK! On top of MySpace, LibraryThing, ContactAnAuthor and the new Bebo spot, as of this week I’m now also on Facebook, Flickr and – my favourite toy at the moment! – LastFM.

Yes, it’s “Jagmat 2.0”! ;p

Heh. Well, anyway-! I haven’t got ’em all set up exactly how I want ’em just yet, but if you want to get in touch with me then now you’ve got a few other choices besides the Guestbooks. Like I say, leave a message after the imaginary beep…!

Favourite human words of the day: PAUCITY; INCORRIGIBLE; CLENCH

Currently reading: DMZ VOL 3 – PUBLIC WORKS, by Brian Wood and Riccardo Burchielli. There’s been an awesome-comics-series-shaped hole in my life since Brian K. Vaughan’s Y: THE LAST MAN finished, and DMZ is shaping up for the job NICELY. Huzzah! 🙂

Hello! Yes – you, reading this! Are you on Bebo, by any chance??

I ask, because – encouraged by how well fings’ve been going as Jagmat (while at the same time, sigh, waiting for the Guestbook snafu to get sorted so folks can send me messages again) – I’ve just today taken my first clumsy baby Tyrannosaur steps towards fixing up a Bebo profile, here.

Now, be patient with me! That page is every bit as raw and tender right now as if it really had just heaved its way out of its egg. It’s got some pics, and that old (’06) Black Tat YouTube clip of me with the strange disappearing hair (hee hee hee!) – and that, frankly, is about it for today. But it’s a start. So: on Bebo? Want to be my very first Bebo buddy? Your time starts… now.

Favourite human words of the day: GAUDY; CONNIPTION; PRANG.

Currently reading: THE LUCIFER EFFECT – HOW GOOD PEOPLE TURN EVIL, by Philip Zimbardo. And let me tell you, it is fascinating.

After another intensive excursion to the Stygian depths of PHASE THREE, today I emerged from my bathysphere at last and, blinking, took myself off (yes! out of the house!) to The Cartoon Museum.

The museum itself was thoroughly awesome – this was the first time I’ve been, and it’s full of all sorts of comics-related treasures. But my official mission was to catch a rare exhibition they’ve currently got on there by one of my absolute favourite classic British cartoonists, namely Graham Laidler, better known as Pont. Here’s one of his cartoons that particularly caught my eye…!

Pont’s speciality was observation, small details. Check out the expression on the face of the kid listening – the faint smile on his lips and the fact that he’s obviously utterly into the story. After spending the past month or so worrying about whether my new book would be too horrifying (not for the readers, you understand, but for their ‘gatekeepers’ – parents, teachers, reviewers and whatnot!) the sight of that expression made me feel a lot better. Bwah-ha. BWAH-HA-HA-HA-HA! ;p

To anyone who’s written in to the Guestbooks this past couple of weeks, my humble apologies. My sites’ host company says a bug has developed that, until they get it fixed, will mean that anything you post might take some extra time to appear right now, and some posts may even get lost completely. How eerily predictable that this should happen /just/ when the WebSphinx and I had settled on offering the Guestbooks as the main way for people to get in touch if they want, eh? As Jack from Black Tat would say, “Typical.” 😉

Who’d’ve guessed it? Around ONE THOUSAND PEOPLE have now made MySpace friends with me, Jagmat – even after the grossly disrespectful way the foolish Enthoven chose to portray me in ‘is ‘orrible debut novel The Black Tattoo.

What can I say? You’ve made this supposedly repulsive, belching, shape-shifting “blancmange-like” demon feel surprisingly welcome. And after what was a bit of a rocky start (check my old MySpace blog for the grisly details) in return I must admit this world of yours hasn’t turned out to be quite the stagnant backwater I first took it for. In fact – particularly since wreaking my vengeance upon the Enthoven and assuming his identity – I’d even have to say that I’ve actually enjoyed myself quite a lot.

Make no mistake: I’ll cross the Fracture and return to Hell to claim my throne one day, that’s for certain. But not yet. Not while it’s still fun over here. Not just yet.

To celebrate, here’s a wonderful short film. It sums up my feelings uncannily well, ‘specially considering it was made by humans: it’s called They’re Made Out of Meat. Enjoy. URP (‘scuse me) -Jagmat.