Here are some writing tips from Jonathan Strahan, who edited Under My Hat, an excellent collection of witchy stories that we wrote about on Tuesday. So you want to write a short story? A great one? When I was first asked to provide a list of tips on how …
Jeyn Roberts has written a couple of awesome YA books, which we talked about on Tuesday. Dark Inside and Rage Within are post-apocalyptic novels, which race along, drawing you into a world of dark and evil, through the eyes of a cast of young characters fighting together to make sense …
Giles Paley-Phillips has written two monstrous picture books – which we talked about on Tuesday. Today he’s very kindly answered some questions about his writing. What made you want to write scary books for children? I grew up reading books by the Grimm brothers, Roald Dahl and Edward …
Today is all about writing suspense and fear. Most fiction requires some suspense and often some fear, but of course some genres have a lot more of it than others – horror of course has bucketloads of both, while thrillers do too. I’ve mentioned already this week that I find …
This is a Halloween Book Week guest post from Adele of Circus Queen. Earlier this year, my husband bought me a Kindle because, for someone who claims they like to read, I actually don’t read very much. Unfortunately, this coincided with us going through a rather skint period so, …
I went through a big horror phase when I was a teenager (after the Mills & Boon phase). I mentioned on Monday about Friday night horror movie night at my friend’s house, but we also read loads of horror fiction, then, too. I think the appeal of horror was that …
The last post of the day is for the children’s books we were sent that didn’t quite fit into the other categories! Stefan Gates’ Incredible Edibles Incredible Edibles is a fabulous collection of incredibly cool recipes come science experiments. Stefan Gates takes an exploratory and scientific look at food. How …
I have to admit to having been somewhat dismissive of YA fiction. I felt that, since I read mostly adult fiction from a fairly young age, why can’t everyone else? YA fiction was just starting out when I was a teenager and there were a few titles appearing from a …
The Weirdstone of Brisingamen Chapter books are where children can really start getting into and appreciating the scary, I think. The one I remember most from my childhood was The Weirdstone of Brisingamen by Alan Garner. It probably isn’t what you’d describe as a traditional horror story, though it does …
Our round-up of picture books for Halloween and beyond – witches, ghosts and monsters, oh my!
