Categories: Author

16 Feb 2010, Comments (2)

Interview with YA author, Gillian Philip

Author: Nicky Schmidt

Sometimes in life you just get lucky. I feel that way about having made friends on Facebook with Scottish author Gillian Philip. When I friended her (or she friended me – I forget which way round it was), I didn’t know anything about her, let alone what she’d written. But as is the way of these things, you get to know someone a little and you decide to read their books. Reading Gillian’s books has been a total treat for me. The strength of her voice and the honesty with which she deals with some tough subject matter makes me rate her up right up there with my favourite teen and Young Adult authors – who include Kevin Brooks and Meg Rosoff. (more…)

Popularity: 94% [?]

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Author

16 Jan 2010, Comments (4)

The Joy of Leaping Off “The Edge”

Author: Richard D. Nielsen

Writing anything, a short story, blog, magazine article, book, is so cerebral. You watch the words appear on the screen in your own private little world. But to have something appear in tangable print, something tactile that has weight, scent (I love the aroma of new books), can be held, stimulates all the senses.

To see your name on the cover of your creation is like being handed a newborn which, for us guys, has been mostly hidden inside our dear ones. The only real connection we experience before the birth is feeling the kicks on her tummy. At the time of birth, everything gets charged and changed.

The excitement of opening the package addressed to you from the publisher, seeing those white pages within, withdrawing the book, the book you’ve toiled so long on writing and editing, editing, editing, editing, (did I mention editing?) and at last, there it is, RIGHT IN YOUR HANDS! (more…)

Popularity: 100% [?]

Categories:
Author, First Book
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Richard D. Nielson

11 Jan 2010, Comments (2)

Book Review: The Lightning Thief, by Rick Riordan

Author: Elizabeth Varadan

The Lightning Thief, by Rick Riordan (movie poster)

Gods and goddesses of ancient Greece have long been discounted as myth, right? In the fast-paced fantasy, The Lightning Thief, these “immortals” still live. Their half-mortal offspring walk among us, pursued by monsters.

Percy Jackson is in trouble again at his new boarding school. He’s dyslexic and he suffers from ADHD, and he assumes that’s why he has the kinds of mess-ups that get him regularly expelled from schools. What Percy doesn’t realize is that he is one of the demi-gods. Monsters find him; after a narrow escape, still unaware of his identity, Percy heads home to his mother. New developments cause her to take him to Camp Half-Blood, a safe haven for demi-gods. (more…)

Popularity: 89% [?]

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Author, Book Review, SPOTLIGHT ON...
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Rick Riordan, The Lightning Thief

15 Dec 2009, Comments (0)

Interview: Nicky Schmidt talks to YA author, Kevin Brooks

Author: Nicky Schmidt

Image courtesy of Author Kevin Brooks

A few months ago I had the pleasure of meeting one of my favourite authors, British writer, Kevin Brooks, at a local book expo and he agreed to do an interview with me on his latest novel, Killing God.

The back cover blurb of Killing God reads as follows:

Dawn Bundy is fifteen. She doesn’t fit in and she couldn’t care less. Dawn has other things on her mind. Her dad disappeared two years ago and it’s all God’s fault. When Dawn’s dad found God, it was the worst time ever. He thought he’d found the answer to everything. But that wasn’t the end of it.

(more…)

Popularity: unranked [?]

Categories:
Author, INTERVIEW
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Books, Kevin Brooks

26 Nov 2009, Comments (0)

Interview: Steampunk YA author Arthur Slade

Author: Shelley

Arthur Slade's The Hunchback Assignments

Shelley: A recent interview said that The Hunchback Assignments is inspired by Victor Hugo’s Huchbank of Notre Dame, and that the second book in this seven-part series found inspiration from Jules Verne’s 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. Was that your aim, to reinterpret classics that fit with the growing movement of steampunk in fashion, literature and art?

(more…)

Popularity: 13% [?]