Geraldine McCaughrean is a popular author who has previously won the CILIP Carnegie Medal. She has written over 100 books for children. Geraldine kindly agreed to chat with us.
What made you want to be a writer?
As a child I was shy and timid - but had a highly adventurous imagination. I quickly discovered that when I was writing my stories (strictly for my own entertainment) I stepped into the shoes of my hero and could be whatever I chose - agile, clever, popular, beautiful, brave, resourceful. Wish fulfilment. It never occurred to me to "want to be a writer when I grew up" - I thought you had to be an intellectual, university type to do that. But I maintained my hobby and a wistful dream of one day being like my brother (who got published when he was fourteen). And if you do something for long enough, and love doing it, you cannot help getting better at it. In the end I got lucky. That's all it ever is.
What is your favourite book as an adult, and what was your favourite book as a youngster?
As a child I loved anything to do with horses, so I suppose The silver brumby books by Elyne Mitchell were a high point. As an adult I like - oh how to pick? - stick a pin in the list -
Mr Pye by Mervyn Peake.
What book are you reading at the moment?
The latest book by my friend Tanya Landman - her second major novel after
Apache (braille 3v; giant print 2v; TB 15764). It's called
The Goldsmith's Daughter (braille 5v; giant print 2v) and covers the conquest of the Aztecs and the fall of Montezuma. Scary, pacy stuff.
Do you have any tips to pass on to budding authors?
Go away! Be a plumber! We happy few inhabiting the best job in the world are as territorial as rattlesnakes and we don't welcome competition. Become a vet! Stop it! Not fair!
However, if you feel you really must write: Save all those books you began but gave up on or couldn't quite make work. The more you write, the more tricks you learn, the more stamina you develop. You may see later how you could have made them work. If you are offered advice and help along the way, grab it.
Some of the writing sites on the internet (eg
writing.com;
fanfic.com) are excellent. You can post your work there for other writers to read. Such sites are visited by like-minded people who are ready to give an honest, informed opinion - as long as you are ready to read their writing too and don't mind getting 'flamed' once in a while. Writing is like doing your hair: it always helps to have someone tell you how it looks from the back.
Listen to audio books: you will absorb that ability to hear when a sentence has a pleasing shape and a music about it. Consider what unique slant you will bring to the world of books.
Eavesdrop on buses and at the shops: it will help you write better
dialogue and it might even suggest stories. As for style - adjectives, adverbs, similes, and so on - follow the well-followed dictum, "If in doubt, miss it out."
Don't wait on your muse to inspire you. Your muse may be on holiday or in bed sick! As Jack London said, "You can't wait for inspiration. You have to go after it with a club."
When you first started writing did you encounter any problems getting published?
Of course! Everyone does - or should: it doesn't do to think you are good at the outset. The chances are, you're not. Or at least not as good as you are going to be when you've learnt a thing or two from the wise people of the book industry.
As a teenager, I wrote books about adult subjects I knew nothing about. Only when I reached adulthood did I start writing children's books: at least I had been a child!
Only 5 per cent of all books published in are produced in accessible formats like talking books or braille - what do you think about that?
Every author I know loves the idea of RNIB recording their work, and none (I imagine) wants paying for it. So it seems a great shame that the funding is not there to bridge the silence in between.
Tell us about your experience of winning Carnegie
No one sits down to write a book thinking, "I'll write a winner!" During the writing, prizes never cross your mind. But I suppose every author looks fondly at the first, shiny advance copy and thinks, "I hope it wins a prize."
That is because prizes matter, especially the Carnegie. Bookshops will stock a Carnegie winner. Libraries and schools will buy it. Shoppers see that medal on the cover and think, "That may be worth a read." The title will stay in print for longer in a world where books go out of print all too easily.
If you are just starting out, the Carnegie will kick-start your whole career. People will expect good things next time they open a book with your name on it.
A pack of lies (braille 4v, giant print 1v, TB 7849) - goodness, it was a lifetime ago! - was only my second novel. The Carnegie was my big break. That Medal felt like a seal of approval, that certificate like a licence to write. Scrawled all over it in invisible ink were the words. "Carry on. You have permission to write more books. You have been initiated into the Tribe of Authors".
So much effort goes into the Carnegie Shadowing process: it would be nice if it played a bigger part in deciding the winner. After all, the shadowers are the people the book was written for. But it's hard. Schools vote quite differently, depending on the age of the readers, where they live, their reading habits, how willingly they volunteered... Lots of shadowers don't read all the books: don't have time, get bored, can't get hold of a copy…. Shadowers get their say, of course, on the Carnegie website. I can vouch for how good it feels when a blogger writes, "I loved this book!" Sadly, lots don't. I quote:
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"If I have to read another book like this, I'll kill myself."
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"Nothing happens."
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"Worst book I ever read."
Ooch. Ouch. Ooff. I would sooner be punched than read a bad blog about a book of mine. So if you are a shadower, please be honest but not brutal. As W B Yeats wrote, "Tread softly, because you tread upon my dreams."