Lucy Christopher's Blog, page 5

In just a couple of hours time the winners of the Prime Minister's Awards will be announced in Melbourne. Stolen is shortlisted for the new and absolutely fabulous YA section of this award, but so are many other totally brilliant books!

I wish all the authors the very best of luck, both for the YA award and the other awards!

And I wish you, dear reader, lollipops and laughter,

Lucy x

P.S. Sorry for the lack of blog posts of late, but I'm back on track now

Don't forget – I'm speaking at the Cheltenham Literature Festival tomorrow (Sat 16th) at 4.15pm with the wonderful Barry Cunningham and talented CJ Skuse (my friend, fellow Chicken author and, believe it or not, ex-student!).  Come along, why don't you?!! There are still tickets available. We will be talking about the X Factor in teen fiction – how do you get it, what is it, and do we even have it! Ha!

It should be rad (now there's a word I haven't used in a long time…perhaps I'm going to bring it back…come along to the festival event tomorrow and I'll try to slot the word 'rad' into my conversation!).  Perhaps a prize if anyone spots it?!

Free smiles too for anyone who attends! Of course we'll be signing too.

Lucyx

Hey, guess what Gang!?

Both of my books have recently been listed for brilliant book awards!

Firstly, FLYAWAY has been longlisted for the lovely and prestigious UK Literacy Award. This is a fab and important award, voted for by teachers and with the aim of picking a book that uses language in a particularly evocative or imaginative way. I loved playing with the writing and imagery of Flyaway…it was what I enjoyed most about this book! As I said over on my other insideadog.com.au blog post, I'm now crossing my fingers that my quiet, feathered book makes it to the next stage.  There are wings inside this book, ones just itching to stretch and fly.

The other exciting news is that STOLEN has been shortlisted for the Inky Awards.  This is brilliant news as these awards are absolutely wonderful.  They are voted for by teens so are a really good indication of what you guys out there really like to read.  I'm so honoured to have made it onto this shortlist (and with such other fab books for company too!) And I'm really very grateful. THANK YOU kind and lovely judges.

Now …. If  YOU feel like voting for STOLEN to WIN this amazing award…you can!

Check out the voting on the insideadog website. There are great prizes to win if you vote too! You can vote for it here – http://www.insideadog.com.au/inkys/vo...

Anyway, I'm meant to be writing Book 3, instead of getting so excited about my other two books that I want to jump around my living room like a pogo stick. Must get back to the tappety-tap…

Wishing you delight and dancing,

Lucyx

Here is Maggie Stiefvater and I sharing some bubbles!  Well, not that you can actually see the bubbles in this picture (a helpful publicist kindly removed the glasses of Moet out of shot before it was taken!).  But nevertheless, this is me and MAGGIE STIEFVATER  at the Bath Children's Literature Festival.  How cool is that?!  And yes, the length of Maggie's arm is also impressive.  Perhaps this is why she is such a prolific writer.  Perhaps the sheer length of her arm means that she can write for days and never tire.  Either way, she's a fab writer and here's me … meeting her!

For those of you who don't know it, Maggie Stiefvater has kindly agreed to provide the author endorsement on the US paperback edition of STOLEN.  She has also blogged about how much she enjoyed reading STOLEN on her amazing website (http://www.maggiestiefvater.com).  So, all in all, this was a starstruck moment.

I also had the priviledge of seeing Maggie Stiefvater and Jennifer Lynn Barnes in conversation, talking about 'why werewolves' and other random things like 'monkey group behaviour'.  It was fascinating, and also very funny.

I spent the rest of my delightful day out at the Bath Children's Literature Festival meeting up with past students, having a coffee with the gorgeous Julia Green (author of such amazements as Drawing with Light and Blue Moon), watching the Great Cornelia Funke talk about her thrilling new book Reckless, and chatting with my publisher Barry about a new piece of Secret Stolen Film News!! He He He He.  I know something you don't know (you'll have to imagine the singsong voice that was just in my head!).  I also got SPOTTED!  Yes, that's right …. someone came up to me with exactly the words one doesn't want to hear when one is trying to inconspicuously stalk Maggie Stiefvater : "ARE YOU LUCY CHRISTOPHER?"

I was, you could say, rather bowled over.

In other news, today is meant to be Day One of the New Writing Regime (NWR).  So far, I've blogged (twice…don't forget, I'm also Writer in Residence for insideadog.com.au), I have eaten crumpets, and I have sat in the sun with only a tshirt on(plus other clothes to cover legs etc…don't worry, I'm no nudist.).  On the plus side for the NWR, I have downloaded some songs to inspire me to write it.  Also, hearing yesterday that Jennifer Lynn Barnes can write a book in 6 weeks has somewhat terrified me into action.

And on that note, I must depart. It's time for me to place hands firmly on my hips and stare squarely at Book 3.

Wishing you fun and frolicks,

Lucyx

OK, I'm kind of getting into the hang of this blog idea now.  I thought I might tell you a bit about the kinds of things that are going on in my writing life right now.  There are a few excitements!

Firstly, for the month of October, I am the official Writer in Residence for the fabulous Inside A Dog blogspot (part of the Centre for Youth Literature, Australia).  This is really exciting because anyone who really knows me knows I've never been the most technologically minded of gals.  But now?  Look at me go!  I have a wonderful new website which I'm blogging on right now, plus I am Writer in Residence for this other fabulous site.  Soon you won't know me…I'll just be known as Ms Geek!  So anyway, check out my other blogging site for the month of October HERE.  Also, while you're there, check out some of the other really cool info on this site….there are some lovely reviews and whatnot!

While we are talking about the fantastic Inside A Dog website, let me tell you about a linked piece of information that is really rather exciting.  STOLEN has been longlisted for the Inky Awards.  These are such brilliant awards.  They are set up by the Centre for Youth Literature, are international awards for teenage literature, and are voted for by YOU (well, if you're under 20!).  The shortlist for these awards is announced on the 12th October, so please, everyone reading this cross your fingers now and say a small word of encouragement under your breath that STOLEN makes it onto this!

So, in other news? Well there's some really exciting news about the possibility of making STOLEN into a film, but I'm not sure how much of this I can reveal yet, sooooo…..let's just keep you hanging on this one for the moment.  But let me just say I let out a small squeal of delight whenever I think about what's going on here.

Tomorrow I'm off to the Bath Children's Literature Festival to see Cornelia Funke and Maggie Stiefvater (maybe even meet this fabulous lady, who is providing the author endorsement on the US paperback edition of STOLEN!).

I'll blog about my adventures here soon.

And then next week I am embarking upon the New Writing Regime.  This is a self-imposed regime of boot camp for me to get my third book written.  Book 3 is currently being a little pest of a creature, and it's now time to beat him into ship shape.  I'll no doubt be blogging about the New Writing Regime over the coming few weeks, so this won't be the last you hear of this. Mwahahaha (that's my impression of a scary man laugh!).

Anyway, I've waffled on here for far too long already, and yeah, I haven't told you all the stuff that's going on in my life, but I think I've told you enough for now…. so it's time for me to make like a tree….

Adios Amigos!

Thoughtfulness and friendship,

Lucyx

So, I've never had my own Blog before…and it's exciting to be writing this from my ole trusty iPhone on a wet and windy morning in my mum's house in South Wales.

So, hello out there!

Lucyx

While in New York, Lucy popped into the Scholastic Offices to answer 5 questions for their fabulous blog, On Our Minds.

Check this out here: On Our Minds @ Scholastic

Also check out the nice stuff it says about Chicken House and Barry Cunningham (Lucy's great UK publishing house, and publisher!)

This is really exciting to announce! Stolen has battled fierce competition to make it onto the inaugural Prime Minister's Literary Award for Young Adult fiction in Australia. The Prime Minister's Literary Awards celebrate the contribution of Australian literature to the nation's cultural and intellectual life.

Lucy is especially thrilled about this award as she is super excited to see the book getting recognised in her home country, Australia!

There are seven shortlisted books for this...

Lucy is thrilled to announce that her debut novel, Stolen, has WON the 2010 Branford Boase award!! This is a really special award that celebrates the best debut novel for young people published in the UK over the last year! It's a real honour to be chosen for this, and Lucy is very grateful.

For more info and photos, see the Branford Boase award website.

We are thrilled to anounce that Ty MacFarlane, anti-hero of STOLEN, has been nominated for BEST VILLAIN for the Indigo Teen Read Awards!

This is a fantastic new award that has been organised by Indigo Booksellers in Canada and , the best bit of all … this award is decided by YOU! That's right, you can vote for Ty to win the best villain award right here on the Indigo website – http://www.teenreadawards.ca

There are also heaps of other fun categories you can vote for in these awards, including b...