Book Week Scotland 2018

Book Week Scotland is to authors what Christmas is to Santa Claus. We love it. If we're lucky, we get work during this week in November. For Book Week Scotland 2018 I ended up in Grangemouth Library, which isn't too far away from me - except the bus made it feel like a far-flung world.…

The Shirley Jackson Fan Club (Sign Me Up!)

Some books fade fast, their effect fleeting. Other books remain, powerful and potent. Shirley Jackson wrote those sorts of books. They haunt the reader for a long time after the last page. I've long been a fan of Shirley Jackson; well, that's not quite accurate. I was a fan of The Haunting of Hill House,…

I Wanted To Write About Robert Cormier

Some writers defy categorisation. They cannot be filed, stamped, or absorbed. Yes, you may find their books in certain areas of the book shop or the library, but essentially these writers remain difficult to anticipate, their work always surprising and interesting. I'd place Francesca Lia Block, Cory Doctorow, Sam Pink, Kathy Acker, Jason Starr, Jeff…

Review: Kamikaze Girls by Novala Takemoto

A cult smash in Japan that inspired a movie of the same name, I stumbled on Kamikaze Girls whilst on a book buying spree at Blackwell's in Edinburgh. There was something cool about the cover art: the colours, the photography, the scrawled illustration. It all appealed, so I snatched it up and read it in…

Book Battle Royale

The Kids' Lit Quiz is a worldwide literary event that pits teams from various schools against each other. One urban legend has it that Lorde scored the highest points ever at one of the heats Down Under. It isn't just pupils from schools vying for glory: authors and librarians battle it out for points, book…

Three Spooky Books and Some Creepy Tunes for Halloween

  I've always loved Halloween. It's my birthday away from my actual birthday. Christmas is for the family, Easter is for the kids, but Halloween belongs to me! I dress up too much, so Halloween is a chance for me to kick back and have fun. From the 1st of October until the 31st, I…

Spite And Malice At High School

I've spent the last few years writing fiction for younger people. I'm quite happy with what I've put out so far, because there's a market for weird books for the weirdo teens. I was one myself, and I always wanted to write books that I would have read at that age. But being an author…