I was a casualty when Longacre Press merged into Random House NZ. Longacre had published my two previous YA novels, but Random said no thanks to this one. My agent, Frances Plumpton, tried hard to find a home for Touchstone but fantasy and futuristic series were in vogue. After a couple of years I thought, “I can’t bear to stuff it into the metaphorical bottom drawer. Why not make it an e-book?”

• How have you found the e-publishing process?

I could write a book about it! The general impression one gains from online articles is that it’s easy. It’s not. You have to come out of your cosy author’s corner and become editor, proofreader, formatter, cover designer, publisher, decision-maker, legal expert, distributor and promoter. I’m lucky enough to have a network of supportive colleagues – thank you to the Facebook crowd!

• Tell us about the e-book.

Like Cross Tides and Hideout, Touchstone is a blend of genres – family problems, adventure and suspense, environmental issues, and a good dollop of New Zealand history. It’s set in a
ghost town on the Buller Coal plateau. The 16-year-old heroine gets involved with a group of eco-warriors trying to prevent a new coalmine being established. Much of the environmental
theme is based on fact.

There’s a free PDF Teachers’ Resource Kit (prepared by a secondary teacher) available on my website at www.story-go-round.net.nz. Any royalties I make are being donated to the Animal Sanctuary at Matakana, near my home. In addition, the book links to Forest and Bird’s campaign to save the Denniston Plateau from more coalmines.

• Where can people buy Touchstone?

It’s available for around $4.99 (US) from major online bookstores such as Amazon, Smashwords, Kobo Bookshop, Barnes and Noble, iTunes, etc. It’s also available on Wheelers E-Platform, which should be convenient for New Zealand schools and libraries. I’m working on getting it to more NZ suppliers.

• Do you plan to publish another e-book?

Cross Tides is also available as an e-book, thanks to Random House NZ. But doing it all over again with another manuscript – who knows? I have to recover from this journey first!

Win a copy of Touchstone

I have 2 copies of the Kobo e-book of Touchstone to give away.  To get in the draw just enter your name and email address in the form below.  If you’re a winner you will receive an email from Kobo with a link to the download of the book.  Competition ends Wednesday 29 May (NZ only).

Weasels by Elys Dolan

Weasels – what do they do all day? Eat nuts and berries? Frolic in leaves? Lurk in the dark? Argue with squirrels? Hide in their weasel holes? Well, all these are wrong. What they really do is . . . plot world domination. Find out how their dastardly plans are foiled in this hilarious, off-the-wall debut picture book from a shiny new star in the children’s book firmament, Elys Dolan.

It’s almost impossible to put into words how original and witty this book is: imagine spoof James Bond meets Scaredy Squirrel if you can. It’s packed with cross-over humour to amuse kids and big kids too. The art is stylish yet accessible and full of details for poring over time and time again – there’s always a new joke to find! And there are machines and maps and even a laboratory . . . oh, and lots of lots of weasels.

Troll Swap by Leigh Hodgkinson

Timothy Limpet feels out of place in the troll family – he likes things to be just so, and most trolls, frankly, don’t. Tabitha Lumpit likes things to be loud, loopy and messy and she feels a fish out of water in her very neat family. Sometimes they wonder if their families really see them for who they are, so when Timothy and Tabitha meet on the bridge they decide each other’s family is a better fit and they swap places . . . with hilarious and touching results.

Based around the time-honoured theme of home is where the heart is, this warm and witty story is a celebration of the individual and offers a valuable lesson on not judging others.

Check out Leigh Hodgkinson’s other hilarious picture book from Nosy Crow, Goldilocks and Just the One Bear.

Books Always Everywhere by Jane Blatt, illustrated by Sarah Massini

A joyful celebration of the physical book in all its glory! For the very young, books can be anything – from a chair, to a tower, to a hat – but the best thing they can be . . . is a book… and it’s never too soon to share a good book with your little ones.

The simple text, written by debut author Jane Blatt is brought to life by Sarah Massini’s delightful and nostalgic illustrations of babies and toddlers discovering the new, magical world of books.

I have a special prize to give away to one Carlos Ruiz Zafon fan – a signed copy of The Prisoner of Heaven and an unsigned copy of The Watcher in the Shadows.  To get in the draw just enter your name and email address in the form below.  Competition closes Monday 27 May (international).

Walker Books have just re-issued the Chaos Walking Trilogy with very cool new jackets (and they look great beside the originals I have to say).  Not only do they have new covers, they also each contain a new short story, set in New World.  In the new edition of The Ask and the Answer you can read The Wide, Wide Sea, which takes place just before the first Spackle War and stars Mistress Coyle.  It focuses on the relationship between a human and a Spackle in the sea-side settlement of Horizon.  In the new edition of Monsters of Men you can read Snowscape (my favourite of the three), which takes place after the events of the trilogy.

I loved each of these stories!  They’re like the special features on a DVD – you get extra insights into the world of the stories and you get to return to your favourite (or most hated) characters.  Patrick says that he sees the stories as treats, ‘If  you  made  it  all  the  way  through  the  trilogy,  here’s  some  hopefully  fun  rewards.’ Well I certainly feel like Christmas has come early.  If you’re a fan of the series you have to read them.

The really awesome thing is that you don’t even have to buy copies of the new editions to read the stories.  You can read all of them for FREE at www.chaoswalkingstories.com.au, where you can also enter to win signed Chaos Walking goodies.

Don’t forget – enter my competition to win a signed copy of the new edition of The Knife of Never Letting Go or The Ask and the Answer.

For those who are interested here’s a taster of what Patrick and Carlos discussed in their sessions.

An Hour with Patrick Ness

Patrick started with a reading from his latest adult book, The Crane Wife (I loved this book and highly recommend it if you’re looking for a magical and eerie adult book).  When it comes to stories, Patrick says that ‘ideas attract other ideas,’ and The Crane Wife came from several ideas.  It’s partly a retelling of the Japanese myth, there are some autobiographical details, and there is a big theme of stories and storytelling.  The main character in The Crane Wife, George, is a ‘kind’ man, and Patrick also wanted to look at what happens to the kind man when he’s lonely.  He wanted to write a compelling ‘good’ character, so he had to figure out what would make George greedy.  Apparently Amanda, George’s daughter in the book, is the closest character to Patrick.  She has a habit of saying the wrong things at the wrong time and is terrible in social situations, which Patrick says he can certainly relate to.

Patrick often has theme songs to his books.  One of his favourite bands, The Decemberists, wrote a song called The Crane Wife 1 and 2, which Patrick feels captures the mood of his book perfectly.  Here are some of his other theme songs:

• Early One Morning by Jim Moray and Map of the Problematique by Muse – The Knife of Never Letting Go
• Mercy Street by Peter Gabriel – A Monster Calls
• More Than This by Peter Gabriel – More Than This (his new YA novel coming in September)

I had to listen to these as soon as I got home and I can really see how these fit with the tone and mood of Patrick’s stories.

Patrick said that he is ‘never afraid to leave the reader wanting more’ and that is one of the things I love about his books, especially the Chaos Walking Trilogy.

I didn’t think I could like Patrick even more than I already did, but one of his answers to an audience question proved me wrong – ‘Books don’t need to do anything. They just need to tell stories.’  I know I don’t go looking for a particular meaning in the books I read, I just read them because they’re good stories.

An Hour with Carlos Ruiz Zafon

I never thought I would get the chance to hear Carlos Ruiz Zafon speak and meet him in person so this session was a highlight of my life.

Carlos always wanted to tell the Cemetery of Forgotten Books cycle in four books.  He wanted to create a labyrinth that could be entered through any door, and your perception would be different depending on which story you started with.  You could then read the cycle years later and re-enter the labyrinth again in a different direction.  When Carlos said that the labyrinth will twist in the fourth book I got this overwhelming sense of excitement and had this huge grin on my face.  If I loved the first three books so much I have no idea how amazing the fourth and final one will be!

When Carlos told the audience about his writing process there was a collective gasp.  Many authors have sticky notes and flow charts but anything that Carlos can’t hold in his head is dropped.  If this happens it’s usually not a good idea anyway.  He never saves drafts or materials after he’s finished a story.  He believes that it’s his homework and people shouldn’t read it.  There is no paper or digital trail of his work after he has finished a story.

Carlos doesn’t believe that it is his job as a writer to tell people what they should think.  He uses his skills in setting the stage, writing lines, applying makeup and putting on the costumes, and he takes the reader ‘into the theatre of their mind.’ He also uses dramatic devices to incorporate his research and morals into his stories and he believes the reader will decode these subconsciously.

All of Carlos’ stories are set in the past and he explained that this is because it ‘allows the storyteller to objectify elements.’  He can remove noise (cellphones, the internet) by setting a story in the past.  Carlos has always had a personal fascination with the time period after the industrial revolution, as ‘human beings had been in the dark for so long and they finally had a chance to get things right.’

I’m a huge fan of Carlos’ Young Adult novels and I was glad that he talked about these.  He said that these books (Prince of Mist, The Midnight Palace, The Watcher in the Shadows, and the soon to be published Marina) were an experiment.  Carlos didn’t feel that he had much to offer the YA genre, that he was just entertaining the teenagers, but he hoped that through writing these stories he was communicating the pleasure of reading to them.  He obviously had something right as they have sold millions of copies, both in Spain and the rest of the world.

Carlos finished by saying that his Cemetery of Forgotten Books cycle is ultimately about ‘language, books and storytelling,’ and that he ‘writes for people who love to read.’  I certainly hope that he continues to write for many, many years.

Me and Carlos Ruiz Zafon

Thanks to Walker Books Australia and Patrick Ness I have a signed copy of The Knife of Never Letting Go and The Ask and The Answer to give away to 2 lucky readers.  All you have to do to get in the draw is enter your name and email address in the form below.  Competition closes Sunday 26 May (Australia and NZ only).

A mysterious toymaker, Lazarus, lives as a recluse in a crumbling mansion by the sea, surrounded by the mechanical beings he has created. Strange lights seem to shine through the mists that envelop the small island where the old lighthouse stands, and somewhere in the woods nearby lurks a shadowy creature.

When her mother takes a job as a housekeeper for the toymaker, fourteen-year-old Irene meets Hannah and her alluring sailor cousin Ismael, and what seems like a dream summer begins. But Lazarus’s house contains dark secrets and before long Irene and Ismael find themselves entwined in the mystery of the September lights.

The Watcher in the Shadows is my favourite of Carlos’ novels for younger readers.  It’s a Young Adult book but adults will love it too, especially if you’re a fan of Carlos’ writing.  As soon as I started reading I found myself wrapped up in this magical, mysterious and dark story.  Carlos’ wonderful descriptive language transports you to the mysterious setting of the story, with the dilapidated mansion and the light house at its center.

Like the characters in the book, you slowly put together the pieces of the puzzle as the story progresses.  The more you find out the faster you want to gobble up the story.  It’s the sort of book you want to read all in one go because it’s so difficult to stop.  Carlos is a master of mystery and suspense and I just love the way he pulls everything together.  He certainly leaves me in awe at his amazing storytelling.

One of the things I love the most about his books, and this one especially, is the way that he layers the story.  There are stories within the main story.  Characters in his books often tell stories to other characters to give you pieces of the puzzle.  In The Watcher in the Shadows the toymaker, Lazarus, tells stories to Simone and her son Dorian about his childhood, and Irene uncovers the story of Alma Matisse through reading her diary.

The Watcher in the Shadows is deliciously dark and spooky.  There were several parts that made a shiver go down my spine.  The story is all about this shadowy creature, the ‘watcher in the shadows,’ but there are plenty of other creepy things in the story, including a crumbling mansion filled with strange mechanical beings, that has many dark corridors and secret passages.

Like his other stories, I’m sure The Watcher in the Shadows will stick with me and I won’t be able to stop thinking about it for a long time.

I’m incredibly excited to be meeting Carlos Ruiz Zafon at the Auckland Writer’s Festival this weekend.  I hope that I’ll be able to say more than ‘I love your books’ to him and I can’t wait to hear what he has to say about his writing and his wonderful books.  I never thought I’d get the chance to meet him (as he’s a Spanish author) so this is a dream come true for me.

Louise Yates 

Dog can’t get to sleep.  He loves books so much that he just can’t stop reading.  Dog tries counting sheep, but it’s not working – perhaps there are some other creatures he can count?  Soon Dog is off on an adventure, finding friends and numbers in unexpected places.

Dog Loves Counting is a cute, funny story in which Dog takes us on a journey inside a book to help him solve his problem.  Louise had me from the first page,

‘Dog loved books.  He loved reading them late into the night and didn’t like to leave them for long.’

You immediately relate to Dog and you want him to be your best friend.  When he can’t sleep he reaches for a book and hopes that it might help.  He discovers all sorts of creatures and makes some new friends within the covers of his book.  Not only that, it also helps him with his problem of not being able to sleep.  The text is simple, yet fun and I really like the way it flows over the page.  Louise has created a sense of anticipation of what creature will be on the next page and what there will be to count.

I love Louise’s illustrations, from the loveable Dog and his stacks of books, to the multicoloured Dodo, the Three-Toed Sloth, and the Five-Lined Skink.  Each of the pages made me laugh, but I especially like the picture of Dog in bed, surrounded by sheep with books in their mouths.  The way that Louise has incorporated the numbers into the story is really clever too and it makes the story more interactive for children.  Louise has also created some stunning endpapers too that add an extra surprise to the book and incorporate numbers, stars and the creatures from the story.

Louise’s Dog books aren’t just for kids, but also for book-lovers everywhere.  In her character Louise has perfectly captured how much I love books and what makes them so special.  Grab Dog Loves Counting and Louise’s other Dog books from your library or bookshop.

The Watcher in the Shadows is the latest Young Adult book from one of my favourite authors, Carlos Ruiz Zafon. His books are eerie, atmospheric and mysterious and The Watcher in the Shadows has hooked me in after only a few pages.  It’s out now from Text Publishing.

I’m very excited to be going up for the Auckland Writer’s Festival on Saturday to hear Carlos Ruiz Zafon.  I’m really looking forward to hearing all about his books and getting some of my favourite books signed.

A secret history… A mysterious family legacy… Dark magic of untold power… And three kids who will risk everything to bring a family back together. The Pagett kids had it all: loving parents, a big house in San Francisco, all the latest video games … But everything changed when their father lost his job as a result of an inexplicable transgression. Now the family is moving into Kristoff House, a mysterious place built nearly a century earlier by a troubled fantasy writer with a penchant for the occult. Suddenly the siblings find themselves launched on an epic journey into a mash-up world born of Kristoff’s dangerous imagination, to retrieve a dark book of untold power, uncover the Pagett family’s secret history and save their parents … and maybe even the world.

House of Secrets is an action-packed blockbuster of a book about three children who are transported into the world of fiction.  There’s something in this story to appeal to all kids – adventure, mystery, magic, witches, giants, warriors, pirates, and fictional characters coming to life. Most readers have wanted to actually be in the world of a story at some stage, and this is exactly what happens to Cordelia, Brendan and Eleanor (even if it was the last thing they wanted).

Chris and Ned have said that the story was originally going to be a screenplay for a movie, but they thought it would be too expensive to make so they adapted it into a book.  I thought this came through quite clearly as the story really reads like it should be a movie.  It’s quite fast-paced and there is lots of action so it will definitely keep kids’ attention.  I can see why it would have cost so much to make this story into a movie, because it’s quite epic and there would be huge special effects involved.  The house that the children find themselves transported in is much like the Tardis (‘it’s bigger on the inside’), with lots of hidden passageways, and it gets battered about by witches, giants and pirates.  There are many different fictional worlds, filled with different creatures and characters.

Although I loved the story and the way the authors kept the action moving along, I found the children quite stereotypical and a bit flat.  Within the first 10 pages you’ve had a detailed description of what the three children look like and how old they are, which just seemed a little bit forced to me.  I guess it’s probably a movie thing and they’re trying to give us a picture of the characters, but you don’t need to know everything about a character within the first few minutes.

The plot races along right to the end and leaves the story hanging for the next book in the series.  I’ll be looking forward to discovering what comes next for the Walker children.