The Beautiful Ones by Lori Brighton
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
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Sunday 29 June 2014
Saturday 28 June 2014
Friday 27 June 2014
Review: The Insect Hotel
The Insect Hotel by David Stringer
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
A short little book about a man and his charming son, The Insect Hotel is a story that a child of any age (or gender) will enjoy. And not only that, as a parent reading it to my own child, I found it to be enjoyable and humorous too – especially as Harry's dad tries desperately to come up with ideas to get Harry to sleep at night, which is something all parents can relate to.
The story is split up into five chapters, and we get an individual story about each bug in each chapter. Not only is this story ideal for children who like bugs, but it would also be great as an aid to encourage kids who are a little afraid of bugs too, as the characters are all very amusing.
Not only is there great stories, but also wonderful illustrations too – especially the title page, which was just magical.
What I especially liked was at the end, David Stringer gives us advice on how to construct our own Insect Hotel. My own daughter is definitely looking forward to giving it a go with her Grandad at the weekend. What a great way to get the kids outdoors!
I would highly recommend this to all parents and children, and I'll be keeping my eye out for more of David's work.
View all my reviews
Tuesday 3 June 2014
A long, rambly and not at all explanationy explanation on how I first came up with the idea for The Guardians
So, how did
I come up with the original idea for The Guardians? I wish I could
say it was something profound, or even something interesting like it
came to me in a dream. But the boring answer is that it came to me
while I was watching the TV. I don't remember what it was, but it was
definitely something actiony. Something like James Bond or Mission
Impossible. It was one of the scenes where the good guy is fighting
all these nameless bad guy minions, just the ones who pop up on
screen for a second to point their gun at James Bond only to get shot
and forgotten about seconds later.
As usual, my
over active imagination went to work, and I began to think about
these minions who were getting killed off. Because I mean, it wasn't
like they were born minions.
They must have had a mother and father. Maybe they even had a family
of their own? Wives, kids? Someone to mourn them? So my mind wandered
off and I started to think about what it would be like to be told a
story from a minion's point of view.
And
that's basically how Gable came about, except obviously she didn't
end up being just a regular old minion. She evolved as the story
planning went on and turned into the sassy, bitchy girl she is today.
As
for Nicky, I wanted an insight into the good guys and how they
worked, which is why I needed a character like him to introduce us to
their world and the world of the Outcasts. I always knew he was going
to be a bad guy on the road to redemption and that he and Gable would
have once been high school sweethearts, though I did originally plan
on their reunion being a lot more romantic. That was before the
character of Sacha was created. Sacha was originally supposed to be
older, more of a father/uncle figure to Gable, but obviously THAT
didn't happen. As I created his character, it became obvious to me
that he was clearly in love with Gable, and that she was dealing with
feelings of her own and suddenly I wasn't so sure about which
direction to take her in – Nicky or Sacha. Honestly, I'm STILL not
sure which direction I want to go with that. I guess we'll see how it
goes as the story progresses.
The
rest of the characters just kind of fell into place, almost like the
story was choosing them and not me – which is something I'm sure
many writers out there understand. I wanted my good guys to be flawed
and maybe kind of annoying, and I wanted my bad guys to have human
sides, the ability to love just like anyone else. Some of my
characters, Cadby for instance, ended up having much larger roles in
the story than I first anticipated. I originally only intended for
Cadby to be in one small scene at the beginning, just someone there
to show Nicky some of the different aspects of the Outcasts, but I
ended up liking him too much and he came back. I might even give him
his own short story one day.
So
there's my explanation. It's a lot more rambly and a lot less
explanationy that I meant it to be, and it probably doesn't make a
whole lot of sense. But there it is :)
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