Electrik: A Unique Writers’ Collective, Bath Life: Issue 211, 15-29th June

A group of children’s writers, all with an MA in creative writing from Bath Spa University, have joined forces  to create what appears to be a movement that’s been taking the publishing industry by storm: a writers’ collective.

Named Electrik Inc., these writers are working together to independently publish their books at a professional standard. Author co-operatives are a recent establishment within self-publishing and Electrik is unique in its position as a children’s writing-only organisation.

The first title to launch from Electrik is Kim Donovan’s St Viper’s School for Super Villains. Described as The Incredibles gone bad and aimed at seven to nine-year-olds, it will officially launch at Topping in Bath on 15th June. The book will be stocked in all Bath bookshops as well as online and available as an eb0ok too.

Bookengine Interview

‘We’ve heard about Amanda Hocking, John Locke, Kerry Wilkinson and, most famously, E L James’ Fifty Shades series, and their go-it-alone gold rush stories. Well, let me tell you a story about another publishing pioneer. Someone who is bravely hacking her way through the jungle of children’s book publishing and whose path may well be the one in which others follow in the future. Let me introduce Kim Donovan, author of St Viper’s School for Super Villains and one of the creative minds behind the independent publishing collective Electrik Inc…’

Read more of Kim’s interview on Bookengine http://bookengine.blogspot.co.uk/2012/09/interview-7-kim-donovan.html

BATH SPA PANEL EVENT – READING THE FUTURE: DIGITAL CHILDREN’S PUBLISHING

For all those interested in independent publishing, children’s reading (and writing) and the digital revolution, this promises to be a very informative night. Kate Wilson, managing director of children’s publisher Nosy Crow, leads a panel of experts to explore trends that might impact on children’s reading as digital reading experiences evolve and to consider the question: What kind of reading experience can digital offer children? Chaired by Janine Amos, Bath Spa University.

Date04-10-2013 Time6:00 PM – 7:00 PM Venue: Guildhall Price £7, Adults

bathfestivals.org.uk/childrens-literature/event/bath-spa-panel-event/

St Viper’s New Illustrator Slave

BUZZZZZZ! St Viper’s School for Super Villains has a new illustrator slave – Izzy Bean. Izzy is putting her BA honours degree in animation and illustration to good use as she starts work on book 2.  We’re all fizzing with excitement. Take a sneaky look at Izzy’s illustration for chapter one:

Many thanks to Petherick Button for all his hard work on book 1. The St Viper’s pupils haven’t vaporised him – he is working on his own story. You’ll be missed, Petherick!

Kim Donovan

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Fantastic Fiction for 7 – 9 Year Old Boys

I’ve been on a mission to find fantastic books for 7 – 9 year old boys that they’ll love. When my son was between seven and eight he was an advanced reader. He started to find books like Horrid Henry, Astrosaurs and Jeremy Strong’s stories too easy, but he was put off by the length of books for older children. For many of his friends Michael Morpurgo’s books bridged the gap, but Chris found them a bit sad, and I must admit I avoided another firm favourite with his peer group: BeastQuest.

Why are there so many formulaic, team written books for new readers? I can only guess it’s that children find comfort in continuing with a series they know they can read. I have mixed feelings about some of them (not all!). If children find a love of reading through these books – and many have – I’m all for that, but during my research I’ve had parents, booksellers and teachers flinch at the name of particular titles and yet those books command so much shelf space. Can’t we do better for children? Parents must vote with their wallets.

With a bit of searching we did find some stories for my son and I also wrote St Viper’s School for Super Villains for more able readers like him (see reviews of my book.) Since writing an article in a local magazine about how St Viper’s came about, I’ve had parents email and tell me face-to-face that there are not enough good books for 7 – 8 year old boys in particular, whatever their reading level. Now my son is a year older there does seem to be a lot more choice. Having raised this issue on a books forum and spoken to children’s writers, teachers, parents and booksellers, I feel there are good books for this readership, but they are not always easy to spot in the sea of big brands. And for more able readers it often means finding age-appropriate books aimed at older children.

So, I thought it would be helpful to come up with a list of great books for 7- 9 year old boys. I’ve asked for recommendations, scoured forums and read every book suggested to me. Writing for this readership is difficult to do well. The author needs to be able to see the world through the eyes of a boy this age, write according to the child’s reading ability with easy-to-read text and short chapters and make the book exciting.

Here are my top choices, which tick all the boxes. I’ve roughly ordered them in terms of reading ability starting with books to build confidence:

Flat Stanley. Series Written by Jeff Brown.

Poor Stanley Lampchop is squashed flat when a board falls on top of him, but being the happiest of children he takes it all in his stride and makes the most of his new shape: being posted in an envelope, flown as a kite and used as a painting in a museum. Timeless classic. Great for children building confidence with reading.

 You’re a Bad Man, Mr Gum! Series Written by Andy Stanton.

Mr Gum is a nasty old man who hates children, animals, fun and corn on the cob. His house is a pigsty, filled with junk and pizza boxes, but he has an amazing garden. This is not due to Mr Gum being a Chelsea-award-winning garden designer but is because an angry fairy whacks him with a frying pan if he fails to keep his garden super tidy. But a dog called Jake starts to dig up the garden on a regular basis and Mr Gum is punished by the fairy. He decides to get rid of the dog once and for all. Mad as a box of frogs. Laugh out loud funny.

Hooey Higgins and the Shark. Series written by Steve Voake.

Hooey and Twig are desperate to raise sixty five pounds to buy a gigantic chocolate egg. A shark has been seen in the waters of Shrimpton-on-Sea and they are convinced that people would pay a lot of money to see it. With the help of their friend, Will, they come up with a cunning plan, which involves a bottle of tomato ketchup, a cricket bat and a duvet, to capture the shark and charge fifty pence for a look at it in their bath. The boys’ plan doesn’t come off, but they do find the world’s biggest sea urchin, which turns out to be a Second World War mine. Great fun. Illustrations on most pages.

Welcome to Silver Street Farm. Series written by Nicola Davies.

Meera, Gemma and Karl have wanted to set up a city farm since the first day of infant school when they played with a headless sheep, some painted pink chickens and two cows with missing legs. The chance to make their dream a reality comes when an old railway station is closed down, which the children think is a perfect venue for their farm. But the council have other plans for the station and want to turn it into a car park. In the meantime, the children start being donated animals and have nowhere to keep them, but they are not going to give up on their dream easily. With determination, help from a friendly policeman and some singing supporters they win the day.  A feel-good story.

The Roman Mystery Scrolls. Series written by Caroline Lawrence.

This is a new series set in ancient Rome. It is written by the well-respected author of The Roman Mysteries. In the Poisoned Honey Cake, Threptus, a soothsayer’s apprentice hasn’t eaten for two days as his mentor, Floridius, has gambled all his money away on chariot race. To make matters worse, Floridius is afraid he’s lost his talent for seeing the future, which means they’ll have no money to buy food. Threptus offers to try and find out some information that his mentor can use to convince people he still has the gift. But while he’s sneaking around, weak with hunger, he spots a honey cake left on an altar for a god. He seizes the cake and eats it, but soon finds out it is poisoned.  Rich in historical detail.

Roald Dahl books.

There are some scrumptious Roald Dahl stories, such as Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and The BFG, but for boys beginning to read chapter books it is probably best to start with The Twits, George’s Marvellous Medicine and The Fantastic Mr Fox as they are shorter stories. The Fantastic Mr Fox is one of my favourite children’s books. Boggis, Bunce and Bean are wealthy and mean farmers who don’t take kindly to Mr Fox helping himself to a plump chicken, a goose or a nice turkey for supper. The farmers take action: guns fire, Mr Fox loses his tail and his young family are trapped in their hole. But Mr Fox is not called “fantastic” for nothing and he has a cunning plan. Fabulous fun.

Far-Flung Adventures. Fergus Crane.  Series written by Paul Stewart and Chris Riddell. Winner of the Smarties gold award in 2004.

An inventive story with lots of imaginative mechanical gadgets and off-the-wall characters: a long lost uncle who grows macadacchio nuts with the help of a team of penguins and blood thirsty pirates who pretend to be school teachers in order to get the pupils to do their dangerous work for them. The pirates are seeking fire diamonds, which are only to be found deep inside a live volcano on Fire Isle and accessible only to the most agile explorer.  The children are disposable as far as the pirates are concerned and once they’ve got their bucket of diamonds they’re sailing off into the sunset without them. Fergus, the young hero of this story, not only has to find his missing father but rescue the children as well on a mechanical winged horse. Fuel for the imagination. Gadgets galore. Quirky illustrations.

King of the Cloud Forests.  Written by Michael Morpurgo.

Parents and booksellers recommended Michael Morpurgo’s books in general. King of the Cloud Forests is about a boy called Ashley who has to travel across the Himalayas with his Uncle Sung when Japan invades China. The journey is perilous. Uncle Sung disguises Ashley as a Tibetan and tells him not to speak to anyone, as he is at risk of being murdered for being a white foreigner and the son of a missionary. Ashley almost dies of infection, starvation and the cold and is hunted by wolves. Then, if his situation couldn’t get any worse, he is split up from his uncle. However help arrives from a community of yetis, who treat him as the King of the Cloud Forests. Michael Morpurgo is described as ‘The master storyteller’ and this book will not disappoint readers. It is suitable for able readers, who are ready for more challenging stories. The book is not illustrated. Thought provoking adventure.

How to Train Your Dragon. Written by Cressida Cowell.

To become a member of the Hairy Hooligan Tribe, Hiccup Horrendous Haddock the Third and the other young Vikings must pass a gruelling initiation test.  There is a lot of pressure on Hiccup as not only is he the hope and heir of the tribe, but he’s also a bit weedy and not very brave. Even his dragon is the smallest and scrawniest of the bunch. But Hiccup has a special skill — he can speak Dragonese — and when the Viking community are threatened with being gobbled by the Sea Dragonus Maximus he becomes an unlikely hero. The How to Train Your Dragon series is great for boys moving towards longer books for older children. Seriously good fun.

Gangsta Granny. Written by David Walliams.

Every Friday night, Ben goes to stay at his boring Granny’s house where he plays Scrabble and eats cabbage soup. He hates being there and his granny knows he feels this way, so she pretends to be an international jewel thief to stop him seeing her as a dull old woman.  They begin to have fun together again like they used to when he was younger. Gran cherishes the extra time she gets to spend with her grandson and Ben realises that she’s really rather lovely after all. But they get carried away and end up in the Tower of London trying to steal the Crown Jewels.

Like the How to Train Your Dragon series, this is a good book for boys moving to the next reading level. Funny and touching.

St Viper’s School for Super Villains.

If you are not familiar with my series, you can read about it on this website or by clicking on the link  to visit Amazon. Here you will find more reader reviews. Thank you!http://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=St%20Viper’s%20School%20for%20Super%20Villains

See also this blog: Super Books for Boys.http://kimdonovanauthor.wordpress.com/2013/10/24/super-books-for-boys/

I’ve also set up a pinterest collection of brilliant books for boys. I’ll keep updating it. Here’s the link.

Thanks for reading my blog!

Kim

Kim Donovan

World Domination Starts At Waterstone’s

St Viper’s School for Super Villains may not have taken over the world just yet, but it’s starting to gain followers. For the last couple of weeks, since its wild and noisy book launch, I’ve been visiting schools to tell young super villains about the book (see photos). I have an eight-year-old evil genius myself and our house is always full of kids, so I thought the school visits would be easy. That was until I found out that most of the year groups have about sixty pupils! But I had no need to sweat. The children got into the spirit of St Viper’s, demonstrating their evil laughs and telling me what super powers they would wish for themselves. In some of the schools I ran workshops on developing super villain and super hero characters. Interestingly, very few children chose to create super heroes.

They must have had fun because thankfully a good number turned up at my Waterstone’s event on Saturday 7^th July. I was relieved to see them. I had been dreading being one of those unknown authors I’d seen in the store sitting uncomfortably behind a table, twiddling their thumbs, hoping someone will come up and ask for directions to the toilet.

To try to avoid this horrible situation, I planned craft activities: super villain eye-masks to colour and ‘Who’s Super?’ trading cards to make. Mini Boy, Rock Man, Smash Mash, Fang Face and Death Doom were some of the super-powered characters the children created. They gave their characters scores for power, speed, attack, defence and intelligence and were soon setting up their own games against each other on the carpet. One young boy arrived dressed up as The Hulk. The children also made their own entertainment: masked super heroes and super villains fought each other with fireballs and lightning from behind the bookshelves. The lovely Waterstone’s staff (Kat and John) took it all in their stride and everyone had a fun time. My other big worry – having to sell my book to people and failing – didn’t materialise. I was so busy attaching elastic string to eye-masks, discussing the scores of children’s trading cards and signing copies that the book ended up selling itself. I’m sure some parents probably thought I was a children’s entertainer brought into the shop to do crafts with the boys and girls on a wet and windy day, but Waterstone’s still said St Viper’s sold really well and commented on how the event had created a warm atmosphere throughout the whole shop.

The following day I visited the bookshop to pick up my art box. As I walked past a parked car I saw a girl on the back seat playing with the St Viper’s trading cards. My heart leapt with joy. World Domination starts at Waterstones!

Kim Donovan

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Back from Beyond the Border

When it comes to holiday time, the inclination of an Electrik inkling is to head for the hills – the Welsh hills, to be precise. I’ve had the most enriching, stimulating, surprising and inspirational weekend at St Donat’s in South Wales.

“Beyond the Border is Wales’ leading international festival of storytelling, a celebration of world myth, legend and folktale featuring storytellers, musicians, poets, singers, writers and artists from around the globe.” http://www.beyondtheborder.com/festival/

 Surprises first: Nicole & Martin’s interpretation of Grimm’s tale The Girl Without Hands. Performed in the big White Tent, this was a lively and hauntingly beautiful mix of theatre, circus skills, acrobatics and song. The husband and wife team managed to convey the range of human emotions inherent in the tale with such subtlety and innocence that the audience spontaneously rose to their feet to applaud. Twice. I’ve witnessed plenty of standing ovations in a variety of venues but nothing compared to the enthusiasm of this heart-felt Thank-you from 300 7-70 year-olds. Breathtaking! http://www.nicole-et-martin.ch/

My second surprise: the weather. Believe it or not, although the nights were wet and windy (especially for those of us camping), the days were hot and sunny! Sitting around in the sunshine, in gorgeous surroundings, eating fabulous food and listening to stories – what’s not to like?

Along with Nicole & Martin, some other personal favourites at this year’s festival included Megan Lloyd from Carmarthenshire, who told exquisite tales from China, Persia and India – The Love of Silk and The Girl Who Married a Snake; Pam Faro, an engaging storyteller from North America with her autobiographical Looking for Grandpa’s Island; German Suse Weisse’s energetic tellings of dark Grimm fairytales plus performers from Italy, Greece, Poland and Sweden, all part of Mr Grundtvig’s Cabaret. If you enjoy listening to stories as much as writing them, then I recommend that you head Beyond the Border for the next festival in 2014.

J.A.

Electrik Inc gets physical

And so, one morning in May – little more than nine months after the electrik inklings dreamed their dream in the Jazz Café – a second piece of magic happened…

BAM!  Their workshop doors burst open and a bright, shiny new story, in a stunning lime green jacket, marched out and made its way noisily into the world.  ZAP.  KAPOW.  FWOOSH!  How the inklings buzzed and cheered as straight away, one – two – three – four bookshops not far from the Jazz Café welcomed the story in and settled it comfortably on their shelves.

Silence descended.  Keeping themselves invisible and trying not to fidget, the inklings waited.  The story was ready.  It was there, within arm’s reach of the first child.  And here he was!  An eight-year-old boy arrived and took the book in his hands.  Buzzz – ZZING!  The magic unfolded.  He read it all, cover to cover.  And when at last he looked up…  well, you can probably guess the rest.  This isn’t fiction.  This is a fact.  He hungrily asked for more…

Call me a Luddite, a dinosaur, a crazy misfit.  But it is a matter of great delight to me that the first Electrik Inc book is physical in every respect.  An action-packed romp of a story (written by Kim to keep the boys reading), it’s available not only as an ebook but in printed form – a fabulous paperback with 24 illustrations which local bookshops in Bath have seen fit to put on their shelves.  Physical books in physical shops.  ROAR!

Reading habits are changing fundamentally.  Yes, this old-fashioned bookworm is happy to admit she likes her new ereader very much.  I enjoy its portability and I understand why children and young adults are engaged by the technology, which grows ever more interactive.  I’m also convinced that ebooks are good for print books and will encourage the publishing industry away from its blockbuster mentality towards smaller more diverse presses – commerce and culture more harmoniously balanced.

However.  For all the benefits, nothing on screen – for me anyway – can replace the very sensual pleasure of curling up with a beautifully crafted, beautifully produced paper book.  As a child, when I first began reading alone, it was better than chocolate – the experience inspired me to write.  The weight, the size, the thickness, the glossy cover, the binding, the texture of the paper under my fingers, the sense of knowing where you are in a story judged by the accumulation of pages, the smell, the rustle, the touch…  a physical book engages the senses and lifts the imagination.

While the adult book world goes rapidly digital (one third of Brits now ereading according to the latest study) the children’s book market, especially for younger readers, remains resistant.  One intriguing reason has to do with parental psychology.  According to a New York Times article, even mums and dads who are avid ereaders  – ‘diehard downloaders’ – want their children to be surrounded by traditional print books.  Why?  Aside from concerns about digital distractions and too much on-screen time, parents see print books as something tactile that can be shared and want their children to have the same rite of passage into the reading world as they had.  For the next generation of readers, or a good many of them, books made from trees will remain treasures.

All of which has to be good news for bricks and mortar stores like those in Bath who are championing local talent from a brand new Professional Independent Publishing group.  Thank you from Electrik Inc to Topping and Co, Oldfield Park Bookshop, Mr B’s Emporium and Waterstones.

Jenny Landor

Electrik Inc

Électrique; c’est magnifique!

Following the article in The Bookseller, we were delighted when news of Electrik Inc made it across the Channel to France.  Electrik Inc:  Coalition d’auteurs jeunesse autour du numérique.  Next stop The Universe and World Domination, as Demon Kid would say!

Joking apart, it was fantastic to see Kim’s cover emblazoned on ActuaLitté’s website.  We scratched our heads a bit about the article’s subtitle, but our excellent linguist,  Naomi Baster,  says it’s all good stuff.  It reads like a wake up call;  ‘Are you bored? This is new!’  Her translation appears on our news page.

It had me wondering how St Viper’s School for Super Villains might translate into French?  All those comic book ZAPs and KAPOWs and KER-RUNCHs – are they universally understood words?  It was the child reviewers from Authonomy who suggested the sound effects to Kim.  She duly incorporated them.  ‘Yes, she is a very good writer slave,’  I hear Demon whisper.

Whatever the French sound equivalents might be,  this book could travel.  ‘To the moon and beyond, hee, hee.’  Pipe down, Demon.  As I put on my sales hat (given to me by Mrs Benn from our earlier blog) these were the first lightning thoughts.  No doubt they will be revised and refined by our excellent team in the coming months;

• Zap.  First book from Electrik Inc
• Ker-runch.  Manga-meets-Beano comic book illustrations
• Zoom.  Rocket-fuelled comedy involving characters with unusual super powers.
• Hiss.  Set in St Viper’s, where it’s good to be bad
• Kapow.  More mischief and mayhem than a bucketful of spiders
• Ping.  Hotline to Demon Kid via blog
• Roar.  Reviewed by 300 readers from Authonomy

Jenny Landor

Logo designed by Del Button for Electrik Inc

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Children’s books: a good place to be

I was delighted to read the headline ‘Recession fails to bite children’s market’ (Caroline Horn 23.01.12 The Bookseller) www.thebookseller.com/…/recession–fails–bite–childrens–market.html

That people continue to buy books for their children when times are hard is a cheering thought for those of us involved in the creation of the books themselves, as well as for those lucky young people reading them.

Michael Morpurgo’s War Horse is in its second week as the bestselling book in the UK (over all editions), and Quentin Blake’s illustrations on a new series of stamps from the Royal Mail, issued to celebrate the work of Roald Dahl, indicate the prominent position children’s writers and illustrators now hold. After so many years of being the Cinderella of the book world, Children’s Publishing has grown into a confident royal.

Business isn’t booming all down the line and the threat to libraries and high-street bookshops is snapping at our heels like the big bad wolf. Inevitably, this will mean fewer opportunities for children to discover a range of books. And what can we do about it? Plenty. We can join Alan Gibbons http://alangibbons.net/ to suport libraries in the Campaign for the Book, make use of online resources to spread the word about new books – others’ and our own – and take our stories and ourselves into schools for children to discover them first-hand. As Frank Cottrell Boyce said in his keynote speech for the Society of Authors CWIG (Children’s Writers and Illustrators Group) last year, “Everyone likes being read to; everyone likes being enchanted.” We are the enchanters – let’s get to work!

J.A.

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