Author diaries

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4 February 2004 Entry: "To market, to market, jiggety jig"

Last night I went to the launch of Tim Dalling’s CD ‘Blossom’ at the Bistro Bar, at the Tyne Theatre. I am a great fan of Tim’s music, both his settings of Louis MacNeice poems and his own songs.
What I enjoy is the marriage of meaning in the text and melody. Both complement the other. The haunting arrangements are played beautifully by Ian Carr, guitar and Neil Harland on bass. It’s funny too - anyone who drinks too much, (and according to the acupuncturist I saw at the Sports Injury clinic, that’s usually writers), will recognise the sentiments of The Flight of the Beer Monkey. Worth getting a copy from: annietimcd@hotmail.com

I am reading a lot of children’s literature at the moment. I always have done: having children means you are in constant touch with their current age range favourites.
Shirley Hughes’ ‘Dogger’ was very popular, and the Alfie series, and I am enjoying passing on our family copies to my great nieces and nephew in Wales, who of course is called Alfie.
My ten year old is reading the Harry Potter series (though he foundered on the last one, Order of the Phoenix, it just went on a bit too long ) and The Edge Chronicles; I’ve read my way through the entire Potter oeuvre, but not the Edge Chronicles yet. And I’m constantly trying to find teen fiction for my elder boy, though now he’s sixteen, he’s really into the adult world. I bought him Brave New World, and re read it myself. It had a big impact on me at 15 or so, and I’m amazed at how prescient Huxley’s themes are for today.
I enjoyed Philip Pullman’s Trilogy, although neither of my boys have managed to get themselves into reading them, but the first in the series, Northern Lights, was extremely popular with both of them on one of our regular long car journeys to Cornwall as a tape.
I am currently tutoring on a Writing for Children course at the Centre for Lifelong Learning at Newcastle University, and I have a keen and astute group. We explore the world of children’s literature together, and ponder on the mysterious process of writing for particular age ranges. Do you have an idea and as you start to write, discover which age audience it suits ? Or do you set out to fulfil the ingredients for a particular niche ?
As all our information suggests that although the children’s market is flourishing, it is still very difficult to actually get your work seen and published, it seems you ignore current market trends at your peril. I spoke to a children’s fiction agent the other day for advice to pass on to the group and it was all - ‘ poetry is difficult because it can’t be translated easily, so we can’t sell foreign rights’, etc. The market speaks.
It can be very disheartening, so we can only carry on writing because we’re driven to do it, not because we think we can guess what the next ‘Big Thing’ will be. We should be aiming to make our writing the best it can possibly be.
As a final note, I discovered from my welsh relatives that I was born on St Dwynwen's Day - patron saint of welsh lovers. Not people who love the Welsh, but Welsh people in love.
Now there's a subject for you, boyo.