Best of Blackrock | A Little Island Event

I've been a bit quiet these days, but that's because I'm hiding under the covers to escape the gloomy weather and read Frances Hardinge's Fly by Night... Meanwhile, over at Little Island, people are being very industrious indeed and here's what they're up to.
Tomorrow Wednesday, they're organising an event around two of their Young Adult titles in Dubray Books at the Blackrock Shopping Centre (Co Dublin) from 6pm. Kevin Stevens will read from his own This Ain't no Video Game, Kid!, and performers from Dublin youth theatre groups will have a go at Dermot Bolger's New Town Soul. More info and contact details can be found here. So off you go!

Dublin, UNESCO City of Literarure

Exciting stuff always happens when you're away eating redcurrents and pizzas topped with foie gras (separately). UNESCO has just designated Dublin as a City of Literature, one of only four in the world (the others being Iowa City, Melbourne and Endinburgh). So well done Dublin, well done you, well done us! For more info and events, check out the dedicated website.

Bookfest Poster Revealed

CBI has just launched the poster for the next Children's Books Festival. Nothing to do with being a cat person or anything, but I think Kevin Waldron's picture is deadly. There'll be posting galore about the festival (taking place throughout October) and Bookfest (the accompanying reading guide), but in the meantime, you can get more details here.

Tell me what you read | Vamoose, Mr Gum and Not the End of the World

It's been a good few weeks reading-wise and I've managed to do some (marginal) damage to my mountain of 'To Read' books. Among which...

Andy Stanton and his crazy cast of characters are back and in splendid form in this seventh instalment. Mr Gum himself is as abominable as ever, Billy Williams the Third makes a fantastic centaur and there's a sulking aphid called Penelope. Some very good laughs and very good lines (plus a goblin burp duet of ineffable quality). Yet, I still think Mr Gum and the Dancing Bear (Book 5) trumps it, because its plot is stronger.

About a million light-years away from Lamonic Bibber... Not the End of the World is another incredible performance from Geraldine McCaughrean. It's intense, it's superbly written, the concert of voices (human and animal voices) works wonders and the whole thing brings home a few truths about what it is to be human and, you know, what life is all about. And all that with buckets of modesty. McCaughrean is a craftswoman who knows how to polish her prose and tell a cracking good story. More!

And now for something totally off the wall. Vamoose is published by Puffin in their new Pocket Money Puffins series, which means it's a short piece, made shorter still by the addition of two extracts from other books by Meg Rosoff. That said, Vamoose is just hilarious. I was giggling under the blankets as I read it and got a few grumpy grunts and kicks from Persons Unnamed as a result, but it was worth it. Rosoff's strength in this one is in what remains unsaid, so I won't even give you a plot description. You'll just have to read it.

Alcatraz versus the Scrivener's Bones

The second book in the Alcatraz series is soon coming out in France, translated by yours truly. We've just received the cover and I couldn't resist showing you, again, the two different versions.

I Write Like...

I write like
Stephenie Meyer

I Write Like by Mémoires, Mac journal software. Analyze your writing!

Have you heard of this new website yet? Type or paste a sample of your prose, close your eyes, hold your breath... and discover if you write like James Joyce or Haruki Murakami. Here's how it works:

Check what famous writer you write like with this statistical analysis tool, which analyzes your word choice and writing style and compares them to those of the famous writers.

Now, I tried it with a few paragraphs of Mad Cap and, apparently, well, you've seen the pic at the top of this post... I suppose a great carrier awaits me. Even if the page announcing my result also included an ad that went:

Become a better writer!
Subscribe to our awesome newsletter to learn how to become a better writer and receive monthly tips on writing.

You'll be impressed to know that this blog was composed in the style of HP Lovecraft!

Korean

I mentioned before that In Search of Happiness had been translated into Korean. It's taken some clever paneuropean googling to find some pics, but I've got them now. Enjoy! (and if anyone can tell me what the hero is called...)

And here are some of my princesses from an earlier book (10 Histoires de Princesses):

Left: Tidy-Your-Palace

Right: Princess O'Pea

 (they must have had some fun translating my Scottish pea pun...)