SCPSW Annual Children's Short Story Competition

The Society of Civil and Public Service Writers is pleased to announce
THE W.F. and F.G. FROUD ANNUAL CHILDREN’S STORY COMPETITION 2009
SHORT STORY OF UP TO 2000 WORDS FOR CHILDREN OF ANY AGE

OPEN TO ALL
Prize: £150 (£100, £30 and £20) and publication in our magazine ‘Civil Service Author’ Entry fee £5 (£3 for members of SCPSW and refund of £2 for entrants who join now)
Results will be posted to website: www.scpsw.co.uk
No entry form required; enclose SAE for return of entry and copy of results
Closing date 31 October 2009
(One entry per person)
Entries in type, double spaced, on one side of A4 only Only pen name, word count and page numbers on manuscript.
Name, address and pen name should be attached on separate sheet and sent to:
Competition Secretary Nina Matter, 4 Redruth House, Grange Road, Sutton SM6 6RT
Cheques should be made payable to SCPSW. Competition is open to all but those interested in and eligible for membership i.e. serving or retired members of Civil Service, Armed Forces, National Health Service, Local Government or any Public Service, should send, please, an SAE to
Joan Lewis, 17 The Green, Corby Glen, Grantham NG33 4NP for details or email joan@lewis5634.fsnet.co.uk

Interview on Book Bites for Kids

Recently I was invited by Children's Writing Coach Suzanne Lieurance to be interviewed for Book Bites for Kids on Blogtalk Radio. Suzanne and I talked about my prize winning children's stories and discussed the benefits of entering short story competitions. If you'd like to hear more about my exciting competition wins and get tips on how to win competitions yourself, click the arrow on the Blogtalk radio box on the right.

One World One Heart Promotion: Win a signed copy of Mini Mysteries and Kooky Spookies

As part of this year's One World One Heart event I'm offering readers of my blog the chance to win a signed copy of Mini Mysteries and Kooky Spookies, an anthology of twelve stories for children including my three Ghost Twin Tales. All you have to do is leave a comment on my post. Make sure you leave a link to your blog or an e-mail address so I can notify you if you are a winner. The winner will be announced here on my blog on Thursday February 12th. For more details of the One World One Heart event, in which you can enter to win lots more freebies and/or generate traffic to your own blog, click on the badge in the column on the right hand side.

Recommended sci-fi and children's book authors

The Yahoo Group, Wordpool Writers have recently been recommending sci-fi and children's books they rate. The dozen authors below all featured on the list:

Julia Golding
Jasper Fforde
Garth Nix
Philip Reaves
Holly Black
Michele Paver
Katherine Roberts
Joseph Delaney
Kate Thompson
Philip Pulman
Angie Sage
Steve Augarde

I'm off to the library to borrow some of their books!

Patrick Ness wins Booktrust Teenage Prize

Patrick Ness rounded off a successful 2008 by winning the Booktrust Teenage Prize for his novel, The Knife of Never Letting Go.

The announcement was made at a prizegiving ceremony in London, where Patrick was presented with a trophy and a cheque for £2,500.

The Knife of Never Letting Go is Patrick's first novel for teenagers and has been widely acclaimed, winning him the Guardian Children's Fiction Prize, a longlisting for the Carnegie Medal and a placing as one of Amazon's top 100 books for 2008.

Speaking at the ceremony, Chair of Judges, Amanda Craig said, "In a strong year for Young Adult fiction, the judges of the Booktrust Teenage Prize selected six novels that we all felt were outstanding for the scope of their imagination, their originality, their writing and their appeal.

The Knife of Never Letting Go made the judges laugh, cry and debate its contents with passion; a striking mixture of thriller, science fiction and literary tour de force, it's influenced by writers as diverse as Laurence Sterne and Ursula le Guin and should appeal to a large readership."


The Booktrsust Teenage Prize judges included five children who won their places on the judging panel by submitting the best entries to a Booktrust competition. (Writers' News Feb 2009)

Jaqueline Wilson's Cookie is age-banded!

Jacqueline Wilson's latest hardback children's book has been age-banded by her publisher despite the author signing the "No to Age Banding" pledge. The hardback of Cookie, which is published this week (2nd October) by Doubleday, an imprint of Random House Children's Books, includes the age band 9+, as does the back of the special edition tin that contains the book.
The development first came to light when a bookseller left a comment on theBookseller.com. It read: "We received stock of Jacqueline Wilson's new book Cookie at work today.

She's signed the statement at www.notoagebanding.org and yet the back of the tin that the book is inside (and therefore I'm guessing the back of the book itself) has an age banding stamp on it of 9+. I've seen stamps on quite a few other books recently (including the new Puffin Classics edition of What Katie Did) but this is the first time I've seen one on a book by one of the signed up authors."
In a statement Random House said Wilson had agreed to the banding on the back of the hardback after "close discussion" with the author. The statement read: "Jacqueline can see the arguments both for and against printed age guidance on books but does retain some reservations about the subject. She has agreed for age guidance to be put on the cover of Cookie but RHCB will maintain the discussion with her and her agent over the matter and will review the situation on a book by book basis."

Wilson told The Guardian that her future titles would not be age-banded, but that as this one had been produced "ages ago" with special "cookie tin" packaging she had decided against making a fuss over the inclusion of the 9+ graphic.

(TheBookseller.com 3rd October 08)

2008 Gateshead Children's Book Award Winners

The 2008 Gateshead Children's Book Award goes to Jeremy Strong for, Beware Killer Tomatoes. Second prize goes to Tommy Dobavand writing as B Strange for Too Ghoul For School:Terror in Cubicle Four. Red House Award Winner, Derek Landy came third with Skullduggery Pleasant.

The award not only recognises excellent children's fiction, but enhances reading, writing and I.T. skills in young people across Gateshead. A number of publishers send multiple copies to participating schools. Children read the books, and, after discussing them, they write reviews. The books are then rated the children post their comments online. In my opinion this beats Graded Readers and Reading Logs any day.

I Wish Someone Had Told Me That.

Would you like to pick the brains of successful children's writers on mistakes they've made and lessons they've learned? How about what inspires them and keeps them going? Check out the fabulous e-book, I Wish Someone had Told Me That published by The Children's Book Insider. In this e-boook over 60 authors share their inspirations, their thoughts and experiences. My own contribution begins on page 32. Get your copy now from http://www.write4kids.com/

Skullduggery Pleasant wins Red House Children's Book Award

This Year's Children's Book Award winners are:

Older Readers Category: Derek Landy's Skullduggery Pleasant

Younger Children Category: Penguin by Polly Dunbar

Younger Readers: Ottoline and the Yellow Cat by Chris Riddell.

Skullduggery Pleasant also won the overall award.

The Award was founded in 1980 and has been sponsored by Red House since 2001. What sets this award apart from other children's book awards is that the award winning books are chosen by children. Hundreds of books are read each year by children from all over the UK. A shortlist is compiled and the children then vote for their favourites. The Award Ceremony is held at the annual Guardian Hay Festival in June For more about the awards, including other shortlisted entries and previous winners, visit www.redhousechildrensbookaward.co.uk