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Doing nothing is doing something (Anne Rooney) 12:46 AM (12 hours ago)

 

Back to Cambridge University Library

Penny Dolan posted about procrastination a few days ago. This is not quite an apologia for procrastination, but more a plea to be easy on yourself if you're not doing enough. I've not been writing full time (as in, 35 hours a week) since before the pandemic. A string of deaths and other disasters/disrupters, plus turmoil in the publishing industry, have made it pretty much impossible. 

 I thought I'd get back to it this autumn, but I'm honestly not sure I even want to. Publishing is still turmoily, AI is wreaking havoc, and the three book projects I have in prospect are, as often happens, waiting on design decisions. They will then turn into a panicked rush to get samples together in time for the Frankfurt Book Fair in October (which is not very far away). 

While waiting for publishers to get their act together, I've returned to a book I started before the pandemic and then had to give up as it was based on material in the British Library which was inaccessible . It's fun poking around at it, though I'm still not sure what shape it will eventually take, if any. I've also decided to learn some new skills, nothing to do with writing. And although this looks like 'doing nothing', it's already throwing up new ideas. Even the doing nothing that is gardening or walking around the fields looking for sloes lets some slow mental composting go on, and that all feeds into work when work happens. At least, that's what I'm telling myself...

Anne Rooney

Out now: Weird and Wonderful Dinosaur Facts, illustrated by Ro Ledesma, Arcurus 2025

 

 

Members' news 6 Sep 10:00 PM (6 days ago)

 Happy back to school week! September is thriller month with news of two exciting new releases coming soon.

Congratulations to Teri Terry on her debut adult book, first of a four book deal with Boldwood Books.

Here's the publisher's blurb:

A twisty, tension-packed and heart-stopping psychological thriller from bestselling author Teri Terry.

IF I WERE YOU, I'D GO HOME NOW.

When an anonymous note sends Lou rushing home, she discovers a betrayal that shatters her carefully built life. Catching her husband in bed with another woman, Lou walks away heartbroken - only to find herself the target of a sinister campaign. Threatening notes continue to arrive. Her car is vandalised. It seems someone is watching her every move. Lou suspects Freja, the woman she found in bed with her husband. But as she digs into Freja’s past, disturbing truths about her own history begin to surface. And as the threats begin to escalate, putting Lou’s own family at risk, Lou finally realises the danger isn’t just coming from the outside. It’s been inside Lou’s story all along.

THE STALKER will be published on October 6th. The pre-order link: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Stalker-Teri-Terry-ebook/dp/B0FF987219

And a big shout-out to Helen Lander, whose YA thriller HIDDEN TOXINS is out on October 15th from Hawkwood Books.

An addictive, hard-hitting YA thriller filled with poisonous twists, ‘Hidden Toxins’ will keep you hooked. Six audacious teenagers. Far too many secrets. A corrupt politician. Stalking… Murder… One thing’s for sure – Cedar and Sorrel are in way too deep.

#youngadult #thriller #diverse #LGBT+ #gripping #gritty #girllovesgirl #boylovesboy #girllovesboy #boylovesgirl #hawkwoodbooks #booktok

The pre-order link is here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Hidden-Toxins-H-J-Larder/dp/1068710349

There's also an absolutely stunning book trailer made by Helen's filmmaker nephew. Do check it out:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?si=gbldui_RRRTMYMNs&v=gtWN4AqbFmI&feature=youtu.be

And for more information on the production studio, here's the website: https://www.reframe.studio/

Any news you'd like publicised? Book deal, events, prizes etc. Send the details Claire Fayers

Jenny Wagner's Book About Writing by Paul May 3 Sep 9:00 PM (9 days ago)

You most likely know Jenny Wagner for her picture books with illustrator Ron Brooks— The Bunyip of Berkeley's Creek and John Brown, Rose and the Midnight Cat, for example, or for her novel The Nimbin. But Jenny Wagner also wrote one of the most useful, practical and entertaining books I've come across on writing books for children. It's called On Writing Books For Children and it was published in 1992 but it's not that hard to find a copy today online.

One of the things I particularly like about this book is that it contains both detailed advice about matters of style which would be helpful to someone who had never written a book of any kind before as well as more general outlines of, for example, the different ways in which you might choose to tell a story. There's a chapter entitled A Matter of Style which deals with the following: 'clumsiness, clichés, redundancies, inappropriate grandeur, archaic expressions, inappropriate imagery and accidental music to name just a few.'  In the section on Clumsiness she says this, which is both informative and encouraging: 

'Beginning writers often overlook clumsiness, which usually takes the form of a lot of little faults rather than a few dramatically big ones. But like all writing faults, they are cumulative; you can get away with one or two, but several can cast a veil over the writing, eventually making it unreadable. Fortunately it works the other way too: the removal of many small roughnesses can make a startling improvement to clarity and vividness.'

This is a short and entertaining book but contains lots of helpful information. Over the years I've enjoyed dipping into it from time to time but I think it would be most useful to those who think they'd like to write a children's book but have never really given much thought to what might be involved in doing so. There's a very succinct discussion of narrative points-of-view and a terrific chapter on dialogue which begins with some very basic stuff, but it's stuff you wouldn't know if you'd never written dialogue before— among other things, where you need a comma and where a full stop. 

Then there's quite a lot about speech attributions, a subject I find endlessly interesting. Wagner suggests that if you're writing for older children and are trying to avoid attributions you can 'drop in a name here and there', as in "I'll fix that, Julian!", but goes on to say: 'Only don't overdo it, unless you want your character to sound like a used car salesman. In real life people don't use other people's names a great deal, and we become suspicious when they do; we suspect they are trying to sell us something—a car, a time-share unit, or even a religion.'

Wagner describes what she's trying to do in her introduction. Having said there are no rules (the obligatory preface to a book about writing) she says:

'This book is not a collection of handy hints that will bring you fame and fortune; instead I am giving you a toolbox. I explain what the tools are, what job they do and how they do it; I show you the best ways I know of using them, and how not to hurt your fingers on them. I even suggest some things you might like to make. But I don't claim for one moment that these are the only tools available, or that there is only one way to use them.'

And here to end is a warning to all writers:

'Sometimes the faults in your writing hide from you. The desire to write something excellent is overshadowed by the even greater desire to have already written it.'

On Writing Books for Children by Jenny Wagner, Allen and Unwin 1992

11 Cached Days to do Nothing In - Joan Lennon 2 Sep 4:30 PM (10 days ago)

This post will appear on the 3rd of September 2025.* It will be a day where, I'm sure, many interesting things will happen and, I hope, I will get a fair old whack of writing done. But if I don't, for whatever reasons, it's quite possible that, even as a lost day, I will be moving the story forward in the dimly lit and largely overlooked bits of my brain. By not writing, I WILL BE ABLE to write another day. 

Empirically, we know that this is true, but it is mostly really hard to believe it. So I am offering you a gift of not one, but ELEVEN extra days where you don't have to achieve ANYTHING. Where do they come from? On the 3rd of September 1752, Britain changed from the Julian to the Gregorian calendar. Instead of the 3rd of September being the 3rd of September, it instantly became the 14th of September. Eleven whole days were passed over. Lost? Or just cached (in the sense of hidden away for later use). Those 11 theoretical days are available to everybody, of course, not just writers, but I feel as if we maybe need them more than many. Take a deep breath and embrace some extra time!

Epictetus not writing (wiki commons)

(He's nothing to do with calendars but I do like his pose - I'm ready! I'm ready! I'm ... blast, nothing coming.)

What could you do with your allocation of incorporeal days? Nothing is definitely an option. And, while you're revelling in that extra time, you ARE moving your writing on. Right?

* And it turns out Penny Dolan's post on the 1st strolls through the same ball park!

Joan Lennon website

Joan Lennon Instagram

THE PROCRASTINATION THINGY by Penny Dolan 31 Aug 9:00 PM (12 days ago)

Today is the first of September, bringing the turmoil of the start of a new academic year. Stationery stores are full of eager acquisitive children and concerned parents. Shoeshops are busy with purchasers. Even the weather is in a quieter mood.

Meanwhile here, at home, we are co-ordinating diaries, calendars and life for the months to come and then the troublesome thoughts start to arrive . . .  not only Where's that red Pomodoro timer? but the more serious worries: What have I achieved? What did I actually complete? And the follower-ons such as What am I going to do now? What writing do I want to work on next?  

There are plenty of ideas and stuff: the never-ending tome that I really would like to finish, a short story project, a collection of poems that needs fattening, some non-fiction titles I need to research and fiction I must read, as well as a monthly blog, and the daily journal and . . . and . . . and . . . and then there’s the eternal problem.

 PROCRASTINATION!  

I, by way of procrastination, read a bit about that subject, so I'm start by focusing this post  on the aforementioned Tome, which has been hanging around for too many years. I have more questions to ask.

What level of priority does this manuscrip have in my life? Am I avoiding the m/s because of its complexity? Am I having problems choosing what work needs to done on the m/s?  Do I need a more sensible, well-structured completion of the plot? More research about historical aspects of the setting? A deep analysis of the structure? A culling of words and scenes? And on and on. 

Alongside, with a loud metallic clang in the mind, comes my worry about managing that overwhelming list of tasks - as well as the fear that I no longer have the skills to do what must be done, or even to create a story worth reading. Is there honestly any urgency about this Tome, this fantasy, Penny? No publisher is interested. 

Do I actually have the energy for self publication? Or even the personality needed for such an idea to succeed? Why am I even spending time on it in the first place?  

For a while, I persist, and a few happy past author experiences creep into my mind. I remember working on projects and events that went well, and where I made genuine progress. Then I start to think of the times when - for many reasons - things didn’t work out or went wrong. Is it honestly worth starting on something that will be failure, that nobody will want or care about? Who have I thought I am, anyway? A writer, no. An imposter, yes. And a moaning groaning one at that. Where’s the joy? The belief?
 

And this is when I, the procrastinator, any procrastinator, sitting at the desk, is in danger. There is, a voice inside me suggests, a feel-good alternative to working on this wretched writing. Surely, there must be something smaller and easier to spend my time on? Some action or activity that will actually be of use to society, that will please people and be better worth the time than – sshhh! - this wretched dragged-out thing that I am half-bored with already?  

In that unsettled moment, the ideas come roaring in: all the distracting, dangerous, doing-good rewarding alternatives. The washing still stuck in the machine. The shopping that needs doing before the rush. This domestic task. That domestic task. A good home-made cake that will be higher up life’s scale, surely, than a boring unwieldy manuscript, Penny?  

Then the small distractions start muttering at me too. The phone on the desk, bringing news, breaking the tension? Those Whatsapps I heard pinging in? The various emails that really do need reading, and maybe responses too? Suddenly I hear the chattering of social commitments that need my attention: arrangements that need doing for others, not simply for my own sake. Now I am feeling anxious, imagining the host of people who need to be contacted, spoken to, visited, and to whom, mostly, my writing work has no relevance or value. Surely this writing lark deserves to be discarded?  

And, at this point, in sneak more hard words and sad feelings. You vain imposter, you feeble creature, you upstart crow, you witless podge of a garden pigeon – and, of course, now you’ve mentioned it, there are all the birds in the garden with feeders to fill before the evening meal so I’d better . . .  on and on

But, golly gosh, with all this wittering about my work and procrastination, I’ve only just remembered a blog that I simply must write, now, today. The wretched task has been hanging about at the back of my mind for ages, and it’s certainly higher priority than any of my own writing ideas . . .
 

Enough, enough. So often the dance in the head goes on like this, mental patterns of procrastination going round and round, like one of those Rolodex rotating files from the offices in old films. But I know there are better days as well and my pattern is not always this. I’m hoping, by recognising these thoughts as they arise, to push back at all the distractions and temptations, to organise my days better, and have a more useful Autumn. 

 See you in October. By which time my project will be well on its way. Won’t it?
Penny Dolan.
 

NB. This personal account of the ‘cycling’ nature of procrastination came about from information in the book ADHD UNPACKED by Alex Conner and James Brown, which I was reading out of more general interest. I did start on a straightforward post about procrastination, based on the analysis in the book, but the version above seemed more truthful and recognisable to me. Conner and Brown are the Founders of the ADHD Adults Podcast.

Young Scribblers -- Heroines who write by Sheena Wilkinson 28 Aug 8:00 PM (15 days ago)

Recently I read a review of a novel where the reviewer said she didn’t like books about writers because she always assumed they were autobiographical. This piqued my interest, partly because I’m almost at the end of a first draft where the main character is not only a writer, but a middle-aged writer suffering some of the vicissitudes in her career that I’ve been through myself, but mainly because I have always liked reading about writers. 

As a bookish child I didn’t often see myself in books – fictional characters were too busy solving mysteries, galloping their ponies, falling into adventure or playing tricks on Mam’zelle to bother much with sitting quietly with a book, my own favourite pastime. So when I did encounter heroines who liked not only to read but also to write, they had a special resonance for me. And now that I think about it, it makes sense that writers might identify with, and therefore write, characters who also wrote. 

So before this all gets a bit meta, here are some of my favourite young fictional writers.

Elizabeth Farrell, in House-at-the-Corner by Enid Blyton. Lizzie is plain and bespectacled, overshadowed by more obviously attractive siblings. But she has a talent for telling stories, and is delighted when she is published in a local newspaper -- though sorry that they don't print her name. Blyton  explores the sensitive Lizzie's pride as well disappointments and rejections, and of course, when the family fortunes falter, it is Lizzie's piggy bank, full of her writerly earnings, which help to make things right.

Of course one must include Jo March! Like Lizzie, Jo has grand ambitions, but like Lizzie (and also her creator, Louisa May Alcott) she has to content herself with writing what will sell, even if her sensationalist stories are disparaged by her friend and mentor, and eventual lover, Professor Bhaer.  I was never a fan of the gothic or sensationalist myself, much preferring cosier stories (like Little Women) so I don't know that I would have been a fan of Jo's stories, but Jo herself, inky-fingered and apt to lose herself in her stories, was a definite kindred spirit. As for Amy burning her manuscript -- I couldn't have forgiven that! 

And talking of kindred spirits, we must have Anne Shirley! Though a lot of Anne's storytelling happens inside her head, we do see her show promise as a writer. The most memorable scene is when she wins first prize in a short story competition -- much to her shock, since she doesn't remember entering it. But bosom friend Diana, not herself gifted with much imagination, has entered on her behalf, adding the important detail that the heroine's cake was so successful because she used Rollings Reliable Baking Powder -- Anne feels she will disgraced for life, but it's not the last time someone has had to compromise the purity of their artistic vision.

Montgomery's Emily of New Moon is the real writer in her oeuvre. I discovered Emily as an adult but I'd have loved her as a child reader, because she takes her writing so seriously.  

As does Harriet the Spy, in Louise Fitzhugh's book of that name.  On the very first page Harriet is frustrated with her friend Sport because he doesn't have 'get' how to play her imaginary game which involves making up a fictional town. I LOVED Harriet. I identified with her frustration -- I could never get other kids to join in with my made-up games and when they did they DIDN'T DO IT THE WAY I WANTED. I wasn't so sure about walking round the neighbourhood spying on people but I certainly understood her need to have her notebook with her at all times. Even today, on the rare occasions when I decide to have a break from writing, I usually end up buying a new notebook and I think of Harriet, the spy unmasked, her notebook confiscated, buying a new one on the way to school.

And there are others. There is Arthur Ransome's Dorothea, with her stories of the mysterious outlaw; Darrell Rivers, who writes a pantomime in In the Fifth at Malory Towers and is thrilled at its success; Jo Bettany who not only writes a school story but has it successfully published by the end of the term (like Françoise Sagan and S. E. Hinton she is still in her teens), the precursor to a long career as a novelist (as well as having eleven children). 

But perhaps my favourite young writer is one you may not know by name, but she deserves to be better known. Alison, the heroine of Joanna Cannan's I Wrote a Pony Book. Alison is fattish  and bookish and hates games. When her horrid English teacher goads her into her writing a book herself 'since you know so much about it', her friends Harry and Hop try to get in on the action. They are fundamentally unsuited to collaborating and Harry and Hop are argumentative and have the imaginations of cheeses, so it doesn't amount to anything (apart from one of the funniest scenes in children's literature). Undeterred, Alison, believing the edict to 'write what you know' writes a pony book, The Price of a Pony which is eventually published. You might call it fanciful but of course Joanna Cannan was the mother of the Pullein-Thompson sisters, who were also published in their teens, and it's also one of the funniest books I have ever read. 

As a young writer myself I loved meeting these scribbling heroines, and now that I call them to mind, there are more of them than I thought. So I must disagree with that reviewer who doesn't like books about writers. I love them! 

Between the Trees by Claire Fayers 26 Aug 10:00 PM (17 days ago)

Hello, and I hope you all had a good Bank Holiday weekend. I spent part of it at Between the Trees - a lovely festival in Merthyr Mawr, South Wales. Merthyr comes from the Latin for martyr, by the way, and Mawr means big or great. The area is thought to be named after the Welsh saint Myfor who may be buried there. However, one of the talks I went to was on the invention of tradition, given by the historian Graham Loveluck-Evans and so I am taking everything with a pinch of salt. 

The main stage - bring your own chair!

Welsh Giants, Ghosts and Goblins

Inspiration? 24 Aug 10:00 PM (19 days ago)

Something's puzzled me ever since I started writing stories.

How come, when I’m trying to work out the plot for the story I’m currently writing, I always get ideas for the story I’m not working on?

But if I decide to switch to that second story, then I get ideas for the first, only to find if I go back to the first, the ideas for that dry up.

It’s like trying to trap a blob of mercury with a pin.

Somerset Rural Life Museum - Sue Purkiss 22 Aug 9:00 PM (21 days ago)

 I love museums, and I'm fascinated by the innovative and creative ways they find to tell their stories. I've been to several these holidays with grandchildren - I wrote here about the really rather luscious chocolate museum in Antwerp, and in July we went to the Bristol Aerospace Museum, which I'll write about next month.

But this post will be about the Somerset Rural Life Museum at Glastonbury, which we visited just the other day with our two youngest grandchildren (8 and 6). The main, stone-built building was once Abbey Farm, and in the grounds is the beautiful 14th century tithe barn, which used to belong to Glastonbury Abbey. So the setting is perfect for a museum focusing on rural life.

Laundry corner

Downstairs there is a gallery, with changing exhibitions. There is also a rebuilt outside toilet - a sort of family affair, with differently sized wooden seats. (Authentic, except that it's squeaky clean and it doesn't smell.) This has been an object of great fascination to all our grandchildren. (Note to museum designers: if you want to interest children, you can't go wrong with a toilet. See also the talking toilet at the SS Great Britain, and the loo-with-a-view - and a long drop - in the ruins of Goodrich Castle.)

Then you go into the farmhouse kitchen, where on the day we went a very friendly lady was sitting spinning. The table is set, and the more mature among us will be fascinated to see utensils exactly like the ones Mum - or Grandma - used to use. Then it's up the stairs to the (very pleasant) cafe, and the Working Village, where there are displays of all sorts of tools, implements and objects which were once in everyday use, but now seem like quaint echoes of another way of life. It's a good place to go for grandparents and grandchildren - there's a lot of reminiscing and hilarity.

From this level, you can go outside to the farmyard, where there's a horse, rather beautifully made from pieces of rusty metal, and a cow which you can actually milk. (Well, sort of.) There are also activities for children here. Then it's into the glorious Tithe Barn, which at the moment has interesting exhibitions on. I particularly liked a film that interpreted the artist's walk from his home to Glastonbury - not in a linear, obvious sort of way: I admired the creativity and ingenuity on display. 

The sculpture exhibition is by Andre Wallace, and the film is by Tim Martin. But who knows who designed and built this beautiful building?

And then out into the orchard, with its piggery and various sheds, and a nice friendly cow that you can actually sit on.

There's still more to see on the top floor, incuding a representation of an old schoolroom (pointing to an inkwell: "What's that?") and a gorgeous doll's house.

It's a fascinating and relaxing place to spend a few hours. There weren't many people there when we went, even though it was the school holidays. Everyone was very friendly, and a ticket lasts for a year and allows entry to all the Somerset museums, which is, I think, extremely good value.

Here be Dragons - by Lu Hersey 18 Aug 5:00 PM (25 days ago)

No county has more dragon myths associated with it than Somerset (where I live), and I've recently been making a study of local folkore on the subject. In case you're interested, here are some useful bits of dragonlore I've come across so far.

Can you find what you're looking for? By Steve Way 16 Aug 7:00 PM (27 days ago)

 

There are several things we men aren’t good at and women aren’t supposed to be able to read maps, though it turns out my twelve-year-old granddaughter is brilliant at doing so: so, so much for the science, or whatever it is. (I seemed to manage to legitimately use the word ‘so’ three times in sequence just then – is that allowed?*)

I only know that when it comes to helping me find things, my beloved wife has been known to be conservative in her use of adjectives. I particularly remember one occasion when I was in our kitchen and called upstairs to her to ask where something was. She shouted down, in her resigned, how-can-he-possibly-not-know-this voice, “It’s in the drawer!”

Yes… I admit it, I’m a pedant. I temporarily abandoned my search and counted the number of drawers in the kitchen. Now admittedly a few of them were those tiny drawers that only small dead batteries live in and couldn’t have possibly contained whatever it was I was looking for, but I did get to about nineteen in my tally. I then, as it turned out, looked in around six or seven drawers-that-were-drawers-but-not-THE-drawer before finally finding what I was looking for in THE-drawer-that-isn’t-one-of-the-other-drawers-you-idiot. It was clear, when I light-heartedly as a pedant can, remonstrated about this with my wife later on, she still couldn’t understand how I failed to understand which out of so many drawers was THE drawer.

I will confess, as I did a few blogs ago, to a habit of looking twice somewhere when I’m looking for something, as though by magic it will suddenly appear where it isn’t. I’ve wondered whether this is because psychologically it’s more comforting searching somewhere familiar rather than exploring new ground, even though this is far more likely to prove fruitful. Oddly, once in a blue moon this technique does work, possibly based on another layer of psychological complexity based on the fact that I didn’t expect to find what I was looking for in said locality and didn’t look properly the first time. How much easier life would be, for me at least, if I knew where things were in the first place!

Now where did I last have my mobile? …

*Answers on a postcard please, or at least in the comments section!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

Just published, Spell Binding Stories UKS2. The third in a series of books using stories, poems and sketches to support the teaching of spelling at primary level. Supported by lesson ideas for each requirement of the primary National Curriculum in England. The pieces could also support second language learners attempting to master the idiosyncrasies of the English language! In this edition for example, Hercules Paintpot and his collaborators attempt to unravel a spelling mystery, we visit a school on a planet where words are not just worth their weight in gold - they are actually made of gold. We also experience the excitement and tension of the final in the series of the 'Set in for a Spell' quiz!

Paperback ISBN: 9798297102361

Kindle ASIN: B0FMNZ8BKT  (0 is a number)

DRACULA, retold by Tanya Landman, reviewed by Pippa Goodhart 14 Aug 3:30 PM (29 days ago)

 

    

I'm somebody who has been aware of Dracula, book and character, most of my life, but never actually read the original by Bram Stoker. I know what a brilliant children's novelist Tanya Landman is, trusting her to give me the essential atmosphere and story without having to wade through the much longer original. So, I was delighted to open the blood-dripping cover of this Barrington Stoke abridged version, and find out what I'd been missing.

Aimed at children in KS3, so early years of secondary school, I can imagine this book grabbing readers from the off. Told in the first person, eventually from more than one viewpoint in protagonist's journal entries, this horror story is delivered in small chunks that give a 'just one more sweetie' feeling to tempt us to read on; perfect for those who have struggled to read longer books. The opening has innocent Jonathan Harker looking forward to meeting Count Dracula, unaware of what child readers will surely already know will be BIG trouble ahead!

We're soon into entrapment, a host with pointy teeth, no reflection or shadow, hairy palms, and a penchant for leaving his castle by scuttling like a lizard, head down, straight down the wall of his castle. Weird beautiful women want to be kissed. Coffins arrive. Then live children in a sack to feed those vampiric beauties (the origin of the Child Catcher?). We move from Transylvannia to Whitby, and now it is heroine Min who tells everything as her innocent lady friend is punctured and blood-sucked, becomes a vampire herself, and has to have a stake hammered through her heart before her head is cut off and mouth stuffed with garlic. The horror escalates with a chase over sea and land to try and kill Count Dracula before Min now a vampire herself, is totally lost. 

Plenty to thrill young readers, but will they 'get' why holding a communion wafer would be a weapon of choice? I'm not sure I understand quite what's going on here as 'the body of Christ' who 'rose from the dead' is used against 'the undead'. 

I'm glad to have read this, and its retold beautifully, but I would perhaps point child readers towards much better horror stories written by brilliant contemporary writers such as Chris Priestley, Tom Palmer, Cathy MacPhail, Chris Wooding, and more.  

Dinosaur in a tutu? Anne Rooney 12 Aug 9:00 PM (last month)

Spinosaurus by Adobe stock, 2025

I've been wondering again if I will have to give up this job of writing children's books and do something entirely different (and AI-proof). Having just got used to the idea that my job now consists of writing in a way as unlike AI as possible so that I can't be easily replaced by publishers cutting corners, I've stumbled into the next challenge. And I'm not sure there's a way around this one. 

Spinosaurus by Nobu Tamura, 2024

 

  See that dinosaur above? It's supposed to be a Spinosaurus. Spinosaurus, as any 6-year-old can tell you, had a sail along its back. Along, not across, like a skirt.  This is what a Spinosaurus looks like (see right). Adobe have the audacity to label their rendering 'Realistic portrayal of a Spinosaurus'. Not realistic, not even biologically possible.

A significant part of my work involves finding reference images from which an illustrator can work to produce the art we need in the book. The reference images are important, as otherwise the illustrator or picture researcher (who might not know much about the subject) is likely to go online and find pictures that are out of date, wrong, or — a new threat — ridiculous AI slop. So my job is to provide them with pictures that are NOT like the 'realistic' Spinosaurus Adobe will dish up. Adobe, once upon a time, would have been considered a reasonably reliable source. 

Nothing like a Stegosaurus

Here's another. I needed a picture of a Stegosaurus skeleton. This, or something like it, is offered all over the place. I hope I don't have to tell you it is nothing like a Stegosaurus skeleton. Stegosaurus is the one with plates all along its back, a herbvivore with a small head, and no fierce, meat-eating teeth. There's a proper Stegosaurus skeleton for comparison below this travesty.

Fortunately, I know what a Stegosaurus looks like, so I can tell this is rubbish. But there are now more ridiculously wrong images than there are correct images, so it's taking me much longer to find good reference images. 

Actual Stegosaurus skeleton

And I don't only write about dinosaurs. I've been preparing the first bits of a book on machinery, and although I know broadly what the workings of the machines look like, I don't know in sufficient detail to be able to spot errors in an AI rendering of the inside of an engine. I've found a few that I know are wrong. But there are others that could certainly slip through. Now, I recognise some of the sites or picture agencies that are mostly or entirely using AI and I don't go near them. But it's cutting down the options and slowing down the process. The AI generated slop is proliferating so quickly that I have to scroll through screens of it looking for something that might be correct. 

For textual material, I can go back to books. But some of the things I need images for aren't in any books that I know of. Even if they are it's much slower to find an image in a book and scan/photograph it and record its provenance than to grab an image from a web page and its URL. The time consideration aside, though, if I can't provide reference images, the books won't happen. Some books will still happen, but a lot won't be possible. And how long will it be before people en masse begin to think that Spinosaurus had a skirt or Stegosaurus looked like the demon child of Edmontosaurus and T rex?

Anne Rooney

Out now (Jan 2025) from Arcturus, illustrated by Ro Ledesma: Weird and Wonderful Dinosaur Facts
 

 

 

A Few Rules for Predicting the Future by Octavia E. Butler, Art by Manzel Bowman review by Lynda Waterhouse 10 Aug 10:00 PM (last month)

 

Don’t be deceived by this slight volume. It is packed with wonderful words, Manzel Bowman’s stunning artwork and sage advice from the legendary science fiction writer and Afro futurist pioneer, Octavia E Butler (1947-2006). She was the first science fiction writer to be awarded a MacArthur Fellowship “genius” grant in 1995 and the first African American woman to win widespread recognition and receive awards. Her gripping novels reflect on racial injustice, women’s rights and climate collapse.

Her archive is kept at The Huntington Library in California. Find out more about her here;

https://www.octaviabutler.com/

In her dystopian novel Parable of the Talents, (published in 1998), a dictatorial presidential candidate, Andrew Steele Jarret, accuses whole groups of people, without grounds, of being drug dealers and rapists. He uses the slogan. ‘Make America great again, ’and storms to victory in 2032.   

A Few Rules for Predicting the Future was originally published as an essay in Essence magazine in 2000. This edition contains art work by American artist, Manzel Bowman aka artxman. He is a digital collagist and painter who uses digital media to create Afro- Futurist art. His art ,matched with Octavia’s wise words, make this a book to collect and keep and re-read on a regular basis.

This powerful essay was inspired by a student misquoting her response to his question, “So do you really believe that in the future we’re going to have the kind of trouble you write about in your books?”

Octavia states,

‘..the one thing that I and my main characters never do when contemplating the future is give up hope. In fact, the very act of trying to look ahead to discern possibilities and offer warnings is itself an act of hope.’

The essay is divide into four sections;

Learn from the past

Respect the law of consequences

Be aware of your perspective

Count on the surprises

Sage advice for life as well as for writers.

The essay begs with the question, ‘Why try to predict the future at all if it’s so difficult, so nearly impossible?’

 

‘Because, most of all, our tomorrow is the child of our today. Through thought and deed, we exert a great deal of influence over this child, even though we can’t control it absolutely. Best to think about it, though. Best to try and shape it into something good. Best to do that for any child.’

This edition would be a great gift for someone who has just finished school, or who is anxious about the world and wants to shape the future into something good.

ISBN 978-1-035 427604

Headline –www. Headline.co.uk

USING COLOUR IN CHILDREN'S BOOKS -- YELLOW. by Sharon Tregenza 9 Aug 8:24 AM (last month)

 

YELLOW

Yellow is the colour of sunshine and is often used to depict happiness and energy in children's books. Bright yellow covers will catch a child's eye and in illustrations, yellow can make the story feel warm and exciting. 

It's an attention-grabber. A pop of yellow will stand out on a crowded book shelf. Because of the joyful feel it evokes it can set a happy tone to reading a story.  It can highlight too - bringing attention to important words or ideas and guiding a young reader's eyes to to key points.

And it can stimulate imagination. Its brightness energising the brain and inspiring creativity. Here are three authors who have used yellow to great effect in their children's books:

Anna Lienas: "The Colour Monster". Yellow is used to represent happiness and to help children identify different emotions.

Members' News 6 Aug 10:00 PM (last month)

 Hello and welcome to the news round-up of Scattered Authors members. It's a picture book month this month, with some great new publications - and a birthday celebration.

Tracy Darnton has a new picture book MY SISTER IS A TREASURE, illustrated by Yasmeen Ismail, out with Simon & Schuster on 28th August. It's a humorous look at the effect of a new baby on a sibling. 

https://tracydarntonauthor.wordpress.com/

One Cat, Two Cats, a lift-the-flap pop-up counting book, written and paper-engineered by Jonathan Emmett, illustrated by Rob Hodgson and published by Nosy Crow, is out Thursday 14 August. 

Where most counting books stop at ten, this one goes to twenty, with each number represented by a characterful cat. The book has already been shortlisted in the Best Preschool Book category of this year’s Junior Design Awards. 

https://jonathanemmett.com/

Moira Butterfield has two books out in August.

One is intended to make geography fun, with the help of Builderbot characters, illustrated by Clare Elsom. The other, illustrated by Ro Ledesma, was written to get Moria's 6/7 year old great-nephew interested in books!

https://moirabutterfield.co.uk

Finally, not book related, but please join me in wishing a very happy birthday to Anita Loughrey who hits one of the biggies this month.

Next news round-up will be September 7th. Send your items to me, Claire Fayers, by the end of August for inclusion.

Oats by Paul May 3 Aug 9:00 PM (last month)

Some time during last winter I had an idea. I have an allotment in North London where I grow vegetables and fruit and flowers. There's a wild flower meadow and a pond in an old bath that was once in the former mental hospital in Friern Barnet, but the bath is a story for another day. I say I had an idea, but it was almost a vision. I had a bit of space and I pictured it in my head as a field of oats.

Why oats? I don't know, but once the idea was there I had to run with it. I would buy some seed, plant it and watch it grow. How hard could it be?

Well . . . the first thing I discovered was that there were two main varieties I could grow, Avena Sativa, the normal, everyday oat, and Avena Nuda, also known as naked oats and mainly found in health food shops. The difference is this: Avena Sativa has an outer husk, and then a hard inner husk which surrounds the grain and is not that easy to remove. More of this later. Avena Nuda doesn't have this inner husk, making it much easier to process. So, naturally, I set out to find some Avena Nuda seed.

Avena Nuda is not widely grown in the UK. I found a seed merchant who had it. The minimum order was 500 kilos. I needed about 500 grams. I found people who could supply the seed, but they were in Ireland and couldn't supply the seed to the UK. So I bought a pack from a health food shop and tried sprouting those seeds to see if they would be useable. The germination rate was very poor. I tried several times with different conditions but in the end I gave up and went looking for seed of Avena Sativa. Lots of places sold small amounts of this for sprouting and making oat grass, to juice or put in salads, but I checked with the suppliers and it was suitable for sowing outside.

Oats are a cold weather cereal, which is why they're grown in the north, so I wasn't sure how they'd do in London where summer temperatures are high and getting higher. I planted them on March 5th, having first made a tool of which I was quite proud to enable me to space the seeds in rows three inches apart. They germinated quickly and I was soon fielding regular enquiries about what I was growing. I'd discovered during my initial research that oats are supposed to secrete something from their roots that suppresses weed growth. According to the books this effect is so strong that you shouldn't plant anything else where the oats have been until three weeks have passed. 

I am not convinced. Maybe the weeds grew less fast than they would have done, and they didn't grow as fast as the oats, but grow they did. And I'm glad about that because the poppies grew too and for a week or two looked fantastic. And the field of oats looked just as I'd imagined it, first green, then golden.

I started to worry about when to harvest. The tops of the plants seemed ripe, but there were greenish heads lower down. I cut a small amount before going away on holiday in July and left them to dry in the greenhouse. Then, when I got back, I tried to process them. It's not that hard to separate the outer husks and the straw from the grains, but those inner husks are really tricky. I tried various things, including putting the grain in a plastic bag and hitting it with a lump hammer, using a rolling pin, and grinding them in a blender. I managed to extract a small amount of oatmeal but it hardly seemed with the effort, except . . .

When I tried separating the grain in the oats that I hadn't yet harvested I noticed that they  popped out of their husks far more easily. And I had another thought. People were growing and harvesting oats for centuries before they ever had mills and modern machinery. I wondered how they did it and discovered via an interesting website that oats used to be widely grown by small farmers in Wales where they were processed in small local mills that have almost all now vanished. 

Anyway, I persisted, and arrived at the following process—I've done it with a small batch and I'll see how it goes with the rest. 

First I separated the chaff. On this small scale I simply removed the grain from the stalks, then rubbed it hard then blew off the husks. This left me with the grain with the inner husk attached. I put this in the blender and ground it for about 30 seconds, then put it into a tray and picked the individual grains out by hand. I can imagine that this process might have been carried out by children in the past. I think light grinding between stones would separate the grains in a similar way, but at this stage if you blow on the mixture to try to get rid of the husks you risk blowing the lot away, as the grains themselves are not heavy, so you really need to pick them out carefully.

I rolled the grains with a rolling pin, made some porridge, and ate it. It tasted just like porridge.

Whether all this has anything to do with writing children's books, I leave you to decide.

Sad news that Alan Ahlberg has died. When I was teaching 6 year olds we made a joke book for the Ahlbergs and sent it to them. Alan wrote a lovely letter back, saying he'd keep the book on a shelf and take it down to read a joke or two if he needed cheering up. I hope it worked.

Creativity and Cleese - Joan Lennon 2 Aug 4:30 PM (last month)

We've all had trouble these last months getting images and videos onto Blogger, but here's another attempt! (Embedded, no less - Tech Granny, me) This speech by John Cleese on the nature and practice of creativity is a gem and worth spending 35 minutes on. If I've failed again, you can follow this link to YouTube and enjoy some wisdom, wit and insights from a ferociously intelligent human being:

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nvKeu46jgwo

 

SITTING IN THE STORY GARDEN: THE 2025 SUMMER READING CHALLENGE. by Penny Dolan 1 Aug 2:17 AM (last month)

With schools closing for the holidays and the 2025 Summer Reading 'Story Garden' Challenge starting up, the end of July would be a busy one at my local library, and for me too, as it happens. 

Although I know the library very well, and have picked up a lot about this scheme over the years, I had never been involved in a practical way before. This year, to help with a sudden gap in the library's summer volunteer numbers, I suddenly was.

I knew where to sit  already because, at the last Storytime,  there was a new table down in the Junior Library. It was noticeably labelled, and decorated with bright, encouraging posters, a large purple flower, pots of pens, stacks of printed sheets and more, ready for the young readers to sign up for this year's version of the summer reading scheme. 

                                           

I must add that, as I sat at that table, I felt glad a Librarian would be at the official desk on the other side of the library. Meanwhile, I did try to look confident and friendly, and as if I knew what I was doing. 

Well, I almost did, didn't I?

Earlier that week, after the last regular Storytime session, the two teenage Reading Scheme volunteers at the table had explained the process. Afterwards, I turned my scribbled notes into a neat, handwritten crib card, mentally rehearsing the registration procedure as I put the thoughts into order, reminding myself about what I  might need to remember. An official info sheet was taped to the desk but I needed to know as much as I could beforehand, to be as ready as could be.

Heavens, I even found myself a small zipped case and made a pack up with the crib card, two working pens, a blank registration card and the slightly crumpled printed leaflet. I really didn't want to put any child - or parent - off the reading challenge - or the library - or reading altogether for ever - by acting like a witless old fool. 

I made a list of the facts too. The Summer Reading Challenge is for children from four years upwards, mainly of primary age. The young readers are invited to borrow and read six books over the six weeks or so of the holidays to complete the challenge, though of course they can read more, or read 'home' or other books too and there's space for that at the back of the form. The Challenge is definitely about reading for enjoyment and leisure, not 'testing reading' and all sorts of texts included: picture books, story books, fact books, graphic novels, poetry books and more. Having only 'six titles' allows space for holiday travels and for other healthy activities, as shown by the library's special reward.

The Reading Scheme leaflet is designed around a Story Garden theme, and growing readers. Each book read earns a sticker to put in the leaflet. Two books gets two sticker and a 'seed paper' that will, wettened, sprout into tiny seedlings for a garden. Two more book earns two more stickers and a brightly coloured 'fuzzy bug'. to link withthe theme of gradens and nature. The final two books earn two more stickers - of course!- plus a shiny medal on a ribbon, a certificate and, this year, a free entry voucher for one of the local swimming pools to encourage getting out and about in a healthy way. 

Children can collect their certificates and medals, and by photographed by parents by  a special mural too, if they wish. Alternatively, some primary schools arrange September 'Reading' assemblies where pupils receive their certificates. On the card, I would note about what the children - or their parents - chose. 

                                     

No wonder I needed to get all this in order in my own head! Now, all I had to do was explain all this in as friendly and encouraging way as possible, while filling in the registration form and handing out a sheet about holiday activities in the library, not once but many times. By the end of Day One, I felt a new sympathy and respect for the library staff, going through the same often simple procedures and questions day after day after day, and yet staying focused, cheerful and approachable. 

Before long, I learned to watch for those moments when I could explain all this to several children and adults in one go, and also that it was okay to pause and clear my head now and again. I also learned, after some unusual names and whispered spellings, that it was best to let the children write and spell their own names on their leaflet, and for me to copy that spelling on to the official registration card.  But I did get through it - as did the children - and came home at the end of the sessions with my brain feeling that it had had a good workout.

                                        

Best of all  - for an author used to waiting in emptied libraries - was witnessing and experiencing the happy mood when the the children's library was busy and in full working flow. From that purple-flowered desk, I saw all sorts of people. 

I came across cheeky borrowers, brandishing the next title in an easy, popular series; solemn readers ashamed of their wriggly younger sibling; shy readers wary of face-to-face attention; reluctant readers, firmly encouraged by their parents; watchful carers helping their 'new' children to choose;.

I met children whose family language was not English; people whose wide-eyed grandchildren were visiting from other countries; several older parents and grandparents casually familiar with the whole reading scheme process; older siblings affronted by the lack of reverence showed by a younger brother or sister, and even a few first-time visitors who needed registration on the system by the librarian first.

In between, I saw children and adults colouring in at the table, friends of all ages gossiping, pregnant and nursing mums resting quietly on the seating, and toddlers playing with the wooden sensory toys. Honestly, what a privilege it was to see so many people using the library service, and to have such a joyful glimpse of the community that a local library serves. 

I only wished I could have had the illustrator Shirley Hughes sitting there, capturing some of the many 'people' moments, not outside, but inside this very library.

                                             

And, by the by, on one of the days, I even had the delight of helping a young girl borrow 'Vixen', one of my own early readers, on the lending machine.  

                                              

What a very cheering moment that was and not, as I've only just had the idea, because of any connection to the Public Lending Right.  The total pleasure of knowing for sure that someone somewhere is reading your - and your illustrator's - books.

 Penny Dolan

Grey, Baggy and Holey -- sharing a first draft Sheena Wilkinson 28 Jul 7:00 PM (last month)

I like to start a new writing project at the beginning and keep on until I get to the end. I work on the principle of ‘first get it written, then get it right’. My first drafts tend to be overlong and messy, but more or less a recognisable version of the final version.

And one thing is for sure: I don’t show those first drafts to anyone. I would be mortified.

However, my current work in progress has been giving me a hard time. It’s a dual timeline, a device I like as a reader so long as it’s well done – by which I mean the stories should link, be of equal import and interest and the pacing should ensure that the reader is sorry to pause one timeline but then be immediately captured by the other one, either because you left it at such a cliffhanger, or because something in the first timeline has revealed something that makes you want to plunge back into the other one. When it’s well done, with reveals at just the right point in the narrative, it’s such a satisfying reading experience.

Turns out, though, that it’s not that easy to achieve. I’m over 70,000 words into the first draft of a dual timeline novel, set between the 1940s and 2020s, with my main characters linked by a house, and some drawings. I knew I had a good mystery, and even a twist, but I also knew that my modern timeline wasn’t pulling its weight. I was whingeing voicing my frustrations about this to a wise writer friend last week, when she generously offered to read it. 

I can’t let you see an unfinished first draft! I demurred. I would be too embarrassed. It would be like going out in public in my knickers. Grey baggy ones. With holes. 

But the wise writer friend (we’ll call her Emma, since she is in fact the insightful and generous Emma Pass) said that didn’t matter, and, since I really was in despair about how to fix it, and I didn’t think my usual strategy of just writing to the end and then editing it was going to work, I sent her the draft.

She read it quickly and said the encouraging things I needed to hear – especially that she hadn’t guessed the twist! – but agreed that the contemporary timeline needed another element. She had some suggestions, some of which chimed with my vision of the book, some of which didn’t, but – and this is why this was so helpful – in considering them, I chanced on what would work. 

The ending of this story could be that I returned to the MS today with fresh ideas, happy to be going in the right direction and not wasting any more time, but it’s more complex than that. When I looked at the progress I’d made with his book since starting it 14 months ago I could see that, more than anything else I’ve ever written, it has been interrupted many times along the way – by another book which was commissioned by a publisher and so had to take priority, and by editing two other projects for publication later this year. I've shared the relevant pages to show you just how many times the project has had to give way to something else. 

My writing is often stop-start, because of having to make money, but when I sat back and looked at this project, I realised that I had rarely had the chance for a really good run at it. I also realised that some of the 'new' ideas I'd had this weekend after talking to Emma were already there in my notes: I had just forgotten about them. No wonder it wasn’t exactly coherent. I’m sharing this to remind people of the importance of seeking help from other, trusted writers; of not being too precious about works in progress; of understanding that what we 'always' do might not always work, and of realising that we might already have had the answers all along.

And now I’m getting straight back to that manuscript. Grey, baggy and holey it might be right now, but thanks to being brave enough to expose it, and thanks to the wisdom of Emma, I know how to fix it. 

A Book Rec, A Spreadsheet and Some Pretty Colours by Claire Fayers 26 Jul 10:00 PM (last month)

 I'm deep in edits on my first book for adults at the moment, armed with notes from my agent, a copy of Sara Grant's excellent book on editing, and a selection of coloured pens and pencils. And a spreadsheet. I do love a good spreadsheet.

When I teach writing, most people think that editing means line and copy-editing: changing word order, correcting mistakes, that kind of thing, and there are groans of dismay when I explain about structural  edits. In fact, I find this the most satisfying part of the writing process. I'm always fairly methodical when it comes to edits, unlike my first drafts which are a write-by-the-seat-of-your-pants mess. I always keep some structure templates on my spreadsheet, but Sara Grant's THE ULTIMATE GUIDE TO EDITING YOUR NOVEL came out when I was a few chapters in so I thought I'd give it a go and I'm finding it a very worthwhile investment.

This is a very practical book, with lots of exercises and checklists. I already do a lot of the things listed in the book - big picture analysis, character arcs, a scene-by-scene spreadsheet with a summary of the action, POV character, word count etc, but I've found it very useful to follow through as a guide and Sara, being a children's author, includes helpful advice specific to children's books. I can see it being useful as a teaching guide as well as for my own edits.

Here's a snippet from my spreadsheet for Tapper Watson and the Quest for the Nemo Machine.

The action column is copied and pasted straight from my scene headers in Word. The easiest way to do it is to put all your headers into Header 1 style, select any of them, then go to the home tab and under 'Select' choose 'select text with similar formatting'. This will select them all and then you can copy them out. You can probably do something similar with Scrivener, though I've never got to grips with it.

In the Importance column, I make a note of the big structural points - the inciting incident, mid-point etc and make sure they fall in roughly the right places - and also the defining moments for the character plot arcs.

If you only have one POV you may not need that column. Because I use multiple POVs, when I've completed the spreadsheet I can filter by character and see how many words I have in each point of view and if I need to balance it out at all.

Timeline is a godsend because I don't write in order and I keep losing track of who did what to whom when. And of course you have to keep track of wordcounts so you can celebrate milestones with cake.

Finally, I like to see how I'm making progress because often I feel like the book isn't moving at all. A friend gave me a notebook with squared paper last birthday and I decided to colour in squares, with each square being 100 words.

Here's the start of June.

And here's today's.

That page makes me feel a lot happier about the fact that I've got another 20,000 words to go.

Happy writing!

www.clairefayers.com

Reading Lessons 24 Jul 10:00 PM (last month)

I posted this in my little book review blog a few days ago, but I think it also has relevance here, in a blog about books for young people. And also because I'd just like to get the word out about a book I love.

This is an absolute joy. 

A children's book from 1905 - Sue Purkiss 22 Jul 9:00 PM (last month)

 

Was having a bit of a tidy-up in the hut today, and I came across this children's book from 1905, which a friend gave me a while ago. The dedication in the front reads, in beautiful handwriting, with lots of curls and loops:

Rowland Edgar Weston

From his Mother

On his sixth Birthday.

So Rowland would have been about the same age as my grandparents, and will be long gone now. Still, I think he enjoyed this book - it looks well used. He's coloured in a few of the black and white pictures, very carefully. It's called Pictures and Plums, for Fingers and Thumbs. I thought you might like to see this poem, in which the narrator imagines how her life is going to pan out. Obviously, with Rowland being a boy, his expectations would have been quite different.

While I'm in the ones, I can frolic all the day;

I can laugh, I can jump, I can run about and play.

But when I'm in the tens I must get up with the lark,

And sew, and read, and practise from early morn till dark.

When I'm in the twenties, I'll be like Sister Joe;

I'll wear the sweetest dresses (and, maybe, have a beau!).

I'll go out in the evening, and wear my hair up high,

And not a girl in all the town shall be as good as I.

When I'm in the thirties, I'll be just like Mamma;

And maybe I'll be married to a splendid big Papa.

I'll cook, and bake, and mend, and mind, and grow a little fat

But Mother is so sweet and nice, I'll not object to that.

Well, life changes. Things are very different now. But it's still a charming book!

Intuitive pathways into the irrational – by Rowena House 20 Jul 4:00 PM (last month)

Deep into a period of procrastination – the development edit of the seventeenth century witch trial work-in-progress being totally stalled – I’ve wandered into a research rabbit hole, exploring sources of irrational beliefs.

In one particularly persuasive study, the beliefs in question are White supremacist conspiracies, but the process behind their formation seems applicable to C17th witchcraft beliefs and, no doubt, other examples of human irrationality as well.

The gist of the study, referenced below, is this: irrational beliefs based on childhood or emotional experiences feel intuitively, even viscerally true. They are later reinforced and directed by social group’s norms without us needing to think much about it.

Or, as the researchers put it: “Historically, explanations of why racist beliefs form primarily focus on social and group influences; however, our analytic model suggests that racist beliefs are also shaped by intuitive processes ... associated with physical sensations and through negative emotions such as anger and fear ... A resurgence of [the same] emotion or certain sounds and smells can rekindle an intuitive belief that formed early in a person’s life without much deliberative thought.”

This unthinking feedback mechanism “allows individuals who have limited knowledge and direct exposure to formalised racist ideology to develop highly racist judgements.”

The researchers also found that shared emotion generated in informal settings like music venues fostered group ideas about “who belongs and is ‘good’ and who does not belong and is ‘bad’.”

In other words, feelings of belonging go hand-in-hand with irrational beliefs about an imagined ‘other’.

Substitute racist beliefs with witchcraft belief, and all this dovetails [perhaps too neatly] with my protagonist’s character arc.

In the story, my protagonist’s belief that witches exist and harm others through their diabolical powers is formed during his childhood education and later legal training. This belief is at first reinforced by his experience of a mass witch trial, but then challenged by the weakness of the evidence against the accused. 

Not only does the White supremacist research suggest a socio-psychological mechanism that would explain his irrational fear of witches, it also demonstrates how hard it would be for him to reject lawful, orthodox group think about their demonic powers regardless of his rational thought processes.

I have been hoping that by grounding my story more firmly in research such as this, I might be able to identify and overcome whatever unconscious hang-up is stalling the development edit. Writing this blog has, instead, highlighted my own uncertain relationship with the rational.

To explain.

Last time I blogged here in May (sorry I missed June; it was a complicated month) I repeated an idea that has been a well-spring of the WIP from the start. Witchcraft beliefs, I said, are ‘preposterous to our modern mind’. I was in a bad mood and should have known better, because to be honest, I’m not that sure C17th witchcraft beliefs were qualitatively more preposterous than some of today’s terrifying conspiracy theories.

Take the example of vaccines. The science behind vaccination is solid and their life-saving properties proven over centuries. Yet here we are, with mass measles outbreaks in the USA and in England.

Were there another Covid-style pandemic with anti-vaxxers in power, is it crazy to think that could lead to more unnecessary deaths than the tens of thousands executed during the witch crazes of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries?

Academic studies which suggest anti-vaccination beliefs are likely to be deep-rooted and socially reinforced should make us rationalist more understanding of their position: yes, science saves lives, but people have to believe that before they buy into the idea of vaccinating their kids.

Rationally, I accept that my ‘belief’ in vaccines rests upon an upbringing in a liberal country, without family pressure to conform to any religion or cult, and with training and life experience that reinforced the value I place on scientific method. People with different experiences are bound to have different beliefs to mine.

Emotionally, however, deep in my maternal core, I am horrified that parents refuse to vaccinate their children when it can save their lives or stop them suffering pain or life-long disabilities.

How could they?

Moreover, I find it hard to believe that any amount of academic research will shake this subjective judgment on them. With something as viscerally important as a child’s health and wellbeing, emotional truth trumps knowledge, even if I fight it.

Broomsticks at midnight, anyone?

 

Study reference:

Latif, M., Simi, P., Blee, K., & DeMichele, M. (2023). Intuitive pathways into racist beliefs. Emotions and Society, 5(3), 348-365. Retrieved Jul 19, 2025, from https://doi.org/10.1332/263169021X16841228834058

The Ace of Spades - by Lu Hersey 18 Jul 4:00 PM (last month)