Meeting Darren Shan

Leeds 2016

I’ve met Darren Shan three times now. You’d think that meeting your favourite childhood author loses it’s novelty once you’re practically an adult meeting him over and over again, but I still felt my heart racing and my stomach turning as I walked up to him, and tried to think of an interesting question to ask.

I’ll start at the beginning. Back when I was about 11 or 12 I was given a book by a neighbour titled Cirque du Freak, and reading the back I could discern it was about vampires and a travelling circus. Sounded decent enough, but by the time I finished this book I was completely obsessed with Shan’s writing and his world. I begged my Mom to buy me the next book in the series after I’d finished each one, and once the twelve books of the Darren Shan Saga were over, I continued on to his ten book series The Demonata and every single book he published following it.

The first time he came to Birmingham was a school day, and so I rushed to the bus stop after school with my best friend, carrying our books and desperate to be the first in line. Of course we turned up late, meaning we waited almost two hours or something to meet him. But it was worth it. We got our books signed and picked up ice-cream before my Mom drove us home. I still remember what he said to me when I posed for a photograph with him. Darren Shan strangles his fans as you have the picture, and with his hands clasped around my neck he told me, “Your hearts beating very fast, Rachel…” What can I say? I was nervous.

Meeting Darren Shan for the first time

Authors are incredibly important to young people. At the age I was, all I wanted was for somebody to tell me I could make it, and walking up and seeing Darren Shan thrilled at meeting his fans made me feel so good about myself and my writing. Not only his books, but his very presence in my life was something which inspired me for years and years. And this kind of thing doesn’t stop once you’re not a child any more. I met Kazuo Ishiguro last year in Manchester and was so starstruck that I forgot to speak. I was frozen.

The second time I met Darren Shan (with the same friend) we got there early. Third in line, my friend had decided she wanted to bring as many books as she could and so ended up hauling a suitcase through town full of sixteen of his novels. Darren signed every single one, and was pretty much astounded by our dedication. The fact that he was thanking us for being such cool fans was unbelievable. I think it’s why my face looks rather red in the photo I got with him that day.

Meeting Darren Shan for the second time

Meeting him in Leeds was pretty different, because no longer do I obsess over his books like I used to. Yet, I still consider him to be an important figure in my life, and didn’t want to miss the opportunity of meeting him again. I went with two of my new university friends, and before heading to Waterstones we went to the Leeds Museum and Henry Moore Institute. Not having gone to Leeds before, it was quite cool to actually be in a big Northern city for a day.

We were the oldest people in the line, but I didn’t really care. Darren was promoting the last book in his Zom-B series which is far from good, yet I felt the need to support him just because of how much his books meant to me. Hell, I re-read the Demonata in the last year of sixth form, and it was still amazing. I’d read them now.

The two of us have grown, weirdly, but I think the dialogue between fans and authors is so important just because of how much young writers are influenced by the faces between the words they read. When I met Darren in Leeds he recognised me from a tweet I’d sent just a few hours before. Knowing that you are that close to somebody who had made their living through writing means it doesn’t scare you as much. In fact, it gives you hope.

If you’re too shy to meet your favourite author, then I’d totally recommend you do it. Even if you have to travel for it, it’s a rewarding experience and will be something you never forget. Signed books are a treasure, and so are the people behind them.I guess it’s just Stephen King I have to meet next.

Genrethon Reflection

Let’s talk about the disaster that was Genrethon.

Well, I say that, but to be honest with you I’m always quite proud of what I read. I’ve been up to a lot of things this week which meant, unfortunately, I couldn’t dedicate every day to reading like I did in BookTubeAThon, where I smashed my way through 5 books I a week. Instead I read as normal, and got through two novels and one picture book.

On the Sunday that Genrethon began I had a rehearsal for my play which takes up a lot of my time, so I only managed to read in the evening once I’d got home. I finished off Day of the Triffids by John Wyndham which I’d been reading since the Monday. It’s only short, but I read I slowly because I’d been to the Lake District and Leeds that week.

Day of the Triffids is a dystopian novel, told from the point of view of a man who wakes up in his hospital room one morning, and notices something is completely off. He’s been inside for an operation on his eyes, meaning they have been wrapped in bandages for three days and left him sightless. Fortunately for him, the operation was a success. When he takes the blindfold off for himself, however, the world had turned to complete chaos. The novel was an excellent – and different – dystopia, because it focused on the rebellion of Mother Nature rather than science and technology, or totalitarian rule. It is coupled with the sense of post-apocalypse too as the people in the novel attempt to rebuild their lives after the huge, murderous plants ravage the Earth. Written brilliantly and chillingly, I loved this novel. It is a treat for sci-fi fans.

Once I finished this, I picked up How to be Both by Ali Smith before I went to bed. I was very intrigued by this novel because the premise doesn’t give much away. I also love the way that it was published – two separate versions were printed simultaneously with the two story lines in different orders. It meant I went into this novel very fresh-faced and excited to finally read an Ali Smith book.

By Monday, Ali Smith had gotten strange, so I wanted to give myself a break from it’s challenging narrative. I read Dr Seuss’ Sleep Book which is a poetry-picture book, and got through it in about ten minutes. I never read Dr Seuss as a kid, so it’s nice to read his works now. The illustrations in this were great and I think his books would be good to collect. If you’re struggling with a book, I always think it’s nice to pick up something very light just to give yourself a rest, and this really helped.

Back to Ali Smith, I ‘finished’ this book on Thursday Morning. I was in university all day on Tuesday, on Wednesday I did essays and went out with the Creative Writing Society. Thursday was a good reading day because I was hungover ill, and so lay in bed finishing my reading.

How to be Both collected two stories. One of a painter in the 1460s, and one of a girl in the present day. My copy of the novel started with the present day narrative, and I loved it. If this would’ve been the whole book, I think I might have given it close to five stars. The narrative was experimental but bearable, and I loved the sense of character I got from it. However, once I got to the renaissance artist’s story I started to not like it as much. It was written a lot harder; things were difficult to follow. The prose ended up just being a barrier and completely disconnected me from the story. With less than 100 pages to go, I flicked through the rest of it and said I was done.

After this, I picked up Seraphina. I was in university all day Friday and my parents have been to visit all weekend, and so I’ve only been able to read it in the evenings meaning I didn’t finish it during the readathon. However, I’m loving how fast it seems to go. I sped through almost 100 pages of this in 45 minutes or something, and the setting and characters are completely unique. I’m having a lot of fun with it.

So that’s what happened during Genrethon. It could have gone a lot better, but I’m pleased with what I got done considering I had a very busy week. One day I’ll find a readathon which takes place during time which I’ve got zero plans. One day.

 

Scarborough

Gothic fiction is actually pretty great. In YSJ Creative Writing society we talk about it a lot, as many of the novels in the genre make up a lot of our favourite books. We like to see Gothic fiction as something to do with the supernatural, contamination and Victorian repression, and with two of the committee members studying the ‘Gothic and Horror’ module, it has become a genre we are confident talking about and exploring.

In February we took a day trip to Scarborough with the University of York’s own creative writing society, the Inklings. Initially, we went for inspiration (or really an excuse for a day out), but we ended up taking more away from the trip than we hoped we would.

The weather was overcast and windy without raining, making it perfect kite-flying weather. We ran around for a while on the beach first, writing our names in the sand and dipping our toes into the water which was way too cold to swim in. Far behind us was the seafront, revealing a stack of homes and windy streets which run all the way up a steep hill to Scarborough castle at the peak. The castle looks across the whole beach like it’s staged for a photograph, but it has been there since the 12^th century and was used through the English Civil War. It’s open to visitors during the day, and once it closes it’s nice to have a stroll outside its deserted walls.

A trip to the sea wouldn’t be complete without arcades, and so we spent a little of our time getting frustrated at 2p machines and getting our fortunes told. Stopping for lunch, we swapped writing tips with the Inklings. We discussed how we generate and organize our ideas, as well as sharing our favourite books with each other. Poems were written and read out using the sounds of the shore as inspiration.

Moving further along the literary trail we undertook, the five of us from YSJ headed to Waterstones (inevitably). After purchasing some books we began climbing the hill towards the castle and St. Mary’s Church which is home to the grave on Anne Bronte. It was here where we started making connections with Scarborough and the Gothic. We stood amongst the graves and looked down at the water lapping against the sand, hearing the whistling of wind through the branches above us. It was easy to see how people like Bram Stoker and Emily Bronte had become inspired by landscapes similar to this one.

Walking up to the castle and finding it closed, we sat on a bench at the bottom of the cliffs and looked out to the sea, sharing story ideas and brainstorming ideas. The five of us didn’t really want to leave this spot. Though it was cold and I could hardly hold my pen, the atmosphere was like a machine for generating ideas between us. We were desperate to get indoors so we could write down everything we’d experienced.

The day rounded off when both universities sat together in a pub and discussed everything they’d enjoyed about the day. 90% of people sat with notebooks and were scribbling things down about graves, trees, ruins and haunted mansions. It seemed quite funny that although we’d joked about going to a place like Scarborough for inspiration, we all came out of there with something we were completely itching to write about.

It’s amazing how we manage to find literary connections everywhere. Scarborough seems underrated compared to its neighbour Whitby, but I found its seclusion and uniqueness to be something akin to the isolation and individual feel to books of the Gothic genre. We hope to recreate the experience by heading out on more day-trips, and hopefully uncover more of the hidden literary world as we go.

Book Review: The Gracekeepers

The Gracekeepers by Kirsty Logan – 293 pages – 4.5 stars.

Kirsty Logan’s debut novel, set in a post-apocalyptic world where the Earth has flooded and only a few spots of land remain, has blown me away. It feels magical, fairy-tale like, and the characters embody the archetypes of villains, heroes, leaders and troublemakers like that out of an Angela Carter story. I picked this up on a recommendation that it was a novel for fans of Atwood and feminist texts, and while these did have a place in the story, this novel was full of so much more.

Our two main characters are North and Callanish. North, along with her bear, are performers in a travelling circus who sail from island to island, shocking and entertaining in order to stay in business. Callanish is a gracekeeper, something similar to that of an undertaker, who lives in the gracefields by herself. After a storm, the two characters are forced to look at how they fit into their world and question everything they thought they knew about their past and identity.

The first thing which struck me was Logan’s writing. It was flawless, not only in it’s lyricism but in how it drew you in. The prose felt addictive, and I always wanted to read more and more about the characters and find out where they were going. The descriptions of the landscapes were poetic, yet simple enough for this to feel like a fairy-tale like adventure. It shows that Logan is ready to make her mark; the whole novel becomes a dip into a completely different universe so the reader genuinely feels immersed in the prose like water. Written in the third-person is what helped to make the book feel this way, each character had their own voice and personality.

To address characters more closely, each one seemed to have something new and special to bring to the story. North and Callanish weren’t afraid to speak out for themselves, yet both knew when the time was right to look after those around them. Similarly, the characters on the side had their own backstories, their own fears and desires, which meant that the story lifted itself off the page with the sheer depth of each character inside, and outside, of the circus.

Lastly, although the setting isn’t explicitly dystopian, there is something uncanny about it. There is a scene in this novel where two characters explore underwater and find that homes and neighbourhoods are still festering at the bottom of the sea. This is the world as we know it but with different laws, a different class system and a different way of survival, and this alone is something which makes the reader want to know more. It was the setting which initially caught my attention in the first few chapters, but the beautiful prose and plot which kept me going through-out.

I would recommend this novel to fans of fairy-tales, dystopia, feminist fiction and magical realism. This novel was a stunning debut, and I hope Logan can continue to produce work of such majesty.

When I Go To Gigs

If I learnt anything from Thursday it’s that I can pretty much get inspiration from anything. I know people more commonly go for tasteful life experiences to get inspiration; when I first went for my day out in Whitby I completely understood how architecture worked as in influence on Gothic writing and stuff. The Romantics, to over simplify, used nature as a huge inspiration for their poetry and look where they ended up.

So it seems kind of mediocre now explaining that I’ve managed to get inspiration from my first gig in about six months, but that’s essentially what happened.

Swim Deep are a band from Birmingham who supported Wolf Alice at the Barbican. I guess, for the most part, seeing a bunch of guys with long hair, over-sized shirts and colourful guitars made be feel incredibly nostalgic about being a teenager and hoping that guys twice my age would change my life. It never happened, so I used to go home and write things about it. Being a thirteen year old meant most of the time it was poetry about how I was completely convinced I would be ignored forever – seriously things the furthest from my mind now.

Now it’s different. I came out of the gig not wanting to write the next best-selling novel about a small town girl with blonde hair who doesn’t speak yet has the most beautiful smile, and the greatest undiscovered bass player with long swooping hair who just happens to be single. Instead I kind of knew that I wanted to write trash. Seriously. I came out with absolute inspiration to write complete garbage about a failing tribute band who can’t even keep up relationships with girls half their age.

It makes me sad, kind of, if we back track. Thinking back to Whitby, I had all these great Gothic ideas about the landscape and the way the air felt on my skin. I seriously felt ready for people to praise me as the youngest author to win the Costa Book Award or something, because they would see this magical connection to 18th century Gothic novels.

But this time I’m writing for myself. And you know what? I like it. It’s working. I’m ready to write something deliberately bad meant for my eyes only, and it’s made me stop worrying about boundaries and it being too bad to get published. Because it’s not going to get published, this is just a story. I can write something freely, knowing it’s just for my love of writing and need to explore my fictional creations.

Stephen King says to do this, and I’ve known it for a while but for some reason choose not to follow this piece of advice. Being about thirteen I was only concerned with being some young prodigy author, but now being almost twenty that idea isn’t an option anymore. I just want to write. King says you need to just write for yourself, with the door closed, and that’s the only time you can experiment and find your own voice.

So I’m doing this. I doubt this story is going to get anywhere, but I’m glad that I’m getting into the flow of writing for myself again. It feels fresh. If you would’ve told me before this week that I’d be writing about a post-emo boy band then I’d have laughed. But apparently inspiration can come from anywhere.

Introduction

I have decided to start a blog, because a lot of the time there’s a bunch of things I want to write about but I just don’t have the place to put them. It’s not poetry, rather it’s just musings about life. Sometimes when you’re a writer those kinds of musings can be good, so I’m writing it down.

I do a lot of reading. I will be reviewing a lot of books and talking a lot about my reading experiences.

I also do a lot of writing, so as well as posting some of my writing on here I will talk about the experiences of it. I’ve been writing since I was little, and it’s part of my life. My dissertation for third year of university will be a creative piece, and I feel this will be good to document.

My whole life revolves around literature and it is something  I can’t escape. Let’s embrace it by turning everything I do into a piece of writing.