I'm Dougal Trump and It's Not My Fault

Dear me, I seem to have a London buses thing going on here: don't post anything for a month or so and then three posts in the following month. Well, just like Dougal, it's not really my fault. Blame SCBWI and networking and all that - can I really help it if there are interesting events and lots of good books to review all at the same time?

But more of Dougie. I'm Dougal Trump and It's NOT My Fault is signed quite clearly, on the cover, by 'me, D. Trump'.

That's a fib, of course, because it's really by a lovely and very respectable lady called Jackie Marchant who lives in North West London with her family and dog and is as far removed from a mischevious schoolboy as you could possibly imagine (although she does have a nice line in ludicrously named and bizarrely concocted canapes!).

Now I've known Jackie for a long while. We're both active members of SCBWI and we happen to be members of the same online critique group too, which means that I'm more than familiar with Jackie's writing. For teens. I had an inkling she wrote for a younger audience but Dougie was a total revelation. It was like discovering your mum had an alter ego as a lap dancer. Well, maybe not quite that extreme, but you catch my drift.

Anyway, enough of my wittering. You want to know about Dougie, don't you? The back of the book is a helpful starting place:

Dougie has found a note pinned to the shed. It reads:

Do not disturb. Creature will be collected in the next 3 days. Tranquilisers will wear off shortly. If the creature wakes, give it fruit and keep it quiet, or else. If it dies so will you. If anyone finds out what is in the shed, you are dead.  

Now eat this note.

Of course, Dougal can't eat the note, but the dog can, and things just get worse from that point on. His older sister, Sibble (or Sybil as she would have it spelt) treats him exactly as an self respecting teenage sister would treat a younger brother, despicably. His mother nags him, constantly. And his dad dishes out car-cleaning punishments like there's no tomorrow. Even his friends seem to desert him and his goal-keeping exploits are severely curtailed when he breaks his arm (for the third time).

And then there's the creature in the shed.

So, will Dougal be killed by (1) the Creature, (2) Sibble, (3) Mum, (4) Dad, (5) One of the neighbours (6) One of his 'friends'? And, by the time he has written, edited, and re-edited his Will to take into account all these suspects, will there be anyone left to inherit if he does die? In answering these questions, Dougie (or Jackie) trots us through a laugh out loud story that solves the mystery of the creature and even allows Dougal to revel in the role of hero, for a short while. The publicity blurb describes Dougal as Bart Simpson meets Just William. Personally, I'd throw Horrid Henry into that mix as well. Dougie has Henry's sneering loathing for his sibbling and his unerring knack to be looking guilty even when he's innocent of the crime. He's also got Henry's magnet-like attraction for trouble.

But what those other three don't have, and Dougie does, is the Dog.

The Dog is a masterpiece. Anyone who's ever owned a dog, or even lived around one for a short time will recognise this monster. The publicity blurb says it 'inhales socks.' That description doesn't go half way. There is one scene, with the Dog, Mum, and a zebra crossing which had me laughing so much I nearly set fire to myself. (OK I probably shouldn't have been reading and cooking simultaneously but I didn't want to put the book down and the family were screaming to be fed.) I won't reveal more because that would spoil it for you, but just take my advice and make sure your in a safe place before you open this book.

I'm Dougal Trump and It's Not My Fault is the first of what we all hope will be a long series. I'm Dougal Trump, Where's My Tarantula will be the next. Heaven alone knows what will come out of Jackie's startling imagination after that. But look out world, Dougal Trump is here, and little boys' lives have just got a whole lot sillier.

The lovely people at Macmillan sent me a copy to review. If you would like your own copy please click on the link below and Amazon will kindly send me a small contribution to the maintenance of this website.

The Case of the Good Looking Corpse by Caroline Lawrence

You have no idea how pleased I was when the package containing the Case of the Good Looking Corpse dropped onto the doorstep. I loved Caroline Lawrence's Roman Mysteries and somehow I had managed to miss the first of her new P.K. Pinkerton series: The Case of the Deadly Desperadoes. So getting my hands on this precious little book was a treat indeed.

And there is something precious about this book. It's another of Orion's little hardbacks (like Michelle Lovric's Talina in the Tower). And just like that book this one is lovely to hold in your hands too. It has nice creamy coloured paper and wonderful little line drawings pepper the beginnings and ends of every chapter or 'ledger' as they are called here. It's one of those books that says, 'Own me, love me, don't just read me,' and for my money, exemplifies why real books are so much better than their digital siblings.

At this rate you might think I'm cooing about the object because the story itself isn't up to much. You'd be wrong. The story is a gem. Not that you would expect less from Caroline Lawrence.

The Good Looking Corpse begins within hours of the previous book finishing. The streets of Virginia City are teeming with young gunfighters battling it out to take the place of Whittlin' Walt as the 'Chief of the Comstock Desperadoes'. The self-styled and self-schooled detective, P.K. Pinkerton is nursing the bullet injury sustained in the previous story and wondering if anyone will ever take a twelve year old detective seriously when a black servant girl called Martha turns up asking for help. Martha has witnessed the murder of her mistress, 'Short' Sally Simpson, and is convinced that the murderer is now after her too. P.K. can't resist the case, of course, and immediately embarks on an enquiry that takes the reader on a rollercoaster trip through the seemier parts of Virginia City in the company of a glorious cast of larger than life wild west characters and keeps P.K. and the reader guessing as to the identity of the killer right to the very end of the story.

And it's all enormous fun!

P.K. has a Thorn, Foibles and Eccentricities, and the Mulligrubs. The Thorn makes it diificult for P.K. to relate to other people and read their emotions. So P.K. has a system, a series of numbered facial expressions which would be fine if they didn't get confused sometimes. The Foibles and Eccentricities lead to collections, in this case, of different types of tobacco, which P.K. puts to good use in solving the crime. And the Mulligrubs are a dark mood that can only be combatted by the sort of visioning that, in my experience, is more usually advocated by the lovely ladies of the National Child Birth Trust.

Put all this together with the wry, charming voice that Lawrence uses here and you have a matter-of-fact little hero who steers their way through an historical reality that pulls no punches. There are gunfights, mutilated bodies, drunks and gamblers, prostitutes and slavery, and the sheer carnage of the American Civil War. It's all just there. P.K. takes it for granted and so the reader does too. And, quite frankly, it's delightful. I love P.K.'s tendency to capitalise words. I love the odd spelling mistakes and the slang. It brings the whole story alive and it makes you want to join that never ending line of girls and ladies who want to give P.K. a hug and a kiss even though the Thorn means P.K. hates to be touched.

And there you have it. A wonderful story with a wonderful character by a wonderful author. I'm off to find The Deadly Desperadoes now and I can't wait to get my hands on the next one too.

The lovely folk at Orion Books sent me this review copy. If you would like your own please click below and then Amazon will send a small contribution towards maintaining this blog.

 

An Evening with Hot Key Books

For once this summer, the weather shone on me. At least, it shone long enough to enable me to undertake the one point something hike across country lane, bridle way and footpath to the local station without the need of wellington boots and waterproofs. And a mere couple of hours after leaving the house I was ensconced with fellow SCBWIers in the light and airy board room in Hot Key Books new London headquarters.

The observant among you will notice the odd glass of wine on the table and the happy faces of the attendees.

 Please don't get the wrong impression. There were refreshments but not such that we were all smashed before we started.

And anyway, some people (Paolo) had to work.


But I digress.

The evening opened with a short introduction from Sarah Odedina, Managing Director of Hot Key Books and a lady with an illustrious publishing career.

Sarah set the scene. Hot Key have been around for less than a year and will have their first books on the shelves of booksellers in July. They plan to have 9 books published this year and have commisioned near 40 so far. They are very catholic in their tastes. They look for writers with a unique sensibility in their writing regardless of genre or age group (although they do not publish picture books).

Sarah believes in the hand-made. They hand-pick their authors, hand-design the books and get book-sellers to hand-sell them. You get the sense that the team there has been hand-picked too, when you hear them speak.

Editorial Director, Sara O'Connor then took up the reins.

She explained how Hot Key are trying to use digital media to keep a conversation about books going with people all the time, and they don't confine that conversation to their own books either. So they ensure that the blog is updated frequently and regularly and they all tweet. The aim is to be open and easily accessible as they believe that this is the way to build a reader audience.

They are also trying to be innovative in the way they use digital publishing. For example, Sally Gardner, the author of Maggot Moon, is dyslexic and the condition plays a major role in the novel. Sally was keen to provide additional material about dyslexia, to help readers understand it, for the digital edition and that is precisely what the enhanced i-book does.

In another example, the enhanced i-book of A World Between Us, which is a romance set against the backdrop of the Spanish Civil War, includes a lot of the period background, drawn from the author's own family history.

Sara's view is that enhancement is not for all books and it is important to identify the right projects. Those books that aren't right for inhancement will have simple digital versions of the printed edition.

The Sales and Marketing Team of Kate Manning and Sarah Benton took over next.

Kate explained that their job is mostly spreadsheets and nattering. When Kate and Sarah started their were no books to sell or market and so their aim was to get themselves known.

The first thing they did was to set up the blog to tell the story of how they set up a new publishing house and to reflect the passion, excitement and enthusiasm they all had for the books they were acquiring. They soon discovered that the more they talked the more people listened and they now have regular readers among the big booksellers.Twitter has been key to driving traffic to the blog. There are 4 or 5 people who tweet as Hot Key.

To illustrate what they now do (given they finally have books to market) they provided two contrasting examples:

Shrunk is a debut novel by F R Hitchcock. They acquired it because it was the craziest idea that had ever landed in Sara O'Connor's inbox. It tells the story of a boy who wishes on a star that he could shrink things and his wish comes true. He shrinks al manner of things, of course, but then he shrinks Jupiter and loses it. That throws the whole solar system out of alignment and the race is on for him to find Jupiter before the Earth hits the Sun. Sara fell in love with it instantly and had to publish it.

But this is a new author and so they have to establish her. This has involved ideas like the author tweeting photos of Sylvanian family creatures with tiny books with the Shrunk cover and they are about to make a promo video of a tiny tea party too. They are also working with children's magazines on shrinking things. These ideas have come from the author and the editorial team as well as the sales and marketing people.

Maggot Moon, by contrast, is by a well-established author who has won a number of awards. It was acquired by Sarah Odedina because it was 'exceptional and original'. This book will be published in hard back and is aimed at a more literary audience. So they are expecting it to be picked up by the independent booksellers and Waterstones, ie book shops where hand-selling is more usual.

They took over the regular Hot Key newsletter for Maggot Moon, making it look like something from a totalitarian state as this fits the dystopia in the novel. This gives booksellers a reason to pick up the book and read it and then they are equipped to sell it properly.

Kate and Sarah believe that the author often has the best ideas about marketing. They like to support authors in developing their readership. Twitter plays a role in this. Readers can tweet to authors while they are reading. This gives them a relationship which they never had in the past.

The last person to speak to us was Art Director, Jet Purdie.

Jet explained that one of the unusual things about Hot Key is that the Art department actually get to talk to the authors. He cited the example of A World Between Us.  They originally produced a series of photographic covers for the book but the author wanted something in the style of Spanish Civil War posters and with a tight colour scheme of red blue and yellow. Eventually Jet located a Swedish illustrator who'd worked in those colours and he produced something which everyone at Hot Key agrees is a far better cover than the original ones. So the author actually pushed them to work harder and it was a success.

 The aim is to produce covers that stand out. Everyone buys books by cover. So design is key.

The floor was then opened to questions and the following topics were covered:

• Acquisitions policy. They are looking for authors with original voices and ideas. They accept unsolicted manuscripts and will give everyone a personal reply. They are in very active buying mode and as they do not have a back list they don't have the problem that  they can't acquire something because it's too similar to something else on the list.
• Editorial input. The only thing they can't fix is voice. So if they like the voice they are happy work hard on developing the manuscript.
• Age banding. They don't. But they have developed Hot Key Rings which give buyers an indication of what they will find in a book. This is orginal and makes their books stand out.

And then the meeting broke up and it was time for all those budding writers to pigeonhole an editor:

And they did!







It was a great evening, with lots of information and very friendly hosts. I think we all came away wanting to be acquired by Hot Key Books. It would just be so much fun!