Very Lush New Editions

What's Up with Jody Barton? and all the Lottie Biggs books are now available with brand new lovely covers.  They also happen to be the August Book(s) of the Month on MyKindaBook.com.  This means that there'll be Biggs and Barton related content going up on that site throughout the whole of the month.  It also means that I'm going to give away a signed set.  I'll sign them for you or for whoever you like.  All you have to do to be in with a chance of winning is send me a message before the end of August with this important password in it:

Hi Hayley, nice makeover.

Send your message via the contact form on my website; you'll find it here.  Please take care to fill in your email address correctly.  One winner will be notified of their four-book-bonanza in early September.

And if you're wondering where the NEW words are from me - I promise you a great many new words next year! I've been proper busy.  On the quiet :)

Enjoy your summer.

Hayley x

It's nearly Christmas...

Hooray and Happy Christmas to anyone who’s reading this!

And I’ve had a lovely piece of news.  Downside Up has been shortlisted for the Worcestershire Teen Book Award.  I’m ever so chuffed!  And I’m in really good company too.  The full shortlist is this:-

• Anthony Horowitz - Russian Roulette
• Hayley Long - Downside up
• Patrick Ness - More than this
• Annabel Pitcher - Ketchup Clouds
• Jonathan Stroud - Lockwood and Co: The screaming staircase   
• Rick Yancy - The 5th wave

Anyway, to celebrate this little bit of loveliness and also because it’s Christmas, I’ve decided to give away a couple of signed books.  Downside Up and What’s Up with Jody Barton?  If you’d like a chance to win these, you just need to email me via the contact form on my website with this exact message:

Hi Hayley, I hear Worcestershire is totally where it’s at.

Do this by midnight Sunday 15^th December please.

(p.s That’s the iBunny in the picture.  I actually made those antlers for her.  I actually did.)

Bath Time!

This is just a quick blog post to tell you that it will soon be...

Bath Time!  

Nope, that's not me reminding you to wash behind your ears - I'm talking about BATH CHILDREN'S LITERATURE FESTIVAL.  It starts September 28 and finishes October 6.  Children's Laureate, Malorie Blackman, will be there.  So will Michael Rosen and Charlie Higson.  So will Cathy Cassidy and Patrick Ness.  So too will David Almond - which is a very good thing because, this year, David's helped direct it. In fact, LOADS of writers will be there.  And on that final Sunday, I'LL be there too.

Wahey!!!

This is what Sita looks like when she's holding a
very impressive award.

You can find me at 2.30 at the Mission Theatre.  I'll be appearing with Sita Brahmachari, author of those wonderful books, Artichoke Hearts, Jasmine Skies and Kite Spirit.

More details can be found here:
Sita and me at Bath Festival

So if you live in Bath or near Bath or have some way of getting yourself to Bath, please COME ALONG and say hello to Sita and me.  We'd be delighted to say hello back :)

Hope you all had a fantastic summer!

(By the way, if you're a teacher and you're feeling ever so slightly sad about summer coming to an end, may I just remind you of the KS3 teaching packs you can download COMPLETELY FREE should you choose to introduce a bit of Lottie Biggs or Jody Barton into your classrooms.... )

My Totes Lush Morning in Ingatestone!

Well, do you know what?  Just the other morning I had one of the loveliest experiences that anyone can possibly ever have in Ingatestone!

I'll be honest, those aren't words I ever expected to write.  Not that there's anything wrong with Ingatestone.  Oh no no.  Quite the opposite - it's a lovely little place with lovely people in it.  But until last Wednesday, my only experience of Ingatestone was speeding straight through without stopping on the train from Norwich to London.  Or the other way round.

But now that's no longer the case.  Now, I associate Ingatestone with the wonderful Essex Book Award and with What's Up With Jody Barton?  and... er... winning!

:-)

But even more than those things, I'll associate it with the fab kids I met that day.  Literally hundreds of them!  From all over Essex.  And all wearing such snappy dapper uniforms that I felt like a right old Scruffy McGuffy.  And I'll remember the interesting and intelligent questions they asked me and the big smiles they had on their faces.  And I'll remember that little bloke on the front row who looked utterly horrified when I told them that famous quotation from Atticus Finch in 'To Kill a Mockingbird' which goes:  'You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view... until you climb into his skin and walk around in it.'

- Urrggh.  That's disgusting!  (he said.)

-  Not literally.  (I said.)  If you tried actually doing that, you'd get into a serious heap of trouble and wind up in prison.

Anyway, that young bloke sort of put his finger on one of the things  I really like about writing for young people.

And even though I'd never heard of the Essex Book Award before I won it, I definitely have now.  And I'll be looking out with interest every single year to see which lucky authors have made it on to their shortlist.  Because it's a shortlist well worth being on.  Thirty- three high schools took part in reading and voting for those books on the 7th annual shortlist.  That they chose What's Up With Jody Barton? as their winner makes me very happy indeed.

So, from now on, whenever I'm sitting on the train and speeding straight through Ingatestone, I'll think of all those lovely kids from Essex and their hardworking teachers and librarians and the Essex Library Service and smile.

Lots of love to you all. x

p.s  After a slight 'unclaimed prize' kerfuffle, I can now happily reveal that the winner of the WUWJB? audio book is MOST DEFINITELY...... LILY BONIFACE of Surrey.
 

Win the 'What's Up with Jody Barton? Audiobook

Just the other day, I arrived home to find a nice chunky parcel on my kitchen table.  Inside it was a copy of the audio book of What’s Up With Jody Barton?

This is Lisa Coleman.  This is not me.

Now as lovely as this package is – and believe me, it is very lovely – I don’t need it.  I really don’t.  I know exactly what’s up with Jody Barton and Jolene and Chunky and Chatty Chong and all of them.  Also, I’ve already listened to the audio version.  I have an MP3 file of it and I listened to it in my car once on a long journey when I was driving somewhere.  That may sound weird – me listening to my own story – and perhaps it is.  But actually, I don’t care.  Because Lisa Coleman – from Peak Practice and Tracy Beaker and loads of other programmes besides – is so side-splittingly funny that I ACTUALLY COULDN’T SWITCH THE THING OFF.  Because she was doing all THE VOICES and everything.  Lisa's interpretations of Whispering Bob Harris and Snelljoy were especially entertaining.   And when she got to the bit where Oprah Winfrey speaks to Jody via the old lady in Brent Cross Shopping Centre, I laughed so much that I almost stopped breathing.  And this isn’t handy when you’re driving a car.

So rather than be a danger to other road users, I’m passing my audiobook on.  

To be in with a chance of winning SIX CDs and 5 HOURS AND 25 MINUTES WORTH of my words and Lisa Coleman’s voice, all you have to do is send me an email via this contact form on my website which says:

Hi Hayley, I’d flipping well love to wrap my ears around that Jody Barton audio book.

Do this by April 25^th.  I shall then randomly select one winner using my random names-in-a-hat system.

Good Luck J

Six CDs.  Count them.  I'm not exaggerating. 

My Feet are in Norfolk but my Heart is in Essex

What a lovely way to welcome in March!  There I was... stuck in bed with blocked ears, shivers, shakes and The Throat From Hell when I noticed that the red light on my phone was flashing.  I reached down to the floor, picked up my phone and illuminated the screen.  Apparently I'd been mentioned on Twitter.  I clicked on the icon of the little bird.  To my surprise, I noticed that I'd been mentioned a LOT on Twitter.   @EssexSLS (Essex Library Service) had tweeted:  'And the Essex Book Award winner is.....'

I shook my minging head and scrolled to the next tweet.

@EssexSLS had tweeted:  '....What's Up With Jody Barton?'

I put my phone down.

Was I delirious?

My phone started flashing again. I stared at it and picked it up.  Tweets were coming thick and fast and all with the same message: Congratulations.

I wasn't delirious.  I HAD won!  I'd actually won!

I was SO CHUFFED, I actually dragged myself out of bed and went downstairs and opened a can of chicken soup to celebrate.

And today, I'm feeling quite a lot better and I'm STILL massively chuffed.  I really hadn't been expecting to win this award.  For three reasons:  One, look at this shortlist; the real triumph is getting selected to be amongst this lot in the first place.

·         Mortal Chaos by Matt Dickinson

·         Messenger Bird by Ruth Eastham

·         Cracks by Caroline Green

·         What's Up with Jody Barton by Hayley Long

·         The Secret Hen House Theatre by Helen Peters

·         Midwinterblood by Marcus Sedgwick

Two, I’ll be honest; I was getting cosy with the role of being a shortlist kind of girl ;-)  And three, this award is decided for by votes from Essex School kids.  And What's Up With Jody Barton? isn't an obvious vote winner because it addresses a subject which some people still get a bit hung-up about.  But clearly, not those cool kids in Essex.  No hang-ups there!

So I want to say thank you to everyone who voted for me and thank you to the Essex Library Service for organising this fantastic award and thank you to the other shortlisted authors for putting me in such good company.  I’m really looking forward to meeting some of those Essex students later on in the year.  And as a final celebration, I thought I’d round this blog post off with a storming boy/girl mash-up of a tune from Colchester’s finest son and his mates.  Any old excuse….

There Can Be Only One!

Yes.  Just as the rubbish 1986 film Highlander once taught me, ‘There Can Be Only One.’ 

Winner of the Costa Children’s Book 2012 that is. 

And it wasn’t me or Dave Shelton or Diane Hendry.  It was the brilliant Sally Gardner for her unique dystopian novel, ‘Maggot Moon.’   Very big congratulations to her.

I won’t say I wasn’t disappointed.  Because I’d be lying.  In fact, for a little while I totally understood how Joey Tribbiani felt when he didn’t win best actor award for his role as Doctor Drake Ramoray in the stunning hospital drama Days Of Our Lives.

Click here to watch!

But that didn’t last long.  And you know what?  I’m just so chuffed to have got on that shortlist in the first place.  It feels like an achievement bigger than my degree and my driving test and my A Levels and my basic food hygiene certificate and my BAGA gymnastics award Level 4 all rolled into one.  And it’s been good for me.  Because it’s made me begin to believe that I can be up there with the best.  And now I’m reworking the manuscript for my next book like my fingers are on fire.       

I once heard someone on the telly saying that success isn’t supposed to be easy and it’s all about the struggle.  It was the singer from the 90s band, The Bluetones.  He was talking about how a teacher at his school told him that a caterpillar needs to struggle out of its cocoon in order to change into a butterfly.  Without that struggle, the newly emerged butterfly would never fly.  It was the most memorable episode of The Chart Show I ever saw.  

Anyway, I suppose what I’m saying is this:  Writing books isn’t easy.  Neither is winning awards.  I’m amazed at how far I’ve managed to get in this game and I intend to keep trying and trying and trying to get further and further and further.  Because it’s what I love to do.  And I bloody well want to be shortlisted for a big book award again. J

Winner of the box of stuff described in the last blog is Melissa Marshall of Peterborough.  Hooray!

Happy New Year to her and Happy New Year to you all!

       

THE COSTA BOOK AWARD SHORTLIST!!!

OH ME OH MY!!!!!

'What's Up With Jody Barton?' has been shortlisted for the Costa Book Awards!!!! 

I cannot BEGIN to tell you how excited I am.  I am as chuffed as chips.  I am as pleased as punch.  I am on top of the world, high above the houses and over the moon. 

I write stories about ordinary people who live ordinary lives in ordinary places and do ordinary things.  I learned this trick from my hero, Sue Townsend.  She taught me that real life is plenty quirky enough when you look at it really closely.

...And now, my ordinary / extraordinary Jody Barton has been acknowledged by the judges of one of the most prestigious literary prizes in the UK.

I am BEYOND CHUFFED. 

I am also extremely grateful to everyone who has read that book and kept the twist a secret :-)

Anyway, to celebrate, I am going to run a quick mystery competition.  This will also give me the opportunity to encourage you to visit my newly revamped website.

www.hayleylong.com

All you have to do is visit the site, go to the contact page and use the contact form to send me an email which says: Hey Hayley, I'd love to receive a surprise package of nice things through the post - of course I would.

Do this before THE END OF NOVEMBER and you might be the lucky person who'll get a lovely load of goodies in time for Christmas (if you live in the UK - if you live somewhere else, it'll take a bit longer).  Anyway, there you are then.

xxx

P.S Don't forget to check out girlsheartbooks.com.  I'm now blogging with these lovely people on this great site.

Essex Book Awards

I was massively chuffed to hear the other day that 'What's Up With Jody Barton?' has been shortlisted for the Essex Book Awards.  This is an award shortlisted by Essex librarians and voted for by students in Essex high schools.  The other shortlisted novels are:-

Mortal Chaos by Matt Dickinson

Messenger Bird by Ruth Eastham

Cracks by Caroline Green

The Secret Hen House Theatre by Helen Peters

Midwinterblood by Marcus Sedgwick

I feel enormously honoured to be included in this list.  So... to celebrate, I am giving away some 'Jody Barton' related stuff via my facebook page.  All you have to do is visit me at www.facebook.com/hayleylongauthor and leave the following EXACT message on my wall:

Hey Hayley, the only way is Jody Barton!

And do this before November the 12th.  Then, I will randomly choose a random winner at random - and that random winner will receive...

- a signed copy of 'What's Up With Jody Barton?'
- a CD of Jody's favourite band - 'The Best of The Doors'
and
- a DVD of River Phoenix's most famous film, 'Stand By Me.'

Can't say fairer than that.

By the way, I have finished the hard part of my next book and I'm now doing the much easier part - which is editing.  Hooray!  :-)

The Big London Bookshop Tour

This week, I jumped into the passenger seat of a Fiat 500 and let the brilliant Lauren Ace from Pan Macmillan drive me ALL OVER LONDON visiting book stores.  In two days, we did a lightning tour of 12 book shops, starting with the Aladdin’s Cave which is Newham Bookshop in East London and ending at Blackwells on Charing Cross Road.  During the whole trip, it howled with wind and absolutely bucketed down with rain but ace Lauren Ace just kept on driving and didn’t even seem the slightest bit rattled by my complete inability to use an i-phone – let alone navigate our way with a Google map.  I signed a shedload of books and we gave out pink cakes and biscuits, Queen of Teen bookmarks and samplers of What’s Up With Jody Barton?  I also got to visit some of the loveliest little bookshops in London – and some lovely big ones - and I met loads of amazing people who don’t just work behind the counter of a bookshop but who have made a lifestyle decision to keep books and bookshops alive and who are committed to providing their communities with a base for accessing the written word.

We’ve heard a lot about the closure of libraries recently.  This is a terrible thing.  But we mustn’t forget that – in the age of the cheap online retailer and illegal free download - bookshops are fighting their own battles.  I can totally understand the appeal of the e-reader but, as someone who associates electronic screens with work – nothing will ever replace the printed word for me.  I remain hopeful for the future of my beloved book and I believe that – so long as people remain prepared to pay for the written word - there is room for both formats.  In my mind, they serve a different purpose.  An e-reader is a file - good for convenience and reading on the move, whereas a book is a slightly bulkier but still portable product which is also, crucially, the physical form of something we love.  Do I want to own To Kill A Mockingbird or Catcher in The Rye or Wuthering Heights as a virtual concept which will disappear the second my charge runs out? – No.  There are some books which I need on my shelves.  They are the summation of who I am.  Perhaps I am a bit behind the times but reducing my life and loves to digital files seems somewhat soulless and unexciting.

I am obviously not alone.  Because against the odds, the bookshop soldiers on.  Newham Bookshop offers the people of Newham a connection with their community.  Apparently, The Sugar Girls, chronicling the lives of those who worked at the nearby Tate and Lyle sugar factory, is currently their best-selling title. Village Books, Dulwich provides teenagers from local schools with an entire floor of their own in which to lose themselves in a good book.  In The Big Green Bookshop in Wood Green, I was so seduced by titles I’d never seen before that my credit card took a bashing.  These are just a few of the magical places I visited.  And, as somebody who holds a Waterstones loyalty card, I cannot deny that the chain stores have their place too.  Ok, they may not offer the same idiosyncratic experience and are more uniform in appearance and content but they still provide the reader with a tangible and human service.  Sarah in Watford Waterstones was so clearly and visibly bubbling over with her love of books that I actually wanted to hug her. I couldn’t though.  She would have thought I was weird.  And anyway, she was too busy chatting to customers and advising them on what to buy.

Before I began my bookshop tour, I naively and egotistically thought it was going to be all about me.  A bit of promotion here.  A few signed books there.  Actually, I got much more out of the experience than that.  I took away an enormous amount of respect for the people who work in those bookshops.  I’ve always respected these people anyway but now I realise they are actually heroic.  No doubt, they could gain more financially by selling something boring like stocks and shares or advertising space.  But instead they choose to work in bookshops and provide us all with the opportunity to gain information on any subject in existence.  Yes, there is the argument that we can get all this for free on the internet too.  But remember, as amazing as it is - as democratic and levelling as it is - the internet also has no quality control.  Anyone can post up anything.  Surrounding all the good stuff is a minefield of misinformation and reactionary opinions.  Facts are not necessarily checked.  Fiction is not necessarily worked over and over and over...

So what I’m saying is this:  If we want to continue reading words of a certain quality we must continue to pay for them.  These are tough times for anything which can be reduced to a digital file.  The legal download will – just about – keep writers and publishers in business.  But the beautiful, tactile and actual book will keep booksellers and bookshops in business too.

 Please buy a book from a bookshop when you can.

March

Apologies again, this is going to be a quick one because I’m so stupidly busy.  But first of all, I need to say CONGRATULATIONS to the marvellously named Cherry Ashe who won my blog competition last month.  I asked people to email me with their own ideas for a Lottie Biggs title.  Cherry suggested Lottie Biggs is Not Single – and even gave me a plot outline involving GARETH DUMPING LOTTIE AND GOING OUT WITH GOOSE INSTEAD.  I was quite disturbed by this idea.  But of all the ideas that people sent me – this was the one which I just couldn’t forget about.  So Cherry wins!  But hey, Cherry, YOU NEED TO EMAIL ME WITH YOUR ADDRESS SO I KNOW WHERE TO SEND YOUR BOOKS TO!

This week’s blog picture is of the sweet little free sampler for my next books What’s Up With Jody Barton?  The real book looks the same but bigger and pinker and it’s out in June.  The sampler is being let loose in random places already and tells you Jody’s story up until Jody’s big secret is revealed.  If you find a sampler, YOU MUST KEEP THE SECRET ;-)

Yesterday, I was in London at the Guardian Open Weekend with the lovely people from Pan Macmillan and we gave a load of these samplers away.  You can also get your hands on one at various summer festivals and some book shops and libraries.  I, personally, have been having fun spreading them all around Norwich.

The website hasn’t changed much recently – that’s because it’s currently UNDER REDEVELOPMENT.  Within the next month or two, a brand new website – exact same address – will reveal itself before your very eyes.

Enjoy the Spring sunshine,

Hayley x