For those who’ve been emailing to ask, here are the titles of the first four Scream Street books. They’ll be published by Walker Books in October 2008.

Scream Street 1: Fang of the Vampire

Scream Street 2: Blood of the Witch

Scream Street 3: Heart of the Mummy

Scream Street 4: Flesh of the Zombie

I hope you’re looking forward to seeing them as much as I am!

Tommy

Well, the new draft of SS4 is in, and a tricky little monkey it’s been to complete, this one (as you’ll know if you’ve read some of my recent posts).  Lots of cutting and pasting to get the order of plots and sub-plots exactly right and to help keep the action flowing at a steady pace.

Although… action doesn’t really flow at a steady pace; at least, it shouldn’t.  Not in novels.  When writing, it helps to imagine that your readers are on a roller coaster.  It’s good to get them rushing down a nice steep hill pretty soon in the story (nobody likes a long, boring climb before anything fun happens).  But, if a roller coaster was all downhill drops, it would very quickly become dull and repetitive.  You have to give your readers the odd moment to catch their breath and anticipate the next section (and that’s a great opportuity to catch them off guard and take the story in an unexpected turn).

OK, fairground ride analogies over.  Time for this writer to hit the hay.  I start on the line edit of SS3 tomorrow…

Tommy

One of the things I’m able to do with this site is keep an eye on the search phrases people use in order to find my little corner of cyberspace. Here’s the latest list:

the author for too ghoul for school
guidelines literary agents
tommy donbavand
scream street tommy
children’s author blog
vampire literary agent
courier or times new roman william shunn
literary agents stealing work
sending to literary agents
HOW MANY TIMES SHOULD YOU TRY AND GET A LITERARY AGENT
binder clips and literary agent submissions
Scream Street
donbavand
websites telling you authors agents are uk
quick fixes for bored kids

Of those, it’s ‘literary agents stealing work’ that intrigues me the most. Simply put – they don’t. Why would they? They make their money by selling your work. So, whoever searched for that – if you ever come back here – stop worry, and start writing!

Tommy

Top US agent, Nathan Bransford, has blogged about an issue I know a lot of writers are confused about – whether to telephone an agent and talk to them or not.

If you have done any research on the publishing business (and, if you want to be a writer, you’d better be doing just that), you should know that agents are busy, busy people.  Even their own clients have to wait in line to speak to them at the most frenetic times – so the last thing they need is half a dozen calls a day from unpublished authors asking the same questions over and over.

Want to know how to approach an agent?  Search the web or visit your library.  Trust me – the answers are there.  And, that way, you haven’t blotted your copybook with an agent by interrupting them on the ‘phone.

Read Nathan’s post here, and listen to what he says!

Tommy

I’ll be adding a Frequently Asked Questions page to this site over the next few days, containing answers to some of the, er… questions I’m most frequently asked. It might be slow going, however, as I do have quite a lot of real writing to do.

I thought it might be fun to also mention a couple of the most unusual questions I’ve been asked. Here are a couple:

“Do you live with JK Rowling?”

“What’s your postcode?”

“How many of the words in the book did you write?”

“Because you’re an author, do you have to eat posh food like caviar and champagne all the time?”

and, my particular favourite…

“Do you write findy-out books or madey-up books?”

Not so unusual until you realise that the last question was asked in all seriousness – by a teacher!

Tommy

In response to fellow children’s author, Barry Hutchison, posting a few chapters from his excellent Kentucky Fried Fairy manuscript a few days ago – I’m doing the same.

Attached is an excerpt from my first children’s novel, Soppy Susans From Space. Now, I wrote this novel before I knew how to write a novel – and it shows. There’s no real main character, and I’ve twisted and turned the plot to get in gags that I couldn’t bear to leave out.

Shortly after writing this, I got the gig to write for Egmont Books’ 2Heads series, and I was lucky enough to receive a crash course in putting together a novel for 7 to 9 year olds.

This is also the manuscript (I’m almost ashamed to say) that I sent to my agent when she agreed to let me submit something. Thankfully, she had enough foresight to ask what I else I was planning. “I’ve got this idea for a series called Scream Street,” said I – and off it all went.

Anyhoo – please take a peek at Soppy Susans From Space. I hope you enjoy it, and feel free to leave a comment after you’ve read it.

Tommy

The rewrite of SS4 continues unabated.  It’s proving to be quite a tough one, this.

Without giving too much away, I need my main characters to be in one location and collect an item from another.  In the original draft, they went to collect the item first, but that delayed their arrival at the main scene.  I tried to fix this by having them do to the scene first, then nipping off to collect the necessary object.  Once again, it just dragged things out.

So, I had them split up.  No problem there, you might think, but I try to avoid doing it as I’m writing this series with a single viewpoint to keep the action coming, and have the readers discover things at the same time as my characters.

It all seems to be working now, but I’ll keep you briefed!

Tommy

Sometimes you have to take them with your writing.

I’m busy with the second draft of SS4 and, sadly, it’s just not working. I’ve reorganised a lot since the first draft; moved scenes around, deleted gags to make room for plot and character development, etc. But, it’s still a no-go. No matter how much I try to fix it, it won’t sit right. I can’t explain why – it just hasn’t clicked into place.

That’s when I realised: I’m trying to fix it. I’m trying to find a way to make what I’ve already written work. What if it’s the bits I’ve already completed that are the problem? So, in a move known in writing circles as “killing your babies”, I have deleted three of the first four chapters of the book. Three whole chapters – gone.

What I’m left with is the opening, and the section where things begin to fall into place in the story. Now – I have to fine a NEW way to get my characters from A to B, and not just alter their route so that that make brief stops at L, N and T along the way.

And, guess what? It’s starting to make sense again. It’s clicking into place. I’m having fun writing these new scenes. But, I never would have been here had I not taken the drastic measure of deleting a good section of the book.

Sometimes, you have to be cruel to be kind to your characters.

Tommy

My son, Arran, arrived home from school today proudly wearing a sticker for ‘excellent writing’ (so, he’s got himself a writing award before I have, eh…?)

I asked what his piece was about, and he explained that he’d written the story of Easter, including the Last Supper, Garden of Gethsemane, etc. I commented that it was a good topic to pick, as it comes with a built-in big ending.

“That’s right,” says Arran. “Jesus was juicified!”

I probably shouldn’t have been taking a mouthful of hot tea at that exact moment…

Tommy

(Jebus, (c) Homer Simpson)

Fellow children’s author and all-round top bloke, Barry Hutchison, has kindly posted the first two chapters from one of his children’s fantasy novels on his site.

Kentucky Fried Fairy is a comic romp of epic proportions and, if you’re interested in writing fantasy, inventing stories for children – or you just want a damn good laugh – I advise you to get thee hence to his blog! You won’t regret it.

Tommy