What's All This?

Some of you might be surprised to find that Spinechills looks a little different. After a rather extended absence, I've decided to give it a bit of a facelift and to add a few new features: over the coming weeks I'll add some Best Reads lists and some Writing Tips.

I've decided to dust off the cobwebs to make it more in line with my HJ Harper blog - for all three of you who don't know, I also write children's books under another name, though since they weren't horror I'd decided to keep both worlds separate. But as I'm preparing to write horror books for kids, I thought it was time for these worlds to collide!

Please let me know what you think about the changes, and stay tuned for more Spinechills!

Pretty Pictures

Spinechills has a new Tumblr here:  http://spinechills.tumblr.com/

For anyone interested in the blood-drenched tomes that live on the shelves of my workplace, I'll be posting pics of any kids' and young adult horror books that catch my eye.

Family - A Spooky New Story by Sam Enthoven

Illustrated stories are one of those mediums that I think we mistakenly believe we grow out of. You only need to pick up a book like The Arrival by Shaun Tan or The Mysteries of Harris Burdick to figure out just how big an impact illustrated stories can have on a reader. The problem is, the content of an illustrated story is usually aimed at a particular age level, and if you've graduated from those younger themes to, say, terrifying stories about creepy old houses and weird families, you might have been disappointed in the past.

But not any more! Because Sam Enthoven of Crawlers fame has teamed up with the amazing illustrator Laura Trinder to release Family, a thirteen part serial over at Trapped by Monsters. Trinder's illustrations perfectly complement what is shaping up to be a rather creepy story from Enthoven, so if you're after an illustrated read that's a bit more down your alley than puppies and kittens making cupcakes, head over now! Parts one and two are already up, and part three will be up Friday, 17 August.

Family Part 1: http://www.trappedbymonsters.com/2012/08/family-part-1-of-13/
Family Part 2: http://www.trappedbymonsters.com/2012/08/family-part-2-of-13/

Doom Rider for YOU!

Hello Spinechilldren. How much do you love me? I hope it's a lot, because I'm going to be bringing you a few presents over the next couple of days, the kind wrapped in sinister-looking newspaper and dripping a little, just how we like it.

Yay! My strawberry milkshake has arrived.

The first present is one that is sure to whet your appetite. Do you remember a little while ago when I posted the cover of the forthcoming David Gatward book, Doom Rider? Well now you can check it out yourself, since Hachette has posted some sample chapters online for you to read:

http://www.hachettechildrens.com.au/9781444907698/

And I highly recommend you do go and read them to get you in the mood for Doom Rider's release date in July. I've gone on record as a big fan of Gatward's previous books, and I think this latest instalment is his best work yet.

My green skin is crawling with excitement!

Another Hiatus...

Yup, more excuses for a dead blog. This time I was finishing a book. It's the sequel to this one:

The new one is Bureau of Mysteries 2: The Mechanomancers, and it'll be out early next year. 

But I have even more excuses. You see, I'm about to embark on my first overseas trip (if you don't count New Zealand, which is so close to Australia I could probably reach out one claw and touch it). I'm going to Austin and Dallas in Texas with a brief stop off in New York at the end. My little undead heart is thumping with excitement.

So once I get back, I promise, this blog will be resurrected. 

Thank you. Yes, you.

What a strange, strange month December was.

It's been a long time between posts, and for good reason - at the start of December my father passed away suddenly, and I had to return to Western Australia to sort out his estate. It was sad, obviously, but also an incredibly steep learning curve since before this all started I didn't have the foggiest about funeral arrangements, what to do without a will, and who to contact about his death. And now I know all of that, I'm really hoping I don't have to use that knowledge again soon!

Things are much better now that I'm back home in Melbourne, and everything is beginning to return to normal. This is where the thank-yous com in. Something that was niggling at me was this blog, and how without new content it would fall into disrepair. I mean, there have always been cobwebs (I LIKE the cobwebs) but now there would be tumbleweeds blowing across it... possibly with more cobwebs.

But what I was surprised to find was that I was still getting quite a lot of traffic, even in the absence of anything to read. Which cheered me up so much after what was a pretty crappy month.

So THANK YOU to everyone who continued to read this blog. I'm really looking forward to adding a whole bunch of new reviews and horror news in the new year, and I hope you'll keep reading it too.

What, Didn't You Know Zombies Hibernate?

I've been braving the internet winter by quietly decomposing under a pile of leaf litter. While I do hate posts on blogs apologising for not maintaining content (since surely the time spent writing an apology could be used for writing a blog post) I feel compelled to write this to PLEAD with my many tens of readers to forgive me for my absence, and to basically fill you in on what I've been doing:

1. I have been busy writing and editing my next book. It's called Bureau of Mysteries, and it's a steampunk puzzle adventure for 8 and ups which will be out Feb next year through Random House Australia under my HJ Harper name. It contains the following (though not necessarily in this order): 
• Codes for you to solve alongside the story
• A Mechanical Octopus
• Sea Monsters
• Ghosts
• A Flying Dragon Machine
• Puns Aplenty!
2. At the same time, I have been on the board of a very cool festival called A Thousand Words Festival. It's a two day event celebrating YA literature, and it's got some fantastic authors such as Michael Pryor and Cath Crowley. Check out more about it here. I'll be hosting a couple of panels from things as diverse as blogging and whether or not you need a blog to get published, to an Iron Chef inspired live write-off, where two authors go head to head, and I get the audience to heckle them. Fun! Madness! Chaos!

So that is what I have been mostly doing with my time, Chilldren. Believe me when I say I have been DEATHLY missing staying in touch with the wonderful horror community, but, like the zombie I am, I will rise again soon from my brief nap, and you can expect a whole lot more reviews and some new Haunted Puppet Shows (this means you, Tommy Donbavand!)

Chronicles of the Dead - News in YA & Kids' Horror

News from the world of YA & Kids' Horror in the week ending 5/8/11:

• To celebrate the launch of the latest in the Invisible Fiends series, author Barry Hutchison has put together a video blog which you can watch over at Mr Ripley's Enchanted Books.
• A fantastic blog post from Chris Priestly about what writing horror means about knowing your fears, and his own particular fear of falling: http://chrispriestley.blogspot.com/2011/08/falling.html
• Want to be a writer? Tommy Donbavand has some fantastic advice for those aspiring to get published, but be warned, it's not for the faint-hearted!
• Tommy could also give a bit of advice about becoming a viral phenomenon after his twitter hashtag #bookswithalettermissing became a trending topic. Congrats, Tommy!
• This Saturday is Do Nothing But Read Day where, yep, you guessed it, you do nothing but read. Check out more on their site, http://dnbrd.org/ and a big thanks to Sam Enthoven for giving us the heads up over at Trapped By Monsters.
• Would you like to win a copy of William Hussey's upcoming book The Last Nightfall? (Stupid question, right? I mean, who WOULDN'T want to win a book in this amazing series?) All you have to do is head over to his website at http://www.williamhussey.co.uk/2011/08/once-in-a-demontide-competition/ and comment.

Chronicles of the Dead - News in YA & Kids' Horror

News from the world of YA & Kids' Horror in the week ending 22/7/11:

• Barry Hutchison shares the latest villain from the upcoming fourth instalment in the Invisible Fiends series - behold, Doc Mortis!

•  Cristy Burne has revealed the cover of Monster Matsuri, the latest book in the Takeshita Demons series. I think it looks amazing, and the colours really grab you. What do you think?

 

• Those who are eager for more Scream Street are in for a treat - author of the series, Tommy Donbavand, has written a short story from the street over at Trapped by Monsters. A usual, Tommy has been busy because he's also released the latest edition of the Terror Times. Check it out over at his blog!

Chronicles of the Dead - News in YA & Kids' Horror

News from the world of YA & Kids' Horror in the week ending 1/7/2011.

• A big congratulations to Jon Mayhew, whose book Mortlock has won both the Sefton Super Reads Award and the Calderdale Book Award. Two awards in two days - that has to be some sort of record! (via Jon's blog)
• Cristy Burne teaches us how to spot a Japanese iso-onna vampire. Thanks for the tips!
• Throughout July, My Favourite Books will be focussing on younger readers with their Under 14 Only Month. Wonder if some horror will sneak in there?

Chronicles of the Dead - News in YA & Kids' Horror

News from the world of kids' and YA horror in the week ending 24/6/11:

• Some authors are so talented they don't just confine themselves to the written page, they dabble in other fields too - for example, Alexander Gordon Smith is making his own zombie movie called Sola Gratia, and from the pics so far it looks terrific!
• And speaking of multi-talented authors, Barry Hutchison has been hard at work on his graphic novel Gangrene. Check out a few of the supremely cool pages over at Barry's site.
• A good book needs conflict, lots of it! Sarwat Chadda has written an excellent post on the different kinds of conflict, and even better, he's related it back to X-Men First Class.
• What's the biggest crowd you've ever spoken in front of? Well Tommy Donbavand is going to read in front of a million kids through a new project from Renaissance Learning. Register now and submit a question for Tommy to answer on camera.

Chronicles of the Dead - News in YA & Kids' Horror

News from the world of YA and Kids' Horror in the week ending 17/6/11.

• David Gatward, author of The Dead, The Dark and The Damned has launched a phenomenal new series of e-books called Book Surfers, where the main characters are forced to jump into classic novels to save the day. Out now are Treasure Island and The Wonderful Wizard of Oz.
• Arthur Slade's The Hunchback Assignments has won the 2011 Grand Prix de l'Imaginaire: Roman jeunesse étranger, which for those who don't speak French (definitely me) means the Grand Prize of the Imagination, Youth foreign. Congrats Arthur! 
• While not strictly horror-related, this blog post from Meg Harper about teaching game programmers good story techniques had me fascinated. I love my gaming, but I know it often falls short in the story department, so I'm really pleased to see that companies are taking steps to improve in this area.
• Chris Priestley talks about how being an author also means being a location scout, and the potential for places visited to pop up in stories. Some beautiful pics here!
• And speaking of excellent pictures, check out this very awesome fanart of Tommy Donbavand's Scream Street 9: Terror of the Nightwatchman.
• I was already excited about Curtis Jobling's upcoming Wereworlds: Rage of Lions, but this excellent new trailer has sent me into a frenzy! (via Curtis's blog)

Chronicles of the Dead - News in YA & Kids' Horror

News from the world of YA and kids' horror in the week ending 10/6/11.

•  Well, the big kerfuffle this week has been over an article in Wall Street Journal condemning YA lit for being 'too dark'. But perhaps even more astonishing than the article itself (and a lot more heartening) is the outpouring of support for so-called 'dark themes' from the YA community, including authors, reviewers, publishers and others. #yasaves was even a trending topic on Twitter. Many, many blogposts have been written, but so far this one is my particular favourite: http://www.foreveryoungadult.com/2011/06/06/in-soviet-russia-books-censor-you/ (Thanks to Hold Me Closer Necromancer author Lish McBride for posting the link on her Facebook)
• Figment is holding a writing competition which requires you to write about the underbelly of a society. They're doing it to celebrate the release of the third book in Darren Shan's City Trilogy, City of the Snakes. The winner wins all three books in the trilogy and gets his or her story judged by the Shanster himself, so get your entries in because it closes at midnight tonight!
• Arthur Slade discusses some of the stranger questions he's been asked by students over on his blog. My favourite - 'are you evil?'
• Steve Feasey talks about taking the leap with a new series, and whether or not twelve is too many.

Chronicles of the Dead - News in YA & Kids' Horror

News from the week ending 3/6/11.

• There's an excellent interview with Darren Shan on Inis Magazine's website. Lots of great questions that offer some insight into one of YA horror's best and most prolific authors.
• Sarwat Chadda makes me think there's hope for me yet by blogging about downsizing his book collection. As a chronic book hoarder with no less than five full size book cases crammed with books, I found myself alternatively cheering and wincing at Sarwat's bold book culling. Interesting stuff!
• Barry Hutchison's Zombie Diary is into its 11th day and each entry is more chilling than the last. This is such an amazing idea, and seeing the spread of the Zombie Apocalypse via these diary entries makes for excellent reading.
• Ever wonder how a book trailer is made? This article from Indie Horror is a fascinating and in-depth look at the process of creating the book trailer for Peter Labrow's book The Well.
• The eleventh book in the Scream Street series is almost here! It's released in the UK on 7 July, but in the meantime, check out the excellent cover on Tommy Donbavand's website.
• It's times like these that I get really frustrated I don't live in the UK - Sam Enthoven, Stephen Deas, Steve Feasey and William Hussey will be teaming up to do an event this Friday the 3rd for the Stoke Newington Literary Festival and it takes place IN A GRAVEYARD! Green with envy (or that could just be the decaying zombie flesh). Check out the details over at Sam Enthoven's website.
• William Hussey has a brand new website, and to celebrate the launch he's got a swag of goods to give away as part of a competition. Head on over for the details on how to enter!

Chronicles of the Dead - News in YA & Kids' Horror

News from the world of YA and kids' horror in the week ending 27/5/11:

• BIG news first up - The Leeds Book Awards were announced on Wednesday, and horror authors took out not one, but two of the categories! Jon Mayhew won the 9-11 category with his chilling Gothic tale Mortlock, and David Gatward's The Dead took home first prize in the 11-14 category. Other brilliant horror authors were among the nominees, including Chris Priestley, Andrew Newbound and William Hussey. Congrats to all winners and nominees! What a fantastic result for horror, or in David Gatward's words: 'The best thing about that award is that Horror got a bit of a nod. It deserves more. Much more.' Couldn't agree more. But the results are unsurprising when you take into account that the readers decided who won - more readers' choice awards, I say!
• And now we move on from the super exciting news... to the super exciting news. Barry Hutchison, author of the Invisible Fiends series, has come up with a ghoulishly good idea. He's running a kind of zombie apocalypse serial on a website he's created - check it out at www.myzombiediary.com and there's even a special guest appearance from yours truly!
• Some other thrilling award news: Tommy Donbavand's book The Uniform has won the Hackney Short Novel Award for 2011. Congratulations Tommy, what a fantastic win!
• Sticking with Tommy Donbavand, the Scream Street author has posted a new podcast on a week in the life of a children's author. Private planes? Throngs of screaming fans? Penthouse apartments? Find out here! Tommy has also posted the second part to his series on How To Promote Yourself Online. As a newbie author who has no idea what I'm doing yet, I can honestly say I'm finding these absolutely invaluable!
• Justin Somper, author of the Vampirates series is going on a pretty extensive blog tour to celebrate the release of the last book in the series: Immortal War. Check out the full list of blogs and dates on his website at www.vampirates.co.uk (via www.wondrousreads.com)

Chronicles of the Dead - News in YA & Kids' Horror

News from the world of horror ending 20/5/2011.

• Tommy Donbavand and Barry Hutchison have released a new podcast on their Wordies website, in which they discuss hilarious tales of school visits, censorship, and cup-snatching teachers.
• Darren Shan's Birth of a Killer and Charlie Higson's The Dead are a couple of the excellent titles nominated for the 2011 Independent Booksellers' Week Awards. Check out the full list here! (Via Darren Shan's website.)
• Check out the various foreign editions of Chris Priestley's books, such as Spok-historier! 
• There's also a brilliant interview with Chris on the Absolute Vanilla blog.
• Release of a picture book that's sure to be a classic - That's Not Your Mommy Anymore: A Zombie Tale via Barry Hutchison's site. 
• Alexander Gordon Smith has moved - well, his blog, anyway. Head on over to his brand new website to resubscribe.
• ...and while you're over at Gordon's new website, check out the very exciting press release about his new book, The Fury. A zombie book without zombies? Can't wait to read it!
• Quote of the Week: "Saw some lamb in the shop...50% off... sheep at half the price..." - Jon Mayhew via Facebook.

I'm Not Dead (Just Undead)

So, I probably should have posted this at the start of the month, but I've been so busy that I'm only just getting around to it now.

I haven't been posting any reviews or much of anything lately, and for that I apologise. I'm not dead, just insanely busy, for exciting reasons:

1. I am currently doing the novel-in-a-month thing on my HORROR WESTERN. So far I'm 45 000 words in and I'm aiming for 60 000. Most of that has come from three 10 000 word days which is utterly achievable for anyone and I highly recommend it for the sense of achievements (and bragging rights). Not all of the 10 000 words will be fantastic, but you're sure to find some gems in there.
2. Secondly, I am entering preparation mode for the publication of MY FIRST BOOKS in June! Here's what you should know: the series is called Star League, they're junior fiction about an action movie star, a werewolf, a zombie, a ninja, a robot and an animancer, and lastly, you should buy them. Preparation involves things I am wildly unequipped to handle, such as making an author website, but thanks to genius posts like this from Tommy Donbavand, I may get there eventually.
3. I'm also getting used to my new position at my job where I run the kids e-newsletter and paper newsletter, and also blog about things that never were and interview celebrity horror writers.
4. Lastly, I'm also on the board of directors (ooh, sounds fancy, don't it?) for a YA Literature Festival later on this year called A Thousand Words Festival where I do things like offer useless suggestions, marvel at the Festival Director's superhuman ability to do everything, and occasionally blog. Very occasionally.

And that's a snapshot of what I spend most of my days doing. I'm really missing updating this blog more regularly, and hope to get back into it shortly. But what's really killing me is having to read SERIOUS BOOKS about SERIOUS ISSUES for work. Give me exploding buckets of blood any day!

Chronicles of the Dead - News in YA & Kids' Horror

News from the week ending 13/5/2011:

• Steve Feasey has been busy touring blogs to coincide with the release of Changeling: Zombie Dawn. Check him out at Empire of Books, Wondrous Reads, Mr Ripley’s Enchanted Books, My Favourite Books, and Book Zone (For Boys) on Monday. 
• And in more Steve Feasey-related news, check out a sneak preview of the new US cover for Wereling: Blood Wolf.
• Tommy Donbavand has written a fantastic article on the ins and outs of promoting your books online. 
• Ali Sparkes talks about her writing procedure over at Trapped By Monsters and answers that eternal question: to plot, or not to plot? 

Chronicles of the Dead - News in YA & Kids' Horror

Chronicles of the Dead will be a new weekly (or perhaps twice-weekly) posting of snippets of news from around the YA Horror Blogosphere looking back over the past week. This first Chronicle will be posted on a Sunday, but after this week they should take place every Friday.

• Barry Hutchison has written a guest blog post for the Edinburgh International Book Festival, talking about the festival's Elsewhere project and his spooky story TheUnclaimed Girl. (Via http://www.barryhutchison.com/2011/05/guest-blog-post-for-edinburgh-book-festival)
• Barry's been a busy boy, because he's also been posting over at Trapped by Monsters. Check out the terribly exciting news on his upcoming 13th Horseman series.
• Arthur Slade has been experimenting with  his e-book sales, and the results are quite interesting.  
• Carrie Ryan has time to give a few book recommendations, even though she's on tour.  
• David Gatward's The Damned gets a 5 Star Review in Frightfest. You can also download a PDF of the mag here.  
• It's InternationalZombie Awareness Month at Dymocks Southland! Get along for signings from horror authors, giveaways and a zombie shuffle! 
• The sale of The (Many and Varied) Deaths of Jeb Marney by Jon Mayhew has been announced, and it sounds fantastic! 
• The supremely cool Billi SanGreal from Sarwat Chadda's Devil's Kiss has made the Kirkus Review's list of 'Tough Teen Heroines ofScience Fiction and Fantasy'. (Via http://sarwatchadda.blogspot.com/2011/05/she-came-she-saw-she-kicked-ass.html) 
• Zombie Dawn, the final book in Steve Feasey's Changeling series was released on Friday. What's Steve up to next? 
• The new cover of Chris Wooding's Braided Path has a sinister-looking fellow sporting a rather nice hoodie.

Anything else exciting catch your eye? Got some YA & Kids' Horror-related news you're bursting to share? Post it in the comments below and I'll add it to the list!