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)