Announcing 'The Fantabulous Fridays A-Z' on Scribble City Central

THE FANTABULOUS FRIDAYS A - Z IS  COMING TO SCRIBBLE CITY CENTRAL NEXT WEEK!

I've been itching to make that announcement since the beginning of the year - and now, at last, I can.

Q: But what on earth IS The Fantabulous Fridays A - Z?

A: Following on from the success of 2010's Mythic Friday Interviews, 43 Fantastically Fabulous Children's and YA authors will be visiting Scribble City Central (one every Friday from now till the end of December), to talk about a favourite mythical beast or being, in alphabetical order from A for Airavata right through to Z for Zephyros. When it's finished, there'll be an amazing online mythological reference resource full of interesting titbits of wisdom to dip into - forever. 

I can't WAIT to introduce all those lovely writers and their fascinatingly beastly choices to you - there are some very special surprises in store, as well as a few prizes and goodies to win. So keep an eye out here and on Twitter at #FantabFri for the first in the series next week, coming from award-winning novelist Sita Brahmachari. 

See you then!

The Scribble City Interview: Celia Rees on 'This is Not Forgiveness'

Celia Rees is Scribble City Central's first guest author of 2012, and I'm delighted that she's here today, answering my many 

BURNING QUESTIONS

about her wonderful new YA thriller, This Is Not Forgiveness. I read TINF a few weeks ago, and it is  a book which dragged me into its pages, held me captive and spat me out the other end, exhausted, enthused and enthralled.  It also made me want to ask Celia a good many things, as I'm always fascinated to see how other writers' thought processes work, and how they deal with difficult subject matter.  Luckily for you, Lovely Readers, Celia agreed to be interviewed, so without further ado, I'll hand you over to her.

Copyright Helen Giles (PhotoWitch)

SCC: Melvin Burgess calls your book ‘lyrical and gritty’, Patrick Ness says you have ‘ventured into new territory and returned with explosives’. What drove you on to write this book – to depart from everything you had done recently and set out in this very different direction for your work?
CR: Whatever I write, I’m always impelled by an idea. Before I wrote Witch Child, I’d never written a historical novel. I was daunted by the amount of research I’d have to do, but I knew I had to write it. After Witch Child, I wrote more historical fiction, and I could have gone on doing that, but then I had the idea for This Is Not Forgiveness. I was watching François Truffaut’s Jules et Jim. The film (and the book on which it is based) is about two young men who are close friends and their joint obsession with an extraordinary young woman. It is set before and after the First World War, but it has a timeless quality and I suddenly thought, you could make this now. The idea linked with other bits of ideas I’d had over the years and it wouldn’t go away. It would be a departure and a challenge, but I like challenges, they keep my interest and my writing fresh. Also, my first novels were contemporary thrillers for teenagers and I liked the idea of going back to my roots.

SCC: Your three main characters are all beautifully observed, and they have in common this: that they are all observers of others. You also make use of mirrors a lot in the book, seemingly as a way of stripping layers away to get at the truth. Are you, like many writers, most comfortable as an observer yourself? Why do you think that is, and what are your favourite methods of covert observation?
CR:Yes, I am an observer, always have been. Wherever I am, I’m watching, thinking, speculating. It becomes second nature. I keep notebooks handy, but often I just squirrel observations and reflections away in my head. They can be there for years only to pop back up again when I’m writing. To do this, one needs a certain amount of anonymity. I think one of the problems writers face now is being forced into participation, by the pressure to appear and make use of social media.

SCC: “Death is the end of the road – the ultimate destination where you can be alone.” Caro, Rob and Jamie all have a parent who has committed suicide, and this has, whether knowingly or unknowingly affected each of their lives. Was it important to you to show the repercussions that a parent’s actions can have down the generations?
CR:The death of a parent, in whatever circumstances, is very traumatic. My father died when I was twelve. He died very suddenly and the shock was so great, and my mother’s grief so profound, that no-one would talk about his death. He just disappeared from our lives. This obviously had a deep and profound affect on me and his death was from natural causes. I can only speculate about how deeply affecting a parent’s death by suicide would be.

SCC: "Medals cast deep shadows...I’m broke beyone anyone’s fixing." You clearly did a lot of research on soldiers, PTSD, and how combat troops (especially wounded ones) deal with being back on civvie street. Who did you talk to to get that amazing ring of truth into Rob’s character, and how did it affect you?
CR: I read a great deal about the effects of war on those who do the fighting, not just in the current war in Afghanistan and the recent conflict in Iraq, but also in the First and Second World Wars and in Vietnam. There are plenty of first hand accounts, both of fighting and the affects it has on combatants. I also watched films, like Kathryn Bigelow’s The Hurt Locker, series like Generation Kill and viewed ‘Soldier Vision’, video footage put up on the internet by soldiers on active service. I spoke to members of the armed forces who were on active service, but I did not go in for lengthy, extensive interviews. I felt that would be intrusive, inappropriate, somehow.

SCC: What I particularly like about this book is that it shows normal teenagers behaving and talking as they all do in 2012 – it’s refreshingly real. You’ve got right inside their heads, but it’s a brave (some would say risky) thing to do to portray them in all their unvarnished glory. Did you find it immensely freeing to let them swear, take drugs, have sex and drink? Or was it quite scary to write?
CR: Anyone who writes for teenagers knows that there is a kind of covert censorship about what one can and cannot write. Decisions have to be made, especially about sex, swearing, drugs and alcohol (violence seems to cause less offence) and this has NOTHING to do with how teenagers really behave, or their real lives. As I said in answer to Question 1, this book was going to be a departure. If I was going to do it, I was going to show things as they really are. Teenagers swear, have sex, get trashed. I did not feel in the mood to compromise.

SCC: “Gossip creates its own reality. I am a slag because everyone says I am,” says Caro. Do you think this is a modern effect of the celebrity magazine-fuelled world we live in, or has it always been like that? Do you think that gossip like this is another insidious form of bullying?
CR: The double standard that applies to young women’s sexual behaviour has always been there. It may have been exacerbated by modern celebrity magazine culture and the tabloids’ salacious hypocrisy but modern means of communication, texting, social networking, certainly spread the poison faster than whispers in the classroom. And, of course, it is a virulent and vicious form of bullying.

SCC: Your plot is all too scarily believable, but, of course, those exact right ingredients for your explosive mix would have to be in place for this to happen in real life, (which is hopefully unlikely). However, do you think that we, as a society, are in real danger of creating a situation like this, by making our young people powerless, disenfranchised and demotivated to engage with the world?
CR: When I first thought of the idea, Caro’s interest in radical politics was questioned, then students were on the streets of London demonstrating, with a fringe taking things to violent extremes, and it did not look quite so unlikely any more. Waves of this kind of political unrest go back through recent history (Caro’s heroes are the Baader Meinhof Red Army Faction) to the nineteenth century and earlier. Any society ignores this kind of dissatisfaction and unrest at its peril. Just look what is happening in Greece and Syria right now.

SCC: “Occult paraphernalia, leached of their power, become mere knick-knacks.” It’s strange to find tarot cards, runes and a planchette in a story of such practical gritty realism. While Caro seems to dismiss the power they once had over her, she still reaches for meaning within them. Have you ever succumbed to the lure of fortune tellers and futurecasters? Are you superstitious, and if not, why do you think that is?
CR: I just saw it as goth-emo a phase she went through, but being Caro, she went into it pretty thoroughly and some of it stuck. I have more than a passing acquaintance with the occult, having written books that dealt with the supernatural in its different manifestations, from my early Point Horror Unleashed and Hodder titles, to Witch Child and The Stone Testament, so it was easy to fold this in to the mix. It doesn’t mean I believe myself, but I will admit to a certain fascination with it. What interests me more is why people want to believe.

SCC: Caro’s imaginary ‘kill list’ in Rendez, and Rob’s similar one from the multistorey at the end bring the book full circle. Was that a deliberate linkage – another kind of mirroring?
CR: It wasn’t conscious, but then lots of things aren’t. You write something, then you notice a certain symmetry. It is as though some unconscious part of your mind is at work. I like it when this happens. It gives the work strength, a veracity that is greater than anything you planned.

SCC: I always worry about the music I mention in a book, fearing it will date it. Was that a concern for you, or did you want TINF to be marked as being of this particular time? Did you have a special playlist for the book, and if not, what did you listen to while writing it?

I think that the book can’t help but be placed in a particular time, because of the events that influence the action. I make compilations and playlists for all my books, whether its 18th century seafaring songs for Pirates!, folk ballads and The Beggars’ Opera for Sovay or Elizabethan songs for The Fool’s Girl. For This Is Not Forgiveness, I had a mix of music. Some tracks conjured mood and character; some provided music for the characters themselves to listen to; some did both. Some were my choices; others were suggested by young persons of my acquaintance. Judge for yourself, which are which.

Celia's Playlist (in no particular order):

Vaccines – Wreckin’ Bar; Post Break Up Sex

Cold War Kids – Sensitive Kid; Broken Open

Friendly Fires – True Love; Blue Cassette

Crystal Castles – Vanished

Arcade Fire – The Suburbs; We Used To Wait

Libertines – Don’t Look Back Into The Sun; Can’t Stand Me Now; Time For Heroes

The Smiths – There’s a Light That Never Goes Out; Please, Please, Please, Let Me Get What I Want

Stone Roses – Waterfall

Bob Dylan – Billy #4 - Soundtrack: Pat Garrett and Billy The Kid

Van Morrison – Cyprus Avenue; Madame George

Alison Krauss – The Scarlet Tide

The Cardigans – My Favourite Game

Mumford & Sons – Winter Winds; Little Lion Man

Sex Pistols - Anarchy In The U.K.

The Specials - Friday Night, Saturday Morning

The Undertones - Teenage Kicks

Noah And The Whale – 5 Years Time

Wheetus - Teenage Dirtbag

Depeche Mode – In Your Room

Brecht/Weill – Pirate Jenny – The Threepenny Opera

Kraftwerk

And…

The Boom Town Rats – I Don’t Like Mondays

This Is Not Forgiveness has its very own micro site:
http://www.urflixstar.com and an ‘official’ playlist at http://www.urflixstar.com/tinf-playlist
There is also a trailer, if any of your readers are wondering what on earth we are talking about: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vTD1w7nKYD0&feature=player_embedded

SCC: In 35 chapters you have only 8 chapter head quotes, ranging from Peter Sansom through Brecht and Weill’s Threepenny Opera to Emma Goldman. Are you a serendipitous finder of ‘the right quote at the right moment’, or is it something you research and think about very carefully?
CR: The book is written in Voice, from different points of view. Jamie tells the story, Rob makes podcasts (you can see an extract at: http://youtu.be/akiiy8io968 ) and Caro keeps a notebook. The quotations head up her chapters. I decided to do this because she seemed like the kind of girl who choose pretentious quotations and write them down in her notebooks as statements. I chose them carefully to give an insight into her thinking; the range and diversity of her interests; her depth and her shallowness. The Peter Sansom quotation is more serendipitous. I was at a poetry reading and he read his poem, My Brother’s Vespa. I liked it because my brother had a Vespa, and then I thought the last two lines would be perfect for This is Not Forgiveness. I asked him if I could use them and he said, ‘yes’.

SCC: Finally, if you had a wish for this book, what would it be?
CR: One always has hopes, but it would tempt fate to say what those hopes might be and, yes, I am superstitious!

SCC: Those were marvellous and enlightening answers, Celia. Thank you for being so honest, and for giving us all a peek inside your head. Honestly, Lovely Readers - go and buy this book now - today.  It's an absolute must-read winner, and I predict it'll be on every 2012 prize list!

Find out more about Celia here:
Celia Rees Website
Celia on Twitter
Celia Rees Official Facebook Fan Page

Captain Beastlie is Born

When you see the first pictures for one of your stories, it's always an amazing moment.  One minute you have words on a page, and the next, someone else has brought them to a life in full colour.  This is the moment, for me, that a book is really born. I've been itching to talk about Captain Beastlie for ages - he's been living in my head for years, every stinking, rotten, grubby inch of him.  I've no idea where he came from - probably the thwarted pirate inside me.  But of course, until he was properly announced by his lovely publisher, I couldn't.  Anyway, he's now up on the Nosy Crow website in all his full glory, as imagined by amazing artist Chris Mould, with whom it is a privilege to be working.  When I first saw his roughs last week, I did a small jig of joy.  Now I've seen the first colour picture, I'm even more cock-a-whoop.  Chris has imagined Captain B better than I ever could, and put in some extra specially revolting touches as well.  Even though this book isn't out till April 2013, I'm already mega-excited about it.  If you'd like to read more about my grimsome, gruesome pirate, the link is

HERE

    

Science Matters....

Today, I'm over at An Awfully Big Adventure (the writers' blog cooperative I belong to), talking about my newly fledged fascination with science (as well as my appalling ignorance of it), and how it all ties in with writing. A little soupCERN of Higgs-Boson, anyone?

READ THE POST HERE

Scribble City Central's Predictions for the Writing Year - 2012

Once again, Happy New Year to my Lovely Blog Readers.  As ever, I've been gazing into my crystal ball on your behalf to bring you my predictions for the coming year.  I did a pretty good job of it last year, though I say it myself.  If you're doubtful about my veracity, you can read what I forecast for 2011 HERE.

So what's new for 2012, apart from the UK Olympics, the inexorable rise of China, the continuing economic decline...and the coming of Doomsday with the end of the Mayan Long Calendar on 21st December? Well, here goes - this is what I think will happen in the next 12 months.

Writing and Politics

The Government doesn't like writers much. We're too fond of pointing out the uncomfortable truth to people like Ed Vaizey and Jeremy Hunt. PLR dropped last year, and the very efficient department administering it has become a victim of the cuts.  I predict a further drop and less efficiency. Despite brave and tenacious legal battles, libraries are dying like flies, and the situation continues to worsen for reading and readers everywhere, with both independents and chains feeling the chill winds of closure.  It's not going to get any better this year either - there'll be more shock shutdowns everywhere, and I'm certain that the demise of the euro (yes, I'm definitely predicting that) will affect us all.  However, if we get enough people on the streets on National Libraries Day on February 4th, maybe we can turn things round for the libraries at least. Put the date in your diary, please! (Unfortunately, I also predict that library campaigner Alan Gibbons will not be getting an OBE in 2012 - though he damn well should). School budgets are massively down too, so I'm certain that author visit bookings will become rarer than hens' teeth. I think that writers will have to become much more political this year. We can't just stand on the sidelines and watch - we have to shout even more loudly at the people who are depriving children of their reading potential. We must harness our anger and focus it effectively.

Writing and Social Media:

Facebook is on a downward trend in my opinion (too many changes), and Twitter will increasingly become the social media tool of choice for most writers - especially for YA authors, as more and more teens are joining up, and can be reached directly. But beware! It's not a direct selling tool for books. More authors will also join the Linked In bandwagon, though most will be bewildered by what it actually achieves for writers (not a lot, currently). YouTube will become bigger than ever, with a book trailer becoming the norm and not the exception (actually, that's already happened). As publishers' budgets are stripped still further, authors are once again going to have to cooperate in 'putting themselves out there' via social media in order to promote and sell books (even more so than previously). If you haven't yet built a social media presence, for goodness' sake do it now - the future of books is definitely on the internet, however much we all love the paper versions.  Writers themselves will become more powerful as a group - social media has proved revolutionary in this respect already - and we will all be grateful for the support of our peers in the difficult times ahead. This will possibly make publishers increasingly nervous! Writers and artists talking to one another? Whatever next?

Writing and Technology:

Last year I said that 'this will be the year when e-books rock the public perception of reading'. Er, was I right?  I think so! With Kindle sales through the roof, and e-books overtaking print books by a considerable margin, technology is careering ahead, sometimes leaving publishers behind and floundering in the tailwind of its rise. Many more already established authors will learn to 'Kindle' their books this year - some self-publishing out of frustration and some providing 'add-ons' to existing traditionally published work in the form of stories or novellas.  The buzzwords for 2012 will be 'added content'.  Despite the many 'blog tours' out there for book promotion, I'm predicting a backlash against them from unpaid book bloggers fed up with the inexorable timetable, which requires them to read and comment on books at a frantic rate. Authors will increasingly become available for Skype school visits, which will open up a global audience for their work, thus making it even more important to have work available in e-formats. The good news is that teens (GenY) are reading on their smartphones. The technology for moving picture books to e-books will race ahead still further, becoming cheaper and easier to programme, and small children will be able to interact with their favourite characters as a matter of course via apps, and busy parents will turn to iPads and tablets even more as readers of bedtime stories.  Pirating is already a real problem for authors, and that's only going to get worse.  Copyright theft should be addressed urgently this year, but effective measures are unlikely to come quickly. I also predict more approaches from foreign e-packagers (Korea, China, the USA) looking for material for those of us who have out-of-print picture books lying about doing nothing.

Writing and Publisher Deals:

Oh dear!  I don't want to be the Prophet of Doom here...but it's not going to be easy to get a contract for anyone.  Advances, as I predicted for 2011, are down hugely, and the art of the good synopsis will be increasingly essential.  It will be very unlikely that first (or even third) time authors will get a deal for anything less than a full manuscript, which means time and energy spent with no assurance of a positive outcome.  Paranormal will still be hot in YA, but it'll have to have a very different spin to get published at all.  History is going to be hard to sell for all but a few, and dystopia is still there, but again, it will have to have real quality to be bought.  Frankfurt was good in 2011, and I'm predicting a frantic selling Bologna for those lucky ones with a deal.  London Book Fair too will be busy, and it is shaping up to be much more 'author friendly' for children's writers especially this year, with lots of interesting seminars going on.  It's not all bad news for writers, though, with new independent publishers like Nosy Crow and Hot Key Books popping up and commissioning.  There are also more competitions out there for new and unpublished writers, which can be a route to publication.  I'd say don't despair, but be realistic this year. Don't give up - it is going to get better eventually (though I won't say soon), and the Americans are buying again at last. That has to be good news!

Writing and...me:

Quite honestly, though I wasn't saying so, I was bricking it this time last year.  I had no contracts in view, and the view wasn't all that rosy.  However, my 2011 was better than I could ever have dreamed.  I've got back into the picture book market with two new books coming from Nosy Crow and Bloomsbury in 2013, about which I'm delighted, and Lovely Agent has sold a middle-grade mythological series of novels to the USA, also for 2013.  So it was a good year - and I've finished my YA novel, about which I hope to have good news soon.  So although 2012 brings no publication dates, I have some deadlines to stick to (three contracted books to write), more picture books to come up with, and a lot of fingers in bookish pies (about which more in due course).  I'm also taking part in the brand new Chipping Norton Literary Festival, planning for the second ABBAlitfest, doing a few school visits and, most exciting of all, going to Bologna Book Fair for the first time ever in March.  It's going to be an amazing year of writing for me, and I'll be keeping you all posted either here or on Twitter about any developments. 

Once again thanks for sticking with me, Lovely Blog Readers - I am so grateful to you all for your comments and participation here, and I promise there'll be a Big Blog Announcement about a brand new series of author interviews on Scribble City Central very soon. Watch this space - I'm plotting and planning for your delight even as I write this.  Do tell me your own writing predictions, hopes and dreams for 2012 - I'd love to hear from you. 

New Look 2012 Scribble City Central goes Live!

I am excited to announce that the redesign of Scribble City Central is now complete, thanks to the amazing Lori Lawson of Imagination Blog Designs. Do let me know what you think of it!

In other news, there'll be plenty of fabulously fantastical writing-related stuff coming up in 2012, including a brand new series of author interviews, so watch this space.

Happy New Year to you all, and I look forward to seeing you back here soon!

Scribble City Central's Best Books of 2011

Best Books of 2011? How on earth to choose?  I've read so many wonderful books this year - 2011 has been a veritable treasure-house of offerings.  There have been new novels from authors who are already favourites of mine, and I've also had the exciting adventure of reading great debuts from new writers who I know will be favourites of the future. The books I've chosen here are ones which have stuck in my memory for one reason or another - and from me that is the ultimate compliment.  I read very very fast indeed, and don't tend to retain much.  If I did, my brain would overload and explode.  I make no apologies for the fantasy-heavy bias - that's what I enjoy most, and this list is about what has given me most pleasure.  So, without further ado, and in no particular order (except alphabetically by author), here are my choices for 2011....

Cold Magic (Spiritwalker 1) by Kate Elliott
This is the first in a new adult fantasy series from an American writer I've rated highly for a long time.  I've enjoyed watching her style develop and mature with each series she writes, and I particularly liked this book because, while the quasi-Victorian/Industrial Revolution world she has created is still rich and full of colour and imagination, I felt that this time she reined back on the tendency to overcomplicate her plots, which sometimes make her earlier books harder work than they need to be.  I'm always a fan of strong, rebellious female characters (being a rebel myself), and Cat Barahal spoke to me very strongly indeed.  Kate Elliott mixes together the Wild Hunt, ruthless mages, dragons, and a new kind of magic in a brew which I'm eager to taste further.  The second book, Cold Fire is out now, and I'm off to indulge my Kindle habit!

The Scottish Prisoner (A Lord John Grey Novel) by Diana Gabaldon
Diana Gabaldon's Jacobite hero, Jamie Fraser has been my guilty pleasure for many years. This is not one of the 'main' novels about him, but rather covers the years when he is employed as a groom in the Lake District after he is released from prison.  I'm not, in general, such a fan of the spin-off series about Lord John Grey, but the moment I heard that Jamie featured largely in this one, I knew I would be hooked, and how right I was. You know how satisfying it is when an author fills in backstory details about one of your favourite characters? Well, that.  The writing here is as good as the early books, and I'd recommend it as a morsel to satisfy those of us who are waiting hungrily for Diana to give us the big finish of Jamie's series sometime in the distant future! If you haven't yet encountered the Outlander books, then do read the first two at least before you delve into this one.  I promise you're in for a treat. Go and buy them immediately (but only if you like historical romance with a bit of time-travel thrown in, and a seriously adult hot hunk of kilted wonderfulness).  Told you it was a guilty pleasure!

David by Mary Hoffman
Why this wonderfully imagined tale of the boy who was Michelangelo's model for the eponymous statue has not been on every prize list this year, I cannot fathom. 2011 Book Prize judges, are you listening?  You are clearly barking not to have included it.  Not only does Mary write quite beautifully and tell a gripping tale but by golly she knows her Italy and her history. When she was a guest on SCC earlier in the year, this is what I said:

After reading Mary's marvellous book, [David] exists inside my head, 3D still, but reincarnated as a living, breathing, gloriously beddable Renaissance boy called Gabriele. To be honest with you, dear readers, I could go on about this book for hours. Not only is it a marvellously plotted story, taking known historical facts and interweaving them with nuggets of possibility into a seamless whole, but it also rekindled my long-buried interest in art history. It made me look at Michelangelo's sculpture in a whole new light, made me, as a writer, think as well about the hidden things behind all art--the myriad histories lost in time and waiting for a teller to give them life.

I haven't changed my mind.  Read it.  You won't be disappointed.

Graveminder by Melissa Marr
I suppose you could call this a zombie novel, which is why it is all the more extraordinary that I am including it in this list. Anybody who knows me even slightly will be aware that I loathe zombies like the plague.  But what Marr has done with this novel is a laudable feat of re-imagining the genre, and I salute her for it (whilst still shuddering gently).  Rebekkah Barrow is the reluctant inheritor of her grandmother Maylene's post as Graveminder to the small town of Claysville, where the dead are walking, unquiet and needing to be laid to rest.  This is a new departure for Marr, best known for her Wicked Lovely faery series, and I will be fascinated to see where she takes Rebekkah's story next.

The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller 
SCC's BOOK OF THE YEAR
You knew there'd be at least one Greek myth-based novel in here, didn't you? This is one of the best retellings I've read in years (if not ever), and that's why I'm making it my Book of the Year. For a debut novel, it's extraordinary - and I think we may have a new Mary Renault on our hands here.  Yes, she's really that good. Miller has brought alive the old story of Achilles and Patroclus (the book is told from Patroclus's point of view),  and given it a fresh and interesting angle.  She clearly knows her Homer and associated sources, but what I really appreciated was the deft, spare beauty of the writing itself.  I hope Bloomsbury know what a treasure they've got here, and I'm hoping this one will win prizes in 2012.  It surely deserves to.  If you only buy a single book on this list, make it this one. 

How to Be A Woman by Caitlin Moran
The only autobiographical entry in my list, and definitely my favourite non-fiction read of the year.  I came across this on Twitter early on in its life, thought I'd give it a go, and laughed my socks off.  If there's a bible for the New Feminism, then this is it. Also, I'm entirely with Moran in the matter of the awfulness of high heels.  This is definitely my most-given-away book of 2011 (to date I've bought 18 copies*), and Lovely Daughter and friends are all talking about it as well - it's definitely polarised opinion among the teens in my life. This is one I shall return to many times.  (*Caitlin - where's my commission?!)

The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern
Without doubt, this one gets the SCC prize for Most Beautiful Book of 2011, with its sumptuous design and black-edged pages.  It's also a damn good read, and a book I just can't stop thinking about. Surreal scenes from the circus of its title flash across my brain like jewelled hummingbirds, exploding into sparks and snowflakes.  It is unique, original fantasy storytelling at its best, and if Erin Morgenstern can come up with a second novel with as much wow factor as this one has, I shall be positively jealous of her talent!  Fantastical stuff, quite literally.

The Opposite of Amber by Gillian Philip
I've been spoilt for choice by Gillian in 2011, what with this one, and also the second in her marvellous Rebel Angels series, Bloodstone, featuring the fascinating faery brothers Seth and Conal MacGregor, who I've talked about lovingly elsewhere in these pages. However, in this book, Gillian has tackled a difficult subject (teenage prostitution) with great sensitivity.  I already knew she was a great writer.  I know it more now, and The Opposite of Amber had me so gripped from start to finish that I am surprised my fingernails survived the tension.  Here's what I wrote about it in my original review:

This is a brave, wonderful novel which should not just be read by teenagers. It should be read by everyone who cares about making sure that the many real-life girls like Jinn who find themselves in situations similar to this can get help and support and above all knowledge that they absolutely can have other choices in their lives. Buy it for yourself, buy it for others. A real 5* book.

Once again, I haven't changed my mind, and that's why it's here.

The Wise Man's Fear (Kingkiller Chronicle 2) by Patrick Rothfuss
I'd put Patrick Rothfuss in the Robert Jordan, George RR Martin, Melanie Rawn school of epic fantasy.  If the first book in this series (The Name of the Wind) was good, then the second is even better.  The canvas is broad, the imagination on a similar scale, and I particularly like the central framework of Kvothe's inn as the pivot around which the whole story revolves.  There's a sort of zen-like quality to him which reminds me of 'Young Grasshopper's' teachers, Master Po and Master Kan in the Kung Fu movies.  Rothfuss is just a damn good storyteller - the only complaint I have is that I want to read on, and I can't, because the next book won't be out for aeons.  However, as a fellow writer, I understand that it takes time for fantasy worlds to brew and come to the boil, so I forgive him.  If you are a patient sort, do try him out - I think this series will be seen as a classic in years to come.

The Scorpio Races by Maggie Stiefvater
This is one of the most recently published on this list, but I know I'll remember it for a long time. I liked Stiefvater's debut series about shapechanging wolves, but this one is in a league of its own (and is, I think, a standalone book).  Kelpies have always fascinated me, and I'm clearly not alone. The particular kelpies in this YA novel are fierce, bloodthirsty - and they sometimes demand the ultimate price from those human jockeys who dare to take part in the Scorpio Races on the shore between land and sea.  Stiefvater's love for and knowledge of horses shines through, and that, together with a bad boy hero and feisty heroine makes for a page-turning read.  I could almost smell the salt and feel the wind on top of the cliffs, and the whole thing has the feel of the wild Western Isles of Scotland. It's nice when an author rings the changes so successfully and doesn't just write the same old same old.  I was really impressed with this one.

Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor
Much has been written about this book, and much praise heaped upon it.  Deservedly so, in my opinion, and also in that of Lovely Daughter, who was up all night finishing it (a rare accolade for her). Once again, it is the richness of Taylor's language which impresses, as well as a superbly imagined story. The way she uses words make me feel as if I've eaten a medieval banquet in a sumptuous room hung with brightly woven tapestries - kind of full and satisfied in both body and spirit.  I had the same sense when I read her 2009 novel for younger readers, Blackbringer, so it's definitely a hallmark of her writing. This one just missed out on being SCC's Best Book of 2011, but only by a whisker.  I think Taylor has a rare talent, and I look forward to more banquets of words from her in the years to come.

That's my Eleven for 2011 - I hope some of them will entice you to read them .  A very Happy New Year and very best wishes to all my Dear Readers when 2012 makes its appearance on Sunday, and thank you all for sticking with me this year. Scribble City Central is in the process of having a blog facelift, so watch out for an exciting new look in January!