Meet Jessica McHugh. Creator of “sometimes disgusting characters”, author of bizarro sci-fi novels, erotic thrillers, and now: young adult, coming-of-age, Judy-Blume-eat-your-heart-out drama. She’s young, fresh, comfortable with vulgarity and fiercely intelligent. With fourteen of her novels published in the last six years, just waxing a bunch of clichés about her prowess and early success would…
Today, the Book Bird has a real treat, if you like to see into a writer’s mind. Angela Hartley, author of Copper Descent, has agreed to guest post for us all the way from Utah, and here she discusses how much is enough for your audience (wink wink). Angela’s debut novel is available on Amazon…
Monique Snyman, temptress author of the Charming Incantations series, explains the background of why she likes to write YA fiction with clear links to popular (and less well known) mythology. Defining Mythology: Mythology, often referring to any traditional story, is a pivotal part of human development. It gives us a little bit of culture here…
Darla Decker Hates to Wait by Jessica McHugh is an energetic leap through the hilarious misdeeds of an almost-sexually-aware 11-year-old, Darla In essence: Darla Decker Hates to Wait Darla Decker is a feisty sixth-grader with a wicked streak and frequent doses of good and bad luck. Her many crushes turn into dates and boyfriends with…
Max Booth III’s book, Toxicity contains a hallucinated fly that behaves like God, well-punctuated violence, and a delicate portrayal of a young abused woman. There are also rich seams of humour, often conveyed by acidic observational wit liberally applied by the author. His bittersweet gaze strips down the characters to their lowest common denominator –…
Toxicity by Max Booth III is a driven black comedy about the perils of drugs and lottery wins, with some sex and murder and … FLIES, DAMN FLIES thrown in for good measure. Click the picture to get the book from Amazon US. In essence: Toxicity Toxicity is a dog with at least three tails.…
It may not strictly count as a book, but I’d buy annuals of West of Bathurst by Kari Maaren. Image reproduced by kind permission © Kari Maaren. In essence: West of Bathurst West of Bathurst is a comic strip that ran from July 2006 until February 2014 with the tale of Marie Dumont and her years…
Any aspiring journalist wondering leaving school this year could look at Christian Saunders and think ‘yeah, that’s where I want to be in ten years time’, and there wouldn’t be any shame in that. Writing regularly for Nuts Magazine, as well as a few other notable publications, working for himself, and successfully living in London…
If you’re a writer, the chances are that you spend a lot of time on your own. Forcing yourself to shout how great your book is in groups of people you don’t know that well can be fraught with danger and self-doubt. Novel publicity may not be fun. If you also don’t know what you’re…
Little Visible Delight is an intricate, gloomy set of stories exploring obsession. In essence: Little Visible Delight Well-thought-out dark tales abound in this anthology from the small and obsessively good publisher Omnium Gatherum. Creepy, dark, and several with unforgettable characters and stories, there may be something for everyone in Little Visible Delight. The brief described…
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