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lisa williamson

Booktube

VIDEO: How To Be a Writer with Katy Cannon and Lisa Williamson | #UKYAHomeBook

Posted on 24 July, 2016

I was very lucky to get to visit CPI Books earlier this week to see how books are made! I went with Stripes Publishing and we watched I’ll Be Home for Christmas get turned into a real book which was extremely cool. I’ll have a blog post and video up very soon all about this!

Katy Cannon and Lisa Williamson were there, two of the authors contributing to I’ll Be Home for Christmas, so I got to talk to them all about writing – their writing process, funny habits they have and their advice for new writers. You can watch the video below!

For those of you not watching the video online, you can click here to take you to YouTube where you can watch it.

I started reading I’ll Be Home for Christmas as soon as I got home and I’m loving it a lot; it’s great to have so many stand-out UK authors contributing to it because we have needed a UK anthology for a long time, as we talk about in the video. I’ll have a review up of it closer to publication date, which is in September!

The UK’s top Young Adult authors join together in this collection of new stories and poems on the theme of home. Contributors include: Tom Becker, Holly Bourne, Sita Brahmachari, Kevin Brooks, Melvin Burgess, Katy Cannon, Cat Clarke, Juno Dawson, Julie Mayhew, Non Pratt, Marcus Sedgwick, Lisa Williamson and Benjamin Zephaniah. £1 from the sale of every book will be donated to Crisis, the national homelessness charity.

I’ll Be Home for Christmas comes out on 23rd September and you can see Katy and Lisa at YALC next weekend – the 29th and 30th July, plus you can visit Stripes’ Christmas in July stand on Saturday 30th.

Did anything surprise you about Katy and Lisa’s writing routines, or do you have any similar habits? Share the bookish love in the comments!

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Discussion

The White Horse Bookshop, Marlborough | Bookshop Tour + Book Haul

Posted on 20 January, 2016

At the weekend, I visited The White Horse Bookshop, an independent bookshop in Malborough, Wiltshire. It was the second time I’ve visited the shop and each time is just as lovely as the other – it’s such a friendly and welcoming shop.

I love exploring bookshops because each one is unique and after my time working in one during the summer, I have a greater appreciation for them. There’s nothing better than wandering into a bookshop and getting lost in the bookish atmosphere – the smell of books new and old, the feeling of eyes flicking back and forth between words on the page, and that innate sense of coming home.

The YA section in the bookshop contains a table full of wonderful new titles and I was especially pleased to spot Never Evers by Tom Ellen and Lucy Ivison and Deep Water by Lu Hersey. Plus, the paperback edition of The Art of Being Normal (more on that in a bit!).

It would be possible to browse the different sections of the shop for hours if I had the time and there are literally tens of thousands of books contained within the two floors. It’s a book lover’s heaven!

In the end, I decided to buy two books – The Art of Being Normal by Lisa Williamson and an illustrated version of Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen and Alice Pattullo.

I was extremely pleased to find out the other day that I was quoted in the new paperback of The Art of Being Normal, especially as I loved it so much when I read it at the end of 2014. I, of course, had to buy a copy after discovering that and I’d definitely recommending picking your own copy up if you haven’t read it yet because the book truly is brilliant.

I first heard about the illustrated Pride and Prejudice in Zoë’s video and thought it looked amazing – I love Pride and Prejudice so much so an illustrated version is perfection to me! It’s always nice to see classics books reimagined in different ways.

After watching (and loving!) Zoe’s video, I knew that as soon as I found a copy I would buy it, but it turned out that there either weren’t any copies in the shops I was looking in, or I wasn’t looking hard enough. But, by chance, I finally found a copy and I am IN LOVE! I can just picture myself reading this to my kids in years to come.

Which bookshops have you loved visiting recently?

REVIEW: The Art of Being Normal by Lisa Williamson

Posted on 12 January, 2015

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The buzz around the release of The Art of Being Normal has been crazy! So many of my trusted friends and fellow reviewers have loved it so the pressure was on when I chose to read it myself.

Williamson has created a novel I wish had been written years ago. It’s incredibly brave – I don’t think there’s anything too similar to it published at the moment – and it stands out because of its themes and content. However, I’m sad because I wish there were more books just like The Art of Being Normal. I’m going to make it my mission to seek them out! I hope it leads the way to similar books being published.

David has one wish: he wants to be a girl. It’s something that only his two best friends know. As he starts a new school year, Leo Denton starts in year eleven, a boy shrouded in mystery. He is determined to be invisible. The school year plays out and the two boys find out that things at Eden Park School don’t stay secret for long.

I really loved both protagonists and especially how distinguishable they were. Each stood out on their own but also interacted well together, which is what I love in a multiple perspective novel.

David was such a loveable character. Being the same age, I thought I could relate to him a lot and really sympathise with his situation. I wish he were my friend!

Leo’s character development was amazing to read. It was almost as if it was unfolding in real time and I loved seeing him grow and change. Authors take note – this was a perfect character arc!

Please, please, please read The Art of Being Normal! I want to scream from the rooftops about it, and I know I’m not the only one!