Mysteries!

I love mysteries. Real life mysteries let you use your imagination to create solutions for yourself. The Princes in the Tower? What really might have happened to them? Did Princess Anastasia really survive?Was there someone on that grassy knoll when JF Kennedy was shot? and because I love mysteries I sometimes leave unsolved myteries in my books. I'm always receiving e mails and letters asking me about them.
Right from the very first book, Run Zan Run, I left an unanswered question. You never learn Zan's real name, and even if I knew it I still wouldn't tell. Because I want to give readers the chance to come up with their own answers, their own stories. In Missing, who was the boy buried instead of Derek? He must have had a story to tell too.  I'm always being asked what happened to Stash, the boy who died mysteriously in Tribes. Well, I know and I don't think it is what anyone would suspect. Maybe one day I will tell, but not yet. In Underworld, is Angie an angel? Did she die and come back to help her friends, or was she ever really alive in the first place? These are the questions I am constantly being asked. But leaving a question unanswered lets you make up your own story about these characters. Unanswered questions abound in the Nemesis series, most notable being...what is Ram's real name. We never find out, because by the end, Ram feels unworthy to use it. He feels he has to earn the right to take back his name again. You think I'm finished with Ram? Think again. I have lots of adventures in my head about this boy.
     But perhaps the top mysteries I am asked about are from two of my most popular books. Roxy's Baby and Another Me.
    What happened to Anne Marie in Roxy's Baby? Roxy doesn't find out, and neither does the reader. I know the answer to that, but I can't tell, not yet. But I know from e mails and letters that so many readers have come up with their own answers.
    And which one survives in Another Me? Fay, or her fetch? Well, the clues ar there in the book for you to see, but I deliberately left it open, once again, so the reader can make up their own mind, come up with their own answers. In the short story I wrote from which the book grew I was more definite about which one survived, and if you go to see the film, Panda Eyes, adapted from Another me, you'll see an answer too. I'm still not going to tell you what that answer is!  Want you to go and see the film, don't I!
  There is an unanswered mystery in my latest book, Mosi's War, too. We find out one of Mosi's secrets, but he has another. I don't reveal it in the book, but the clues are there for the reader to find.
    Here's a mystery I heard of on the radio just last week. The key codebreaker at Bletchley Park, was worried that if Hitler invaded, the banks would not be safe. He'd lose all his money. So he put it all into silver bullion, and he took it and buried in the forest around Bletchley Park. He marked the spot, kept a map, but by the end of the war...he couldn't find it. Key codebreaker ! And he couldn't read his map or find his treasure. It's still there, all that silver bullion. But for how long....?
   Mysteries! I love 'em.

The Cathy MacPhail Club!

June already! and all my plans for more regular blogs out of the window! Everyone seems to be writing blogs, much more interesting than anything I can come up with. And between writing, and visiting schools, and answering e mails and fan mail, and posting on Twitter and Facebook, I never seem t have any time. I salute all of those who manage it so well. But I had to blog now. I love receiving fan letters and I answer every one, so if anyone has written to me and hasn't yet received a reply, you will get one. Promise!  But just recently after one of my school visits, some fans, Jay and Sandra and Tegan decided to set up The Cathy MacPhail Club. How fantastic is that. They have regular meetings and lists of books they plan to read, and one of their first events is a quiz, for which I supplied the questions and the prize: a signed copy of one of my books. It's things like this that make you realise just how much you love being a writer. Letters or e mails telling you how much a book has meant to someone, or how much they have enjoyed it, or saying, ( and this has got to be the best) how much you  have inspired them. So keep them coming. I love getting them.
    And of course Mosi's War is out now. On Monday we had a wonderful launch at the Mitchell Theatre in Glasgow. Over 400 pupils came, and because of the Glasgow vampire story contained within the book, I included loads of urban legends in my talk, and it occurred to me for the first time how often I have used urban legends in my other books.  The alligators in the New York sewers, ( have you heard that one?)flushed down toilets when they were just babies, and because they were never exposed to light, they're white.White alligators! Can you imagine coming across one of them in the sewers? Well, read Sinister Intent, and you will see how I used that urban myth in that book. And of course, doppelgangers, doubles, fetches. I love and yet fear those kind of myths, and used that fear in my book Another Me. Soon, can't wait, coming to a cinema near you. ( Using its doppelganger name, Panda Eyes!)  Do you know any urban myths? If you do, send them to me, I'm collecting them. Who knows, they all just might turn up in yet another book!

Mosi and the Grampian Book Award

I am so bad at posting blogs! I always mean to do it more regularly, then I get caught up with other things, and before I know it, a month has passed. But May is going to be such a big month, and indeed, this is going to be such a big week I had to write here today.
    On Tuesday I head off for Aberdeen, and the Grampian Book Awards. I am so looking forward to it. Out of the Depths has been shortlisted for this wonderful award. But I am up against so many other fabulous books and authors I'll try not to be disappoointed if I don't win...who am I kidding. Of course I'll be disappointed. I'd love to win, even though I have already won twice before. I have two Grampian Quaichs taking pride of place in my cabinet. Keeping my fingers crossed I might add a third. ( You can always hope, can't you?) Here's what I'm up against.
   15 Days without a Head, by Dave Cousins
   The 13th Horseman, by Barry Hutchison
    Socks are Not Enough, by Mark Lowry
    A Monster Calls, by Patrick Ness
    My Sister Lives on the Mantlepiece by Annabel Pitcher
You can see why I'm worried, can't you?
   Never mind, win or not, it is going to be a terrific day!
  After the awards I am heading even further up north to Buckie for school sessions on the 9th May. I love going to Buckie, my day is always organised perfectly. There are always enthusiastic pupils, and teachers. And what can I say about the wonderul librarians who invite me there. I will be there on Sara Marsh's final day. Sara is one of the most inspiring librarians I have ever met, and she and I go back a long way. Fabulous librarian, lovely person. It has been a pleasure spending time with her over the years. And it just happens that 9th May is the publication day for Mosi's War, and we intend to make it a special launch day in Buckie! I will definitely keep you posted about that! ( I promise to do better!)
   I am very excited about Mosi's War coming out. I loved writing this book, the characters came to life as I wrote about them, Patrick and Mosi practically wrote the book themselves! So every day, till publication day I am posting a little extract of the book on Twitter and Facebook.  So, really I should post a little extract here too.
     ' It was in the afternoon that the whispered rumours started flying around the school. One wilder than the next.
      It began with a body found in the cemetery.
      But the story blazed out of control.
      Cut into little pieces.
      Blood everywhere.
      Beyond recognition.
      The police were back on the estate in force. Sitting in the classroom, everyone could hear the sirens.
      A body found.
      Let it be Papa Blood, Mosi thought. Then he could live without fear of ever seeing him again.
      But that wasn't the whispered rumour that raced round the school and was sent on text messages from one school to another. For them, there was a growing, excited suspicion.
     The vampire had struck again.
Mosi's War.

The Scottish Children's Book Award

Well, the Scottish Children's Book Award winners have been announced at a wonderful ceremony in Dundee's Caird Hall. It is such a wonderful book award to be involved in and just gets better every year. This year over 32,000 children all over Scotland took part and voted, and on the day almost 1,000 children attended the ceremony. Pupils who had travelled from the furthest corners of  Scotland just to be there. The whole thing was also watched live on Glow  in schools all over the country. The Scottish Book Trust have to be congratulated for organising such a massive event, and doing it so well.
     I had a great time, from the moment my son dropped me off and I popped into the Pancake Place for hot pancakes and coffee. Then I made my way past the wonderful statue of Desperate Dan to the Caird Hall. What a venue! The place was buzzing with excitement from the beginning and myself, Jonathan Meres, James Kilmore, all shortlisted for the 8/11 category were taken into the main hall to go through what was going to happen that day. Pupils from St. Joseph's Primary, Bonnybridge, and St. Mungo's Falkirk were rehearsing the dramatisations they had prepared, with the help of a fantastic drama teacher, Lesley Russell, for each of our books. So, of course, we couldn't resist a sneak preview. " We're doing a musical for yours," I was told. A musical! For a creepy ghost story like Out of the Depths!  I hadn't a clue how they were going to manage that. But by goodness, I was amazed at the fabulous song Lesley had written, and the way they had put the whole thing together. ' Tyler, help me' is still running through my head, and Lesley and I have decided that we are going to make, "Tyler, the Musical". They had gone right to the heart of my story, and they sent shivers up many a spine in the audience when they finally performed it that afternoon. I know Jonathan and James were equally impressed with theirs, based on The World of Norm and Soldier's Game...but they didn't have a song!!! The excitement grew as the pupils arrived, filling up the hall, being entertained by the terrific host,Chae Strathie, who even managed to get Elizabeth Laird, Elizabeth Wein, and Barry Hutchison doing a gangnam style dance. Barry Hutchison doesn't surprise me, he's up for anything. ( He even changed his name to Elizabeth on the day so it would be a one name line up!) but Elizabeth Laird and Elizabeth Wein...they did a fabulous job of it, and the pupils loved it. For the Bookbug section, Julia Donaldson and her lovely husband Malcolm performed their song from Jack and the Flum,Flum Tree, Catherine Raynor read her enchanting story about Solomon Crocodile and John Fardell had children create their own story while he illustrated it on stage! What a fabulous day. 
    In the end, Out of the Depths didn't win. But I signed loads of books, and met lots of fans, and that's what it is all about really.
    But to be honest... I wuz robbed!

My Day on Set!

I've had to keep so much to myself about Panda Eyes, because of the embargo on any news coming out of the set. But the embargo has been lifted, and now I can tell everyone about the wonderful day I had on the Cardiff set of the film. You know, everyone told me that when your book is picked up for film, you can say goodbye to it. Take the money and run, they said. That's not been my experience. From the very beginning, I was kept in the loop, and I have to say for a long time it seemed it was not going anywhere. Then just three years ago, two producers, Rebekah Gilbertson and Nicole Carmen Davies were given the book and loved it. They passed it on to a fabulous Spanish director, Isobel Coixet, who read the book on her way back to Spain, and she loved it too. They had always wanted to work together and this was to be there project. My book! And since then it has been like a snowball gathering speed.
      The cameras started rolling in late November and I was invited down to see the first weekend's filming. The first scene I watched was in the school library, when Fay,played by the beautiful Sophie Turner,  walks in and the librarian is puzzled to see her, sure she has only just left. The beginning of Fay's haunting, just the way I had written it in the book. I watched that scene being filmed from one direction after another while Isobel, who not only wrote the screenplay but directs the film as well, carries the camera on a special hook strapped to her back, or is wheeled round on a 'rickshaw'. The actresses repeated their lines over and over and I was amazed that each time seemed as fresh as the last.
   Isobel even called the librarian, Mrs. MacPHail, my little Alfred Hitchock moment!
   I was really keen to meet Jonathan Rhys Meyers who plays the drama teacher in the film. 'He's very intense' I was told. So I was a bit apprehensive to meet him. The scene they were filming with him was another straight from my book. He is giving out the parts for the school play, MacBeth. The young actors and the extras sat in a circle in the school auditorium waiting for the star to arrive. In he came, and I have got to admit even in real life, he is drop dead gorgeous. But better than that...he's really nice! He stepped into the circle, and shook hands with every young person there. Making them all feel at ease. He did so much adlibbing, and after each take he would ask Isobel if the scene had worked for her. What a star. But among the adlibbing he kept to the script as written, and finally when there was a break, he came across to where I sat. ' I'm Cathy,' I said as he shook my hand. Then as he turned away someone told him that I was the one who wrote the book. He swung back. 'Wow! we'll have to talk later, get a photograph...maybe even a smooch.' 
     Well, I would have been up for any of them! And he was true to his word, he didn't forget. Near the end of the day's filming, he called across to where I sat. I looked behind me to see who he was waving at, and it was me! ' Come on, get a photo!' He even insisted I get a photo sitting with the cast, holding the clapper board that proclaims. PANDA EYES.  TAKE 1
  But though Jonathan's fans love hearing about him, it's Gregg Sulkin who impresses the younger ones. He's the werewolf in Wizards of Waverley Place and a gorgeous young man too. I had lunch with him, sitting in a damp cabin eating stew! It was great.
     I was amazed that the filming went so smoothly, but I was told that Isobel had insisted, that since  there had been so many times they thought the film would not be made at all, then the shoot itself was going to be fun. It was certainly fun for me.
   'You've all made me feel as if I am so special,' I told Nicole and Rebekah, and they said the most wonderful thing for a writer to hear.
    ' If it wasn't for you, none of the actors would be here, the crew, the director, everything stems from you. You are the seed, Cathy. If you hadn't written your wonderful book, none of this would be happening!'
  I'm going to dine out on that for years!
  I haven't told you half of what happened that day, meeting the wonderful cinematographer, Jean Claude, seeing the rushes from the previous day,  watching a creepy moment from my book come alive on the screen.  But more blogs will come. I will keep you posted.
     Oh, and I did get my kiss too!

The Next Big Thing

The Next Big Thing

It seems I've been tagged, and quite happy with it!  So here I am ready to tell you about my next book, out in May of 2013.  Mosi's War.
      I got the idea for Mosi's War watching a programme about boy soldiers. Young boys, only children, forced to do the most unspeakable things. I thought of my own children, my grandchildren, my grandson, Robert just 9, the same age as some of the boys dragged off to distant wars they didn't even understand. And the idea began to grow. I suppose that's what inspired me to write the book in the first place. I hate the thought of children having their childhood taken away from them.  It's a typical Cathy MacPhail book, I think, a gritty realistic thriller, set in Glasgow. It's about two boys, Mosi and Patrick, who are caught up in an horrific set of events.  If I was to describe Mosi's War in one sentence it would be this.
 'Real life is a lot scarier than anything you could make up.'
  I know there are other books about boy soldiers, wonderful books, but I tried to avoid reading them. It was mostly non fiction books I read, true stories that would make your blood run cold.
  And what else in the book might pique my readers' interest? Well, there's a vampire in it too!
  Of course I would love Mosi's War to be snapped up as a film, but I can't be greedy. I already have a book being made into a film this very year!Another Me now to be known as Panda Eyes! Don't ask me why. Do I care? no! It's going to be a film! One of my books is going to be a film! 
     Filming begins on the 25th of this month, November. I am so excited about it. I have wonderful producers, a fantastic director, Isobel Coixet, who have all been responsible for some award winning and prestigious films. There is a stunning cast too. The drop dead gorgeous, Jonathan Rhys Meyers,( he was HenryV111, in the Tudors), Rhys Ifans ( Notting Hill, Spiderman). Sophie Turner, ( Game of Thrones) will be playing Fay, and though I haven't met her yet, just seeing her photo I think she will be a perfect Fay. I've read the script which is seriously spooky, and yet sticks close to my book. My dialogue, my scenes, my story. It is going to be wonderful to see such fine actors speaking my words on the big screen. Panda Eyes will be released I believe sometime in 2013. I'm looking out for the posh frock already!
  So I have so much to look forward to. My lovely wee Mosi's War out in May, and the film out next year too.
 
   I am meant to tag other authors, but it seems all the authors I was going to tag have already been included. But what about Helen Fitzgerald? I met her at Bloody Scotland, she's multi talented, and writes in so many different genres. I'd love to hear from her.

On writing a synopsis

Am I the only writer who enjoys writing a synopsis? I have always found it helps my creativity, keeps me motivated and focussed . It's how all of my books begin.
I'll tell you how I began writing them. When I was writing situation comedy for radio, and television I learned a lot. I listened to and I watched other comedies, and I read books about writing for both radio and television. When you have to tell your story in 27 minutes or less, then you can't waste a moment, and have to have a plan before you begin. A synopsis in fact.  You work on the story first. Then divide it into scenes. Each scene should move the story along and end on a mini cliffhanger so the listener/viewer will want to stay switched on to find out what happens next. Hook them with a great beginning, and build to the funniest climax/line you can come up with.
    So when I was writing my first children's book, Run Zan Run, I simply used the same principle.
  You think that sounds too formualaic?
  Well, do you think  the Pope  gave Michael Angelo  a set of step ladders and a pot of paint and said.  'Away up there and paint something, son.'  And then Michael Angelo goes up with his brush, finishes his painting and realises there's no room for one of the legs? No. He made a plan. He knew the exact size of the area he had to work in. He knew exactly where he had to begin, and how to fit everything in. He made a plan. and he created a masterpiece.
   He wasn't the only one. Da Vinci began with a mathematical plan for his masterpieces, so he could get everything in proportion.
   And if it was good enough for them, it's good enough for me.
   Not that I'm writing masterpieces! But I do want my books to be the best they can be.
   So I write my synopsis, and as the great Roald Dahl said,' once you have something written you have something to change.' So as you can imagine, it does change a lot.
  
   I think of my book is like a journey, and for a journey I need a map.My synopsis is the map  I know exactly where I am going to start from, and where I would like to finish. Say, London.
  But on the way, I may take some interesting detours. I may be held up by roadworks, there may be diversions that set me on a different path. I could meet interesting people I didn't expect. But my map keeps me heading in the right direction, and eventually after this, hopefully, exciting, surprising journey Iwill still end up in London.And Wow! the riots are going on. Something I didn't expect when I started off.
  The synopsis keeps me focussed.
  So here in a few words, is how this works for me. Won't work for everybody of course, but this is my way.
 I write a mini version of my story. My synopsis.Then I divide it into chapters, each chapter must move the story along. Each chapter should end on a cliffhanger. I hook them hopefully with that first chapter, and build my story up to a thrilling climax. Giving readers the ending they want, but not in the way they expect it.
  Then I start writing, and the adventure begins.