Blog for Middle Grade and Children's Writer A.J. York - A.J. York (Author)

Fairies, Fairy Dust and Melancholia

5/27/2016

Dust in our homes is a pain. Every few days it reappears. However, there are times when it can be beautiful. For example, when the sun streams in from a window and all the dust particles drifting in the air twinkle in the light. This is when I see Delilah Dusticle with little fluttering wings, waving her duster like a wand, making the glittering particles of dust glide around.

We are all familiar with the idea of a little pixie fairy that sprinkles sparkly dust. Tinkerbell from Peter Pan comes to my mind first. Delilah Dusticle is somewhat different. She is a dust fairy who can sprinkle or remove actual dust. When I imagine this, I see it as the normal dust that relentlessly covers every surface in my home. At the same time, I also imagine her fairy dust to be like snow. Beautiful, quiet and at times filled with sorrow. When she is sad and unable to come to terms with her emotions she showers dusts everywhere.

When we are feeling down, we generally hold everything inside, keeping our facial expressions and body language in check. Trying to transmit the message ‘I am ok’’. Just look at Facebook. I sometimes want the images on the screen to come alive and tell me the truth. “Yes, this is the wonderful gift he gave me for my birthday, but I had to buy it!”

Perhaps this is why I find physical expression of sadness so interesting. When we feel pain, delight or even serenity it can have such an impact that it almost deserves some kind of outward reaction, some kind of physical image. Thunder for anger for example, or dark clouds swiftly passing in the iris of the eye. If you were to physically manifest sadness, what would it be? How would it look? How would it sound?

The next story I am writing is called Delilah Dusticle’s Mission Impossible. So far in the series, Delilah has mastered her powers and her emotions. I am now looking at what else can challenge her that she must overcome, how this will manifest itself and how it will look. I have realised when I write, I always start the story with a picture in my mind and a sensation of how I want the reader to feel.

Today, I am imagining her kryptonite. All kinds of variations of the story are running through my head. This is one of my favourite parts of story-telling because anything is possible. So excuse me now as I drift off into my imagination.

Have a great weekend!

Win Books from the Delilah Dusticle Series

5/21/2016

Win a set of the Delilah Dusticle series of your own! Listed below are three sites where you can win paperback and eBook versions of Delilah Dusticle, Delilah Dusticle's Transylvanian Adventure and Delilah Dusticle and the Cursed Tempest.

Are you a member of Librarything? They host giveaways and on this site you can win eBook copies of Delilah Dusticle, Delilah Dusticle's Transylvanian Adventure and Delilah Dusticle and the Cursed Tempest.

To enter click here!

Are you a member of Booklikes? They host giveaways and on this site you can win eBook copies of Delilah Dusticle, Delilah Dusticle's Transylvanian Adventure and Delilah Dusticle and the Cursed Tempest.

To enter click here!

Are you a member of Goodreads? They host giveaways and on this site you can win paperback editions of Delilah Dusticle, Delilah Dusticle's Transylvanian Adventure and Delilah Dusticle and the Cursed Tempest.

To enter click here!

Libraries, Summer Reading and Philosophy

5/20/2016

I have been working in the school library now for a few weeks. We are doing a summer reading campaign and I have to come up with a book suggestion as well as an activity. I chose Sophie’s World as the story has loads of content that you can turn into a discussion. I tend to reread this book every two years because my memory is like a sieve. I love reading about the different philosophers.

I plan to introduce the story and what philosophy is. After, I will invite the students to look at some envelops with

‘…the only thing we require to be good philosophers is the faculty of wander…’

written on the front. This text is taken directly from the book. The envelop will also have ‘OPEN ME’ on the front. I guess I am mixing a little of Alice in Wonderland in there too. The students will be asked to open the envelops and inside will be a question that is raised in the book. We will then share our ideas.

I have put a summary and the questions below, just in case you would like to take part .

Jostein Gaarder is a Norwegian writer, who is best known for Sophie’s World, which has been translated into 60 languages. The story is about 14 year old Sophie. One day she comes home from school and finds strange letters addressed to her in the postbox. They contain questions, which jolt her out of her everyday life, making her question the world.

Sophie then receives another letter and this time it is a course in philosophy. In the letter, it introduces what philosophy is all about. It uses the metaphor that there are people who watch a magician pull a white rabbit from a hat and never ask how it was done. Then there are those who want to know how this mysterious trick happened. This is philosophy, asking how the mysteries in life have come about. In the letter it also goes on to say that the white rabbit being pulled out of the magician’s hat is the world, and we are snuggled deep in its fur. Only philosophers will climb the strands of the fur to look out and see what is out there.

Are you snuggled in the fur? Today we will climb out and ask some philosophical questions.

Is there any will or meaning behind what happens?

Who are you?

Where does the world come from?

Are we the only ones?

What is the most important thing in life?

The one thing I need to be watchful over is that the students respect each other beliefs. This is the sort of discussion activity I would have loved at school. I hope it inspires some of the kids to read Sophie’s World. We start the campaign next week. Fingers crossed it will go well.

Best Children's Book Nomination

5/17/2016

I almost choked on my tea when I found out that Eliza Bluebell had been nominated for Best Children's Book award. I am truly grateful to whoever it was who put my book forward. The winner is announced in August during their virtual book fair, and it is the book with the most votes that will win. It is shame they do not have a panel who also judges the books. Nevertheless, I am thrilled to be part of the e Festival of Words.

To visit the e Festival of Word website, please click here!

Libraries, Writing and Reviews

5/14/2016

Gothenburg enjoyed a mini heatwave this week. I also started working in the school library, so it has been a really good week all round. I have learnt to check books in and out, put new books into the library catalogue and I have helped the librarian plan her autumn activities. I am also going to write a blog post for the library blog. I have to say I love it, but it is only temporary and I will just have to enjoy it while it lasts.

You may remember a blog post I did called ‘Every Object has a Story’. If not, you will find it in my archives from last month. I am pleased to say it inspired me to write a short story. I have written a tale based on a twelve year old girl who helps her Grandmother on Sundays at the local charity shop. She discovers that they both have flashbacks of memories when they touch the objects. I will leave it in a draw for a few months and then reread it. Distance makes for a better editor in my view.

I am also in the process of getting in touch with my book blog contacts to see if they are interested in reviewing Delilah Dusticle and the Cursed Tempest. I have had four reviews come in already and I am pleased to say two were four stars and the other two were five stars. All the reviews have been posted onto Goodreads and some are on Amazon too. It is such a relief because I never know for sure how the stories will be received.

One of the reviewers is called Namrata and she is based in India. Delilah Dusticle and the Cursed Tempest is also set in India and I am pleased that Namrata has given the story her stamp of approval.

“The author has managed to capture the essence and beauty of India as well as the heat! The descriptions of the transport systems, the train station etc were spot on. A delightful short story for fans of the series, this is a perfect book for young readers. It is easy to understand and is comparable on some level with the Faraway series and many others by Enid Blyton.”
Namrata, Red Pillows

You can read the review in full on Namrata’s book blog called Red Pillows by clicking here.

This week I plan to set up some giveaways where you can win the all three books in the Delilah Dusticle series. I will post the details here as soon as I have everything up and running. I also plan to write the post for the library blog and share it here. It might even be two post. So those are my plans. I guess I better get started then.

Does Size Matter?

5/8/2016

When deciding what to read is the size of a book a factor? Does size matter?

I sometimes visit the author forums just to check in and see if there anything new in the publishing world. The topic that comes up time and again is the size of the book and how to price it. There are a quite a few authors who are upset about other authors publishing a very short book and charging a tidy sum for it. Amusingly, they are calling these very short books ‘pamphlets’.

There is a size classification for books and it is based on word count. It can vary, but here is an approximation.

A Short Story should be under 7,500 words.
A Novelette is between 7,500 – 17,500 words.
A Novella is between 17,500 – 40,000 words
Novel is over 40,000 words.

Word count is important, but I think it depends on your genre. For example, there are many reluctant middle grade readers out there and offering them a hefty novel may just turn them off. But offer them an exciting short story, then they might just give it a chance.

My Delilah Dusticle stories vary from short story to novella, but put together they become a novel. I intend to publish them as an omnibus after I finished Delilah Dusticle's Mission Impossible. I have published Delilah Dusticle, Delilah Dusticle's Transylvanian Adventure and Eliza Bluebell as a story bundle called The Delilah Dusticle Adventures. I am not fond of the cover and I intend to change that over the next few months.

As for pricing, there are no guidelines, except for those issued by the retailers. An author could publish a short story and price it at 7.99, but I doubt that anyone would buy it. However, a children’s story is expected to be quite short and can have the same price of an adult novel. But then children’s stories and middle grade books tend to have illustrations in them too, which is another cost and dimension to factor in.

I can see the attraction with a big fat book and as a reader I would be very disappointed to find myself enthralled in a story, only to find it finished within a few pages. At the same time, I am also tired of books that add in extra text just to extend the books length. The text usually could be omitted from the story and the reader would be none of the wiser. I call this ‘filler chapters’. I like a well fleshed out story, but I get bored if the pace has been drawn out with filler chapters.

I have also noticed this in TV series. It seems that programming now requires at least 6 episodes even if the story is about 3 episodes. I watched a BBC Three TV series called Thirteen recently and there was an episode where nothing happened that effected the storyline. You could have missed that episode out and still been able to follow the story. Even advert breaks seem to be longer. It used to be long enough so you could make a cup of tea. Here in Sweden, advert breaks are so long I can take a shower.

There are stories that warrant an epic length. The BBC also did a great adaptation of Tolstoy’s War and Peace. However, this time the series was criticised for being squished into six episode. I guess when it comes to length there is no one size fits all.

I understand that a thick book could be seen as more value for money, but I am much happier reading a shorter book that is well paced. Fat books that have been padded out do not do it for me. I see this as a bit of con. In conclusion, I guess size doesn’t matter to me, it’s the content that matters. Stretching things out to make a book look bigger or to fill programming demands is just dumbing down. Isn’t it?

Read Chapter One of Delilah Dusticle and the Cursed Tempest

5/5/2016

Delilah Dusticle and the Cursed Tempest is now available on Amazon, iBooks, and Kobo. Here is the first chapter to wet your appetite.

Chapter One - Bombay Dreams

Dev wiped the sweat from his forehead and gasped at the hot, soupy air. Footsteps pounded on the flimsy roofs above, echoing all around the slum. The smell of rubbish and waste was overpowering.
He pushed himself further out of view into a crevice between two frail dwellings. The Bombay sun was setting, but the heat was stifling and swaddled his body like unwanted fur.
The sound of footsteps melted away and a door slammed in the distance. The slum was unusually quiet. The paths that snaked around the makeshift houses were empty. All doors were firmly shut and those lucky to have windows had covered them up.
Squeezing himself out of the crevice, Dev began to run. Shadows loomed around a corner and he changed direction. He disappeared into a dark passage and stood flat against the wall, breathing hard.
“Welcome, Dev. We have been expecting you,” whispered a soft female voice from an open door.
Dev looked over. Standing in front of him was a short, elderly Indian woman with blue eyes, dressed in a blue sari. She led him inside. The room was bare and, sitting on the dirt floor, were three grey-haired women dressed in saris and four elderly men in tunics. They sat in a circle around a fire.
“I had a dream,” said Dev to the blue-eyed woman in front of him. “They plan to take her. They plan to sacrifice Kirin.”
“We know, Dev,” said the woman. “We, the elders, sent you the dream. It was the sign to come to us. They have already taken her.”
Dev stood shocked for a moment and then made long strides to the door.
“I shall go and…”
“No, Dev,” said the woman. “That is why we are meeting here, in the slums of Bombay, and not in our village. I knew you would try to rescue her. It is difficult to understand, but you are not to do this. There is only one now who can save Kirin, who can save us all. Do you have it with you?” She led Dev back to the fire.
Devastated, he gripped the locket hanging around his neck. “Yes,” he whispered.
“Come sit with us,” said a voice from the circle, “and we will see if she is the one.”
Dev sat down and opened the locket. The speck of dust inside glistened as he placed it on the tip of his finger. The blue-eyed woman sat beside him and then blew the speck from his fingertip. They all watched as it floated gently into the fire. There was a moment when nothing happened. Suddenly, white shooting flames exploded from the fire, up through the chimney and into the sky like fireworks.
“Feisty,” said a voice from within the circle.
The blue-eyed woman turned to Dev. “You must bring her here. It is your destiny. If you fail, Kirin will not survive and nothing will change.” Dev nodded silently. The blue-eyed woman looked out of the window.
“It is dark enough that you will be hidden. Go, save my granddaughter, save your sister,” she said placing her hand softly on Dev’s cheek. Dev kissed his grandmother’s hand and then jumped out the window.

Get you copy now! Click the relevant button below!

Barnes and Noble

Not read the first two stories yet? No problem, you can get the Delilah Dusticle Adventures story bundle by clicking the link button below.

The Delilah Dusticle Adventures Story Bundle

Where does Delilah Dusticle's magic come from?

5/1/2016

Spoiler alert! I recommend missing this post if you have not read Delilah Dusticle and Delilah Dusticle’s Transylvanian Adventure.

I have written many times about how a bad cleaning experience gave me the idea for writing a story about a magical maid. However, I have never written about where her magic comes from. When I came up with Delilah Dusticle and her magical ability to eradicate dust, I had not completely formed who she was, where she was from and where she was going. It seemed obvious that she would work as a maid in a big house. I just needed to fill in the other details.

In the first story, Delilah gets her heart broken, she looses control of her dust disappearing magic and begins to shower dust everywhere. When she breathed she would exhale dust. When she walked across the room she would leave a trail of dust. At her most miserable, the dust would fall around her like snow. Making more mess than she could clear away she is let go. This is when her journey of rebuilding her life begins. She makes an unlikely friend and they start a business called Dustbusters and employ a team of Dustbusters. Delilah starts to control her ability to make and eradicate dust.

Here is their company logo. Pulvis et Servitium is Latin for Dust and Service.

So, where does this crazy dust magic come from? Well, Dustbusters becomes famous, and weird and wonderful offers to clean grand houses start to come in. Delilah and the Dustbusters accept an offer to go abroad to Transylvania to clean Dracula’s castle. Actually, this is what they think they have been invited over to do. When they arrive they find it quite the opposite. I can't give any more away so, I leave that to your imagination.

While in Transylvania, Delilah finally discovers from Count Dracula who she is. She discovers that she is a Brownie. This is where I need to explain, as I expect some of you reading this might be thinking of a chocolatey treat or even the girl guides/scouts (in the UK, a Brownie is a girl scout). But did you know a Brownie is also a type of house elf that helps out around the house or on the land? They are seldom seen by normal humans and exchange their hard graft for gifts of food. Brownies features in folklore all over Europe.

I grew up knowing about this mythical creature because in Sweden we have Tomtes. They are mainly represented at Christmas time, but they do chores around the house or on the farm in exchange for porridge.

Here is a picture by Swedish artist Jenny Nyström

In the UK, Brownies were mainly associated with the North of England and Scotland. They were also known as Hobs (hobgoblins).

I took all these details about house elves one step further and came up with the idea that each Brownie would have one special magical skill. Delilah can eradicate dust, but her brother can make things grow from nothing. Other Brownies would be able to bake amazing dishes from a few ingredients. Anything domestic, then there would be a Brownie that would be able to charm it into being.

I came up with a reason why humans rarely saw a Brownie and this was because they would take advantage of them. There is a house gnome in Germany called Heinzelmännchen and the story goes that the people of Cologne had gnomes working throughout the night, so they could be lazy during the day. I considered that Brownies all around the world felt tired of being used for their skills and wanted their freedom. They ran away into hiding and as far as Delilah knows, she and her brother are the only ones left.

So there you have it! Delilah is a Brownie, a mystical being, and that is where her magic comes from. Her adventures are fun, mystical and weird. Her friends are loyal, hilarious and complex. Her origin is written in folklore and she is quite possibly the only one left of her dust making kind. Or is she?

To read the first chapter of Delilah Dusticle, click the button!

Author

A.J. York is a middle grade and children's writer. Author of Delilah Dusticle, Eliza Bluebell and A Fairy Extraordinary Christmas Story. A.J York has a Swedish and British background and currently lives in Gothenburg, Sweden.

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