Nii Ayikwei Parkes is Booktrust's second online writer in residence.

  • A peek behind the curtain

    Posted Monday June 29th 2009
    by Patrick Ness

    Well, I’m finally putting my money where my mouth is. After all these tips and blogs, here at last is a piece of original writing by yours truly for you to judge as you will. If you haven’t read it yet, do so, and then read the rest of this blog, as there are a few spoilers (and a bit of engineering revealed).

    It was always part of the duty of the Writer In Residence to write a short story for the site, and I had lots of swirling ideas about what I might do. Most of them, unfortunately, were entirely inappropriate for a family website. 

    Luckily, though, my favourite idea, which kept nudging itself forward, was one that would hopefully work for everyone. In The Knife of Never Letting Go, Todd meets Viola in the swamp, of course, and we slowly come to learn that she’s crash-landed at the head of a convoy of settlers.

    But what chain of events led her there? Readers kept asking, and hey, since I knew, I thought, why not make that the story? A treat for fans as they wait the long ten months (and counting) for book three, but then of…

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  • Breaking Your back

    Posted Wednesday June 17th 2009
    by Patrick Ness

    As part of my duties as Writer In Residence, I’ve been working on an exclusive short story for the site. An opportunity to put my money where my mouth is, I guess, whatever the hell that means. Being willing to actually bet rather than just talking smack? Yeah, okay, makes sense after all.

    Moving on. I’ve been working on this story and have, without consciously thinking about it, followed the tips I’ve been putting up (and there’ll be more to come after I finish the story; I’m only one man!). I’ve spilled everything out in a super-messy first draft – and boy, am I not kidding about that one – written to a few key scenes, all towards an ending feeling I wanted to leave the reader with.

    Which changed about five times as the story unfolded, so there you go, the tips are tips, not hard and fast rules. Bend them where necessary.

    But today I’ve got it on my to-do list to really 'break the back' of the story. That’s my job for the hours of this afternoon. This morning was accounting and correspondence. In the age of email, that takes forever. This afternoon, back-breaking.

    (But while…

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  • Reader responses

    Posted Wednesday June 10th 2009
    by Patrick Ness

    Having blogged about meeting the readers, I thought I’d take a few minutes to greet back some of the people who’ve greeted me here.  You, for example, yes, you, BibliOdd who wrote kind things:

    'Thank you for writing this book! Thank you for writing the sequel and WHEN can I get my hands on the 3rd one.. Have you read Stephen Donaldson's Series – Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever etc? If not – don't read them until you finish writing the finale to your trilogy! Thanks again – my teen readers loved your opening lines too... and the idea of a talking germ infected dog... thanks from a School Librarian'.

    I haven’t read the Stephen Donaldson series – though they’re always so nicely designed – and promise not to. Probably ever, I’ve got a heaving to-be-read shelf. But most excellent about the teen readers (and the third one’s out next May, by the way, not that I'm selling myself).

    I also appeared yesterday on Australian radio talking about this very Writer In Residency, and that’s sparked some more comments. Like from you, Larksong4:

    'Have just finished listening to you on the Book Show with Ramona Koval…

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