School Visit: Hillhouse Primary

I'd like to say a big thank you to the brilliant Zoe Heffer and all the Year 4s and 3s I met at Hillhouse Primary yesterday for giving me such a great welcome!

It was wonderful to meet you all, and to see the fantastic work you've been doing on Varjak Paw and The Outlaw Varjak Paw!  I had some lovely comments on my site even before the visit, and some more lovely comments since:

HI SF SAID i am mollieanne it was really fun when u came into my school today thankyou very much for signing my book today i really want to read your new book phoenix it sounds really interesting and yes i will keep the way alive and again thankyou from mollie

Hello Mr SF Said. Thank you for visiting Hillhouse primary school today. I hope you had a nice time talking about your writing and signing our books. You are my favourite writer and I enjoyed reading about Varjak Paw. I hope you write more Varjak Paw books. Thank you from Jasmine

Mollie and Jasmine, thank you so much!  Messages like that really mean a huge amount to me...  I hope you enjoy reading Phoenix too – let me know if you do!  And if anyone else would like to leave a comment about the visit or my books, this is the place to do it!

Libraries & Librarians, Carnegies & Greenaways...

I'm a little stunned today, because I just found out that Phoenix has been nominated for both the CILIP Carnegie Medal for outstanding children's books, and the Kate Greenaway Medal for illustration.

This is huge to me.  The Carnegie and Greenaway Medals are some of the biggest awards a book can be nominated for – but more importantly, they're nominated by librarians, and librarians are among the most important people in my world.  Because I write in libraries.  I love libraries.  Phoenix would literally not exist without them.

You see, I'm not disciplined enough to work at home.  I waste whole days looking at the internet, having baths, etc.  But in a library, I don't mess around; I get down to work.  It's quiet, and everyone else is working, so I feel it's only right that I should too.

I can't claim that libraries  shaped my childhood.  My family was a migrant one; we came to Britain when I was two years old, and older members of my family never lost the sense that some things out there were "for the British, not for us".  Among these were the NHS and public libraries; so sadly, we never used them.

Andrew Carnegie

Instead, I discovered libraries as an adult who was finding it impossible to work at home, and losing my way as a result.  Libraries saved me.  They gave me a quiet space to work in, with a nice big desk and lots of handy research material – and crucially, opening hours.  Because once you decide that you work in a library, you can't put your work off until midnight; the library isn't open at midnight.  You've got to get it done during the day.  That really helps keep you sane and disciplined when you're writing something that takes years.

I don't even talk to anyone when I go to the library.  I just show up, do my work, and go home.  I'm just another public library user, and I love that. 

Kate Greenaway

The most familiar faces for me are the librarians.  They're unsung heroes, in our culture – even more so in recent years, with all the cuts – but I see what they do, day in, day out.  They are brilliant.  Absolutely brilliant.  They're the ones who create this amazing space where reading is valued, where books are the most important things in the world.  Can you imagine what that means to someone whose whole life is focused on writing books?  Librarians are total stars, as far as I'm concerned, and without them my work would never get done.

So this is a massive thank you to all the libraries I've written in, to all the librarians who created that space – and to whoever noticed Phoenix, and nominated it for these awards.  It means more to me than you can possibly imagine. 

Phoenix news, reviews & interviews...

There's been more coverage of my new book Phoenix, so it's time for another update of reviews & interviews... Click the links to read the full pieces!

Louise Ellis-Barrett of Armadillo children's book magazine interviewed Dave McKean and myself at the London ComicCon back in July. The full interview appears in the autumn 2013 issue, where she writes:

"Phoenix is a delicately balanced book, a work of love, a delicate, complex and yet balanced world, a blend of story and illustration... It was worth the 7 years of work!"

Meanwhile Phoenix received five stars in the children's book magazine Books For Keeps, and a wonderful review from Ferelith Hordon, which means a lot to me, as she is one of Britain's most distinguished children's librarians. She writes:

"It is exciting to see the partnership between S. F. Said and Dave McKean back and the combination is as dynamic as before. The plot is full of action... Sentences are short, description is kept to the minimum and is delivered with confidence while there is plenty of dialogue, ensuring the story moves along briskly. All of this will make it attractive to young readers who will find it easy to identify with the characters... Throughout, the text is intertwined - invaded even - by McKean's trademark black and white illustrations. Except here these are more than illustrations, picking up as they do elements of the narrative, driving it on, creating visual excitement and tension through images that have form and at the same time the formless energy of the universe." 

There was an excellent post by Jake Hayes of the beautiful book blog tygertale - particularly exciting for me as the working title of my next book is TYGER! He writes:

"This is a sprawling, big hearted space opera written with the ambition of Star Wars, imbued with the emotion of E.T., shot through with the grit of Alien and the downbeat mood of Moon... It's a thing of beauty, a masterclass of how text and image can work together for a slightly older audience."

There've also been three reviews in recent days from young readers, which I have to say, I value more than anything. Two of these appeared on the Guardian Children's Books site. First BookTrain125 wrote:

"Phoenix is an amazing book. It really grabbed my attention. If adventure is what you want, this is the book for you! It's gripping and I could not put it down. It was absolutely irresistible."

Then Wizard wrote:

"I thought that Phoenix was an absolutely fabulous book... Normally I am not too keen on science-fiction books but this book was an exception. When I started reading, I just couldn't stop! Phoenix is one of the best books I have ever read!!!!!!"

And finally, 11 year old book blogger Louis of Home For Bookworms gave Phoenix a 10/10 review:

"I really liked this book because Lucky is a great super hero for kids, someone who puts others first. People who like SCI FI and adventure novels and are Varjak Paw fans will enjoy this too."

 Please share these links if you like them – it would really help to spread the word about Phoenix!

School Visit: Trafalgar Junior School

I'd like to say a huge thank you to the brilliant Richard Smith and everyone I met at Trafalgar Junior School on Thursday evening.  It was a very special occasion for me, because I visited the school back in 2005 – when my last book, The Outlaw Varjak Paw, was published.  I had no idea then that it would take so long to write Phoenix!

I'd particularly like to thank Ed and Jack for their introduction!  I really enjoyed meeting everyone, and hearing all your questions, and signing your books...  Most of all, the school guest book, where I saw that some of my own favourite authors had visited recently: David Almond, Sally Gardner, Paul Stewart & Chris Riddell...  I hope you enjoy my books as much as I enjoy theirs!

It was also great to meet Isla Dawes of Kew Bookshop, who runs three brilliant bookshops in Kew, Barnes & Sheen, and did a fantastic job at the event; and Melanie Taylor of the wonderful Little Star Writing, who not only ran a creative writing workshop at the school earlier in the day, but also took all these pictures!  So many thanks to them, and to everyone I met for making it such a special evening!  The final word goes to Sam Allen of Year 4, who left me this amazing comment the next day:

Thank you for visiting our school yesterday evening - it was a very special treat to get a book signed by you on my birthday and it was great to say hi to you at the end. We started reading Varjak Paw straight away when we got home and can't wait to read all three! I hope you visit again before I leave the school. Sam Allen Year 4

School Visit: Prince Of Wales Primary

I just wanted to say big thank you to everyone I met at Prince Of Wales Primary last week for giving me such a great welcome!

It was brilliant to meet so many Varjak Paw fans, and to hear all your questions, both about Varjak Paw and Phoenix. If you have any more questions that we didn't have time for, this is the place to ask them... and if you wanted to see the Phoenix trailer again, here it is!

Guardian Children's Books Podcast

Very exciting news – I'm on the Guardian Children's Books Podcast this week, talking about my new book Phoenix (and also about Varjak Paw!)   Click the link to have a listen; you can also download it & listen later if you like...

School Visits: Bury St Edmonds & London

It's been a busy week – I've visited four schools!  First up was Francis Holland School in London, where I talked to the Junior Girls, some of whom were already Varjak Paw fans!  There were lots of great questions, and lots of people interested in my new book Phoenix as well.  Among the audience was the book blogger moontrug, and she's made a fantastic post about it on her site – have a look at the link, it's really great!

Then I visited three schools in Bury St Edmonds, on a trip organised by the brilliant Philip Daws of Waterstones.  We started with Westley Middle School, where I talked to the Year 7s, and was interviewed by some Young Reporters (hopefully there'll be a link here soon, so you can see the interview!)  One of the Year 7s I met has just left me this wonderful comment here on my site:

You had an author visit at Westley in B.S.E and you were really interesting. You signed my copy of phoenix and i really enjoy it. me and my friend louis are having a competition to see who can finish it the first and im on chapter 8. I think im now going to read some more.
From Joey Turner

Thank you so much for taking the time to leave me such a brilliant comment, Joey! Good luck with your competition, I hope you and your friend enjoy the rest of Phoenix... let me know what you both think when you get to the end!

The second school we visited was Hardwick Middle School, where I talked to the Year 7s again, and had some really great questions about writing and books.  Finally, we went to St. James Middle School, where I showed the Year 7s the Phoenix book trailer.  We had a few technical problems getting it to work, so for anyone who wants to see it again, here it is:

If anyone from any of those schools would like to leave a comment about the visit, or my books, or anything else, this is the place to do it!  It's always great to hear from readers – after all those years it takes me to write a book, there is nothing nicer than someone saying that they're enjoying it!

School Visit: Belmont Primary

I just want to say a big thanks to the awesome Year 5's I met at Belmont Primary this week for giving me such a brilliant welcome!

It was amazing for me to hear all your questions and thoughts about Varjak Paw and Phoenix, and to see all the great work you've been doing...  I know we didn't have quite enough time to answer everyone's questions, so if there's anything else that anyone would like to ask or say, this is the place to do it!

Call For Help!

Something amazing has just happened – my new book Phoenix got a brilliant review in the Guardian, where Linda Buckley-Archer describes it as an "ambitious, multi-layered, action-packed adventure that will appeal to both boys and girls... stunning and uplifting"!  Please please please, if you have a moment, could you click the link and then share the review?  There are buttons there for facebook, twitter, blogs, etc... It would really help to spread the word, and would mean a huge amount to me!

There've been quite a few other wonderful reviews coming in over the last month...  Here are some of them; click the links to see full reviews, and again, please share if you can – it really helps!

Hannah Love in Inis, the Irish children's book magazine: "SF Said's new novel is beautiful, exciting and bittersweet all at once... A special read."

M of We Sat Down: "Phoenix is a soaring space quest story packed full of starry action, adventure, science, myth, colourful characters and wowsome illustrated pages.  It’s a compelling and beautiful pageturner... For me, Phoenix is this year’s A Boy and a Bear in a Boat."

(M was also kind enough to interview me, and asked some really interesting questions – you can read the interview here!)

Raimy of Readaraptor: "I can't recommend Phoenix enough... If sci-fi is your thing then Phoenix is a must-read, if sci-fi isn’t your thing then Phoenix is a should-read, trust me!"

Bella of Cheezyfeet Books: "I'm definitely recommending to all YA fans out there... With fabulous world building, great characters and an exciting plot, there's a little something for everyone and it's definitely not one to be missed!"

New Photography

I've written before on this blog about my favourite hobby, photography.  So this week I thought I'd share some Polaroid pictures I've made in various places around the world, while writing Phoenix and working on my next book...

These two were done at Stonehenge.

This one was at Angkor Wat, in Cambodia.

These two were in Greece: the Tombs of Mycenae (above), and a castle in the middle of the sea at Napflio (below).

This one was in Kerry, Ireland, right on the edge of the Atlantic.

And finally, this one was done in London, in Hyde Park, not far from where I lived in the years when I wrote The Outlaw Varjak Paw.  I hope you like them - click on the images if you want to see them nice & large!

Events & Signings

I'm doing quite a few events & signings in the next few weeks.  If you'd like to come and get a signed copy of Phoenix or Varjak Paw, here are the details!

First up is a morning signing at Clerkenwell Tales (30 Exmouth Market, London EC1R 4QE) on Sunday 15th September from 11am-12pm.  Everyone is invited, there's no entry fee, but there will be juice and biscuits, and signed copies of my books!

Then I'm doing a signing at Waterstones Bury St Edmunds (36 Butter Market, Bury St Edmunds, IP33 1DW) on Thursday 10th October from 4pm-5.30pm.  Again, no entry fee and open to all, so I hope to see some of you there!

Finally I'd just like to say a big thank you to everyone I met at Waterstones Kensington on Monday 9th September.  The event was called 'Geeksploitation', and it involved a quiz, dressing-up, cupcakes and much general mayhem!  Sci-Fi & Fantasy authors Andy Robb and Sean Cummings were also there.  Here's the fabulous flyer, for the record:

Please call (0843 290 8419), email (events@kensington.waterstones.com) or find us on facebook (Waterstones Kensington) & Twitter (@HSKWaterstones) for more info or to book tickets.  

Varjak Paw Around The World, #6

#6: Poland

This was one of the very first Varjak Paw translations that appeared, so it still means a lot to me.  It felt totally magical to see the cover with a different language on it; amazing to think that there would be people who thought of this book as 'Sny Kota Warlapa'.

At the time, a Polish friend told me the title meant something like 'The Dreams Of Warlap The Cat'.  I really like that.  I love the idea of putting the dreams right up there in the title, as they really are central to the book.

I'm not quite sure why they changed his name from Varjak to Warlap, but I've heard from another friend that 'Varjak' actually means 'warrior' in Polish.  (I wish I could say I knew that when I wrote it, but I didn't!)  I think that would make it a good name for a cat who dreams of becoming a great warrior – but maybe they wanted to avoid confusion...

If there are any Polish speakers looking at this blog, I'd love to hear from you!  And if you would like to see more Varjak Paw translations, have a look here...

Phoenix inspirations: Astrolabes

My new book Phoenix is set in space. The story takes place in a galaxy at war, where Humans and Aliens are deadly enemies. The main character is a Human boy called Lucky. He's trying to cross the galaxy to find his father, but the only people who will help him are the crew of an Alien starship – and an Alien warrior girl, with neon needles in her hair.

When I first started thinking about the story, back in 2005, all I knew was that it would involve an epic journey. But when I realised it was set in space, I thought a lot about the starships, and how they'd work. And one thing that really transformed it was the idea of the Astrolabe.

This is an actual Astrolabe: part of the collection held at the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich. Astrolabes were ancient astronomical devices, popular in the Islamic world a thousand years ago, and then in medieval Europe.

They enabled people for the very first time to find their exact positions, wherever they were, even at sea, and navigate from there. They were analogue computers – like the GPS of their day!

It was when I started to think about Astrolabes that I made a breakthrough with the starships in my book. What if there was a science-fiction version of the Astrolabe: an incredibly powerful navigational device that enables people to cross the great gulfs of interstellar space? What if you could actually go into one of these devices: if it allowed your consciousness to move through space, faster than the speed of light – even at the Speed of Dark?!

That's one of Dave McKean's incredible images from the book! When Dave and I talked about ideas for illustration, one of the first things I gave him was a bunch of images of Astrolabes – and I was amazed when I saw what he'd done with the idea. I hope you like it too!

Amazing Reactions...

I'm feeling a little emotional tonight, because there've been some seriously amazing reactions to Phoenix coming in...

For a start, one of my very favourite writers, Jacqueline Wilson, sent me a postcard telling me she thought was Phoenix was brilliant (and yes, she actually underlined the word 'brilliant'), structurally perfect, and a total page-turner!  And then she wrote a piece on her website about her summer reading, which says she 'especially loved Phoenix'!  When one of your heroes says something like that, it really means the world, especially when their own work is so brilliant in every way...  I can't wait to read her next one, Diamond, which is out in September!

Then I got a text from Paul Stewart, the awesome author of The Edge Chronicles, Wyrmeweald and Barnaby Grimes, saying that he'd started reading Phoenix on Wednesday, couldn't stop, and had just finished it on Friday morning!  He apologised for reading it in two days when it had taken me seven years to write – but he knows what a compliment that is, something every writer dreams of hearing...  I couldn't thank him enough, particularly as I find his own work unputdownable...

And then there've been some fantastic reviews in the past few days.  I particularly love this one by Shelagh Rowan-Legg on Dorkshelf, who also interviewed me for the same site.  She says Phoenix is:

"one of my best reading experiences this year.  A science fiction story with amazing and real characters, dramatic action, a fascinating mythology and incredible artwork by Dave McKean, I can’t recommend this enough...  At nearly 500 pages, the book may seem daunting, but it’s the kind you can’t put down... A remarkable adventure story for any age."

Click here to read the full piece!

Space Stories Blog & Edinburgh Book Festival

I've just done a piece for The Guardian books blog about space stories - here's the first paragraph:

I write fiction for young people because I love the infinite imaginative space it offers. Children and young adults are incredibly open to the literature of the fantastic. So far this century, we've enjoyed stories about magic and wizards, vampires and werewolves, and post-apocalyptic dystopias. Yet the most fantastic subject of all remains unexplored territory: space.

Click here to read the full piece!

Also, I'd like to say a huge thanks to the Edinburgh Book Festival for hosting me today, and to everyone who came to my event and was involved in it - thank you all so much!   I hope you enjoy reading your new copies of Phoenix!

Lovely Review!

I just wanted to say a big thanks to Vincent Ripley for his lovely review of my new book Phoenix on his site, Mr Ripley's Enchanted Books.

"Just like the brightest light from the furthest star, this book is a creation to behold...  It is a breathtaking epic space adventure that will have you gripped in so many ways... If you particularly enjoy a good sci-fi space fantasy then this book is for you - it has certainly rocketed to the top of my favourite reads this year.  Even if you wouldn't normally enjoy this genre, I would still recommend that you try this book, as it really is that good."

Click here to read the full review!

Phoenix Countdown & Competition: Lift-Off!!!

And so at last my new book Phoenix is published today!

It should now be on sale in all good bookshops, and all over the web.  The 'Buy Now' button on my publishers' page will take you to lots of places you can find it – including Amazon, Foyles, Waterstones, Blackwells, WH Smith, independent booksellers via Hive, etc...

Happy reading everyone...

...and if you leave a comment on one of the images I've been posting in the last week, I will pick one comment at random and send that reader a signed copy of Phoenix!

Phoenix Countdown & Competition: 1

Only one day to go till the publication of my new book Phoenix!  A nice interview with me appeared today on SFFWorld.com - click here to read it.

Phoenix Countdown & Competition: 2