0 Mixing Up Settings: Town, Country and the Books of Lorna Hill

View towards Dunstanburgh Castle

Last week I was in Northumberland. It's only a couple of hours from Leeds, where I live, but it feels like a different world.

Leeds is a big, bustling, ethnically diverse Northern city. The Northumberland coast, with its empty beaches, fishing villages and old-fashioned pubs, feels like a journey away in time as much as space. Even the tourist hot spots – like Lindisfarne – are tranquil, the cars abandoned once the causeway has been crossed, the many visitors wandering the windswept island by foot.

Daffies at Howick

There are some other wonderful aspects of going back in time -  like bookshops! How is it that while most British cities (including Leeds) struggle to support independents bookshops, the market town of Alnwick can offer the stupendous Barter Books: an enormous secondhand bookshop where you can take your dog, eat superb creamed mushrooms, and pick up a copy of Robert Fagles' translation of the Illiad, all in one happy trip. (I mean, who doesn't want to munch mushrooms while reading an Ancient Greek Epic with their dog sitting on their feet?)

A recent edition - published by Girls Gone By

Other aspects of time travel feel a little strange. So many things I take for granted don't seem to have impinged upon this corner of rural England. It made me think (because that's the peculiar way my mind works) of the only children's books I know set in rural Northumberland – those by Lorna Hill. They are undoubtedly of another age – and yet I wondered how much had really changed. (Well, some things certainly have.  Like fifteen-year-old boys waving horse whips at thirteen-year-old girls, and telling them to scrub their face free of makeup AT ONCE.)  But other things remain the same: the lakes, woods, mountains and beaches of Northumberland, in all its beauty, isolation and essential wildness. Hill, a vicar's wife in an isolated parish, knew Northumberland intimately and used it as the setting for many books.  One of her  “Marjorie” series – Stolen Holiday - is set very close to where I was staying, towards Dunstanburgh Castle.

"Mile upon mile of wonderful deeply golden sand and undulating sand-dunes, some of them so lofty that they were like miniature mountains; mile upon mile of deep blue-green sea flecked with white horses (there was a stiffish breeze blowing); and, last but not least, seeming to float in the shimmering water, lay the Farne Islands..."   Stolen Holiday

Her most popular books though, and the ones I remember growing up, were the “Wells” books – a series which combined rural adventures in Northumberland with the unlikely world of the ballet. These books have been reprinted countless times over the years.  And yet, though I never thought about it at the time, it's a very odd mix.

Veronica Weston, the heroine of the first two Wells books, spends her time shuttling between London – where she has grown up in seedy lodgings, and subsequently trains as a dancer – and Northumberland, where she is the “poor relation” to the rich Scott family, who live in a big estate in the Cheviot Hills, complete with lake, boathouse, woods, resident nanny, chauffeur, ponies and a gate lodge – wherein lives the Scotts' intriguing, infuriating, talented cousin Sebastian. The first book, A Dream of Sadler's Wells, begins with Veronica, recently orphaned, on the train north – and ends with a ride through the snow to catch the train south, and to make her audition for the prestigious ballet school Sadler's Wells, in Covent Garden. In the sequel, Veronica at the Wells, half of the book is set in London, in her digs and ballet school – where the mean-spirited Marcia Rutherford is plotting to wreck Veronica's promising dance career – and half at Christmas in Northumberland, where Veronica rides out with her cousins across the moors to visit a fellow dancer and almost gets caught in a storm.

All of the Wells books that I've read feature characters torn between the tranquil, outdoor pleasures of the country, and the stage-paint, bright lights and glitter of London. And they were by far Hill's most popular books – the strange combination of professional ballet and rural adventure chiming with young readers far more than those novels which were simply set in Northumberland.  Maybe it's not so surprising.  Ballet, even more than it is today, was a world of fame, glamour and celebrity - and many young readers must have yearned for these things, yet recognised, like Veronica, that it could have its downsides too.

Often books do need more than one element to take off – in this case, it is an unusual combination of activities (horse riding and ballet) and settings (London and rural Northumberland) that produces a certain magic that lifts these books out of the ordinary. There have been lots of books about ballet, and lots of books about ponies, but few have been as beloved as Lorna Hill's Wells books, which so oddly managed to do both.

Barter Books - photo credit wfmillar [CC BY-SA 2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

I went home reflecting that a bit of mix can be no bad thing for a novel – if you can get the mix right, and save it from turning into an incoherent mess. It made me wonder what diverse settings I might somehow put together in a book. All my children's books have been very firmly set in one locality - maybe that's something I could think about changing. I certainly plan to experiment.  I also felt comforted that if, despite the daffodils, the golden sands and cosy pubs, a little bit of me was craving my local Costa Coffee, a curry and a late-night convenience store (like Veronica hankering for Leicester Square), then perhaps that was OK too.

(Note: Some of Lorna Hill's books are still in print, and second hand copies are widely available - although I forgot to look for them in the excellent children's section at Barter Books.

More information on Lorna Hill here.)

Some more daffies!

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Emma's series for 8+ Wild Thing about the naughtiest little sister ever is published by Scholastic.
"Hilarious and heart-warming" The Scotsman

 Wolfie is published by Strident.  It is a story of wolves, magic and snowy woods...
"A real cracker of a book" Armadillo 
"Funny, clever and satisfying...thoroughly recommended" Books for Keeps

Emma's Website
Emma’s Facebook Fanpage
Emma on Twitter - @EmmaBarnesWrite

Detail: Mixing Up Settings: Town, Country and the Books of Lorna Hill

0 What makes you write, or stops you? - Linda Strachan

This is not really about writers' block, although perhaps in some cases it could be, but I was thinking about how often I hear my writer friends talking about all the things that come between us and getting the words written.

How difficult can it be?  You love writing and you desperately want to write that story that is buzzing in your head but for some reason other things get in the way and it is the writing that is often pushed to the end of the queue.

In the comments on a blog here recently Susan Price said ' I think many people see authors as something like hobbits, living cosy, stress-free, comfortable lives making up fun little stories. And getting paid!'
 
I wish!

I recall, before I was published and even in the first few years, I was scribbling away or tapping on my laptop whenever there was a spare moment  -  weekends, holidays, late at night and first thing in the morning. Writing was new, shiny and stress-free with no obligations.  After a few years of tight deadlines and starting to write full time, an expansion of the things that come with being published and part of the writing community meant that I needed some time to recharge, to do other things because writing had become my job. So I was less likely to write at weekends or on holiday, or at least not all the time.

While thinking about writing this blog I did a quick mindmap of some of the things that help and hinder my writing.

Many things help, like having a deadline, that is the one that works best for me.  I have very rarely, if ever, missed a deadline, even if it means very late nights; working on holiday or pretty much anywhere I can.

Personally I find that self-imposed deadlines don't work so well for me unless I declare them to family or even better, to a small group of writing friends who truly understand.  I am part of a small, closed and trusted group, who only meet over email, for support and encouragement but also commiseration when things are not going so well. All professional writers, we help each other keep writing and it is a real lifeline for a solitary writer.

Looking at the mindmap above I see things I have missed out such as -
Meetings - I am on a couple of committees related to writing because I feel that it is important to give something back to the writing community for all the support I have had over the years, but these do take time and energy. Also meeting up with friends, particularly writing friends, for the 'office' chat which is essential for self employed and solitary workers to fine out what is going on, and to share ideas and enthusiasm. Meeting with publishers, agents, others who are offering potential sources of writing work.

Networking - going to book launches and get-togethers with other people in the business. It is  so important to keep up to date with what is going on around and for opportunities that arise from chance encounters.

Preparation - for talks, school visits and writing workshops.  This can take up a lot of time.

Social Media -  is a very mixed blessing. It can be very useful for making contacts, getting to know other writers and readers, but it is also incredibly time consuming and addictive.

Having a space to write, uncluttered, if at all possible, but if you are like me it soon becomes a clutter!
Having a special place to write, whether in a coffee shop, library or a shed, a space that helps close out the world and allows time to concentrate on that thing we love - writing.

I don't think I am alone in this, it is one of the reasons why writing retreats are so much of a writer's dream. Somewhere that family, responsibilities and other day to day things cannot get between you and the story.

I wrote Block as sometimes a story can halt, or feel that writing is just impossible and that is when we all need some time away, space to think and find out why we are not pushing on past it. The reason might be physical or emotional stress.

I find it is often that the story has lost its way, taken a wrong turn, or not being true to the characters.
Distraction, such as going for a walk or doing some routine task, when the mind can wander without pressure often allows for that 'light bulb moment' and opens the flow of thought again.  After that all we need is to make time for the writing!

What is it that makes you write, or stops you from writing?

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Linda Strachan is the author of over 60 books for all ages from picture books to teenage novels and the writing handbook Writing For Children.

Linda's latest YA novel is Don't Judge Me . 
She is Patron of Reading to Liberton High School, Edinburgh.

Her best selling series Hamish McHaggis is illustrated by Sally J. Collins who also illustrated Linda's retelling of Greyfriars Bobby.

website:  www.lindastrachan.com
blog:  Bookwords 

Detail: What makes you write, or stops you? - Linda Strachan

0 Happy Birthday to Me

Before I was a writer I only had one birthday a year. Now, like the Queen, I have several. And, princess-like, I’m making this blog post All About Me. How very selfish.

But it’s my birthday! If I can’t be a brat then…

Happy birthday, Still Falling!

Two birthdays actually. One is my book birthday. Still Falling, the most infuriating, difficult, elusive book I’ve ever tried to write, and also, I think, my best so far, is Out. In the world. Doing its thing. Being reviewed and that. It feels like a huge deal. Well, a book birthday always is, but this is my first YA title since Grounded in 2012, so it feels like quite an event. 

I’m writing this bang in the middle of my two book launches. Birthday parties, if you like.  Belfast (yesterday) was the home fixture, with my auntie Iris came, and former colleagues, and the lovely American lady who taught me at a novel editing class in 2001 and whom I haven’t seen since, and lots and lots of friends. The Belfast launch is always a bit emotional because you don’t know who’ll turn up but you know they’ll be someone with a personal connection. Tomorrow is the Dublin launch and it’ll be very different – publisher, agent, children’s book people. Lots of friends too (I hope) but very much recent book friends. Sometimes people wonder if it’s worth having launches – I think it is. It’s a celebration of hard work. The one book I didn’t launch properly I always feel I’ve been a bit mean to.

I'm sorry, Too Many Ponies 

But that’s not my only birthday. It’s my ABBA birthday too. A year ago today, I wrote my first ABBA post, ‘On Not Being Able To Say No’ – all about that tension between needing time to write and not wanting to refuse opportunities to make money. (Sadly, in my case, I’m still working on the writing itself bringing in more than pocket money.) I thought it would be interesting (possibly only for me, I admit) to see how things have changed in that year.

I’m still solvent, and still have no intention of returning to teaching. Last week I hid from the madness of World Book Week (which nearly killed me last year) at Arvon, where I tutored a wonderful group of eleven year olds with the equally wonderful Malachy Doyle. (And, to be vulgar about it, earned more than I would have in tearing round hither and yon like last year.) I’ve learned to pace myself better with school visits, and set a strict limit on my commitments for October (Children’s Book Fest in Ireland) which meant I finished the month on my feet and relatively sane.

Thank you, again, Arvon

I’ve written stuff too. As well as Still Falling, I have a YA novel with my agent, hopefully going on submission soon; a MG novel at acquisition stage (fingers crossed), and have just signed a contract for a historical MG with my Irish publisher. Taking Flight has been optioned by a film company. It’ll probably never be made, but I’m enjoying being able to say it. I’m going to be a Royal Literary Fund Fellow next year, which will cut out two writing days from my week but will also give me a decent income. Oh yeah, I think I remember what that was…

As for the not being able to say no? Well, I have turned down a few gigs recently because I needed the time for writing. I needed the time for writing because, when my Irish publisher asked in February if I could produce a short historical novel involving research by the end of April (yes, gentle reader, this April) I said confidently, ‘Yes, of course!’ It will be out in September. So far I have written 1200 words.

I know. When will I ever learn? I said yes because it was a challenge. I said yes because I was flattered at their faith in me. I said yes because I love writing historical even if I’d never previously wanted to write about the Easter Rising of 1916.

Mostly I said yes, because I couldn’t resist the chance to have two book birthdays in one year.

Detail: Happy Birthday to Me

0 On School Visits - part two - an author's perspective...

With World Book Day just behind us it is a time for authors to look back on the wonderful events that we've done to celebrate books, school libraries and librarians. I've had two brilliant events in the last week at schools where superbly talented and knowledgeable librarians had set up extraordinary days. These were the kind of days that make you realise exactly why you do it. Over the last two days everything just went so smoothly and the librarians made sure that everyone taking part - from author, to children, to parent helpers - was involved, engaged and valued.
This is just another tiny part of the essential contribution that school librarians make to the literary life of the school. I love school visits because they allow us to connect with the people who really matter - the young people who read our work, and the librarians who support it. I'm a needy soul I think, and there really is nothing quite like hearing how much they love your book and how much they love reading. I was chatting to a young student today and she looked aghast when I told her that not all schools are lucky enough to have a school librarian.
"But that's so wrong," she said, "it's not a library if it hasn't got a librarian in it."
Thirteen years old.
I'd vote for her.

The only Shades were ghostly....

However.....Not all visits are this perfect (not all of them have librarians!) and so, as a follow-upto my post last month about what school librarians are looking for in schoolvisits, here is a (light-hearted) piece about what authors are looking for. Of course I've never had any of these happen, and my last two days were the exact opposite. (If anyone is looking for some super-cool librarians to visit, just ask!)

So what is the author wish-list for a perfect school visit?

Someone who knows that we are coming

As wonderful as surprises are, authors are not particularly keen on arriving at schools to discover that they are the surprise. Travel does indeed broaden the mind, but nothing broadens the gap between enjoyment and frustration like travelling all the way to a school only to be greeted not with open arms, but with blank faces and total confusion.

Refreshments

We’re not talking about some kind of backstage bonanza here. No one is suggesting that schools provide a  hand-wrought chalice of only green M&Ms, or a marble sink filled with hand-peeled grapes, but a cup of tea is nice. Small point of advice; cans of fizzy drink are guaranteed to make an author wary - anyone could have shaken that one up, these are children after all. Refreshments are always appreciated, with biscuits being high on the list. It’s worth noting here that nothing crumbly or flaky should be provided. Some of us know all too well the horror of looking down on the train home and discovering a liberal coating of crumbly foodstuff on your clothing, and knowing that it was there through the whole presentation.

Aaargh - coconut in the cleavage!

A place to do the presentation

Now, I like a school tour as much as the next person, but touring a school in a muddled attempt to find a suitable room to do a presentation is not exactly a fun way to spend an afternoon. Whilst it can be interesting to peer into full classrooms and interrupt lessons in an apparently vague attempt to collect disgruntled frowns from teachers, it’s no way to make a living.

Prepared children who know our work

As children’s authors we thrive on the open enthusiasm of our young readers, however the blank expressions of children who have never heard of you can be more than a little disconcerting. We do our best to enthuse, but it is not easy with a susurration of “who is that?” rippling through the assembled group.

Equipment that works

Aged rock bands may well be keen on toning down their later lives with unplugged sessions, and we are certainly capable of unplugging when the need arrives. However if we've made plans to use certain pieces of equipment, we’d like them to work. Let’s leave the unplugged sessions to arty Hipster bands shall we?

"I think it's one of these...it worked yesterday....ummmm...."

Teachers who pay attention

Yes, teachers are busy and overworked and have very little time spare in the day, however it is hugely depressing to attempt to enthuse a crowd of young people whilst the room is flanked with the lowered heads of teachers doing their marking (or possibly praying, or sleeping, or quietly planning an escape tunnel - could be any of these). Authors who discover this should be encouraged to make teachers stand up with their hands on their heads, or give them after-school detention, or impromptu ballet lessons, or dress them up as Christian Grey - they love that.

Book sales

Believe it or not, authors need to do exotic things like pay bills and eat and we do this by selling things called “books” and therefore it is helpful if we can do this during school visits. We can't always, and we don't mind if there is a good reason, but it's handy. Sometimes schools even have someone to sell the books for the author. This allows the author to feel more like an author, and less like a shady street hawker with a suitcase full of saucy postcards and fake watches.

Someone to write the children’s names down

Children have such wonderful and creatively spelled names these days, and said children also have a gift for expressing surprise that you have never heard of the particular spelling of their name. If there is someone to write down the names for you when you are signing books then you can be absolutely sure that Aleksarnderr, Klowee, Bry-Anne and Kay-Tea go home with the rosy glow of a correctly spelled name in their book.

A thank you from the Head

Yeah, I admit it, this one might be a flight of fancy. It's worth a shot.

Okay, so we'll happily settle for lovely thank-yous and questions from the pupils. 

A short list of things that authors are looking for, and I'm sure that you can add your own to this list. Having said all of this, I've never met a touring author who didn't enjoy doing school visits, even when the going gets tough. Oh, actually, that’s not true...I can think of at least one who....oh, and there was the one I met who.... no...best save that for a much more private post!

Written by Dawn Finch - author of Brotherhood of Shades

www.dawnfinch.com

www.deefinch.wordpress.com

twitter @dawnafinch

Detail: On School Visits - part two - an author's perspective...

0 Retreating to Write - Lucy Coats

Shh! I shouldn't be writing this on the Wednesday afternoon before it's due. I'm locked away in Devon, and I should be head down, working on my novel. But as usual, life got in the way, and I didn't manage to post something wise and insightful a week in advance.

The thing is, life has got in the way quite a lot lately. I won't go into details, but there it is. I'm behind where I should be, running to keep up and not miss deadlines and not disappoint people (including myself). I knew it was going to happen, and that's why, for Christmas (and birthday and probably next Christmas as well), I asked, for once, for something I really really wanted.

Time to write with no distractions.

It's a precious thing, is time, especially writing time. I can't actually remember when I had a stretch of it unbroken by that life-getting-in-the-way thing I mentioned earlier. But now I do, and I'm appreciating every moment of its extreme preciousness. So here I am, in the tiny village of Sheepwash in Devon, at the amazing Retreats for You, being cossetted (including nightly hot water bottles and glasses of wine brought to my room), cared for, fed delicious meals (which I'm not allowed to clear up after), and above all LEFT ALONE to do what I really want to. Write.

Yesterday I wrote over 3000 words. I haven't done that in a long time. Today I'm already up to 1500 (and that's not including this post). I'll be at 3000 again by the end of the day or bust, and I'm here for nine more whole days, leaving the family and dogs behind to take care of themselves.

I can't even begin to tell you how marvellous it is to say that. Sometimes, as writers, we just crave quiet and time and space to think, and it's not always easy to come by. As a mother and a carer and a person who wears far too many hats, I'm pretty hard on myself. Writing is supposed to be my full-time job - and yet, far too often, I find myself squeezing it in around everything else. The gift of what I really need - time to do the work I love - may not be everyone's idea of the perfect present, but it is mine, and I am grateful to my family for understanding that and for making it possible.

Long live Retreats for You (trust me, if you're a writer you NEED to come here!), and I know you'll forgive me if I get back to my novel now. I'll see you all again on the other side!

Out now from Piccadilly Press UK & Grosset and Dunlap USA: Beast Keeper and Hound of Hades (Beasts of Olympus)

"rippingly funny…offers food for thought on everything from absentee parenting to the mistreatment of animals (even immortal ones)." 

Publishers Weekly US starred review

Coming in May 2015 from Orchard, Cleo (UKYA historical fantasy about the teenage Cleopatra VII)

Website 

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Lucy teaches a regular Guardian Masterclass on 'How to Write for Children' 

Lucy is represented by Sophie Hicks at The Sophie Hicks Agency

Detail: Retreating to Write - Lucy Coats

0 Why do we write about talking animals?

I'm feeling a littleemotional, to be frank. I've spent the past eight years writing three books about a group of talking animals (The Last Wild trilogy), whom I've grown very fond of. Last week I sent the final book off to the printers. I won't be making the animals in it, or any others for that matter, talk again for the foreseeable future.

  

And, pausing before I blunder off into a whole new imaginative realm, I've been reflecting. Why do we do it? Why do we take these dignified, self respecting other species we share the planet with, and imbue them with often wildly mismatched human characteristics, psychology and dialogue? Why are those characters so perennially popular with younger children? Equally, why are they such a literary turn off for some, and many older readers?

 There are many answers to those questions, and they've changed as continuously as human behaviour. One argument is that in making animals talk and walk like us,  we seek to play out the mysteries of our deeper and more unknowable feelings. For children, growing slowly cognizant of more complex and challenging human emotions on the adult horizon, animal characters in books can be like a literary version of play therapy, safe proxies through which to navigate those feelings. (Perhaps that equally repels older or adult readers who have no desire for proxies, hungry for the authenticity of real human interaction.)

But that’s the young reader. What’s the appeal to the adult writer, seeking to put words in the mouths of mice? For me, I keep coming back to the haunting story of another writer and his far better-known talking animals.

In 1906, he was nine years old, known to all as ‘Jack’, and living in East Belfast, enjoying a quintessential turn of the century middle-class childhood. 

The Lewis family, 1906

His father Richard was a successful solicitor, and his mother Flora was the daughter of an Anglican priest. His elder brother Warren was away at boarding school in England, but when he was home for the holidays, the boys enjoyed long walks and cycle rides in the leafy suburbs. The spacious house might sound boring for children  - with what Jack later described as its “long corridors, empty sunlit rooms, upstairs indoor silences, attics explored in solitude” - but he and Warren happily filled it with imaginary worlds and games of their own, inspired by their father’s substantial library.

But 1906 was the year everything changed for Jack. Quite suddenly, his beloved mother passed away at an early age, from cancer.  The world he knew and loved, the idyll of his early childhood - had been changed forever.  And Jack’s response was to lose himself in one of the fictional worlds he and Warren - or Warnie - had created together.  A world he called ‘Animal Land’ - full of delightful characters such as this natty frog.

 In 1907, he wrote to Warnie at his school in England, describing in detail the story of one of Animal Land’s many kingdoms.

My dear Warnie

 …I am thinking of writeing a History of Mouse-land and I have even gon so far as to make up some of it, this is what I have made up.

Mouse-land had a very long stone-age during which time no great things tooke place it lasted from 55 BC to1212 and then king Bublich I began to reign, he was not a good king but he fought against yellow land. Bub II his son fought indai about the lantern act, died 1377 king Bunny came next.

Your loving

brother Jacks

Animal Land, which soon evolved into a universe known as “Boxen”, was a complex imagined world created by the two brothers, which blended animal fantasy with mediaeval romances popular at the time and contemporary colonial politics.  Crucially, it was conceived as a complete world - with its own rules, boundaries and belief systems.  In one story, Jack wrote :

"The ancheint [sic] Mice believed that at sun-set the sun cut a hole in the earth for itself."

Much later in his life, Jack, in his better known identity as C. S. Lewis - wrote in his partial autobiography, Surprised By Joy:

“With my mother’s death all settled happiness, all that was tranquil and reliable, disappeared from my life. There was to be much fun, many pleasures, many stabs of Joy, but no more of the old security. It was sea and islands now; the great continent had sunk like Atlantis.”

To a pair of young children dealing with their grief, and shortly, further displacement as Jack was sent to join his brother away at school in England - the history, lives and laws of some imaginary mice or frogs offered the one thing their upturned lives suddenly lacked - security.

It's too simplistic for me to dismiss Narnia, as some do, as a mythical paradise completely driven by Christian allegory. Lewis himself always denied this, famously insisting
“I couldn’t write in that way at all. Everything began with images; a faun carrying an umbrella, a queen on a sledge, a magnificent lion.”

Whether he protests too much or not, the promise of innocence, happiness and peace in a fictional land populated by talking animals would be one Lewis returned to again and again in his Narnia books. Perhaps not just to proselytise.  Perhaps also to journey back in the imagination to the secure childhood happiness he could never recover in reality. 

I didn’t grow up in Belfast in 1906, and nor did I suffer the tragedy ‘Jack’ did at a young age.  I like to think that I had a happy childhood. But I also believe that when you write children’s books, especially those with created worlds, you inevitably write out – directly or indirectly – layers of your own feelings as a child. When you finish those books, and leave that world, in some small way, you finish a part of your childhood too.

And perhaps that’s why I’m feeling emotional.

Piers Torday

@PiersTorday

www.pierstorday.co.uk

Detail: Why do we write about talking animals?

0 A Tale of Two Activities - Clémentine Beauvais

If you're reading this post in the morning of the day it's come out, send me a positive brain wave and cross your fingers for me: I'm currently shaking fretting panicking calmly getting ready for a job interview in a university somewhere in the UK...

So I'm taking this blog post as an opportunity to reflect on the difficulties and joys of having another job in addition to writing, one that you really don't want to give up on. Most people tend to assume that I'm secretly dreaming of being a full-time writer. I often hear, 'Are you keeping up the academic side just for the money?'

That's easily answered in MS Paint:

To most people, if you have an 'artistic' side, anything else you do must surely be 'paying' for your artistic activity. If you're not giving up the 'day job', it probably means the artistic one doesn't earn you anything, or not enough. 

Even my academic colleagues have somehow internalised the notion that I would 'prefer' to write children's books as a full-time job; that it's what I really want to do. We were talking at lunch about what we'd do if we won the lottery (yes, students: that's the kind of thing your lecturers and tutors talk about at lunch), and several colleagues said that they'd quit their job immediately. I said I certainly wouldn't stop working - I like my research and teaching, and I'd get bored. The immediate response was, 'But you could spend all the time you want on writing your children's books!'

Frankly, if I really wanted to spend all my time writing children's books... well, I would take the jump and do it. And if I needed a job to subsidise this activity, I probably wouldn't opt for one that requires hours of teaching, reading, essay-marking, meeting-going, networking, jargon-deciphering, revise-and-resubmitting, email-sending at two in the morning, in a crazy incertain job market, with no weekends to speak of, holidays that are in fact conferences, and the absolute impossibility to stick to regular hours.

Well then, are you keeping up the academic job as a safety net, 'just in case the writing doesn't work out?'

(The notion of academia as a 'safety net' is just... I mean, I wish, but...)

If the writing didn't 'work out', it would probably be in part because of the other job. Writing success isn't some esoteric thing that does or doesn't work out according to the unpredictable movements of the stars - the more you work on it, the more likely it is to 'work out'. You might never be J.K. Rowling, but you can get very respectable sales by being strategic, working hard, meeting children and promoting your books. This is more difficult when you've got another job.

So of course, having another job isn't ideal for your publishers, agents and publicists. There is definitely faint pressure to 'quit the day job' and be a full-time author. School visits and festivals often happen during the week. Even if you can make some of it, you can't be one of these writers who do school visits all the time. Therefore your books might not sell as well, and you might not get as high an advance next time, or even asked for another book.

Gone are the days when it was acceptable to write your books in your 'free time', and to decide that this year, you'll only publish one, or none. It doesn't work like that in the UK (to a degree, it still does in France). The publish or perish rule applies here like it does in academia; being a part-time writer will always put you at a disadvantage.

Implicitly, there is pressure also from other authors and illustrators who are full time. There's a very legitimate worry that writers like me contribute to making our activity appear unprofessional, amateurish, dilettantish, something you do 'when you've got the time', or if a partner is subsidising your indulgent bohemian bourgeois lifestyle. I entirely understand this concern, and it does bother me that I contribute to this vision. Authors and illustrators should absolutely be in a position to live - and to live well - thanks to their work. Saying that your writing brings you 'pocket money' or is 'a fun thing on the side' is quite insulting to the rest of the community.

But choosing not to choose is perhaps the only authentic option when you have the luxury of having two activities that bring you different rewards, different challenges and different joys. And many people, I'm sure, secretly want to do not just one thing, but several. Recently a student asked me for career advice (I know, terrifying). She said she was split, because she wanted to be a film maker, but 'not just': she was also considering being a researcher in psychology, or perhaps a teacher, or even a consultant. Why can't we do several things at the same time, when we have so many interests?

I agreed of course, but said the reasonable thing: doing several jobs, especially an artistic one and another 'official' one, is difficult. She said 'Well, you manage it!' I told her 'managing' was a strong word - she doesn't see the moments when I'm marking essays all evening before updating my PowerPoint for a school visit the next day, or playing Google-Calendar-Tetris with deadlines on fiction-writing and article submissions and conference abstracts and book edits.

Since I was making it sound like my life was only slightly less sinister than that of the Baudelaire orphans, she blurted out: 'But you're happy, aren't you?'. I had to admit that I am...

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Clementine Beauvais writes children's books in French and English. She blogs here about children's literature and academia and is on Twitter @blueclementine.

Detail: A Tale of Two Activities - Clémentine Beauvais