Once upon a time, there was a coven. Its name was, well, let’s just call it A.S.P. Coven. There was also a cat, he was called Kevin. Of course, he was black. Each member of the coven was vetted by Kevin—legend had it that if he sank his teeth into your ankle, you were accepted. […]
Week #28: The story behind the ghost
(I was asked by my publishers, Scholastic, to do a blog post about the making of There’s a Ghost in My PC, and this is a result of that.) There’s a Ghost in My PC had its genesis in a short story I wrote for a Puffin anthology of ghost stories. I’ve never met a […]
Week #27: Instant wonderland
If there is magic, it has to be in books. Right? I mean, what else can whisk us off to new worlds in an instant, let us hobnob with interesting people and outwit nasty villains, and in general immerse ourselves in great adventures? Heck, what else can pull down a curtain—albeit temporary—on the intense ordinariness […]
Week #26: My favourite bookshops
Would you believe it—we’re at the halfway point of the year! Well, a little past, really, since I’m late in posting this (mostly because the heat and humidity were driving me nuts and now that the rains have come, I feel human again). So now that it’s cool(er) outside and the thought of traipsing out […]
Week #25: Slightly Burnt, a work in progress
I’m staring at a contract on my desk right now. Which means, pending a couple of signatures, my new book will be on its way to be being primped and prepped for publication. Titled Slightly Burnt, it is a young adult novel and my first completely, fully non-fantasy work. There isn’t even a whiff of […]
Week#24: My to-read list
I haven’t made a list in a really long time, so here goes. This is my current (priority) to-read list, in no particular order: Bartimaeus: The Ring of Solomon (Jonathan Stroud): I started reading this on my trip to Singapore, but it got left behind because it was to heavy to carry around. Our favourite […]
Week #23: The relevance of fantasy
(This was written after my panel discussion on “The Future of the Fantastic” with Sally Gardner and Lara Morgan at the Asian Festival of Children’s Content in Singapore. It got me thinking about the relevance of fantasy in our lives and why I think it’s important.) I’ve been asked—usually by well-meaning, non-reading adults and never […]
Week #22 Delayed: An AFCC report
Yep, I was too busy having fun (and working, of course) at the Asian Festival of Children’s Content (AFCC) in Singapore to post Week #22 in time (there will be two posts this week to catch up). In short, the AFCC was a fantastic, fabulous experience. It was a confluence of numerous writers and illustrators, […]
Week #21: A hattrick of great reads
For every disappointing book I read, I try to tell myself that there are probably dozens of great ones out there. That was more than adequately proved by the three great reads I managed over the last week. The Magnificent Superdog Himanjali Sankar’s The Stupendous Timetelling Superdog stars Rousseau, a rather silly golden retriever who […]
Week #20: Believing the Lie, a review
When I finished reading Believing the Lie by Elizabeth George, I wondered fleetingly if this was the worst book I’d ever read. Well, by a long way, no. Because, unbelievable though it is, it did keep me reading on. All 650+ pages of the tiny type, despite my frustration with the narrative style, despite getting […]