Debuts 2015 & 2016 - Day 4 - Anna McKerrow

Welcome to Day 4 of the celebration of the debut authors of 2015 and today I have an author who has quickly become a firm favourite in the YA world - Anna McKerrow. 

Anna McKerrow debuted in March this year with Crow Moon published by Quercus. 

The second book in this series, Red Witch, will be published in March 2016. 

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What was the reaction to your book cover when it was revealed?

The cover for CROW MOON got an unbelievable reception when it was revealed, and I still get lots of comments about it. I really liked it, but I hadn’t quite anticipated how popular it was going to be! It’s a simple silhouette design of a girl’s head against a white background with a modern style title; the detail of paint splodge/space with stars in the silhouette is subtle and very beautiful. The artist is an American chap called Alex Cherry; he did the cover for RED WITCH too. The cover of CROW MOON was a clever solution for what is in many ways a cross-genre book; it’s not straight witchy, it has romance and climate fiction elements too and it’s a dystopia/utopia, so it was really hard to get a representative and appealing cover. So I’m delighted that so many people love it.

How do you feel about publishing your sophomore book?

Super excited - and deadly nervous. I think RED WITCH is possibly a better book than CROW MOON - and at least as good, but my worry is that other people won’t think so! Book 2 of a trilogy can be a tough point in the story and it has to stand up on its own as well as carry the overall story forward. There’s the other weird thing of readers alrady being invested in your story, instead of coming to it cold the first time around. What if they don’t like it? What if you don’t do what they wanted with the characters? And there’s the worry about retailers might not take up book 2 as much as book 1. That’s a possibility. But overall, nerves aside, it’s really exciting. Really.

What was the best piece of advice you were given about publishing?

Before the trilogy was accepted by Quercus, I was lucky to have some feedback on the book from an Editor at another publishing house. She was really generous with her time and talked to me about making the right choice of publisher for the book. One thing she said to me was that you can only be a debut author once, so you should make the best choices for you - listen to your instincts but aim high and go for the best deal for your book. That isn’t to say that your whole career rests on your debut; in fact, most writers will mature nicely over time, like wine (!) however, it’s an important moment and if you can start strong, that can only be a good thing.

Did you have to visit schools and were the visits what you were expecting?

I’ve done some school events with CROW MOON and really enjoyed them. I’ve worked with schools in my professional life for a long time now so school environments are pretty familiar; I’m glad of all the years I spent teaching, running workshops, visiting schools, working in a drama school with incredibly rowdy young people (I mean, if you want to test your public presentation skills, go and try and get the attention of a hall of 50 drama students. They never shut up. And I say that with love. I love actors.) Nowadays I’m fairly relaxed with teens and doing presentations, and not minding the chatter and giggling which comes as part of it! I really enjoy being around young people anyway, that’s part of why I started writing for them. They’re bright and funny and sensitive and honest.

What I’ve been surprised by, I suppose, is how much the teens and the teachers and librarians want to talk about the pagan elements of the book, and about me as a pagan and what that means. It’s great to be able to talk to young people about what that term might really mean in the modern world - someone who is an environmental activist, someone who tries to be in tune with the natural rhythms of the earth, the seasons, the sun and moon, and enact change in their life and the world around them in accordance with the highest good, and in harmony with those energies - and connecting to deities from historic cultures, especially a Goddess. That’s simplifying the work and commitment involved but it’s hard to represent a very diverse spiritual path - and a recognised UK religion in Paganism and Druidry, by the way - in a school Q&A session! Still, I try.

What was the best quote about your book that you received? 

I’ve been very fortunate to have received some lovely reviews for CROW MOON. But my favourite is Lucy Powrie describing it as her dream novel. When I was developing the story and had decided to take it forward and try to get it published, my dream was that at least one teen - probably a girl - would really like it. That I could reach at least one young woman and entertain her, make her believe that magic is real; write that book that I always wanted to read in my teens, and after. If I do nothing else, I’ve achieved that goal and that feels great.

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Thank you Anna for sharing your experiences as a debut. Come back tomorrow to hear from another one of our successful debuts of 2015.

Chuck a Book with Anna McKerrow - #YAShot 2015

To help celebrate and publicise the #YAShot 2015, I am pleased to welcome one of the authors taking part in the event, Anna McKerrow, who has picked her choices for Chuck a Book. 

#YAShot 2015 is a one-day Young Adult and Middle Grade ‘festival’ taking place in the centre of Uxbridge on Wednesday 28 October 2015 in partnership with Hillingdon Borough Libraries and Waterstone’s Uxbridge.If you would like to buy a ticket for the event, then please click here.

The best book you have ever read. 

This is a totally unanswerable question! I mean, REALLY. There are so many I’ve loved to distraction. Oryx and Crake/Year of the Flood/MADDADDAM by Margaret Atwood, but basically more or less everything she’s ever written. Possession by AS Byatt’s right up there. Lord of the Rings. The Moon and Sixpence by Somerset Maugham which is a kind of fictionalised life of Paul Gaughin; American Gods by Neil Gaiman. Loads more. Amazing short story collection called Corpus by Susan Irvine. 

A book you loved from your childhood.

The Neverending Story by Michael Ende which was far and away the one I read to tatters along with The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe. If anything, people remember the film which was pretty cheesy, but the book is fantastical and brilliant and full of sphinxes and a desert that turns into a forest by day and is patrolled by a mystical lion, and a castle in the shape of a hand, dotted with eyes. To this day I marvel at the philosophical depth it contains, which I was aware of at the time, but didn’t have the vocabulary to pinpoint: the notion that a fantasy world of fiction exists as its own place, but only humans have the power to make new things and give them new names. The hero, Bastian, a human child, is the only one that can give the Empress of Fantastica a new name, and without a new name she’ll die. It’s like she is a goddess, this creation that we made with our minds and now exists somewhere on the ether, but gods and goddesses get forgotten over time when their followers die out, unless they get revived with new names and new clothes. That’s also true of stories; we don’t write new stories; we rewrite the old ones and make them new again. The human power of creation. Everyone should read it! 

A book that made you laugh

So many - I love funny books, but probably the funniest is The Henry Root Letters. It was a spoof letter-writing campaign by a mystery person pretending to be a really offensive character, Henry Root, a wet fish salesman, in the 1980s and contains all the genuine replies from the leading lights of that time. Only one response ever seems to suspect it’s a hoax. The rest are a mix of polite, enraged and confused. It wouldn’t work as well now because organisations have such standardised responses to everything, but then you could write a letter to the BBC or Jonathan Cape or Esther Rantzen - or the owner of a model agency asking for “a couple of goers” to come to an office party - and reasonably expect to get a personal reply. 

 I also really loved Russell Brand’s REVOLUTION. I cried with laughter - although I really liked it as a “book with a message” too. I went to see Russell Brand do stand up at the Soho Theatre years ago before he was so famous. There was an audience of about 60 people I think, and at one point a man got up to go to the loo. When he’d left the room Russell told us all to hide behind the curtain, so when he came back, there was no-one there. Then we jumped out at this guy, like, SURPRISE!!! when he came back. I love his Trews series. 

A book you could not finish. 

Oh, LOADS. I often don’t finish things because I’m easily bored. War and Peace. Most Russian literature I’ve read, actually. I had to study it at University and it was just SO depressing and dull. Fathers and Sons by Ivan Turgenev was particularly awful, though perhaps with the benefit of age I might like it more now. What else. Oh, for a different reason - Rose Madder by Stephen King, just because it was so horrible I couldn’t get past one really, really scary scene. I love Stephen King but there are definitely some of his that have scared the pants off me. 

A book that made you swoon. 

I’m not a massive romance fan, but I loved Cross Stitch, or Outlander, by Diana Gabaldon. Super sexy, super swoony, super magical and loads of men in kilts fighting. YUMMY. I haven’t seen the TV version yet but in a way I don’t want to spoil the version of Jamie in my head. Oh and It’s So Easy by Duff McKagan, which is his autobiography, and really heartwarming, and I had a massive crush on him anyway and even more so after that, because - what a great guy. 

A book you can’t wait to read.

I watched Wayward Pines on TV recently, a kind of thriller dystopia which initially looks like Twin Peaks but evolves into something way darker, and I loved it. Apparently it was a book originally so I really want to read that. Also I have Kim Gordon’s autobiography on my shelf and I know it’s going to be amazing.

 A series you have read and loved.

As mentioned - Game of Thrones. Not a particularly unusual or original choice, but hey - there’s a reason so many people love it. I got recommended to read it to study the world building when I was rewriting CROW MOON and remember enjoying it for the first bit until Jaime Lannister pushes Bran out of the window, and then suddenly I was like OH MY GOD!!! And as we know, the series doesn’t disappoint. There’s plenty more AHA moments and things you weren’t expecting and just fabulous characters and the weaving of the world and the stories, and how they come together, it’s all just masterful.

A book that made you cry.

The Cider House Rules by John Irving - about an orphanage and the kindly but flawed doctor that runs it, makes me cry every time I read it when I come to the part when one of the children dies. Sorry, spoiler alert. It’s such a beautiful, beautiful, intelligent book too

Your guilty pleasure book.

I am, like you, Viv, a big fan of Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Café by Fannie Flagg (worst name ever, bless her) which despite dealing with difficult themes of racism and violence against women managed to be uplifting and sad at the same time. The pace of the book is slow and comfortable like a hot day in the American South. Not a guilty pleasure so much as just a pleasure. I don’t think I have any guilty reads. If GIFs of Matthew McConaughey in True Detective was a book, that would be my current guilty pleasure.

A book that took you out of your comfort zone

Not because it was an unusual genre or anything, but Lost Riders by Elizabeth Laird which is a middle grade/early teen book about children being trafficked to be camel jockeys in the middle east. It was an amazing book and I really loved it but it was incredibly difficult to read because it was so sad, and what happened to those children was so horrific.

 Remember you can see Anna McKerrow and a whole host of other fabulous YA and MG authors at the one day event in Uxbridge on the 28th October 2015.

Crow Moon by Anna McKerrow is published by Quercus

Summary

Danny is a fun-loving 16-year-old looking for a father figure and falling in love with a different girl every day. He certainly doesn't want to follow in his mum's witchy footsteps.

Just as his community is being threatened by gangs intent on finding a lucrative power source to sell to the world, Danny discovers he is stunningly powerful. And when he falls for Saba, a gorgeous but capricious girl sorceress, he thinks maybe the witch thing might not be such a bad idea...

But what cost will Danny pay as, with his community on the brink of war, he finds that love and sorcery are more dangerous than he ever imagined?

To find out more about Anna McKerrow:

Twitter / Website

Crow Moon by Anna McKerrow

 

The fire in the middle of the circle casts flickering shadows over our faces: we stand obediently in its fierce warmth, following the words of the monthly full-moon ritual.

I raise my hands up to the star-riddled Cornwall evening just like everyone else, just like every month, and feel nothing.

First of Greenworld Series

Published by Quercus on 5th March 2015 

408 pages in review paperback

Summary from Publisher’s website

Danny is a fun-loving 16-year-old looking for a father figure and falling in love with a different girl every day. He certainly doesn’t want to follow in his mum’s witchy footsteps.

Just as his community is being threatened by gangs intent on finding a lucrative power source to sell to the world, Danny discovers he is stunningly powerful. And when he falls for Saba, a gorgeous but capricious girl sorceress, he thinks maybe the witch thing might not be such a bad idea…

But what cost will Danny pay as, with his community on the brink of war, he finds that love and sorcery are more dangerous than he ever imagined?

*****

Reviewed by K. M. Lockwood

Quercus, the publishers, quite rightly mention passion and wickedness in their promotion for this novel. For me what underpins the whole story is Anna McKerrow’s passion for the setting she has created. This Greenworld is fully realised and utterly believable - she includes the muck as well as the magic. 

We’re seeing it through Danny’s eyes - our 16 year old main character - and so the reality of the wickedness that threatens his community grows on him - and us. As the publishers say, it is a coming-of-age adventure. We want him to grow up - and oh does he get the dramatic events to do that! I was thrilled by the cunning use of witchcraft and folklore, enough to feel real, yet so sparing and wrapped up in the adventure to intrigue.

I am not really a romance fan - but I’d say the relationship tensions add to the story. Many readers will fancy Danny, I expect. There’s a fair bit of character-led humour too which enriches the mix. That makes any perils and losses all the more heartfelt.

This will suit those who love reading about adolescents trying to find their role in a magical world very close to our own. The sort of person who wants to speculate about an alternative future - but see it through a credible contemporary character. More thoughtful readers will pick up on the underlying issues of gender, race and spirituality - but happily, it zips along without preaching.  There’s plenty of action with supernatural threats and violence, and romance that touches on sexuality. Nothing there without a point, though, I’d say.

The notes were an informative bonus.  You will just have to wait for the second story - which I rather hope lets us see the Redworld - until next spring.

Twitter Picks

 

Welcome to Twitter Picks - a brand new feature on Serendipity Reviews for 2015!

I used to love taking part in a feature called Friday Finds on the blog, Should Be Reading. However I realised most of the books I find these days don’t tend to be through blog hopping; I  usually find them now through Twitter.  So I thought this would be a good way of sharing them with you. So every so often I will be sharing my book finds and where I found them in this new feature Twitter Picks. Please feel free to post your own finds and use the button if you would like to join in. You know what, I might even make it a weekly feature.

Let’s get started. Here are my Twitter Picks from this week.

Seal Island by Julia Green - found via @WondrousReads

Published by Oxford University Press Published in July 2014

Jenny at Wondrous Reads always has such good taste in books and this one for children really caught my eye.

Grace is excited about her holiday, staying with Granny at her house in the Hebrides. She makes friends with local boy Col, and together they go exploring all over the Island. One day, Grace discovers a baby seal injured on the beach. She's not sure if she can save it, but she's determined to try.

All The Bright Places by Jennifer Niven found via @fionanoblebooks

Published January 2015 by Penguin

Described as The Fault in our Stars meets Eleanor and Park!

Theodore Finch is fascinated by death, and he constantly thinks of ways he might kill himself. But each time, something good, no matter how small, stops him.
Violet Markey lives for the future, counting the days until graduation, when she can escape her Indiana town and her aching grief in the wake of her sister's recent death.
When Finch and Violet meet on the ledge of the bell tower at school, it's unclear who saves whom. And when they pair up on a project to discover the 'natural wonders' of their state, both Finch and Violet make more important discoveries: It's only with Violet that Finch can be himself - a weird, funny, live-out-loud guy who's not such a freak after all. And it's only with Finch that Violet can forget to count away the days and start living them. But as Violet's world grows, Finch's begins to shrink.

Frozen Charlotte by Alex Bell - found via @EnchantedBooks & @cloverness

Thanks to these two bloggers I discovered that Stripes are bringing out a new YA Horror series going under the name Red Eye. This was one of the books listed.

Published by Stripes in January 2015

We're waiting for you to come and play. Dunvegan School for Girls has been closed for many years. Converted into a family home, the teachers and students are long gone. But they left something behind...Sophie arrives at the old schoolhouse to spend the summer with her cousins. Brooding Cameron with his scarred hand, strange Lilias with a fear of bones and Piper, who seems just a bit too good to be true. And then there's her other cousin. The girl with a room full of antique dolls. The girl that shouldn't be there. The girl that died.

Crow Moon by Anna McKerrow - found via @Rhian_Ivory

Published by Quercus Kids in March 2015

At the moment, there is no cover to show or blurb to reveal. All I know is this the first part of a trilogy and is about witches. It contains a lot of authentic pagan and tarot knowledge, showing that the author really knows her stuff. I can’t wait to read it!