So What if I Hog the Ball? is dedicated to Eudy Simelane

Following on from my blog about Jenny-Jane Bayliss, my angry, pink-hating character in So What if I Hog the Ball? I thought I’d talk about dedications.  Dedicating a book is quite a personal thing to me and I don’t dish them out lightly. I try to make each dedication appropriate to the title. The first book in the Girls FC series, Do Goalkeepers Wear Tiaras?’ for instance, is dedicated ‘To Robert Tingle - a promise kept.’  It’s a bit cryptic, I know. Readers don’t have a clue who Robert Tingle is or what the ‘promise kept’ means. I’ll tell you. Robert Tingle was a Year 5 boy I met on a school visit in Lancashire as part of the Shout About Books festival when Girls FC was but an idea I’d had that nobody, until then, had thought was a goer. Robert, bless his generous heart, said he thought a series about a girls football team was a great idea and that he’d give me all his pocket money to fund it!  I was so touched by his belief in me that I promised that I’d dedicate my first book to him, should it ever get published. Et voila!

For completely different reasons So What if I Hog the Ball? is dedicated to Eudy Simelane. Simelane was the captain of the women’s South Africa football team until her death in 2008, aged 30.  Eudy died in tragic circumstances.  She was murdered on her way home because she was gay and because she played a ‘man’s’ sport.  The killers are now in jail, thank goodness, as the case caused such outrage. A few years ago the culprits wouldn’t even have been brought to court as many judges would have said she deserved it.  As Jenny-Jane is a tough cookie having to fight her corner in a family where the men rule the roost and she’s mocked for being a ‘laddy-lass,’ dedicating Jenny-Jane’s book to Eudy Simelane seemed fitting.  And although it is a co-incidence that So What if I Hog the Ball? came out a month before South Africa hosts the World Cup, it’s good timing too. South Africa (indeed most of Africa) does not have the best of records when it comes to its treatment of women and girls by many of its disenfranchised men.

I’m glad to see that there are schemes trying to remedy this negative image, however. A piece in Saturday’s (5th June) Daily Telegraph called ‘Game For Life’ reports on how football is being used by some charities to encourage girls’ fitness and to spread the word about HIV and AIDS (rife in Africa). Girls who play sports (and this is true throughout the world) are more likely not only to be physically stronger and fitter than those who don’t but also to have higher self-esteem and be more independent. Such girls, it is hoped,  will have more confidence to demand respect in their future relationships. 18 year old Prudence Mgele is one example.  Nicknamed ‘Danismo’ because she’s so skilled on the pitch, she never knew her father, her mother was killed when she was ten and she was forced to live with an aunt and uncle who abused her.  The charity ‘Lovelife’ allowed Prudence to escape from that background, gave her a safe home and sponsors her football. Football is what she lives for. ‘I need to play football. I have to play football.’  Same as Jenny-Jane.

Romania Glad Stars an all girls team set up with the aid of charities such as Lovelife and sponsored by the South African government. Donations from football clubs such as Arsenal provide much needed kits.Picture courtesy of Telegraph Magazine

one series... seven titles (so far)

Nobody can accuse me of not keeping my website up to date and interactive!  First we had the penalty shoot out game, then the team picture screen saver to download and now… da-dah… you can vote.  Don’t worry, I’m not talking politics again. I mean you can vote for your favourite Girls FC title.

Simply click on the Girls FC logo on my homepage and  vote for the title you like the most.

In order they are:

Do Goalkeepers Wear Tiaras?

Can Ponies Take Penalties?

Are All Brothers Foul?

Is an Own Goal Bad?

Who Ate All the Pies?

What’s Ukrainian for Football?

So What if I Hog the Ball?

I can’t wait for the results!

The Parrs

Calling all you Girls FC fans out there. You can now download this fabulous picture of my Parrs squad for free to use as your computer screen background. Click on the toolbar on my website when you open it at any page, find the Girls FC logo and follow the simple instructions.  Enjoy!

Girl Reading © Sonia Leong

I’ve just bought a copy of this great print of a girl reading from Sonia Leong, the illustrator who does the covers for my Girls FC series. Isn’t it great? Look at those huge green manga- eyes shining so brightly from reading top quality fiction!

I’m always on the lookout for cards depicting books and people reading books but they are few and far between. Those I have found tend to be of genteel Victorian or Edwardian ladies in repose, using the book as a prop. I don’t think I’ve seen one of a contemporary boy or a girl. It’s the same finding cards of girls playing football.

There’s obviously a gap in the market. Maybe I ought to set up my own card company. Dragon’s Den, here I come…

To check out other prints Sonia has for sale, go to the shop page on her website (see my links page). At £3 each they’re not going to break the bank!

Hope you’ve all got something fun lined up for the weekend. I’m off down to Middlesex to watch Huddersfield Town playing Brentford. It’s going to be a tough match - we’re at that crucial stage in the season where every point counts if we are going to stay in the play-off position.  After that I’ll be working on book 9 of Girls FC and reading Wheels of War by Sally Prue.

Have a brilliant weekend. Sunshine all the way…

Girl in search of a title…

This is Tabinda. She is going to be the 8th book in the Girls FC series but at the moment we haven’t got a title for her. Her ‘problem’ in the story is that she is scared of heading the ball so the title needs to reflect that. It also needs to be in question form like the other books in the series.  The publishers have come up with three suggestions.

Here they are:

Isn’t this called football?

Can’t I just kick it?

Do I have to use my head?

In Waterstone’s on Saturday I did a mini survey. 6 children liked ‘Isn’t this called football? and the other two titles gained 9 votes each.  So it was too close to call on an out and out favourite.

Some of the children I asked came up with titles of their own:

Xavier: Wouldn’t my head fall off?

Edwin: Couldn’t you just roll it?

Alfie: Won’t my hair get dirty?

Chloe: What if I get a bump? and: What if it hurts me?

Spencer: Can’t I just throw it?

Alan MacDonald suggested: Won’t it hurt my head?

Before today i was leaning towards Can’t I just kick it? but now I’m not too sure. Any other ideas or voters out there?

Jenny-Jane

Meet Jenny-Jane Bayliss, coming to a bookshop near you.  She’s the seventh character in my Girls FC series and one of my favourites. On the team she’s the one who gets stuck in.  Fearless and determined, nothing fazes her; once she has the ball, she’s off down that wing like a hare from a trap and if she loses it, well, she doesn’t rest until she gets it back again.  Basically,  if Roy Keane had been ever been a ten-year old girl, this is what he’d have been like.

I think Sonia Leong, the illustrator, has captured JJ beautifully.  The scowling girl holding that ball tight and very, very unhappy at the new pink away shirt. PINK. Of all the colours in the world…

As a writer, it is my job to show what a character is like through dialogue and action. At the beginning of each Girls FC book there’s an interview with each player similar to interviews found in match day programmes. I love making these up. i have to get inside each of my characters’ heads and think ‘What would their favourite breakfast be?’ etc. Each answer reflects the character. Here are JJs ‘answers’  giving clues to the reader what they can expect once they read her story.

Name: Jenny Jane Bayliss

Age: Nearly 10

Birthday: October - you don’t need to know when in October

School:  Been to a few. Which one do you want?

Supports: ENGLAND and Millwall FC - they’re like my family. Nobody likes us and we don’t care.

Best football moment: When we win (dumb question)

What do you do in your spare time?  Mind my own business

Favourite band: Aerosmith

Favourite film: Transformers

Favourite book: Foul Play by Tom Palmer

Favourite TV programme: Wayne Rooney’s Street Striker

On reflection I think she’s a bit harder than Roy Keane! 

So What if I Am a Ball Hog? is out in May.

It’s a hard life…

All this week I have been planning the next book in my Girls FC series. Instead of sitting at my desk and drafting ideas, I’ve made it my mission to try something different this time so I’ve broken the habit of my writing lifetime and Gone Out. Brave or what?

Not wanting to go too crazy on the first day, I headed for the town library. There I settled at a long empty desk with a large picture window to my left and the poetry and plays section on my right.  Although the table could have accommodated another person or two I made it plain this was not desirable. Having observed the habits of the lesser-friendly commuter on trains from Edinburgh to London, I threw my coat went over one chair, my bag over another and spread my sheets of scrap paper across the desk as liberally as an MPs receipts. The message was quite clear. Busy Person Sitting here. Back off.  Luckily the library wasn’t too busy - most people were squashed over in the computer suite - so I was left alone.

Do you know what? I got loads done. I had my postcard of the Parrs in front of me and the ideas flowed. This book, the 9th in the series, is Gemma’s story.  Every team has one player who shines above the rest and Gemma is the Parrs’ star. That much anyone who has already read some of the books will know. They won’t know much else - Gemma is shy and quiet and so far hasn’t contributed much apart from scoring dazzling goals.  Nobody knows much about her. I didn’t know much about her until I started plotting.  By that I don’t mean I am starting from scratch - I know in my head what the storyline of all the books is - but I don’t know the nitty-gritty.  That’s where the planning stage comes in. By the time I left the library - about an hour and a half later - I had Gemma’s whole family history worked out. I was pleasantly surprised; turns out its a good ‘un!

Anyway. Working in the library. For or against?

For on a quiet day when I can have a table to myself. Marks out of 10: 8

Day 2:  This was Byron’s Cafe Day, already blogged.

Marks out of 10: 3

Day 3 & 4:  Stray’s Café

Bliss! Cosy, warm and plenty of light. The shop had a recently converted annexe off the main café that was empty. I found a corner table away from the window (I didn’t want to encourage customers) and did my spreading out stuff. Again, I surprised myself by how much work I got done.  At home, I’d have been distracted. Checking my e-mails, doing chores and so on. Here, I just got my head down and scribbled away. I was beginning to wonder what I’d been missing all this time. So this was why Harry Potter became such a success. Café culture!

Marks out of 10 Day 3: 9

(better than the library as I could drink coffee too. I would have given 10 out of 10 but 1 mark dropped for not having Americano and real cream. Cappuccinos are nice but calorific)

So far so good. Except… when I tried Strays again the next day (same table) it wasn’t as productive. The café was slightly busier but also the low level noise was bothersome. The jazz CD that was playing was jarring. There had been music the day before but it hadn’t been as intrusive somehow. Also, the door kept banging as people came in and out. Luckily I was only working out my match fixtures for the season but had I needed to work-work I couldn’t have.  A little cloud began forming on the ‘Doing a JK’ horizon…

Finally to Friday.

I tried a different café this time. A smaller one down a narrow street. The Illy sign looked promising so in I went. Downstairs was tiny - room for three tables only and all taken - so I headed up the narrow staircase to another small room but with more tables and only two customers. Unfortunately the two customers insisted on having a conversation with each other. I know! Fancy going in a café to talk to your friends! The cheek of it.  To be honest I hadn’t been expecting to get as much work done today because it was Friday, therefore busier in town, so I’d only bought my Book of Saints with me to choose a name for Gemma’s school.  Funnily enough it wasn’t the conversation but poor lighting that did for me. Even when I moved to a table by the window it wasn’t strong enough for reading or writing. Pity as they did have Americano with cream!

Marks out of 10 Day 5: 6

Conclusion: JK was definitely on to something here. When it’s fairly quiet and well lit, a café is a great writing environment. I discovered that I don’t need total solitude -  I found I could concentrate when surrounded by other people. However, I was aware of some conversations (and jazz solos) more than others. It depended on the pitch (I’m hard of hearing in one ear).

Getting out of the house was definitely beneficial. I felt part of the world without the need to engage in it. I found myself raring to get to town every morning. What I’m not sure about is whether this would work when I begin the writing proper - when I’ll need to concentrate on structure and dialogue?  I guess there’s only one way to find out. Watch this space.

National Football Museum Preston

‘The Old Year’s gone away

To nothingness and night’

- John Clare

It’s been a busy one. My writing highlights include:

1. Having the first 6 books in the GIRLS FC series published by Walker Books. Being particularly proud of ‘What’s Ukrainian for Football?’

2. Launching the series at the National Football Museum, Preston, in August.

3. Accidental Friends being shortlisted for three awards and losing out to Theresa Breslin by 1 vote at the Catalyst Book Award.

4. Meeting Tom Palmer (www.tompalmer.co.uk) and setting up ‘Reads United’ with him in time for the 2010 World Cup

5. Being invited to join the Children’s Writers and Illustrators Group (CWIG) Committee. I join Gillian Cross, Steve Barlow, Roz Asquith, Anne Cassidy, Am Vrombaut, Michaela Morgan, Bali Rai and Jeremy Strong to debate topical issues concerning children’s writers and illustrators.

6. Attending the Ultimate Book Guide Launch at the Groucho Club and meeting people like Cathy Hopkins and Jan Pienkowski.

7. ‘Doing’ not only the Oxford, Northern and Cheltenham book festivals but also all the school visits up and down the country.

Meanwhile, in the rest of the universe…

2009 will be remembered for Barack Obama becoming President of the USA, Swine Flu, Credit Crunch/Recession/Banks going bankrupt/MPs claiming for bath plugs, moat cleaning, duck houses and certain videos/ England Women’s football team getting to the Final of EURO2009, Tiger Woods digging a hole in one/ Ryan Giggs rightly being awarded Sports Personality of the Year/ my mum surviving not one, not two, not three but four operations in one week. That’s tough Yorkshire women for you.

But it was goodbye to:

Borders bookshops

Keith Waterhouse (journalist, playwright, Leeds lad made good)

Frank McCourt (writer of Angela’s Ashes, the best misery memoir ever)

Sir Bobby Robson (footballer and football manager, legend)

Michael Jackson (though I haven’t liked anything he did since Man in the Mirror, to be honest)