Tomorrow (Sat 4th February) is National Libraries Day, a day when people up and down the country are being urged to get down to their local library and be reminded of just how flippin’ brilliant it is.

Because libraries are brilliant, and right now they really need your help, with countless branches being closed across the UK, and hundreds of library staff losing their jobs. National Libraries Day is a day when book lovers everywhere can stand up and show how much they value the services their local library – and libraries in general – provide.

But I’m not going to dwell too much on the politics of it all. Other people are much more qualified to do that than I am. (If you’re interested, though, it’s well worth checking out the blog of Alan Gibbons, a leading library campaigner and fab author to boot). What I’m going to talk about is what my first local library meant to me.

Caol Library was – and thankfully still is – a small but well-stocked building attached to Caol Primary School near Fort William, Scotland. Growing up I went to Caol School, and once a week we’d go to the library to choose a book. Even then, aged 5,  I considered books to be magical things. Walking into a library or bookshop always made my heart beat a little faster and my head race as I imagined the countless possibilities sitting spine-out on those shelves. The visit to Caol Library would always be the highlight of my school week.

I can still remember the smell of it – it was a comforting smell, a smell that said “here be fun and awe and terror and wonder. And some Mills & Boon, but ignore those”. From the moment you walked in the door it was a mild-mannered and oh-so-polite assault on your senses. The books, so many different colours, so many different sizes, so many different shapes. They were lined up neatly on shelves, spread out across tables, stacked on the desk patiently waiting to be checked back in.

And the silence! Oh, the glorious silence. I was never a fan of a noisy, rowdy classroom, and we were all under strict instructions to behave ourselves in the library. Amazingly, everyone did as they were told, and the thirty minutes we spent in near silence as we picked our books felt like a special time, when the world had been put on pause while I browsed through other worlds I might wish to visit.

Being a small library, there was only one member of staff. Mrs White was the librarian during my first few years at primary school, and then Mrs McAllister took over. Both of them were lovely. Both of them I still remember, long after I’ve forgotten half of the classmates I had at the time. Mrs McAllister let me stamp my own books and put the ticket into my little folder in her impeccably organised filing system. I was allowed to check out my own books! For a book-loving 9 year old, it was like being handed the key to the Universe.

There was also a monster in the store cupboard. I know this because both Mrs White and Mrs McAllister told us so. They would go into the store cupboard to fetch some books and scold the monster for misbehaving, or become locked in battle with it, their head popping around the door frame after a few seconds to assure us they’d soon have things under control.

It’s no longer my local library, but whenever I do go to Caol Library I know the monster is still in there, because the librarians – my librarians – made me believe all those years ago.

Shortly after my first visit with the school I became a regular visitor to the library outwith school hours. I’d spend whole days there sometimes browsing the shelves, reading, chatting to the librarian or just praying for a glimpse of the monster in the cupboard. Other days I’d go in, grab the first book I saw and take it home to devour it in an afternoon.

I estimate I was probably taking out aroud 100 books a year by the time I was 10, and reading dozens more in the library itself. My parents could not possibly have afforded to buy that many books, and so without the library my world would have been a lot smaller, a lot duller, and I doubt I’d be doing the job I do today.

A world without libraries – without luxurious silences, Mrs McAllisters and monsters in the store cupboards – would be a world with a little less magic floating around in it. I don’t know about you, but I think we need as much magic these days as we can get.

Nostalgia and magic aside, libraries are also a vital resource to so many communities, acting as everything from a social gathering place to an informal advice centre. I read a quote recently that said if you ask Google a question it will help you find a million answers. If you ask a librarian the same question, she (or he) will help you find one, but it’ll be the right one.

So whatever you’ve got planned tomorrow, make time to go visit your nearest library. If you’re not a member, sign up. If you are a member, bring a friend with you who isn’t. Browse the shelves. Chat to the librarians. Get to know the place, and in no time at all you’ll love it, and you’ll be doing your bit to help libraries stay open and stay around.

And when you’re there, if you happen to come across the store room and notice that the door is ever so slightly ajar, whatever you do don’t go inside…

For more information on National Libraries Day, check out the official website.

Another day, another new website to tell you all about. Pestilence – one of the Horseman of the Apocalype and a major player in my upcoming novel THE 13TH HORSEMAN – has started keeping a diary, which I’m publishing online without his knowledge or consent. I’ll continue to publish his diary entries right up until the book’s publication on March 1st, and maybe even beyond.

If you want to find out what Famine has eaten in the past 24 hours, uncover new and exciting rashes, or just get the lowdown on what it’s like to be one of the Four Horsemen, then check out the Diary of the Apocalypse at The13thHorseman.com.

As any writer who does events in schools will tell you, one of the most common questions we get asked is “Where do your ideas come from?”. There are as many answers to that question as there are writers in the world, but I thought I’d share the story of where my most recent idea came from. I can’t tell you the idea itself yet, because I plan writing this one some day. What I can tell you is that just the very thought of it made me laugh out loud, which is a good sign, I reckon.

Anyway, how it came about…

I was walking the dog. What, didn’t I mention? We have a dog now. Long story. I was walking her along a woodland path in the middle of nowhere. In terms of finding ideas, this is always a good place to start. Sitting at a desk forcing ideas to come can be a difficult, fruitless exercise, so if you’re looking for inspiration I suggest you get outside, or visit somewhere you don’t normally go. Museums and art galleries can be great places to find ideas. Often they’re hiding behind the exhibits, or camouflaged against the paintings, but they’re there if you look hard enough.

But back to my idea. There I was, strolling along the path, the dog running on ahead somewhere. I wasn’t actively looking for an idea. I wasn’t really do anything except walking. But then I saw it – a large shape swooping above me. I ducked instinctively. I made a noise a bit like “Woooawargh!” which I’m grateful no-one else was around to hear. I looked up and realised that what had startled me was just a canopy of leaves moving in the breeze.

I was still ducked down low when I felt the idea creep in. It came slowly at first, as if tentatively feeling its way into my head. If you’ve read any of my INVISIBLE FIENDS books you might remember the tingling Kyle feels at the base of his skull and across his scalp when he uses his abilities. I based that feeling on how I feel when a new idea comes to me. It’s a physical feeling, an electric buzzing through my brain that I couldn’t ignore even if I wanted to.

That’s what happened yesterday. Once the tingling started it quickly grew, bringing the idea in with it. “Wow!” I thought. “Wouldn’t it be amazing if that had been a <TOP SECRET WORD>?” I thought. And it would have been amazin. Although I’d probably now be dead.

I kept walking, and with every step the idea got bigger. What if this happened? What if that happened? Before I knew it I had the general concept worked out, but I didn’t have any idea of a story because I didn’t yet have any characters, and characters are what make stories happen.

A few hundred yards later, I came across this:

Dare you enter the Forest of Implausible Fractions?

I have absolutely no idea what the numbers on that tree represent. I don’t really care. That was enough to steer me in the direction of the next part of my idea. My characters would be school kids. More than that, they would be school kids who really weren’t very good at fractions. I mean, who ever heard of thirteen quarters?

I kept walking and this new idea jumbled around with the original one. My brain felt like it was vibrating now. I had a spring in my step and butterflies were throwing a party in my stomach. I can’t speak for other writers, but when a new idea grabs me I get a real adrenaline rush – one I can only liken to those first few moments on a rollercoaster, as the cars clank up and up and up towards the top of the first hill.

My characters developer further. They weren’t just poor at fractions, they were failing at all their school work. They became a group of badly behaved teens who were about to be expelled from their inner city school. A setting like the one I was in would be completely alien to them, and I could already hear them complaining and arguing as they trudged through the darkening woods. The characters we coming alive in my head, although I didn’t even know their names.

An hour later I got home from the walk. It took another hour to scribble down all the different parts of my story idea, and as I wrote down what I’d come up with new ideas started to force their way in, too. I now have several pages of notes which include a rough plot outline, five character biographies, some ideas for specific scenes and even some lines of dialogue.

Had I sat at home that morning and told myself to come up with an idea then those notebook pages would likely still be empty. That’s because it’s easier to find ideas than to create them from thin air. I found my latest idea lurking in the woods. Where will you find yours?

A big thanks to the fantastic Lari Don who inspired this post by talking about where her own ideas come from. You can read Lari’s post here, and if you haven’t checked out her books yet I highly recommend that you get your finger out.

It’s a real quickie this one, but I wanted to let you all know that I’ve written a review of the Marvel Ultimate Graphic Novel Collection over on my other website, The Phantom Zone. The review is of the first book to be released in the series, The Amazing Spider-Man: Coming Home, and you can read it by clicking that link right there up above.

That’s it for now. Back tomorrow to talk about The Beast, which is officially published on Thursday.

Darren over at the fantastic BookZone4Boys has written the first review of the lastest INVISIBLE FIENDS book, THE BEAST. Darren has been a huge supporter of the series since it started, and this review is no exception.

“This is definitely one of my favourite series of books for the 9+ age group of the past few years, if not of all time.”

Check out the full review right here.

Now obviously you know I’ve got a blog, or how else would you be reading this? But did you know you can also find me on Facebook? Oh aye, I’m dead up to date with technology an’ that.

If you enjoy my books then hurry up and become an official fan over on the Facebook page. The link below will take you to the page, then all you have to do is click “Like”. Simple as that. I’m going to be running some exclusive Facebook competitions in January so now’s the perfect time to declare your undying love and devotion.

YES! I Wish to Declare Myself an Official Fan of Barry Hutchison. Because He’s Ace.

This will probably be my last post before the New Year, but one of my (many) resolutions is to do more with the blog, so expect a flurry of activity in early January gradually fading to nothing by early February, followed by ten months of stutteringly irregular updates whenever I can be arsed find time in my busy schedule.

All the best for the bells, then, and I’ll meet you back here in 2012, muchachos.

Well, Christmas has been and gone and I’m hoping that Santa was nice to you all. He was very nice to me and brought me a Kindle ebook reader, even though – whisper it – I’m not really a very big fan of ebooks. I much prefer the feel smell and taste of a real book (yes, I said taste. Don’t judge me) and so don’t see me spending a lot of time using the Kindle to read other people’s books on.

What I will be using it for is reading my own books. No, I won’t be buying them and downloading them, I mean I’ll be reading my books before they become books. You see, whenever I finish a draft of a novel I’m working on, I print it off so I can give it a good read through and check for anything else that needs to be changed. This uses lots of paper and ink, and it’s quite awkward carrying around 200+ pages of A4 with me wherever I go. Now I don’t need to, and can just send the manuscripts to my Kindle instead, ready for reading wherever and whenever I like.

All that said, if ebooks encourage people to read more then that’s great. Everyone should be free to choose their preferred format to read on, whether it be in print, on an e-reader, on a PC screen or on a mobile phone. As long as the electronic versions don’t actually replace printed books, then I’m all in favour of them.

And if you have a Kindle, or have installed the Kindle app on your smartphone, iPod or computer, then you can grab the award-winning INVISIBLE FIENDS: MR MUMBLES for the shockingly low price of just 99p on Amazon UK and about $1.50 ish on Amazon US.

End of year round-up post coming in the next couple of days. Stay tuned!

Tomorrow sees the beginning of what is destined to be the greatest battle in the history of all mankind. A thousand years hence, citizens of what shall by then be known as “Baztopia” (currently “Earth”) will look back and say “ooh, that was quite exciting, wasn’t it?”, before returning to their blissful, joy-filled lives.

Because tomorrow, my friends, sees the start of the final of Book Cover Wars 2011! My lovely, lovely new book, THE 13TH HORSEMAN, is in the final four, and what better way to celebrate than by the ruthless character assassination of one of my opponents?

So, in case you’d temporarily taken leave of your senses and were considering voting for his book, here are five things you probably didn’t know about WEREWORLD author, Curtis Jobling…

1. Curtis designed and developed the character models for Bob the Builder. Over a period of several months he painstakingly fashioned each of the characters by hand using his patented mix of dog hearts, asbestos and babies’ tears.

2. The character of Pilchard the cat was added to the show in tribute to all the kittens Curtis has microwaved over the years. The stripes on Pilchard’s back and tail represent the age at which Curtis commited his first kitchen-related kitten atrocity (7).

3. The concept for Curtis’ WEREWORLD books was actually the brainchild of eighty-six year old homeless man, Alfie Thompson. Curtis bought the idea from the crippled WWII veteran for seventeen pence and half a sandwich he found in a bin outside the Leicester branch of Marks & Spencer. Shortly afterwards Mr Thompson reportedly died of acute sadness.

4. The stories themselves are hand-written by teams of children in the poverty-stricken Chinese city of Shenzhen, who work up to eighteen hours a day writing paragraph after paragraph of material. At the end of each week, Curtis selects the paragraphs which will be included in the finished books. Those children whose efforts don’t merit inclusion are summarily executed under Jobling’s watchful eye.

5. Curtis is the creator of the animated show, Frankenstein’s Cat. The show features a feline protagonist who was pieced together  by a deranged madman from the ruined remains of other cats. The entire premise is actually a biographical account of Jobling’s teenage years. See point 2, above.

So, dear friends, is this really the type of person you want to give your vote to? A man who executes sweat shop workers, breaks the hearts of pensioners and harvests baby tears for his own personal use?

Actually, knowing my readership, the answer to that question is probably “yes”. Damn. I really didn’t think this through.

Ah well, I don’t suppose it really matters who you vote for, just vote for your favourite, and may the best cover win!

It has been a right rollercoaster of a November this year, with me zooming all over the country doing events. Back at the start of the month I took part in the Faclan Hebridean Book Festival which saw me jetting off to visit schools on the Isles of Lewis, Harris and Barra. I was there for three days in all and I’ll post some photos when I manage to wrestle them from my phone.

I was home one day before I had to rush off again, this time to the Lennoxlove festival in East Lothian. I was at the festival in 2010, too, when it was a bit of a wash-out, weather wise. This year, though, the sun was splitting the sky, and everyone seemed to really enjoy themselves. Lennoxlove House, where the festival takes place, is an absolutely stunning venue, and it even has its very own haunted piano. How many other book festivals can boast that?

I had three whole days to rest after that, and then it was off to the Imprint Festival in Ayrshire. I did two events at Imprint, one of which was broadcast live online to schools across Scotland. Knowing my luck I had a bit of broccoli between my teeth as the camera zoomed in one me, despite the fact that I’ve never eated broccoli, and almost certainly never will.

Here are some photos now from Imprint. Look. Here they come.

About to smash an unsuspecting child with my invisible hammer

 

Then showing off my equally invisible hula hoop

 

See how they mock me!

As if that wasn’t enough, I’m just back from two days in the North East of England as part of the Northern Children’s Book Festival. I ran six events in four schools over two days, and spoke to hundreds of kids and teens. A bird got into the last event and caused some comedy havoc, but aside from that little hiccup it was a great couple of days.

But now back to writing. I’m working on the final Invisible Fiends book at the minute – THE DARKEST CORNERS. It’s already available to pre-order through Amazon and other online type places which, considering it isn’t out until August next year, is just plain silly.

That said, it looks like someone has already pre-ordered a copy. Well done, whoever you are.

You may remember that last year, The Crowmaster was one of the finalists in the Book Cover Wars event held over at Mr Ripley’s Enchanted Books. I asked you to vote and you voted in your tens! Sadly, The Crowmaster was beaten by… someone else. I forget who. That pesky Shan, probably.

Anyway, that was last year. This year it isn’t the Crowmaster who needs your help, it’s the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse because The 13th Horseman is in this week’s heat, and it’s up against some very stiff competition. What’s more, two of the other three covers belong to books written by fellow Trapped By Monsters writers – namely Andy Briggs and Tommy Donbavand – so this is the round voted most likely to collapse into petty bickering and squabling before the week’s half out.

The Horsemen of the Apocalypse have asked me to request that you vote for their cover. Especially Famine, who has never won anything in his life. He and the others would dearly love to win this, so go cast your vote now!