An exciting weekend for Clare Owen, author of Zed and the Cormorants, who describes herself as ‘beyond chuffed’ that not only did Zed win the YA Holyer An Gof award for 2022, but Clare herself won the Ann Trevenen Jenkin cup for authorship of a book for children or Young Adults.
We’ve agree the cup can stay with Clare for the year – it’s all hers! We get a certificate.
There will be an interview between Tiffany Truscott, who chaired the ceremony and Clare and winners in other categories on Radio Cornwall in the near future, when we find it we’ll let you know!
The Holyer An Gof awards are administered by Gorsedh Kernow
Here it is! Our first ever listen-along audiobook challenge.
Starting on Sunday 24 October, we invited YA readers to listen to a section of the Zed and the Cormorantsaudiobook, every day for a week. Each day we release exclusive Zed-inspired creative activities – from word searches to author videos, book club questions to crafts.
Bookmark this blog post and follow @ArachnePress on social media for extra content too.
Day 1 – Sun 24 Oct: Listen to Chapters 1 – 4 (inclusive) of Zed and the Cormorants, then:
Zed loves making origami figures – to help her relax, as gifts and as decorations. An origami cormorant like the one below is quite a challenge, but you could try making some paper butterflies, usingthis simple YouTube tutorial.
Day 2 – Mon 25 Oct: Listen to Chapters 5 – 11 (inclusive) of Zed and the Cormorants. While you are listening, pay particular attention to the descriptions of the cormorants.
“Zed watched it untuck its neck and raise itself up through an ‘S’ bend to form one almost straight line from yellow beak to glossy black tail. Then, with a little shudder, its wings unfolded and started to pulse: huge black wings with three layers of feathers, the bottom ones spreading out like a fan. And it was off too, raising itself vertically before flattening out and beating its way across the river. One long black wing angled down to the water, where with every stroke it seemed to brush its grainy reflection.”
“Its body was so sleek it looked like it had been painted in jet black oil, with a sheen of metallic purple or green, depending on the way the light fell when it twisted his head. Its eye was definitely green though, a shiny emerald bead.”
Day 3 – Tues 26 Oct: Listen to Chapters 12 – 16 (inclusive) of Zed and the Cormorants, then:
Try baking a recipe from the book! Bread, buns, cakes and scones abound in Zed and the Cormorants as Zed’s dad tries to establish his own bakery. Here are some simple recipes to recreate similar treats to those mentioned in the book:
Pay attention to the conversations between Zed and Tamsin in these chapters of the book – particularly noticing how their dialogue is evolving from when they first met. Can you recall what you spoke about when you first met your best friend? Try and remember, or imagine, what the conversation might have been like and write a short dialogue scene.
Day 4 – Weds 27 Oct: Listen to Chapters 17 – 22 (inclusive) of Zed and the Cormorants, then:
Log on to Twitter this afternoon and take a look at our book club questions. Discuss them with your friends or family, think about the questions yourself or join in with the conversation by tweeting us your thoughts!
Day 5 – Thurs 28 Oct: Listen to Chapters 23 – 28 (inclusive) of Zed and the Cormorants, then:
Head over to ReadingZone to watch a video of author Clare Owen and pick up some Gothic Writing Prompts from Clare, to help you write your own scary story.
Day 6 – Fri 29 Oct: Listen to Chapters 29 – 34 (inclusive) of Zed and the Cormorants, then:
Find a jam jar and some craft supplies to make a decorative chalice like the one Amy and Zed take down to the boathouse, or colour and decorate the jar on our drawing challenge worksheet.Visit ourInstagram pageto see a chalice we made earlier!
Day 7 – Sat 30 Oct: Listen to the final Chapters of Zed and the Cormorants, then:
With less than a week to go until publication, we are really excited to launch the blog and instagram tour for Zed and the Cormorants, with the first post going live tomorrow on @a_never_ending_story.
Zed and the Cormorants is a page-turning gothic mystery and contemporary coming-of-age story rolled into one. Perfect for readers aged 12-15, it is the debut novel by Clare Owen.
Zed’s family have moved from London to a village in Cornwall. Dad says they need a fresh start but nobody has asked Zed what she thinks. Maybe their new home will help with Mum’s depression and keep Amy, Zed’s sister, away from her drop-out boyfriend, but why does it have to be so remote?
Why has the boathouse at the bottom of the garden been locked up for seventy years? Why do the birds living by the estuary fill Zed with such dread? And WHAT do they want?
Follow the blog tour on the schedule above to read reviews of Zed and the Cormorants, guest posts from Clare Owen and even some Zed-inspired recipes. Plus, we will be sharing some exclusive content from the book!
Follow all the content from the blog tour here too:
Editor Cherry Potts talks about Devilskein and Dearlove a young adult novel by Alex Smith, which was nominated for the Carnegie Medal on 2015. Includes Q&A with the author, animated trailer by Nick Page and a couple of readings by actors Greg Page and Peter Noble.
You can buy Devilskein and Dearlove from our Webshop. Use the discount code ARACHNEVERSARY at the checkout throughout August.
A Young Adult fantasy trilogy which hinges on the importance of stories, truth and keeping your temper!
You can buy individual books at £1 off in our anniversary sale throughout August, just add ARACHNEVERSARY at checkout, or you can buy all three for £25 (nearly £5 off) go to our webshop!
Wolftalker is the final installment of The Naming of Brook Storyteller.
In this segment Brook (now known at Dragonfriend Wolftalker), and her storyteller apprentice, Cricket, have arrived at the city with Wolftalker’s ‘cousin’ Drinks-the-Wind, who is a wolf.
Wolftalker is officially available from bookshops today, one day after author Ghillian Potts 85th Birthday. (Happy Birthday Ghil!)
Ghillian
We will be launching the book with a reading by Math Jones
at The Blackheath Bookshop
34 Tranquil Vale, Blackheath, London SE3 0AX 6.30-8.30 15th June 2018
Free!
Everyone welcome.
Bring your younger kinfolk!
For those of you who have been following the highs and lows of Brook’s adventures, this is just as dramatic as the previous books, with the added responsibility of an apprentice storyteller to keep an eye on.
Brook is sent by the storytellers to right a wrong, and in the process takes on an apprentice, Cricket.
Far more important to her is her ‘cousin’ Drinks-the-wind, a Wilder wolf. Together the three of them discover a plot that puts all their friends, and even the Overlord, in danger.
As a bonus, the first book in The Naming of Brook Storyteller trilogy, Brat, is available from Amazon as a kindle for free for the next couple of days.
It’s been quite tricky to find affordable accessible venues for our launches recently which has led to some of them being delayed.
The good news is we have sorted out two of them, and are on the way to another.
In order of event date:
Not a launch but, Cathy Bryant is reading from her book ErraticsTONIGHT 28th May at Stirred Poetry at 3MT Manchester
Not a launch but, Kate Foley is reading from her book, A Gift of Rivers
at Sunday Night Lives, The Flying Pig, 106 Hills Road, Cambridge on Sunday 10th Junedoors 7pm event kicks off 7.30.
will be launched with a reading from the book by Math Jones
at The Blackheath Bookshop
34 Tranquil Vale,
Blackheath,
London
SE3 0AX 6.30-8.30 15th June 2018
Just turn up – but it would help to know that you are coming.
DUSK, the latest Solstice Shorts Festival anthology
We are doing a pre-launch event at the St John’s Festival at
St John’s Church 353 Bromley Road SE6 2RP (opposite Homebase)
with readings by Cherry Potts, Laila Sumpton, Michelle Penn and hopefully Katerina Watson on 20th June 12 noon
And then, the book is formallylaunchedon 21st June 7pm at Stephen Lawrence Gallery
10 Stockwell Street SE10 9BD
will be launched with a reading by Cathy
at Blackwell’s Manchester Metropolitan University
Nr Arthur Lewis Building,
The University of Manchester,
Bridgeford Street,
Manchester M13 9PL 6.30-8.30 28th June 2018
There will be free ticketing via eventbrite shortly, but get the date in your diary.
Part of our Women & SF/F event for Hither Green Festival.
Having discussed what we grew up reading, here’s a bit from one of Cherry’s early influences, her mum, Ghillian Potts. This is a section from Spellbinder, the middle book of the trilogy The Naming of Brook Storyteller.
The final installment, Wolftalker, is out on 7th June!
Cherry first read these books in her teens, and did a critique of them in her twenties, which was largely ignored!
Cherry Potts & Katy Darby Arachne Press authors and editors, talk about growing up reading SF & Fantasy, particularly by women, at Manor House Library for Hither Green Festival
For the completists amongst you, here is the list Cherry forgot to bring with her of lots of Sf/Fantasy books she loves, feel free to comment to add your own high points. There are loads more these were the ones that sprang readily to mind!
Growing up with SF/F – YA books and first reads…
Diana Wynne Jones The Spell Coat series
Susan Cooper The Dark is Rising
Sylvia Engdahl Heritage of a star
Jan Mark: Useful Idiots/ Riding Tycho/ The Ennead
Andre Norton Forerunner Foray, Plague Ship, Moon of Three Rings, The Beastmaster,Mark of the Cat, Witchworld series, Octagon Magic, Steel Magic etc
Tanith Lee The Dragon Hoard, Kill the Dead, Companions on the Road, Drinking Sapphire Wine
Ursula le Guin Earthsea series, Lathe of Heaven, Rocannon’s World, Left Hand of Darkness, The Dispossessed (actually pretty much anything by Ursula)
Helen Simpson Ingo series
Joy Chant Red Moon, Black Mountain
Pamela Sargeant Women of Wonder anthologies
Writers discovered in the 70s and 80’s
Margaret AtwoodHandmaid’s Tale
Joanna Russ We Who are About to
Jaygee Carr Leviathan’s Deep, Navigator Syndrome
Joan D Vinge Snow Queen, Catspaw,
Jane Yolen Cards of Grief, Briar Rose, short stories,
Vonda McIntyre Fireflood and other stories, Dreamsnake
Elizabeth A Lynn The Woman who Loved the Moon
C J Cherryh Faded Sun, Brothers of Earth, Heavy Time, the Morgaine series
Marian Zimmer Bradley Sword & Sorceress anthologies
Anne McCaffery The ship who sang, Pern series, Decision at Doona
Megan Lindholm Wolf Brother, Harpy’s Flight
Suzy McKee Charnas Walk to the Ends of the World, Motherlines
Nicola Griffith Bending the Landscape (as editor), Hild, Ammonite, Slow RIver
R A MacAvoy Tea with the Black Dragon
Kate Wilhelm The Infinity Box, Where late the sweet birds sing,
Classics:
Charlotte Perkins Gilman Herland, The Yellow Wallpaper
James Tiptree, Jr Houston, Houston do you read? (short story) Her Smoke Went Up for Ever
Naomi Mitchison Memoirs of a Space Woman
Vera Chapman Three Damosels
Zenna HendersonThe Anything Box
More recent:
Naomi Novik Temeraire series
Emily St John Mandel: Station Eleven
Aimee Bender The Colour Master (short stories) Kate Atkinson Not the End of the World, Life After Life
Women writers of SF/Fantasy published by Arachne Press
Anthologies: (stories with SF/F flavour by women, there is SF/F by men, and stories with nothing to do with either SF or fantasy in most of them!) Weird Lies (Alex Smith, Angela Trevithick, C T Kingston,Ellen O ‘Neill, Maria Kyle, Peng Shepherd, Rebecca J Payne) winner of Saboteur2014 best anthology award Lovers’ Lies (Mi L Holliday, Michelle Shine) We/She (J A Hopper, Joanne L M Williams, Jennifer Rickard, Elizabeth Hopkinson, Ilora Choudhury, Katy Darby) Five by Five(Katy Darby, Helen Morris) Solstice Shorts (Helen Morris, Imogen Robertson, Cindy George, Jayne Pickering) Shortest Day, Longest Night (Polly Hall, Katy Darby,Pippa Gladhill, Karen Bovenmyer, Cherry Potts, Frances Gapper) Dusk(Pippa Gladhill, Penny Pepper, Fiona Salter, Helen Slavin,Katy Lee) Liberty Tales (Katy Darby, Cherry Potts, Sarah Evans) Stations (Cherry Potts, Caroline Hardman)
