Yesterday I taught my first Guardian Masterclass of the year on how to pitch your book. The next is on 23rd February (click Guardian Masterclass for details). A question students always ask is: what exactly do agents want? It is easier to answer than you might think. Of course everyone
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First appeared in: Mslexia 56 winter 2012/13 Women have broken into the last bastion of macho writing, Science Fiction and Fantasy, and they are changing the market Forget everything you ever thought about Science Fiction and Fantasy (SFF). Forget nerdy boys role playing space heroes or Goth girls dressing as
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This article first appeared in The Mail on Sunday I have spent the last few months saturated in the blood of young women. As I fall asleep I block out their screams. As I sit at my desk I avert my eyes from their mutilated bodies. But before you send
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This article first appeared in Mslexia Autumn 2012 Finding time to write can be hard, especially when you have to fit it into already packed schedules. Danuta Kean marvels at how women writers get so much done Over the past two months I have written four 2,000-word features (not including this),
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I cannot be the only woman in the media left slack jawed at newspaper condemnation of the BBC over an alleged ‘culture of abuse’. Not that we approve of what happened in Jimmy Savile’s grubby dressing room, Rolls or caravan. No we are shocked by the easy way the tabloids
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Mslexia always has a feature about a big subject that affects readers. As I was editor of the autumn issue, I chose to write about how women writers keep so many plates spinning and how to stop everything crashing to the ground. It clearly hit the spot. One reader summed
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First published in the ALCS News August 2012 You have to hand it to the editors of Wikipedia – half of whom are under 28 – youthful rebellion never looked like this. By instigating a 24-hour blackout of the service in January, they became the first generation in history whose
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Have you noticed a disturbing trend in your teenager’s reading material lately? Has a change from lively and engaging child into sullen and difficult teenager coincided with them ditching adventures by the likes of Lauren Child or Michael Morpurgo for bleak futuristic fantasies about violent 16-year-olds or grimly realistic tales
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I want to play. Nah, not the awful depressing ‘adult’ variety of play that plagues us with requests in our junk mail folder. I want to play like a child. You see I’ve just read Sarah Salway’s piece for the issue of Mslexia I am editing (out in September). It’s
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This article first appeared in Mslexia, issue 53 Sea creatures are replacing vampires as the latest fantasy trend. Danuta Kean investigates A wave of mermaids and selkies threatens to wash away vampires and angels in popular fiction, as young adults turn from the sky to the sea for literary escape . But
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