As If You Live In The Early Days Of A Better Nation

"Work as if you live in the early days of a better nation" - Alasdair Gray.

On Friday, on The Times online, I spotted the most powerful poetic wake-up call by Philip Pullman to a nation sleepwalking itself into a state of fettered 'freedom'. I decided to grab a newspaper version; I was sure it would have an illustration by the 18th century poet-artist William Blake, as Philip roots his sleepwalking vision in Blake's poetic myth of Albion, the ancient name for Britain. And I was right. And just as well I did buy the paper because a few hours later, when I tried to link the online piece to this blog, it had vanished into the ether, into the mysterious Lost Dimension of 404.

But the blogosphere came to the rescue as bloggers began, en masse, to post the piece that had vanished, because it needs to be read and thought about and debated - by all of us, but especially by the generation who are about to inherit the Earth in what might be the most crucial era in human history. So here it is, with thanks to Longrider.

More debate about the kind of world we want to live in here and here and the Modern Liberty Campaign .

ARCTIC UNICORNS

Beautiful, just beautiful - watch this amazing footage of 'arctic unicorns', the narwhals.

And here they are in ZENITH:

"There is no moon but the sprinkle of starlight picks out a dazzling mosaic of ice that is so fragile it shifts with the movement of the sea. And there is something else. A long, silver point is sticking up out of the thin crust of ice.
Mara screws up her eyes. It looks like a sword.
The silver sword vanishes then re-appears further in front, breaking a path through the icy waves. Another sword rises out of the ocean, surges towards the first and crosses it. Mara gasps as the swords clash then vanish.
Narwhals.
She only saw them once on Wing. Great, shell-encrusted whales, far out in Longhope Bay. Island folk legend said a speck of ground narwhal tusk a day would make you live a hundred years or more, just as the narwhals do.
A narwhal horn always points to the North Star."

Nature's Great Events: The Great Melt is on Wednesday 11 February on BBC One at 2100 GMT

NEW YEAR, NEW ZENITH

A nicely seasonal cover for the US ZENITH, coming soon.

It looks and feels a bit like this here in Scotland right now...

Happy New Year and I hope 2009 is good to you.

*Great interview in CYNSATIONS with my fantastic editor-of-old, Sarah Davies, who now 'grows' writers in her Greenhouse - a nice insight into the world of children's publishing from a publisher-turned-transatlantic agent.

RIP Bunny Bertagna

Grief for a pet is so uncomplicated. Normally stoic in a crisis, I've been a sniffling mess all day. Hoping that I could put the red-eyed look down to it being an eye-watering minus 4 degrees today in Glasgow, the whole city sparkling with frost, I had to take the laptop out and work my way around cafes and museums. Just couldn't face sitting alone at my desk without my little foot-warmer and writing companion, the beloved Bunny Bertagna. Poor little thing was suffering badly and we couldn't let that go on.

As I said in a post last year:

A rabbit is the perfect writing companion. He needs no walkies when you are lost in that hard-won mysterious 'zone' when the hours fly by and writing is a dream. Cast a few carrot chunks about the room and he will amuse himself quietly all afternoon by foraging in corners. Rabbits don't bark or twitter, just make sweet gruntings and look impossibly cute when they want something. They are the ultimate muse: when you read a bit of the book you are working on, they never look bored or less than impressed. And they are the best foot warmer in winter, as you sit at your desk.

What more could a writer want?

So, to possibly the most spoiled house rabbit ever, thank you for a bunny-load of love, fun and foot-warming. We miss you lots.

One City

Our City brings together ten of Scotland's top children's writers, with specially commissioned stories inspired by Edinburgh and introduced by children's-favourite, BBC presenter, Raven.

OCEAN TERMINAL, EDINBURGH
6 November 2008 at 4.30pm

Meet all ten authors of Our City - come along to Ocean terminal, Edinburgh, and get your very own copy of the book signed by all ten authors.

Teapots on Pluto

Are there? Who knows? Scientists Richard Dawkins and Peter Atkins caused a rumpus by comparing belief in God to the unprovable belief that there is a teapot orbiting Pluto. My story, A Teapot on Pluto, is not about God; it's about time travel (yes, my head is stuck in the future, but one of these days I'll get back to the here and now). The teapot has been tucked away in the back of my mind, gathering dust and waiting for its moment, and when I read about the big Atom-Smasher switch-on last month (see post below) I found it.

Read the story here or download it from Scottish Book Trust's excellent site. Check out the stories by other authors too.

I've put lots of hot links within the story, for a truly interactive read. So have fun - click away, and see what you find...

Catalysed

Well, I didn't expect that at all. I was up for the Catalyst Book Award along with double-Carnegie Medal winner Berlie Doherty whose books I love, and Cathy MacPhail who wins awards all the time (but you just can't hate her, she's great) and Tabitha Suzuma who is an exciting new writer on the YA book scene. I was shortlisted for ZENITH, which was never going to win against that lot, and also because it's a sequel, and sequels never win. So I was very relaxed. So relaxed, and so 110% certain that I wouldn't win, that I didn't see the point in preparing a winning speech - or in saying 'no' to a late, too-big glass of wine with last year's winner and this year's Master of Ceremony, Anthony McGowan...

That's how I came to be standing on the Catalyst stage with a headache and without a speech, apart from an astonished 'wow, thank you.' Thanks indeed to all the enthusiastic teenagers who read and debate the books and vote on the award, and to the teachers and librarians from about 30 schools who make the Catalyst Award such a fantastic event for all the writers involved. You are all really inspiring.

It was a thrill to win and so was seeing so many excited teenagers who were really into books. I was very moved by the connection so many teenagers made with ZENITH, and with the other shortlisted books. The Catalyst Award is a brilliant catalyst for making sparks fly between teenagers and books.

And it all very powerfully proved wrong an article I just read on Achuka.

Big thanks to Cara Murray, a trainee teacher who has been doing a fantastic project with children, based on my Ice Cream Machine books. I'm going to set up a page for schools with ideas and photos of activities from Cara's project and others.

Proof that two days are rarely the same in this job- I was asked to be a BAFTA Scotland judge for the children's TV award by the MD of SMG who made the Ice Cream Machine TV series, and had a great time wrangling with the other judges. Our chosen shortlist is announced tomorrow. My invitation to the Baftas says, intimidatingly, 'Black tie and glamour'. Oh, I'll try...

And for Jack (who gets a gold star for stumping me on a question at the Catalyst Schools events!): you asked how many people are at risk on the drowning islands of Kiribati in the South Seas (which originally gave me the idea for Exodus and Zenith) - it's 107, 817 people, Jack.