This is a party political broadcast from the Loki party
It’s party conference season, so it feels fitting to share a speech in this newsletter. I delivered it at the Bookseller Children’s Conference as part of a panel on World Book Day and it’s an impassioned defence of reading for pleasure but also a Milton and good omens crossover fanfic.
(Scroll to the bottom of the newsletter to find it.)
The conference itself was fascinating, do drop me a line if you’d like to know more about it. You can also find tweets about it on the #Kidsconf23 hashtag
A speech but this time in tweets
Speaking of twitter (honestly I am never calling it anything else, what a turd its owner is), I did a thread on there about the realities of publishing. (My wife was away and she’s usually the recipient of these trains of thought.)
Warning: it’s a little bleak in places. But I’d rather be bleak and realistic than paint a picture of publishing that is not true.I’ve put it beneath a picture of a puppy to soften the blow.
Writing news
I’ve now finished draft one of Loki book four. It’s now with my editor, Non. I cannot wait to share this new story. I’ve introduced a character who’s a little bit different to the rest of the Lokiverse - a mythic being who also crosses over into contemporary Scandinavian folklore, though I’ve based them primarily on a mix of ancient norse sources and my own views on the matter. The main thing to know is this individual really, really hates Loki.
I’ve also just put the finishing touches to the Loki World Book Day book. It’ll be going to print very soon. Out in Feb! (Publishing takes a long time - printing, warehousing, shipping, all the logistical brilliance that I don’t have to do myself, thank you Walker.)
JOKE OF THE WEEK
Q: How does a crab feel when they have the flu?
A: CLAWFUL.
Where will it end?
A lot of kids at events ask how many books I’m planning. The answer is: at least seven, but I want more than that.
I have the whole arc planned out with various potential expansions and contractions. The variable is how many books people buy. So, for a longer Loki arc, please do spread the good news about our Lord/Lady/Horse Loki…
Also…I’ve just found out before pressing send on this newsletter this morning that the three Loki books are on special offer for Prime day on the river place, under three quid each.
CLICK THE BOOKS TO BUY…
And here’s the speech I gave at the bookseller conference…
The bookseller in snakeskin shoes
Let’s begin in the garden of Eden. But imagine it’s not a garden, but a bookshop. A girl is browsing and spots a sign above a book. It says DO NOT READ. She’s immediately intrigued. A forbidden book! Well, that sounds tasty.
A bookseller in snakeskin shoes sidles up to her and says, “There’s actually nothing stopping you,” they say. “And the person who wrote that sign doesn’t know you.”
The young woman reaches up immediately, grabs the book and begins reading. She carries on until she’s read the whole thing. She can’t believe she’s allowed to read this book. It has PICTURES. Nothing bad happens. She enjoys the book. She feels that books are for HER.
Now imagine the same scene with a slight tweak. When the girl picks up the forbidden book, another adult - a well-meaning but misguided adult - snatches the book out of her hand.
“Don’t read THAT trash! Read THIS instead,” they say. And they hand her a book she doesn’t want to read. “You MUST read this,” they say, making it even worse.
I have seen almost exactly this scene play out in bookshops. I’ve seen a child pick up a comic – and it’s usually a comic - and have a parent take it out of their hands and push them towards a copy of Heidi, or some book THEY enjoyed as a child.
There’s something so unappealing about a book you’re meant to read, while there’s something so tempting about a book that you’re not supposed to read. However, you need someone there – like that bookseller in snakeskin shoes – who’s on hand to help each child find the book that suits them, whether or not it’s a book that the powers that be consider worthy. Maybe it’s a book that’s “too young for them”. Maybe it’s a magazine. Maybe it’s a comic. Maybe it’s scary. Maybe it’s violent.
I do a lot events with children and so often they’re drawn to the forbidden. For example, when I’m doing an interactive drawing workshop and I ask for suggestions of things to draw, the first answer is very often some kind of weapon. Yesterday, I was asked to draw a rocket launcher. Blimey that’s a tough one. I googled it after and what I had drawn was…not a rocket launcher. But, accuracy aside, I feel the children are often surprised when I draw what they want me to draw. Giving children the power to decide what they want stories to be about feels rare and precious.
And children don’t JUST want things because they’re forbidden. They want them because they’re exciting, or fun, or silly, or satisfying. They want what their heart desires, and so often adults wish they desired something else. I hope every librarian, every bookseller, every adult with access to books and the ability to pass them on to children can be the bookseller in snakeskin shoes.
Me, I want to be the author of that forbidden book. My goal is to write books that barely sneak past the requirements of gatekeepers. I want to write FOR children, not for the adults watching what children read. My editor Non and I, while editing Loki, took the approach of “Let’s just leave THAT bit in and see if anyone notices…” So the book has many THAT bits. It’s about someone who can be, frankly, horrible, who does terrible things, and often doesn’t feel bad about it. It’s scribbled all over like a note passed around in class. I wanted Loki to be as close to something a child might make themselves and pass around, hoping the teacher doesn’t notice.
But it’s not just about making books seem naughty. It’s about giving children choice and allowing them agency to discover the books they want to read, even if those are not the books that the adults around them want them to read.
For instance, I still have a personal vendetta against Carson McCullers, because The Heart is a Lonely Hunter was a book we HAD to read for school. It’s probably a great book! But my hatred runs deep because it was a forced choice.
That is, no choice at all. Tastes in books vary as much as tastes in food. So, to me, the key to reading for pleasure is offering kids variety and agency, and not refusing them access to a category of books because they’re too young or too easy, or because they’re about football or because they have pictures. Allow children to taste every book that takes their fancy - including the Fruit Of that Forbidden Tree, whose mortal taste Brought Death into the World.
And look. I’m quoting Milton. Sometimes, the book you WANT to read lines up with the one on the list you’re SUPPOSED to read. Because Milton writes badass sci fi about an intriguing antihero falling through space and not enough people tell you that when they tell you to read him. So reading for pleasure doesn’t mean reading only one type of book. It means having a curiosity to read EVERYTHING. Feeling like every tree in the garden of Eden can be yours…including the forbidden ones.
Louie Stowell, Monday 2nd October 2023