UCLPub2015 - Term 1: Week 3 [19th-23rd Oct]

This week was our first week with all four of our modules with Samantha back from her illness (hooray!).

Tuesday morning was Publishing Skills again and this time we were looking at Adobe InDesign. Marita Fraser, co-creator of Framed Horizons - Norvik Press' first student-led publication - came in to guide us through it. For most of us this was our first time using this programme though, fortunately, a lot of the basics were relatively familiar from the, now horrendously expensive Microsoft Publisher and the various programmes used in school ICT and D&T classes that you thought you'd never need again. Marita made available to us the first few pages of a translation of Nils Holgersson's Wonderful Journey Through Sweden, Vol 1 published by Norvik Press. With this and the cover designed by Norvik Press, in order to test what we had learnt, we were asked to assemble an 8 page "book". It was a very interesting session and a programme that will no doubt come in handy for our Publishing Projects.
Next week: Copyediting and Proofreading with guest speaker Wendy Toole from the Society for Editors and Proofreaders.

We had our second Publishing Project session in the afternoon and we (finally!) had a real opportunity to speak to our group and figure out why we were put in a group together. While, for the most part, I do not suggest placing people in groups based solely on the results of some really very odd online personality tests, it seemed to work this time around. We are still fine-tuning our ideas and I don't know how much I'm allowed to give away but I can tell you this: it involves fairytales and legends and some (hopefully) gorgeous illustrations.

Thursday morning we had our second Author Management lecture with Mal, Rachel and special guest Hannah MacDonald from September Publishing on the role of the editor and how it has changed and continues to change in the digital age and as the channels between author and reader have become so prevalent. We were given an insight into what it is that editors are looking for (a difficult thing to really define) and what is involved in a structural edit. A very interesting lecture for those of us still interested in the editorial side of the industry.
Next week: "Commissioning: Show Me The Money" with guest speakers Francesca Main (Picador fiction) and Ingrid O'Connell (Sidgwick and Jackson non-fiction).

In the afternoon we had our first Theories of the Book lecture; the only properly academic module we have. With Samantha back from her illness she took us on a whistle-stop tour through the history of the book from the Diamond Sutra - the first printed book to present day. Once I got over the fact that I wasn't going to get a chance to rehash my knowledge of Homer and the oral tradition and literature in Ancient Rome I became aware of just how much I didn't know about the history of the book. Sam made what was a hefty load of information really interesting and exciting and has, I think, given us a lot to think about when it comes to ideas for our dissertations. 
Next week: History of Reading/Social Reading with guest speakers Dr Shafquat Towheed (Open University, Director of 'The Reading Experience Database, 1450-1945') and Dr Danielle Fuller (Birmingham University, Reader in Canadian Studies and Cultures of Reading).

Thanks for reading,
Naomi Joy x

UCLPub2015 - Term 1: Week 2 [12th-16th Oct]

So begins our first real week; "real week" meaning a 2-day week (joy of joys for those of us who came from Arts and Hums backgrounds and are only used to being in for 12 hours a week!). With Publishing Contexts over and done with, bar the assignment, we start our Publishing Skills, Publishing Project, Author Management and Theories of the Book modules.

We kicked things off Tuesday morning with the Publishing Skills, where we were introduced to the Nielson BookScan; a database that will become a key tool in our futures in the publishing industry. It allows the user to do something as simple as see both the volume and cost of sales of a particular book, and also identify sales patterns in a particular genre, or of a particular author. When it comes to identifying which books will do well at the commissioning stage, Nielson BookScan would allow us to track the trends and sales figures of similar books and help us to figure out how well a manuscript might do.

Tuesday afternoon we had our first Publishing Project and we (finally!) got to find out our groups. But not before a revealing session with the wonderful Anna Faherty of the Wellcome Collection on CREATIVITY. We started the session with a question on how we'd rate ourselves in terms of creativity in a scale of 1 to 10. It was only myself and one other who rated ourselves under 5 on the scale. It was decided that we merely hadn't found our sparring partners; we had not found the ideas creator to our ideas developers. Which is a nice thought.

So the Publishing Project module feels a little familiar to me. In my second year of the Classical Civilisation degree at UoN we had our Independent Second Year Project. Our brief: create anything on anything from the ancient world. Broad, that's for sure. Our brief, essentially, for the Publishing Project: publish something. A physical book, a digital book, whatever! And do this in a group of people you have never worked with before. So on the back of a series of personality tests, our lecturers put us into our Publishing Project groups and it all seemed a little daunting. As someone who rated themselves as below 5 in terms of creativity, I was (and still am) very worried about what I'd be able to bring to the table. Anna gave us little time to dwell on this as she quickly got us breaking down the ideas process and the process of creativity. Particularly at the beginning, the majority of us found ourselves constantly having to reign ourselves in as we got ahead of ourselves trying to figure out the feasibility of our ideas and trying to figure out how they worked. It was actually a surprisingly enjoyable session considering I fear this kind of creativity to my core.

After taking Wednesday as a day to relax, and maybe some of us do the reading for Thursday, we arrived Thursday morning (to yet another basement) for our first Author Management lecture with Rachel Calder and Mal Peachey. This lecture gives an insight into everything at the author level from copyright to what authors feel they do and don't need from publishers. Seeing how authors are (obviously) immensely key in the publishing process it is important for us, as future publishers and particularly for me who is considering the literary agent route, to understand how we can best benefit our authors.

Unfortunately, our lecturer for Theories of the Book came down with the flu so we weren't able to start this module this week so updates on this one to come next week!

Thanks for reading,
Naomi Joy x

UCLPub2015 An Exploration of the Reading Room and Blackwell's at the Wellcome Collection: where curiosity comes to thrive.

“A physical book is like eating a great meal in a beautiful restaurant with a fantastic view; an e-book is like eating that same meal from a takeout box on your lap in the basement”[i]

If this is the case, then reading a physical book in the Wellcome Reading Room is like eating a gorgeous meal in a quirky little teashop at the top of the Eiffel Tower. It is a perfect hybrid of living room, museum, exhibition, and library. You’ll find prints of teeth-pulling beside bookshelves in an alcove boasting straightjackets and the kind of books that require you to wear gloves in order to touch and explore them. All of this in a space that encourages you to feel comfortable on their staircase lined with large cushions, or on one of the sofas, or at one of the reading tables. From sculptures and paintings to a dress that illustrates a stage of early embryonic development; from medical implements and contraptions to a splice of a real human body; this space is so much more than just a Reading Room, it is a place to let your imagination run as wild and uninhibited as it can and an opportunity to delve into the mind of the cat that Curiosity killed.

The reading room at the Wellcome Library succeeds in making those who enter feel both at home and like they’ve entered a place that demands their respect. The Wellcome Collection is ‘the free destination for the incurably curious’[ii]. Their Reading Room is no different; it is not there for people to find a copy of the latest bestseller or the Man Booker Prize winner; it is, in their own words, ‘designed to encourage you to indulge your curiosity and explore more than ever before’[iii]. It is organised by theme rather than genre, and being part of the Wellcome Library, they are all somehow based around medicine. So you’ll find sections on themes such as pain, breath, body, and face. In these sections the books range from medical textbooks to YA fiction; for instance, in the pain section you’ll find a copy of John Green’s The Fault in Our Stars on the same shelf as C.S. Lewis’ The Problem of Pain and The Illustrated History of Torture.  You may stumble across a book like Scott Westerfeld’s Uglies and wonder what on earth a YA book like that is doing in this place at all but, in a moment, realise it has just as much right to be there as the 20^th century dental station that, honestly, looks like an instrument of torture. It was so painstakingly curated and so thoroughly researched it deserves and demands awe.

It, rather wonderfully, encourages you to interact with your fellow curious souls by asking you to leave a message in the book you’ve picked up for the next reader. Whether that message be a smart quip about the book or simply message support to a fellow book lover, this reflection of community in a group of people renowned for being introvert adds to this feeling of home. It is such a beautiful and unexpected idea for a space like this; a space far more relaxed and welcoming than any library. 

Found in a book on physiognomy. Book readers are punny.

My surprise did not stop there. Having only ever experienced Blackwell’s on my university campus in Nottingham I had assumed that it was an academic book shop, only stocking fiction that was part of a curriculum. So imagine my shock when I walk towards the Blackwell’s in the Wellcome Collection and my eyes immediately fall upon The Superhero Comic Kit – an interactive book designed to help you with your comic drawing skills. I'd wager that that's not a book to be found on many curriculums. But then again, I also wouldn’t expect to find The Encyclopaedia of Unusual Sex Practices on many either. Much like the Reading Room, this Blackwell’s is organised by theme rather than genre. And in a feat of possible genius, you don’t even have to go far before you can start reading your newly purchased books because the Blackwell’s near seamlessly flows into Blackwell’s café. Who could deny themselves the enticing smell of those new books as they mingle with the smell of freshly baked goods and a steaming cup of English Breakfast tea?

So go along to the reading room, pick your theme, and read a book you wouldn’t find anywhere else. Then lounge smugly on the beanbag lined staircase, because Curiosity would not dare take you in a place that feels so much like home.

Ben Gilbert / Welcome Trust
http://www.iconeye.com/architecture/news/item/11509-wellcome-collection-reading-room
(Accessed 16^th October 2015)

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[i] Adam Sternbergh “Why the printed book will last another 500 years” available at http://lithub.com/why-the-printed-book-will-last-another-500-years/ (Accessed 15^th October 2015)

[ii] The Wellcome Trust (n.d.) Wellcome Collection Available at http://wellcomecollection.org/ (Accessed 14^th October 2015)

[iii] The Wellcome Trust (n.d.) Wellcome Collection: Reading Room Available at http://wellcomecollection.org/readingroom (Accessed 14^th October 2015)

Warbreaker - Brandon Sanderson

Title: Warbreaker
Author: Brandon Sanderson
Published: Gollancz, Dec 2011
Genre: Fantasy
My rating: 4.5/5

The Blurb says: "WARBREAKER is the story of two sisters, who happen to be princesses, the God King one of them has to marry, a lesser god, and an immortal trying to undo the mistakes he made hundreds of years ago.

Theirs is a world in which those who die in glory return as gods to live confined to a panteon in Hallandren's capital city. A world transformed by BioChromatic magic, a power based on an essence known as breath. Using magic is arduous: breath can only be collected one unit at a time from individual people.

But the rewards are great: by using breath and drawing upon the colour in everyday objects, all manner of miracles and mischief can be performed.

Brandon Sanderson proves again that he is a master of what Tolkien called 'secondary creation,' the invention of whole worlds, complete with magics and myths all their own"

WHAT I THOUGHT

So I went to my best book buddy who is a major massive fantasy fan and asked her for the best books in my introduction to the genre. Her response: anything by Brandon Sanderson; he is the one true king of fantasy. Armed with this knowledge I took a trip to Waterstones. I hadn't read any reviews before choosing WARBREAKER, it was just the only standalone my local Waterstones had in at the time and I wasn't ready to commit myself to a series on my first outing.

This was my first real, proper, grown up fantasy book and I really don't know what I was expecting. I kind of hated the blurb; I wasn't a fan of the tone of it and it didn't at all do the book justice. It was an intricately crafted world, so wonderfully thought through and whole. The idea of a religion with physical gods who can be visited and petitioned is, to me, a novel one and provides an interesting comment on the question of faith in our world. The magic is so different to anything I've read before and a really interesting premise - breath can not only give life to inanimate objects and heighten your senses, it is the very sustenance of their gods. It is a magic so powerful their own God King cannot be trusted to wield it without sanction. It is impeccably well thought through and testament to this is the Ars Arcanum at the back of the book; it is a complex system and rather than detract from the story in order to explain it, there is a breakdown at the back of how it works.

As far as the characters go, they were all wonderfully wrought. Vivenna was, unfortunately, a product of her circumstances and I really wasn't a fan but you cannot fault Sanderson's consistency. She is the consequence of a sheltered upbringing; having been brought up to marry the God King, she was educated in her duties and her religion, she was very much raised in a culture of us vs. them and she struggled to shake these teachings when she travelled to Hallendren. Siri on the other hand was not raised with the burden of this duty and her freedom and naïveté ended up being to her advantage. The mercenaries Denth and Tonk Fah give a stellar performance and I found myself being drawn in by their wit and, what appears to be, their harrowing honesty. Vasher is so beautifully mysterious he is a stark contrast to the apparent openness of the mercenaries. Lightsong as a character was constantly questioning the religion for which he was a deity; an interesting comment on religion in our world. Siri's interactions with the God King are always short lived and I found myself racing through the sections just so I could see more of them. The God King himself shatters all possible expectations of one with that name.

I found myself very much involved in the story. With most books, I feel really smart and crafty when I figure out when someone's not who they think they are before the book does; but with this I really didn't want to (although, if I'd been smart (which I was not), the blurb kind of gives a little of that away). I wanted to be surprised. I didn't want to miss anything.

I've given this book 4.5/5 and that's mostly because I'm always very hesitant to give anything top marks. I have next to nothing bad to say about this book. I can't really even hold it against him that I didn't like Vivenna because everything about her was so necessary to the story and entirely consistent with her character. I also can't begrudge him the brevity and haste of Siri and the God King's arch because the book is already 656 pages long! Perhaps it's because the Amazon reviews suggested that this was not Sanderson's best and if this is true, I should reserve my 5/5 rating. 

WARBREAKER is an expertly crafted story in a world of a very different kind of magic with unexpected twists and captivating characters. I really understand how Sanderson got his reputation. Standalone books feel so rare these days that I actually just really enjoyed having a full story arch in one book. This is definitely one I'd recommend, I can't think of a better way to have introduced myself to the genre.

Next on my Brandon Sanderson list: the MISTBORN series. I'm excited.

Thanks for reading and feel free to comment, I'd love to hear your views :)
Naomi Joy x

Angelfall (Penryn and the End of Days #1) by Susan Ee

Book: Angelfall

Author: Susan Ee

Published: Skyscape, August 2012

Genre: YA Dystopia/Fantasy
Rating: 3.5/5

Amazon says "It’s been six weeks since angels of the apocalypse descended to demolish the modern world. Street gangs rule the day while fear and superstition rule the night. When warrior angels fly away with a helpless little girl, her seventeen-year-old sister, Penryn, will do anything to get her back.

Anything, including making a deal with an enemy angel.

Raffe is a warrior who lies broken and wingless on the street. After eons of fighting his own battles, he finds himself being rescued from a desperate situation by a half-starved teenage girl.

Traveling through a dark and twisted Northern California, they have only each other to rely on for survival. Together, they journey toward the angels’ stronghold in San Francisco where Penryn will risk everything to rescue her sister, and Raffe will put himself at the mercy of his greatest enemies for the chance to be made whole again."

WHAT I THOUGHT:

Finally! A YA novel with a female lead who has more on her mind than boys! Yayy!

Such a refreshingly welcome and necessary debut novel.

I will disclose now that I have already read the second book World After but I'm going to do my best not to let that cloud my review of this one because, as I feel was the case for most readers, the second book was a significant drop in quality from what was truly a fantastic debut from Susan Ee.

I really enjoyed the idea and premise of the novel - different from the vampires and werewolves that overstayed their welcome a bit but still guaranteed an audience with that market - and Ee's telling of the story was quite striking. Raffe's struggle with his duty as an Archangel is clear and troubling and a little bit beautiful in an equally dark way. Penryn is *finally* the young female protagonist whose love interest really wasn't her main focus. Unwilling to let Raffe (who I really would love to meet) distract her, she is so focussed on her mission to save her sister. 

[I realise I keep suggesting Ee's Penryn is the only strong female lead in YA lit and I'm aware that thats not true. Moira Young's Saba in her Dustlands trilogy (which I will review as I reread in preparation for the final instalment) is one example but after reading so many YA dystopian novels in which the female lead has failed to wow me I have really been beginning to lose hope that it would ever change. That's perhaps a little depressing and over the top but you understand.]

The interactions between Pen and Raffe are for the most part awkward enough to be quite convincing while at other times are maybe a little bit cringey. Their chemistry is actually quite sweet and the ending leaves you hopeful of her future if not a little distressed at how the rest of it turns out.

As always with these sort of books there are a few issues within the imagined world. Only six weeks are supposed to have passed since the angel apocalypse but the world seems to have descended into anarchy and relatively quickly ordered itself. The rebel army especially managed to gather together people, resources and tactics. Pen's schizophrenic mother comes and goes as she becomes convenient and necessary for the story and there's very little explanation of her beyond that. This is unfortunate because to be quite honest I feel Pen's mother could make a really interesting character with her unpredictable and often dangerous nature and I would really have liked more of an exploration of the relationship between Pen and her mother.

Really these are minor gripes that do not detract from the story whatsoever. Overall I think it is a fantastic debut from Ee and I definitely recommend!

Thanks for reading and feel free to comment :)
Naomi Joy x

Coming Up

I'm going to (possibly very slowly) do a little catch up of some of the books I read over the summer. This will include, though not necessarily in this order:

• Cassandra Clare The Mortal Instruments (6 books)
• Sarah J. Maas 
• The Throne of Glass series (4 books, so far...)
• A Court of Thorns and Roses 
• Maggie Stiefvater The Raven Cycle (3 books, so far)
• Mark Lawrence Prince of Thorns
• Brandon Sanderson Warbreaker
• Jill Mansell Three Amazing Things About You
• Paul Hoffman The Left Hand of God

I'm currently reading Joe Abercrombie's Half a King so I'm hoping to get a review for that up in the next couple of weeks. Today as part of my homework I had to spend a considerable amount of time in my local Waterstones. Obviously, that meant I came away with some new books (yay!) because it would've been rude otherwise, wouldn't it.


So also to come:

• Patrick Ness The Rest of Us Just Live Here
• Brandon Sanderson The Final Empire (Mistborn Book I)
• Patrick Rothfuss The Name of the Wind

And then on my wishlist

• Jojo Moyes After You 
• Andrew Michael Hurley The Loney
• Louise O'Neill Asking For It
• Rick Riordan Magnus Chase and the Sword of Summer

So be patient with me, they're coming, I promise.

Thanks for reading,

Naomi Joy x

UCLPub2015 We are LITERARY BLOOMSBURY

Bloomsbury is well known for being a hub of publishing and literary activity, and not just because of the publishing house of the same name (that was forced, I apologise). From specialist bookshops like the AA Bookshop (that's Architectural Association not Alcoholics Anonymous) to the powerhouse of Waterstones Gower Street; from niche publishers like Penelope Books, to both indie and big name trade at Faber & Faber and the Bloomsbury Group, Bloomsbury really does have it all.

To the uninitiated however, when walking around the area there's actually very little obvious evidence of this. The blue plaques are for architects, economists, the founder of Pakistan, and, of course, the mistress of Prince Frederick Duke of York.

The places that make Bloomsbury thrive as a hub of literary culture are often only known by those who are interested in knowing about them. You have to know that they are there to truly appreciate them. You could walk straight past the University of London Senate House and never know that it was the inspiration for George Orwell's Ministry of Truth. The British Library is an intimidating creature to even the most bookish of worms and the beauty of the Charles Dickens Museum lies in the fact that it looks just like any other house.

There is, of course, the labyrinthine treasure-trove that is the Gower Street Waterstones. When charged with our #literaryme task in our first week it was, without hesitation, the first stop for the majority of us publishing students. It is our siren call; we cannot walk past without entering, and when we inevitably step through those glimmering doors, leaving, particularly without having made a purchase, requires an iron will. And perhaps also a heart of stone.

It is our love of books that brought us all to UCL, and thus to Bloomsbury. We, this new year of students to the masters course, have brought with us a our love of books and writing and publishing from all over the world, hoping to one day leave our mark in this literary community. We are the new generation of literary Bloomsbury. We are the future publishers, editors, designers, authors, and illustrators of the industry and we begin our journey in this hub of literary history with the hope that it's creativity and culture might rub off on us in our future careers.

You never know, maybe one of us will give UCLU's The Library the same reputation George Orwell gave The Fitzroy Tavern. That's the dream, right?

You can continue to shove us into the dark basements of the various buildings of University College London but you will not break our spirit. That is, unless you force us to dissect our beloved again. That one may not go down so well.

Thanks for reading,
Naomi Joy x