It's almost time....

So, the final preparations are being made... The authors, artists and performers are doing their final run through, so all we have to do is wait for tomorrow!

I hope that all of you enjoy the events this weekend and buy lots of lovely books from the stalls run by WH Smiths (at the Orwell hotel) Write the blurb (at the White Horse) and at Orwell High School, where the Trimley Station Community Trust will be hosting a second hand book sale.

There will be photos and reports appearing on this blog next week for anybody who didn't get to attend, and for those of you who did to re-live the fun.

Thank you in advance to all of the authors appearing, the venues for hosting the events and the volunteers who will be on hand to ensure that the weekend runs smoothly.

Happy festival everybody!

Someone for the young adults, Hayley Long!

Felixstowe book festival has something for everyone, including teenagers! On Sunday afternoon, young adult writer Hayley Long will be at the library chatting about books. Here's an interview with her...

Firstly, thanks for taking part in this interview.

Tell us a little bit about yourself...

I'm small, I've got a big brown freckle under my left eye and a little black scar on my right thumb where I once tried to fix a rusty hole in my car door.  Oh and I write books.  But I think you knew that.

You've written loads of books for Young Adults, is it fun writing about/ for teenagers?

Yes.  Well, sometimes, certainly.  I've always liked things that are visually nice on the page and writing for a younger audience leaves me a lot of room to do creative things with font and design and illustrations that I couldn't really do so much when I wrote for adults.  Sometimes, I use an illustration to get a message across and sometimes I just switch to

massive font.  Just because I can and because it pleases me.  

But then again, writing for Young Adults is just the same as writing anything else.  Very difficult sometimes.  So some days it's no fun at all and it feels like every word is being pulled out of my brain with a pair of rusty pliers.

Do you ever draw from your own teenage experiences for your novels?

Yes of course.  Although, I actually wasn't very good at being a teenager.  I looked about ten and found the whole teenage experience quite stressful.  But I remember those feelings and how intense everything seemed and I'm glad I've now finally found a use for it all.  But it's not just my teenage years which I draw on - I've plundered my entire life.  Especially for locations.  Luckily, after university, I moved around a lot so I've got a lot of material to use!  So far, I've set books in Cardiff and Northwest London and Felixstowe... and now I'm writing something set in Brussels where I lived for a while in my mid-20s.

What books did you read as a teenager?

Everything I could get my hands on.  By the time I was 12 or 13, I was reading meaty stuff like Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights but I was also reading those girly American romances like Sweet Valley High.  I didn't really get much out of those - I think I was just reading them because all the other girls were.  But then when I was still about 12, I read The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole and I absolutely loved it!  To be honest, I read pretty much anything!  My dad had a copy of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and a second world war story called, The wooden house.  I read both of them.  And he had a book called Everest, The Hard Way by a mountaineer called Dougal Haston.  I read that too.  And I also read the encyclopedia.  I was a very well read 13 year old! 

What advice would you give to a young person who wants to become a writer?

If you want to write, you will.  Years ago, when I first started teaching English in a secondary school in London and before I had anything published, I met a writer who came to work with my class for a day. One of the kids asked her how she got published and she said, 'It's practically impossible,' and left it at that.  I've never forgotten that.  It wasn't a helpful answer.  It's true that becoming 'a writer' is very very difficult.  But it's not 'practically impossible.'  There's no such thing.  Either something IS impossible or it can be done.  And I've done it.  So it's possible.  So my advice is to never give up.   

You grew up in Felixstowe, tell us your favourite things about Felixstowe for anybody who's never visited before.

Well, let me see.  It's nice living by the sea.  If you grow up by the sea, I think you always miss it a bit if you live inland.  Especially in the summer.  It can feel very claustrophobic on sunny days without that massive great hole of open space and fresh air.  What else?  I've got a weakness for those 2p coin drop machines - there are a lot of them in Felixstowe.  And Felixstowe also has two of the very best secondhand book shops I've ever seen ANYWHERE.  If you like poking around in old book shops, it's worth visiting for those alone.

Finally, are you a little bit scared that any of your old teachers are going to turn up to your event and embarrass you by sharing tales of your school days?

Ha.  No, not at all!  To be honest, I'd be amazed if any of them even remembered me.  I really wasn't very memorable.  Actually, it would be a good opportunity to say thank you.  When I left school aged 18, I'm afraid to say that it never entered my head to say thank you to my teachers.  I totally took their efforts for granted.  Now that I'm older and full of much wisdomness, I realise that my state education served me well.  I really have a lot to say thank you to those teachers for. 

Hayley will appear at Felixstowe Library at 3pm on Sunday 16th June.