Colin Mulhern Guest Blog & Competition!

As part of the CLASH book blog tour (featuring the lovely peeps of My Favourite Books, Euro Crime, Asamum Booktopia & The Overflowing Library), Colin Mulhern has written this Guest Blog about he discovered YA fiction, and why the general standard of Young Adult book is so much better than adult ficiton. Take it away, Colin...!

It isn’t easy writing for young adults, not in an age when you have to compete against XBOX games, MP3s, a thousand attractions at the local mall, and every other flashing, beeping thing crying out for some teen attention. But then again, maybe that’s not a bad thing. Want to know why?

I found Young Adult fiction by chance. At the time, I was writing crime fiction and trying to break into a very swamped adult market. To keep up with trends, I was reading a lot of adult thrillers, and I think most of them were either frustrating, boring, or annoyed me so much I’d simply chuck the thing at the wall and reach for another. I was starting to consider the possibility that I don’t actually like crime fiction. Odd that.

Anyway, around that time there was a programme on the BBC about the top 100 books. The one that caught my attention was Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials. In the programme, they showed the trilogy as one big monster of a hardback. It looked awesome, so I went out to buy it but all that was available were the paperbacks. I decided the hardback would be available online, but in the meantime I could try something else by the same author. I picked up The Butterfly Tattoo, didn’t think much of the cover but what the hell, I’d give it a go.

It blew me away. It was short, tight and packed with emotion: a powerful, modern tragedy. I went straight to a writers’ forum to shout about it and ask for recommendations. They steered me towards Malorie Blackman, David Almond and Kevin Brooks. I was hooked, and very quickly realised why so many adults read Young Adult fiction. In short: Every Word Counts.

Here’s an experiment, pick up any children’s book from years ago and give it a quick read. I discovered this when I tried to re-read Peter Pan. There is no doubt about the merit of the story, but the language doesn’t half drag. That’s probably because it was written at a time when words didn’t have to compete with instant messaging and multiplayer death-match battles. Next, go for something modern, say Anthony McGowan or Suzanne Collins – you’re no longer told a story, you’re dragged into each and every scene. The style of writing for modern teens is fast and direct. All the fat is trimmed during editing. Every word counts!

On the bad side, it makes it tough for writers to break through because the standard is so high. But for the readers, it means there isn’t the torturous, slow moving bore-fests that choke the adult market. No more books thrown at the wall, and no more wasted paper left unread.

So let’s hear it for Young Adult fiction. Better for interior design, better for the environment.

Colin M*

Thank you Colin for this Guest Blog. Now, if you still want to win a copy of his debut novel, CLASH, you can! Enter below!



The closing date will be Easter Monday and I will be email the winnner later that evening for the needed information. GOOD LUCK EVERYONE!

GoodRead - Clash

When I was asked to read CLASH, I was in two minds about it for quite sometime. It didn’t feel like something I would read (very much out of my comfort zone of reading!), but then, I saw reviews and was torn. I decided to read it after suggesting to the publisher's PR (a lovely lady called Liz) that I would give the book away. My reasoning: if I am giving a book away, I want to know it's good. I don't want to give a book away that I felt was bad. (Wanna win a copy? Visit my blog tomorrow as part of the CLASH Book Blog Tour).

CLASH is a debut novel from Colin Mulhern. Set in the North East of England, the book follows the lives of two boys: Alex and Kyle. Alex is the school psycho and an underground cage fighter who witnesses a terrible thing. Kyle is a talented artist who is suffering with his own problems. So when these two very different boys clash together, the outcome is

Now, I wasn't sure what to expect from this book. But I kinda liked it. I liked how the chapters jumped from Alex to Kyle then back again. I've seen this been used before in books but it never always worked. In Clash, it worked. The characters were so different from each other that it worked to have their different reactions to the same events. And to have these characters being damaged and, up to a point, dangerous was interesting to read.

Having cage fighting a factor in the novel was interesting. It shows Alex as a dangerous character and shows how, in one move, both Alex and Kyle's lives change in an instant due to one wrong move.

This reads like a thriller with it having very dark and gritty moments. It feels, at times, very cat and mouse. But it also feels very Bully/Victim. It shows how a bully - or the local psycho - is a victim in one form or another and Kyle being a victim but, somehow, both of them getting the courage to not be a victim anymore.

Also, I have read reviews where some people say they preferred reading Alex's story over Kyle's. I disagree, and related more to Kyle than Alex. It was only when I was a hundred or so pages in when I saw people's reasons why Alex's story was more interesting than Kyle. But I prefer Kyle's story. But this is up to the person reading the book. Some people will prefer Alex's story, others will prefer Kyle's story. There's no right answer on which character you should prefer.

There were one or two things that bothered me. Not huge things, but tiny things. The first was the names - I always thought Alex and Kyle's names should have switched (you can blame Hollyoaks & Home And Away from that!). Kyle sounds harder so to have it places on someone gentle was odd. Got over that very quickly. The second thing was the ending. It just felt a tad open-ended. Maybe there's a sequel coming. Maybe the author always planned it to be like this, to show life carry on, but there was a loose end I felt was left undone. Will have to get over it…

All in all, I liked CLASH. It was a thriller that was fast to read, dark and gritty. Will be interested to see what this author writes next…

*

Now, with every review, I show "out of the box" music choices that I listened or thought about when I was reading this book. So, here are my choices with book trailers...


Also, if you like the song used in this trailer - created by the talented Massive Dog - you can download it for free at http://www.massivedog.com/music.html