http://www.melvinburgess.net/new/blog.php en-us CuteNews http://www.melvinburgess.net/new/blog.php?subaction=showfull&id=1329144152&archive= Hunger, with Hammer Horror.]]> 1329144152 Mon, 13 Feb 2012 08:42:32 -0600 http://www.melvinburgess.net/new/blog.php?subaction=showfull&id=1328115426&archive= review for Burning Issy from The Bookbag. ]]> 1328115426 Wed, 01 Feb 2012 10:57:06 -0600 http://www.melvinburgess.net/new/blog.php?subaction=showfull&id=1326473143&archive= reviews from children in Hackney, for last year's visits for "The Cry of the Wolf," and Burning Issy." Makes me very happy!
]]> 1326473143 Fri, 13 Jan 2012 10:45:43 -0600 http://www.melvinburgess.net/new/blog.php?subaction=showfull&id=1320082711&archive= The Cry of the Wolf - my very first book - is being re-issued by Andersen Press on November 2nd. I still get people telling me this is one of my best - I'm very proud of it. This is the great new Andersen cover - check it out!


]]> 1320082711 Mon, 31 Oct 2011 12:38:31 -0500 http://www.melvinburgess.net/new/blog.php?subaction=showfull&id=1319711640&archive= Kill All Enemies.


]]> 1319711640 Thu, 27 Oct 2011 05:34:00 -0500 http://www.melvinburgess.net/new/blog.php?subaction=showfull&id=1319539918&archive= Many thanks to Sophie for her interesting letter. Good luck with the writing, Sophie

July 2011
Dear Mr Burgess,
 
Well, to be honest I have no idea how to start this email! You probably get so many emails from so many teenagers but I have to say that as an aspiring writer I honestly look up to you! I’m only a sixteen year old girl, like many other girls her age wants to be a writer, but I always have wanted to be a writer, and I always will. I have to say that your book ‘junk’ is honestly amazing. I look up to you because you’re not like every other adult, adults views are perceived to be biased against drugs, but from my point of view as a reader, you told me the truth, just how reality is by that book, and I have to say it really made me realise that even though people may deceive themselves and think that by taking drugs they can escape the reality of it all, they can forget everything, but then when the drug wears off, reality starts to dawn on them, and they sort of realise to themselves how their throwing their life away, but they don’t want to let themselves admit it, so they take more to live in their fantasy land.
 
You may get people saying ‘oh I can relate to that’ but I honestly can, I had a best friend once called keeley, she was two years older than me, and she had been kicked out of her house in which she lived with her grandparents. Keeley and I, from the first day we met we got on like sisters, we reminded me of lily and Gemma to be honest, I looked up to keeley like she was this alien being who didn’t care what people thought, and I admired her for that. Even though Keeley looked fine on the outside, of course she had deep cracks that sometimes showed through, sometimes she’d appear to me as just a frightened girl who wanted an escape from her life, she felt neglected you see, her mum abandoned her when she was little, so she’s always had to fend for herself really, her grandparents looked down on her because they were disgusted in their daughter really, and I know they knew, just like I did, that Keeley would turn out like her mum one day. I could relate to your story so much, I know what it’s like to look after an addict, I looked after keeley so much, I’ve had her double cross me, go behind my back, she even stole money from me a few times, and from reading your book it made me think about all those times, and how its true, a junkie is just a junkie, they care about themselves getting the drug they want, and they don’t realise the pain they’re inflicting on themselves and others. In your book, when you said that they’re not in love with you, like I thought kee had sisterly love for me, they’re in love with the drug, she’d choose it over me every time, yet I’d help her out of whatever mess she was in. By being with her through all that I knew never to get involved with drugs, no matter what crap she’d tell me, I’d always say no because I saw things for the reality of what they are.
 
I haven’t spoke to kee for a year now, she’s currently living in a bedsit in Ellesmere Port, I have an amazing boyfriend called zach who just knows me so well, he took me away from all that, he lets me just be me around him you see. He’s not only my boyfriend but my best friend too, he’s the closest person to me, I can confide in him with anything and he doesn’t ever judge me, he’s got a*’s in school and I’m on my way to achieving high grades too! Hopefully in English, but my enlgish teacher is a lovely teacher, she’s a bit older than the other teachers, but she knows I’d love to be a writer, and she told me she felt privileged to write one of my pieces about zach, you see when I write about him, I don’t have to think about what to say, it just pours out, that’s the amazing thing.
 
So really I just wanted to say how your book junk just showed things how they are, if you ever got bad criticism from that, please don’t listen to them because as a teenage reader I loved that book, it even made me cry, and you can see how the character of David, or ‘Tar’ changed throughout the book, I could also relate to that, through drugs you see people change, they’re not who they were,it’s as almost as if they’re just the drug in human form to be honest. Zach’s reading your book at the moment, he took it on holiday with him and I know he’ll understand it just as much as I did. Junk is the first book I have read of yours, and I’ve reserved others from the library. I just wanted to say that you have a skill for writing, and your ability to tell things as they are and not to mask things is amazing.
 
I hope that I’ll hear a reply one day, I’d love to talk to you because all I want to do is become a writer when I’m older and it would mean so much to me to have a reply from such a gifted writer like you!
 
Thank you for taking your time to read this,
    sincerely,
    Sophie
]]> 1319539918 Tue, 25 Oct 2011 05:51:58 -0500 http://www.melvinburgess.net/new/blog.php?subaction=showfull&id=1317911888&archive= Check it out!


]]> 1317911888 Thu, 06 Oct 2011 09:38:08 -0500 http://www.melvinburgess.net/new/blog.php?subaction=showfull&id=1317894071&archive= Keep up with news and reviews of Kill All Enemies here. ]]> 1317894071 Thu, 06 Oct 2011 04:41:11 -0500 http://www.melvinburgess.net/new/blog.php?subaction=showfull&id=1316075750&archive= I'm currently taking bookings for school visits and other events in 2012. For details of my recent re-issued books for younger readers, for ages 11 - 13 see here; and for older readers, here.

Here's a quick run down of events this year so far. Not many details as yet - I'll post them up as they become available.

6th - 9th February; Italy. I'll be visiting schools in Trento and also doing a session in the fabulous library in Bologna. Can't wait!

5th - 6th March; Dublin. I'll be doing some work at Trinity College and perhaps doing some schools as well.

25th March - In Bangor, Wales, with Hay Festivals.

2nd and 3rd April - In Leeds for the film festival, and Leeds libraries. More later.

31st May - 3rd June - Montpelier festival in France. Details to follow.

4th June - Hay Festival

29th June - 1st July - LitWales.

19th - 20th August - Edinburgh Festival.





]]> 1316075750 Thu, 15 Sep 2011 03:35:50 -0500 http://www.melvinburgess.net/new/blog.php?subaction=showfull&id=1315385418&archive= A major article in The Times today about the riots. If you don't want to buy the paper, you can read it here - but you have to pay £1. Sigh.

]]> 1315385418 Wed, 07 Sep 2011 03:50:18 -0500