In the bitterly cold Transylvanian forest Tomas and his son, Peter, arrive in Chust and despite the hostility of the villagers, settle there as woodcutters. Tomas digs a channel of fast-flowing waters around their hut so they have their own little island kingdom. Finding an empty shell casing on the pavement in St Petersburg. It was a long way from there to the finished book but that was the start of it.

City girl Rebecca, spending the summer in a remote East Anglian seaside village, encounters Ferelith, a Goth who lives in a commune. Peter doesn’t understand why his father has done this, nor why his father carries a long battered box everywhere they go, and why he is forbidden to know its mysterious contents. But when a band of gypsies comes to the village Peter’s hard existence is turned upside down. The historical context of most of your novels must mean a huge amount of research prior to writing each book. What does this involve and how long does it take? It reads like a promising first draft to a fantasy tale with gothic leanings, but the storytelling is a bit lean in details and the pacing is both rushed and slow at the same time. They are not well liked in the village of Chust and are considered to be outsiders. Peter is used to his own company because they have moved around a lot and his father Tomas is a taciturn man. Peter knows his father is troubled by something but as usual he is unwilling to share.With both your publisher and author hat on, what advice can you give would-be children's authors in getting published?

Marcus has been shortlisted for the CILIP Carnegie Medal five times, the Edgar Allan Poe Award (twice) and the Guardian Children’s Fiction Prize (four times). He is also the most noted author in the history of the Printz Award, with one win and two honour books,for Revolver, The Ghosts of Heaven and Midwinter Blood.This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed.

The most important thing is to know your market! Who do you think your book is going to be read by? What else is out there that's like it? Are you writing something that will sell? We’ve found one,” Sofia said. “Are you-?” “I’m all right,” Sofia said. “Hurry. We have to try.” She got to her feet. “Come on!” It was so hard. What they were doing was so hard, and the ferocity of the snowstorm only made it harder. stars. This book already deserves all the stars for presenting vampires as the terrifying, dangerous, non-seductive monsters that they are.Peter and his father, who drinks too much, have found themselves something of a home as woodcutters for a village, though they choose to live on its outskirts and associate with the villagers as little as possible. The village then sees two deaths, which are blamed on wolves even though it appears unlikely to say the least. Peter's friend Agnes becomes involved in the second death and in his quest to do the right thing by her, he discovers that his own history is much less straightforward than he had thought. Yes, I always loved myths and legends - I used to read and re-read two books from the library - one a big illustrated edition of Greek Myths and the other Old Peter's Russian Tales. I don't know why I was fascinated by these stories, but maybe simply because I find them to be more glamorous than contemporary stories... Peter and his father Tomas are woodcutters living on the edge of a small forest village called Chust. They are outsiders and for the most part keep to their own company.