Lucy Strange: How Scary is too Scary? | Mark Stay’s Creative Differences Episode 14

Lucy Strange is an award-winning children’s author whose books feel like classic children’s literature, but are written in a style that is engaging and accessible for today’s younger readers.

Most recently she’s collaborated with artist Pam Smy on their spooky, funny new series Lockett & Wilde’s Dreadfully Haunting Mysteries! Often inspired by folklore and fairy tales, Lucy combines historical settings with touches of magic and fantasy to create utterly convincing worlds in which anything might happen.

And before becoming a professional writer, Lucy worked as an English teacher for fifteen years. Having also trained and worked as an actor, Lucy narrates her own audiobooks, winning the 2019 Audie Award for The Secret of Nightingale Wood.

WE DISCUSS:

Collaborating with illustrators

What Lucy learned from abridging Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein

Writer’s Block and how to deal with it

And how scary is too scary when writing for children?

And much more!



Or watch it on Youtube…



LINKS

Lucy’s Website: https://www.lucystrange.org

The Episode with GB Ralph: https://markstaycreativedifferences.com/2024/12/12/episode-5-with-gb-ralph-share-the-excitment/

What’s Giving Us Joy…

Essex Serpent, Sarah Perry: https://serpentstail.com/work/the-essex-serpent/

Instead of a Letter, Diana Athill: https://granta.com/products/instead-of-a-letter/

Once Upon a River, Diane Setterfield: https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/437745/once-upon-a-river-by-diane-setterfield/9781784163631

Death at the Sign of the Rook, Kate Atkinson: https://www.kateatkinson.co.uk/books/death-at-the-sign-of-the-rook/

Buckingham Nicks: https://www.roughtrade.com/product/lindsey-buckingham-and-stevie-nicks/buckingham-nicks

Superstore: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Superstore_(TV_series)

Robert Redford: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Redford

A huge thanks to Emily for production assistance, to Kai Newton for the edit, and Dominic Currie for the jingle.

Lou Abercrombie on the Bestseller Experiment

I was rubbish at Maths at school, so it would have been wonderful to have to something like Lou Abercrombie‘s book AMAZING MATHS when I was a wee lad. Lou tells me about this new book and her fab children’s novels, FIG SWIMS THE WORLD and COMING UP FOR AIR and how she’s inspired by water.

And if that wasn’t enough, listeners/viewers also get a sneak peek at a special Deep Dive I recorded a very long time ago when director Jon Wright and I answered listener questions on the making of our film UNWELCOME. That Deep Dive goes live on Friday, which is the same day as the film’s release in the UK! Which are you more excited about…???