Saturday Spotlight: Guest Post: Libraries, Love of Books and Reading by SC Ransom

Today it is my pleasure to welcome Sue Ransom to Book Angel's Booktopia. Not only is Sue the author of Small Blue Thing and Perflectly Reflected she is also a Headhunter (makes me giggle the imagery it conjures up) and has helped J loads. I am sure she has super-powers. Over to Sue:

When I was young I lived in a house full of books which seemed to be mostly for adults or directed towards boys (I have two brothers). I read everything I could lay my hands on, but when I first went to my local library I thought I had died and gone to heaven. Racks and racks of books for girls, my own library cards and no-one to tell me what to pick. Every Saturday morning I took the bus into town clutching my three books, handed them in and got back my three little orange cards. I then sniffed along the shelves until I found something which caught my fancy. Half the time the three books wouldn’t last me through the weekend. I pleaded with the librarian to be allowed to take out more, but those were the rules. Even so, in a few years I must have read half the library.

When I moved up to senior school there was a small fiction library to explore, so I was able to take out books from there too. As I got older I started to get my own books and borrow from friends (there’s nothing quite like having a rummage through someone else’s bookshelf). But mostly I bought my own, enjoying the thrill of a nice, crisp paperback which may or may not in time turn into a soft, well-worn favourite. I stopped going to the library, and with the arrival of full time employment and two kids,reading became a holiday activity.

It wasn’t until my job changed and I started to commute on the train that I really started to read again. With an hour a day to sit in peace and quiet, I quickly re-read all my old favourites, lots of new authors and then I started on my children’s books. What struck me about my daughter’s books was that they were (mostly) very American, and that started me thinking. With all the background research I had done into books with a lifetime of reading, how hard would it be to write a story just for her? A story which was about her world, her friends, her school? What better birthday present could I give her? I fished my BlackBerry out of my bag and began to write. Every day on the train I wrote, and very soon the project got a little out of hand.

Two years later (almost exactly), that book has been published. Small Blue Thing is now sitting on the shelf in libraries, where a whole new generation of girls can find it, and that makes me hugely proud.

Thanks so much to Sue for that wonderful Guest Post.

Title: Small Blue Thing

Series: Small Blue Thing

Author: S C Ransom 

Publisher: Nosy Crow

Publication Date: 13 Jan 2011

Synopsis: From Amazon

When 17 year-old Alex rescues a swan caught on a wire stuck deep in the Thames mud, she finds an extraordinary bracelet. Through its disturbing and compelling powers, she meets Callum, a soul locked in a half-life of sadness and mystery following a terrible accident, and his persuasive and sinister sister, Catherine. As Alex and Callum grow closer despite the enormous obstacles to their love, the dangers mount until Alex must risk everything to save her best friend and Callum must risk everything to save Alex.

Review here

Title: Perfectly Reflected

Series: Small Blue Thing

Author: SC Ransom

Publisher: Nosy Crow

Publication Date: 2 Jun 2011

Synopsis: From Amazon

This is the second book in the Small Blue Thing trilogy.

Still recovering from her earlier brush with death, Alex's source of strength and comfort is Callum, still locked in a sad half-life after drowing in the river Fleet that flows into the Thames. And she needs all the strength and comfort she can get: someone is out to make her life a misery, and someone is out to get hold of the extraordinary bracelet that enables her to communicate with Callum.

Review here