Last night Nottingham Waterstones hosted CJ Tudor’s launch of her highly anticipated follow up to The Chalk Man, The Taking of Annie Thorne. This time, in comparison to last year, both Amy and CJ seemed a lot more confident when talking to the public. At the launch of The Chalk Man it was both of their first contacts with the public, but since then I’ve seen CJ on several occasions, even arranging an event at Kirkby in Ashfield library and it has been a great honour to follow an author from the birth of their career.
When they discussed the book, Amy asked about the stylistic similarities between both novels, to which the reply was that they were both written at the same time and at the time of the release of The Chalk Man, she wasn’t sure which one she would be chosen by her and her publishers for publication. The flashbacks to childhood and teachers feature in both books, but the plots were anything but similar. The prologue to Annie Thorne was read out last night and the graphic detail shocked the audience. It opens pretty much like a graphic police procedural, with bluebottles, blood pools and brain matter.
The most interesting question from my point of view concerned the drawings on the covers of both books, with child like figures depicted upon spine and cover. This makes them feel uniquely CJ Tudor, as no one else has yet used them.
Speaking with CJ after the signing, she summed up her feelings about the launch night by telling me how happy she was discussing people’s happy reactions to The Chalk Man and how much they were all looking forwards to reading her new book. One man in the signing queue had bought three separate copies of The Chalk Man. It was nice to see Tudor supported by family friends who had grown up with her, many of whom had ridden around her home village on bikes, just like Eddie and his friends in The Chalk Man. This little extra detail gives you an idea about how books can come to life from anything.
CJ then went on to say about books in the future and gave the audience an insight into the opening of book three: The Other People. Now to give the opening more context, I must say that CJ has a five year old daughter and the opening to the third book involved come characters driving down the motorway to see a head popping up at the back of the car in front. This is unusual in its own right, but just imagine if it was not only someone you knew, but you believed them to be your very own daughter, whom you thought was safe at home.
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