Sam Wu Is NOT Afraid of Ghosts!

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How does co-authorship work? Is it enjoyable? How often do the authors disagree? How can one author indicate to the other that some space is needed? According to Katie she is bossy and Kevin is stubborn, which sounds like a recipe for conflict. But both insist that co authorship is a pleasant experience. Their personal relationship is not strained by the professional partnership; they often have energetic debates. In their kitchen they have a white board on which all ideas are displayed, the rule being that nothing is deleted. They start work by creating a very strong outline chapter by chapter. Any ideas about which they are unsure gets stored on a computer known as the Sandbox. If one author writes a passage which the other feels isn’t working, the passage in question is termed ‘mushroom’ because, after all, not everyone likes mushrooms. They refrain from saying that they don’t like a passage. A polite euphemism serves a purpose. If one of them needs time alone or would like to be left in peace to write, that is termed ‘sparkle time’. Brilliantly funny new young series about the bravest scaredy-cat in the world. Sam Wu is NOT a scaredy-cat (except when he is). And when a shark TOTALLY tries to eat him at the local aquarium, he decides he's not going to take any more chances. So at his friend's birthday party at the beach, Sam refuses to dip even a toe in the water. Nothing could go wrong now, could it? A wonderful belly-laugh of a book, perfect for young fans of Tom Gates and Pamela Butchart. Katie and Kevin met in in 2008 while studying at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. Since then they have lived on three different continents and travelled to over 40 countries together. They currently live in London. As well as the brilliant SAM WU series, Katie and Kevin also write magical middle grade fantasy series, DRAGON REALM. Kevin was born in Copenhagen and grew up in Atlanta, Georgia. Some of Sam Wu’s experiences are based on Kevin’s childhood (he’s feeling much more confident now). Katie was born and raised in Southern California. She has previously worked at Booktrust, the UK’s largest children’s reading charity, and also writes YA fiction as Katherine Webber. Each of the four children – Billy, Charlotte, Dylan and Ling-Fei – is bonded with a dragon in a ceremony known as the Bonding and they discover that they are to be bonded with dragons at the same time as they are entrusted with their mission to save Dragon Realm. Kevin thought it important that when each child was bonded with a dragon, both child and dragon gained extra powers. I asked the authors how they had devised the dragon bonding ceremony. It was a joint idea. Katie and Kevin would like readers young and old to speculate on what kind of dragon each person would acquire. There is an element of wish fulfilment. I would like my dragon to be…

What will follow in the Dragon Realm series? The authors assure me that there will be twists and turns. Readers of the first book will already know that Katie and Kevin Tsang are skilful operators of the unexpected. They have a particular hope that children who are usually reluctant readers might become attracted to their books. My final question: would they like to see their books on film? Unsurprisingly the answer was resoundingly positive. Watch this space.

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Chatting the Katie and Kevin, we first discussed those elements of Chinese culture they chose to incorporate in the book. Diet played a part. Kevin recalled his love of Chinese cuisine such as pork buns while he was growing up – the children in the book often eat pork buns. In Chinese mythology peaches represent immortality, therefore the trees in the Dragon Realm grow peaches. Both authors have always been fascinated by the Chinese Zodiac, so when the young protagonists of their book reach Camp Dragon, they are divided into teams under the signs of the Chinese Zodiac. The Sam Wu is Not Afraid series follows the bravest scaredy cat in all the world, Sam Wu, as he faces his fears from ghosts to sharks to the dark! A truly laugh-out-loud, voice-led and madcap story of ghost hunting, snakes and mischievous pet cats called Butterbutt, perfect for fans of Tom Gates, Wilf the Mighty Worrier and Barry Loser, and readers aged six plus. Charlotte, one of the female characters in their book, is bossy and strong willed. She also likes dresses. It was important to Katie to write Charlotte, on whose development she played the lead role, in a particular way. In children’s fiction young female characters tend to be depicted either as tomboys or as ultra girly girls. Charlotte is neither, she has a more diverse character.

Sam Wu is NOT a scaredy-cat (except he is). When a trip to the Space Museum goes terrifyingly wrong, Sam begins a mission to prove to the school bully, and all of his friends, that he is a fearless space adventurer.There's hardly anything that Sam Wu is afraid of. Unless you count ghosts, sharks, the dark and maybe even spiders. But definitely NOT zombies. Except for actual real ones maybe. Brilliantly funny new series about the bravest scaredy-cat in the world. Sam Wu is NOT a scaredy-cat (except he is). When a trip to the Space Museum goes terrifyingly wrong, Sam begins a mission to prove to the school bully, and all of his friends, that he is a fearless space adventurer. The first book in the series Sam Wu is Not Afraid of Ghosts will be published in February 2018 in the UK and October 2018 in the US.Sam's next adventure, Sam Wu is Not Afraid of Sharks, will be published in July 2018 in the UK and February 2019 in the US. This is the third is the Sam Wu adventure series about conquering all sorts of fears in a humorous manner. With chaotic illustrations amplifying the funny situations that Sam and his friends find themselves in, this series is going from strength to strength and is a great accessible read. Katie and Kevin Tsang are the joint authors of Dragon Mountain, the first book in a trilogy about a mythical Dragon Realm. This first book has just been named as the Waterstone’s Children’s Book of the Month for September 2020, guaranteeing it many readers.