Children’s Book Award Blog Tour- Fear Files by Christopher Edge – The Federation of Children’s Book Groups

As someone who spends most of his time locked inside a shed writing stories, news of any award is exciting, but being nominated for one that is voted for solely by children is especially special. Every author’s greatest wish is for the stories they write to connect with readers, so it’s wonderful to be nominated for this award as it tells me that young readers have been discovering the scares inside Fear Files: Hide and Seek.

It started with my discovery of the Darkive – a mysterious database of young people’s first-hand accounts of strange and unexplained experiences. Nobody knows who started the Darkive, but when its files were leaked to me, I felt a shiver of pure fear run down my spine as I read through each sinister case, and as I studied the evidence contained in each file, I started to wonder if these first encounters with fear could actually be real. In the first case file, Fear Files: Hide and Seek, Adam and his best friend, Sol, discover an abandoned ghost town and find themselves playing a strange game of hide and seek. But who or what is trying to find them? And can Adam stay one step ahead of the shadowy figure of the Itter?

I always try to write stories where readers have to keep turning the pages to find out what happens next, and with Fear Files: Hide and Seek, I wanted to make the reader almost too scared to turn the pages, but they still have to as they still want to discover what happens to Adam as the Itter tries to find him! I hope that Fear Files: Hide and Seek also empowers readers to face their fears and be able to confront things that initially scare them.

Inspiration can come from anywhere, and for Fear Files: Hide and Seek, the story was inspired by the childhood game of hide and seek, which is genuinely the most terrifying game ever invented. Terrifying for the hider – are you going to get caught or worse forgotten? Terrifying for the seeker – who or what is going to jump out at you when you go looking for them?

I’ve got an exciting new adventure called How to Steal the Future that’s coming out in July. Imagine The Traitors meets Inception, with lots of mind-bending twists and turns, and there’s also a brand-new Fear Files story, A Trick of the Light, that’ll be published in the autumn. This is a ghost story with a difference about a residential school trip with a very spooky twist.

Stories live in so many places: novels, comic books, movies and games. If you fill yourself with stories, you’ll find your own stories come tumbling out.