World Book Day Workshops at Waterstones

On Thursday, I'll be at Waterstones in Orchard Square, Sheffield running Driftwood & Amethyst sessions with groups from Sheffield primary schools as part of the World Book Day events being held there. After setting up a number of schools workshops to be taking place during the Summer Term, it's been a real privilege being asked back to Waterstones by Becca and the gang and will be signing copies of Driftwood after reading from particular sessions and taking part in a Q&A session with children between 7-11 years.

In the afternoon, I'll be popping along to Canklow Woods Primary to share Driftwood & Amethyst with some of the students there - a school very close to my heart as I worked there for a short time back in 2006 before I had to put teaching on indefinite hold while my bones were troubling me!
It will be great to see the staff and students there and I'm hoping this will lead to more visits over the next twelve months or so.

A local bookgroup have asked me to come along for an evening to discuss children's stories and talk about how I started writing childrens fiction - I hear that there are a few aspiring authors among the group which will be great fun! Some of the Mums I'll be talking with have been reading Driftwood & Amethyst to their children as a bedtime story since the local schools took me on as a writer in residence recently, so I'm looking forward to feedback from the parents and their little ones - I'll brace myself as children are always the toughest critics!

I am also offering my services running writing workshops linked directly to Driftwood & Amethyst, but will be using sections from my latest project to help students develop characters and settings  in their own writing. One of these will link in with a day at an outdoor pursuits centre - the last time I did something like this resulted in a week of caving, abseiling, mountain walking and kayaking so I'm waiting with baited breath to receive more details!