A place for everything and everything in its place

This week I've been working with groups of students on story writing. With younger students in Year 1 (5-6 year olds), using the seaside as a stimulus, children were thinking of descibing words and sounds, alliteration - swishy, swashy,drip, drip, etc - to help them imagine being in that seaside environment. They relied heavily on illustrations and physical prompts such as seashells, starfish, sand along with photographs to help them brainstorm WOW! words to describe their setting. Some children coped very well with this and were able to write down words to describe what they could see, smell, feel and hear. Others were able to describe the images or objects they saw but then were unable to translate this in to a story setting. At the age of seven, some working in a second or third language in class, certain children were stumped. But as a group, we were able to create a piece of group writing. With a whiteboard and pen, I scribed the WOW! words before asking the children to create a seaside setting for their story. They told me what they saw, the colours, shapes and textures, before we steadily weaved a walk along a beach.

Crunchy, scrunchy sand.
Harry tiptoed along the sand.
His feet were wet and scratchy sand stuck in his toes.Swish swish went the waves.
The blue wet sea out there.
A boat sailed across the horizon.
Harry was on holiday.

A great first page for the children to then develop in to a story for their character!

With Year 3 students, the story setting has been based around the garden after reading Tom's Midnight Garden. Working with this group, who on the whole have access to a back garden or at least access to local parks, the students have been able to refer to their first hand experiences in addition to using photographs and books as an aide memoire and/or stimulus.

Students began by drawing the garden within which the story would take place and from there then began to record WOW! words which would descibe their garden, movement around the garden and the events that were to take place.

polished glass greenhouse
faded wood summerhouse
battered trees
pink cherry blossom  -  scent of strawberry sweets
grey stone sundial - shadows cast tell the time
deep, dark, cold, pond -glimmer of occasional goldfish

tiptoe silently across the wet, icy blades of grass
flap flap of the blackbird's wing
chirrup chirrup a thrush sings its cheerful song
a golden key, decorated and shiny
a dirty, curled up map telling a treasure hidden deep in the garden
a hidden door behind the ivy climbing up the wall

We will be looking at story plans next, which will bring some of these fabulous ideas to life!

Time flies by when you're the driver of the train . . .

Well, almost six weeks have passed since I last published an entry on this blog. That is not to say I haven't written numerous blogs during that period recalling a number of writing sessions and publicity sessions, I just did not post them.

I'm not entirely sure why, but this much is true. I'm right in the middle of a complete self confidence failure right now. I don't intend to use this blog to relay my woes but enough is to say that life gets in the way sometimes - I'm sure I'm not alone when I indicate the frustrations and distress faced when all of a sudden, the life you know changes so dramatically, that you focus down on getting through each day rather than allowing yourself the luxury of creativity.

Unfortunately, whilst in survival mode, my creativity dried right up and I was left with something resembling cheap muesli (the stuff we've all tried on a budget and discovered that muesli without nuts, raisins and dried fruit is as tasty as cat litter)

However, during this time, I have written in my notebooks at any given opportunity, considering a prequel for Driftwood and Amethyst where the backstory of Holly Dawson, the kindly old guesthouse owner with a penchant for natural magic, is explored. As I wrote, the story seemed to be taking two completely separate directions and I soon discovered I was also intertwining the prequel with another story.

As I raise my head nervously above the parapet of my little existence, I now am beginning to see my way forward and out of the quagmire of self doubt and insecurities, sadly brought on by the crumbling of significant aspects of my old life.

But what doesn't kill you makes you stronger and while I apologise for the heavy reliance on simile and metaphor, these well worn sayings have allowed me to outline my present state. My notebooks are full of hopeless doodles and scribbles from many of these equally hopeless moments and are now being carefully dissected from the prequel and are steadily being stitched together to create a sequel for the two main characters, Danny and Sophie; a new adventure where their reality becomes enchanted and fantastically unpredicatable once again.

A little like my life, as it happens, so there you go. Maybe in some ways life does imitate art after all.

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!

Edits and Revisions . . .

After a rather optimistic start led me walking too far, in a bid to prove to myself and the world it was a case of mind over matter, I've been knocked me out for the last seven days. Popping painkillers in a vain attempt to overthrow the little dance my joints have been doing all week left me stuck in bed for three days - the worst possible place for me. I can safely say I overdid it and need to view my wheelchair as merely an aid and not my enemy. However, barely moving has thrown up its own set of consequences.

Northern General Hospital's Chronic Pain Management Training in Sheffield taught me a very important lesson when I attended their classes over two years ago now:

less movement = more pain = less movement = more pain

So, with this in mind, I've crawled back slowly slowly to a more manageable situation and with my morphine and additional painkillers keeping on top of things, I'm starting to feel a little more like my old self.
Sleeping on a dreadful mattress hasn't been helping and so I've invested in a new orthopaedic one which the shop assistant promises will help me get a good night's sleep. Without sleep I barely function, so you can imagine the last two weeks have been a case of dragging myself through treacle.
New mattress arrives today so I'm looking forward to a full night's sleep tonight!

Writing has been replaced with reading and research while I've not been able to sit at my lap top and I've completed (reading) three novels in a fortnight which has afforded me space to consider my own writing style.
Stieg Larsson's  'The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo' has been a complete discovery for me - his straight-talking lack of adverbs and adjectives in some incredibly powerful and visual scenes has me reading over my short stories and first draft of my second novel to weed out unnecessary describing words - my favourite part of writing is utilising our rich language yet can sometimes clutter paragraphs that would be more effectively written simply. I am not advocating a stripping away of all descriptive language as I know some writing academics do, but just ensuring that description is necessary. Let every word count!
I have a fridge magnet which reads Live Simply. I will be applying this in my writing from now on!
I also read 'The Birds and the Bees' by Milly Johnson, a local author whose straight talking and clever psychological dances made by her characters through the pages of this novel had me reflecting on the depth I go to flesh out my characters and consider their actions and reactions.
As a children's writer, I perhaps haven't got to show many layers of my characters' personalities, but I hope their actions and reactions reflect the research and planning that goes in to the development of my characters. As my next novel is dealing with the young Holly Dawson, a character we meet as an old landlady in Driftwood and Amethyst, I'm keen to learn lessons here and will be focusing on my main characters' lives and creation very carefully!

New Year, New Beginnings

Happy New Year!
Sorry I haven't managed to post over the Christmas period but everything got a wee bit too busy. As I'm sure you know, life can be a little like that sometimes.
As someone who prides herself on meeting deadlines and constantly striving for self-improvement (on many levels!), illness over the last few years has somewhat scuppered a track record that was not impeccable but came close enough at times to give me a warm glow inside. Over the years, I had developed a reputation I was quietly proud of.

Serious illness came along and turned my world upside down. For the last three years, personally, professionally and creatively, my life nose-dived. This in turn caused my health to worsen even further - I'm sure of that now - and although I didn't give up, depression on top of poor mobility and chronic pain made every day a struggle. My children got me through it. Both boys became finely tuned to my pain and my tiredness, remembering not to leap on me as they walked through the door and happy to choose a film to watch or book to read if mum wasn't up to a trip out. They would encourage me to get up the staircase without my sticks or ask me to play 'Piggy in the Middle' outside so I would stand without sticks to support my balance - just two examples of the many ways they pushed my recovery a little further each day.
Friends and family would gently coax me out of the house and take me off in my wheelchair to the dreaded 'MeadowHell' or Sheffield's shops and galleries, joking that they were only after me for my disabled parking badge!

As I gave up on my physiotherapy and hopes for improved mobility, my mental health worsened. Was this it? A loss of independence, personally and financially, low self esteem and increasingly being viewed as a disabled woman living out her life on benefits? Sadly, there were people who discouraged my recovery and return to work in exchange for a life at home where I 'wouldn't have to work'. Many give up and live out their lives in this way, some honestly and with good reason, but there are some who continue to claim benefits dishonestly, their health improving yet their resolve to pay their way somehow broken.

As my blog details, my life was saved by two consultants up at Northern General Hospital, Sheffield - Mr. R. Gibson and Mr. R. Atcheson - who between them reduced my medication, performed surgery that had been deemed impossible by my old consultant in Rotherham. This finally gave me hope.

In December, Mr Atcheson anaesthetised an area of my spine to improve my mobility and intends to perform a nerve abrasion later this month. This may see me dancing again before the year is out!

So my plans and resolutions for 2012? Here goes:

I am walking short distances with sticks and want to be able to stop using my wheelchair over the next six months. I'm walking a little more each day and will be starting exercising next week at an hourly Yoga class each Monday afternoon.

I want to reduce the Gapapentin painkillers I am currently taking and hope to continue reducing over the next twelve months.

My children's novel, Driftwood and Amethyst, is selling quite nicely and I have been asked to do some workshops locally and down in Redbridge, East London next month. I hope to continue with these and organise more book events over the next twelve months.

I'm working on my second children's novel, a prequel to Driftwood which tells of Holly Dawson's early life and experiences and will continue chipping away at it over the year.

As my health improves, I hope to return to teaching part-time. I am currently making moves to steadily phase back in by offering voluntary support in school, just an hour here and there. I hope to be teaching, saving, writing and holidaying by the time the year is through.

I am so looking forward to big changes this year - lots of positive moves forward with my life to better the life I will have with my boys.

It just goes to show. Miracles can happen - with a little faith and the courage of your convictions.
Never, ever give up hope!

Writing Competitions

Although I wrote this yesterday, I didn't have time to post it, so technically I've not really managed a post a day so far. However, this is not a hard and fast rule for participating and we are able to post a number of posts within the seven day frame.

So here goes. Today's theme is the fabulous creation - the writing competition. Many writers enter their work and often are able to supplement their income with the odd prize win or enhance their existences by winning a holiday (yay!) a meal out in a fancy restaurant (okay!) or chocolate (always acceptable.)

I've tried to include a range of subject focus, a range of cash prizes and have also ensured this list does not require a mad month of writing before January 31st 2012.

There may be something to tempt you. Good luck!

Newcastle Centre for Literary Arts Water Poetry Competition

Deadline: 13th January 2012.

Main Category (£5 entry fee for up to three poems):
1st Prize: £500
2nd Prize: £200
3rd Prize: £100

North East Young Adult Category (free entry for up to three poems):
1st Prize: £250
Five runners up will each receive £50

Judges: John Burnside and W N Herbert.

They want you to think about water in all its aspects and submit poems to us

which use it as a theme. For further details or if you’re looking for some

inspiration then visit our website to download our free prompts sheet:
http://www.ncl.ac.uk/ncla/projects/competitions/poetrycomp/ 

Theatre Trail Writers Competition 2012

Deadline: 31st January 2012.

The Arundel Festival Theatre Trail, conceived and presented by Drip Action Theatre Company, is now in its twelfth year. It performs for the last eight days of August, eight short plays at eight different venues all over Arundel – last year, for example, in a living room, a kitchen, an art gallery and a pub. 

Writers are invited to submit plays for next year’s Trail.

Plays should be between 30 and 40 minutes long, suitable for day-time performance, with practicable casting and props. All entries should be submitted to:

Drip Action Theatre Trail 2012
c/o SGIS Ltd.
65a High Street
Arundel
West Sussex
BN18 9AJ

One play only per entrant, in hard copy - no e-mails accepted. Please enclose SAE if you’d like your play returned.  There is no reading fee. 

Choc Lit Short Story Competition

Deadline: 31st January 2012

They’re looking for short stories of up to 1,500 words in which the central theme is chocolate – eating it, drinking it, cooking with it, or anything else.

PRIZES
1st prize £200, publication on Choc Lit’s authors corner blog and a box of chocolates from Plush Chocolates.
A Runner Up will receive £50 and a box of chocolates from Plush Chocolates.

RULES
1. Your entry must be a maximum of 1,500 words.
2. All work must be your own and not previously published.
3. Entry fee is £3 per story.
4. All entries must be received by 31st January, 2012.

JUDGES
Your judges are Choc Lit authors Margaret James and Sue Moorcroft. Both are experienced creative writing tutors. Margaret also writes the monthly Fiction Focus for Writing Magazine and Sue is a fiction judge for short story competitions at Writers Forum.
HOW TO ENTER
1. Please post your stories to: Short Story Competition, Choc Lit Ltd, Penrose House, Crawley Drive, Camberley, Surrey, GU15 2AB. Please enclose a cheque for £3 per story – i.e. to enter 3 stories would cost £9. Cheques are payable to ‘Choc Lit Ltd.’

2. Or email info@choc-lit.co.uk with the subject header ‘Short Story Competition’ and pay your entry fee by Paypal atorders@choc-lit.co.uk.

Visit: www.choc-lit.co.uk for a free taste of all our novels,
or simply scan the barcode with your smartphone QR reader.

2012 Bristol Short Story Prize

Deadline: March 31st 2012

2012 Bristol Short Story Prize is open to all writers, UK and non-UK based, over 16 years of age.
Stories can be on any theme or subject and
entry can be made online via the website or by
post. Entries must be previously unpublished
with a maximum length of 3,000 words (There is no minimum.
The entry fee is £7 per story.

Prizes:
1st £1000 plus £150 Waterstone’s gift card
2nd £700 plus £100 Waterstone’s gift card
3rd £400 plus £100 Waterstone’s gift card

17 further prizes of £100 will be presented to the writers whose stories appear on the shortlist. All 20 shortlisted writers will have their stories published in the Bristol Short Story Prize Anthology Volume 5. The winning story will, also, be published in Bristol Review of Books and Venue magazine.

The 20 shortlisted writers will be invited to an awards ceremony in Bristol in July 2012 when the winners will be announced and the anthology launched.
The awards ceremony will be the final event of our 2nd ShortStoryVille festival.

Judging panel : Ali Reynolds (literary consultant, former Random House editor)
Bidisha (writer, broadcaster, critic) Anna Britten (writer, journalist at Venue Magazine)
Chris Wakling (novelist, Creative Writing tutor)

Full details at www.bristolprize.co.uk

The Sportswriter Competition 2012
Deadline: 1st July 2012

The Sportswriter Competition 2012 is the first of what we hope to be an annual writing competition that seeks to identify new sportswriting talent. Entries may be fiction or non-fiction, prose or poetry.

Prizes:
First place: £250
Second place: £75
Third place: £25
(paid in British Pounds Sterling by bank transfer, cheque or through PayPal)

The entry fee is £3.00, of which £1.00 will be donated to our chosen charity, Cyclists Fighting Cancer (http://cyclistsfc.org.uk/). The deadline for entries is midnight on the 1st July 2012, the day of the Euro 2012 Final.

The Sportswriter Competition 2012 is open to anyone aged 18 years or older.
Entries may be submitted directly through the form on the website, http://www.sportswriter.org.uk/writing-competition, or by email, info@sportswriter.org.uk.

Entries may be up to 2000 words (or 40 lines for poems) and should relate to sport in some way. Winning entrants will receive the cash prizes and their work will be published on the website, www.sportswriter.org.uk.

posted by
Davy Hackett
SportsWriter.org.uk

Day One of the Seven Day Blogging Challenge: Five Free Writing Courses You May Love to Hate!

My first challenge of the week is to tell you about five free writing courses available on the internet. Initially, I was unsure I would be able to unearth five such courses. There is a glut of information out there on the world wide web about writing courses available to you which promise no end of opportunities over and above the one you aspire to - to improve your writing skills.But to find courses that are not only competent, with a proven track record, and which are free of charge was always going to be tricky, as although the only real stipulation was that the courses were free, I did not want to recommend anything that I didn't feel comfortable about putting my name to.
With a free course, you have nothing to lose - right? Well, no not quite. There is the small matter of your identity.
So, as with all things on the internet that ask for any details, tread carefully. Read around the course and do not give any details until you personally feel secure enough to do so. I'm sharing course providers who require nothing more from you than a name and email address and seem to be some of the more reputable agencies advertising as such.

I've listed five free writing courses: -

WRITING GENRE FOCUS :Short Story Writing
PROVIDER: Open University, UK
WEBSITE STATEMENT: Have you always wanted to write, but never quite had the courage to start? This unit will give you an insight into how authors create their characters and the settings for their work. You will also be able to look at the different genres for fiction.

LINK: http://openlearn.open.ac.uk/course/view.php?id=2748


WRITING GENRE FOCUS: Letter and Article Writing for Magazines
PROVIDER:Writer2Writer

WEBSITE STATEMENT: Discover how you can earn serious money as a writer - by writing for magazines! This mini-ecourse contains many of the essential concepts necessary to become a magazine writer, and can be applied by anyone who can write a cohesive letter!

LINK: http://www.writer2writer.com/courses.htm


WRITING GENRE FOCUS: Screenwriting
PROVIDER: Steven Barnes
WEBSITE STATEMENT: I've written for television and film, books and short stories, comic books and stage. The most important lessons I've learned along the way have been those which deal with the difference between the "Inner" and "Outer" aspects of writing, that is -- the technical craft as opposed to the emotional or spiritual aspects of the game. It is my intent to teach you not just about the structures of Character and Plotting, but also about how your own inner life interacts with your writing in such a way to create art--or at least craft.

LINK: http://www.lifewrite.com/html/assets/classes/htm

WRITING GENRE FOCUS: Introduction to Writing
PROVIDER: Writing.Com
WEBSITE STATEMENT: An online introductory writing class for all levels of writers -- from beginning to advanced. The class includes individual and group chats, and individual and group exercises. Students are given the chance to critique the writing exercises posted to the group.

LINK: http://distancelearn.about.com/od/isitforyou/a/WritingClass.htm


WRITING GENRE FOCUS: Poetry
PROVIDER: Kelly Morris @ Suite 101
WEBSITE STATEMENT: This course is designed for poets who wish to publish their work. While the course begins with an overview of basic poetry styles and techniques, the course is designed with students in mind who already have a basic understanding of these things. You should have some poems already written that you’d like to publish before beginning this course, because we’ll focus on marketing those poems, not on writing new ones. Of course, the skills learned during this course will also help you publish your future work.

LINK: http://www.suite101.com/course.cfm/19698/seminar


I will be working through Steven Barnes' Screenwriting course sometime in the near future. I will be feeding back to you along the duration of the course. This is a genre of writing I will be getting to grips with next year as I develop a novel in to a screenplay. Although I have written plays in the past, I know very little about this writing style and would appreciate some guidance! I'm reading a book with a similar title and lookforward to trying out some of the exercises.

I have always believed that we are all life-long learners and anyone who believes they've nothing left to learn, or they are too old to learn are sadly mistaken! I once ran a course on which a senior teacher announced there was nothing else we could teach him about education. I'm glad to say that by the end of the module he had changed his mind!
So have a look and follow the links to sate your curiosity further - I do hope there is something to interest you and just remember, as these are free courses with no request for credit card or address details, you really do have nothing to lose!

New reviews for Driftwood and Amethyst - had to share

For any author, one of the most terrifying moments is sharing what you have written. Until then, you can imagine you have created a work of genius, daydreaming your success all day long. Then, you give it to a close circle of friends and family to review. Some are honest, but generally they just want to be supportive and you know they are being so.
For me, when my book was finally out there, I spent the first two months in a state of perpetual anxiety, waiting for feedback. What would the REAL PUBLIC OUT THERE think of my book? I must admit, I wait to hear for feedback rather than badgering people for comments and I've had good feedback so far - kids want to read on which is key to the success of any book, and adults have told me its a pageturner and they've enjoyed reading to their children which is secretly what I have hoped for.
At the moment, I am preparing for new year signings and the odd reading here and there, health permitting. Dates are not yet finalised. Readings and signings so far have been so inspiring and I have met some great people who buy books from new authors to not only support them but to discover new stories and hopefully follow future books. What is most exciting is that friends are buying my book for friends - close to home I hear it's quite well established locally in South Yorkshire now and down in my old stomping ground in Ilford and other parts of London, Suffolk, Bristol. It's venturing slowly in to in different parts of the world as my well travelled and international friends share Driftwood with others in San Francisco, Florida and Texas in the USA, Perth and Melbourne in Australia, Sri Lanka and Singapore, to name the places I remember! The thought that it exists on a bookshelf in all these places is fabulous.
Spreading the word is vital, but when your friends spread the word for you, those little successes speak volumes.

5.0 out of 5 stars Absolutely Brilliant, 10 Dec 2011 This review is from: Driftwood and Amethyst (Paperback) Having bought this for my son, i decided to take a peak, and felt so intrigued by the  synopsis, i thought i would have a quick read!  I loved this story, and cannot wait for my son to start reading it. I feel it is aimed at  8 to 9 year olds, and above, and any 8 year olds starting to read Harry Potter books  will love this tale. I finished it wanting to know more about the characters, and feel  there should be a sequel to this, that explains in more depth, maybe about Mrs  Dawson's past, and how she became to be the person in the book. It isn't a very long  book, which makes it ideal, for a reader who is just starting to read books all the way  through on their own. I found my son sometimes looked at a book and if it was too  thick, he would think he wasn't going to ever finish it, but this is just ideal for his age,  and would love the Author to think about creating a sequel, purely for my benefit,  and i am 32! :)  5.0 out of 5 stars Wonderful!!!, 22 Nov 2011 This review is from: Driftwood and Amethyst (Paperback) This book is a great read for 7-12 year olds, those in their teens, or for the younger  child if you want to read it to them. It is imaginative, full of twists and wonderfully  dark in a way that will enthral and engage children. In a world still high on the likes  of Harry Potter this book is infused with adventure and magic realism in a seaside  town that most children can easily identify with! A thoroughly recommended debut novel!!!

Books at Bedtime Event @ Sitwell Infants and Junior School, Rotherham

What a fantastic day!
Visiting the two schools was a real highlight - meeting such fabulous children with a real love of books and reading was very inspiring. First of all I took part in Mrs Skupien's assembly - talking to the Foundation stage (4-5yrs) and Key Stage 1 (5-6yrs) about my book and then reading the little section when Sophie and Danny go exploring and discover a row of four shops. As Sophie an Danny read the sign on each door, I had the hall-full of children calling out "Closed  ...on...TUESDAYS!!! until we finally stumbled upon the final shop - Mr Zauberer's puppet shop. They were great listeners!
I visited the Year 2 classes to talk about becoming a writer, how I write and read an exerpt from Driftwood & Amethyst to them. I met lots of future writers! They were such fun and asked some great questions:


Q Why do you like books?
A Because they help me disappear in to a different world and introduce me to different people and places and I get to share in their adventures.


Q When did you become a writer?
A I've enjoyed writing for as long as I can remember. I started writing diaries and then stories came later. I was a teacher for a long time and I wrote stories to help my students learn about the Romans or Ancient Egypt, Victorian inventions or Ancient Greek banquets. 


Q How do you write a story?
A I'm always jotting ideas down in a notebook that I carry with me, and sometimes ideas grow in my imagination. When an idea sticks, I write more and more about the idea, describe the characters and their conversations with each other and the story grows and grows. Sometimes I have a plan that I stick to and sometimes I just have an idea and I don't know what will happen at the end!


Q Which is your favourite children's book?
A Little Women, Alice in Wonderland, The Hobbit, The Magic Faraway Tree, Stig of the Dump, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory . . . I couldn't name one!


The children were keen to hear about Sophie and Danny and the little puppets hanging in the puppet shop window - I wish I could have stayed longer but I was whisked away to the junior school!


Immediately, I joined an assembly run by Miss Saunders where she shared her favourite books with the whole school - photos of all her favourite books were up on the interactive whiteboard, many included in my favourites list above, as well as a few I'd forgotten - Milly,Molly,Mandy, My Naughty Little Sister and Black Beauty. I then talked about my favourite stories and how they inspired me to write Driftwood and Amethyst. After reading an excerpt to a hushed hall where a proverbial pin could have been dropped and heard, the children asked a few questions before I spent a very pleasant hour talking with three Year 6 (10-11 year olds) about my book and my writing.
Their questions were probing and fabulous - here are a few of my favourites:


Q Why did you call your book Driftwood and Amethyst?
A Amethyst is believed, by some people, to have calming qualities, magical properties, and old Mrs Dawson in the story wears a special ring made of silver and amethyst. If you remember, the puppets have driftwood sticks attached to make them dance - the driftwood is important for another character in the story.


Q How did it feel when you had your book published?
A You know when you buy a toy or get an ice-cream, and you get that pleased, excited feeling inside for a short time,well, it's about one hundred times more powerful than that. When this book was published, I'd worked so hard on it, it felt like such an achievement so, yes, it was very exciting and I felt very happy. I still do! When we work hard to achieve something, as I'm sure you all know, that feeling of achievement is much better than getting something for nothing, you know?


Q How do you create your characters?
A I think what their parents were like first and how they treated them. If thecharacters were happy or sad, angry or optimistic. How they might behave with another character; their mother, or a doctor for example. Then I write conversations between two main characters and start thinking about what they might wear, the things they like and dislike (food, music, colours etc) and how they will react in different situations.


Q How did you write your book?
With Driftwood, I planned a sketchy outline with a possible ending - not the ending I have at all now! I then planned Sophie and Danny using the prompts I talked about earlier,their mums and Danny's little sister Nina. I write the first few chapters and Mrs Dawson developed as I wrote the rest of the story - she was planned in so much as her appearance and love of children, a retired teacher, but no more than that. She grew as the story grew! The owner of the puppet shop was planned first, but I hid him away until I wrote the first meeting between the children entering the shop. He never changed, but his character was the first to be developed. I wrote the story chapter by chapter, which surprised me as I usually like to write chapters out of order - but I edited it endlessly and that's why it took so long to complete. My first complete edited draft took a year, but I worked on it for another two years with my thesaurus and red pen - I'm very  pernickety! - until I was completely happy with it. 


I had a great time - and spent a good hour after school talking to parents and children, selling books and signing autographs ( which they may get 2p for on Ebay - I don't know how or why that rush of paper scraps started!) It was a fabulous end to a fabulous day.


Thankyou to Mrs Jane Skupien and Mr Jonathon Moody who were great hosts and took great care of me - and thankyou to all the staff and children who let me invade their classrooms and talk about my favourite subjects of the moment - writing and my little book!

Readings, Reviews and Signings Too!

Sales seem to be going well, but I'm still unsure how to log in and find out actual figures.Ormaybe i'm subconsciously too scared to look!


Here's a review posted on Amazon - had to share it with you!


There doesn't seem to be any synopsis here so I'll tell you what the back of the book says:

'Sophie and Danny arrive to find their holiday destination full of old folk and resign themselves to a week of boredom. Forced to make their own entertainment, they soon discover all is not as it seems. Venturing away from the beach, they encounter many curious sights; a lost boy, a mysterious puppeteer and the remarkable Mrs Dawson. Before long, the lines between daytime and dreamtime become increasingly blurred. Read on for a tale of conflict, daring, magic and menace, as Sophie and Danny embark on an adventure which will change their lives forever.'

This book is a great read for 7-12 year olds, those in their teens, or for the younger child if you want to read it to them. It is imaginative, full of twists and wonderfully dark in a way that will enthrall and engage children. In a world still high on the likes of Harry Potter this book is infused with adventure and magic realism in a seaside town that most children can easily identify with!

A thoroughly recommended debut novel!!!


Quite pleased with that!


I've also been included as a Featured writer of the Month on Creative Writing Support; the Writers Bureau Students Page on Facebook which is lovely!


Next week, December sees the start of my signings and events in bookshops and schools - I'm in Rotherham at Sitwell Infants, then Sitwell Juniors on December 2nd with a signing in the Juniors entrance hall at 3.30pm.
On Sunday, December 4th I'm up at Waterstones, Orchard Square, Sheffield from 11.00am at a Book Event reading from my novel and talking about how I started writing.


Meadowhall and local libraries are set to see me over December and January. I'll keep posting and hope to see many faces there! I've got my pen at the ready! 

Book Events for Driftwood & Amethyst - its life begins!

Well, well, well.
Two long weeks of icy days and hazy days have resulted in little me being a hermit and doing little else than research and lots of reading . . . Ernest Hemingway has kept me company through the day with Fiesta: The Sun Also Rises although I unwittingly chose my first EH book to be based around bullfighting - the clue was in the title and Margaret Clark's Writing for Children as a refresher on plotting and character development. During  my night time waking I'm reading Sadie Jones' Small Wars, and after attending a talk by a friend's favourite writer, I'm reading Millie Johnson's Birds and Bees, which by her own admission is an early and clunky book but it's a great study in developing character relationships and enjoyable which counts for a lot at 5a.m.!
My husband, Andy, is now working with me on a screenplay of Driftwood as we've both always thought how well it would work as a film - so that little project is in its infancy.

I have managed to secure my first book event for Driftwood at Waterstones in Sheffield (Orchard Square 11.00 - 1.00 Sunday Dec 4th) and am waiting to hear back from a number of bookshops across Sheffield and some local libraries. At Off the Shelf 2012 - I may be doing a workshop as a fledgling children's author - that would be great but I need to see where I'm at with health and my writing next year! I'm also doing two school events next month which are readings and signings - I'll be ready with my pen and hope the children want to buy when I've hopefully hooked them in with my spooky reading voice!

It's been a case of pacing myself and making phonecalls and visits to shops when I'm able - then letting the days when I need to recharge just happen, rather than fighting them.

Gently, gently, catch 'e monkey! It may take me longer to achieve my goals but I'm more the tortoise than the hare nowadays - and the slowboy didn't do so badly in that story!