From now on I will be blogging at my new site, The Faded Bookmark.
The Faded Bookmark is a blog dedicated to book news, reviews and interviews, with a focus on YA fiction but a love of all things book.
Please add it to your list of favourites and pop by regularly. I want it to be as interactive as possible so would love to receive your comments…
Greetings blogosphere! I hope the new year has been kind to you so far.
2011 has been very kind to me so far.
The year began with the auction of my first YA novel, Dear Dylan and the surreal experience of actually having to turn publishers down. In the end I signed a two book deal with one of my favourite children’s publishers – more on this exciting news anon.
In the mean time I’m delighted to be able to tell you that Dear Dylan is being re-launched later this year and my second YA novel, Finding Cherokee Brown will be published next year.
I just got my first French book deal too, with the publishers Flammarion for Dear Dylan. I was absolutely delighted at this as I love all things French (most especially the cheese and wine. And the bread. And Paris. And the Louvre. And, and…)
I’ve also run my first few writing workshops of the year. One was for adults at the Poetry Cafe in Covent Garden. It was a Writing Resolutions Workshop designed to help people get focused on their writing goals for the year ahead. It was great to be able to tell people about my experiences of the past year – and give them living proof that if you stay focused on your goals and keep the faith anything is possible.
Covent Garden Workshop
Then last week I ran a couple of writing workshops at a primary school in Lewisham. The kids had been studying the Vikings as part of the curriculum so I was asked if I could somehow incorporate Vikings into what I had planned.
Here I am preparing for the day!
Getting in touch with my inner Viking!
I have to say I love being able to go into schools as a writer. And the thing I find most rewarding is when I manage to get the more reluctant kids to realise how much fun writing can be. Having a Viking theme proved to be a real blast. I got the pupils to create their own Viking characters and used plenty of role plays and interaction to keep them engaged. Some of the more *ahem* disgusting hygiene habits and aggressive pastimes of the Vikings certainly helped to keep the boys engaged!
This year looks like being my busiest yet in terms of running writing workshops for young people, what with the official launch of Write Club coming up. We just got a sample of the artwork for our website and I can’t resist giving you a sneak peek:-
Write Club Artwork
If you are a teacher or run a youth organisation and would like to book a writing workshop then please email me via this site.
More soon re my new publisher…