Word Explosion Success!

I have been away from my blog a very long time and I apologise to all those who thought I may have fallen off the blogging planet. Amongst lots of other things (Christmas, snow, illness etc) I have been responsible alongside a colleague for the first Children and Young People's LitFest in North Cornwall. We had a number of workshops run by Caroline Binch, Bridget Crowley, Tim Bowler, Helen Dunmore and Jon Mayhew. Jon travelled from Cheshire to Cornwall to do two excellent sessions on Gory Ballads and Scary Stories, one of which was at Bodmin Jail, the other at Bude Castle. He had the largest turnout with 40 adults and kids at Bodmin and his book is not even out till April!! It was also fantastic because a parent came up to us at the end of his Bodmin session and explained that her son was extremely dyslexic and had been shy about sharing his story, however he had really been inspired by Jon and the session as a whole, which simply has to be a mark of success. It was also a joy to spend some time getting to know Jon and introduce him to a taster of Cornwall (and I don't just mean clotted cream scones!).
In addition I went to the session with Helen Dunmore, most known for her Ingo books. She was gracious and approachable to all who came to see her... a real gem. So I think I can safely say that it was a great start and we have lots to develop and build on for next year. It also inspired and motivated me in my writing as I admit to having had little writing time, although I did submit a short story in January. I think I had lost a little confidence and needed some encouragment and inspiration to revisit it and pick it up again. This has begun with a spring clean of my blog with a new design and the intention to keep it regularly updated and more writing focused. It has been a brilliant week and a special thank you to Jon for traveling so far and doing such great workshops that inspired the children of Bude and Bodmin this week.

Travelling Tales

I have been away 'up country' as we say in Cornwall visiting relatives for half term and feel I have done a lot of travelling. Andy' s parents are in West Sussex, so we were based there, visiting old friends in Chessington (former home town) and have a fab day out at Legoland as well as a trip to the south coast. Feel well travelled around the south east but I am happy to be home again.

I have also been travelling in my reading experiences too. I have read all the Michelle Paver's 'Chronicles of Ancient Darkness' books to date and was hungry for a new series, so one of the twelve year olds at church loaned me ' Ingo, ' by Helen Dunmore. It is set down here in Cornwall and is proving to be a great read, though it has taken me a while to get into it properly. The picture gives away a little about what the book might be about, but I think I may be hooked for this series too. I am really enjoying reading the 9-12 ' tween ' fiction however I do find it hard to read ' grown up ' books sometimes!!

It was hard to get any prose written whilst away, however I had a twenty minute window of time alone when I was able to write pages of descriptive notes about the time travelling device in my novel. Really pleased as it has given me pegs to hang prose on now!!

Back to school tomorrow plus Mum's birthday, plus important church meeting, plus Kat's little boy's birthday...so busy day ahead. Might need to escape to Ingo again later on.