So I have to confess, I am dead jealous of the children I meet when I do author visits to schools, libraries and festivals. I mean, talk about having the world ... you children of today are so LUCKY!
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Some exceedingly excited and lucky children at Bishop's Stortford College . |
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Taking a moment from all the excitement to pose for the camera |
One girl informed me that she had finished the book in just THREE hours! I told her it took me ten months to write it, so it's only fair that the reader take a bit longer to read it!
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Aww. The library display was fab. And I wonder who did the sparkly writing for my name. |
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There was a long table of book club members waiting to get their teeth into me when I arrived in the dining room. As we ate, even more came in until the back of the room was packed! |
At the same time ... the one thing everyone said they liked about Tall Story was that it was DIFFERENT! That it wasn't like anything they'd read before. Cool!
When one of the teachers asked the children if they wanted to say what they didn't like about the book, one girl said, "I didn't like that it was so GRIPPING that I couldn't put it down!"
I didn't like that it was so gripping that I couldn't put it down
This is the sort of criticism an author likes to hear. I got the chance to quote Sol Stein to the kids - "A good author never takes the reader where he or she wants to go!"
Super librarian Rosie made sure I met as many children as she could muster and then we had a quiet sit down in the staff room where we talked about ... guess? Books! Apparently the book club is all set to read Grace by Morris Gleitzman which got me all excited because I only just finished reading Grace and loved it! You can read my review on Amazon.
This is the first time I've blogged properly about the school visits I've been on. The reason I haven't done this before is because I'm trying to be a Good Author and finish my next book.
I'm almost done now so I hope I can post some more stuff about the awesome children I meet (and their names! So many children, so many fascinating names! Today I heard a lot of names I'd love to put into a book! Hmm ... watch this space!)
I'll tell you one thing - you guys are really, truly amazing. I am so impressed by how much everyone reads, how much you take from a story, the intelligence of your comments, and the insight that you bring to a discussion. You are just ... WOW. And don't let anyone say otherwise.
I'll try to post more photos of my school visits in the future - if you can't wait, I've been posting a lot of photos on Tall Story's Facebook page. Go check it out. And thank you to the teachers who took photos of me with the children!
Meanwhile ... a few weeks ago, I visited Princes Risborough library where my friend Teri Terry (remember the name, you'll be seeing it in a bookstore near you very soon) works.
I met some brilliant children in the Chatterbooks group that she runs there and afterwards, they drew pictures of the characters from Tall Story and sent them to me. I loved the drawings so much, I just had to use them in my book trailer ...and here it is!!!!
Well that's all for now ... but before I go, here are some other awesome children I met when I visited schools in the Philippines last year!
I'm almost done now so I hope I can post some more stuff about the awesome children I meet (and their names! So many children, so many fascinating names! Today I heard a lot of names I'd love to put into a book! Hmm ... watch this space!)
I'll tell you one thing - you guys are really, truly amazing. I am so impressed by how much everyone reads, how much you take from a story, the intelligence of your comments, and the insight that you bring to a discussion. You are just ... WOW. And don't let anyone say otherwise.
I'll try to post more photos of my school visits in the future - if you can't wait, I've been posting a lot of photos on Tall Story's Facebook page. Go check it out. And thank you to the teachers who took photos of me with the children!
Meanwhile ... a few weeks ago, I visited Princes Risborough library where my friend Teri Terry (remember the name, you'll be seeing it in a bookstore near you very soon) works.
I met some brilliant children in the Chatterbooks group that she runs there and afterwards, they drew pictures of the characters from Tall Story and sent them to me. I loved the drawings so much, I just had to use them in my book trailer ...and here it is!!!!
Well that's all for now ... but before I go, here are some other awesome children I met when I visited schools in the Philippines last year!
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The Nest School |
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Ateneo de Manila High School |
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Mater Carmeli |
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Saint Pedro Poveda College |
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Angelicum College |
I am participating in Authors for Japan - an auction organized by author Keris Stainton. I'm offering three critiques of 2,000 word opening chapters of middle grade and teen manuscripts, as well as two Tall Story paperbacks - I will autograph and draw a cartoon on the title pages. I will post a link here when details of the auction are ready. I hope we can count on your support! Here are more links to charities and relief organizations on the Color Online blog
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I've donated two signed (and doodled on) paperbacks of Tall Story! Bid here |
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Browse and bid on Authors for Japan |
Look! I get to have first comment! Now what was I going to say...
ReplyDeleteNick.
P.S. If it takes 3 hours to read the book and ten months to write it, how many readers do you need before you break even?
Argh! Don't make me do the maths!
ReplyDeleteLoved reading this - you are so lucky to get to spend time with your readers! x
ReplyDelete2433.3.
ReplyDeleteSorry, I can't resist doing Maths when the opportunity presents itself...
Great post, and wait until they see their cards on your website! They're going to be SO excited!!!
Teri
This is really a wonderful moment for you! Yes, children are lucky now to read more books and meet their favourite authors. Actually, when I read your book, it reminded me of Morris Gleitzman stories - Limpy's adventures...brilliant characters and of course the themes about these stories! I came across Morris' books when I was temporarily living in Australia. I wanted to collect all his stories!
ReplyDeleteMy daughter Sophie was thrilled by your visit to her school last week and very proud about getting her copy of Tall Story signed and being able to actually meet the person who wrote the book. It's lovely to see all the photos on here and I agree they are very lucky today with the choice of books, great school libraries, book clubs and the incredible opportunity to meet the Author.
ReplyDeleteSchool visits are great aren't they! The kids are so excited to meet an author. I love the pics, especially the ones of the kids in their school uniforms at the dinner table!
ReplyDelete@Liz - it was a pleasure to meet your daughter! What was so great about this visit was that so many of the kids had read the book already!
ReplyDelete@Jan - someone said it looked like scene from Howarts!
Hello Candy,
ReplyDeleteThank you so much for posting the pictures and of course for writing your wonderful books! My daughter is your biggest fan. We used to play the roles in our home theatre using toys, crossword puzzle maker and other stuff, she loved it very much!