Teetering on My High Wire

Just read teen author Keren David's post about her daughter's glitzy school ball for leavers. The headmaster gave some advice to the young ones that resonated in my old head:
Do the one thing you think you cannot do. Fail at it. Try again. Do better the second time. The only people who never tumble are those who never mount the high wire. This is your moment. Own it. Go read Keren's post
You see, I'm slightly overwhelmed by this coming weekend.


Lessee what have I got to do? I'm sorting out the last bits for the Pop Up Festival (yeah, here's a link, go on check it out, there are two MASSIVE photos of me), finishing a film I'm making for the Beanbag Cinema at the festival, finishing edits on my book (By 'edits', I might mean 'rewrite'. Two hours minimum every morning without fail. Sigh. [That was a tired sigh, not a sad sigh because folks, it's going WELL.), not neglecting the family, building the website for the forthcoming, very exciting SCBWI conference in November, driving to Loughborough to collect Son Number One from uni.

Not to mention all the inescapable bits - washing, cooking, ironing, cleaning. Green things have moved into my fridge and I'm afraid the children are eating them.

So the high wire is definitely feeling wobbly.

But Keren's headmaster is right. This is my moment so I better own it. When I ignore how much work there is, I actually do enjoy myself!

So here's the trailer I made last night for my film We Read which will be screened Saturday, 30 June 2012, at the Pop Up Festival's Bean Bag Cinema. It's running on a loop all day so you can just turn up and check it out whenever!



When I got into YouTube hobbying I got a huge kick out of interviewing the babies and children on the street. They always came up with something unexpected and a little bit awesome.

Back in 2008, I made a film about what children were reading. We Read expands on that - I interviewed children at the Guardian Open Day, at a holiday camp, and at a couple of schools. And as I predicted, the children were inspiring - hearing them talk about books in this time of uncertainties in publishing and media revolution restores one's faith in the power of story.

The Pop Up Festival is happening over two days (30 June and 1 July - this coming weekend!) at 1 Granary Square, King's Cross, London N1C4AA (behind King's Cross Station). It's bigger and better than last year's ... and it's totally FREE.

Apart from the Bean Bag Cinema, I'm also curating a programme with a fiesta theme. But more of that later!

And if you're afraid this London Monsoon is going to lead to a wash-out - have no fear! The Pop Up Festival is under cover! How cool is that?