The Bedford Booktastic Bookfest Children's book festival 2015

Well this was just about the best fun I've had in June 2015.
Probably.

Hosted by the marvellous Rachel Rogan it showcased some brilliant children's authors and I was very excited to be taking my two daughters along.

First on my schedule of events was to see Chris Riddell draw some lovely pictures and read some lovely writing.

I arrived at the same time as he did, so I accosted him at the reception desk.

Instead of running away from me (as I would have), he was incredibly warm and friendly, happy to talk, pleased to meet a young fan (my daughter, not me) and all in all, showed me that these literary types are actually very happy to chat about the process of writing with interested people.

I must confess, dropping the fact that you are an English teacher and that you will put the author's photo together with a display of their books on your classroom wall into your conversation does, I am sure, help when it comes to asking for a selfie.

However, I wouldn't go so far as to say that bribery is the only way you can get authors to talk to you.

Robin Stevens was more than happy to discuss the process she went through in getting her first book, Murder Most Unladylike published.  She has just published her second, the third is due out this summer, and there is a fourth on the way.  Success!

Like me, she works full time, though as an editor for a publishing house so her career is also her hobby, her passion.  I am admittedly jealous.

However, this did not make it completely plain-sailing for her.  Yes, she has talent and her writing is fabulous, but that alone isn't enough to get published.  What a competitive market the bookish world inhabits!

She was adamant that every writer needs an agent.  Publishers won't read manuscripts unless they are recommended by an agent.  And getting an agent isn't easy in itself.  However, I did not leave feeling depressed at all.  She is incredibly inspirational and I am sure she is one reason why my own writing has begun to flow so freely.

I'm not hoping that my work will be published.  There is a door marked 'Publisher' through which you cannot enter without having previously collected your Confidence passport and Worthiness visa.

I haven't got those.  Yet?  Who knows.

But I've at least begun walking towards that door by beginning to write.  And surely that's the point yes?

The Union Chapel - Awe-Inspiring Authors

On the 16th of June I trotted along to the fabulous Union Chapel in Islington to see Neil Gaiman in conversation with David Mitchell.

I had just finished Gaiman's The Ocean at the End of the Lane - if you haven't read it, do so - and was excited to see him and Mitchell discussing together.

They had never actually met before, so they told the audience, but had passed each other at book festivals, airports, publishing events; often only separated by a tent-canvas or a late-running train.


So it was really lovely to hear two of my favourite authors discussing what makes them tick.  What keeps them going.  What gets them started in the first place!


What hit home for me in particular was their description of how their stories and books came into being.  They both agreed on this point, but it's Neil's words that I remember most clearly.

He said that he often felt as though he was surrounded by fictional characters he'd not yet met.  As though they were waiting in the wings for their moment to step onto the stage (or words to that effect).  That when the time was right they'd come along and start doing what it was they'd been waiting to do.  And the story just unfolds.

Both authors said that when that happens, they find themselves writing quickly to keep up with the characters.  The characters get on with the story by themselves and the writers then find that their job is simply to write down what they are doing.

I thought this sounded magical - and indeed it is.  What a marvellous gift!

But do you know what?  Since I began writing my own story, my characters have gone off and done things I hadn't planned for them to do.  And I've been finding myself writing to keep up with them.

So maybe there's something in this after all? ...

Beginning

Apparently, everyone has a novel inside them.
Somewhere.
Whether that novel is actually any good or is a steaming pile of shite is another matter altogether.

I have discovered that I've got one inside me.

I think it's always been there.  Maybe that's where I should have left it.

For about five years I think it's been rolling around in my head, sometimes spilling out in little snippets scribbled onto notebooks here and there.  More usually pushed to the side by the immediacy of life - you know - working, looking after children.  The mundane stuff of life that gets in the way of life.

Until last Thursday that is.

I have been working up to this and for some reason, last Thursday is when I put pencil to paper and it began flowing out of me.

And this blog will be my record of how it all goes.

For better.

Or for worse.

Prologue

Teaching full time.
Phew!
It is by far the hardest job I have ever had.

In my twenties and early thirties I enjoyed a successful career in marketing and branding.  And it was great.  I loved it.  I learned an awful lot and got to travel around the UK meeting people from many different walks of life.

Or so I thought.

I then had children of my own and with them came an epiphany.

I realised that I was leaving no real legacy.  That I was doing nothing to help future generations achieve their potential.

So I decided to join my young children and return to school.

My daughter's first day at Reception coincided with my first day at university as I embarked on a PGCE (Post-Graduate Certificate in Education) to fill that gap in my life left behind when I forsook literature and learning, reading and writing for my 'go-getter' career.

And now, as a full time teacher, I am trying to find some space in my life for my own writing to flourish.

It's tough.

There is no space.

But it needs to be done.

And this is what I've been learning...

Hope you enjoy the read and can maybe relate to some of this...

Much love xxx