Ciaran's Visit!

It was absolutely brilliant to welcome local writer Ciaran Murtagh to last Saturday's Young Writer session at Ashburton Library.  He was friendly, informal, informative and the Young Writers clung to his every word!  Some had brought questions, most settled with a notebook so they could write down any ideas he shared and he had them eating out of his hand within seconds.  He kicked off with a little bit of history about his career, then showed a number of his books to everyone.  Then he read a snippet from one of his latest books,  showed how easily random words picked from a dictionary can form the basis to any story, then took questions, all of which he answered at exactly their level!  I will be putting a pointer sheet together highlighting his advice for all the members.  Huge thanks to Ciaran and to the library staff for hosting the event.

We now have just one more session (I know - it only seems like yesterday we were coming back after the summer break) between now and Christmas and the library has given us express permission to host a tea party on Saturday 19th December.  Please please let me know, if you haven't already, if your budding author can come along.  I have a limited number of Christmas presents to dish out (yes I had a quiet word with Father Christmas about this and he said he'd do anything to further encourage these young wordsmiths - even if it meant them getting one present ahead of the Big Day), so it is really important I have a rough idea how many to expect that day.  Please text or phone me (07909 518147) to confirm or leave a comment right here on the Blog.

No assignment was set on Saturday but the session before I asked for a couple of haiku (5-7-5) so it would be good if they could hand them in on 19th if possible.  And finally a quick word about Notebooks.  I issue one of these to every new member and it is for the Young Writers to use to get ideas down, write their assignments in if they so choose and to just play with words.  They are not a formal school book because I am not a teacher.  They are the sort of note books I used to go out and buy myself at their age and they are for them to use as they wish.  I hope that clarifies the situation and huge apologies if I haven't explained this better before.

Looking forward to seeing you all on the 19th!