Jenny Alexander
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This month I’ve been out in the garden. I’ve got two big pots of salad and one of herbs, all growing like mad in this lovely warm weather. Also courgettes, rhubarb, beetroot and potatoes at the far end under the trees. There’s nothing like growing your own food!
I finished my fiction series and sent the last 3 stories off to my publisher. Now it’s fingers crossed she’ll like them.
So May will be about pitching new ideas and getting my next writing project up and running. I love this bit. It’s exciting not knowing exactly what will happen because anything is possible!
March News
A fab book week! I visited lovely Brixton St Mary’s Primary School in South Devon on the Monday and did workshops with all the classes. YR-Y1 wrote stories with me, Y3-4 made non fiction pamphlets about all kinds of fascinating subjects they happened to be experts in, and Y5-6 came up with amazingly imaginative stories. Then we all had an assembly to round off the day. Mr Cox suggested I might like to write a series about him and call it The Hero Headmaster!
I spent Wednesday with the top juniors of The Clinton School in Merton, Devon. We went for a walk in some nearby woods during the morning and then used the woodland setting to spark ideas for story-writing in the afternoon. We got some great stories and nearly everyone was keen to come out to the front and read.
To round off book week, I went up to Coventry for the Scattered Authors’ Society conference. Children’s writers always have fun when they get together - as well as talking about work, of course!
The last week-end in March was the Federation of Children’s Book Groups conference at Exeter University. I was on a non-fiction panel with ’Horrible Science’ author Nick Arnold, wildlife nut Nicola Davies and history buff Valerie Wilding. We all spoke up for the joys of reading and writing non fiction books. If you always go straight to the fiction shelves why not check out the non fiction too, for a change? And if you already love reading non fiction, spread the word!
February News
The poetry workshops were brilliant and now I want to write lots of poems and maybe even add writing poetry to my teaching (I already do workshops on writing fiction, non fiction and autobiography) I’ve had several poems published over the years but never really understood the rules!
Major panic on the frogspawn front - five of my 7 big clumps suddenly disappeared. At first I thought the big blackbird who lives at the bottom of my garden must have eaten them, but then on closer inspection I discovered I’ve got several squillion tadpoles swimming around in my little pond.
January News
The only frog I’ve seen in my little pond since I moved here last summer looks about a hundred years old and has only got one eye. But it seems he must have some company. In the last week of January, no less than 7 big clumps of spawn appeared. It’s very exciting! I can’t wait for all the little froglets to arrive, but I’m just a bit worried now in case we get some icy weather.
I bought some books of poems after Christmas. I haven’t written any poems for ages, but I’ve signed up for two workshops in February which I hope will get me started again. It’s great writing poems in a group. The best bit is hearing what everyone else has written.
I’ve got a new venue for the writing workshops I’m teaching this term - the highest tea-room on Bodmin moor. When my 8 writers and I arrive up there in the evening it nearly always seems to be dark and misty. Ideal for getting the imagination going!
December News
Yay - great news! My publisher has said yes to my fiction series idea and I’ve got to write six books before June 1st. It shouldn’t be too hard because I’ve already finished three of them. The books won’t hit the shops until next year, so there will be plenty of time to give you more info later.
Christmas was great fun - all the family round the tree, lots of silly games and the traditional annual viewing of The Naked Gun DVDs.
As the year closes, I like to think about my New Year’s resolutions. Martin Seligman, who developed the so-called ’science of happiness’, says the best resolutions are ones that build on your strengths rather than trying to zap your weaknesses. So if you want to make one (which I recommend)
1 Think of something you’re good at, like writing or sports or being a good friend
2 Work out a way you could develop that strength - for example, last year I resolved to teach more writing as well as working on my own
3 Write it down
4 Tell someone else - especially if you’re a girl, because research shows that the female of the species achieve their goals better if they egg each other on
I always have a challenges evening with my friends at the beginning of January when we look back over last year’s resolutions and share our goals for the year ahead. Hmm... let me see. What could my New Year’s resolution be?
November News
November was a brilliant month - lots happening. I finished my workshops and started planning the dream workshops for next year. I attended an author supper with the Plymouth Children’s Book Group - there were three authors, Nicola Davies, Alan Durant and me, who all gave short talks and then did a lively question-and-answer session.
Something new for me, I did a talk in Totnes library on the subject of bullying. I called it Bullying: What can parents do? My friends in the book group are going to help me organise more talks about bullying in Plymouth.
I heard from my publisher that she loves one of my fiction series ideas - watch this space for more news very soon!
October News
In October I started work on some series of stories for young readers. I’ve been writing a lot of non fiction in the last few years and I fancied a change.
The writing workshops were terrific fun and gave me a new idea - workshops about dreams. I’ll try to set some up in 2008. I’ve been interested in dreams since I was about 8 years old, so if you have a good one, please send it to me!
On the family front, we had a fab weekend in Brussels to celebrate my son’s 21st birthday. My children are all grown up now, so we don’t get everybody together very often. We played a new game called ’Fortunately... unfortunately’ which was really funny.
September News
This month I received copies of several foreign editions of my books, which is always a buzz. There’s the Korean version of How to be a Brilliant Writer - it’s bigger than the English language one and has a cover I like much better (’Anything except a cartoon Shakespeare,’ I said, when my publisher asked for cover ideas!) Then there’s the Chinese version of Bullies, Bigmouths and So-called Friends with adorable super-squiggly, quirky illustrations, and the Greek version which is the same as the English one but bigger. I’m still waiting to see the other foreign editions - Portuguese, Brazilian and Indonesian.
I’ve bought some new walking boots so I don’t have to avoid the puddles any more when I’m out exploring on the moors near my new house. There are lots of old mine workings and flooded pits full of frogs and newts. It’s just perfect for pootling and thinking about new book ideas.
I’m all set for my workshops now. I’ll start with a collage exercise. You may have seen some of these in my books. If not, here’s what you do -
1 Get some old magazines
2 Spend 5 minutes flicking through them, ripping out any pictures, words, colours, patterns and shapes that you like
3 Spend another 5 minutes sticking them onto a piece of paper with a glue stick
It’s important to time yourself because otherwise you’ll spend ages humming and hawing, trying to choose the best ones, and probably won’t be able to decide - which sort of spoils the fun.
Put your collage on the wall and enjoy it! It’s the ideal pic for you because everything in it is hand-chosen to be things you particularly like.
August News
We made it through the floods! 24 intrepid members of the SAS - that’s the Scattered Authors Society - managed to meet up in deepest Oxfordshire for four fab days of talking about writing, which is obviously our favourite thing. My friends in the SAS wrote their top tips for me to put in my book, How to be a Brilliant Writer - have you read it? I think it’s my favourite of all the books I’ve written.
November 19-23 is anti-bullying week so I’m planning to do some talks about bullying in my local libraries. I’ve been busy this week making posters and contacting librarians.
I’ll also be running a course for adults in the autumn because it doesn’t matter how old you are, absolutely everyone can enjoy creative writing - and I just love doing workshops.
Once I’ve finished organising my diary I’ll be getting down to some writing again. I couldn’t settle when I had boxes to unpack and so on, but now my little study here is all set up, I can’t wait to get stuck into some new projects. I’ll let you know how it goes.
July News
The big news for July is - now I can give you my news!
This is because I’ve finally updated my website to include my new ’7-day’series and some extra features such as this diary section and a bullying quiz - so please come on in and take a look around.
This term I’ve been running a writing club at Tregadillett Primary School - hello Laura, April, Billie-Jo, Nathan, Daniel, Laura, Bronwyn, Sean, Joanna, Emily and Ms Dolan! We started by making collages and then did sessions on writing from the imagination, writing from memory, writing from knowledge and experience, writing from the heart and making monsters. It was completely brilliant because everyone tackled the writing tasks with such enthusiasm and came up with so many ideas.
I’ve stopped doing the club now because I’ve moved house, so Tregadillett isn’t my nearest school any more. My new place is a sweet little cottage at the foot of Caradon Hill on Bodmin Moor.
I’m hoping to finish unpacking and get settled in before I go up-country on manoeuvres with the SAS next week... But more about that when I get back!