Had a great time today at Wath Library in Rotherham, where I was doing a reading, writing workshop, Q&A and signing for a group of thirty school kids aged 12-13.
After my first foray into the art of workshopping with children, I felt more prepared for the challenge second time around. After a pretty long trip by train with way too may changes for such a short (ish) distance (though there was air-con; not on the way back, though, bizarrely), I arrived in Rotherham Central and was picked up by Rachel Wade who was basically running the Children’s Literature Festival at a bunch of libraries in the town, of which I was a contributing writer, as part of her role as Reading Development Officer for Rotherham.
I was only there for just over two hours (including lunch and refreshments) but very well looked after by the library staff, in particular Caroline and Marie - my sincere thanks to you both.
There’s was a bit of banter with the staff and then the time rolled around for me to go over and start the writerly bit. After a short ‘breaking the ice’ session, where everyone got to say their names and one of their interests, I related a little of how I became a writer and what motivated me to pursue this most elusive of careers so doggedly. With the potted history, I felt I was losing some of the less literary inclined so moved on swiftly to a reading from Salamander.
This went down very well, though I was a little worried that some of the parents and teachers wouldn’t appreciate the blood and violence in the opening prologue. The kids seemed to love it and the adults didn’t mind, so it was all good.
I then opened up the floor to a fairly lengthy Q&A session and answered some pretty insightful and probing questions (I wonder if I was so insightful at that age?).
Next came a workshop session on developing and writing characters, which went down extremely well (as it was more interactive). Finally, I got the group to devise a story based on the character we had created and told it in stages to round off the afternoon. The latter part of the workshop was totally unplanned, so I’m really glad and relieved that it worked.
I’d already done some signing. There one or two final questions then everyone left and was whisked back to Rotherham Train Station. I had a short wait for my train, during which I saw an old gentleman dressed in a red suit who was chatting merrily to himself and perusing his collection of Royal Family portrait mugs - what a wonderful world we live in.
I had a great time and the day went really well. I hope it was interesting for all concerned, and it looks like they might want me back for a return gig.