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being developed by CW4K, or Creative Writing 4 Kids. They are the company behind a website that enables children to create and publish their own stories online. In its first year it has signed up over 2000 members and has been enthusiastically received by children, parents and teachers. In fact the response has been so encouraging that they are planning a huge expansion of its services. Embedding The Author Hotline into the site is part of that expansion...
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John Townsend
http://www.contactanauthor.co.uk/authorpage.php?id=398
john.towns@lineone.net
To download this profile page, click HERE
Q: What were you like at school?
Smaller
Q: What did you want to be when you were a child?
Bigger
Q: Which three words describe you best?
Amazingly incredible at maths.
Q: What do you do as a hobby?
Listen in on people's conversations (purely to get inspiration!)
Q: What is your favourite word?
Magimusicalapantofarcicalacolourmime (It's what I call my 'Books for Kids' roadshow)
Q: What strange habits do you have?
Lurking by the cat food in supermarkets to eavesdrop then jot down lines of dialogue. I find you get a lot of sad people on mobiles by the Felix.
Q: What makes you cringe?
Teachers dancing at the school disco
Q: What are you afraid of?
Dancing at the school disco
Q: What is the best advice anyone has ever given you?
"Don't touch that electric fence" (But I did)
Q: If you could meet one person, dead or alive, who would it be?
Charlie Chaplin. If you didn't know, he was 'The Little Tramp' in comic silent films at the start of Hollywood. He had a tough life growing up in Victorian London and his was a real 'rags to riches' story. I wrote a play about his early life for a theatre company so I'd like to meet him and ask if I got it exactly right!
Q: What has life taught you?
Never upset a teacher.
Q: What profession other than yours would you like to attempt?
A chocolate-taster
Q: What’s the most outrageous thing you’ve done?
Singing while driving. That's not very outrageous, is it? Well, the police thought so. I was stopped by a police car (with blue flashing light) so I tried to explain I was practising a song for a play I was in. My car was full of weird costumes and the police clearly thought I was totally mad so they insisted on escorting me home. Sorry, officer.
Q: Where do you get your greatest ideas from?
Tescos
Q: What advice would you give to aspiring authors?
Keep reading, writing, thinking, dreaming, trying and never, never, never give up.
Q: How long have you been a writer?
Always (at least, ever since I could hold a pencil) but my very first book was published way back in 1983 (I was very young, of course!). I became a full-time writer in 2003.
Q: What do you do to combat “writers’ block”?
Sleep - but with a notepad by the bed. Ideas, like the Tooth Fairy, seem to be most active at about 3.00am.
Q: What are the best and worst things about being an author?
The best bit is visiting schools and libraries to swap stories and chat with children about bizarre facts and crazy ideas (which I sometimes steal!) The worst bit is when a publisher says "You can't possibly put that in your book - you'll give children nightmares."
Q: What was your favourite book as a child?
'The Hundred and One Dalmations' by Dodie Smith. I thought it was a great story with some brilliant baddies. To this day I've never seen the cartoon or film because I don't want to spoil the Cruella de Vil of my imagination.
Q: Where do you do your writing?
The actual recording of words on paper or screen goes on in my little study, which is full of clutter, pictures and books - but I would argue that writing involves much more than that. No doubt most of us are 'writing in our heads' a lot of the time, wherever we happen to be. Gathering, sorting and polishing ideas can be whirring away in the background even while hiking up a mountain or feeding the cat. And that's all part of this exciting writing process!
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