The Author Hotline
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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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Jenny Sullivan
http://www.robsullivan.clara.netrobjen@wanadoo.fr
To download this profile page, click HERE
Q: What were you like at school?
Not terribly good... Well-behaved, but.
Q: What did you want to be when you were a child?
A vet ~ but (a) I soon learned there was no hope of me ever going to university and (b) someone told me I might have to put my arm up a cow's bottom so I changed my mind!
Q: Which three words describe you best?
Competitive (I hope) Kind Busy!
Q: What is your favourite word?
Dendrochronology
Q: What makes you cringe?
Bullying of any sort People who evangelise about anything Spiders and slugs
Q: What are you afraid of?
Something awful happening to one of my children or grandchildren
Q: When did you last have a really good laugh?
About ten minutes ago! I laugh a lot.
Q: What is your most treasured possession?
My degree certificates, earned late in life.
Q: What do you do as a hobby?
Read and, when it's warm enough, take my little "knee machine" surfboard into the sea
Q: What strange habits do you have?
Wiggling my fingers ~ I attribute that to being a secretary for most of my working life.
Q: What’s your favourite food?
Jacket potatoes swimming in butter, prawns and very dark chocolate ~ but not together
Q: What do you day dream about?
One of my books getting really popular and selling zillions
Q: What’s the most outrageous thing you’ve done?
When I was a secretary I had a boss who used to keep a record of everybody's misdemeanours in a little notebook ~ people who left work early, arrived late, took too many coffee breaks, stuff like that. I stole the notebook, took it home and burned it.
Q: What profession other than yours would you like to attempt?
Midwifery
Q: Do you feel younger or older than your current age?
Very much younger ~ inside I'm about eighteen, I think. Outside, I don't want to know!
Q: If you could meet one person, dead or alive, who would it be?
Mary Queen of Scots ~ so I could find out what really happened!
Q: What quality do you most admire in a person?
Honesty
Q: What is the most interesting place you have ever visited?
Possibly Llancaiach Fawr Manor in South Glamorgan. It's a 17th Century manor house peopled by Living History Interpreters who really know their subject.
Q: What is the best advice anyone has ever given you?
My Dad once told me: "Never get upset when a door slams in your face. Turn round and look; there's always another one opening." And he was right.
Q: What would you most like to change about yourself?
My shape
Q: What has life taught you?
That if you really want to do something, you can do it. I always wanted to go to university. So at the age of 50 I did an MA, and now I have a PhD too! Don't get old saying, "I wish I'd done such and such." Go and do it! And never give up.
Q: How long have you been a writer?
Since I was 8 ~ and I'm now MUCH older than that!
Q: Was there a specific moment in your life when you decide to become a writer?
When I was 18 and sold my first short story.
Q: Where do you do your writing?
These days, in my lovely study overlooking garden and fields, but I've used corners of diningrooms, back steps, daughters' bedrooms when they were off at college, and the Fountain Court of Raglan Castle, near which we used to live.
Q: What are the best and worst things about being an author?
Having a newly published book arrive in the post; being invited into schools to work with and talk with the children because I'm a writer and always having a project to work on. The worst? The delay between finishing a book and getting it published.
Q: Where do you get your greatest ideas from?
Tesco
Q: Which of your own characters do you most identify with?
All of them. I tend to write in the first person, so Im having all the magical adventures. And because I don't plan my books, ever, they're always a surprise and sometimes I get myself into some terrible tangles.
Q: What do you do to combat “writers’ block”?
I've never had it (thank goodness), but was given an idea many years ago by someone who did: if you don't know how to start, think of an ending and work backwards. If you're stuck in the middle of a book it's probably because you are trying to make your character do something he/she doesn't want to do. Go back and check.
Q: What was your favourite book as a child?
Everything I could lay my hands on from Enid Blyton to Edgar Allen Poe. Until I was 13 when my lovely Dad gave me a copy of T H White's "The Once and Future King". I love it so much I now have three copies, one to read, one to lend, and one just in case I lose the other two!
Q: What book do you wish you had written?
"The Once and Future King"
Q: What advice would you give to aspiring authors?
Never give up. Try to write every single day, even if you have to get up at 5am before you go to school/work to do it. I did. Never send a manuscript off until it's as good as you can possibly make it. Put your finished book/story in a drawer and leave it for at least a month before sending it off. Re-read it then and see how many mistakes jump out at you!
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