The Author Hotline
is
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...
For more information on CW4K CLICK HERE
Q: What were you like at school?
I was a little lemon.
Q: What did you want to be when you were a child?
A big bold grapefruit! Oh, and I wanted to own the local gasworks. Later I wanted to be the boss of the bosses, which is why I became a head teacher I suppose.
Q: Which three words describe you best?
energetic, energetic, energetic
Q: What is your favourite word?
energetic
Q: What makes you cringe?
big wild animals in little cages
Q: What are you afraid of?
stinging nettle soup
Q: When did you last have a really good laugh?
Yesterday at a Wendy Cope poetry reading
Q: What is your most treasured possession?
my family
Q: What do you do as a hobby?
I grow stinging nettles, brave vegetables like leeks, strong flowers like Calendulas, high in the Pennine hills.
Q: What strange habits do you have?
I say poems in the bathroom
Q: What’s your favourite food?
Cumberland sausage
Q: What do you day dream about?
I go into a poem. They are like little jewels. You see wonderful things.
Q: What’s the most outrageous thing you’ve done?
I once hit a hockey ball so hard before a match that it knocked my own goalie's teeth out. He smiled. He was a big tough guy.
Q: What profession other than yours would you like to attempt?
Mountaineer, but I'd have a letter from my mum excusing me just in case!
Q: Do you feel younger or older than your current age?
Every day in every way I feel a little younger - it's working with kids and their poems.
Q: If you could meet one person, dead or alive, who would it be?
My grandad who I never knew.
Q: What quality do you most admire in a person?
Confident tranquility
Q: What is the most interesting place you have ever visited?
Loch Haven, Pennsylvania
Q: What is the best advice anyone has ever given you?
When one door closes another opens
Q: What has life taught you?
Keep your chin up
Q: How long have you been a writer?
eleven years
Q: Was there a specific moment in your life when you decide to become a writer?
when I sent my first poem off and it did well in The Kent and Sussex Poetry Competition.
Q: Where do you do your writing?
in a little office or sometimes in the large world
Q: What are the best and worst things about being an author?
the best is the thrill of writing something that no-one ever ever thought-up before. the worst is when you get stuck for the right word; you know it's out there hiding among every other word, and thumbing its little nose.
Q: Where do you get your greatest ideas from?
things, places, people, events, smells, sounds, sights, textures, enthusiasms, hates, joys, loves
Q: What do you do to combat “writers’ block”?
I sit and dream
Q: What was your favourite book as a child?
The Wind in the Willows, by Kenneth Graham
Q: What book do you wish you had written?
The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle
Q: What advice would you give to aspiring authors?
Be brave, be bold, be happy