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 loved my very small primary school but most of my reports from my secondary boarding school include the words'could do better.'
Q: What did you want to be when you were a child?
Bareback rider in a circus,nurse, actor and to live in different countries around the world.
Q: Which three words describe you best?
procrastinator, daydreamer, explorer
Q: What is your favourite word?
Popocatapetl. Very mysterious
Q: What makes you cringe?
Adults patronising children
Q: What are you afraid of?
Mice running around in the house
Q: What do you do as a hobby?
Read, garden, walk, visit the theatre. Play hide and seek with my grandson , Tomas
Q: What strange habits do you have?
Going barefeet through the summer.
Q: What’s your favourite food?
Ooh, what a difficult question. Anything with passion fruit. Salads made by other people with unknown bits and pieces in them.
Q: What do you day dream about?
That's my secret.
Q: What’s the most outrageous thing you’ve done?
Telling my headmistress that I thought she was being extremely unfair and refusing to do what she asked. She was furious but I was very polite and much to my amazement she apologised.
Q: What profession other than yours would you like to attempt?
I'd love to be an architect and design houses, including treehouses.
Q: Do you feel younger or older than your current age?
I think most people once they're past 30 years feel younger than their current age. When I'm climbing trees with Tomas or building houses in the woods I feel quite childlike again.
Q: If you could meet one person, dead or alive, who would it be?
My grandmother. I was partly raised by her until I was seven years and then we moved far away from her. I only saw her two or three times until she died when I was nineteen. She was a remarkable woman and somewhere deep down I've always missed her.
Q: What is the most interesting place you have ever visited?
India, Laos, New Zealand where I was born and the city of Siena in Italy.
Q: What would you most like to change about yourself?
I'd like thick, dark auburn hair and be an illustrator as well as a writer.
Q: What has life taught you?
Don't be afraid.
Q: How long have you been a writer?
The first book was published in 1977 but until 2003 I always had another job as well as the writing.
Q: Was there a specific moment in your life when you decide to become a writer?
Not really. My husband David is a painter and illustrator. He suggested it might be fun to do a book together so we did.
Q: Where do you do your writing?
I have a long thin study, once a long thin bedroom.
Q: What are the best and worst things about being an author?
I love the intense concentration of the writing, just me and the words but I do get very frustrated when I have an idea for a story but cannot turn it into a story.
Q: Where do you get your greatest ideas from?
Everywhere. Look and listen. Some of my early books were based on things our children did. Tomas is now four so I'm keeping a close eye and ear on him! Not that I've told him this.
Q: What do you do to combat “writers’ block”?
daydram while I walk for miles and I read poetry.
Q: What was your favourite book as a child?
Horton the Elephant Hatches an Egg by Dr. Seuss and The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett.
Q: What book do you wish you had written?
The Story of Ferdinand by Munroe Leaf.
Q: What advice would you give to aspiring authors?
Read, read, read and write, write, write. It's like learning anything you have to practice.
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ISBN
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Published By
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Status
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