Wonderful young readers and writers at King Henry VIII School, Coventry

I had the lovely experience last week of being a visiting author at King Henry VIII School, Coventry. My session was organised by Kirsty Kinmond, the enthusiastic librarian at the school. I was aksed to give an informal one-hour talk in the library, where I would say a bit about being a writer and answer questions from the students.

With students in the library at King Henry VIII school

One of the things I love about King Henry VIII is that the students are always so full of questions - and so ready to answer my questions to them. As the lunch hour progressed, more people came along and some had to leave to go to other things, but that was fine - it all added to the informal atmosphere. We had an interesting discussion abotu where fictional characters come from, and how it often feels as though you are not really making them up at all but listening in and watching to see what they will do next. We talked about favourite characters from books we'd read, and tried to work out what made a character really special. Many of us liked the idea of a hero/heroine who is not always very confident - someone who, like all of us, has doubts from time to time and maybe doesn't see him or herself as a hero at all (Frodo from Tolkein's The Lord of the Rings is a good example of that). And I was delighted to discover how many of my audience are writing books, stories, plays and film/animation scripts of their own.

But enough from me and over to Joe, who was one of the participants in the discussion. Joe has very kindly written the following piece about my visit, which I enjoyed reading very much. So thank you Joe, Kirsty and everyone else who made me so welcome at King Henry VIII School. I hope to see you all again soon.

Rosalie Warren visit

On the 7^th of November 2012 Rosalie Warren visited the library. She brought some of her books like Coping with Chloe and Charity's Child in the library. She asked some questions about some of our favourite characters out of books and films and we also got a chance to ask Rosalie Warren some of our own questions like how were you inspired to write and she said, 'I have always loved reading books and writing from a young age,' and that is apparently how she was inspired to write books.

We also all got a chance to give her some of our ideas for books and some of us explained characters that we had made up for our own books. We also had a pleasant biscuit while we were listening to Rosalie Warren's interesting points of views on certain books.

The visit from Rosalie Warren really put us in the shoes of a writer and how it amazed us to see how she got to where she is now.

A bit about Rosalie

'I always wanted to be a writer... even before I could write! I used to make up stories by drawing cartoon pictures of my characters and their adventures. The stories were mostly about big families, because I was a lonely little girl who didn't have brothers and sisters. Come to think of it, my stories are still mostly about families, because that’s where so much of our lives happens, both good and bad.

I have always loved reading and my all-time favourite books are the William books by Richmal Crompton.'

Proudly made by Joe Scott

A Very Warm Welcome - my visit to King Henry VIII School, Coventry, for World Book Day

Just over a week ago I visited an amazing and wonderful school - King Henry VIII School, Coventry. I was a bit nervous beforehand, as I always am with these things, but I needn't have worried. Everyone was kind and welcoming, especially the school librarian, Kirsty Hill, who organised my visit. And the students were lovely - all very enthusiastic and full of questions, comments and ideas.

I met some keen readers and budding young authors - always a big treat. I spoke to all the Year 7s (130 of them) about how my YA novel Coping to Chloe came into being, and showed them some of my first scribbled ideas. I also passed round some of the early cover designs - the ones we rejected before homing in on the present cover, which I love (look closely - the locket chain is actually a string of words...)

I told the Year 7s how I wrote my first book at 15 but didn't get published until I was, er... well into middle age! And I thoroughly enjoyed running a workshop for one of the Year 7 classes, in which I provided a worksheet to help them get started with creating a character and giving that character a problem. (That's exactly what I'm doing now as I get started on my latest YA novel.) Some of the students shared their characters and read aloud the beginnings of their books. I don't think anyone need worry about the future of literature, if these young people are anything to go by. I'll be looking out for their books on the shelves in future years.

Finally, after a welcome lunch and an interesting chat with librarian Kirsty Hill, I met several keen young readers and writers and did my best to answer their very good questions.

So, thank you, King Henry VIII School, for inviting me to speak and for looking after me so well. You have a beautiful school, a lovely library and a very committed librarian and teaching staff. And special thanks to everyone who bought a signed copy of Coping with Chloe. Don't forget to let me know what you thought of it (one of you already has - thank you!)

Finally, here is a lovely piece about my visit written by one of the students, Leanne Cope of Class 7MN:


Rosalie Warren- A Visit to KHVIII

On the second of March, 2011, the year seven pupils of King Henry VIII School got an exciting visit from Rosalie Warren - author of Coping with Chloe, Charity’s Child and Low Tide, Lunan Bay.

Initially, we had a brief plot of Coping with Chloe. Then, Rosalie handed out several covers for the books which the publishers had suggested. Some worked really well with the book but others I felt didn’t.

Finally, Rosalie asked for ideas about her new book. We had ideas from children in care retracing their long lost parents; to innocent prisoners stuck in prison.

It was an interesting session with Rosalie, but little did 7MN know that for their next lesson they would be having a professional writer taking them for English.

Firstly, we got given a sheet of paper with basic ideas about the main character of a book we were going to write by ourselves. Some of the questions included the character's favourite music and favourite films.

Overall I thought the day was really fun and I’m sure the rest of year seven will agree. We all thank you very much for coming in Rosalie!


Many thanks, Leanne. Hope to see you all again soon.

Best wishes,
Rosalie

Photos by Kirsty Hill

National Libraries Day

Feeling so guilty that I haven't posted on here since January 8th (hangs head in shame).

Excuses... blah blah blah... contributing to other blogs... arguing with my bank who have managed to lose a big chunk of my money and are taking 18 working days to restore it growl growl growl... writing (not as much as I should have been), discussing a contract for an exciting new series (yeah! More soon..) and, er... not quite sure what else.

But I'm pleased to announce that on Saturday 4th Feb it's National Libraries Day, and if ever anything needed a 'day', our national libraries do!

I'm going to be at two Coventry libraries, Bell Green and Tile Hill, giving talks on 'How to Write' with my friend and fellow writer, Ann Evans.

(The picture above shows an event in Coventry Central Library that Ann and I did, with the help of some enthusiastic pupils from King Henry VIII School, Coventry, last summer.)

The Bell Green event is 11am-12pm and the Tile Hill one is 1.30-3.30pm. There will be refreshments at the Tile Hill one, which is longer.

More details can be seen on the Coventry Council website.

If you are in the area, please do come along and take part. Ann and I will be speaking about our varied experiences in the world of writing and being published, and having several friendly arguments about the need to plan our stories and how to find time to write. There'll be plenty of time for questions and we'd love to hear about your writing experiences, too.

Hope to see you there.

Finally, I promise there'll be more reviews on here soon. And I need to tell you about my new series for 7-9s, and exciting developments with Charity's Child.

Happy reading, writing and everything else

Best wishes,

Rosalie

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