Tickets for the first ever North West Word Festival nearly sold out!

Really looking forward to the first ever Word Festival (North West) which I have the great privilege of co-organising with a bunch of North West writers - and tickets have already nearly sold out, and still with a month to go! 

find out more about the writers' event of the year here:

http://the-word.org.uk/

Lots of exciting news to do with BOOKS...!

Well, well, well, after several weeks of not-so-nice stuff going on in and around the Ribble Babel household, there's loads of Good Stuff happening!

I am now the proud owner of a brand new part-time job in a Library! Whoopee!


I'm also the proud owner of a brand new freelance Group Leader job in learning with Lancashire County Council! Whoopee-doopee!!

And as if that wasn't exciting enough, that splendid bookshop Waterstones will be stocking Witherstone at their Preston branch in the very near future! Whoopie-Doopeeeee with cherries on the top!!!

Or as my friend Max would have it - you'll soon be able to get down to Witherstone for your copy of Waterstones :o)  Same difference.

having a ball...

Inbetween dashing here, there and everywhere else this week, I've just finished my first stint of one-to-one mentoring of a young writer, Emily Oldfield, with whom I've been in conversation for a few months now.

In overseeing her first day as the Guest Guest Editor of the Lancashire Writing Hub (- with huge thanks to John D Rutter for allowing Emily to assume his Guest Editor role for the week! -) I have to say I'm well impressed with Emily's decision-making and with her work schedule for the week.

She has commissioned articles by other young writers, and is interested in exploring the question of what writing means to young people with a group of Year7-8 school students, and with a group of older students, later this week. And this is all alongside writing her own articles on subjects from Nihilism to Romanticism to the poetry of Sylvia Plath to the question of what makes a classic novel.

blimey! ...and after breakfast... ha ha!

I'm really looking forward to seeing what Emily will be producing this week... !

The Word Festival - 22 September!

I'm dead chuffed to be involved with an exciting new Festival for North West writers which is starting this year!

The Word – the first one-day writing festival for Lancashire writers – is confirmed for 22 SEPTEMBER 2012

- and is at the beautiful ASTLEY HALL in Chorley.

Astley Hall is a wonderful venue that is sure to get the creative juices flowing for anybody who appreciates good writing. The organisers are speaking to some superb writers who will host some fantastic events throughout the day. Already confirmed are award-winning author Jenn Ashworth and Kindle chart-topping Kerry Wilkinson, plus Ra Page from Comma Press and short story specialist and editor Claire Massey!
More details to come soon so keep an eye on The Word Festival blog.

The event is aimed at fiction and non-fiction authors, copywriters, ghostwriters, journalists, editors and lecturers – add any other category here if you don’t fit into any of those!

The Word Festival will have the run of the coach house, which houses the excellent Cafe Ambio and is situated next to the walled garden. Astley Hall will also be open and FREE on festival day, so writers can take a peek at this Elizabethan manor when they’re all written out.

Put 22 September in your diary now. Tickets will be on sale shortly.

Keep an eye on The Word Festival for more details over the coming weeks…

Yes, yes, yes!!! Reading for Pleasure Campaign

The Society of Authors are campaigning to encourage reading for pleasure in schools and have written to Schools Minister, Nick Gibb, making recommendations regarding school libraries, teacher training and author visits, and to request a meeting to discuss practical strategies to further the Government response to the Henley Review and Ofsted’s Moving English Forward.

In their letter to Nick Gibb, they make the following three recommendations:

1. Primary and secondary schools should be required by law to have a school library and a trained librarian.
2. Teachers, in all stages of their careers, should be supported through a range of initiatives (detailed in the letter) to inspire a love of reading for pleasure in their pupils.
3. Schools’ use of author visits and longer residencies should be accredited by Ofsted.

Click here to read the letter in full.

They've got my support, yes yes yes!

See the Reading for Pleasure Campaign - Society of Authors for more information.