Authors Electric

When I first bought my Kindle about a year ago I wondered whether I'd grow to like it or even get any use out of it. As a big lover of books in their printed form I wondered whether I'd be able to really get into the stories and enjoy them when they were displayed in digital format instead of the normal paper pages. I'd bought a kindle primarily for viewing my own ebooks. After dragging myself into the 21st century with all its e-publishing capabilities I'd managed to get some of my out of print books up as ebooks, so naturally needed to be able to see how they looked on an ebook reading device. So to begin with my kindle reading matter was my own books and very little else. But gradually I added to my e-library, and taking a look now I'm surprised at how my book list has grown. What surprises me most is how I've widened my range of reading choices. Often I've bought an ebook on the recommendation of someone else – generally an Autho...

Recently I've been reading a lot of other people's work – stories by school children that I'd met on school visits who are hugely keen to be writers; another is a friend who's written a short novel about his travels; then there are 101 other pieces – yes 101 exactly, which are entries for a competition I'm judging – all requiring critiques. I get a fee for the competition, but whether you're getting paid to provide help with writing skills or not, there's nothing better than seeing someone's writing coming on in leaps and bounds - particularly after following your advice. I love doing workshops in schools and I'm often massively impressed by the standard of writing that can be achieved by youngsters as young as eight and nine with a little extra support and help. As for adults, I hope my courses have helped people, even if only to get them making time to write. The satisfaction of giving others a helping hand on their writing path pr...