A very welcome boost of inspiration - by Rosalie Warren
In the last few weeks I’ve done several sessions with 10-12 year-olds in a very lively school (Finham Park 2, Coventry) that is deeply committed to instilling a love of writing and reading in its students. I had the pleasure of hosting four workshops, each with a group of eight children and the help of the wonderful school librarian. I’d like to think I encouraged them to some extent in their love of books, but I can say for sure that they inspired me. I did something I’ve never done before – shared some early ideas with potential readers for a book I’ve just started to write. Possibly dangerous, I know. I used to be very wary of sharing new ideas with anyone, but it felt right this time, and this story is not exactly new to me anyway. It’s being doing the rounds of my head and a few other places for several years and had a number of knock-backs on the way, in particular from my publisher several years ago, who commissioned a series from me based on the idea and then, afte...