Christmas greetings from a cluttered study

The Christmas season means that I have time to update this blog and in doing so, I wish you all well. As far as news goes, the most important bit of news is the fact that I received official notification from the University of Winchester that I had been awarded a Masters in Writing for Children and that I had got a Distinction! I was of course delighted, and celebrated for at least a week before settling down to some Christmas festivities.

Having spent some time with friends and family, I am now focusing on decluttering- something I have been wanting to do for some time. I have started to tackle the study and will try to sort it out over this time along with some writing.

I also went to see the new Sherlock Holmes film which was an action packed adventure from start to finish. If you are a Jude Law or Robert Downey Junior fan you wouldn't go wrong by watching it.

The Scottish Play

For those of you who may be unaware, the title of my blog refers to Shakespeare's tragedy Macbeth. It derives from a commonly held superstition that speaking the name of the play in a theatre will cause disaster to befall. The play itself is filled with superstition and centres around the battle between good and evil. Poor old Macbeth is given an insight into the future and impatient man that he is, he gives into temptation. In his search for power he turns towards evil and embarks on a path of murder and destruction, that ultimately causes mayhem and much much more, but, alas, I've said enough already. 

You have to read the play to see what really happens and buy the guide which I've written for Cross Academe. It will help you to understand the bard's play as best you can and/ or give you or your student the best chance of getting that grade!  

It's out in January I believe and it is fantastic if I say so myself. Comes highly recommended. It's filled with all my years of teaching experience and my wonderful expertise of course in the subject, not to mention the fact I sweat blood and tears to write the guide and Steve Eddy, friend and series editor and David Cross have done a fine job of making it look nice, so there are some lovely pictures too! The guide comes in a magazine format and there is an accompanying PDF for teachers which I think you can buy separately and which gives you all the answers to questions (Shhh don't tell the others) and lots of suggestions for teaching, covering everything from context, scene by scene analysis, characters, themes, structure to exam practice! Well worth the money.

If I've won you over with this taster then I'm sure if you ask nicely you could pre-order the guide from the Cross Academe team.... so until next time, enjoy reading- and writing and more!

MA Writing for Children

I got an email recently from someone asking about the MA course at Winchester University in Writing for Children so I thought I would post about my general experiences on the course before responding to her email more specifically.

The MA course at the University of Winchester is only one of a few in the world that specialises in writing for children. The only other one I know of is the one at Bath Spa but I may be wrong. Regarding my experiences, I enjoyed the course and the opportunity to meet new people who shared an enjoyment of writing. Had I had the funds, I would have taken a year out to complete the MA full time. As it was I combined the course studies with working full time. This was a little more challenging but I managed to complete the assigned work and then deferred my dissertation initially for one then for two years.

The course was seminar based with a range of module topics from Creativity to Publishing Project and Fantasy Writing. Seminars were usually in groups of no more than ten and mostly fewer, which I think made for a better experience.

The course tutors were Judy Waite, Judith Heneghan and Andrew Melrose, as well as a gentleman who retired but whose module on screen writing I really enjoyed. The modules may have changed but more details can be found at the Winchester University website. The benefits of doing the course were that I had the opportunity to meet like minded people, learnt about some interesting topics which I may not have explored on my own and honed my skills.

In addition the university arranged opportunities to meet editors and other writers working in the industry although some of these sessions were during the day when I worked. I tried to attend those sessions related to editors or other writers that fell on evenings. These were always interesting and useful. However, I think if you have a full  year and the funds you may find doing the MA in a year to be more beneficial for you as you will have more free time to attend all that is offered by the university.

I was considering doing a PHD at the University of Winchester but much will depend on funding for this, so the fact I am considering this as an option must indicate I thought the MA course was good. Judith Henghan is a really helpful person so I'm sure if you have any more questions she would be only too happy to answer these.

October already!

Well I kept posting very well for a while but have let it lapse a little, recently. However, I do have a good excuse or two!

I am currently working on some writing for Cross Academe which is taking longer than anticipated and is frustrating me a little but such is life. In addition, I am reviewing some material for National Schools Partnership. And if that wasn't enough I completed my dissertation at the end of September and now await my result.

Also, I recently completed some crucial training for my other educational work which means that I will be taking more of a lead in some areas. So yes I have been busy!!

In case you were keen to learn who won the GCSE literature guide for Animal Farm all those moons ago, I'm happy to say that Emma from Blackburn managed to bag a copy of the study guide. If you're still wanting a copy of the text then you'll be glad to hear that the guide is now available as an ebook from a number of websites including Ebooks. I have been told that other distributers are supplying ebooks to schools so perhaps one will appear in a school near you!

Competitions- win a GCSE study guide to Animal Farm

Today amongst other things, I'm writing about a competition to win something free, so read on....

What inspired me to do this? Well I purchased a copy of a Writers' magazine called Writing which I hadn't read before. I used to subscribe to the Writers' Forum magazine which I found useful but my subscription has lapsed and I now receive my copy of Author from the Society of Authors every so often and that keeps me ticking along. And Writing had lots of competitions advertised in it.

I hope that my fiction writing will be rejuvenated this year after a bit of a focus on other things. To this end I have been looking through my new purchase and deciding on which competitions if any to enter. I half contemplated entering the Mslexia novel competition for women but I fear 27 days is not enough time for me to produce a novel for adults. I will have to bear this competition in mind for next year.  Getting impatient? The free book is coming!

A  lot of competitions seem to be for short stories which I'm not sure I'm too great at writing but some are for poetry which is more my thing so I may be tempted to submit a few creations to some competitions and see where they take me.

I am of course still working towards my dissertation. In fact on Thursday I went to the British Library to renew my readers' pass as a few articles which I wanted to read for my dissertation from journals were VERY difficult to locate and the good old British Library seemed to be the only accessible place that had them! And now... the free book thing.

Having read about competitions and to celebrate my MA nearing completion, I thought I might have a competition on my blog- yes you read right- here on my blog... to win... a free copy of my GCSE study guide to Animal Farm. In order to win this happy treat, one lucky reader needs to tell me which pig in the book Animal Farm is based on Joseph Stalin from Russian history? Easy! So email me a response via my profile. Deadline is the end of the month. Good luck!

Bank Holiday Rollercoaster

This weekend is traditionally the one in which Nottinghill Carnival happens which I have attended in the past. This year, instead, I went to Wales- where (perhaps you might say unsurprisingly) it rained, then the sun appeared.... then it rained again.... and then the sun appeared.

Luckily I had purchased a HUGE UMBRELLA from Sports Direct so as to avoid a repeat of my experiences last week in the Flash flood, when I ended up looking like a drowned rat, and then caught the flu!  So this time, I didn't.

And I caught up with family, some immediate, some more distant ... and indulged in a moment of nostalgia when I had an onion bhajee and some chips from this award winning Fish Bar. 

Sadly the food on this occasion wasn't as good as when I used to live in Cardiff. Major let down!

However having enjoyed the bank holiday I wondered what its origin was and so being a bit of a boffin I looked up its history. If you too wish to know how bank holidays started then here is a link for you.

Now I am back in Berkshire, I am returning to my research and work towards my dissertation. As part of this, I recently read a beautifully crafted novel called Oranges in No Man's Land by Elizabeth Laird. I love Laird's writing style- it just flows wonderfully and I am in admiration at the way in which she is able to tackle issues in a subtle way. If you haven't come across her work before or indeed the book Oranges in No Man's Land, I can wholeheartedly recommend both.

A new look; some new writing

Well I thought it was high time I revamped my blog ... five years on and here it is looking fresh and bright.

Alongside the revamp I have made a silent vow to myself to keep this at least a little more up to date than it has been recently. I blame my laxity on changing jobs! These things will get in our way.

However to talk writing, which is what my blog is all about, I have just taken on a couple of new contracts for a relatively new and small educational publisher called Cross Academe for two sets of resources related to the Scottish play (Macbeth, for those of you who may be puzzled by this) and Romeo and Juliet.


I am also doing some work for National School Partnerships on a project linked to Dickens' bicentenary which is coming up, for the ALCS. And to top it all off, I am submitting my long awaited dissertation at the end of September. I think it's safe to say I'm a wee bit busy!

However, as I said I will try to keep this much more up to date...so until next time, happy writing!

Catch up time!

It is very remiss of me not to have posted in as many months as it has been but time has a way of disappearing nowadays. I am currently working on a redraft again of a novel which will form the basis of my dissertation- the final piece for my long awaited MA!

This year has been exceptionally busy - what with a change to full self employment and more inspection work and some work abroad. Consequently, writing has been placed a little on the back burner but now that I am more settled in my role I will be able to dedicate more time to writing!

Since last posting, an educational book written by me-a study guide for Animal Farm  which  I posted about before and is now available both from Amazon and direct from the publisher Philip Allan Updates (part of Hodder) was published. The Amazon copy of a similar study guide on An Inspector Calls has the option for looking inside so you can take a peek if you like! They follow similar formats.

Also a resource for the ALCS ( Author's Licensing and Collecting Society) on copywrite which I was commissioned to write and wrote, was also published. You can view it here.

Recently, I was interviewed along with others for a piece in the Writers' Forum on Educational Writing, so when that appears, I will let you know!

And for those who may not yet have come across my bio on Amazon- here's a link!

Now, back to the writing.

Travel Bug

I am currently reading The Bride's Farewell by Meg Rosoff, the American writer whose writing style I love, and whilst I work on redrafting quite a different genre of novel, I thought I'd read for inspiration.

Life has been busy of late. Having spent a week in Tunisia at the end of December, I managed to escape some of the snow, only to return in what seemed like the nick of time.... a week later riots erupted in Tunis and the president fled the country!

After the fiasco last year in Malta, I'm beginning to think someone is trying to tell me to stay home!! Yes, I got stuck in Malta as a result of the ash cloud  back in March and what with this new event in Tunisia ... I am beginning to wonder. Not so much that I have abandoned a forthcoming trip, I hasten to add. Who would? I'm a sucker for the sun.

Another journey is afoot- this time I will be going out to the Gulf region to carry out some education related work and I'm looking forward to the experience.

Once I'm sitting at the main computer, I'll upload some photos of Tunisia - until then ma'asalama, goodbye and au revoir.