‘The absolute bedrock thing is that you need to work out exactly what it is you want in life – something that’s a lot trickier than it seems. If you don’t know what it is, you can’t hope to get it. You must find out what you really really want.’
What’s it all about?
October 12, 2008Books that make you laugh and cry
April 1, 2009
I re-read Bernard’s Watch by Andrew Norriss yesterday. I had forgotten how good it is. This is the book on which the Bernard’s Watch TV series was based. Bernard is a young boy who is given a watch that stops time and the book is not only about the fun that can be had, but also about how something like the watch can change your life. If you use the watch for stealing as Mrs Donaldson does it is not necessarily good for you, but if you use it to help others and to give yourself time to think and learn, then the results can be life enhancing. Mrs Donaldson gets arrested but Bernard becomes happier and grows in confidence.
In Ctrl-Z Alex is given a laptop that takes him back in time when he presses Ctrl-Z and so when a mistake (or an awful mess ) is made, he can go back to have another try. In Aquila, the spacecraft that the boys find is very exciting to fly around in but also leads to the boys wanting to learn allsorts of things, including Latin, and their lives improve hugely at home and at school as a result.
There are no victims in Andrew Norriss’s books. When choices are made, you live with the consequences, and if they are not what you want you choose again.
Andrew Norriss is a clever writer too in that he can not only write a good fun adventure story but also can explore the big issues of life like, death and divorce, with a light touch. And so I laugh out loud at the comedy moments, snuffle quietly at a child’s acceptance of divorcing parents or the moving death scene, and at the end I close the book with a sigh of satisfaction, tinged with regret that it has come to an end so soon. They simply are best – and my favourite is the one I haven’t mentioned, The Touchstone, and it would make such a good movie. But Hugh Grant is a bit too old to play Gedrus now and he would have been perfect…
Don’t just take my word for it. Read chapter 1 of Ctrl-Z and read comments from children and teachers here: http://anorrissbooks.wordpress.com/aquila-activity-sheets/
Why Book an Author for a School Visit
April 1, 2009
Nothing inspires children to read like hearing an author talk with enthusiasm about books and reading – if that author can communicate well and develop a rapport with the children, which is exactly what Andrew Norriss can do. Andrew was a teacher before becoming a writer, can also act and is passionate about books and reading. These ingredients together with the fact that Andrew has given over 100 talks in the last 2 years means he is not just good at talking to children in school, he is great. He doesn’t just talk he inspires.
When Andrew started giving talks a few years ago he would spend a whole day planning and practicing a talk before going into schools and arrive home exhausted. Now, with so much experience he can adapt each talk to suit the children and situation that he finds and when he was led out in assembly recently with no prior warning, it wasn’t so much what shall I say but how long would you like.
When Andrew talks to, or rather with, a group of children something magical can happen. Andrew is speaking from his heart when and the children pick on his enthusiasm. They love the extracts that he reads from his books and he leaves them fired with enthusiasm. In fact Andrew has taken to hanging around for a while at the end of the day as invariably a red-faced panting child will arrive having run home and back in record time as they hadn’t had money to buy a book and they were so desparate to get one. And the magic doesn’t end there. Having read one book most children, and their parents, will want to read the rest as is evidenced on the Amazon pages.
For more information about Andrew Norriss’s school visits go to http://anorrissbooks.wordpress.com/
Ctrl-Z takes Puffin by surprise.
March 10, 2009Ctrl-Z is the latest book by Andrew Norriss and after just 5 days the first print run has run out. (Andrew won the Whitbread prize for Aquila, wrote Bernard’s Watch and was the creator and co-writer of The Brittas Empire)
What is Andrew to do now? He is booked to visit 7 more schools in Gosport and Portsmouth as part of his book tour to celebrate the publication of Ctrl-Z, but with no copies of the book to sell.
Ooops Ctrl-Z Puffin. You need to go back in time and order a larger print run!
To find out why Ctrl-Z by Andrew Norriss is flying off the shelves you can read chapter 1 at http://anorrissbooks.wordpress.com/ and then hope you don’t have to wait too long to read the whole book.
Ctrl-Z moments…
November 20, 2008I had a Ctrl-Z moment today. I made a mistake and so wished I could press Ctrl-Z and go back to before it happened and not do it, or act differently instead. My computer/Guardian angel had even tried to stop me but I ignored the signs and did it any way. Now I am at the stage, having apologised to the one I offended, of trying not to let my mind be consumed by guilt. I did it. I apologised. I shall not do it again. And in future I shall listen and watch more carefully for the signs from the Universe and take notice.
As a child I was very shy and permanently terrified of making mistakes. The embarrassment of looking stupid was more than I could bear and to be avoided at all costs. I have the feeling that I am now making up for it by making a lot of mistakes and learning at last to cope, learn and move on. It’s not easy though. Andrew Norriss has written a book called Ctrl-Z which is about making mistakes and the gold to be found in them. Perhaps if I had read it as a child I would have lived a more adventurous life, made lots of mistakes and not have to be making so many now. Lucky the children who get to read Ctrl-Z when it comes out 5th March 2009. It may save them a lot of pain and give them a jolly good read too.
As a child I was very shy and permanently terrified of making mistakes. The embarrassment of looking stupid was more than I could bear and to be avoided at all costs. I have the feeling that I am now making up for it by making a lot of mistakes and learning at last to cope, learn and move on. It’s not easy though. Andrew Norriss has written a book called Ctrl-Z which is about making mistakes and the gold to be found in them. Perhaps if I had read it as a child I would have lived a more adventurous life, made lots of mistakes and not have to be making so many now. Lucky the children who get to read Ctrl-Z when it comes out 5th March 2009. It may save them a lot of pain and give them a jolly good read too.
Moan about it or act upon it constructively?
November 14, 2008Litter. Which do you do moan about it or litter-pick?
I’m lucky enough, or do I mean I choose, to live in the Hampshire countryside and I enjoy walking. A few years back I found myself distracted from the otherwise beautiful surroundings by the amount of litter on the verges. Rather than moan I decided to do something about it. I emailed the local council asking where I could get a litter-picker and to my amazement and delight they delivered one to my door, and I have been happily litter picking ever since.
People’s reactions to litter picking are interesting. Typically they are:
’It’s a disgrace. The council should pick it up.’
‘It’s shocking that there’s so much of it. It’s getting worse.’ (Actually it’s not, especially siince I started picking it up.)
‘ How can people just throw stuff out of their cars like that?’
and most often ‘ Aren’t you good.’
I do feel good about it but not in the way I think they mean. My walks are so productive. I get exercise, clear the litter (I allow myself 1 carrier bag at a time), collect fir cones for the fire and enjoy the scenery. I arrive home satisfied and content that I have done my bit towards improving the world in which I live. I do it for myself and I think others appreciate it too.
And whilst I litter pick I think about more ways of telling the world about Andrew Norriss’s books, and today this was it. Happy reading!
Blonde or ‘blonde’?
November 14, 2008Heard on Wednesday…
Male ‘What’s the new girl like?’
Female ‘She’s young and blonde.’
Male ‘You mean blonde and attractive?
Female ‘No. Just blonde.’
Not young and blonde myself, more sort of old and dyed blonde, but without wanting to demean blondes in any way, you know exactly what is meant. Is this new definition for blonde in any dictionaries yet I wonder?
Real writer or just a blogger?
November 12, 2008My husband is a writer. He first had success writing TV sitcoms and now he writes children’s books. He started writing after visiting a hypnotist to stop smoking. Apparently, whilst in a deeply relaxed state she asked what he really wanted to do, and much to his surprise he said he wanted to write. He stopped smoking and for an hour a day he disappeared up into the attic. He didn’t say why. I didn’t ask. It was only months later that he told me he had written an episode of a sitcom and had sent it off to an agent. He was teaching at a 6th form college at the time. They kindly gave him a year’s sabbatical to give writing a try and he never went back. He gave up teaching and has been a full time writer ever since.
Living with a writer is not always easy… He never talked much about the process of writing except to say after working for weeks or even months at something that he was going to tear it up and start again. For years I believed he meant it. My heart sank. But then he went back to work and a beautifully crafted script eventually appeared. In time I came to realise that he didn’t mean he’d literally start again but that it was a particular stage of the writing process. I learnt to take no notice and these days he doesn’t say it so often but perhaps that is because he also became aware of it. And then my son passed on this wonderful quote from Neil Gaiman.
Living with a writer is not always easy… He never talked much about the process of writing except to say after working for weeks or even months at something that he was going to tear it up and start again. For years I believed he meant it. My heart sank. But then he went back to work and a beautifully crafted script eventually appeared. In time I came to realise that he didn’t mean he’d literally start again but that it was a particular stage of the writing process. I learnt to take no notice and these days he doesn’t say it so often but perhaps that is because he also became aware of it. And then my son passed on this wonderful quote from Neil Gaiman.
‘The last novel I wrote (it was ANANSI BOYS, in case you were wondering) when I got three-quarters of the way through I called my agent. I told her how stupid I felt writing something no-one would ever want to read, how thin the characters were, how pointless the plot. I strongly suggested that I was ready to abandon this book and write something else instead, or perhaps I could abandon the book and take up a new life as a landscape gardener, bank-robber, short-order cook or marine biologist. And instead of sympathising or agreeing with me, or blasting me forward with a wave of enthusiasm—or even arguing with me—she simply said, suspiciously cheerfully, Oh, you’re at that part of the book, are you?”I was shocked. “You mean I’ve done this before?” “You don’t remember?” “Not really.”"Oh yes,” she said. “You do this every time you write a novel. But so do all my other clients.” I didn’t even get to feel unique in my despair.’
So perhaps a ‘real’ writer is one who recognises when there is more work to be done rather than just dashing something off and saying, ‘Yeh. That’ll do.’
So are you a ‘real’ writer?
When you blog do you draft and redraft or are you a ‘That’ll do’ ?
Is there a difference between bloggers and writers?
Are all bloggers writers? Are all writers bloggers? Or is a writer just someone who makes money from their writing?
I’d love to know how you feel about the writing process but now for me, ‘that’ll do.’
But you’ll want to check out my husband’s writing because he really is a writer and writes wonderful books… http://anorrissbooks.wordpress.com/
