The cry of a ghostly goat
Prepared for my biggest day by having a terrible night’s sleep, and by being fragile from the from the fiendish pink wine served at the Gold Sponsor’s Reception. Woke up feeling nervous: had a rushed nervous breakfast, and nervously rode on the bus into town with Lorraine and a heavy case full of books, laptop and so on. Stunningly beautiful day again, and was pleased that Friday 13th was the perfect day to launch Defenders of Guernsey on an unsuspecting world.
Lorraine utterly fab this morning. Liaising with the technical guy getting the laptop plugged into a large screen and also talking to teachers. This freed me to do the vital work of pacing about nervously. Children from Vauvert school arrived in bright red jumpers and settled down. Lorraine did a special hands up finger wiggling thing, which hypnotised all the children instantly.
First we played the talking skull head video I’d recorded welcoming them to the event. I’d put in sound file behind it called graveyard wind which worked nicely too. Then I biffed onto the stage and started talking about where writers get their ideas for characters from. I lay on the floor for a bit said that the idea had come to me while playing a corpse in Wrong several years ago. Lorraine played them a snip from Wrong with Mark, Beth and Callum.
I moved on then to talk about playing with computer avatars, and played them the little video I put together a few years ago about a skeleton going to a swimming pool. Then into how I had created Skelton's character, showed them mum’s pictures, read an excerpt from the novel where Grace goes into a restaurant and finds she is sitting next to two skeleton men. Finally I talked about Guernsey, my connection to it and setting the story on the island. Read the opening chapter of Defenders of Guernsey, talked about cliffhangers, got them to help me make noises like a ghostly goat, and read the third chapter, with children helping delightedly on the ghostly goat noises which drifted eerily through the town's market square.
When I told these children at the end of the session that I was going to give them a free copy of Defenders, they were genuinely amazed and delighted. Worth every ounce of effort to see their faces light up with excitement. Pure gold.
The second session with children from Le Murier school went equally as well. These children where a little older and some had complex needs. Their behaviour was impeccable and everyone was engaged, and we all seemed to enjoy ourselves too.
Exhausting though, and after the previous night’s insomnia a reviving coffee was gratefully gulped. We decided to return to the hotel, and we had a half-hour snooze before Lorraine and I piled into a taxi to The Cotils. Lorraine went into town, and I met Richard outside in his van with the dogs, and we went inside to do a poetry reading an hour and a half with the White Horse Writer’s group.
This was a seminar-like affair, with about a dozen of us around a big table sipping tea and water. An extremely attentive and thoughtful group. A lovely session, and as a footnote we sold a book to all but one of the attendees, which was excellent. Richard and I radiating charm and loving the more relaxed discursive mode that this time afforded us.
From here down to town. Richard had to zoom home, and I met Lorraine, who had been mingling with poets in the poetry café and meeting Lesley and Derrek. We snuck off to the pub that overlooks the harbour and had a much needed pint of landlord bitter.
Then to Christies for a poets supper, met lots of poets, and for the first time in the flesh Edward Chaney. Also briefly his musician daughter Olivia Chaney.Unusually bad food for Christies, but a very convivial atmosphere. Lorraine and I left just in time to catch the last bus from town, got off the bus just after the old mill, and walked down the lanes to the Captains, where we had a bottle of pony each. It seemed fitting. Home to the hotel. Beddy byes.
Below two shots from the Vauvert school website, and the children themselves. I asked them to wave at me when they left. Great kids.
Prepared for my biggest day by having a terrible night’s sleep, and by being fragile from the from the fiendish pink wine served at the Gold Sponsor’s Reception. Woke up feeling nervous: had a rushed nervous breakfast, and nervously rode on the bus into town with Lorraine and a heavy case full of books, laptop and so on. Stunningly beautiful day again, and was pleased that Friday 13th was the perfect day to launch Defenders of Guernsey on an unsuspecting world.
Lorraine utterly fab this morning. Liaising with the technical guy getting the laptop plugged into a large screen and also talking to teachers. This freed me to do the vital work of pacing about nervously. Children from Vauvert school arrived in bright red jumpers and settled down. Lorraine did a special hands up finger wiggling thing, which hypnotised all the children instantly.
First we played the talking skull head video I’d recorded welcoming them to the event. I’d put in sound file behind it called graveyard wind which worked nicely too. Then I biffed onto the stage and started talking about where writers get their ideas for characters from. I lay on the floor for a bit said that the idea had come to me while playing a corpse in Wrong several years ago. Lorraine played them a snip from Wrong with Mark, Beth and Callum.
I moved on then to talk about playing with computer avatars, and played them the little video I put together a few years ago about a skeleton going to a swimming pool. Then into how I had created Skelton's character, showed them mum’s pictures, read an excerpt from the novel where Grace goes into a restaurant and finds she is sitting next to two skeleton men. Finally I talked about Guernsey, my connection to it and setting the story on the island. Read the opening chapter of Defenders of Guernsey, talked about cliffhangers, got them to help me make noises like a ghostly goat, and read the third chapter, with children helping delightedly on the ghostly goat noises which drifted eerily through the town's market square.
When I told these children at the end of the session that I was going to give them a free copy of Defenders, they were genuinely amazed and delighted. Worth every ounce of effort to see their faces light up with excitement. Pure gold.
The second session with children from Le Murier school went equally as well. These children where a little older and some had complex needs. Their behaviour was impeccable and everyone was engaged, and we all seemed to enjoy ourselves too.
Exhausting though, and after the previous night’s insomnia a reviving coffee was gratefully gulped. We decided to return to the hotel, and we had a half-hour snooze before Lorraine and I piled into a taxi to The Cotils. Lorraine went into town, and I met Richard outside in his van with the dogs, and we went inside to do a poetry reading an hour and a half with the White Horse Writer’s group.
This was a seminar-like affair, with about a dozen of us around a big table sipping tea and water. An extremely attentive and thoughtful group. A lovely session, and as a footnote we sold a book to all but one of the attendees, which was excellent. Richard and I radiating charm and loving the more relaxed discursive mode that this time afforded us.
From here down to town. Richard had to zoom home, and I met Lorraine, who had been mingling with poets in the poetry café and meeting Lesley and Derrek. We snuck off to the pub that overlooks the harbour and had a much needed pint of landlord bitter.
Then to Christies for a poets supper, met lots of poets, and for the first time in the flesh Edward Chaney. Also briefly his musician daughter Olivia Chaney.Unusually bad food for Christies, but a very convivial atmosphere. Lorraine and I left just in time to catch the last bus from town, got off the bus just after the old mill, and walked down the lanes to the Captains, where we had a bottle of pony each. It seemed fitting. Home to the hotel. Beddy byes.
Below two shots from the Vauvert school website, and the children themselves. I asked them to wave at me when they left. Great kids.
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