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Last weekend saw another return to Portpatrick for a writing retreat. There were 10 of us, 6 in one house and I shared the other house with Alison, Jan and Pearl. As always the food was abundant and delicious. If the secret of good writing is in the fortification injested there should be some successes at SAW conference.

I didn’t create any ‘new pieces’ but I re-jigged a poem adding more content and edited a short story.

I was encouraged to discover that 3 copies of Witch Hitch have been sold at the Ballantrae garden centre and 4 copies of Tartan Witch were left for sale at the Port Pantry, Portpatrick.

I did a bit of Christmas shopping and came home with new ideas for my writing.

Well I suppose if you write about witches you should probably expect to be busy at Hallowe ‘en! Last week was certainly that.

On Monday I was reading and introducing related activities at Wellington School, Ayr. We had great fun.

On Tuesday morning it was off to grandson Gabriel’s nursery class at Kingcase School Prestwick with Witch Hitch …..and the little witches! I returned on Thursday afternoon to meet the rest of the children.

On Tuesday evening I was reading with Litereight at Murray’s in Prestwick – Spooky Tales on Hallowe’en night. We had a great time with yummy food and an excellent audience.

On Thursday I was helping launch the Author’s Club at Netherthird School. Meeting the enthusiastic pupils and listening to their reading and writing experience was encouraging. I’m sure this venture will be a success. The photo shows me telling the children about my own writing journey.

Phew!

I had a lovely time today meeting a group of children from Netherthird Primary School who are some of the members of a newly formed after school Writing Club. We had a great discussion about what we read and what they might write about. The children had many good ideas. I told them my route to writing and read them one of my poems and the beginning of a young adult novel. The children proved a quality, appreciative audience and I look forward to returning in the New Year to see the progress. Keep writing children!

They said that book sales were falling and that electronic reading was the way forward. This now seems to not be the case.

I know there was no option for me when I was a child, I picked up a real, actual, paper book and lost myself in Enid Blyton adventures, Alice’s Wonderland and any horse or pony related story.

Here are a few early readers who hopefully will remember these stories when they reflect on their childhood.

Well, the time has come to think about packing up for another year and leaving our French retreat. It’s always a sad time as we say goodbye to friends here whilst looking forward to seeing them all again next year.

Batteries are recharged so, if there’s no great outpouring of literary quality…it’s down to laziness I reckon. I have been inspired. A children’s story has been started with plan for completion in hand. A short, very short, alright…a flash fiction has been written. Come on, every little helps.

My next picture book is in the pipeline….so watch this space, a bientot!