Murderous goings on!

It's all go on the work front at the moment, which is fab! The thing which has been taking up most of my time (because I absolutely want to get it right) is work on The Bankfield Chronicles, in connection with 'Discover' the Calderdale Museum and Library service. It's an exciting project which involves children from Years 5 and 6 (and in a few cases 7) from local schools coming to Bankfield Museum and getting involved in a murder mystery.

There have been 2 pilot sessions so far and the response has been brilliant. When the children were asked what they thought about it there were more 'awesomes' than anything and one boy said 'I could do it again and again and again!' Praise indeed!

What's my involvement? Well, as the saying goes, 'I could tell you, but ......'

It's not called a 'murder mystery' for nothing you know!

Living the dream!

I have a confession to make: I had totally forgotten that I have a profile on Authors Hotline! It is a fantastic website where you get to learn all sorts about your favourite authors. I must have written it ages ago so  I thought I'd better check to see what I'd written. In answer to the question :
"What do you day dream about?"
I've written:
" Having a little place in the country with a couple of cows, a few sheep and a donkey..."

And guess what? I now live in a little cottage surrounded by fields of sheep and cows and I can usually see the two rather gorgeous donkeys - Nelly and Cocoa - from my office window. I truly am living my dream! How lucky am I?
Check out http://www.authorhotline.com/ It's a brilliant resource and I check on it all the time now to find out more about MY favourite authors!

Go on, read something different today!

There's always that moment of trepidation when you hear that one of your favourite books has been turned into a film or TV production, isn't there? You think 'please don't spoil it for me!' And that was just how I felt when I heard about the BBC adaptation of 'Birdsong' - how to capture that unbelievable yearning erotica of the love story as well as the total gut-wrenching horror of the World War I trenches. But on the strength of last night's episode at least, justice has been fully done.
In truth I probably would never have chosen to read 'Birdsong' thinking it wasn't really 'my kind of thing'. It was a Christmas present, and I think it's great when people say 'I chose this for your Fiona because I know you'll really enjoy it'. I love having my eyes opened up to new things. As I say, 'Birdsong' is now one of my favourite novels and I have recommended it to so many other people.
A very good friend recently recommended the 'Shardlake' series of books by C J Sansom, and again I didn't think they would be my kind of thing at all. But I find myself lost in a world of intrigue in the time of King Henry VIII; the stench and the strife of every day life, the power struggles of the courts and the political and religious intrigue. The books have opened my eyes to a period of history about which I was shockingly ignorant. And they're a mighty find read on a cold winter's night!
So go on, let someone recommend a book which you'd never have chosen yourself, you never know where it can take you!

New year, new focus!

I have been shamed into kick-starting the blog by a letter I received from Alice a pupil at New Mills Primary school which I visited last year. To say I enjoyed my time there would be an understatement - I had a BRILLIANT morning at the school and came away feeling completely energised. There is nothing to beat thinking on your feet with a class full of excited 10/11 year-olds creating a story about a bunch of rock star sheep in search of new hairdos!

When I received Alice's lovely letter (along with the fab one from Chloe) I realised that I was letting down people who I would love to stay connected with by not updating my blog very frequently. So here we are - along with the usual new year's resolutions involving diet and exercise, I promise to keep up to date with this!

New beginnings!

Well so much has happened since I last wrote, but now I am settled and happy and back in the saddle so to speak.

I have moved back to Yorkshire and I'm loving it.
I love the fresh air, the green fields and the hills.
I love seeing more of my friends - the joy of being able to pop in for coffee as I am going to do later
I love spending more time with Em and Izzy, really love that!
I love laughing more with Flissy
I love taking Mum out for lunch
I love being able to drop everything for an impromptu drink
I love the fact that I can take Ted out whenever I want, even off his lead, and not have to worry about traffic
I love the fact that even though I've only spoken to someone once they call out 'hello Fiona' when I see them
I love fresh eggs from my neighbours
I love the fact that I used to see sheep from my office window (and I'm trying not to dwell too much on the fact that they are no longer there...)
I love standing in my garden in the evening, looking across the valley and hearing mooing and bleating in the distance

Do I miss Wimbledon? Of course I do! People I love are still there and I miss them very much. But it gives me a good excuse to go back and of course I hope that they will visit often so that I can show them how beautiful it is here.

BRRRRR GRRRRR!

More snow, more chaos, no school visit!

I am more than a little sad as I was really excited about my first school visit of the year. Appropriately enough I was going to go a little 'off-piste' and rather than do my usual workshop based around 'The Extremely Very Scrambled Up World of Little Doogs' I'd been asked to do workshops which fitted with the curriculum and the topics being covered at Grayswood Infant school this term.

With a little (make that A LOT) of help from Flissy (my genius sister for those not in the know) I'd planned some fun things....hopefully I'll get to do them in the not too distant future.

In the meantime I just wanted to share with you my favourite ever letter from a child. After my visit to St. Mark's school Tunbridge Wells last year I received a letter from each of the children in Year 1. They were all illustrated beautifully and said such sweet things, but the one from Kai (above) takes some beating. It reads:

Dear Fiona
Thank you very much for coming to visit us and I am sorry for being aslep

BRIILIANT!

Snow....well everyone else is talking about it!

I'm having a bit of a love/hate relationship with the snow: I love going out in it when I've all wrapped up and it's crunchy underfoot, I LOVE seeing Ted running in it with his ears flapping like he's the happiest dog in the world, but I'd really like to get on with my life now please and not have to wait for weather reports and gritters. I want to make plans and know that I can stick to them. But that's life I guess.

I've got a school visit down the snowed-up A3 on Monday and I'm really looking forward to it - I'm clued up on dinosaurs and fairy stories and presents and toys and I've got props and everything. So I hope the snow drifts off completely now....me and driving are not the happiest of friends at the best of times, throw in a bit of ice....and well, I can foresee disaster looming!