There be dragons

An author-visit and a gallery of dragons 

Let me share an afternoon at Quethiock School with you :)

Quethiock School is a fabulous little school in Cornwall. I was delighted to make an author visit there and to spend a very happy afternoon with many wonderful children. They had imagination coming out of their ears and were so well behaved. Suffice it to say that if every school was run with the love and dedication of this one, the world would be a better place!

What we did:

We talked a bit, and I showed them some of my illustrations and read a few extracts from 'The Golden Sword' and 'The Time Smugglers'. What a pleasure to be able to share my stories!

Of course we had a question and answer session (they had many thought-provoking questions); 

'Where do you get your ideas?' 

'Do you take your laptop on holiday?' (Try and stop me!) 

However the question - 'How long does it take you to write a book?' with the answer, 'About 18 months,' had their heads spinning. You could see them thinking, 'Why would anyone want to write that much?'

Finally I read the passage from 'The Time Smugglers' where Dragon is first found, and showed them his picture as imagined and drawn by Helen Blenkhorn. Would they be prepared to have a go at drawing him for themselves? Yes they certainly would.

We didn't have long, so not every one was finished, but I was mightily impressed with what I saw emerging. Here's just a sample:

By Imogen - thee's a hint of dragonfly here.

By Alex - This is going to be one fierce dragon.

By Evie - I love the detail on the wings.

By Merly -  fierce or what! 

By Lily - a roaring dragon

By Sofia - I particularly like this one's curly tail.

By Ruby - inspired by Helen's single claw.

By Eve - perfect in its simplicity.

By Abigail - look at that scaly spine!

By Kensa - perhaps gets the prize for the friendliest dragon.

By Tom -  Wonderful, I wouldn't want to meet this one.

By Finley - I loved the details - look at those feet.

A few days later I visited another school with older students - some extracts from their writing will be gracing this blog very soon. In the meantime don't forget that you can enter a giveaway for 'The Time Smugglers' on Goodreads. The link is at the top of the page.