Sophie Nicholl and Emma Harris |
On Thursday the 24th of August, a group of St Andrew’s and St Bride’s pupils had a wonderful day at the Edinburgh Book Festival, meeting authors Elizabeth Wein, Patrice Laurence and Gary Garret. Even more exciting for the students, they were all given the opportunity to get books signed.
As the sun smiled down on every face, our booktastic day started with an excited buzz in the warm air. Seas of large tents were pitched and clusters of people, all from different cultures and backgrounds, had gathered to celebrate one thing… BOOKS!
Elizabeth Wein, otherwise known as Ewien, was the first author we visited. She was born in New York and has a PHD at Pennsylvania University, the same place she met her husband. She was discussing her books Code Name Verity and The Pearl Thief. Her second book, The Pearl Thief, was inspired by Scotland’s nature. While writing her story, Elizabeth convicted the wrong murderer, until one of many publishers told her otherwise, having to rethink her choice of weapon. She feels that the author knows just as much as the reader. Fascinatingly, she got the idea of Pearl Thief from Scottish river pearls. Elizabeth invents up town names so no one can correct her on where she locates things, she calls this the ‘paper box factory syndrome’ One of the oldest libraries in Scotland, The Innerpeffary Library, is explored in the book. A question one of our own pupils (Michael Gilmore) asked was why Elizabeth moved from America to Sunny Scotland. She answered this quite simply with the explanation that her husband got a job.
Patrice Laurence was talking about her two books orange boy and indigo doughnut but she has just felt able to say that she is a writer.
Patrice gave us her top ten tips for being a writer.
Tip one: Have family like no one else’s. She was telling us that all families are unique no matter the situation.
Tip two: Have an overactive imagination. ‘Sometimes someone else’s conversations trigger a great story.‘
Tip three: Read your weight in books. As a lot of authors Patrice loves a great book. Obviously, she loved the library, she was always in there; it was like her second home.
Tip four: Watch TV. “Korean dramas aren’t that bad.”
Tip five: Make the most of every job. Even if you don’t particularly like it. Patrice feels as though it’s an experience you may not get at any other point.
Tip six: Go for an early win: enter competitions no matter the prize.
Tip seven: Know your place. She likes to put things in her books that she knows that other people might not or might be fascinated by, like hidden tunnels in Brighton.
Tip eight: Listen, play, sing and dance Patrice likes to put a lot of music in her books to try and connect to her readers.
Tip nine: Find your voice. Going back to earlier, Patrice loves dialogue.
Tip ten: Your ideas are unique and powerful. Write in the way you like, you will find it easier.
Greg Garrett, a Texan professor, was another author we listened to talk about his book ‘Living with the living dead’. His lectures on Harry Potter are incredibly popular- 1000 signed up for 150 seats – so you wouldn’t expect anything less from his book. Zombies. When I think about those weird creatures, I think of scrawny, flesh eaten ugly things screaming “I wanna eat your brain!” However, this isn’t the case.
In this novel, Zombies symbolize the world’s bad content. Greg explained how brain-eaters can stand in for your fears because we believe them to be myths. Although he did also mention the fact that myths are just a narrative way of understanding the world, so not all fake.
Humanity is a main feature in this book, along with our behaviour and spirituality: the choices we humans make. On the subject of a zombie apocalypse, Greg focused mainly upon one major thing, community. Whether to venture Zombie-thriving world’s alone or depend deeply on others. Would you live with Compassion or fear? It all depends on which you react with.
Greg’s tips for aspiring authors:
- You have to write, make time for it
- If you keep showing up something good will happen.
One thing that stood out was his love for his family, he said, “life is worth living for family. So…which friend do you eat first?”
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