Ross Mackenzie Report- Authors Live                                                                         Our class have been reading the Nowhere Emporium by Ross Mackenzie. It is the first book is his trilogy. We watched an Authors Live session with him in class. He told us about how he produced the idea to write about a magical shop that can go anywhere at any time. He said he saw a shop in Renfrew High Street and asked questions to himself such as what if it could travel in time? The shop had a blood red Curtain, and tiny thing’s you want to pick up everywhere. He told us that his idols where Roald Dahl and Stephen King, and that the book that got him into writing was the Witches. Then he told us that if he was to be stuck on a deserted island and could only bring three books, he would bring the Harry Potter series, Northern Lights and the Witches, since that was the book that got him into writing. He said that reading and writing are his passion and finds it fun and freeing.

Why not create just one book? The reason why he didn’t just create one book is because you would want to know what happens next and because if the author has done it right you start to care about the characters.

What makes you want to write three books? He said that he loves to write not because it’s his job but because it’s his pride he feels like he’s in another world were anything is possible. He also says he doesn’t always plan what’s next, it’s like driving in the fog, you can only see what’s in front of you that you know the the direction you are in, he also told us that the story kind of creates itself. He also told us that he doesn’t know where his ideas come from, they just appear. He felt a bit sad and happy at the same time when he finished the series because they felt like family. He introduced the final installment in the Nowhere Emporium Trilogy called the ‘Otherwhere Emporium’. He read us Chapter 6- The White Feather. It was gripping! We cannot wait to read it. We loved that he used Scottish names for his new characters.

Awards: As well as being a brilliant author, he has won a Blue Peter book award and a Scottish Book Award. He told us reading can make us feel better and to read as much as possible. He said that he loved all the things that happen after he finishes a book, like with working in schools.

Questions: How would you design the movie set? He said he would make the shop a junk shop full of small trinkets and wonderful toys you would want to pick up and keep for yourself. He really wishes magic was real and likes to imagine magic existing within our world and us not knowing.

By Coben and Taim