I think I did my first reading/writing workshop a month after my first book came out. So that would be…ummmm…about 4 years ago.
It was hosted by our local library and I arrived lumbered with poster boards and books for sale and notebooks and hand-outs. I was so nervous my voice shook and I was probably blushing the whole time, but I met 8 or 9 fabulous girls and a boy, and their enthusiasm and imaginations totally sparked mine.
Over the years (and in the months between having my daughter) I’ve continued doing workshops. Sometimes with a theme (Heroes and Villains, Dragons and Faeries- pure fantasy, the Notorious BIC, writing YA) sometimes more of a pull- it -out- of- my- hat affair although I always bring hand-outs, story ideas and snack foods of the evil type, and the same or slightly different variations of the same pool of talent shows up.
Some of them have been there from the very beginning.
This last Saturday I had 5 familiar faces and 2 new ones (including a new boy- squee!) and it was wonderful.
In the space of an hour and a half, we talked about writing, the holocaust, Moby Dick, Lord of the Rings, a few movies, manga/graphic novels, rubber ducks, and their own work which they each read aloud to the group.
I read from the first chapter of my new work (to be published next year) and answered questions about the best way to kill a snapping turtle.
I’m moving in a month or so, and I couldn’t imagine leaving without interacting with these kids just one more time. (I cried in the parking lot afterwards, but surreptitiously).
I’m quite a shy person actually. Speaking in front of groups of people still makes me nervous (although I did once field questions about gangsta rap at a symposium of hundreds, and under very hot, bright lights).
But the chance to talk and share ideas with the very people who read and buy middle-grade and young adult literature is priceless.
It revitalizes me personally and it revitalizes my writing.
Because after all, I am writing about them. I am writing for them.
My writers centre runs a fair number of monthly workshops, but very few for the young writer. I'm sure they appreciated you as a valuable resource, Jo.