When Steve Cole Visited Charters school

Report by Hugo Webster, Year 7

When I first heard there was a new ‘Young Bond’ book being published I thought of the author Charlie Higson and I searched for it online - it said Steve Cole was the author and I thought “who’s he?” I was excited but anxious - was he going to be as good as Charlie Higson….?

I received the book a couple of days before Steve’s visit and was enthralled…

On Monday 10^th of September Steve Cole came to Charters. At second break I queued to get my book signed (I had only got to page 76 and boy it was good!). A group of Bond lovers surrounded Steve and we had our picture taken.

Finally fifth period arrived and the wait was over! I saw streams of people heading for the hall and I managed to get a front row seat - a perfect view to see him. He stepped out and introduced himself, then explained how he had written Astrosaurs and Cows In Action. He’d worked as an editor for a magazine company before he became a full time writer.

He told us about the day that would change his life….. the day, when he’d finished his lunch as he was walking out of the restaurant his assistant phoned him and told him that the Ian Fleming Foundation had picked him to write the new books.

After that he showed us some spy gadgets: he had binoculars where one of the eye pieces was a flask (for when you are spying on someone and you need a drink) - he also had a gun keychain that was a lighter for when you are out in a forest and you need to make a fire.

Following the gadgets that he showed us Steve went on to talk through the first chapter of the book and tell us about the characters; James Bond, the teenage boy, expelled from Eton, never to trust again. Hugo Grande a dwarf that doesn’t like classes but loves skiving. Boudicca (Boody) Pyre a girl that will take machines apart to her heart’s content and Dan Solomon, a boy who found a film reel, the reel that someone is willing to kill for. These friends all went to Dartington Hall.

Steve highlighted that as it was the anniversary of Ian Fleming’s first film when he was picked to write the stories that it would be a good idea for the group of friends to visit Hollywood as part of the plot. First, as always, he had to run it past Ian Fleming’s remaining family. Then he told us about their mode of transport, the LZ 127 Graf Zeppelin. A key part of the story, it was a German-built and operated airship which actually operated commercially from 1928 to 1937. The airship was named after the German pioneer of airships, Ferdinand von Zeppelin, who was a count (Graf) in the German nobility.

Even though I had read it, hearing him inject so much life and passion into the story I wanted to read the rest there and then.

To conclude he played a game. He had a target and two Nerf guns, he picked two contestants by telling us a riddle and whoever got the riddle right played against each other, he used the lipstick to mark the darts. The first person to fire hit the third ring out from the center of the target and when the second person fired she hit near the middle of the ‘O’ in BOND at the top of the card board target. When Steve had his turn he pulled out a bigger Nerf gun and blew the target away.

  

Information On Steve Cole

Steve was born in 1971 and was brought up in rural Bedfordshire. One of the reasons he loves being an author is because he can lounge around wearing pyjamas all day but when he starts to write something he can’t stop.

Interview with Michael Scott

My interview with Michael Scott

By Rory Hawkins

On the 9^th of May, Charters school was lucky enough to welcome fantasy author Michael Scott, only a week after being visited by another author, Michael Grant. Mr Scott visited to promote his 106^th book and the last in a six book long series: The Enchantress, which, as he stated in his presentation to the year 8s, took him a year to write. I was lucky enough to be asked on the school’s behalf to interview Mr Scott, or, as I was allowed to call him, Michael.

   I found Michael to be a very agreeable person, I enjoyed talking to him and he answered the questions the Book Club and I concocted with both enthusiasm and detail. I got the sense that he enjoyed the interview as much as I did.

    When I asked why he became a writer, Michael answered: “I’m a writer because I’m a reader. I believe you can only really be a good writer if you’re a reader. I remember picking up a book, reading and thinking: ‘Wait- I can write better rubbish than this’.” I nodded to this; if you’re someone who’s into creative writing you’ll come across this at one point or another. Michael went on to say this was when you were ready yourself to write. “But,” Michael continued, “you’ve also got think if there’s space for you, what makes your writing different.” When I continued the question to: ‘Why did you decide to write for young adults?’ Michael answered eagerly; “They’re a very interesting audience and, in my opinion, this is the golden age for YA writing; when you’ve written a book, it’s pure story for teenagers. An adult will come up to you and say your book was rubbish. A teenager will come up to you and point out all the bits they liked, from chapter three or four and so on. But that’s also one of the hardest parts. With this genre you have to create your own logic and you need to keep to that or-”

   “Or they’ll point that out and scrutinise you for that,” I said.

   “Exactly.”

   “Have you actually based any characters on people you know?” I asked.

   “No,” Michael replied bluntly, “my golden rule in writing is to not base characters on people you know, not just because you may point out a not too endearing thing about them. People look for themselves in book characters, most people want to find something that they share with a character. In fact, the only characters I made up in the Flamel series are the twins themselves. As you already know, I brought together mythological figures from all across the world. I simply gave them personalities from how they were portrayed in their myths.”

   After what Michael had said about not basing characters on people, I hardly thought that we wouldn’t be straying from the questions I had written down previous; ‘Which character do you think you are most like?’ was next. Michael agreed with me on this. After quickly concluding that he was like none, we went on to the topic of which he proffered.

   “Most people would think that Nicholas Flamel was my favourite. Really? No. I like my villains: Dr Dee and Machiavelli especially. Dee, actually, used to the hero, in a few of my other books.”

   “But in the Enchantress, things change for Dee.”

   “Of course; I had flip with the Enchantress, circumstances change for Dee and, in the end really, he becomes good.”

   I got Michael to reveal some of his writing ‘top-tips’ when I asked the next question: “Did you always know how the series would end?”

   “Yes,” Michael began, “I wrote the ending first. It’s like setting yourself a target; you want to get from here... to there. The fact that there are six books is only because when I wrote the whole series out in note form I saw six synopses which let me divide it into six books.”

   “So you wrote all of the books out in note form beforehand?” I asked.

   “Not completely, I left some room for the characters to surprise me. The Flamel series was very interesting to write, one of my best and favourite series, I have to say.”

   For anything I had missed asking Michael, the year 8s certainly picked up in the Q and A part of Michael’s presentation. He told them that ‘At the heart of every legend there is a grain of truth’ and ‘As you collect stories across the world you find similarities’ among other things. When asked why he was a fantasy author, Michael replied: “Fantasy is the best genre. You can do anything you like; you can make your own world with your set of rules.”

   “Which do you prefer: reading or writing?” asked one pupil.

   “I spend as much time reading as I do writing. And I have to say, writing is the best job in the world. Being a writer lets me travel all around the world. I often ask my publisher if I can sell a book in, let’s say, Australia, or promote it or something, just so I can go there.”

   Michael went on to say that in terms of publishing one’s work, this was the golden age for young people, websites like Wattpad allowing publishers to snap up up-and-coming young authors.  His tips to year8s wanting to go into a career involving creative writing were ‘Never put out second rate work’ and ‘Try and set yourself a writing goal; I aim to write four A4 pages a day, much to my editor’s delight.’

   One cheeky year8 couldn’t hold back the question of: “Do you like vampires?” (clearly meaning the stereotypical cliché of modern-day bloodsuckers becoming charismatic yet moody models).

   “Well actually I have one vampire as a main character, Scathach. In Flamel, I went back to original vampires. You see, original vampires drained energy, which later was confused with blood, and some didn’t even look remotely like people. One,” Michael said with a wry smile, “is literally a floating skull with fangs and a spinal cord trailing behind it,” much to the girl’s displeasure.

   When asked about the book ‘The Enchantress’ itself, Michael said: ‘If you’re not surprised by the ending there’s something wrong with you.’

If you’ve already read the Flamel series, then you’ve got the joy and annoyance to look forward to ‘The Alchemyst’ movie in 2014. As Michael told me, with a budget of $120m, parts are being filmed in the same CGI studios as ‘The Lord of the Rings’ and ‘The Hobbit.’ And if that’s not enough for you, the first book in ‘The Earthlords’ trilogy is to be launched next year with the aptly named title of: ‘The Earthlords Rising.’ Michael told me of its simpler to follow storyline; “One main backdrop and all major characters introduced in the first book.”

   But if you haven’t already completed ‘The Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel’ then you’ve got some catching up to do.

I would like to express thanks on the behalf of all the Year 8s and staff at Charters School who really enjoyed Michael's talk.

When Laura Dockrill visited Charters School

Back in April we were very fortunate to have a visit from Laura Dockrill. Laura came in to talk to the Year 7s and the event was thoroughly enjoyed by everyone, pupils and staff alike. Laura is coming back to Charters for our Wonder of Words Young People's Literary Festival in July and we can't wait to see her again. Two of our Year 7 pupils decided to write something about Laura's visit for book blog:

Laura Dockrill

Visits Charters School!

That day was Exciting, because when she first came in I thought it would be like the first writer visit, silent and boring. But then she started talking in this AMAZING, CRAZIEE voice that made me feel like she was saying “WE’RE GOING TO HAVE A FUNN TIME!” so, she went on and said she liked this boy in 7T, (but I don’t remember his name) and EVERYONE started laughing! Afterwards, we asked her a LOT of questions… to do with her favourite stuff (I asked her what she loves to watch on TV and she said Tom and Jerry! I WATCH THAT TOO!) And when she found out I was a twin she flipped and said that she ♥LOVED twins. But we weren’t the only twins there! There was Emily and Maisie. After 20 questions or MORE, she read us an extract of her book in which one of Darcy’s friends (in her new book) love this girl in her class but the girl has not time for him and Darcy tells a story about an octopus loving a girl from the outside… and later pops out on a poor granny trying to sunbathe! 

Then later on, it was almost time for her to LEAVEL. Nobody wanted her to leave… and her book sounded so interesting and I had NO money…

 … Sickening. Just sickening. And everyone who bought money was jumping up and down and I felt small! But something else happened- I was chosen for my face to be in the newspaper with ME standing next to Laura! SQUEEE! So, the photo was taken and my sister came up to me. I was so full of energy and she asked if I was alright. I then opened my mouth and said, “Did you know? I want to be a WRITER.”

By Marie-Louise Lawson, Year 7. 

In April Charters was very lucky to have an author come into our school. Her name was Laura Dockrill and she talked to all the year sevens about her life as an author, her childhood and about her new book called Darcy Burdock. Some of the things that Laura talked to us about were about why she wanted to become an author. She said that she would think about a main part for a story and just write it down.

What I personally like about the visit was that she did not just talk about her stories but about her as a child and about how she is now and why she has blue highlights and wears dresses that look like a peacock (long story).

The main part of the visit was when she talked about her brand new book Darcy Burdock and I really like it because in the story the girl Darcy talks about the stories that she makes up herself so the way I look at it is another name for Darcy Burdock is Laura Dockrill because Laura loves to share her stories to other people so I think she has written the book about her but changing the name.

I enjoyed Laura Dockrill's visit because I really liked how she talked about her as well because I felt I knew her and I only had 1 hour so I think for the year groups to come I definitely think they should have a chance to see  a author like we did and enjoyed just like me .

By Kiera Fahey, Year 7

Our thanks go to Laura and to Random House Children's Publishing for arranging the visit.

Chemical Elements Poetry Anthology - Simon Mayo Visit

Last term we were very fortunate to host writer and Radio 2 presenter Simon Mayo, who came to the school to talk to the Year 7s about his book Itch. In preparation for the visit a group of sixteen Year 7 pupils spent some time taking part in a science and an English workshop.

In the first workshop the pupils were introduced to the periodic table and shown experiments with a number of different elements. They then completed their own experiments, discussed the reactions taking place and recorded their results.

A week later the group took part in a second workshop where they recapped the experiments and thought about how to describe the elements and the reactions that took place by using interesting comparisons. Following this they each wrote a poem about one of the elements from the periodic table. These were bound together as an anthology and presented to Simon when he visited. We thought you might like to read them as well.

You can download it by clicking here, or read it below. We hope you enjoy reading our work.