World Book Day 2013

World Book Day is just around the corner (Thurs 7 March, in fact) and I’ll be touring a few bookshops that week. I had a fantastic time last year and can’t wait for it this time.

The details are of where I am all week are below. Hope I see you somewhere and if not I hope you have a wonderful World Book Day [week]!

 

Monday – Dubray Dun Laoghaire

Tuesday – Dubray Galway

Wednesday – Eason O’Connell St

Thursday – Eason Blanchardstown

Saturday – Waterstones Drogheda

CBF Round-up

HELLO OUT THERE!!

 

Believe it or not, I’m still here.

 

I was really busy all of October between finishing a draft of Arthur Quinn 3 (more on that in the next couple weeks!) and the Childrens Book Festival. You can read more about some of my CBF fun here. But I just wanted to write a quick message to thank every single librarian, staff member, teacher, bookseller and reader who came along to hear me prattle about my books. THANK YOU!!

Eason-inspired art

Last week I visited a couple of schools; Fenagh and Cloone National Schools. Both presented me with books full of letters and drawings from the students. I loved it all and I was particularly tickled when I noticed that Eason featured in two drawings based on the finale!

(Click on the image for full size)

Bobby Shaw Middle School, Pasadena TX – SKYPE Chat – 14/05/12

Yesterday I was delighted to speak to the 6th graders in Bobby Shaw Middle School, Texas, thanks to the magic of Skype. This was my first Skype chat to a group of readers and I certainly hope that it won’t be my last! After a couple of technical hitches – (my fault; I hadn’t changed my laptop settings post Skype update) – we got down to business. First off, I was asked to explain where exactly Dublin is in Ireland. Once I described in as much detail as I could muster, the 6th graders told me a little about their home town of Pasadena. It’s a small town just outside of Houston. Read the rest of this entry »

Got Raisins?

image

On Wednesday last I did an event in Dubray Books Grafton Street. One of the classes from Scoil Bhride in Ranelagh actually brought me a gift. It was beautifully wrapped as you can see above! Anyway, as I slowly started taking the paper off and wondering aloud what was inside, the class assured me that I would like it. ‘You say you like these on your website!’ exclaimed one girl. Read the rest of this entry »

Mid-term Library Visits

This week I was honoured to be invited on a mini-tour of Dublin city libraries. First up was Rathmines Library, followed by Coolock, Ballsbridge and finally Ballymun. I even managed to squeeze in a visit to the pupils in Scoil Fhursa in Coolock. All the children, librarians and parents I met were wonderful. As usual, I played my creative writing game with them where we all come up with a brand new Viking god. All the new gods were crazy, scary, funny characters but I have to say that a personal favourite came from the crowd in Ballymun. They came up with a 3 million year old Viking goddess who was heavily overweight and therefore they made her the goddess of fat. The best thing about her though, was her name; Fatima the Viking Goddess!

There are lots more events coming over the next few weeks so keep checking back here or better yet, follow me on Twitter for updates!

Skype School Events

Michelle Moloney-King drew my attention to this blog on Twitter yesterday. Essentially it’s a listing of authors – all based in the States – who offer 20 minute Skype calls to schools for free.

It’s an interesting premise and would certainly help raise the profile of your book abroad. But I’m not sure there would be much call for Irish writers to Skype Irish schools. The country is so small that you can travel anywhere, meet a few classes and be back home easily within a day. One of the great things about being a writer is getting to meet the readers who’ve enjoyed your book. I’m not sure if this work quite as well through a computer screen.

So what do you think? Teachers and parents out there – would you be interested in Skype school events? Authors – do you feel that these Skype events could work?

Either way, I’m willing to give a Skype even a try if anyone out there is interested. You can contact me about a Skype event or ordinary school visit here!

Visits

I enjoy visiting schools, bookshops or libraries. The people I meet there – and the children who are excited about the book – are always so welcoming. Thanks to the ‘Children Save Dublin’ initiative, I’ve been asked to attend quite a lot of events over February and March. The two months are filling up nicely but I’m always happy to make it to as many visits as possible.

So, if you would like me to attend your school, library, bookshop or book club, just email me to odin@arthurquinn.ie or fill out the form here!

 

(And don’t forget, I’m available for book events all year round. If Feb/Mar don’t suit your group, we’ll still be able to arrange something!)

Antonia’s Bookstore book club 30/11/11

This is the first time I’ve met a book club who have read my book and it was a very fun experience. The members had some really great insights into the book, noticing the tiniest of things that even I hadn’t! They were full of questions, asking me to clarify certain parts or to give them hints for the rest of the series. A couple of them even took guesses about where the story would go… (I tried dodging these as much as possible!) Read the rest of this entry »

St Josephs Mercy Primary 30/11/11

A few weeks ago I got a missed call. When I listened back to the voicemail, it was from a teacher in Navan telling me how much her class had been enjoying ‘Arthur Quinn and the World Serpent’ and how excited they would be to have me visit. I, of course, promised that I would visit them and on the 30th of November I was true to my word.

Like the Hunt School, this was one of the first school visits where the class had read most of the book and had questions prepared. As soon as I was in the door, I was asked for a few high fives! After talking about the book and writing for a bit, I discovered that the class had drawn pictures based on their favourite scenes. (A few of them are below!) They had also studied the history of the Vikings and their myths in great detail. Read the rest of this entry »