Sherry Ashworth discusses her time in Dubai, smashing stereotypes, creative writing and camels...

By George Norris

The Manchester Children’s Book Festival is back and better than ever. 

The festival, brainchild of Poet Laureate Carol Anne Duffy, has a rich history of involving some of the best authors in children’s literature. This year is no different, with David Almond, Michael Morpugo and Cathy Cassidy, to name but a few, all taking part. 

Ahead of this summer’s activities, Manchester Writing School’s visiting fellow Sherry Ashworth has spent a week in Dubai as part of the collaboration between Manchester Metropolitan University (MMU) and the Emirates Airlines Festival of Literature. I caught up with Sherry to discuss, among other things, her time in Dubai, lazy Western stereotypes, the use of creative writing as a tool to cross cultures and break boundaries and yes, camels. 

You have been representing MMU and Manchester Children’s Book Festival out in Dubai, how was your experience? 

Sherry: Well, let’s get the facts straight. I was at the festival prologue, not the festival itself. I can tell you that the festival, even though we were only at the beginning of it, was awesome! And we did have lots of conversations with the festival organisers, swapping stories about organising festivals. It was very interesting to converse with colleagues who were doing similar things. 

What was the highlight of your time over in Dubai? 

Sherry: Well it’s difficult because there was two sides to it really, the professional side and the personal side. The whole trip in general was a highlight. I visited Dubai Gem Private School out there and it was interesting to visit a secondary school in Dubai. I didn’t know what it would be like. I found that most of the teachers were Indian because Dubai has a very high Indian population. The kids were all different races from all over the world. Dubai is such a crossing place for different sorts of people, you’d be amazed. It is an Arab state but it is such a rich melting pot at the same time. For example, the writing workshops I did with aspiring writers was brilliant, they were such fantastic writers. Again, they were all nationalities. The highlight, from a personal point of view was riding into the desert on the back of a camel!

You mentioned your work at the Dubai Gem Private School. Could you explain what you have been doing at the school? 

Sherry: I went there to give a creative writing workshop to Year 9 and 10 students. They did some fantastic writing. They were great; it was a lovely visit. 

You have been in India over the last year too, does this mark a wider international collaboration being undertaken by the Manchester Children’s Book Festival? 

Sherry: I certainly hope so, I’m the foot solider not the boss. I think MMU linking up with other countries is one of the most exciting things to happen because traditionally MMU has a history of giving opportunities to non-standard students. To extend that brief now to other countries is exciting. The world is changing isn’t it? The writing school now does online teaching so we’re talking to the world already, which is brilliant. The future of this planet has to be international otherwise there is no future. MMU is doing some important work. 

Has your visit been a success? 

Sherry: Absolutely, in every single way it’s possible to be successful. 

This trip has been a trailblazer for this summer’s Manchester Children’s Book festival. Are you looking forward to the festival? 

Sherry: Very much so, we have some fantastic big-name authors. It’s shaping up to be every bit as good as or even better than previous years. There is a great deal going on. I am also looking forward to the launch of Crimelines, the new anthology of short crime stories for teenagers of which one of them is mine. 

Is there anything you would like to add about your experience in Dubai? 

Sherry: I would just like to say Dubai is a very exciting and energetic place. The stereotypes we have of it in England simply do not hold water. It’s very international, the people there are very open-minded, much more than you might think, and the possibilities of collaboration the Emirates Airlines Literature Festival and the work we do at MMU are really exciting. Creative Writing is a worldwide language; it is an agent for change. 

Manchester Children’s Book Festival runs from 26th June to the 6th July. To find out more visit http://www.mcbf.org.uk/

Sherry Ashworth is a visiting fellow at Manchester Writing School. She is an author writing both Adult and Children’s fiction. Sherry also runs her own publishing company, The Hidden Gem Press. Visit www.sherryashworth.com

Take One – Part 2. Scriptwriting with Anjum Malik

Words by Monita Mohan

Having walked away with a renewed sense of purpose, we regrouped at UAS on Saturday morning raring to go and armed with a greater knowledge of our stories and characters. 

Ready to help us develop further with our writing, Anjum Malik returned as part of the Emirates Airline Festival of Literature’s prologue, in association with the Manchester Children’s Book Festival.

We had hardly sunk into our seats before Anjum delivered a googly – we were to pair up with one of the other classes and read out our written work at the end of the day. It was a shock! Okay, it was a shock for me, because when it comes to public speaking I usually closely resemble a rabbit caught in the headlights.

But, considering the enthusiasm of the rest of the group, I felt I could hardly reject the offer. And seriously, where else are you going to get a captive audience to sit down and listen to your work? I was up for it.

With this daunting, yet inviting prospect looming ahead of us, Anjum gave us the freedom to finish off as much writing as we could. Leaving us to our own devices proved a surprisingly useful exercise, as we all set down to the work with great gusto. 

We were assigned three tasks to complete before show time:

1. Write the premise of the script.

2. Complete the step outline (also called scene-by-scene).

3. Write out 2-3 scenes.

The premise was a slightly tougher task than expected, as it required answering a few questions – who was the protagonist, what’s happening, what’s the problem. It required a hook. 

Setting the scenes out was a fascinating process and a very rewarding one as well. Anjum had mentioned to us that scripts often follow a pattern of up scenes and down scenes, which tied in with an important point she had made the previous day about figuring out the main scenes, and then writing up the fillers.

Since most of us were working on short pieces, dividing scenes up and charting the character arcs was a priority. It felt oddly satisfying to map out a beginning, middle and end. It required a lot of thought, and strange little details slipped in while writing. It almost felt like the job had been done.

The scenes themselves were hard. I struggled with mine, even though I knew most of what would happen from my writings the previous day. One thing Anjum emphasised was that getting the story down was much more important than laying out the format. That was a relief, as struggling with the story was hard enough without having to worry about getting the terminology right. 

A deadline often gets the best and the most out of people, and it wasn’t long before we were ready with our work and rehearsing. Despite being very familiar with the audience members, I still ended up panicking when it was my turn, but considering the raucous applause that greeted every reading, we couldn’t help but feel like we had achieved a great deal.

Anjum’s parting words were to keep going at it. She herself writes for 4-6 hours a day, especially when working to a deadline. For a course that had seemed quite daunting to us novices at the start, it ended up being one of the most rewarding. Anjum’s an unrelenting and hard task master, but she was able to whip us all into shape in an extraordinarily short space of time.

Anjum Malik is a poet and scriptwriter who also exhibits and performs her work. She is a fellow of Manchester Metropolitan University and lectures to the new writers at the Manchester Writing School. Find out more about Anjum at www.anjummalik.com.

Take One – Part 1. Scriptwriting with Anjum Malik

Words by Monita Mohan

Of the many forms of writing that I have dallied in, script-writing is one that has always eluded me. The form itself has always been a mystery to me. So, to unmask this hidden beast, I decided to attend Anjum Malik’s Scriptwriting Course held at the Universal American School, Dubai Festival City as part of the Emirates Airline Festival of Literature’s Festival Prologue. 

The prospect was daunting, to say the least, but Anjum quickly put us at ease with her easy manner and penchant for both humour and relating many anecdotes from her life. It also helped that we were a small but diverse group, interested in a variety of script-writing; radio, film and television.

Anjum has been a poet for around fifteen years, and actually entered the world of poetry due to the ministrations of her mentor, and 2014 Festival Author Lemn Sissay. He heard her poetry and insisted she take up the position of resident poet.

A few years later, she began her Master’s degree in Scriptwriting. This is why, Anjum tells us, poetry and scripts have a lot in common – compact, concise writing and optimum use of white space. This is news to me, but I understand what she means over the course of the day.

She starts us off by giving us a free writing exercise based on an idea (ours or hers), which will become the theme of our scripts. It was the ideal exercise to, in the words of Hercule Poirot, get the little grey cells working.

Our next exercise was writing a character bio – always a particularly difficult exercise, but one that ended up being well received by all.

It was during lunch that the majority of us revealed how anxious, and, well, downright scared we all were when attending the course. Anni had already admitted to being afraid, and well, so did I. Frank, also a poet, eloquently explained the upside of these workshops.

“Working with a practitioner [of the arts] makes all the difference. It’s authentic and real, and comes from experience. You learn so much from them.

“The best part is you take away the things that will take you to the next big step.”

Without a doubt, a non-lecture style workshop is more engaging. Marie, a photographic artist and winner of the Short + Sweet Theatre Competition, mentioned that despite her initial apprehensions, she’d already come away with new ideas and new methodologies for acquiring new ideas.

The afternoon session began with a viewing of Casablanca, with an emphasis on the introduction of protagonist Rick. Using the film as a pointer, we continued with the introduction of our own protagonists with a fun exercise. I thoroughly enjoyed this exercise and it must have shown, as I evoked a fair bit of laughter from my colleagues. 

With our stories already shaping up, Anjum left us with some homework and a great deal of thinking to take away with us – we were to write a premise for our stories, but we were also to begin answering some important questions, i.e., Who, What, When, Where and How.

To find out more, tune in tomorrow, same time, same channel.

Anjum Malik is a poet and scriptwriter who also exhibits and performs her work. She is a fellow of Manchester Metropolitan University and lectures to the new writers at the Manchester Writing School. Find out more about Anjum at www.anjummalik.com.

How to Write a Monologue

Words by Karan Maitra

This week Manchester Writing School’s Sherry Ashworth and Anjum Malik are in Dubai to take part in the Emirates Airlines Festival of Literature, in association with this summer’s Manchester Children’s Book Festival. As part of the trip Anjum held a writing workshop attended by local students at GEMS Wellington Academy, aged 15 to 17.

Anjum felt that the workshop was a fantastic experience, not just for the students but for herself as well, “I had an amazing day with them, I was made very welcome and started with the performance of my monologue, Nahid, based on my own story of arriving in England as a young girl from Pakistan to join my Dad in London with my family. This was followed by a Q&A where the students were firing away some amazing questions. I then ran a workshop where they all began their own monologues.” One of the students, Karan Maitra, wrote this blog. 

Anjum Malik joined us to give a talk on monologues and scriptwriting. Anjum was born in Saudi Arabia and has spent most of her life in Pakistan.

Ms Malik began with a monologue titled Nahid. It was from the point of view of a girl talking about moving to the UK from her home country of Pakistan. Many important sociological issues were brought up in the first few minutes. This included racism, as well as the Indo-Pakistan war. 

In the monologue, the ratio of boys to girls in the education system was noted; it was interesting to see that the genders mix more freely in Pakistan than in the UK. 

The protagonist of the monologue was sad. She did not like the new atmosphere and longed for her home country. After moving twice, her family had faced nothing but racism. Her dad had been sacked. He fought with the bus driver because the driver threw expletives at him. He was not happy with himself as he said it’s a bad thing to fight back. 

The education system was shown to be very discriminative. The teachers picked on the students from Asia saying, “Go back where you came from,” despite the students being apt at studies. The Indo-Pakistan war is highlighted again when the lead falls in love with Jaswant, a Sikh from India. To get married he changes his name to Jameel to fit in with the Muslim community as this union enraged them.

Her dad is in hospital, dying. She spends her last moments with him by his bed talking about times that have passed, taking joy in the reminiscence. After he passes away, he is buried there, in Bradford. He did not wish his body to be sent back to Pakistan as that would be Un-Islamic. 

After the monologue had ended, we had a question-answer session with Ms Malik. The audience asked a number of questions. One student asked, “Is it more enjoyable to write a story or perform it?” Ms Malik responded by saying that she started acting only a year ago. She was previously only a writer, with other actors performing her work. She was initially petrified by the prospect of acting, but has since overcome her fears.

Mrs Malik told us more about her roots. She was born in Saudi, but her father went back to Pakistan after receiving a letter from her Grandfather. They later went on to move to the UK as her father preferred a more social environment and he did not feel that Pakistan was conducive to his mind set.

Ms Malik held a writing workshop after theQ&A. We started with a synopsis of the Nahid monologue that we had seen earlier. Many ideas were brought up. Some people believed the monologue was more about family and family ties, while others thought the main aspect was highlighting racism, and even others believed it was mainly about cultural diversity.

All of us in the workshop then tried writing a monologue in a specified time frame. This helped us experience a bit of the real world by putting us under pressure to ignite a creative spark within us.

We all attempted writing a monologue about ourselves. We followed this by discussing how our ideas change as they go along and don’t conform to what we originally thought. Ms Malik told us about overcoming writers block by trying ‘free writing’.

We were all mustering the courage to speak up and present our monologues. Individuals took it in turn to read their monologues and received feedback from the rest of the class. A lot of feedback was shared. It seemed as though we were beginning to understand the concept of saying a lot in very few words. We all thoroughly enjoyed the seminar. 

Here are a few excerpts from the students’ monologues: 

1. “Ages. It took ages to convince my dad. Then the decision was made. We are leaving.”

2. “It makes me think now. This very moment, is something happening while I write this that I will think about in a few years.”

3. “I don’t want to be spending time with Year 7’s and 8’s when I don’t have to.”

4. “A tall man with glasses appears in front of me blocking my view of a better morning.”

5. “Subconsciously I noted different faces waiting around me, counting who had been there before I had arrived and how many had been there before me.”

6. “He watched me extricate my purse from the bundle and use my credit card to pay the 63 pound fine.”

7. “Getting directions in New York City, I keep walking and turn right at Starbucks. It’s not like there is one on every corner.”

8. “The other kids weren’t as impressed as I was. They were indifferent while I was in love.”

9. “Whether I changed or not for the better or the worse, I will never know.”

10. “I am sitting here trying to think of something to write.”

11. “I feel like I am the only normal person in this Alien and messed up world.”

12. “It was difficult because I had to live with my mother alone for three years in Greece.”

13. “But then sometimes reality comes knocking and tells me that I am just being egocentric and that I have no idea what I’m talking about.”

14. “My dad used to talk to me in English but I was stubborn and would just answer back in Dutch. But now I have to work harder. School was harder.”

15. “We were firstly friends. Best friends. Then secondly cousins. “

16. “I am also afraid now. I hold my nerves steady but my hand is shaking slightly. If my parents get to know I’ve skipped a class it will be hell for me at home.”

17. “I felt like I was a Jigsaw piece. The completing piece in this portrait was finally complete. I am home.”

18. “No one is a small blip of existence. If anyone is, I am.”

GEMS Wellington Academy - Silicon Oasis offers a uniquely crafted progression from the Early Years Foundation Stage, through an enriched and developed National Curriculum for England into personalised qualification pathways. The Academy offers world class facilities set in a modern campus in one of Dubai’s most prestigious new developments.

Anjum Malik is a poet and scriptwriter who also exhibits and performs her work. She is a fellow of Manchester Metropolitan University and lectures to the new writers at the Manchester Writing School. Find out more about Anjum at www.anjummalik.com.

Passionate Writing and Bollywood Dance Lessons in Dubai

Written by Sherry Ashworth

This morning I visited the Dubai Gem school for a talk and writing workshop - I will not boast about the gloriously sunny, warm weather here, nor the stunning Dubai skyline, nor the endless, evocative, big sky. But I will say that the Dubai Gem school was a delight. The whole English department were there to welcome me with biscuits and pastries (the way to my heart.) We all swapped teaching stories, and then I was taken to a mixed group of teenagers - all bright, enthusiastic and very talented. There was some passionate writing from the boys and a fantastic blood-curdling thriller opening from one of the girls. A lively question and answer session ensued. 

Afterwards I was the recipient of yet more first class Dubai hospitality (with food), and the Head took me to watch a Bollywood-style dance lesson in which boys and girls showed us all their best moves - how I wanted to join in! On the way back the Head filled me in on life on Dubai, especially how the Literary Festival is such a valuable conduit of ideas, and is gathering audiences from all over the Gulf. Dubai is a fascinating mix of Arabian tradition, hospitality and modern innovation.

Next stop - the desert - and I did say desert, not dessert, though probably that too.

Sherry Ashworth has written fiction for children, teenagers and adults. She is a visiting teach fellow at the Manchester Writing School and runs a publishing company Hidden Gems Press. Find out more about Sherry at www.sherryashworth.com.

Manchester Writing School Visiting Teaching Fellows to Attend Emirates Airlines Festival of Literature – Interview with Sherry Ashworth & Anjum Malik

Interviewed by Justine Chamberlain

Manchester Writing School Visiting Teaching Fellows Sherry Ashworth and Anjum Malik are heading out to Dubai to visit the Emirates Airlines Festival of Literature, in association with MMU's Manchester Children’s Book Festival. I caught up with them in between prepping their work and packing their cases.

Dubai isn’t a place I’d normally connect with Manchester Metropolitan University. Why are MMU sending you out there?

Sherry: We have an exciting opportunity to partner up with the Emirates Airline Festival of Literature (EAFL). MMU is always seeking to widen its reach and an international audience is very exciting to us, particularly because we teach so many of our Masters courses online. This means that we have students regularly from all over the world, so any opportunity of showcasing what we do in other locations is very exciting. Also, it’s because we enjoy literature festivals!

Anjum: It’s great that EAFL and MMU have come together in such a good cause, like giving people the opportunity to learn about literature and be a part of it too.

Are you also going to be blogging out there?

Anjum: The groups I’m working with have students who are interested in blogging, and are going to be doing this for me. I’ve asked if anyone would like to do it and knew that younger people will be much better at it than me! I will also be running some writing workshops, and I’m going to be performing one of my monologues in a school, where I will be getting the kids to write their own monologues. One of my guises is as a scriptwriter and I’ve been performing my monologues for some years now, and encouraging others to do the same. Sherry and I will be sending updates back to the Manchester Children’s Book Festival’s blog.

Who are you meeting out there?

Anjum: The literature festival have organised a two-day workshop where people want to do some screenwriting. The school I’m working with is GEMS Wellington Academy and I’m really looking forward to that.

Sherry: I’m going to be visiting Dubai Gem Private School to do creative writing workshops with teenagers, which is something I love doing because most of my novels are for teenagers. For these two days, I’ll be doing an intensive creative writing workshop with some keen and talented writers who live and work in Dubai. It’s going to be very intensive and exciting.

Growing up as a child, what was your favourite book?

Sherry: Oh, there are so many I can’t say! I’d probably plump for The Family from One End Street by Eve Garnet, which was the first children’s book I read that featured children I could identify with. Being a working class kid from North London all this Swallows and Amazons, and being able to go on boats and take picnics and ginger beer in the countryside left me cold. I’ve always been a reader that’s looked to find myself inside a book. The Family from One End Street was about slum dwellers and even though I wasn’t a slum dweller, it resonated more. It was written in the 1920's and I have no idea how it found its way into our house!

Anjum: I did my growing up in Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and England, so my books will be very different to any books people will be used to in the UK. My favourite books were actually comics in Pakistan, which were about djinns, which are like giants in fairy books and how their life would be as some tiny bird in a cage on top of a mountain. So I grew up on those. I also did a lot of reading of Urdu literature as a child in Pakistan and loved the big poets of Pakistan.

Children are notoriously picky about what they read. What do you think the special ingredient is, in a children’s book?

Sherry Ashworth

Sherry: Drama and immediacy. Children get bored if you spend ages setting a scene. Children get resentful if you preach at them. They need to be in the book, they need to identify strongly with what’s going on. You need character and story and immediacy.

Anjum: I don’t think children are picky. I think children are very honest and they don’t waste time. I’ve performed to young people of all ages and the younger they are, the more honest they are – they just fall asleep or walk away if they’re not interested. You’ve got to get them interested in your characters, and I think as a child I loved being taken away into the world of who I was reading at the time.

Does MMU have a way to support people who want to specialise in writing for children?

Anjum: MMU runs children’s writing courses at the Manchester Writing School – one of the branches of the MA they run in Creative Writing is a specialist Writing for Children route. It’s run by brilliant tutors!

Sherry: Would-be writers who are particularly interested in writing for seven-year-olds upwards to about 15, will get special support from qualified tutors in teaching writing for that audience age group. It’s available on campus in Manchester or online to anyone, anywhere.

Manchester hosts the Manchester Children’s Book Festival, the Manchester Writing Competitions, and the Manchester Literary Festival. It has its own world class Writing School at MMU, which offers online master’s degrees in Creative Writing to people anywhere in the world. Do you think Manchester can challenge for literary hotspot of the UK and maybe even the world?

Anjum Malik

Anjum: Absolutely. It just shows in all those things we’re doing in Manchester; we are leading the way. Especially MMU; they have so many different things going on in the literary world – they were the first to do a children’s book festival – no one else in the North West does that – so definitely. I think we’re doing marvellously. Why not take over the literary world?

Sherry: There is something very, very special about Manchester and literature. This city is of just the right size to foster writers and it means they’re very much part of a community. With MMU, its traditions are rooted in real Manchester – it used to be Manchester Polytechnic and we’ve always looked out for non-standard students, whether they are international or they’ve come to us through an indirect pathway. I like to think that we have our finger on the pulse of Manchester’s creativity. The synergy between the university, its traditions and the students and city is really unbeatable.

When does the Emirates Airlines Festival of Literature start and where can I find out more information?

Anjum: The EAFL in Dubai runs from the 4th to the 8th of March and has a massive programme of events. It’s the first time MMU are working with EALF and I think it’s great that MMU are going out into the world and forming international partnerships.

Sherry: Our workshops are a prequel to the main festival, which commences on the 2nd March. There’s a website with all the information: www.emirateslitfest.com. 

And the Manchester Children’s Book Festival?

Sherry: That starts on 26th June and runs for a week and a half, hopefully with the same weather the Dubai festival will have!

Anjum: It has some great authors booked already who are being kept under wraps! Anyone can be first to know who is attending by signing up to the MCBF newsletter or by keeping an eye on the website: www.mcbf.org.uk. If people are quick, there’s also the Manchester Writing for Children Prize for anyone who’s a children’s poetry writer.

Manchester Children’s Book Festival will run from 26th June – 6th July 2014 and the full programme of free and ticketed events for the public will be announced at the end of March. 

Sherry Ashworth has written fiction for children, teenagers and adults. She is a visiting teach fellow at the Manchester Writing School and runs a publishing company Hidden Gems Press. Find out more about Sherry at www.sherryashworth.com.

Anjum Malik is a poet and scriptwriter who also exhibits and performs her work. She is a fellow of Manchester Metropolitan University and lectures to the new writers at the Manchester Writing School. Find out more about Anjum at www.anjummalik.com.

Justine Chamberlain is a Masters student in the MMU Writing School, specialising in poetry. Her blog can be found here and you can follow her on Twitter @justineswriting.

Wolf Tide Gala Launch

The Manchester Writing School at MMU and the Manchester Children’s Book Festival present the gala launch of Catherine Fox’s latest novel, Wolf Tide, Thursday 12th December 2013

Words and Photographs by Chantelle Salkeld

Catherine Fox took to the stage at the Anthony Burgess Foundation to launch her latest novel, Wolf Tide. Accompanying Catherine were fellow writers from the Manchester Writing School, reading from the Timelines short story anthology.

The event began with an announcement from Livi Michael, a Creative Writing Lecturer at MMU and host for the evening. The Timelines anthology, the Manchester Writing School’s own publication, had sold out for the second time. Timelines is a collection of short historical fiction for teens, and includes stories and illustrations by students of the Manchester Writing School and the Manchester School of Art at MMU. It was clear from extracts read by Anna Mainwaring and Emma George, Timelines consists of many aspiring and imaginative storytellers. Other notable authors include N.M. Browne, Sherry Ashworth, Iris Feindt and Livi Michael, who aim to be the leading publisher for children’s writing in the UK.

Wolf Tide is Catherine’s 10th novel, and is unlike any of her past work. Dark, compelling, full of magic and although it is aimed at young adults, there is something for an older audience too. As Livi said, she was ‘completely hooked’ from the start.

Left to Right: Livi Michael talks with Catherine Fox

17 year-old Anabara Nolio is descended from a long line of warriors. She is also a private investigator. When tasked with discovering the truth about the university library’s lost books she thinks it’s a simple case. But the city isle of Laridy is riddled with dark secrets and ancient magic – a legacy from historic dealings with the realm of the Fairy. A world where stained-glass angels can leave their windows to fight, where rooftops are guarded by armed statues. When Anabara decides to free a Fairy slave during her investigation she is plunged into a terrifying underworld of trafficking and trickery – and solving the case becomes the least of her problems.

The novel is a departure from her earlier works, which are mainly set in the real world. Catherine explained that she wanted to write a detective story, but didn’t know much about police procedure, so it was far better to be set in a realm she has created herself. "In that case I could do exactly what I like as long as I keep my own rules," she explained.

"Writing is a process of discovery," Catherine said. She invents her characters as she writes them. "That’s my plotting technique as well," she admitted, bringing laughs from the audience. For example, an amulet is described throughout the novel, and as Anabara wonders what it does, Catherine did too during the writing process. Finally, ‘it all fell into place’ as she completed the first draft of the novel.

First drafts and editing can be a tricky business. Catherine remembers one editor holding up a manuscript of hers saying “I think this is a first draft, of a first novel, out of which may eventually come the novel we publish.”

“It came back with red ink all over it,” she laughed, saying she felt like she would be sent to the head teacher’s office.

Waiting to be published is the hardest part of the process: having rejections, and hearing nothing. Rejection," Catherine said, "is like running into a plate glass window that you didn’t know was there.”

Left to Right: Iris Feindt with Timelines, Livi Michael, and Catherine Fox with Wolf Tide

I had the chance to ask her a couple of questions after the main event. I wanted to know how she created the names for the characters.

“I spent some time walking on the coast of North Devon, where there were many gulls flying around. I looked up the Latin word for gull, which is larus, and this became the City of Laridy, where the Gull People live.”

She usually uses Latin words as a springboard to help her create some names. The title was inspired from the tidal bore on the River Severn, which is celebrated to this day in England, as it is by the inhabitants of Laridy.

As for character names, she chooses ones that sound fitting, but not so obscure readers can’t remember them. Some ideas she took from Maori culture, as the Gull People have tattooed foreheads.

Catherine also has a new novel coming out soon, Acts and Omissions. It is crowed-sourced as she began writing bits on Twitter each week and found she was getting responses. She thought it would be fun to write about the serialised Victorian novel and get other people’s opinions, and they contributed some ideas she would never have thought of. She explained how it will be interesting to see it as a book altogether, as it worked really well in serial form.

Wolf Tide is available for purchase from Amazon. The first chapter is available for free here.

Wolf Tide Gala Launch was a Manchester Children's Book Festival trailblazer event. If you would like to hear about upcoming events in relation to MCBF you can sign up for the 2014 mailing list here.

Chantelle studies English and Creative Writing at MMU. She enjoys painting and poetry in her spare time. You can follow her on Twitter @Chantelle_L_S