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Yikes!
Children's books have changed a bit |
Last week I headed off to the lovely village of Richards Castle in Shropshire to give a talk about writing for children to the Women's Institute
Richards Castle is where my parents live, so although it was a three hour drive each way I was delighted to go and fit in a flying family visit at the same time (and this was the jet-propelled super-sonic kind of flying, no gentle tootle in a hot air balloon, due to a trip to Wembley to watch the England-Brazil match the night before and an emergency dentist's appointment the following morning to patch up a broken tooth with a very poor sense of timing.)
I talked about the history of children's books and how so much has changed (language, tone, pace) while so much has stayed the same (a great story, character, adventure, tension). I'd had a lovely time researching the topic and even made up a quiz on classic children's books. But when it came to questions, what everyone really wanted to know was how to go about getting a book published . . .