Bruce Atchison, Guest Author at Write What Inspires You!

Join Donna McDine today at http://www.donna-mcdine.blogspot.com/ when children's author, Bruce Atchison, joins Donna as her guest author.

Bruce Atchison, a legally blind writer, has written scores offreelance articles since 1996. Their topics ranged from a visit to the Voice of Russia World Service in Moscow to a hilarious April Fools joke played on his class by his grade 3 teacher. Bruce's articles have appeared in an eclectic mix of publications, from glossy magazines to photocopied underground "zines."

He has also written 2 books. When a Man Loves a Rabbit (Learning and Living With Bunnies) relates his adventures and misadventuresof having rabbits as house pets as well as the fascinating facts he learned about them. It was published in 2006. A year later, he wrote Deliverance From Jericho (Six Years in a Blind School). it's his memoir about what it was like to be sent 500 miles from home for months at a stretch, beginning when he was 7 years old. Bruce is currently working on How I Was Razed (and How I found Authentic Christianity), an account of his spiritual journey through various betrayals of his faith to the eventual discovery of what genuine Christianity is. He lives in a tiny hamlet in the western Canadian province of Alberta with 4 house rabbits.

Simon Rose, Guest Author at Write What Inspires You!

Join Donna McDine at http://www.donna-mcdine.blogspot.com/ on Thursday, March 12th when Simon Rose will be her guest author.

Don't miss this opportunity to interact with Simon and pick his brain (so to speak) with your questions.

Not only is Simon a well accomplished novelist, he offers writing workshops.

Stay tuned and learn more about Simon and his illustrious career.

Looking forward to seeing you!

Interview with Dorothy Massey

How did you get the commission to write stories for the Mini Mysteries and Kooky Spookies anthology?

In 2007, the publishers, Pinestein Press held a competition called

Things That go Bump … . The brief was to write a short story for 7-9 year olds which was spooky and humourous. The setting was a school lunch room. I wrote a story called Little Red Riding Hoo …ood, based on the traditional fairytale. As a result Pinestein asked me to write a further three stories for the anthology. The result was The Ghost Twin Tales, three stories featuring the mischievous but lovable Wiggle and Woo.

Had you written children’s stories prior to this?

I’d completed the Institute of Children’s Literature Course in Writing for Children and Teenagers and had written a couple of stories for that. Until then though, I hadn’t had any children’s stories published.

Have you written more children’s stories since?

Yes. Winning the competition and getting published gave me the confidence to write and submit more stories. Since then I’ve won another two children’s story competitions. Last year I won Kangaroo Press’ Scary Halloween Competition with a story called Charlie’s Pumpkin Head. Recently I was one of the winners of the Munch Bunch Storytelling Competition. My entry for that competition, Munch the Storyteller, will be released as a podcast recording on the Munch Bunch website in March. The stories are read by the popular T.V. presenter and celebrity, Gail Porter.

I’ve also received a commission to write for an upcoming children’s magazine, but details of that are still under wraps at the moment.

What are your current writing projects?

I’m writing stories for a British publishing company who have requested submissions for a number of upcoming anthologies. I’ve also started a fantasy novel and am working on a couple of picture book manuscripts.

Why do you like writing for children?

It’s so much fun and the possibilities are endless. It’s challenging, but rewarding too. We all have a part of us that is still a child. Writing for children allows me to take mine out to play.

Dorothy Massey - Children's Author

As a fan of children’s book, I’m thrilled to have this week Dorothy Massey as my guest. She is the author of a set of three stories about ghost twins, Wiggle and Woo, published in an anthology by Pinestein Press in Dec 2007 entitled ‘Mini Mysteries and Kooky Spookies’. www.pinestein.com

Dorothy was delighted to be commissioned to write these stories after winning first prize in Pinestein’s ‘Things that go Bump …’ competition with a story comprising a spooky twist on the fairytale, Little Red Riding Hood. Since then she has won further competitions, with one of her stories being recorded as a podcast by TV presenter Gail Porter to launch a new storytelling character for Munch Bunch products.

Dorothy specialised in teaching literacy and has taught ESL, Adult Basic Skills, Family Learning and Creative Writing. The third edition of her publication for ESL students, ‘Better English’, published by Studymates, www.studymates.co.uk has recently been published in India.

She now writes fiction for children from pre-school to Key Stage 2 as well as teaching Creative Writing for Durham County Council’s Education in the Community. Two packs of poetry resources for Key Stage 3 written by Dorothy are awaiting publication with Zig Zag and she has a fantasy novel in progress.

Dorothy lives in Crook, a small ex-mining town in the North East of England and is a member of SSWAG (Seven Stories Writers and Artists Group). For more information about Dorothy and writing for children, visit her blog: www.kidsbooksuk.blogspot.com

Welcome to the The Writing Jungle, Dorothy. Stay tuned tomorrow for an in-depth interview with the author.