Had the opportunity in the last week or so to go into Downs School in Brighton to talk to read some of my children’s book Skelton Yawngrave in the Second Kind of Darkness to them, and show them paintings of the characters and so on.

As this was my first time in a school with my story, it was initially a slightly terrifying experience, but soon turned into some of the most useful time I have spent in ages. I talked to four separate classes about the story. I found the children to happy to ask questions, and were very engaged with what I was doing. I also got some written feedback from the children too.

I have another school lined up, who are going to have the year read the book in class. My working theory at present is that I don’t want to waste my time sending my story off speculatively in a risk averse publishing industry. I already have written testimony from children that they love the story and would buy it. But this is not enough I need to prove the concept further, and will take it online first. One thing is now certain. I’m not going to take no for an answer…