Wednesday 25 November 2009

Newbottle Primary all stars

I recently ran a writing workshop with some wonderful kids from Newbottle Primary school and promised to put their beginnings to stories online - here they are - quiate a lot of talent here, I'm sure you'll agree.
Thanks again to you all for making the event such fun - and I will pick a winning beginning to receive a copy "Super Maxwell and the Burning Boys" when it comes out -which will be very, very soon...

Newbottle Primary School beginnings

‘Run!’ yelled Sam. The dark mist was all he could see. He could hear the sounds of creatures that had once been living but no longer were.
Jack Wright

It was 12 o’clock 3rd of July 2011. I woke up at 4:01am I was bright red. There were footsteps in the hallway. I hid under the blanket. I closed my eyes and opened. It was just a dream.
Harry Loftus

It was one Monday morning. My mum Barbra shouted, ‘Come on now Maxwell in now we are having sausages for tea.” But somehow he could run extremely fast! He could fly and he was also in a superhero company fighting bad guys but there was this man with the super powers. What happens next.
David Softley

One gloomy morning the alarm clock rang at exactly 7 o’clock. Every single person in Brialea woke up. There was a big explosion in the street.
Callum

It was the 4th of July, 2013 in and ordinary city, in an ordinary town, in an ordinary village but the boy who lived in number 11 Denelium Street was in fact the complete opposite of ordinary.
Charlotte Steel

It was Monday evening, my mum Barbra shouted, ‘Come on Chloe, in now please!’ ‘Okay,’ I replied. ‘What’s for tea?’ ‘Well, sausage and chips and beans for starters, then a big gateau, chocolate, for afters,’ ‘Mmmm!’ ‘Here you go. Enjoy.’
Rebecca Leadbitter

It was not an ordinary village.
It was not an ordinary school.
It was not an ordinary town.
Matthew Marvell

One gloomy morning the church was getting robbed. BOOM! The windows went boom, the robbers came out. RUN! Shouted the robber. The police came – NE-NOR-NE-NOR
Luke Brice

It was a lovely sight but then a sudden crash filled the room. I ran up stairs to find a beautiful area covered in trees and waterfalls and tropical birds flying over my head.
Imogen Bell

One dark August morning it was a cold and dark day at Houghton Kepier School the strangest thing happened.
Joseph Ridley

One morning Maxwell got a potato clock. What is a potato clock? It is made of potato.
Jordan Riseborough

It was 12 o’clock 3rd of July 2011 I woke up. At an unusual island a boy with a quite barmy mam. They did not know about clocks and there was no such thing as football. Back the boy, his dad was Santa but different...
Isaac Tate

In a spooky hut there were two people called Tommy and Mark. Tommy screamed, ‘What’s that! That creepy thing coming towards us!’ Mark replied, ‘Well all I think it is is a shadowy figure creepy towards us!’
Craig Galley

It was dark and gloomy in blood world. The zombies were rising from the grave on the Island of Doom. Who will win...?
Callum Melvin

A piercing scream echoed through the dark gloomy night.
Katelin Steel

Smaller and smaller the house went until it vanished.
James Smith

On one snowy night 2009 you can only hear shots of AK47 and M14 and people begging for shelter and food, and especially water. Some people get shot and some people get trapped.
Rhys Snaith

It was a normal day at the Secret Service in the Carribean.
Alexander Davison

On the dark misty night you could hear birds flapping their wings with nothing to see. There was a THUD! THUD! THUD! In the distance.
Kyle McCullough

Most people think that ghosts don’t exist, but if you walked down a dark lonely lane you might change your mind.
Sophie Carruthers

It had been a long day for Olivia. No one knew but secretly Olivia had secret powers! One day Olivia was on the computer and suddenly she found herself in another world. Out of the bushes came a dragon, a blue and green dragon, a blue and green dragon with glittering wings!
Olivia and the Secret Dragon!
Emily Bartle

Once upon a time there was a dog called Spot who had a teddy bear called Minks. Spot and his parents went out to look for Minks because he was lost. He was lying on the ground in the play park. Spot ran and got it and then they walked home happily ever after.
Charli Gill

One sunny day there was a little girl called Julie and she remembered that it was her birthday. So she ran into her Mum’s room and started to bounce up and down on her Mum’s bed. But she realised that her Mum and Dad weren’t there.
Eleanor Alderson

His Destiny
One unusual day it was the end of the beginning. This person lived upside down and had an alien as a mum. He never had any friends and his pet was a dragon. His dragon was a big softy. Also his mind controlled his special powers. His dragon loved kittens.
Yasmyn Hood

It was a cold, frosty morning as Luke woke up with the smell of bacon shimmering in his mind.
Anya Dyson

There was a Jelly Man next door to me. Every day he says, ‘Jelly good day to you.’ I don’t know what it really means but always I can hear a noise coming from his house ... I and Jelly live at Shiney Row.
Megan Duffy

There once lived a little gril called Sarah. She lived at number 44 with a brown door and she had a brown dog called Murphy. She lived on an island called Zig Zag.
Jenna McCann

It was Saturday morning and the yellow bright sun rose like a fizzy lemon, and mum was calling, ‘Amy hurry up we are going to be late!’ ‘Late, what are you on about?’ I said. ‘Aahahaha what there it is the blobby snotty monster again!’ ‘Where?’ I said, looking scared with a little shiver down her back.
Emily Wood

One day there were three dragons, they all had powers. The red dragon he had the power of fire, there was a white dragon she had the power of ice. The last dragon had the power of water and he was turquoise.
Sophia Elliott

Suddenly there was a beautiful glittering array of parrots flying across the misty waterfall, which gleamed in the burning sun. It was paradise. Mermaids swam in the deep sparking ocean and flowers sprouted in the meadows where dew drops covered the tall trees of the valleys. I just lay there on the sandy beach looking into the mountains as the sunset on that magical day that changed Rose’s life.
Beth Garrigan

The past now the future which is upon us. Today is yesterday, which is tomorrow, which means this is the day, this is finally the day.
Victoria Chrystay

There was a blood thirsty vampire lurking in the attic ready just to jump out and suck my blood any second now!!!!
Molly Watson

One sunny morning Mia woke up by her monkey alarm clock saying, ‘Oo,ar,ar!’ repeating it 100 times. She finally woke up at 22 Sunnyside Estate. Her mam was shouting, ‘Get up, get up!’ On an 8 o’clock school start. She was meeting her best friend Sophie Carr.
Amelia Elizabeth Longford

The ground shook as Bill Adams came down for a death defying leap that saved his life.
Emilia Hepple

A scream pierced the night as it shattered the downstairs windows, along with deafening me. I couldn’t hear them telling me what was a matter so I could help! I guess they were in danger.
Devan Gibson

Have you ever wondered what it is like to be trapped in school with a killer ghost. At midnight on the day with monsters rising from the dead.
Charlotte Marvell

One day there was a red dragon. He was a very fiery dragon. The red dragon had fire powers. He burnt the town and the dragon made friends.
Dan Moralee

Crash went the sound of me and my friend getting electrocuted into a game. I was swimming in an aquarium of fish of all sizes. I wished upon a star to get home. I said a spell, Mikrere time easy I was back home.
Louise Jopling

It was 2nd of October 2009 in the state of Florida and everybody was walking along the beach, including David. He was not a normal boy. He was 10 years old and lived with his grandparents in a seaside house.
Matthew Hutchinson

One magical morning there was a little girl called Ellie and she was an unusual girl because she has powers to climb walls and defeat evil.
Faye Wardhaugh

Suddenly I heard a door slam. I went to see what it was. I touched the back door and it sucked me into a different world. It had slime all over it. Then something touched my leg I couldn’t see at all...
Rebecca Wilson

It was the morning of Christmas and everyone was down in the living room and there were no presents. They had been stolen by the fake Santa. The real Santa had been locked up in fake Santa’s bag.
Luke Hall

Thursday 19 November 2009

Diary of a nobody


I have had the rather weird experience of buying a diary for someone who doesn't exist today. I thought it would be a good idea to write Jake Silex's diary as an actual diary and then pick the best bits to drop into the Isle of the Dead. Why is Jake writing a diary? All will become clear - it is very, very important!

The pic, incidentally, is not of the diary I bought but Henry Jones Snr's Grail Diary from Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. So a picture of a fictional character's dairy to illustrate a story about a fictional character's diary. Oh, my brain!

An apology to everyone who has been following my "writing diary" on Twitter (virporta@) - my wife has been ill lately, so though I have been busy writing Isle of the Dead (now 80 pages + in) I haven't typed any of it up yet. I hand write everything before typing it up. Don't ask, it's a habit I can't get out of! But there will be extracts from Isle of the Dead appearing on Twitter again soon, and Jake Silex's diary will appear here soon too...

Tony

Friday 13 November 2009

Work, work, work

Now 60 pages into Isle of the Dead - Billy is eating Ground Hens (sort of a cross between a chicken, badger and duck) and is about to meet up with a very unexpected old friend ... And the deadliest prisoners in this particular world.
I am also about to start writing Jake Silex's diary - pages from which I will begin publishing online soon...