Workshop Newsletter 2017

FAMILY TITLES NEWSLETTER (Nov 2017)


Left to Right: Jamie, Paul (Me), Jean, Yammie

Further to October's news about the two day workshop, held on the 23rd and 30th October 2017 at MESH, Gorleston's Neighbourhood Programme... The book was a joy to design and print. We had accounts of international travel from Dean, Georgina, Yammie and Jean, an informative and wonderfully illustrated biography of Elvis Presley from Jamie... Famous Great Yarmouth based artist, Dennis Roy Hodds' grandson Wayne attended the workshop and shared his story of what inspired HIS artwork and passion with wood carving and 'whittling' of driftwood for artwork mounting.

The book, 'MESH Gorleston Travelogue 2017' will be available to view on our Facebook Page in due course and a hard copy can even be borrowed from Norfolk Libraries.
A link for this will follow soon. Thank you for reading! 

MESH Gorleston Travelogue is a 24 page books which will be
free to read on Facebook as 'Title of The Month' in due course. 

FAMILY TITLES NEWSLETTER (Oct 2017)

A two day workshop was held on the 23rd and 30th October 2017 at MESH, Gorleston's Neighbourhood Programme, building upon a sense of community by supporting groups and activities. It was a very rewarding experience to work alongside MESH who work with a variety of organisations and partners to bring services into Gorleston... This is handy for some, given the added expense of travelling to Great Yarmouth... 

Well, we had some fascinating travel stories written by our mature writers who were able to draw upon their escapades during trips to countries such as New Zealand, Japan, USA, Nigeria and Hong Kong. The first week was spent thinking up ideas for their own individual chapters for the MESH travelogue book, and everyone made a strong start. Not only were the stories in full swing by the 1st hour into that session, but some illustrations were being created that would not look out of place in a published book.

In the 2nd week, as you may expect, further ideas and brainstorming flowed freely and I even had enough time to show everyone a PowerPoint Presentation on the history of children's fiction, which is an essential part of what influenced the beginning of Family Titles. I look forward to compiling the MESH Travelogue Book for our hardworking workshoppers and presenting it back to them in a couple of weeks.

The MESH Family Titles Workshop authors are (Left to Right):
Dean, Jean, Georgina, Jamie and Yammie

 

 

Well done to them for coming up with the goods during the sessions. Now, bring on the book!

Paul Cook 03/11/17

 

--- FEB 2017 ---

A two day workshop was held on the 14th and 17th February 2017 at The Norfolk and Norwich Millennium Library, The Forum, Millennium Plain, Norwich NR2 1AW

 

Well, we had some amazing stories being written during the half term break at the Millennium Library in Norwich… All very different and thoroughly entertaining to read. Here are our Feb 2017 authors:

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Peter and Jimmy Guymer are two brothers from Belton near Great Yarmouth and shared their own stories based on some weird and wonderful humanoid/mutant creatures.

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Holiday workshops often involve total freedom in what you can write about and twins Ruby and Ellie Mileham along with their friend Sophie Cassidy (all from Belton also) came along with clear ideas on their stories. While Norse God enthusiasts Ruby and Ellie created time travelling and fantastical epics between them, Sophie’s focus was much closer to home – She based her story on caring for a disabled family member.

 

 

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Brothers from Palgrave near Diss, Suffolk… Olly and Charlie Cook came up with totally opposing titles: The actual names will be revealed upon completion of all books. While Charlie tackled an alternative apocalyptic reality in the early 1990s, using his detailed knowledge of the second world war, Olly concentrated on anthropomorphic creatures embarking on various adventures… Adventures of which are the subject of books typed up by a cockatoo called Thomas Jhonson (spelt exactly like that) who also attends handwriting classes in his spare time. Their cousin, Michael Cook worked on his latest novella about a gang of hyenas planning a bank heist. A family of squirrels become involved through the Dad working as the bank manager.

 

 

 

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Aser Oliver enthusiastically shared his fascination with super heroes and fantasy fiction stories such as Zelda, a book character he discovered, based on the high-fantasy action-adventure video game series.

Aser showed a great interest in depicting how those who wield awesome super powers use it responsibly and of course, how to save the day from evil spirits... Look out for some impressive plot twists here and in other stories from these workshops!   
  

 

 

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Upon print and design completion of all the storybooks, book reviews will follow. I will also present these electronically on our Family Titles Facebook page, for your enjoyment...

 

If you have not already done so, please check out our YouTube promo giving some insight into how these delightful storybooks are created: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wn3zdoUXVpM

All photography by Michael Cook 17th Feb 2017

Thank you for your continuing interest. Like our Facebook page to receive latest news and of course some amazing stories created by the Family Titles authors. Catch us on Twitter too! 

Thank you all for your continuing interest! Contact me on paul.cook142@gmail.com for all creative writing workshop enquiries.

 

Paul Cook

Family Titles