WORLD BOOK NIGHT 2012

I've been chosen as a World Book Night giver and got my first choice book: I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith.WBN is a celebration of reading and books which sees tens of thousands of passionate volunteers gift books in their communities to share their love of reading. 25 titles are specially chosen and printed in their thousands in World Book Night editions. Givers apply to give away a particular book (you get a first, second and third choice) which they must commit to give away to those who don't regularly read to share and spread their love of reading. Each Giver receives 24 copies which they pick up from their local bookshops and libraries - the very heart of our reading communities - in the week before April 23.  I will be giving my books to homeless peeps at my local church that is used as a shelter for the homeless during the winter months and NHS staff a the North Mid, in particular those staff that don't often read.

In 2012 World Book Night will be celebrated in the UK, Ireland, Germany and USA on April 23.

The World Book Night 2012 Books

Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen

The Player of Games by Iain M Banks

Sleepyhead by Mark Billingham

Notes from a Small Island by Bill Bryson

The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho

The Take by Martina Cole

Harlequin by Bernard Cornwell

Someone Like You by Roald Dahl

A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens

Room by Emma Donoghue

Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier

The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro

Misery by Stephen King

The Secret Dreamworld of a Shopaholic by Sophie Kinsella

Small Island by Andrea Levy

Let the Right One In by John Ajvide Lindqvist

The Road by Cormac McCarthy

The Time Traveler’s Wife by Audrey Niffenegger

The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox by Maggie O’Farrell

The Damned Utd by David Peace

Good Omens by Terry Pratchett & Neil Gaiman

How I Live Now by Meg Rosoff

Touching the Void by Joe Simpson

I Capture the Castle by Dodie Smith

The Book Thief by Markus Zusak

Get Yourself a Reputation

Greenacre Writers invite you to a Creative Writer’s Afternoon:
Saturday 24th March 2012 2.00pm - 5.00pm
Chislehurst Avenue, Finchley, London N12  Get Yourself A Reputation.
The workshop will introduce you to some ideas of how to raise your writing profile and get your writing published - suitable for beginners. This workshop is not how to get your book published. The workshop starts way before sending manuscripts to publishers and looks at ways to get a writing reputation.
* Writing exercises
* Ideas for flash fiction and websites
* Online writing forums
* Promoting your writing profile
* Self-publishing
* Talk/Feedback from a self-published author
The aim of the afternoon is to meet fellow creative writers, to work on creative writing exercises, and share your work to receive supportive feedback and ideas in a friendly and stimulating environment.
There will be a small charge to include refreshments:
Members £5; Non-members £10
(Cheques payable to: Greenacre Writers - cancellation available up until 7 days before the event)
For further information or to reserve a place contact:   greenacrewriters@gmail.com

Greenacre Writers Mini Lit Fest - Saturday May 26th

We are holding a Greenacre Mini Lit Festival on the afternoon of Saturday May 26th as part of the 'Trinity in May' Arts Festival in North Finchley. We envisiage including an 'open mike' session with local writers reading their flash fiction or passages from longer work and poems, and one or two authors to speak about their current books, with some readings, for around a 20 minute slot.

Please let us know if you are interested in attending.
Email: Greenacrewriters@gmail.com

Cat Tales from Faraway by Maisie Gee

As well as working in a medical library, running Greenacre Writers Workshops and writing groups, re-working a novel, re-writing an autobiography, occasionally doing hand-stands, I'm also working on a collection of children's stories: Cat Tales from Faraway under pseudonym, Maisie Gee.

This is the opening chapter to Pushkin: The Egg Keepers Downfall

In a suburb of North London, at the top of a very long lane in a wooded garden, there lived seven cats:

Bosch, Bograt, Marmalade, Toscanini, Snowball, Pushkin, and Freddy.

This is a story about one of them.

Pushkin wasn't always called Pushkin, he was originally Corporal Woo of the Chinese Emperors Royal Dragon Guards....

Stop What You're Doing and Read This!

I am one of the lucky ones. I discovered the joy of reading at a very young age and even though I wasn't encouraged to read by parents or carers, somehow I learnt how to do it when I was 5 years old. A teacher at my first primary school encouraged this ability and was without doubt an important influence in my young life. Perhaps she was a passionate believer in what 'The Reader Organisation calls 'the transformative power of reading'.
I remember when she told us the tiny story about two little birds': Two little dicky birds sitting on the wall, One named Peter and one named Paul, Fly away Peter, Fly away Paul...and magically the two little birds (bits of paper on the end of her forefingers) would disappear...Come back Peter, Come back Paul...and just as amazingly would reappear. I was enthralled by those vanishing birds and thought and thought about how it was done. She brought that same magic into the stories she read to us, from the Three Billy Goats Gruff, or the Ladybird Books, to the story about a child who was colour-blind and whose parents only discovered this when the small boy spoke about an Irish Red Setter as the 'Green Dog'. There were many more books and stories that she introduced us to.

So I was lucky, others were not so fortunate to have reading as their friend - we know this to be even more so today in 2012 when there are low levels of literacy and a widespread apathy towards books and reading.

Vintage Books have just published a collection of ten essays called Stop What You’re Doing and Read This! by authors from the worlds of science, publishing, technology and social enterprise.

Jane Davis, is one of the authors and describes how The Reader Organisation‘s Reading Revolution began. Others include: Mark Haddon, Michael Rosen, Zadie Smith, Carmen Callil, Jeanette Winterson, Tim Parks, Blake Morrison, Dr Maryanne Wolf, Mirit Barzillai, and Nicholas Carr.

The writers are all from very different backgrounds. Some were lucky and grew up with lots of books in the home, for others books were banned or hard to find. But all ten agree that reading is a powerful pleasure that inspires us, allows us to escape to other worlds, improves our wellbeing, and how important it is for us now and for the future of humanity. Reading is a wonderful and unique experience, so Stop What You're Doing and Read This and this and this and this.....