Teresa Flavin's Blog, page 2

JET BLACK HEART News!

This is a pretty cool surprise: JET BLACK HEART has been shortlisted for the 2016 Coventry Inspiration Book Award in the 11-16 ‘Rapid Reads’ category. It’s in a splendid list of eight books by great authors. That list will go through elimination rounds and be whittled down to three finalists.

Regardless of the outcome, I’m just totally delighted that Coventry’s young people will be reading JBH and (hopefully) enjoying it. That’s just the best feeling in the world.

Illustration Wednesday – The A-Z of Children’s Books with Fig Taylor

I don’t know whether the last week of August affects you the way it does me. I get excited in anticipation of the annual September buzz, the kind of buzz I should really be feeling on New Year’s Day but often don’t. That’s because years of schooling conditioned me to feel like September is the real new year.

This is the week I start looking at autumn jackets and new pens and most importantly, I think about my creative goals for the coming (academic) year. What do I want to accomplish before t...

Illustration Wednesday: The A-Z of Children’s Books with Fig Taylor

I don’t know whether the last week of August affects you the way it does me. I get excited in anticipation of the annual September buzz, the kind of buzz I should really be feeling on New Year’s Day but often don’t. That’s because years of schooling conditioned me to feel like September is the real new year.

This is the week I start looking at autumn jackets and new pens and most importantly, I think about my creative goals for the coming (academic) year. What do I want to accomplish before t...

Inspiration Monday – East Street Arts Open Studios 2015

Participating in an Open Studios event can be a bit nerve-wracking. You clean all the paint-covered coffee cups, sweep up bits of paper stuck in the floor boards and generally make the place presentable without sanitising it too much. Then you think about what you’d like to tell people about your work and hope you don’t talk too much (or too little).

When the first visitors arrive, a little thrill runs through the building. You stand up a little straighter and make sure your paintings aren’t...

Inspiration Monday: East Street Arts Open Studios 2015

Participating in an Open Studios event can be a bit nerve-wracking. You clean all the paint-covered coffee cups, sweep up bits of paper stuck in the floor boards and generally make the place presentable without sanitising it too much. Then you think about what you’d like to tell people about your work and hope you don’t talk too much (or too little).

When the first visitors arrive, a little thrill runs through the building. You stand up a little straighter and make sure your paintings aren’t...

Inspiration Monday! A Great Day Out.

This fantastic poster greeted me when I arrived at Allerton High School yesterday. The excellent team of students who organised my day of speaking and bookmaking with visiting primary pupils also made a variety of wonderful posters, flip charts, bookmarks and certificates. They were all charming, friendly and creative – a credit to their school!

Big thanks to everyone at all the schools involved and to the Ilkley Literature Festival which sponsored the event.

Inspiration Monday: Exploring Huddersfield!

I was delighted to be invited to speak to Year 6 at South Crosland CE Junior School recently, especially because Huddersfield Literature Festival awarded my visit as a prize for a schools writing competition. I discovered that the pupils are also keen illustrators when I set them a quick drawing activity and they all came up with a great array of characters. I always get a real buzz from seeing what young people can invent within a short period of time!

I didn’t know much about Huddersfield s...

Announcing a New Partnership with Book Events for Schools!

All my recent books in a tidy row!

I am very excited to announce that I am working with the excellent Book Events for Schools on my Yorkshire-based school and library visits. You may already be familiar with the comprehensive events listing, interview and review site offered by its sister organisation, Book Events for Children.

Book Events for Schools was created to offer author services to schools and already represents Emma Barnes, Kate Pankhurst, Andy Seed, Jason Beresford, Andy Seed, CJ B...

World Book Day 2015

My scrumptious thank you gift from the pupils!

This is one of the biggest weeks in the UK school calendar! Tomorrow, March 5, children across the land will come to school dressed as their favourite book characters. They’ll be celebrating World Book Day and all that is fun and inspiring about reading.

I visited a wonderful local school yesterday and spoke to 170 pupils aged 7-11 about my work. I asked them why we even care about books and reading. Hands shot up and children offered answers that...

January Inspiration!

This month has been excellent for art and writing inspiration. I kicked it off a couple of weeks ago when I spent a week at Lumb Bank, the Arvon Foundation’s writing centre in rural Yorkshire. It was magical, as I knew it would be, and it inspired my writing side in a very big way. But when the wordy side is stoked up, the visual side demands to be fuelled too.

Last week’s day trip to the London Art Fair sorted me out – maybe too much! I now want to continue writing the two books I’m working o...