Roald Dahl Museum and Story Centre

I am off to Buckinghamshire tomorrow, to the village of Great Missenden home of The Roald Dahl Museum and Story Centre. I am going to do a couple of workshops for budding writers so if you are planning a visit it will be good to see you.
I have not been for ages and I'm really looking forward to it. I was writer in residence at the museum when it first opened and I had a brilliant time there. Yes, those are two giant chocolate doors that I am standing next to and they smell delicious!

*Top Tips for budding writers
Thursday 16 April
1.30pm to 2.30pm and 3pm to 4pm
For 8+ year olds: Val Rutt, author of The Mystery of the Darkstone, shares extracts from her current work in progress about squabbling siblings Ed and Marie. Grab the chance to ask a published author anything you ever wanted to know about being a writer. Look out for Val's new book Out of the Blue, a story set in World War II for 13+ year olds, out in April.
£3 per person. (plus admission price)

Out of the Blue - book launch

It will be good to see you if you would like to come.

(click on image to enlarge and make legible!)

Please RSVP to reserve a place.

becky.cole@virgin.net

Thanks,

Val

Out of the Blue

I began writing this story when I was Writer in Residence at the wonderful Roald Dahl Museum and Story Centre. In the mornings and evenings I used to walk in the woods around Great Missenden and daydream and ponder the plot. In the museum I watched the film sequence about Roald Dahl's World War Two RAF flying experiences. As it is shown on a giant screen, seeing the Spitfire in flight was particularly evocative and thrilling.
Out of the Blue will be in the shops on 24th April it's about an English girl and an American pilot who meet and fall in love during World War Two. I hope that you like it.

My, how you've grown!

I've been teaching for a while, so the Year 6 pupils from my first classes are now adults in their twenties. A person's appearance can change a lot in the ten years between being 11 and being 21 and when I run into past pupils, as I sometimes do, I don't always recognize them at first. Sometimes I don't really recognize them at all - I just have this vague I'm sure I know you feeling for a person who I can't put a name to. Then, if I do recognize them all of a sudden, I'm embarrassed to say that what comes out of my mouth is the same old nonsense that older people used to say to me when I was growing up. All that 'goodness - just look at you' kind of stuff. So I'm writing this now to apologize to anyone who has experienced this kind of thing. But, you should know that it just can't be helped - it just pops out of the mouth before the brain recovers from the happy shock of connecting that four-foot freckly boy with a grin to the six-foot bearded guy with a grin.
It's always good to see you.

Describing an elephant...

...you know, like you do. Some Year 6 pupils and I had a go at describing a pachyderm today. The KS2 SATs will require them to do some writing and we had been discussing the problem of not knowing anything about the subject that you're asked to write about. That's not a problem, I said, because you can always make it up. So we shut our eyes for a while and pretended that we were in a room with an elephant.
Everybody did a good job but I was especially impressed with Kane's description of the elephant's colour being as grey as the sky when it's about to rain and Harry's description of the elephant moving from side to side like an old man in a rocking chair gently throwing his weight about.

Good luck to anyone doing their SATs in May - just remember to try and make it real when you write.

I've not posted for a while because I've been teaching more and writing less but that will change after Easter when I plan to start a new book. I've already started it in my head - in fact I've been thinking about it for ages.

Hand-made Books and a New Year's Resolution

It's been a while since I made a book from scratch and my resolution is to make one. I'm going to write it, marble the end papers, stitch it up and give it a hardcover. When it's done I will post a video of it here.

Happy New Year.

Cold, colder coldest.

There is discussion in our house about whether or not it is cold. For teenagers who do not need to wear a coat to school and those who grew up in Cumbria, it is not cold. The dog is growing a winter shagginess and doesn't seem too bothered. I, however, am frozen. It is hard to write when your fingers and toes feel like they're being nipped at and it makes it tricky to play the Ukulele.
I have a few chords now and am speeding up moving between them. The mouse has yet to inspire a story but I think he will. I'm pretty sure he will.