Wednesday 6 July 2011

Video blog on ABBA online lit fest this weekend ..... and forever!

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One of the best things about an on line Literary Festival is that it will be there all the time so you can dip in and out at anytime you like and it will still be there to enjoy.

This weekend 9th and 10th July is the ABBA  awfullybigblogadventure 3rd birthday and in case you have missed all the people talking about it on line there is new look website and there will be a fabulous line up of children's writers - blogging, running competitions and chatting on video, too.

It is one thing to write a blog but it is quite another to agree to appear in a video, quite a scary proposition.. but I do tend to jump in before thinking too hard about things.  I thought it would be an interesting idea so I spoke to my good friend and fellow writer Cathy MacPhail who I know is usually keen to have ago at something a bit different!!!

In the very early stages of my writing career I had the chance to be a student at Totleigh Barton in Devon, one of the Arvon Foundation Writing Centres, where they run creative writing courses for writers at all stages of their writing life - from beginners to more experienced writers.  I found it a fantastic experience so I was delighted when I was asked to tutor a course on Writing for Children at an Arvon Centre, hoping I could make it just as exciting an experience for the students, as I'd had myself in the past.
Cathy with one of our students


Cathy MacPhail and I had spent a week last summer at the Moniack Mhor Arvon writing centre in the north of Scotland.  I blogged about it at the time  in a post called  The Arvon Magic   We decided that we could make a video with us discussing our week and the lovely people we had as students on the course.

Making the video was a bit scary, but once we got started we just began chatting about how we approached the week as tutors, and some of the things that happened.  In the end it all went well, in fact we almost forgot to stop! 

So this weekend our video will be on the ABBA on line  Lit Fest at 5 pm on Sunday 10th July and soon after it will be available on YouTube, too-   Now that is really scary!

The great thing is if you can't make it at the weekend you can come back another time and check out all the weekend's blogs and videos etc.  because they will still be there.

Just remember the competitions will have a closing time or date, so do check that if you want to enter any of them and win some great books and giveaways.


So come along and join in the fun  and check out the  Online Festival Programme.

2 comments:

  1. I've already put in all my alerts for the sessions I absolutely want to see straight away and then the rest will keep me happy for weeks. I'm looking forward to your talk as I have a friend who raves about Arvon.

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  2. Excellent, Michele. I am really looking forward to it, too, so many great authors contributing. I agree there will certainly be lots to keep us all amused for quite a while. It should be an excellent weekend!

    I have to say I have found the Arvon experience fabulous - from both sides, student and tutor!

    I hope our video does it justice, we both had a really great time.

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