John Clewarth - Dark and Spooky Tales

Virtually Lovely to Meet Magic Moorlands!

7/13/2020

I'm way overdue with this - the last two weeks have been super-crazy busy, as the sequel to Firestorm Rising comes ever-closer to completion! I have to say though that I had a wonderful 'virtual' school visit with Year 4 at Moorlands School on 2nd July. It's the first time I've ever done a 'virtual' visit, so I was a bit unsure - but huge thanks to Mrs Wheelhouse, Deputy Head and Year 4 teacher, for looking after me and explaining how 'Microsoft Teams' actually works! It was super-fun sharing writing tips, reading extracts and taking some questions from the children. Everyone made me feel very much at home and I cannot wait until I get to visit you all in person, hopefully in the autumn term! We even had one of the pupils beaming in live from Portugal! Have a wonderful summer and see you all again soon! John.

Great World Book Week Visit and Lovely Surprises!

3/5/2020

I kicked off World Book Week at Rawthorpe Junior School, with a full day visit on Monday, starting with an assembly and then writing workshops with their three Year 5 classes. Brilliant imaginations burned bright and so many creative ideas were produced! Then - what a lovely surprise this was! For World Book Day, instead of dressing up, the school provided a plain white tee shirt for each pupil and asked them to make a design based on their favourite book. I was thrilled to see this fantastic effort inspired by Firestorm Rising. With the sequel all set to blaze its way into the world in the coming weeks, these are exciting times! Way to go, Rawthorpe 😀🔥 It was also nice to see Demons in the Dark being chosen from DORIS (Dispenser of Reading in School), as a hard-earned prize for reward tokens. Putting books in readers' hands is the best feeling! 👍

One Library, Two Schools, Lots of Spooky Fun!

2/8/2020

I had a great time working with two fantastic schools in the historic venue of Castleford Library, on Thursday. Pupils from Half Acres Primary Academy came along in the morning, with Castleford Park Junior Academy arriving in the afternoon. I knew we were in for a good day when I asked them, 'Who likes to be scared?' - and every hand shot up! Loads of fun, enthusiasm and creative ideas were shared and enjoyed. They went away revved up and raring to go with their own reading and writing - and I'm sure I'll be working with these stars again in the future 👍🔥 It's to Airedale Library next, for half-term spooky story-telling!

Thrilled to be Rawthorpe's New Patron of Reading!

1/26/2020

Last week, I received a lovely email from Miss Hall, the Literacy Coordinator at Rawthorpe Juniors. The school has asked me to be their Patron of Reading. Delighted to say yes! Year 6 were brilliant to work with and I'm looking forward to working with Year 5 in World Book Week. I'll be getting involved more closely across the school in the coming months to maintain and develop the love of reading that is already ingrained in the school's philosophy. I'm blown away by the lovely comments from the Year 6 students - an absolute pleasure! Can't wait to share the sequel to Firestorm Rising with them at Easter!

Working with the Wonderful Students of Rawthorpe Junior School - and meeting DORIS!

12/15/2019

I enjoyed an excellent visit, on December 5th, to Rawthorpe Junior School, to work on developing effective and atmospheric story openers. After beginning with an assembly, I followed this with separate workshops for the three Year 6 classes. A warm welcome was extended from everyone I met - and a big thank you goes to Mrs Senadhira, Miss Hall and Mr Walker, for letting me work with their classes. The enthusiasm, creativity and writing that the students produced just blew me away! They were an absolute delight to work with. They're even going to help me with some live editing and feedback on selected chapters of the forthcoming sequel to Firestorm Rising! Well done, everyone! Great school, great staff, great children. Couldn't have asked for more. Not only that, DORIS (Dispenser of Reading in School!) arrived shortly afterwards; a great initiative which allows pupils to earn tokens which they can then spend on their favourite books from the dispenser. School has already ordered several copies of Firestorm Rising to go into DORIS! Every school should have a DORIS! Have a great run-up to Christmas everyone - Firestorm 2 is coming soon, and it is sizzling! 🥳🔥

Halloween Horror at Hemsworth Library!

11/3/2019

I had a fantastic time, delivering my author event in the charming Hemsworth Library. In order to get imaginations fired up and ready for the Trick or Treating later in the day, I read spooky extracts from my first novel, Firestorm Rising - and it went down a treat! The fans who joined in were superb to work with - and ages ranged from 6 to 12 years. The pictures show some of the fiendishly fun dressing up, as characters from the story :)

I also set a task for my readers to design a scary monster of their own - some of these are shown below in the photos, too! A big, big thank you to Marcia for organising the event - and to the fine folk of Hemsworth and local districts - children and parents alike!

Richmond House Rocks!

11/26/2018

What a joy it was to visit to Richmond House School, Leeds, today! Set in lovely buildings, in impressive grounds, the school has lashings of character - so I knew I was in for a treat. I received a very warm welcome from the office staff and, before long, I was introduced to the talented pupils in Year 5. Using Firestorm Rising as a stimulus, we explored techniques used by writers to develop atmosphere in stories. The children were amazing at identifying techniques such as using setting, selecting powerful mood words, and showing not telling. After this, there was no shortage of volunteers to come up to the front and put on costumes, wigs and props, as we role-played a scene from the book!
Following a refreshing cuppa and a very more-ish banana muffin, with the friendly staff at break time, we explored atmospheric techniques with Year 6, in a little more depth. And, of course, the role-play session had plenty of Oscar winning actors taking to the stage! I would like to thank everyone at Richmond House - pupils and staff alike - for their generous hospitality, especially Mrs Mullis, Deputy Head, for enabling it all to happen. I'm certain we have some budding top-notch writers coming through, from Richmond House! We've already pencilled-in next year's visit, when the much-anticipated sequel to Firestorm Rising will be released. Can't wait! John C.