All the items were inspired by a free on-line Creative Writing e-course run earlier this year by Tim. The course itself came into being after one of the students – having signed up for an evening class in writing – was disappointed to find that her lessons has been cancelled due to lack of interest.
In contrast, the ten-week replacement on-line course attracted a huge national following. Well over 100 people formally registered and were allocated to one of several on-line peer support tutorial groups. Many hundreds more followed the lessons informally week-by-week, downloading them direct from Tim Atkinson’s website Bringing up Charlie. Others are still finding the lessons useful, and Tim is constantly receiving requests to repeat the course.
Inspired by some of the exercises, the budding authors wrote and submitted pieces for an end-of-course charity anthology. The best were then selected for publication. And on Friday November 19th Tiny Acorns was launched to coincide with the BBC’s annual Children in Need charity telethon.
The genres covered in the book range from flash-fiction to more traditional short-stories, as well as life-writing, humour, poetry and autobiography. There’s something for everyone. And if people are inspired by what they read, they can have a go for themselves as the entire creative writing course has been reprinted in the book’s appendix.
Tiny Acorns was published on Friday November 19th by Dotterel Press (ISBN 978-0-9562869-1-8) and is available direct for just £8.99 from the Dotterel Press Online store. Do press on the button at the bottom of that page, get a wonderful collection and help the children while you’re at it.
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And now a brief plug for one of my favourite writers…me 🙂 You can listen to me read two short excerpts from A Clash of Innocents on today’s Homegrown Podcast here. You may find it easiest to click on the direct download button. My bits are sandwiched in between some great indie music. My name may be mispronounced (as it always is — you say Guy-knee, by the way) but my oh my — it’s so worth it! :-0
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