Marvin's Curse Teaser

The Iron City - Teaser time

  

 Extending a taloned claw, the red dragon hooked the pendant from Rae's hand. It stared hard into her eyes then lifted its wings, heading upwards once again before flying off into the distance followed by the others.

   Rae collapsed to the ground, her stilled heart crashed into action, banging against her chest. Her breath came fast, making her gasp for air.

'What the freakin'...' screamed Eric, pushing his hands through his hair. He jumped to his feet and started pacing. His hands rested at the back of his head where he clasped them together, staring upwards. 'A Slayer who doesn't actually slay. I've seen it all now.'

   George dashed to Rae's side, kneeling down then pulling her up into a sitting position. He shook her shoulders furiously. 'Why didn't you strike? Why didn't you use Ascalon like we showed you?' When she didn't respond, he shook her again. 'It'll come back. They always do.' He dropped his hands to his knees, shaking his head despondently.

Super day at Toftwood Junior School

I had another great author visit in Dereham, Norfolk. This time I was with Year 3 at Toftwood Junior School. Lots of the pupils dressed as superheroes for the day which added to the fun.
Year 3 leader, Anita Warren, organised a fabulous day for me which included an author talk and three workshops.
This picture is taken in their new library which is due to be officially opened later this month.

There was a really lovely write-up on their website.

Year 3 Are Visited By Author, Debra J Edwards

The children’s author Debra J Edwards came to visit Year 3 to give a talk to the children all about what inspired her to become a writer and how she used ideas and events from her life as inspiration for her books and the main character in them, Aggie Lichen; Pilp Collector. She then went on to take some exciting and fast paced creative writing workshops with the classes, where groups of children invented their own super hero character and then gave them super powers and gadgets to use in defeating their enemies. The children used the ideas they had created in their work shop to write  a story all about their superhero.

Here are some comments by the children about Debbie’s visit:

·         I enjoyed Debbie’s whole visit!                                                   Cadell

·         I liked creating our superhero - ‘Super Flameo’, designing his costume and working together on inventing his super powers.        Siena, Justin and Aksayan

·         I liked it when Debbie did her talk in assembly and was acting out the children she had taught in the past who inspired her to come up with the idea for her first book.                                                                                   Tahlia

Welcome to a new reader

As a writer you always hope that your reader likes the book you've written. The problem is that you don't always get to hear about it if they do let alone see it. What a fabulous surprise to see these lovely photos of Callum Whyman reading the book his mum bought for him today at the school fair. It's the first of my trilogy, Aggie Lichen; Pilp Collector. He's already asking for book two and three! Fingers crossed he's just as interested halfway through. :)

Visit to George White Junior School

Last Thursday and Friday I had another great school visit. On this occasion I spent two days at George White Junior School in Norwich. During my time there I delivered workshops to Years 3, 4, 5 and an author talk to the whole of Key Stage Two. Fabulous talking and listening in groups resulted in some amazing characters being created.

Photos from author visit to Edith Cavell Academy

Just received an email from one of the schools I visited last week to say that some of the photos they took are now on their website. Have a look at me in (sort of) action.

http://www.edithcavellacademy.co.uk/#!galleries/c1byd

Great author visit to Edith Cavell Academy, Norwich

I had such a fabulous time visiting the Edith Cavell Academy yesterday. With an author talk for starters, I soon had Years 3,4,5,6 giggling at my silly antics. They seemed to especially like my story of being a reluctant KS1 teacher in Year 2 when I first thought of writing about stroppy teenage tooth fairies.

 Following on from my third book, Hero Required, developing superheroes in workshops was next. I really loved the idea of one particular group who created, Superhero Happy, whose sole job in life was to make everyone in the world happy. I gave them a bag of 'character props' and one of the items was a keyring. On the back of it was printed Thanks for visiting. Using their brilliant imaginations, the group said that Superhero Happy captured unhappy people in the keyring. When they were happy he let them out and what they saw when they left was... Thank you for visiting.  A fabulous day. Thank you!  

The Book Trailer - Marvin's Curse

Brisley Primary School Visit - Dereham & Fakenham Times May 2015

The demon...

Fabulous author visit to Brisley CE School

This week I was fortunate enough to spend a whole day at Brisley CE Primary School, having been invited by the headteacher via pupil, Izzy Imries.
  










The first session was my author talk which included: what authors do, what readers expect from authors and how authors make readers feel. We had some fun looking at how authors can be mean too. We also spent some time defining the differences between heroes and superheroes.
 

During the subsequent sessions we looked at creating our own heroes and superheroes on paper. Each group used a bag of character props to come up with ideas then made notes and drew their character. 







There were some fantastic discussions ahead of this and the pupils did well to listen to all the ideas given in their group. 

I had a brilliant day thanks to the wonderfully receptive pupils and welcoming staff.








Here is some feedback from the day:

From staff:

“ The children thoroughly enjoyed Debbie’s visit. They responded well to her imaginative and engaging author talk and were very keen to use Debbie’s props to construct their own heroes and super heroes in the workshop.”

“Debbie was an inspiration to the children.”

From children:

“The story when she was acting out being a superhero was really funny. They had masks and fairy wings and it was very good!”

“It was really good – she made us laugh a lot which gets our attention. It was entertaining and the books will be very good to educate us in our writing skills.”

And then there's the devil...

'Touch me again...'

What is a Pawnbroker?

It has occurred to me that some of my readers might not know exactly what a pawnbroker is. Bearing in mind that one plays a major role in Marvin's Curse, it might be a good idea to have it explained.


From the Pawnbroker Association website:

Like a bank a pawnbroker earns income on the interest that is charged on the loan secured by a pledged item. In order to accept goods into pawn a pawnbroker makes an on-the-spot valuation of the goods. The customer and the pawnbroker will agree the sum to be advanced... When the loan and the interest are paid, the goods are returned to the customer.

If the customer does not renew the loan, the pawnbroker may take steps to dispose of the goods.  

 

 

So basically, you take something to the pawnbrokers of value. They make you an offer of a loan for it and quote you interest depending on how long you want the loan for, If you pay the loan back with the interest, you get your goods back. If not, the pawnbroker is entitled to sell your goods.

 

In Marvin's Curse, Stella has 'pawned' her memories with Old Kedigan, a pawnbroker in Moghador. These were her 'items' of value, but why did she pawn them?

 

Meeting Readers

It's always lovely to meet readers of my books and over the years I have bumped into many at bookshops, school fairs and on school visits. This meeting with reader Lucy Hearle though was special as it was the first time I had met a reader from Norfolk, which is where I now live. 

There I was in Waterstone's, looking for Spanish activity books when Lucy came up and said hello. I had signed all three Aggie Lichen books for her at the East Anglian Game & Country Show just last weekend. She said she had started reading the first book and was enjoying it which is always a relief to hear. I'm hoping to visit Lucy's school, Springwood High School, in the near future and feel reassured that I will see at least one familiar face among the audience. Thanks, Lucy.

Nearing the end...

So, I have now reached around 58,000 in the Iron City story. It's becoming very clear that I will have to provide an ending pretty soon for Rae and George. I can't keep getting them imto all these scrapes, can I? I mean, eventually, something has got to give. Someone must emerge victorious, surely - or not. Perhaps someone should die...

The Iron City (Draft Cover)

The story is all mapped out in my head and scribbled in several notebooks, but the great thing with writing is that a single thought can change which path the characters take. That means my plan is forever evolving and what was once the ending is either trashed or converted into another obstacle along the way. 

What will become of Rae and George? What becomes of their new friends? And how about those dragons? Arrrggghhh!

Visiting EAC&G as an author

This last weekend, I spent both Saturday and Sunday at the East Anglian Game and Country show at the Norfolk Showground in Norfolk. I wasn't there as a visitor, but as a trader and had my own stand within a craft marquee owned by Town & Country Events. It was the first time since moving to Norfolk last November, that I had taken the books out and about. Saturday was not too bad, weatherwise, and the sun shone a fair bit which encouraged people to attend, resulting in a large crowd. On Sunday, the weather was rather cloudy and we had a bit of rain, but the people of Norfolk, and surrounds, turned out bravely in their hundreds.

This is my pretty stand, lights too!

Debra J Edwards - Author Stand

 






There were so many things to do and see at the show. Lots of areas for retail therapy including clothing stalls, doggy attire shops and home goods stalls. And places for when you were hungry or thirsty like the beer tents, fast food stands and tea areas. 
Events to watch included bird of prey displays, dog agility, ferret racing and even a sheep and duck display. K9 Aquasports had the dogs jumping in the water after balls. Some were a little reluctant...






There were plenty of things to take part in too such as clay pigeon shooting, archery and crossbows plus the high ropes course in the trees. A little too high for me, but I applaud those who climbed.




It was a great weekend for me. I met so many new readers who were enthusiastic about the topics of my books and bought lots of them. Many were keen for me to come and see them at their schools for workshops. A big hello to Mimi, Lydia, Harry, Izzy, Kira, Erin and Rebekah who were just a few of the lovely young people I met. And, having already heard from Norwich Junior School at 8am this morning, I think the message about my talks/workshops has definitely been delivered. 
   I also met a lot of teachers at the Education Zone who seemed excited at the prospect of having an author coming into school. As I am so new to Norfolk, school visits are a great way for me to establish myself in this new area.

A big thank you to Simon and Karen of Town and Country Events and to all the other lovely stallholders I met who made the two day event so pleasurable.