The Books That Made Me Fall In Love With Words by Emma Pass

My mum and dad tell me that when I was very young, I used to come into their room into the small hours of the morning to announce I was bored. So they did what any self-respecting parents driven half-crazy by middle-of-the-night demands for entertainment would do: they taught me to read.

I don’t remember this; for me, reading’s something that’s always been there, like breathing. What I do remember is the books that were more than just books – the ones that made me fall in love with words. (Follow the links to find out more!)

Tim and the Hidden People (series) by Sheila K. McCullagh

I discovered these at school when I was about 5 or 6. While everyone else was listening to the teacher reading about Roger Red Hat (another series by Sheila McCullagh) I’d sneak these off the shelves to catch up with the adventures of Tim, a boy who finds a hidden kingdom and explores it with the help of a cat called Tobias. Often, I’d get so absorbed, I’d be completely unaware that the teacher had stopped reading and was giving me the Stare of Death™ until she came over and took the book out of my hands.

Black Harvest by Ann Pilling

By the time I got to middle school, I’d developed an appetite for ghost stories. One of my favourites was this dark and incredibly creepy book about Colin and Prill, who are dismayed to find out their dorky cousin Oliver is coming with them on a much-anticipated holiday to Ireland. When they get there, though, Oliver turns out to be the least of their worries. Strange things start to happen – a terrible smell hangs in the air, Prill is haunted by nightmares and their baby sister falls ill. In the end it’s Oliver, the only one who seems unaffected, who discovers a connection to the Great Famine and must fight to save them all. I remember this being the first book I ever read where, instead of seeing places I already knew in the real world, I saw places that were completely out of my own imagination, conjured up entirely by the words.

You’re Thinking About Doughnuts by Michael Rosen

I also loved funny books, and there’s few authors funnier than Michael Rosen. This book is about Frank, who has to wait at the museum one night while his mum, who’s the cleaner there, finishes her shift. The exhibits, which include a talking doughnut-obsessed skeleton, come to life and together, they have all sorts of adventures. I got it through a book club at school and read it until it dropped to pieces.

In honour of the great man himself, I’m going to leave you with a video of another of my all-time Rosen favourites – his poem Chocolate Cake. The only word for it is… genius.

What about you? Which books, stories and poems made you fall in love with words and reading?

For the Love of Dogs by Emma Pass

Anyone who knows me knows that I am, unashamedly and unapologetically, a dog person. Here's my very first dog, Scamp. He belonged to my mum when she was a little girl, and she passed him down to me. He's a little worse for wear now – his paws are patched where my aunt's puppy tried to chew them, his fur is a little threadbare, he can no longer stand up on his own and in places, his straw stuffing is leaking out, but I still treasure him.

And here I am, aged 2, with our family dog, Shep. We're not sure what mix she was, but she was a sweet, gentle soul, and I'll never forget the story my mum told me about the day she left her with my grandparents for the day. They lived on the Cornish coast, in a big house on top of a cliff, and when my mum returned my grandfather told her the foghorn had been sounding all day. He was puzzled; it was a bright sunny day, not a scrap of fog to be seen. When the "foghorn" went off again, the mystery was solved: Shep, pining for my mum, was sitting on my grandparents' bed upstairs, howling mournfully.

Naturally, when I left home and got a place of my own, getting a dog was a priority. (Luckily, my husband, who'd only ever owned cats, gave in…)

We'd already decided we wanted to get a rescue dog, and after much research and deliberation, ended up at the East Midlands branch of the Retired Greyhound Trust. We were introduced to two dogs – both ex-racers – but although they were lovely, one was too much of a handful and the other so nervous we couldn't even coax her out of her kennel. "Wait there," the kennel hand told us. "There's one more dog we'd like you to meet. He's the biggest greyhound here, but don't let that put you off." She disappeared, returning a few moments later with a tiger-striped giant who walked straight up to me, waving his tail, and leaned. That was Kelly, A.K.A. The Hound.

 

Unbeknownst to us, Kelly had numerous health problems, we suspect thanks to poor treatment he received before landing in rescue, and we lost him tragically young, at just six years old. I hope in the three years he was with us, he knew how much he was loved, and that he had more happy memories than bad ones. After his death we decided we weren't going to get another dog for a while – any animal is a big commitment, and my debut year was almost upon us. I was still working at my day job and barely had time to breathe, let alone adopt another rescued greyhound and get it used to living as a pet.

Fate had other ideas.

The night we lost Kelly, I had a vivid dream we'd adopted another greyhound – small, skinny, black, with a bald bum and a white zig-zag on its chest. "A bit of TLC and you'll be fine," I remember telling this dog in my dream, while it laid on its back and begged for belly rubs. Four weeks later, I had the same dream, and told this dog the same thing. Later that day, I was "just looking" on the East Midlands RGT website…

…And there he was: the dog from my dream. Everything about him was the same, even the zig-zag marking on his chest. "Email them!" my husband said. I did. It turns out I was the first person to do so; this dog, Gunner had been put up on the website just hours before. Four weeks later, after all the paperwork was sorted, he came home. Yep, our dog-free time had lasted all of two months…

If you made it this far, you're probably saying, "But this is a writing blog! What has all this got to do with writing?!"

As anyone who writes knows, it's a sedentary occupation. Having a dog means I must leave the house twice a day, whether I want to or not. Whether it's summer or winter. Whether it's sunny, or snowing sideways. Gunner – known as G-Dog on Twitter and Facebook – lives for his walks, and if you're so much as ten minutes late taking him out, he comes and STARES at you until you put the laptop down and fetch his lead. And if you don't respond to the STARE, he'll start whinging through his nose, very softly at first, then louder, until the sound is impossible to ignore. (And that's a lot of nose for whinging down.)

Even if it is snowing sideways, I love our walks. Not only do they keep me fit (I suffer from mild CFS/M.E., so more strenuous exercise isn't possible for me right now), but they give me time to think; to chew over tricky ideas and figure out plot tangles. If I've been struggling with something, I nearly always have an "ah-ha!" moment when we're out and about. If I'm really lucky, I might even get an idea for something shiny and new.

But the best thing about having a dog?

Getting them to write your books for you, of course!

How about you? Do you have any pets? Do they help with your writing? I'd love to hear about them in the comments!

Igniting the Creative Spark by Emma Pass

It's been a busy year. I've completed the new draft of a novel which is now with my agent, and it's been fun, but a lot of work. However, writing is not what I've spent most of my time doing this year – probably not even 50%.

I used to have a day job in a library, which I loved, but 4 years ago, it all got a bit much. The pressures of trying to fit almost full-time work around writing and everything that goes with it were making me stressed and ill. Something had to give… so I decided to resign my permanent hours, and start running workshops instead.

I facilitate two creative writing groups, one for adults at a local community centre, and one at a local library for young people aged 4-14, which is supported by writer development agency Writing East Midlands. The latter group has been going in various guises for over 6 years now, and I'm lucky enough to work with a brilliant shadow writer who helps me plan and run the sessions. Recently, went on a trip to a tram museum where the group looked at archive objects, dressed up as tram conductors, rode old trams and wrote stories about it. It was a fantastic day. I couldn’t quite believe that it even counted as "work" – but it did!

Riding on top of an open-top tram

 I get asked to go into schools, too. I've been a Patron of Reading where I not only ran creative writing and literacy workshops, but accompanied a group of students on a weekend away where we made films in the middle of the Yorkshire countryside, and I've done a stint as a First Story writer-in-residence. I also run one-off creative writing workshops for writers of all ages, and have been part of a scheme mentoring other writers wanting to run their own workshops.

But I don't just run workshops on my own. My husband is a painter and printmaker who builds his own printing presses. The biggest, which has a 6-foot wheel, is made out of RSJ girders – the sort you use to build houses! But he's built several smaller ones, too, out of Victorian washing mangles, which are on trolleys so they can be moved around. He does workshops too; in March, we applied for a joint author/artist residency with Inspire Nottinghamshire Libraries – and we got it!

Mangle printing press

The residency was three months long and based around the summer reading challenge which takes place in libraries nationwide every summer. 2018's theme was comics, so it started with us going into two primary schools, where we helped four different classes write and make printing plates for their own giant comic strips which went on display at Worksop library. Then, in July and August, we did a "grand mangle tour" of 12 libraries, running family workshops where participants could write and print their own comics to take home with them.

Mischief Makers exhibition at Worksop Library - artwork by Y5 and Y6 students at St Anne's and Worksop Priory schools

We've also run sessions for a dementia group, and next year we're doing more work with people who have additional needs, as well as family workshops and wellbeing days.

It's been slow to build up (I still have a relief contract with the library), and if you'd told me seven years ago, before I got my first book deal, that all this is what I'd be doing for a living, I'd've looked at you "gone out", as they say round here. That sounds exhausting! I'd've said. Not to mention intimidating!

But it's not. It's wonderful. And the reason it's wonderful is because of the people who come to the workshops. Writing (and art) can be a lonely business – you're there in your office (or studio) day after day, on your own. Getting out there and helping other people to realise that the arts are not elitist but can, and should, be accessed by anyone, is not only fun, but incredibly rewarding. Igniting the creative spark in other people is one of the most important things we, as authors and artists (and musicians and actors and makers and…) can do.

Emma Pass lives in the north east Midlands. Her YA novels ACID and The Fearless are published by Corgi Children’s Books/Penguin Random House. You can find more details about her writing and workshops on her website at www.emmapassauthor.wordpress.com.