Monday 10 March 2014

School Visits: New North Academy

Some sad news: my trusty old computer, on which I wrote Phoenix, died a couple of weeks ago. So I haven't been able to update this blog for a while.  But I've been busy doing school visits, and I hope to make blogs about them all in the coming week.

I think my visit to the New North Academy in Islington was one of the best I've ever had.  I met some brilliant readers and writers from Year 6, and fantastic teachers like Fiona Gunn-Stokes and Alexander Hall.  They showed me the excellent work they'd been doing on Phoenix as well as Varjak Paw.  It was really inspiring to see all the enthusiasm for books out there!


It was amazing afterwards to find messages on my site like this:
Dear SF SAID, you have visited new north academy and I was one of the pupils. So far I have written 5 MINI SHORT STORIES because you have inspired me to do so. I have learnt a lot from you and I will cherish your visit. I hope you write another Varjak one of my ideas was varjak having a twin called varjak Claw and he could be bad. That could be a special edition . I really wish you would use some ideas in your books such as Holly and Varjak getting married! Thanks again


It really means a lot for a writer to hear things like that!  So I'd like to wish everyone at New North Academy all the best with their writing and their reading – and thank you for saying such nice things about my books!

21 comments:

Unknown said...

The thing that inspired me was you talked to us that you had 91 rejections but you stile wrote books you talked to us about to never give up .
Thanh you
mohamed

SF Said said...

Dear Mohamed,
Thank you for your great comment! I'm glad you found the visit inspiring. I really do believe that perseverance is the most important quality in doing anything - so whatever you want to do, keep trying to improve and never give up!
With best wishes,
SF

Unknown said...

thank you for visiting our school you really inspired me to not give up my dreams and keep on trying your books were outstanding
thank you
dalia

Unknown said...

You inspired me because you helped me with my Maths,English,Science
Thank you
mohamed

SF Said said...

Thank you for your fantastic welcome, Dalia, and for all your kind words! Good luck following your dreams!

All the best,
SF

SF Said said...

That is amazing to hear - thank you so much, Mohamed! Good luck with your Maths, English, Science - and everything else that you do!

With best wishes,
SF

Unknown said...

You really helped me .You made me more confident and it was amazing to see you it was incredible

SF Said said...

Thank you, Dalia - that is a brilliant thing to hear, and really means a lot to me. Good luck again!

Anonymous said...

shanicegrima 14 of march
i like your vist and i am reading varjak paw of shanice

SF Said said...

Thank you so much for your lovely comment, Shanice - I hope you enjoy reading Varjak Paw!

Anonymous said...

Hi. My name is Sonya and I was one of the first people to meet you when you came to New North Academy. I would like to thank you for visiting our school and also thank you for inspiring me to write a scfi story. To be honest I wasn't a big fan of science fiction but because of Phoenix I enjoy reading scfi. I'm looking forward to your new book Tyger and I'm sure it's going to be amazing as all your other books.

SF Said said...

Hi Sonya, thank you so much for that amazing comment! I'm really glad you enjoyed Phoenix, and that it inspired you to read & write sci-fi. There are lots of fantastic sci-fi books out there; I hope you'll enjoy discovering them... And I hope you'll enjoy TYGER too, when it's finished!

With best wishes,
SF

SF Said said...

PS: Thanks again for the fantastic welcome, it was so brilliant to meet you all!

Ali said...

Hello SF, my name is Ali and in school (Not new north academy) my class love your books we've been reading varjak paw and the outlaw varjak paw. Everyone in my class is asking if your releasing a new varjak paw book so please tell me.

From Ali

Anonymous said...

It was so inspiring when you came because a writer has to keep going and even if you get rejected a few times. To say the true I would of gave up on my first time writing a story.
from Sarah[ new north academy]

SF Said said...

Hello Ali, thank you for your comment! I will write a third Varjak Paw book one day; I wrote a bit about my idea for it here.

In the meantime, I hope you'll try my new book Phoenix. It's not a Varjak Paw book, but I hope that if you enjoyed Varjak, you'll enjoy it too; many of the underlying themes are similar!

SF Said said...

Hi Sarah, thank you so much for your kind comment! Perseverance can definitely take you a long way, so whatever you want to do, I think it's really important to keep going and not give up!

Anonymous said...

Hi it's Sonya again. Just to to let you know before the holiday we wrote our own science fiction inspired by Phoenix. Like I previously mentioned I wasn't a fan of science fiction but I ended up getting a Level 5 for writing one. So thank you so much for inspiring me.

SF Said said...

Hi Sonya! Thanks for letting me know, that is FANTASTIC! Congratulations!!!

Anonymous said...

Hi! I was a Year 3 student in 2014, when you came to our school. I really wanted to meet you, seeing as I had read your first novel a couple of years earlier. I'm actually trying to write my first book as we speak: It isn't really going to plan, but 91 times!?!?!?!?!? That is 90 too many times. I think you are a amazing writer.
Yours, Aidain {NNA}

SF Said said...

Hi Aidain,

Thank you so much for your comment, and your kind words! To be fair, those 90 rejections were across 3 books - my first one was rejected 40 times, as was my second, and Varjak Paw was then rejected 10 times before I finally found a publisher! So I think perseverance definitely pays off.

It's brilliant to hear that you're writing your first book right now - good luck with it! If it's helpful, I've done a few writing tips on this blog - you can find them all here.

With best wishes,
SF Said