Join Los Angeles-based illustrator and joint ALCS Educational Writers’ Award winner, Ellen Surrey for a colourful, Halloween-themed sketch session to kick off the spooky season. Inspired by her love of painting and printmaking, Ellen will walk you through a technique she often uses in her sketchbook to create multiple colours with a limited palette. This…
You’ve written your book. You’ve researched agents. You’ve taken the leap and sent your query and then you wait. What happens next? For many, it’s a polite reply “thank you, but this isn’t right for us.” Sometimes you might not hear back at all. Both scenarios can sting, and for some writers, that rejection is…
As writers, do we constantly juggle inspiration with self-doubt? Can this lead us to question every word we write, even when we have a track record of being successfully published? How does this impact our output and ability to cope with the inevitable rejections all writers face? Is self-doubt a necessary part of the creative…
Do you have good intentions of committing to a regular morning writing routine, but find that all too often the time gets frittered away with news, emails and other distractions? If so, this workshop is for you. There won’t be any 5am green tea cliches – it’s about how you want to start your days,…
This short session is designed for people who want to master mindfulness but find it difficult to find the time to meditate. It’s based on a 6-week course originally developed for the Plum village order of Zen Buddhists (based on the teachings of Thich Nhat Hanh). The course aimed to make mindfulness accessible for people…
Join author-illustrator Yiting Lee, creator of The Quiet One, for an engaging workshop on character design for picture books. Through demonstrations and hands-on drawing, participants will discover how to bring a character to life—exploring personality, emotion, and visual storytelling. Using Arnold, the gentle robot from The Quiet One, as inspiration, attendees will learn practical tips for shaping unique, expressive characters…
Between stimulus and response there is a space”, said the psychologist and philosopher Viktor Frankl, ‘In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and freedom.’ F.M. Alexander, founder of Alexander Technique, agreed: ‘..the way of employing oneself in activity is a matter of the manner of reaction.’ They…
Join children’s author, Alice Hemming in this interactive workshop on finding inspiration for children’s picture book ideas and developing your next storyboard. None of us need more problems in our lives, but Alice uses a ‘little bag of problems’ as a tool to generate simple story ideas, particularly for picture books. She has run this…
If you grapple with self-discipline, focus, perfectionism, or finding the time to write, while self-doubt tries to talk you out of doing the work, you’re not alone. That voice in your head? It isn’t you. It’s Resistance. In this restorative session, clinical hypnotherapist, EFT practitioner, and mindset coach Annie Ashdown will guide you through a live…
Overwhelm can happen to us all. That sense that there is just too much to do that you don’t know where to start. Often what happens next is we freeze and do nothing because we feel so overwhelmed. Join Mindset coach, Kelly Weekes in this session looking at what overwhelm is, how to break out of it…
There are many moments in your author career where n you lay yourself and your book open to judgement by others and potential rejection. Sending your book on submission to agents or publishers is an obvious example. So if you do get that ‘No thank you, it’s not for us’ how do you pick yourself…
Authors tend to sit a lot (such is the nature of writing), so enjoy a fun and informative Energiser session with PT & fellow writer Tracy Griffen. The session starts with health hacks that are easy to implement into your working life. We’ll do a simple Energiser – five minutes of moving on your desk chair,…
