A Website Update!

January 7, 2022 Posted by Alyssa Fiction & I

Well, ahem, it’s been a while. I don’t know about you, but 2021 sped by for me. But I am here now with some updates! I’ve been busy the last few days updating this website with new resources and opportunities. You can browse the pages, but I’ll also summarize the new things here. Starting with the most exciting…

Books

The book page has been updated to reflect the latest award nominations (including The Invisibly Boy‘s inclusion on theJames Reckitt Hull Children’s Book Award KS3 Shortlist 2021!) and two new international covers for The Eleventh Trade. I absolutely adore the Turkish design, and I’m so pleased to have Sami traveling to Korea!

New Resources and Activities

In the past two years, I’ve had some great opportunities to collaborate with some very cool websites. That includes an interview with LitFilmFest on Darker Themes and Young Readers, and a 10 Minute Challenge with Authorify where I lead students through creating the front page of a newspaper.

But most exciting (I think!) is my new short story The Lizard in the Garage, which follows Dan from The Eleventh Trade in a never-before-seen scene. I wrote this for Empathy Day 2021, and at their request I also made a video where I talk about how readers can use empathy to figured out what’s really going on with Dan. This short story can be enjoyed alongside The Eleventh Trade or independent to it.

New Speaking Opportunities

Despite the pandemic, I’ve been able to do several virtual school visits and lectures in the past year. I love doing this sort of thing! And it means I have a few new talks developed and ready to be shared.

On my school visit page, you can see what I offer for younger audiences, including a brand new set of topics inspired by The Invisible Boy. There’s also helpful rates for a baseline if you’re working in a school budget!

A new page goes into more detail about advanced lectures and workshops I have been developing alongside my PhD studies. These are ideal for writing groups, conferences, or courses. Using the Science of Trauma in Creative Writing and Exploring Familial Trauma and Dynamics to Develop Your Character have both been presented at Bath Spa University with enthusiastic reception.

Those are the big updates for the website! Now back to working on that PhD…