Thursday 20 March 2014

Chauffeur Driven to Norfolk...


This week I have been back in Norwich. Remember I spoke at the Reading for Pleasure conference there in November? 


Well, I visited a couple of local schools while I was there and one of them, Reepham Primary, has invited me back, which is a lovely vote of confidence (thank you Reepham!). 

It's a long way to go for one day though. I was originally spending a couple of days in another Norwich school too, but they cancelled on me at the last minute. Not ideal, despite the cancellation fee. But I couldn't let Reepham down, so I'm still going. 


Luckily another event has come up: Marilyn Brocklehurst at the much-admired Norfolk Children's Book Centre was supplying books for signing at Reepham School but, as it happens, she also coordinates the Norfolk branch of the Federation of Children's Book Groups. The Federation do all sorts of amazing things to promote reading, not least run the highly acclaimed Red House Book Award.




Marilyn arranged for me to do an author event for the Norfolk group on the evening before my day at Reepham Primary, which has definitely helped to get more value from all that travel time.

I was originally going to take the train but, with the changes to the plan, John volunteered to be my chauffeur instead (an ever-expanding job-description!). We got home last night and I'm declaring today a day of rest, so we'll be putting our feet up, probably with a book and a coffee, quite possibly in a nice local coffee shop. There might even be cake involved...

3 comments:

ann @ studiohyde said...

Love your sketches.
Question - what ink do you use in your Sailor pen? Mine runs when I add watercolours. Is yours the same, so do you add the watercolour first, wait for it to dry and then add the pen work, or do you use different ink?

Lynne the Pencil said...

Aha! That is a good question, as I spent ages trying to find the right ink. I wanted waterproof, so I could add paint after the line sometimes.

I tried an acrylic ink that claimed to be okay for fountain pens, but it wasn't and ruined my pen. Then I heard from USA sketchers about Noodlers Bullet-Proof ink. It's waterproof, but fine with my lovely Sailor fountain pen, because it works on a chemical reaction with the paper, which is what makes it waterproof, as it dries. The only snag is that it is less waterproof on certain paper types, depending on their make-up. You have to do tests on your sketchbook first. It does get more waterproof with time too, although on some of my sketchbooks it's waterproof immediately its dry.

The other snag is that Noodlers is hard to get in the UK, but I found a website that stocks it - www.purepens.co.uk

ann @ studiohyde said...

Hi Lynne. I have heard of Noodlers, but didn't know it would be okay used like this...to add paint after the ink. I'll take a look at the website you mention and will undoubtedly order some. Thanks so much.....ann.