Camilla Chester - Children's Author
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Welcome to my blog, a place where you can keep up to date with everything I'm up to!

Young Carers Crew (YCC)

30/7/2021

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Meet these brilliant kids who are part of YCC in Stevenage. They have been sharing their stories with me to help with my next writing project. I was completely blown away by each and every one of them. 

It is incredible what some kids are facing every day. So tough and yet they are full of life, love and positivity. It felt an honour to meet them and get to know them better. I'm very grateful to YCC who themselves have just had some amazing news...read on to see what Asda have written to them to say:
Hello Young Carers Crew.
Congratulations.
You have been nominated to be part of the Asda Foundation Green Token Giving online vote through your local Asda store Stevenage Supercentre (Retail Academy). I can confirm all the due diligence is complete and you will be on the vote from Sunday!
The vote will be live from 0.01am on Sunday 1st August and voting will close at midnight on Thursday 30th September.
You and your supporters will be able to vote for you by visiting www.asda.com/green-tokens and selecting Stevenage Supercentre (Retail Academy) from the drop down box. Supporters will be able to vote once every 7 days, so please encourage them to return and revote in the following weeks.
Your local store Community Champion will also be promoting the vote in store, listen out for our advert on Asda radio next time you are in store.
Thanks for being part of this exciting activity, we hope you are excited too.
Let the voting begin!
Thanks
Asda Foundation
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Isn't that wonderful news? Please vote to support this fantastic organisation which allows these children to escape from their caring responsibilities for a few hours giving them the chance to be kids again. 
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This picture shows me talking to Armani and Lennie who are two of the small group of young carers who have agreed to help create my next book, Who Cares? I can't begin to tell you how powerful their stories are. Their understanding of the adult world shows a level of maturity and comprehension that is more sophisticated than many adults I have met. I'm totally in awe of what they are dealing with and yet they are the nicest, kindest people who could ever talk to. 

Watch out on my blog for news to how this project develops. I want to honour these kids to the best of my ability. 
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Dreams Coming True

17/7/2021

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Regular readers of my blog, friends and colleagues will know that my first three books are all self-published. It has always been my long-term aim to become a hybrid author, which means that I'll have some work that I publish myself and some that a traditional publisher buys the rights for.

I've been striving for this for many years, having tried to get traditionally published long before I brought out Jarred Dreams in 2016. At last, as you can see from the picture, it is finally becoming real.

You can read the full article here: The Bookseller

And here: Firefly Press

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The journey of Call Me Lion has been and continues to be a highly emotional one. The book is bigger than me, touching real lives. I can't wait for it to be published as I know it can do so much good work. 

You might, quite rightly, ask why I decided to write a book about Selective Mutism when I have no personal experience of it myself. To answer that very important question I made a very short video during my last dog walk before the summer holidays yesterday: 
Although I miss my agent Laura very much, I'm happy to continue her great work in securing my publishing deal with Firefly with my new agent Veronique. The DHA agency is a great one to be signed to, very straightforward and full of professional yet very approachable people. 

Firefly is the perfect publisher for Lion and I. Penny Thomas, who founded Firefly Press grew up in Harpenden (next door to Luton where the book is set), where I currently live and everyone I'm working with at Firefly are fully supportive of the book and what it means. 

Great things have happened already and will continue to happen with this book. It is something beyond me but I hope you will come along for the ride. Keep reading my blog for what happens next. 

Go Lion!
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Writing Retreat

12/7/2021

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Cannot believe I left the tranquil surroundings and company of these wonderful fellow children's authors to rush home for the Euro Finals. 

I actually chose to swap the bliss of what you see in this photo for the pain of an England penalty shoot out. Why?

Moving on...

I'm bursting with some amazing news that I'm desperate to share with you but I'll have to hang on for just a little longer. Any day now. It's BIG so be ready!
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New Writing Project

3/7/2021

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It's the second time I've applied for the National Lottery Grant through the Arts Council to write my next book, entitled Who Cares? which will feature a young carer as the protagonist.

My funding was rejected last time, but I've decided that the project is so worthwhile that even if I'm rejected a second time I'm going ahead with the book.

I'll be writing in collaboration with young carer organisations, family, friends, professionals but most importantly the young carers themselves.

I had my first visit to Young Carers Crew last week, talking to the children and young people about my books and the Who Cares? project to see if they'd like to get involved. 
It was amazing to be out and about doing real author things again and one of the children gave me a portrait she'd drawn of me whilst I was talking. Quite an accurate job, I'm sure you'd agree. They were so great and I'm looking forward to working with them. 

Next is a new connection in Norfolk, which is my home county (I grew up in Norwich). I've made links with Norfolk Young Carers who are kindly reaching out to see who else might be interested in getting involved. It's very exciting to be thinking about what is next and how my lovely book, Call Me Lion will be followed-up.


Watch out for future blog posts about how Who Cares? progresses over the coming months. I intend to keep you all posted here!
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Can't Win Them All

3/7/2021

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Spent an entire day last week applying for a job that looked absolutely perfect for me. Working part-time as a Writing Facilitator for The Ministry of Stories in London. For anyone that has applied for a job that they really want you'll understand the amount of work that goes into it. I knew that the competition would be fierce as jobs like these are as rare as hens teeth, but I thought with my background and experience that I stood a very good chance. 

It was not to be. Yesterday I received a standard email saying I'd not been selected for interview and due to the high number of applications they couldn't give feedback. I had a little cuddle with my cat, Bibs, and felt a bit sorry for myself. 

As my previous and wonderful agent, Laura West would say, 'Onwards!'.
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Film Premiere

1/7/2021

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It's finally happened...my dog, Stan is featuring in a cameo role in the TLC film entitled 'Why I Write'.

The film is to be premiered on Thursday 15 July 7pm and you can buy a ticket and find out about the event here: 
Tickets & Info for Why I Write Film

All proceeds go to aspiring writers through TLC initiatives so you're supporting a worthy cause.

The Literacy Consultancy (TLC) is an organisation that offers editorial support and advice to many different writers and various stages of their careers. I saw their call out for short (up to 30 seconds) videos answering the question 'Why I Write.' I asked Stan for advice and filmed his response - ours was one of the many entries that they received that was selected. 

We'll of course be attending the premiere of the film and we'll both be scrubbed up nicely (as if it were the Oscars).

We hope you'll join us!
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    Camilla's Blog

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  • Home
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