TOMMY TAN AND THE BOWL OF TIME author Peter Cain also visited Glenealy School on his recent trip to Hong Kong. Check out what some of the students had to say about meeting Mr. Cain:

“I enjoyed listening about how he came up with his first book and his life. I learnt that it takes a long time to get a book published.” —Julia

“I learnt that story writing can take a long time to finally get published. It really made me want to never give up my dream even if it does not work first time.” —Lindie

“I learnt that it is hard to think of a good story that people will like and it takes a really long time to publish a book.” —Hamish

“We learnt how books get published and I had fun learning a lot of other things from Mr. Cain.” —Aisha

“I really enjoyed having an opportunity to talk with Peter Cain. I really liked listening to how he finally got his book published and it was great to see his editor and publisher. It was a lot of fun. Thank you Peter.” —Melodie

We’ll be posting some other pics of his visits soon… If Peter Cain visited your school and you have photos you’d like to share, please email lizforhaven AT gmail.com.

“On Friday 18 March we had a visit from Mr Tilley who has just published his second novel. He ran a number of workshops with Year 7 students on creative writing. Mr Tilley gave each student one sentence of a story and he showed us how to add to the sentence to make a story and how to build up suspense and make the problem even worse to create even more tension. The first sentence we looked at was “The bomb shook the room where I was working.” My partner (Hallie Tsui) and I made up a character who was a 12 year old spy who was doing her Geography homework when the bomb blew up.

When we read out our different stories Mr Tilley showed us how we could turn a single line into a great story. He taught us, as well, that the opening sentence in a story is very important. We also had fun learning about different character types, such as bad guy/girl and librarian.

We then wrote scripts and everyone else had to guess which character types we were pretending to be. We had a fantastic time with Mr Tilley. He was funny and could make great jokes out of what we were doing. He also taught us a lot about creative writing and I learnt many new ways to write an exciting story. I also enjoyed working with my partner and having the opportunity of writing on my own. It was also exciting to listen to and learn from a newly published author.”

- Caitlin Fowlds (7N), Island School

Image courtesy of Island School

‘Chase to the Brazen Head‘ is an exciting read. There’s a secret society, mysterious characters from the past, wild boat rides,  giant fighting crickets and an archery exam – where the price of failure is death. Today, we talk to Gregory Payne, about how he came to write the book:

YH:    What inspired you to write ‘Chase to the Brazen Head’?
GP:    I’ve always liked history so was really interested when one day I discovered the journals of the West China Border Research Society (one of the ‘history clubs’ for adults which were popular in China before 1949) in the HKU library. Reading these journals gave me the idea to write ‘Chase to the Brazen Head’.

YH:    How did you become a writer?
GP:    When I was a child my father used to take our family to second-hand book shops, to buy fiction. This made me interested in reading stories, as a child, and that led me to trying to write it!

YH:    Do you have any advice for someone who wants to be a writer?
GP:    Write about what you know. If you write about what you know, you are more likely to create a really believable story for your readers.

YH:    You must know a lot about Chinese history, culture and history. Why are you so interested in China?
GP:    I have lived in Hong Kong many years, and many of my colleagues are Chinese. I became curious about their lives and wanted to know more, so I tried to learn as much as I could about Chinese culture and history.

YH:    How did you learn so much about all the weapons in the book?
GP:    When I was a teenager I did a lot of archery, so when I came to write the book I already knew a lot about archery. For the other weapons in the book, I learned about them from going to museums, and reading articles and books on the subject. But I learned the most from old historical journal articles.

YH:    Who are your favourite writers?
GP:    Two authors who write fiction for adults: George Orwell – who wrote ‘Nineteen Eighty-Four’ and ‘Animal Farm’, among other things – and Michael Ondaatje – who is most famous for his novel ‘The English Patient’.

YH:    What is the first book you remember reading?
GP:    A picture book called ‘Chicken Little’ – about a chicken who thinks that the sky is falling. My parents taped me reading it aloud when I was 5 or 6 years old, and they still have the recording somewhere!

YH:    What were your strengths/weaknesses in school? Were you athletic; artistic; musical?
GP:    I was just an ordinary kid. I enjoyed history and English lessons, but I wasn’t much good at maths! I played ‘Aussie Rules’ football, and did a lot of archery in my spare time.

YH:    When you were writing the book did you ever have a long break from writing?
GP:    No. Once I had started, I was anxious to finish it.

YH:    When did you start writing books?
GP:    When I was 12 years old.

YH:    Do you have any pets?
GP:    I have a dog called ‘Bingley’, and a cat called ‘Darcy’. They are named after Mr. Bingley and Mr. Darcy in ‘Pride and Prejudice’.

YH:    Did you always want to be a writer?
GP:    I always felt that, one day, I would try to write a novel. It was like some ‘unfinished business’ that I knew I would have to get to eventually.

The second photo down is Timeless Books by Lin Pernille ♥ Photography

YH:    What’s the first book you remember reading?
AT:    Maybe Swallows and Amazons? I remember reading ‘Oliver Twist’ with tears streaming down face hoping no-one would notice. ‘Catcher In the Rye’ was in my pocket for at least two years.

YH:    How did you become a writer?
AT:     I was always writing things, even as a kid. I finished my first novel at 12 – a war adventure – but my Mum used it to light the fire one day. Oh well, we were short of paper…!

YH:    Have you ever had a long break from writing?
AT:    No, haven’t had a break for years – I’ve always been writing for something or someone, usually for school.YH:    When did you start writing books?
AT:     I started writing seriously, with an intention to get published, in 2006.

YH:    What inspired you to write The Spider’s Web?
AT:    My interest in the whole business of viruses post-SARS and some chilling accounts from doctors at the time about what was happening.YH:    Why are you so interested in Hong Kong?
AT:    Although I now live in the UK, I lived in HK for 6 years and love the place for its many contradictions.

YH:    Tell us a bit about your writing process, for example, do you listen to music when you write?
AT:     No music! I need silence.

YH:    What were your weaknesses/strengths in school? Were you artistic, musical, or athletic?
AT:    Weaknesses: school uniform, hair, Physics and Chemistry (didn’t speak the language), school rules generally. Strengths : writing, Art (I won the school prize on several occasions) and cross country running. Music too – I have played various instruments in various bands over the years and still do. (We can attest to the fact that he’s a fine singer too, having heard him perform – The Ed)

YH:    Did you always want to be a writer?
AT:    Yes – either that or an artist. I’m still waiting for the latter!

YH:    Do you have any advice for someone who wants to become a writer?
AT:    Just do it, get someone to read it over and do it again (ie rewrite it). And read everything there is to read.

Photo by Tiffany Kwan

Last Saturday, we launched Young Haven’s newest novel,  an exciting YA read called ‘Chase to the Brazen Head‘, at Metrobooks in Elements Mall.

The audience got a taste of the adventures that the CEC (China Exploration Club) have, when author Greg Payne read a tantalising snippet from his book.

We then held a pop quiz (with yummy prizes) and a lucky draw – with one lucky participant winning a copy of the book, and another winning the grand prize of a ticket to Ocean Park!

The author later signed copies of his book for fans – please scroll down for photos.

A special guest star was also unveiled at the launch –  the Brazen Head featured in the title! The Head is unusual, as, if awoken, it can tell you what will happen in the future. Everyone was quite excited to see it there, but as it is complicated to ‘wake’ it, it remained silent and mysterious through the launch.

If you could ask the Brazen Head just one question about your future, what would it be? Tell us, in the comments section, under this post!

The author, Greg, is pictured below with Carson Long (left) – who wrote the very first review of the book – and Oliver Steinglass  (centre) – the brother of the lucky draw grand prize winner, Naomi!