I never had any
intention of being a teacher. My father was a maths teacher and so was my wife.
I’ve seen more than enough of the modern British state education system to know
that I wanted no part of it – too much red tape, and not enough time with the
kids – but state schools aren’t the only place you can teach. I was a sailing
instructor on Sydney Harbour for a while, but that hardly counts. And I did a
fair bit of coaching when I was a professional sailor. Again, it doesn’t really
count. I certainly never had any intention of teaching writing.
So it was a bit of
a surprise when Sandy, the owner of Sea Sky Art, the local art gallery, suggested
that I might like to run some creative writing classes in her studio – just a
short course of five weeks. It ended up being three short courses of five weeks
each, held during last winter and spring, and it also ended up being a lot of
fun. This week I held in my hands the first fruits of those labours.
I joined Roy Young
and his wife Carol in a local pub for a quick drink and was handed a pristine copy of The Adventures of Traveller
Tim – a children’s book. Roy was working on the manuscript last winter and we
spent a lot of time workshop-ing the opening chapter. Just over a year later he’s
finished the book, had it edited, and then published via Amazon’s Kindle Direct
Publishing and CreateSpace programs. He’s understandably proud of it, and so am
I. It’s now on the TBR pile on the bedside table. Just where your copy should be
J.