Our Mini Lit & Careers Fest on 1 March kicked off with an engaging presentation and Q&A session with YA author Lisa Williamson, author of four contemporary YA novels dealing with everyday teens doing everyday things.

As a very shy child growing up in a small town near Nottingham, Lisa loved reading, writing and illustrating stories, and spent hours making up stories in her head. She became obsessed with a series of books written by a nine-year-old but had no clue herself how to get published herself.

From the age of eight and despite struggling with the idea of talking in front of people, Lisa desperately wanted to become an actor so she could put herself in other people’s shoes. Becoming more confident after leaving school Lisa worked in pantos and ads, but had to supplement income from acting jobs by working in offices. Working in the Gender Identity Development Service at London’s Tavistock Centre and seeing teens struggling with their gender identity on a daily basis gave her the inspiration for her best-selling debut novel The Art of Being Normal.

The inspiration for Lisa’s most recent book First Day of our Life, published in January this year, came from an offhand comment at a dinner party about why someone would steal a baby..

Find out more about Lisa – books with signed bookplates are available to purchase from Tales on Moon Lane.

The first choice of sessions for students after this was either a session with Emma Draude from ed Public Relations on PR in Publishing, or with Nick Hildred of Release the Clowns Sketch Comedy Podcast about freelance tv/radio writing and production.

This was followed by another choice of sessions; either fiction writing with author Katherine Slee or getting into journalism with Lucy Dyer of the School of Journalism and News Associates.

All sessions were highly enjoyable and informative, providing invaluable insights into these areas of work.

– Mrs Pett, Librarian and Careers Leader