We’re excited that our next #AskSwanwick twitter chat, on Wednesday, 13th May 2015, will be with an agent from the transatlantic Greenhouse Literary Agency. Greenhouse “aims to nurture and grow the talent of exceptional writers. With an emphasis on working creatively with clients, Greenhouse can help writers develop their voice and craft – and then be their advocate and long-term partner through the publishing process and beyond.” They focus on children’s and YA fiction, including picture books! John represents picture books, middle-grade, and young adult novels. He is also a YA author in his own right, having written GIRL PARTS and CHERRY MONEY BABY (both published by Candlewick Press). 

John is also a co-founder of Armchair/Shotgun, a magazine started in January 2009 that reads all submissions anonymously, concealing even an author’s name until a piece has been selected for publication.  Armchair/Shotgun accepts poetry, fiction, non-fiction and visual arts submissions for publication on real honest-to-goodness paper.

Don’t miss this exciting twitter chat! Just search for the hashtag #AskSwanwick on Wednesday, 13th May 2015 at 8pm (UK Time) - if you're new to twitter, make sure you follow 'all' not just 'top' search results. To ask a question, tweet using the #AskSwanwick hashtag followed by your question. You can find an easy guide on how to follow and tweet-etiquette here: http://www.swanwickwritersschool.org.uk/twitter-chat.html.

Selected highlights of each session are available on the Swanwick website a few weeks after each chat – but nothing beats following it in person at the time and asking questions!

Best wishes,

The Swanwick tweet team (Benjamin, Karin, Andrew and Mike). 

April’s chat, "#AskSwanwick 2-4-1: Inside the Christian Market", featured two sensational guests: Reverend Philip S Davies (Chair of the UK Association of Christian Writers) and theologian, journalist, author and instructor of Religious Education teachers in Switzerland, Stephan Sigg. 

If you missed it, here's a selection of interactions from the chat. ("RD" stands for "Rev. Philip Davies", "StS" for "Stephan Sigg".)

Q: How easy/difficult is it to break into Christian writing?
RD: It's always difficult to break into any market for writing. We just have to try to be very good!
StS: And you need a little luck!

Q: Do you actively communicate a Christian message in your fiction?
RD: My first priority is to tell a good story. I write from a Christian worldview, but that's not evangelising.
StS: It's also important to love people and the world – you have to have an optimistic point of view!

We have been tracking down this summer’s course tutors in their hide-outs across the UK. We asked the very busy John Lamont how he feels about the challenge of delivering one of this year’s specialist courses.

Really positive and excited, for two reasons.  Firstly, I love delivering ‘Succeeding on Purpose’ and secondly, the results from the last time we did something similar at Swanwick were downright amazing with lots of successes reported by participants – including publication of all sorts of stuff.  If we can repeat those results and have the same level of fun, it will be awfy good!

What can we expect from the course?

Four interesting and enjoyable sessions, an understanding of how the mind works and how we can make it work better, and a set of effective tools and techniques to help us do what it says on the box – succeed on purpose.

And what does Swanwick mean to you?

It’s getting to feel that I’ve been going to the Writers’ School since it was a nursery.  I’ve grown old at Swanwick but every year I love the whole shebang and invariably get to the end of the week already looking forward to the next year.

What does it mean to me? Old friends, new friends, new ideas, perspectives and stimulation, learning and encouragement, all in an atmosphere that is warm, welcoming, bright, relaxing and ever so slightly, delightfully wacky. In other words – Swanwick.