Long overdue, just updated my author page on Amazon

I have just updated my author page on Amazon to read as follows:

My name is Jen Smith – I write teen books under the name Jenny Smith, and books for 7-10 year olds under the name J.L. Smith.

I live in Princes Risborough in Buckinghamshire, with my family and my small dog Angus. My ambition is to swim with whales, dolphins and porpoises, unfortunately the local leisure centre is not being co-operative.

2013 sees the publication of ‘The Abominators’ series for children aged 7-10. This was written to encourage one of my sons (who is dyslexic and was not a confident reader) to read, and is filled with humour, ridiculousness, naughtiness and pranks which I knew would appeal to him. It is illustrated by the brilliant Sam Hearn, who really brings the story to life with his hilarious line drawings. At a visit by a group of Year 4s to our local bookshop, 26 out of 38 children (that’s 7 out of 10) voted for The Abominators to take back for their school library. The reviews so far are very encouraging.

I was born and brought up in Glasgow, and loved to write from a very young age thanks to my father’s storytelling.

I have a blog where I review books and talk about writing and life in general called http://www.writingaboutpants.wordpress.com

In my early twenties I worked in Africa for a relief and development charity. I am so glad I had this experience because since then I’ve never been overly attached to possessions and ‘stuff’. It is relationships, friendships and experiences that represent your life. I put this message across in ‘The Abominators’ where Cecil and his father are no longer rich, but Cecil has never been happier because now he has friends.

I returned to the UK and joined school text book publishers Heinemann (now Pearson), where part of my job was organising author visits to schools. I met and was inspired by children’s authors Anne Fine, Dick King-Smith and Nigel Hinton. Meeting them made me think ‘maybe one day I could do that’.

I don’t think that studying English Literature at University helped me in my writing. Studying the ‘greats’ meant that I never thought that anything I wrote was good enough. I submitted a very serious literary novel to publishers in the early 1990s (with the encouragement of none other than Professor Philip Hobsbaum, highly respected poet and English Literature lecturer), and although I had some encouragement from Robin Robertson who was then at Jonathan Cape it went no further. This confirmed all of my insecurities and I was so discouraged I did not write anything (except a few short stories and poems) for twelve years.

In 2006 a good friend said to me: ‘You’re funny, you should write funny’. This led to the first draft of ‘Diary of a Parent Trainer’, which was accepted by Scholastic in 2008. It was published in 2011, followed by ‘My Big Fat Teen Crisis’ which came out in 2012. ‘Diary of a Parent Trainer’ has been published in eight other countries, and is doing very well in France and Germany.

I’ve appeared twice on Dave Gorman’s radio comedy show ‘Genius’, love watching stand up and comedy and think humour is not just important, it is a divine force (put that in your pipe and smoke it, literary snobs).

As my day job I am a freelance copywriter. I write (on a voluntary basis) for charities at the Clare Foundation. I can be contacted on: jennysmithauthor@hotmail.com.

I think that libraries are important and we should safeguard them, whatever future form they may take. Young people from disadvantaged backgrounds need a place where they can access great literature free of charge, this is a right that must not be lost. My father came from a poor background and he educated himself in his local library.

A BRILLIANTLY organised author visit at Crowmarsh Gifford Primary School in Wallingford

On Friday I visited Crowmarsh Gifford Primary School in Wallingford, and it had to be one of the best organised and most fun author visits I’ve experienced.

Freddy Shannon, the librarian at Watlington Primary, had mentioned me as a local author to parent governor Trish Allen, explaining that I’d talked to the children at Watlington Primary about the importance of planning in writing. Trish Allen, whose children had moved from Watlington to Crowmarsh Gifford Primary then spoke to the head teacher of Crowmarsh Gifford (Barbara O’Dwyer), because she was aware that the Year 5s were learning about planning in writing as part of their literacy work. Once Trish had found out that the school was interested in a visit, Trish contacted the publicity team at Little Brown (kids@littlebrown.co.uk) and asked if I could visit. Little Brown got in touch with me and I said ‘yes please!’

It was arranged that I should speak to 30 Year 5s about planning and writing technique, as well as reading from the book, and that I should then (after lunch) speak to 60 Year 3 and 4s about The Abominators. So the brief was nice and clear.

Trish Allen contacted the Wallingford Bookshop and owner Alison Jinks came along personally with copies of The Abominators, and also advance copies of The Abominators in the Wild (which is not in book shops officially until 2nd May). The whole atmosphere was wonderfully positive, with the teachers, the head teacher Mrs O’Dwyer, the book seller Alison and the involved parent organiser Trish all interested in and working towards one goal – to get the children excited about reading and writing.

And guess what? Genuine enthusiasm about reading is infectious. The children themselves were the most positive and excited I’ve ever talked to.

So well done and a heartfelt ‘thank you’ to Mrs O’Dwyer, Alison from Wallingford Books all the teachers at Crowmarsh Gifford – and especially to mover and shaker and book enthusiast Trish Allen. What lucky children to have you all on the case!