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#HistFicThursdays - Fan Fiction?

 The other day at Crowvus HQ, we were discussing our favourite Jane Austen novels. Amazingly, for saying there were four of us with a positive opinion, each person had a different favourite. Jane Austen's books, of course, are not historical fiction, but books written contemporaneously to what is now an historical era. But! All the multitude of spinoffs which her books have invoked are historical fiction.  Pride and Prejudice  is not my favourite Austen story, nor my second or third, but I absolutely love the series Lost in Austen . People hear the phrase "fan fiction" and immediately think lesser of it, but this is a little unfair. Fan fiction is not a new thing, it is how folk stories grew into legends, adventures becoming more daring with every telling. But what has changed is the way in which these stories are retold and the care which is now (quite rightly!) taken to preserve and protect the rights of the original author. In the case of Lost in Austen , this is not t...
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World Book Day - Lend a Hand

So, the New Year Resolutions went out the window. But don't they all?

I was in a staff meeting after school today, and it was mentioned that Park Primary had reopened, and needed some interim supplies before they could get their stock up again.

For those of you who didn't see it on the news, Park Primary in Invergordon was burned down after an old laptop caught fire. Amazingly, all the staff and children got out and were not harmed. They reopened last week, but have lost all of their supplies.

My headteacher, a practical-minded individual, was hoping to put together some textbooks that we don't use. My first thought was that it was World Book Day this week, and the school had no library. Surely, if they had lost all their textbooks, they would have lost all their library books too!

Imagine that! No books for the kids to sail away on. No chance for the children to fight or fly with dragons, or meet superheroes and wizards.

With that in mind, I determined to package up my book, Taking Wing, and the two other Crowvus books that were written for children (Rosie Jane and the Swodgerump by Susan Crow, and The Backwater by Judith Crow), and send them to Park Primary to help in some small way.

I would encourage other children's authors to do the same. We all know how important books are to kids - I'm sure we all loved to read when we were little. I know that authors need the income from sales but...

Please consider sending just one of your fantastic books to help Park Primary regain its class libraries. Thursday is World Book Day. Make this year's event memorable for those children and their teachers.

It seems that Park Primary have temporarily relocated to Invergordon Academy, so I would send the book to:

Park Primary
c/o Invergordon Academy
Academy Road
Invergordon
HIGHLAND
IV18 0LD

Their postcode is old!!

Thanks, tremendous people!

More details about the fire are here:

https://www.inverness-courier.co.uk/news/pupils-of-fire-hit-primary-school-to-be-taught-at-academy-site-192214/

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-highlands-islands-51614060
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