Cathy Cassidy Captivates Doncaster

This September, the Doncaster Book Award was fortunate enough to be offered a visit from the wonderful Cathy Cassidy. Danum School offered to host, and students from Don Valley Academy, The Armthorpe School, Hexthorpe, and Plover Primary schools also attended.

Cathy began by telling her audience that she believed her main talent at school was as a daydreamer! She also pointed out that many of her teachers did not see this as a talent, and on occasion were not too happy about her tendency to drift off in class. However, the elaborate stories and fantasies she constructed in her head were to stand her in good stead in later years when she began to write her very successful books.

Cathy was determined from an early age that she wanted to write stories. She was a fan of a popular teenage magazine called Jackie and loved the stories it contained. She desperately wanted to see her work published in the magazine, and wrote story after story, sending them in on a regular basis. Although she was rejected (albeit politely!), over and over again, she simply refused to give up. When she did, after many attempts, succeed in getting a story published, she was overjoyed!

After school, Cathy went on to Art College, as she is interested in all aspects of creativity, but she never lost her love of words and writing. She went on to become an agony aunt for a teenage magazine, and eventually an editor, so that it was, for a time, part of her job to read the stories other would-be writers sent in for publication! Eventually, Cathy was successful in getting her first teenage novel published. She has since gone from strength to strength, and now has a huge fan base, who eagerly await each new title. Her books are about teenage life with all its ups and downs, and although she is often perceived as a ‘girlie’ writer, in reality her books always have strong boy characters too, and deal with the types of problems and issues faced by both sexes.

Cathy read aloud an extract from her latest book, Marshmallow Skye, one of the Chocolate Box Girls series. The extract she choose features an encounter between a boy and a girl that was very funny and decidedly unromantic!

When talking about the actual writing process, she explained that it is the ideas which matter when writing, and advised any of the students listening avidly that the very best thing to do is to write as often as possible, to get your ideas down on paper as they come, and then work on things like plot construction and character development later. She also said how important it was to think through roughly where you want your story to go, so that although this might change slightly as the story progresses and you get more into your characters, it gives a structure to your work.

When it was time for questions and answers, loads of hands went up, and some of the questions were really insightful. The talk finished all too soon with some book and autograph signings.

Everyone attending thought that it was a great morning, and several said they’d love to meet Cathy again.

Lyn Hopson

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