Neil Pickup
Cricket Web Moderator
I'm not entirely sure why my brain decided to wander down this particular train of thought last night, but wander it did:
I'm sure any English children of the 1990s remember reading Rob Childs and Michael Hardcastle books about sports, generally football. I know I got through a lot at primary school. It occurred to me that very very few books were ever about cricket.
Granted, that's because cricket was in the Atherton era which appealed to the sum total of about six primary school kids in 1993, but now it's not. To me, it's clearly a hole in the market and surely exploitable. I reckon that if Hardcastle and Childs can write 150 books that appeal to primary school kids, then we can write one about cricket.
If we can knock together a few thousand words (how long are these things generally when you add an inch margin and size 14 fonts so that nine year olds don't get scared - Jamee, you must have some lying around?) by the middle of March (or earlier), I'm doing a couple of weeks' teaching practice in a year five class (ten year olds) and I'll see what sort of responses I get to the er, finished manuscript.
So, we need some characters, a setting and a plot. Clearly Lewis Mitchell will be involved as I've already developed the character reasonably well in CW-Land. That just leaves us another thirteen or so to form a squad, a few chapters introducing them and their club/school (which?), their coach and a plot line.
Fire ideas in the thread and I'll start knocking some prose together over the Christmas holidays (the joys of being a student on a slackers' degree, four weeks off and next to no work to do. I've already two-thirds completed Railroad Tycoon II...)
I'm sure any English children of the 1990s remember reading Rob Childs and Michael Hardcastle books about sports, generally football. I know I got through a lot at primary school. It occurred to me that very very few books were ever about cricket.
Granted, that's because cricket was in the Atherton era which appealed to the sum total of about six primary school kids in 1993, but now it's not. To me, it's clearly a hole in the market and surely exploitable. I reckon that if Hardcastle and Childs can write 150 books that appeal to primary school kids, then we can write one about cricket.
If we can knock together a few thousand words (how long are these things generally when you add an inch margin and size 14 fonts so that nine year olds don't get scared - Jamee, you must have some lying around?) by the middle of March (or earlier), I'm doing a couple of weeks' teaching practice in a year five class (ten year olds) and I'll see what sort of responses I get to the er, finished manuscript.
So, we need some characters, a setting and a plot. Clearly Lewis Mitchell will be involved as I've already developed the character reasonably well in CW-Land. That just leaves us another thirteen or so to form a squad, a few chapters introducing them and their club/school (which?), their coach and a plot line.
Fire ideas in the thread and I'll start knocking some prose together over the Christmas holidays (the joys of being a student on a slackers' degree, four weeks off and next to no work to do. I've already two-thirds completed Railroad Tycoon II...)