Alex McCall

I am a young but established author who was born in Aberdeen and moved south for university. My first published novel, Attack of the Giant Robot Chickens, won the 2013 Kelpies Prize and the 2015 Scottish Children's Book Awards. The sequel, Revenge of the Giant Robot Chickens, came out later that year.

I have visited a large number of schools and also done sessions with the Wee Write Festival at The Mitchell Library, the Edinburgh International Book Festival and the Wigtown Book Festival. The session I run when I visit schools focuses on the basics of writing a short story. It covers coming up with a plot, description through the senses and creating characters. It also includes a few short readings from my books and finishes with a Q&A session at the end. In total it takes about an hour but is very flexible, so can be a tailored depending on what is needed. There is a basic version of the session for primary school age children and a more complicated version for those in secondary school.