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Archive > Class of 2009
On Wednesday 8th October, we were lucky enough to have a visit from
Author, Musician, and Former Teacher John Dougherty
John Dougherty's Visit to Our Class
Today John Dougherty, a children's author came to visit our class. He came as a reward for the previous 6th class because they did the 'Concern Christmas Fast'. With him, came a representative from Concern, Fionnagh Nally.
To start off, he read an extract from one of his first books, "Zeus to the Rescue". He left us with a cliff-hanger and said we would have to buy his book to find out what happens. Afterwards, he answered some questions our class asked. He had some interesting answers about being an author.
For each copy of his books sold, he only earns a fraction of the selling price, which makes being an author a hard job to make money at. If a book sells in the shops for £3.99, he would only earn about 30p. Sometimes he finds it hard to have a quiet place to write his books. When his house is quiet, he would write there on his computer, but if the house is busy, he would take his computer to the library to write.
After some of the questions had been asked, he read a poem of his to us about a loud, big-headed football player, which related to something he had once experienced. In fact, many of the things in his books are based on memories or experiences. In his book, about Bansi O' Hara, Bansi's Granny's friend who drives like a maniac, is based on an experience he once had.
“Bansi O' Hara and the Bloodline Prophecy” took John many years to write. The first draft of the book was over 100 pages long, but John then revised it and left only the good text in. This shortened the about 50 pages, which made it quite small, but in time, the final draft was over 120 pages long. After some more questions, John sang a song he wrote to us about a child who is always getting in trouble at school. He sang and played his guitar at the same time, and he sounded really good.
He then read some more small poems to us which were funny and entertaining. Again, some of these were based on memories and experiences. After that, he answered a few more questions about writing and being a writer. Before he left, I thanked him for coming and speaking, singing and playing the guitar for us, not to mention getting us off an hour of work! He then also signed our five copies of “Bansi O' Hara and the Bloodline Prophecy” and some of the boys' paper as well.
It was a great experience listening to John talk today, and it was interesting learning about being a writer and how you write a book. I'm sure some boys in our class will read some more of his books as well.
by Thomas Rafferty
John Dougherty’s Visit
An author came into our class today called John Dougherty. He has written five books called "Zeus on the Loose", "Zeus to the Rescue", "Jack Slater Monster Investigator", "Niteracy Hour" and "Bansi O’Hara And The Bloodline Prophesy". He was also a teacher, and he taught in England, and a musician who played in all parts of Great Britain.
In our class he read the start of his second book Zeus on the Loose and told us to buy it. He also told us all about how he became an author and what he did before he was, he told us what authors he liked and he told us about some of the authors he met and how much authors usually make in a year.
He told where he got all the ideas for his book and where he wrote his books and how he would be disturbed as he was writing his book.
He has written loads of songs and poems, usually to do with schools and all the poems and songs are very funny. There was one song in particular that the class liked the most but he didn’t have a name for it.
So that is what happened when the author John Dougherty came to visit our class.
by Ivan Walsh
Author's Visit
On the 8th of October Mr. John Dougherty came to our class. He is an author from County Antrim.
He was telling us how to become a author but it takes a lot of time. He started to read a bit of one of his books called Zeus to the Rescue. Next he read out one of his poems because he likes to write poetry. One of the books he talked about is called Bansi O' Hara and the Bloodline Prophacy. We have five copies in our class. He also said that it is hard to write a book and earn money (but not for J.K Rowling).
Mr. Dougherty started to play his guitar and sing a song he wrote about school. The best thing was we got out of school work.
by Liam Roy
John Dougherty's Visit
Today an author called John Dougherty came into our class. He came because the boys in Mr Ó Broin's class last year raised so much money doing the Concern Christmas Fast.
John Dougherty is an Irish author who writes children's fiction books. When he came in, he read one of his books called "Zeus on the Loose". It was about a Greek god that comes into the class and starts doing odd things.
We asked a load of questions such as; Who is his favourite author, Is it easy being an author and loads more. As well as being an author he’s a musician and a poet. While he was in our class, he sang us a song it didn’t have a name but it was really funny and it was based on how a teacher kept picking on the same boy over and over again. The poems he wrote were not the really fancy ones out there; his were funny not long and hard to understand.
His latest book is called “ Bansi O'Hara and the Blood Line Prophecy”. He said that it was set in Ireland and that it was all about magic and fairies. He also said that he is working on a follow on to Bansi O'Hara and another book called “Theres a Monster Under My Bed”
I think that John Dougherty is a really funny and nice man, and the whole class injoyed listening to him including Mr Ó Broin.
by Liam Hogan