Monday 23 September 2024

Victoria Road Primary A.I.M. High Writing Day

 Tomorrow I'll be spending the day at Victoria Road Primary School in Runcorn, leading a Writing Workshop with eager year 5 and 6 writers from Victoria Road, St Clement's Catholic Primary, Beechwood Primary, St Gerard's Catholic Primary and Nursery, Halebank Church of England Primary, Moorfield Primary, and St Edward's Primary School

I'm looking forward meeting everyone in the morning... It's going to be a fun and creative day. Huge thanks to the Authors Abroad team for arranging the day.

Monday 16 September 2024

Dinosaur Heroes


 Over the past few months I've been busy writing about dinosaurs. Today I've just received copies of two of the Dinosaur Heroes books - Terrifying T. rex, and Pterosaur Troubles. The books have been wonderfully illustrated by Alex Patterson, and they look Grrreat!!!

Dinosaur Heroes feature the same young heroes that were in my Global Heroes books - Fernanda, Keira, Ling, Mo, and Ronan. But now their missions see them travelling around the world, and back in time, as they come face to face with dinosaurs, prehistoric flying reptiles, and marine reptiles. In the books I've tried to make the creatures as realistic as I could so I've been doing quite a bit of research along the way.

Each of the Dinosaur Heroes books is a standalone adventure so you can read them in any order. These two books are published on the 26th September, and the next two are out in December.

Now it's time to start work on something new...

Thursday 8 August 2024

Meet the Dinosaurs

Today sees the publication of my first two Dinosaur Stories (Franklin Watts) featuring young dinosaur friends, Deano, Seren, Steg, and (the twins) Bella and Barap. 

Throughout the stories, the friends get themselves into, and out of some difficult situations, and learn about good manners and behaviour along the way.

As well as being fun, the series also supports the personal, social and emotional development area of learning the EYFS, and is suitable for use with children in Key Stage 1

In Rocky Ravine, Stegs difficulty controlling his temper gets himself and his friends into trouble. In Slip and Slide, Barap discovers that it's better to share than to do things on your own.  

Running from Rex, and Valley Adventure will be published on the 10th October, and Fire in the Forest, and Stuck in the Mud will be out on the 12th December.

The books look great and have all been beautifully illustrated by Hannah Wood

Visit my website to download free Maze Puzzles and Word Searches linked to the books...


Tuesday 18 June 2024

Meadowside Community Primary School - Warrington

Here's a big HELLO to the excellent Yr 1 and 2 writers from Meadowside Community Primary School in Warrington that will be spending the day with me tomorrow - and to the young writers that are joining us from St Margaret's C.E. Primary School

I've been to lots of schools in Warrington but have not been to either of your schools before, so I'm really excited to be meeting you. I can't wait to see what amazing story ideas everyone come up with - it's going to be a fun day.   

Do you have a favourite book or book characters?

I will be interested to hear what and who it is...

A huge thank you to the wonderful team at Authors Abroad for arranging the day. 

Tuesday 23 April 2024

The Return of the Heroes

 Right now I'm busy working on a new series of books that feature Fernanda, Keira, Ling, Mo, and Ronan - the young heroes from the Global Heroes series of books. 

This new series of books will be even more exciting than the first ones as the young heroes will be travelling back in time to come face to face with dinosaurs - rather them than me. I'm delighted to be able to say that the books are once again going to be illustrated by the wonderfully talented Alex Paterson

The first two books in the series - Terrifying T. Rex, and Pterosaur Trouble are to be published in September and the following two - Jurassic Giants, and Creatures of the Deep, are due to be published in December.     

I do know that Pterosaurs and Plesiosaurs aren't actually dinosaurs - but they did live at the same time as dinosaurs (and there are other dinosaurs in the books). 

Friday 1 March 2024

World Book Day and all that...

Next Thursday, 7th March is World Book Day so I'll be spending the week travelling round visiting a few school to help them celebrate.   

Here's a huge HELLO to everyone at Gillibrand Primary, Cottam Primary, Millfields Primary, Boughton Heath Primary,  and Somerville Primary - I'll see you all very soon.

As well as visiting schools I will also be busy writing - and in between it all I'll do my best to get some sleep too. 

I'm currently working on a book called Beware the Genie for Fiction Express. Writing a book for them is always fun and interesting - espcially as I get to write it in collaboration with readers from all over the world who get to offer their thoughts, comments and suggestions. Recently I have been finding out what people would wish for if a genie offered then three wishes. Some readers said that they would like to be able to teleport anywhere in the world. That is something that would be very useful during World Book Week - I wouldn't have to spend as much time driving around the country. 

What would you wish for?

I'm also busy writing some new books featuring the Global Heroes... these books ar going to be very exciting as the young heroes are going to travel back in time and come face to face with dinosaurs.       

What's your favourite dinosaur?   

These books ar going to be called dinosaur heroes and they are being publish later this year. A little bit scary as I have only written the first one. I'm very excited about writing these, and even more excited to know that the excellent Alex Patterson is going to be illustrating them again.  



Wednesday 7 February 2024

Bishop Martin CE Primary School

 Tomorrow I'm spending the day at Bishop Martin CE Primary School in Liverpool, and I can't wait to meet everyone - Here's a HUGE HELLO to all of you. 

As well as sharing stories I'm going to be working with everyone to create characters for stories. I think that characters are the most important things in a story and creating them and bringing them to life can be a lot of fun... it can also be difficult - especially finding a good name for them.

The picture of the character that you can see here is taken from one of my latest little books for young readers. Do you know what his name is?