Library Visit

 Today I'm busy writing, but tomorrow I'll be visiting St Asaph Library in Denbighshire... I'm very much looking forward to meeting Yr 4 and 5 from Ysgol Edward Morgan, and Yr 2 from St Asaph V P Infants. 

When I see you I'll answer all your questions, show you how a book is made, and tell you about some of books that I've written. I'm especially looking forward to telling you about my new Dinosaur Heroes books.  

See you all soon...   

Hello Dubai

Here's a huge HELLO to all of my new friends at the International School of Creative Science in Dubai. I hope that you are all having fun working on your giant story about Ali and Omar. It already sounds like it is going to be a lot of fun.

I thought that you might like see what it is like here in Wales where we live so here are some photographs.

We live quite near the sea an spend a lot of time here with our little dog, Marvin.

Marvin loves running on the sand and on the stones. He likes to splash around in the water too.

We also live close to the hills and mountains. There are lots of hills in Wales. 

There are also lots of castles. Almost every town has a castle. Some of them are in ruins like Ewloe Castle which is five minutes away from our house.

But there are lots and lots of other castles that aren't in ruins - like these...

We love visiting castles and looking around inside them. Some of the castles are huge.

This bridge is called the Menai Bridge. We rive across this whenever we go across to the island of Anglesey. 

These Puffins live in burrows (holes in the ground) high up on the cliffs above the sea. They are beautiful.  

When we aren't walking on the beaches or visiting castles, we can often be found going up into the hills and mountains near where we live. 

This tree is known as the lonely tree. It stands in the water by the edge of a lake in the mountains. 

It looks nice and sunny in Dubai - it's cold and wet here right now. And we had snow a little while ago. 

And here's just a few more pictures of places near where we live that we have taken in the last couple of weeks. See you all soon...

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.

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...

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...

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. 

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).