According to Amazon.co.uk my little book - Smelly Socks and Terrible Tangles (part of Oxford University Press's Treetops Series for schools) will be published on the 9th January 2014. A good start to the New Year I think..
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The book contains two funny stories - The Sock Eater, and Nellie's Nest.
The Sock Eater is all about a strange little creature that Yan finds living beneath his bed, and Nellie's Nest is about a stubborn young girl that refuses to brush her hair - even though it's as tangled and messy as a bird's nest. The illustrations have been done by the wonderful Dutch illustrator Marijke van Veldhoven - you can read a little interview with Marijke by clicking HERE.
I've not seen a finished copy of the book but can't wait to get one through the post...
On the 27th October 2013, Vicky and I were married (you can see some wedding pictures by visiting the Our Wedding section of my website), and it's just amazing how quickly the last year has flown by... it seems like only yesterday that we were walking hand in hand down the aisle.
To celebrate our Anniversary we spent a night in the same hotel that we visited for our Honeymoon - The Wild Pheasant in Llangollen. The Dee Valley Suit in the hotel is perfect - and what makes it even better is that there's a hot tub out on the balcony - protected from the weather by a roof so you can just sit and relax even if its rains or snows...
The day after our evening away I went to visit Elizabeth Woodville Primary School in Leicestershire - I had a great time at the school but couldn't wait to get back home as we were going to spend a few days together in a Log Cabin/Lodge not far from Alton.
It's nice to get away so we just spent our time relaxing and forgetting about work and everything else. You can't just sit in a hot tub day after day though so we also went to visit the Blue John Caverns in the Peak District. Blue John is the semi-precious stone coloured stone that you can see in the rock above. It's used to make decorative jewellery, vases and other ornaments.
The guide for our tour of the Caverns was a man that obviously spends a lot of time down there - probably on his own with very little light and no one to speak to. It was an interesting day out and I'd recommend it to anyone.
Since then I've been busy visiting schools and working hard on my writing. As well as working on my longer book I am also busy working on a series of non-fiction books called History Heroes. I'll tell you more about those tomorrow.
On the way home from lodge we called in at Snugbury's Ice Cream Shop for some of their delicious Ice-Cream and also to take a look at the Straw Sculpture... Last year they had made a huge sculpture of a cyclist for the Olympic Games - this year a huge golden Dalek stands in the field threatening to EXTERMINATE passers by... It looks impressive during the daytime but even more impressive when you drive past at night and see it illuminated in the dark field.
