The Start of Our Summer Holidays

Even though it's the summer holiday it's still a busy time... I've been busy writing... working on a longer book for older readers, a short story for younger readers and tweaking and checking the History Heroes layouts that my publishers have  been sending me. So far they are looking really good and I'm very excited about them...

Vicky has been busy too, working hard in the library... Summer is always busy in the library with the Summer Reading Challenge, but despite all the busyness we've still managed to have a few days of fun and relaxation - though not everything has gone as planned.

 

At the start of the holidays we went to Barry in South Wales so I could take part in a big Author Day at Barry Library. It was great meeting other authors - especially, and in alphabetical order,

Phil Carradice (broadcaster, poet and author of The Wild West Show, and much more, and history blogger for BBC Wales - a great blog to look at if you are in search of places to visit in Wales)...

Anthony Lavisher (an excellent fantasy fiction author) and the brilliant Colin Parsons (fantasy and science fiction author) as well as 

Wendy White (author of the Tir Nar Nog award winning book - Welsh Cakes and Custard) It's always great to meet fellow authors as being a writer can be quite a lonely job at times.

On the way home from Barry our car broke down and we had to wait to be driven home on the back of a recovery truck... not a great end to the weekend. And did I mention that the lady in the hotel room above ours had left her bath running so it flooded our room and we had to move to be moved to another??? All part of the fun...

Our car was repaired just in time for us to go and spend a lovely week in Tenby - a beautiful seaside town on the southwest coat of Wales.

We were a little worried that the weather might not as good as we had hoped as the tail end of Hurricane Bertha had just reached Britain... but apart from a few showers and blustery days, the weather was good. We love visiting Tenby with its gorgeous beaches, fantastic scenery and lots of places to eat and drink... yum!

We had hoped to go on a seal/whale spotting boat trip but the sea was a bit too rough for that - but it still didn't spoil our fun. St Catherine's Island had just been opened to the public ( more about that in my next post) and we enjoyed our visit there...

  

And for most of the time the weather was great... looks almost tropical doesn't it???

I was able to take lots of great pictures off the sea and the harbour... especially nice as the sun was setting...

And quite impressive with rain clouds gathering overhead as we walked and paddled in the waves...

That's all for now... I will write more tomorrow and tell you all about St Catherine's Island and the rest of our holiday... including land speed records and another trip on the back of a recovery truck... Fun Fun Fun....

A Quick Update

Over the past few weeks I've been busy writing so haven't had chance to put anything in my diary. As well as working on my bigger book - more about that as the year goes on - I've written a new picture book and sent it off to one of my editors to take a look at. Fingers frantically crossed there. I've also written a few very short stories - around 200 words each for one of my publishers. I was delighted when one of them -  Robbie's Robot - was accepted. Today I was sent a rough sketch to show me how the cover will look and I'm delighted with it - it should be a real fun little book. As soon as I get a finished cover I will put in here in my diary for you to see.

I have read through the final layouts for 
another of the History Heroes Books - this one all about the Dutch/Flemish artist, Pieter Bruegel the Elder - just a couple of little tweaks to be made there and they should be perfect. The artwork is great, as is the book that accompanies it about L.S. Lowry.

Both of these books will be published in December this year - I can't wait to see them. To go with the 8 History Heroes Books I have been slowly working on pages for them on my website. They are still under construction but please go and take a look and let me know what you think. You can even download Word Searches for each of the books to do at home or in school. Just click HERE to visit the History Heroes page.

That's all for now folks... Hope you're enjoying the Summer Holiday.