The Awful Astronaut has finally splashed down to Earth and you can buy the hardback right now from Amazon, order it from your local bookshop and keep your eyes open for it landing in your local library (the paperback version comes out next year).
It's always exciting when you receive copies of a new book through the post... you've spent ages working, writing and tweaking the story... you've seen the rough illustrations and finally the finished artwork - just a few tweaks to be made at this stage - but nothing beats holding the finished copy.
I must confess, I'm really happy with the way the book looks and feels, It's just what I wanted it to be - a good mixture of information and fun, and it's been illustrated by the fantastic Davide Ortu (click HERE to visit Davide's website). The publishers, Franklin Watts, were looking for stories about quirky characters doing jobs that they weren't very good at. The idea was to show some of the things that the jobs might include as well as the funny stuff.
Sam has dreamed of being an astronaut all his life and he finally gets the chance after seeing an advert in the newspaper. But becoming an astronaut isn't easy and Sam has to do a lot of training and things keep going wrong for him - he worries that he might just be the worst astronaut ever.
I was fortunate to get the chance to write two books in the series - The Awful Astronaut and the Disastrous Dentist. The Disastrous Dentist is published next month and is much sillier than the Astronaut book... I will tell you more that nearer the time.
There are some other great books in the series by different authors... you might like to keep an eye for them in your local library: The Terrifying Teacher by Claire O'Brien - illustrated by Santy Gutierrez, The Calamitous Cook by Rachael Delahaye -illustrated by Janet Cheeseman, The Petrified Pirate by Vivian French - illustrated by Mike Phillips (who also illustrated my History Heroes books about Neil Armstrong & Christopher Columbus), The Not-so Brave Knight by Kate Woodward, illustrated by Yulia Somina (who also illustrated my History Heroes book about L.S.Lowry) - and my Disastrous Dentist which has been illustrated by the brilliant Ben Scruton.
I'm very excited to be able to tell you a bit about three new books that are going to be published later this year with Franklin Watts...
The first book, "The Awful Astronaut" is published on 22nd September, illustrated by Davide Ortu, and is about two thousand words in length (five little chapters). The book tells the story of Sam Jones - probably the worst astronaut in the world and soon to be the worst astronaut in space. Ever since he was a little boy, Sam has wanted to be an astronaut. But when he finally gets the chance he discovers that being an astronaut isn't as easy as he had imagined.
The 10th November sees the publication of the second book. "The Disastrous Dentist" is in the same series as The Awful Astronaut and is all about (you've guessed it!) a dentist. Oliver Payne isn't a normal dentist though - Oliver wants to be a dentist for people and their beloved pets. If you think that things are bound to go wrong - you're right again. This is a very silly story and I loved writing it. This book is being illustrated by Ben Scruton and it's looking really good.
"Farmer Finns' Silly Sheep", a short story illustrated by the excellent Steve Brown is also going to be published on the 10th November. This is the second book that I've done with Steve but he's used a different style of illustration for this and I think it's great. (Steve also illustrated Meerkat's Marathon).
It's a wet and windy day on the farm and Farmer Finn would like nothing better than to sit by the fire; but there's work to be done. He feeds the hens and milks the cows but when it comes to feeding the sheep there's a problem... there's no sign of the sheep anywhere. Where could have gone?
I will be adding a web page for each of these three books very soon so keep coming back to take a look. Each page will include information about the books as well as fun things to do; word searches, mazes and more...
