The Curious Case of Dr Salamander and more...

First of all let me say a HUGE HELLO to everyone at Etching Hill Primary School in Rugeley... I'm really looking forward to meeting you all this week.                           At the moment I'm busy working on a few different books - not always a good thing to do but sometimes it's something that I have to do. One of the books is called The Curious Case of Dr Salamander. It's a book I'm writing for Fiction Express - if you haven't heard of them before you might like to take a look at their website. Authors write the chapter of a book and give the readers three options that they can vote on to happen next. This makes the book really interactive and lots of fun. There's much more to it than that though - click HERE to go and take a look at their website. 

I have just written two little books for Franklin Watts - one called Run Melina Run! set in ancient Greece at the time of the Olympic Games, and another story called A New Life on New Earth - a story set a long time in the future about a young boy and his family starting a new life on an enormous space station called New Earth. Just imagine how the young boy feels, having to go to a new school in a strange new place. I don't know who will be illustrating Run Melina Run! but I do know that the artwork for A New Life on New Earth is being done by a Spanish illustrator called Jose (Yayu) Rubert. So far I have only seen the rough cover but it's already looking great... I can't wait to see more.

One of my big books is on hold at the moment while I get another, not quite as big, book finished. I've been working on Mindy and Moose and the Howling Wolves for quite some time now and I'm determined to get it finished very soon. To keep me in track with this I've set myself the target of writing at least 1000 words a day to keep it moving along.

Writing that many words should mean that the book is finished quite soon, however, it's not quite as simple as that as I have to keep going back to edit and tweak things to make sure it all fits together properly. It's taken me a long time to write this book as I kept getting stuck... I think that the biggest problem has been getting the tone of the story right... I think of this as being the stories voice. Every story I think, has it's own voice and it can be tricky finding it or getting it right. Hopefully I'm on the right track now and Mindy and Moose and the Howling Wolves will soon see the light of day (or perhaps that should be the dark of night - with a full moon of course).

Cave Boy And The Egg

A quick entry in my diary here to let you see the cover of Cave Boy And The Egg which has been beautifully illustrated by Bill Bolton. I'd not seen Bill's work before but as soon as I saw his rough cover illustration I could tell he was the one to illustrate this little book about Cave Boy and his dad as they go off in search of something to eat for their tea. It's always interesting to see how different illustrators interpret the story - each one fresh and different and bringing something new to the finished book.

Granny At The Park - Reading Champions

I've been busy working on some very short stories with Franklin Watts recently to encourage and help very young children with their independent reading. The first of these is Granny At The Park, illustrated by Jan Smith. I've only seen the rough inside artwork so far but have just spotted the colour cover on Amazon so thought I'd share it here with you. It's fun and a bit challenging working on very short stories (there's only six words on each page) and they need really lively artwork to bring them to life. I think that Jan Smith has done a wonderful job of showing Granny having fun at the park as she causes more and more embarrassment for her Grandson. 

If you want to find out more about the illustrator, Jan Smith you can visit her website here.

Right now I'm busy working on more ideas...

The Awful Astronaut

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.

On The Road And In The Air

Tomorrow I will be up early so that I can drive the 60 miles from home to St Bartholomew's C of E Primary School in Rochdale... A BIG HELLO to everyone at St Bartholomew's - I'm really looking forward to meeting you all.

And a BIG HELLO to everyone at the British School of Tashkent, Uzbekistan. A bit of a longer journey there - over 5000 miles... Really looking forward to meeting and working with everyone.

On Thursday, my latest little book - "Just Like Me!" will be published by Franklin Watts as part of their Tiddlers series for very young readers. The book only has around 50 words but it can be quite tricky coming up with a little story idea using so few words. Vicky gave me the idea for this one after we visited Chester Zoo and saw someone taking photographs of the Meerkats with their mobile phone when - oops!!! they dropped their phone into the Meerkat enclosure. One of the inquisitive creatures raced over to take a look at the phone and we imagined it taking pictures of us and other people in the zoo.  

Click here to go and visit my web page all about Just Like Me! The page isn't quite finished yet so please keep coming back for another look... I'm working on it right now.

Last weekend we went on a little drive - heading through Betws-y-Coed, past the Ugly House (Tŷ Hyll) at Capel Curig and on towards Snowdonia. I think you will agree that the little house, now a tea room, is far from being ugly. You can find out more about the Ugly House HERE.

Our journey took us along the road through the mountains and past Llyn Ogwen - despite the snow on the mountains it was quit warm.

We didn't really have long enough to go for much of a walk but we did have a little wander along the path that would have taken us up to the higher lakes. We only went as far as this iron gateway before heading back - though we will be returning soon for a good walk.

Jumping back in the car we continued our journey through the Welsh Highlands.

Time for me to get back to work now... lots of writing to do.

New Books

I hope you're enjoying the half term holidays... I've had a busy time since Christmas and things are just going to get busier so I thought I' d take this chance to write a little bit in my diary.

My two latest little books were published by the wonderful people at Franklin Watts a couple of days ago. Meerkat's Marathon and Hippo's High Dive. Both of the books form part of a little six book series themed around animals in the Olympic Games - two books are written by me and the other four have been written by other authors... There are only around 200 words in each of the books so they are quite short but the illustrations are great and I think they are a lot of fun.

Meerkat's Marathon has been illustrated by a brilliant new illustrator called Steve Brown. This was only Steve's second book but I think you will agree he's made a brilliant job of it. I'm delighted that Steve is illustrating another one of my stories at the moment (more about that later)... I think he's going to be a really big name in the children's book world in the future so it's great to have the chance to work with him. You can find out more about Steve by visiting his website HERE.

You can find out more about Meerkat's Marathon and Hippo's High Dive by clicking HERE... you can also print off some fun things to do.

I had a great time last week with everyone at Hadnall Primary School near Shrewsbury - followed by a long drive down to Edgware where I spent a day at The Orion Primary School for part of their wonderful Word Up Festival. I hope everyone enjoyed the day as much as I did...

After leaving The Orion Primary School I had a short drive (though it took ages) down to Wimbledon ready to visit the Ursuline Preparatory School for Girls.

It was fantastic meeting everyone and coming up with story ideas... lots of great questions and I even got to see a fox snoozing in the sun. You can see him at the top of the page...

Out And About With a Camera

In my last diary post I said that, as well as working, we had a few days out over the summer holidays. Not only does getting out and about give you a nice break from normal work days but it is also a great way of filling up your mind with sights and sounds that can give you ideas or things that can be use in stories. Whenever we go anywhere we  always make sure we have a camera with us so we can take lots of picture of interesting things.

Over the summer we've had trips out: Tenby, Chester Zoo, London (including a day spent at the Warner Brothers Studios Harry Potter Tour)... We saw lots of things and took lots of pictures. Doing all this gave Vicky an idea for a new little story about a boy taking pictures of animals with his camera. 

Just Like Me! is a very short story for young children - it only has 50 words but it's lots of fun and I'm sure very young children will enjoy sharing the story and looking at all the pictures. The book doesn't get published until May next year so it isn't even finished yet but this week my editor sent me a finished copy of the book's cover - illustrated by Federica Nuccio and Roberta Vottero - and I think it looks great. I wonder how two people do the illustrations together?

Robbie's Robot

Today sees the publication of my latest little book and the postman arrived with a few copies for me... always an exciting time. The book, Robbie's Robot is out today in Hardback and the paperback version will be out next year (published by Franklin Watts - part of Hachette Children's Books). 

It's always exciting to receive copies of a new book - no matter how big or small the book is... It's great seeing the story all together with the artwork. Robbie's Robot has been illustrated by the wonderful Rory Walker and he's done a great job of it too.

Robbie loves nothing better than lazing on his bed, reading comics, playing games, eating crisps and drinking pop. The trouble is, he hates tidying his bedroom and it gets messier and messier. Mum tells him that if he can't keep his room clean then he won't get any pocket money. Tidying his bedroom is hard work, but then Robbie has an idea. He looks on the internet and orders himself a robot... just the thing for keeping his room tidy.

 

Writing the little story I tried not to imagine how the robot would look so it was fantastic to see what Rory came up with... I love it. Robbie loves it too.... but if you were a robot would you be happy tidying Robbie's room?