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.

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?