On This Day In 1969...

The Apollo 11 space rocket was launched from the Kennedy Space Centre in Florida. On board, the three American astronauts, Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins were just setting out on their voyage of discovery to the Moon.

You can read all about it in my History Heroes book all about Neil Armstrong - published by Franklin Watts, and illustrated by the excellent Mike Phillips... 

History Heroes

This week I've been busy working on a picture book - not quite finished yet - and a longer book. The longer book is coming along very nicely now and I'm eager to have it finished so I can let Vicky read it all before I tweak it again and send it off to a publisher. I've also been working on my web site, adding a section for my new History Heroes books - the first two of which were published earlier this month. The pages are still in progress as not all of the books have been published yet but please do take a look and let me know what you think...

On Monday this week I returned to Ripley Junior School to  work with year 3 and with the year 2 children that will be moving to the Junior School in September. It was great seeing everyone again and we had lots of fun coming up with two stories... One about a Ghostly Granny and one about a Cat who is a Master Thief. I hope everyone enjoys finishing the stories off - It'll be great to read them.

Tomorrow I'm visiting The Heys Primary School in Ashton-Under-Lyne... see you all soon.

Neil Armstrong

Today I'm busy working on a picture book story... but while I've been eating my lunch I've been making an animated gif of Neil Armstrong for my website's History Heroes section...

What do you think???

L. S. Lowry

Just a quick diary entry while I eat my lunch...

Here's a quick hello to everyone at Ripley Junior School in Ripley, Yorkshire - I'm looking forward to coming to school again so I can work with year 3 and the up and coming year 2 children from the Primary School on Monday. . I'm sure we will have lots of fun coming up with new stories together... I love the creative process of creating character and story ideas so it should be a fun day.
 
On Thursday next week I will be spending the day with everyone at The Heys Primary School in Ashton-Under-Lyne - can't wait to meet everyone there...

Right now I'm eating my lunch - a tomato and mayonnaise sandwich - and also making a little animated picture for my website. This will go on my History Heroes page when it's finished... Here's L.S. Lowry - illustrated by the most excellent Yulia Somina... hope you like it.

History Heroes

The first two books in my History Heroes series have just been published by Franklin Watts and I'm very excited about them...

History Heroes is a series of eight little books that focus on the lives of some famous people in history, all of whom are being looked at in schools - so hopefully they will prove to be very popular. The people's lives are told in a story style to make them more interesting to read and they've been illustrated by some fantastic illustrators to really bring them alive and add a little extra humour.

The first two books are about explorers - Christopher Columbus and Neil Armstrong. As soon as I receive my copies of the books I will be able to show what the insides of the books look like...

Last Week and This Week

This is a very quick diary post to start the week as I've got lots of work to get finished today... I'm busy working on some short stories and they really do need sending off to my editor.

Last week I had a great time visiting Ash Green Primary School in Trentham, Stoke-On-Trent, and St John's RC Primary School in Kirkdale, Liverpool. On Thursday Vicky and I went to watch the final of the North East Wales Book Quiz, at the Town Hall in Llandudno... 

It was great meeting everyone there - especially the teams from Cornist Park, Mountain Lane and Bryn Hedydd - as well as the excellent Paul Cookson (guest poet for the day)... At lunchtime we went to sit in the sun on the promenade so we could eat our sandwiches, then we went back to listen to Paul share some of his poems and to find out who had won the Book Quiz...

Over the weekend we went for a walk along the River Dee in Chester with Laura and Deanna... It was a beautiful day - hot a sunny.

Tomorrow I will be spending the day with everyone at John Shelton Primary School in Coventry so here's a BIG HELLO to everyone there... I'm really looking forward to meeting everyone.

I've just had a cup of coffee and some toast and it's time to get on with my work... be back soon...

Back to School

Here's a picture a couple of weeks ago of some sheep in a churchyard... It's got nothing to do with today's diary entry but I quite like the picture. 

The half term holiday seems to have flown by... I've spent most of the week busily working on a longer book - tweaking and reworking the first five or six chapters and adding new bits and pieces here and there.

I'm eager to get on with the rest of the book now but I also need to work of a few very short stories for a publisher. Over the next couple of weeks I will be doing a bit of both. I will also be busy visiting a few schools.

This week I will be visiting Oxford Grove Primary School In Bolton, Caldmore Primary School in Walsall, and Churchfields Junior School in East London... Here's a BIG HELLO to everyone there... see you all soon.

Best get to work now.