Happy Anniversary

Today is our second Wedding Anniversary so there will be no writing, texting, tweeting or anything... phones and laptops are switched of and we're spending a lovely couple of days together in the same perfect place where we spent our honeymoon.
Happy Anniversary to my beautiful wife, Vicky...

If you'd like to see more pictures from our perfect day click on Our Wedding on my website.

 

School and Library Visits

Over the past month I've been busy, busy, busy visiting schools and libraries all over the place. I've been trying to squeeze in a little writing too but haven't had time to put anything in my diary for ages. I love getting out from behind my laptop and going into schools and libraries to share stories and work with people on their own writing. It's lots of fun and a real privilege to meet so many keen young writers.

On Friday this week I will be spending the day with everyone at Moss Lane Infant School in Surrey so here's a BIG HELLO to everyone there. I can't wait to meet everyone.

A couple of weeks ago I spent the whole week visiting schools and Libraries in the Vale of Glamorgan - starting with a visit to Llansannor Primary School (the Mountain School).

It took me quite a while to find the school - tucked away as it is down some very narrow country lanes - but it was well worth it.

I then visited schools and libraries with the Vale of Glamorgan Library Service so here's a huge hello and thank you to everyone that came along and joined in the sessions - and a special hello to everyone at Cogan Primary School who sent me this wonderful letter full of self portraits. 

It was great visiting Eagleswell Primary School in Llantwit Major where I got to see some familiar faces and meet lots of new people.

Last week I took a train to Chester from our home in Wales - then a train from Chester to Crewe, rushed across the station to catch another train to Euston Station in London, followed by one of the Underground trains across to St Pancras International and then the Eurostar across London, under the Channel, through France and into Brussels. From there it was a short taxi ride Tervuren so I could spend a couple of days at the wonderful British School Brussels (BSB).

This isn't one of the trains I caught, it was part of the playground at school... great isn't it.

 

The BSB were celebrating book week in a big way and had invited lots of authors, illustrators, storytellers and poets. It was a real pleasure meeting everyone in school - the staff and students were so friendly and welcoming - it was an absolute delight. There was even a little welcome bag waiting for me in my room... perfect.

It was also fantastic to have the chance to meet and chat with the other authors as most of the time
I visit schools on my own. So here's a BIG HELLO and THANK YOU to everyone at the BSB and to all the other authors taking part - including Adam Bushnell, Liz Million, Theresa Breslin, Adisa, Helen Grant and Andy Mulligan.

Here's Adam with megaphone in hand just before we climbed onto the cherry picker and went 30 foot into the air to shout out a big welcome to everyone as they arrived at school.


Driving around Tervuren we couldn't help admiring some of the beautiful houses but we were particularly drawn to this interesting fountain that decorates one of the roundabouts...

That's all I've got time to write at the moment.... but come back soon as I'll be writing more...

Ysgol Sychdyn

Just got home after spending a great day at Ysgol Sychdyn, just up the road in Flintshire. It was great to see some familiar faces and to meet lots of new people too for lots of book and storytelling fun and lots of great questions being asked by everyone...

Looking forward to going back tomorrow to work on some story writing and to work more on the story with Year 5 - An Evil Scientist, Robot Guinea Pig Army and a girl called Georgina Box to thwart his plans - Phew!!!

Robbie's Robot

This morning, and during the week, I've been busy working on my bigger book. I'm very happy with the way it's coming together and am very hopeful that I will have a completed first draft by the end of this week. I've had to make a lot of tweaks and changes to the first few chapters as the story has evolved and developed as it's gone along.

As well as this bigger book I have also worked on a few shorter books for younger readers. One of the books - Robbie's Robot - will be published next year. I've just been sent the finished cover  and the rough layouts for the inside. I can't show you the rough layouts yet but here's the cover - illustrated by the excellent Rory Walker. I think it's great and hope you like it too.

Pendine Sands - Land Speed Records

Whilst in Tenby, a few weeks ago, we went to visit Pendine Sands - just a little drive along the coast from where we were staying. With its long, flat beach Pendine Sands was a popular spot for land speed record breakers in the early 1900's.

Today there is a Museum of Speed at Pendine Sands where you can learn about some of the record attempts that were made there and also see some of the old motorcycles and one of the record breaking cars - Babs.

On September 25th 1924 Malcolm Campbell achieved a new land speed record in his Sunbeam 350HP - the first of many land speed record breakers to be powered by an aircraft engine. Campbell reached 146.16 miles per hour (235.22 kilometres per hour) - it was his first land speed record. The following year, Campbell beat his own record by reaching 150.87 mph (242.8 km/h).     

Then, in 1926, Wrexham born John Godfrey Parry-Thomas smashed this record by reaching 170 mph (273.6 km/h) in his car BABS.

Interestingly, BABS was originally called Chitty 4 (also known as the Higham Special as it was built on the Higham Estate by Clive Gallop for Count Louis Zborowski. The Count, who was a keen amateur racing driver died before Chitty 4 was completed and the car was then bought by J D Parry Thomas. 

The Count's cars and racing adventures later helped to inspire author Ian Fleming to write Chitty-Chitty-Bang-Bang: The Magical Car (published in 1964). You might know Ian Fleming better as the creator and original author of the James Bond books... 

On February 4th, 1927, Campbell beat Parry-Thomas's record in Bluebird II - achieving 174.88 mph (281.44 km/h). Later that same year, Parry-Thomas tried to beat Campbell's record. Unfortunately, Parry-Thomas's car went out of control and the daring speed racer was killed. BABS was buried in the sand and land speed record attempts at Pendine Sands came an end.

After the crash, Babs was buried in the sand on Pendine Sands and there it remained until 1969 when the car was dug up and restored. 

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.