A Huge Hello to two Small Schools

This week I'm delighted to be visiting two small schools, that are quite close to home - Ysgol Esgob Church In Wales VA Primary School in Caerwys, and Lixwm Church in Wales VA Primary School in Lixwm. A huge hello to everyone there - I can't wait to meet you all on Wednesday. I've got lots to show and lots of stories and rhymes to share.  

I thought I'd start right now by showing you the covers of two of my latest books - Running From Rex, and Valley Adventure... two books about a group of dinosaur friends and the adventures they have together. These books aren't published until October next year, so they really are new. 

A.I.M. High Writing Day at Whichurch C.E. Junior Academy

 I'm looking forward to visiting Whitchurch C.E. Junior Academy tomorrow where I'll be working with some of their young writers, and some from Tushingham with Grindley C of E Primary, Moreton Say C of E Primary, Shocklach Oviatt C of E Primary, and Hodnet Primary School... 

I can't wait to meet everyone and see what stories are created. It's always a fun and interesting day. Huge thanks to Authors Abroad for organising it all.

Gayton Primary School

 

Hello to everyone at Gayton Primary School, Wirral, I can't wait to meet you all next Friday when I come to spend the day with you in school.

During the day I will be sharing lots of stories, talking about writing and being a writer, showing how a book is made, telling you how I get ideas, and, of course, answering all of your questions. You can ask me anything at all about me or being a writer. 

I'll also be interested to hear about what sort of things you enjoy reading.

See you all soon 

A.I.M. High Writing Day - Holden Clough Primary School

Here's a huge HELLO to everyone that will be attending the A.I.M. High Writing Day at Holden Clough Primary School, Ashton-under-Lyne on Thursday - organised by the wonderful people at Authors Abroad . That's Medlock Valley Community School, Our Lady of Mount Carmel RC Primary School, Parochial C of E Primary and Nursery School, Millbrook Primary School, and, of course, Holden Clough Primary School.

Bring, your pens, pencils, and imaginations... it's going to be a fun, creative day. I'm looking forward to meeting and working with everyone. 

Talking to Readers

It's always a real pleasure getting to meet and talk to young readers and to hear what they think of the books they have read. Yesterday I was fortunate to have the chance to speak to Fiction Express readers from around the world in Spain, Mexico, India, Uruguay, Honduras, and Great Britain. 

A huge HELLO to everyone that joined the chat - It was great to have the chance to answer all of your questions and to hear what you had to say about The Sculptor... I was delighted find that you had all enjoyed reading the book. 

It was also fantastic to be able to share the chat session with the wonderful Janelle McCurdy and hear her talk about her Fiction Express book, End Game. Janelle is an author and a gamer, and it was especially interesting to hear how being a gamer has influenced her writing.  

If you like exciting fantasy adventures then you will love her book - Mia and the Lightcasters . I highly recommend it and can guarantee that once you pick it up, you won't want to put it down.

Dinosaur Stories

I've been very busy this year working on lots of different books. One set of books I've been working on features a group of dinosaur friends. The first two are published in August next year, followed by two more in September and another two in October. 

The books aren't completely finished yet but these two covers have appeared on Amazon and other websites, so I can share them with you now. I think you'll agree, they are looking great... 

The artwork for the books is being done by an excellent illustrator/artist called Hannah Wood - and she is doing a brilliant job of bringing the characters to life. I've seen the finished pages of a couple of the books and they look fantastic. You can find out more about Hannah, and see lots of her artwork by visiting her website HERE. 

I'll show and tell you more about these books as soon as I can.  

Discovering Dinosaurs

It's always exciting to see books finally come together with the artwork and covers. Here's the cover of a book that I was working on last year and into the early part of this year.

Discovering Dinosaurs is a non-fiction books about... well, discovering dinosaurs. Rather than just looking at different types of dinosaur it looks at how and what we know about dinosaurs aswell as how they are discovered. 

There is, of course, lots of information about different kinds of dinosaurs but the book starts by answering questions like "What is a dinosaur?" (and what isn't a dinosaur?). "What are fossils?" (how they are made, where they can be found, as well as what they can tell us). Other topics include dinosaur names, types of dinosaur and how to identify them, what poeple have got wrong about dinosaurs, and what happened to dinosaurs?

I have always been interested in dinosaurs so I knew a little bit about them before I started - but I was amazed by what I didn't know. I had to do a lot of research to write this book and I really hope that people enjoy reading it.

Discovering Dinosaurs will be published on 27th October in the Rising Stars Reading Planet series.