to my beautiful lady, Vicky.
Today is our 3rd Wedding Anniversary and rather than writing about my writing... I wanted to say how lucky I am to have this wonderful lady in my life and to let everyone know how happy I am am that she is my wife.
I love you with all of my heart Vicky - Truly, Madly, Deeply.
Forever yours...
Damian
...looking forward to meeting eager readers from St Begh's Catholic Junior School and Monkwray Junior School this morning - and St Patrick's R C Junior School this afternoon in the library...
Now it's time for some breakfast :-)
See you all soon.
A busy working today but I'm really looking forward to meeting everyone that's coming along to the Buzz About Reading Festival tomorrow... and everyone that's coming to the libraries on Thursday. I'm looking forward to sharing stories and having lots of fun. Make sure you come over and say hello...
This week I've been working on a new picture book story. It's been bubbling around in my head for a little while now so the story is flowing nicely. I still need to change the name of one of the characters though. Still not quite sure what to call him.
My fingers are still crossed as I wait to hear final word on some Twisted Fairy Tales that I have been sending to my editor over the last couple of weeks or so... I'm very much hoping that one or two will go down well and get published.
Lots of writing and other bits and pieces to get done today but before I get started here's a BIG HELLO to everyone at Thornhill Junior and Infant School in Dewsbury...
I hope you are all having a great book week.
See you all very soon.
Here's a really BIG HELLO to everyone at Garswood Primary School. I'm really looking forward to meeting you all very soon. I've got lots of stories to share and lots to tell you about... and I'm really excited about creating some new story ideas with you and answering all of your questions....
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?
To coincide with the 2016 Olympic Games there are two Animal Olympic stories: Meerkat's Marathon and Hippo's High Dive. 
I have added web pages for both of the Animal Olympic titles to my site which include information about each book and some fun things to do like crosswords, word searches and colouring sheets. Click on HERE to go there now.
The third new book is called Just Like Me! a very short story with around 50 words. So far I have seen the cover and some of the rough artwork... but it's already looking like a lot of fun. This is still being illustrated by two illustrators - Federica Muccio and Roberta Vottero at the moment so the web page isn't quite ready. It's interesting that there are two people working together to do the illustrations but then the story itself was created by me and my wife Vicky... so it's taken 4 people to make this little book...
