Wingrove Primary School

On Tuesday evening I drove up to Newcastle ready to visit Wingrove Primary School on Wednesday morning. I stayed overnight in a hotel near the river so after tea I went out for a little walk along the quayside.

Even though we visit the North East of England a lot we don;t usually go up to Newcastle so this was the first time I'd seen the Millennium Bridge. Quite impressive.

On Wednesday morning I drove along to Wingrove Primary school and started the day off by telling a story to the whole school, which was lots of fun. It was great meeting everyone there, and work with everyone in Reception, and years 1, 2 and 3. Even though I didn't get to work with the older classes I did get time to chat to a few people and ear about the day they'd spent with fellow author Alan Durant - you can find out more about Alan by visiting his web site HERE.

Waterstones Again

A little while ago I said that I'd spotted copies of the paperback Snail's Legs and Snap! in Waterstones whilst visiting the Metro Centre in Gateshead... well I'm very pleased to say that all Waterstones (even the little one in Blackpoool where I live) seem to be stocking the books which is absoluetly fantastic. That means that you can rush down to the shops right now and buy a copy...

Robo-runners Book 2 - Tunnel Racers

Book 2 in my Robo-runners series isn't due out until April (the 22nd I think) but I was delighted to receive an advance copy of the book through the post at the end of last week. I think that's one of the most exciting things about being a writer... getting the very first copy of the book through the post.

I'm really pleased with the way the book looks - the wonderful folk in the design department have done a fantastic job of putting it all together... hmmm... that gives me an idea. Perhaps it would be interesting to put something about the designing of the book on my website. I'll have to see what I can do.

Short stories, getting un-stuck and new ideas

As well as all the school visits recently, I've been trying to get some writing done. I've been working on a few very short stories for a publisher and have been having a bit of trouble with them... Sometimes short stories are quite easy to write and at other times they can be quite tricky. Thankfully, I think I know what I'm doing with them now.

I've also had an idea for an exciting new series bubbling away in the back of my mind and I've finally worked out what I'm doing with that too. I've written a couple of chapters of the first book and have written an little bit to say what the series is about. My agent likes it so it's gone off to my editor to see what she thinks... so fingers crossed.

Computer Trouble and Book Week continues

Last week I was still travelling round the country visiting schools for their Book Weeks. On Sunday I drove down to London, which took 6 hours, ready to visit Dulwich Village Infant School on Monday morning. I had a great time at the school and was delighted to see the fantastic display that some of the fantastic poets and artists had done after reading my Band of Dirty Pirates rhyming story.

It was interesting driving through parts of London that I've never seen before, Hammersmith, Earls Court, Clapham Common, Brixton, Streatham and finally Dulwich Village. I always find it very tiring going to London to visit schools though - as it takes such a long time for me to get there and back home again and I end up being completely worn out afterwards... but it's always great to visit the schools themselves.

On Wednesday I visited St Edwards RC Primary School in Darwen - and on Thursday I went to Southport to visit St Patrick's RC Primary School... and what fantastic visits they were... everyone was really keen and interested in books - it was an absolute pleasure meeting everyone.

And what about the computer trouble? I hear you ask... Well, my internet router thing stopped working at home so I haven't been able to check my emails for a whole week and have not been able to update my website either. That's all fixed now and everything's back to normal. Hurrah!

World Book Week

It's been a very busy week with everyone having celebrations for World Book Day... After spending two wonderful days at Shooters Grove in Sheffield I drove down to Bradford where I spent a fantastic day with everyone at Margaret McMillan Primary School. Snap, the baby crocodile came with me and had a great time too. It was great meeting everyone and special thanks to the wonderful school librarian, Mrs Sheriff for organising the day and for looking after me.

On Thursday I drove to Skelmersdale to spend the day at St John's RC Primary School, and what an interesting looking school it is too. Very open with lots of space... there was even room for a fish fish tank. Everyone had been working hard at the school to get their excellent new library finished in time for the grand opening and I was lucky enough to be given the honour of cutting the ribbon to open it. There were ots of fantastic book in the new library and I was just itching to dive ion and take a look at them.

At the end of the day I drove down the motorway to Wolverhampton ready to visit Merridale Primary School on Friday. It's the first time I've visited Wolverhampton and I'm pleased to say that everyone was very friendly and welcoming. After starting the day in the hall telling a few stories I was lucky enough to spend the rest of the morning working with year four writing stories with a water theme and then year five in the afternoon. Everyone had lots of fantastic story ideas and at the end of the day we gathered together in the hall to share a few of them with the rest of the school. What a good day it was...

Riverdance

The Riverdance is a large boat that has got stuck in the sand onthe beach near Blackpool where I live. Wherever I go, people ask me if I've seen the boat... so just for you, here's a picture of it.

As you can see, it's quite a large boat and it is also very close to the shore.

Shooters Grove Primary School

After leaving Durham on Sunday afternoon I drove down to Sheffield, ready to visit Shooters Grove Primary School which is where I've been today talking to years 3, 4, 5 and 6... so here's a big HELLO to everyone at Shooters Grove.

Right now, I'm sitting in my hotel room in Sheffield and tomorrow morning I'll be going back to Shooters Grove to visit everyone in Reception and Years 1 and 2.

It's been snowing quite a lot today and the weather forecast says there will be more snow tonight... Brrrr... it's freezing. Hopefully there won't be too much snow though as it's not much fun driving through snow.

See you soon folks...

Waterstones

Over the weekend we went up to Durham to visit my wife's family and even managed to find time to go and visit the Metrocentre in Gateshead. While we were there we popped into Waterstones Bookshop and I was delighted to find that they were selling copies of my latest picture books - Snap and Snail's Legs.

This is the first time I have ever seen any of my books in Waterstones so I was quite excited...

Hurray!

As you can see - Laura was very happy for me to take a picture of her holding a couple of my books.

Visiting Padiham...

Hi to everyone at Padiham Primary School where I spent a wonderful day last Thursday... It was fantastic meeting everyone and spending the day with you. I was surprised to find that the school was right next to Gawthorpe Hall - I place I visited last summer with the rest of my family... you can probably find pictures of it if you root through my diary.

There were lots of wonderful displays at the school and lots of yummy cherry cakes for everyone to eat too. I ate mine at break time in the morning... YUM!

Everyone had been busy designing new book covers for some of my books and I had the difficult job of trying to pick some winners for their competition. It's always hard picking winners for competitions like this but it was even harder at Padiham Primary as all of the artwork was so fantastic. I am going to put some of the pictures up on my gallery page very soon.

During dinner and after school I signed lots of books... I hope you enjoy reading them all...

Bye for now.