My trip to London was a great success, and I’ll have some exciting Scream Street news to share very soon!

Tommy

I’ve signed the contract to write a new book for top educational publishers, Continuum Books.

Making A Drama Out Of A Crisis will feature drama games and exercises designed to help moderate behaviour in the classroom.  I’ve got a handful of fantastic teachers around the country willing to test out these exercises and report back as to how they worked out.

I’m hoping he book will really help teachers in their day to day dealings with pupils.  I just have to find time to write the book now…!

Tommy

I’m off to London today (an odd thing to type as I lived there for eight years). Tomorrow is the sales conference at my new publishers – Walker Books – and they want me to introduce my series, Scream Street, to the reps and foreign sales teams.

I’m a little nervous, but really looking forward to meeting everyone and spreading the Scream Street word. I shall report back on how it went soon!

Tommy

Editorial Anonymous, one of my favourite blogs, posted details of what someone, somewhere considered to be a genuine submission a few days ago. In reality, all it was was a spam email for a self-published children’s book (and a self-published children’s book that claimed to be THE educational tool of the year, at that!)

The post is here and it’s essential reading for anyone who wants to be published.

Tommy

My pal and fellow author, Barry Hutchison, has started a blog to alert potential readers to his forthcoming books (two from Egmont within weeks and more on the way).

His fledgling site is here, but don’t let the fact that he hasn’t posted before fool you – he’s written everything from games reviews to zombie screenplays and back again.  His is a name you will hear a lot of in the future.

Check out what he has to say!

Tommy

I read a wonderful book over the past few days – Tim” Defender Of The Earth by Sam Enthoven. Obviously, I won’t give too much away but, suffice to say, any book that has a T-Rex rampaging through the streets of London (although, not necessarily in the way you might imagine) works for me!

Sam’s website for the book is here, and I heartily recommend you pick up a copy of Tim for yourself! Great stuff!

Tommy

Turns out I wasn’t as over my flu as I thought!  I’ve just spent another week in bed, suffering at the hands of this nasty little bug – and I’m now on antibiotics for a throat infection, too!

I’m a little better today (although I still feel as though I’ve gone ten rounds with Felicity Kendall) and back at the computer.  Time shall tell whether anything I write while under the weather is any good or not.

Tommy

You know, just once in a while, I wish I would listen to my own advice! I’m busy with the first few chapters of the fifth book in the Scream Street series (SS5) and I’m finding it difficult. Why? Because I’m trying to get it right.

What I should be doing is just letting the first draft flow out of me into a heap – the lump of clay I mentioned in a post back in December – then trust myself to be able to go back and fix anything that needs work. After all, the book will go through several more rewrites before it’s ready to be published.

I suppose it’s a positive move that I’ve been able to spot what the problem is before I start to panic – but all I had to do was go back to Dec 16th and read my own words!

Tommy

I’ve not been well.  Spent the last few days in bed, suffering from what Kirsty claims was just a touch of flu, but I’m certain was a combination of every disease known to man, with a few new ones thrown in for good measure.

As a result, I’ve not done any writing for the past few days, and I’ve got an itchy trigger finger.  So, even thought I’m still not feeling 100%, I’m aiming to get at least a chapter done in the current draft of SS5 today.  That should make me feel better.

Tommy