The Scream Street group on Facebook has hit the 150 member mark – which is fantastic, as my goal was to reach 100 members before the books were published.  Now, of course, I’m hoping for 200…

If you haven’t joined yet – point your mouse in this direction and click with us!  members get to read exclusive excerpts from the books, get sneak peeks at cover art and are the first to hear about upcoming author events.

See you there!

Tommy

Arran and I have just got back from seeing Artemis Fowl author, Eoin Colfer‘s one man show – Fairies, Fiends & Flatulence.  It was a fantastic performance with Eoin talking about his childhood in Wexford, Ireland and – in particuar – dealing with his four brothers.

He explained where the inspiration came from for the characters in his books (the brother who inspired Artemis himself is happier than the one who became the inspiration for Mulch Diggums, the farting dwarf).  All accompanied by embarrassing pics from the Colfer family album!

After the show, Arran and I queued up to have the latest Artemis Fowl book signed by the man himself.  I shall start reading it tonight…

Tommy

Look at what those crazy Germans have done to the first two books I wrote in the Too Ghoul For School series…

I really like these covers!

Tommy

I just uploaded my photo to one of those ‘which celebrity do you look like’ things.  Oh dear.  Oh dear, oh dear.

52% Mother Teresa?!

I was doing a spot of gardening the other day when I noticed a wasp.  I agree this isn’t unusual, especially as we’re now in August – and I’m really not trying to impress you with my acute powers of observation.  Stay with me…

Before long, I spotted another, and another – both heading in the same direction as the first.  Interesting, I thought.  Have I stumbled across the world’s first wasp conga line?  Alas, no.  They were all heading for a tiny hole at the top of our shed door.  Even more wasps were squeezing out of said hole.  We obviously had a hive somewhere inside the shed.

Being a brave sort, I immediately suggested that Kirsty should telephone someone who deals with wasp’s nests and – without a second thought for my own safety – went inside to get a beer and watch The Simpsons.

The exterminator guy arrived early this morning, and I showed him to what had now become wasp central as dozens of the little blighters passed each other in and out of the shed.  He asked how big the nest was and, as accurately as I could, I explained that I hadn’t had the nerve to open the door and take a look.  Mind, I’d happily hand him the keys and allow him to do so.  He did and – oh, flip – the nest was huge.  At least the size of a large shoe box, nestled tight against the ceiling of the shed.

The brave soul grabbed his pump-action exterminating smoke thingy and suggested I retreat to a safe distance as, when he began to spray, he said they were “going to go mental”.  I’d been cautious with the little blighters up until now but, when the guy whose job it is to deal with them tells me they’re going retaliate, I do as he says.  The plan was ready.  He was going to spray the nest, then shut and lock the shed door, and toss the keys across the garden to me at the back door while he escaped through the gate.  And spray he did…

Now, when someone angers bees or wasps in cartoons, they get angry and fight back – often swarming into the shape of an arrow or a missile in order to chase the offender away.  This is more or less what happened today.  “Going to go mental” turned out to be the understatement of the year.  As soon as the guy sprayed the smoke, he attempted to slam the shed door, only to find a huge fist made of wasps pushing the other way.  Of course – he did the only professional thing he could do and ran around the garden, swatting the the flying beasts away as they attacked him from every angle.  They were so violent I almost considered opening the back door and letting him inside to safety.

For a while, you could barely see the shed through the cloud of wasps that buzzed angrily around it and we’ve had the windows firmly closed all day in case one of them overheard Kirsty on the ‘phone and organises a revenge assault.  Things look a little quieter out there now, but then they could all be flattened up against the wall below the window gesturing to each other to hush as I peer through the glass.  I won’t be going out there again for a while.

Dangerous business, gardening.

Tommy

The eagle-eyed among you will have noticed the new widget on the right hand side of the page.  This is a book widget created especially for the first four titles in the Scream Street series by the lovely people at Adaptive Blue.  Lovely people – because they made the widget for free.

Have a play with it.  Click on it and feel its loveliness.  Then, head over to Adaptive Blue and get one of your own.  Tell them I sent you.  I doubt it will make any difference, but it should help give me an inflated sense of importance…

Tommy

The lovely folks at Walker Books recently asked me to write an entry for the Bear Blog on their spiffy new website – so I decided to reveal the answer to a question we authors are asked constantly…

Where do you get your ideas from?

Want to finally know the answer?  Check out the Bear Blog here!

Tommy