Scream Street landlord, Sir Otto Sneer, has shaken off his dislike of technology (second only to his dislike of his residents) and joined Facebook. His latest updates include rants about zombies’ feet, floating skeletons and a demand to know who gave his Hellhounds laxatives…
You can add him as a friend, follow his updates, and generally try to put up with his insults by clicking here: Sir Otto on Facebook
In fact, you’d better add him as a friend, or he’s going to get very angry indeed.
And as if that wasn’t enough – he’s also got a new Twitter account, with you can follow by visiting www.twitter.com/sirottosneer
As I’m sure you’d expect, I read a lot of children’s books – and it’s about time I paid homage to two of the best series out there: Astrosaurs and Astrosaurs Academy by Steve Cole.
The initial Astrosaurs series takes the simple idea of dinosaurs in space (I’m not really kicking myself that I didn’t think of it first…) and builds an entire universe around it. While some people believe that the dinosaurs were wiped out by a meteor strike on the Earth millions of years ago, the truth is that the creatures had discovered space travel and vacated the planet long before the big pebble hit us. Now, the Dinosaur Space Service works hard to protect the peace-loving herbivore side of the galaxy safe from attack by the far nastier carnivores.
My favourite book in the Astrosaurs series is the first adventure – Riddle of the Raptors – in which Captain Teggs Horatio Stegosaur is finally given his own ship – the DSS Sauropod – and sets off to transport elite athletes to the Dinosaur Games. However, when two head-butting stars are kidnapped then easily rescued, it’s up to Teggs and his crew to find out what the wicked raptors are up to…
While Teggs continues to boldy go about his adventures in deep space, author Steve Cole next takes us back to his roots as a young cadet at the Astrosaurs Academy – with a new group of friends, and new baddies to face! The most enjoyable tale in this series, in my opinion, is Jungle Horror. In this adventure, Colonel Gruff and his staff mysteriously disappear, and a new group of teachers arrive to force feed mis-information about the galaxy to the eager cadets. However, Teggs soon begins to suspect that something is amiss and he sets off with his friends to track down their former tutors and expose a wicked plot to train a generation of useless Astrosaurs!
But that’s not the limit to Steve Cole’s abilities… His hilarious series for the same age group, Cows In Action, follows a herd of time-travelling bovines; he writes for Thunderbirds annuals and Doctor Who books (Jealous? Me?) and his latest hardback – The Hunting book 1: Z. Rex – has possibly one of the best covers I’ve seen in years! I can’t wait to read it…
So, whether you’re into dinosaurs, space, or none of the above and just fancy a good giggle – you won’t go far wrong with Astrosaurs.
I nearly hugged the postman this morning! Not because we’re close or anything – in fact, I barely know him – but he did have something wonderful in his bag for me…
My author copies of Zombie! have arrived! How excited am I?
Written for specialist publisher, Barrington Stoke, Zombie! tells the story of Nathan who, along with his sister Olivia, regularly visits his late grandad’s grave for a chat. However, their latest trip the cemetery turns terrifying when the children are seemingly attacked by one of the undead. The zombie, Jake, isn’t interested in eating their brains though – he simply wants to pick up some lemonade and sausage rolls for a forthcoming graveyard party! But with the only shop Jake remembers closed down, it’s up to Nathan and Olivia to escort him to their local supermarket and protect him from an over-enthusiastic security guard…
For anyone who doesn’t know, Barrington Stoke publishes books especially for struggling and reluctant readers – something that’s very important to me – and they also know how to match authors up with the perfect illustrator for their story. In my case, I’m thrilled with the utterly brilliant work Tom Percival has done. You can check out more of Tom’s work here: http://www.childrensillustrators.com/illustrator.cgi/tpercival
Zombie! hits the shops on 24th September, and I plan to make a short video about the book very soon…
13th September is Roald Dahl Day and, to celebrate, here I am discussing my favourite book from the great man…
Do yourself a favour and devour some Dahl today!
*Several eagle-eared viewers may have spotted my, er… deliberate mistake in saying that Danny’s dad vanishes every night when, of course, I meant to say “one night”. In no way was I attempting to rewrite a Roald Dahl classic…*
As you know, several months ago myself and seven other children’s authors were Trapped By Monsters. But, the good news is – we are being treated well, as proven by this moving video from Invisible Fiends author, Barry Hutchison:
So, YOU have absolutely no NEEDTO go out and find HELP for US…
Do your classroom or library walls suffer from blandness and boring areas? Do you yearn for something to look at other than that tattered old picture of Duran Duran? Then panic no more – the Poster Boys are here…
At Write2Excite – www.write2excite.co.uk – you can claim your FREE set of four posters, featuring best-selling children’s authors Andy Briggs, Joe Craig, Tommy Donbavand and GP Taylor!
I was very impressed recently to watch Harper Collins Children’s Books attempt to stage the world’s longest children’s book domino rally. You can see the fruits of their labour here…
But all this pales into insignificance against the response from fellow children’s author and my good pal, Barry Hutchison…
Barry’s response to the Harper Collins challenge not only counts as a lone author’s victory over ‘the man’, it also sets the bar for my own future videos. Curse you, Hutchison! Curse you!
Arran came home excited as he'd signed up for trampolining basketball. Unhappy when I pointed out they're 2 different after school clubs... 4 hours ago
Oh dear…
