I’m at the end of a tiring, but brilliantly enjoyable week visiting schools in Preston, Poulton and Lancaster, then dashing down to speak at a Renaissance Learning seminar in Leicester (where I was thrilled to meet the author of the incredible Mokee Joe books, Peter J Murray and his wife, Kath).

Thanks to everyone for arranging the events, and for making me feel so welcome.  I’ll have the weekend to get my breath back (and also finish the first draft of Wolf, my third book for Barrington Stoke), then it’s off to London for what promises to be three manic days of meetings, conference calls and more!

Who said this writing lark was easy?!

Caroline Roche, the brilliant, tech savvy school librarian behind last week’s Skype sessions with Holmesdale Technology College has been blogging about the experience here: http://uulibrarian.wordpress.com/2010/01/23/skyping-with-tommy/

You can also see how the link-up looked from the other end (although this picture was taken on a different day to mine, hence the change of t-shirt!)

The future is here!  Forget your flying cars and robot secretaries – this week, I’ve been teaching in a school 270 miles away, via computer!

Instead of driving from my home in Lancashire to Kent and back to run my creative writing classes, I’ve been linking up with year 8 pupils at Holmesdale Technology College over the Internet each day.

Using Skype (a free Internet telephony and video conference program), I’ve been teaching pupils at the opposite end of the country how to come up with unique story ideas, develop three-dimensional characters and plan a three-act plot.  And I haven’t had to charge a penny in travel expenses!

As you can see in the image below, grabbed from screen during today’s session, I get to see the class in front of me and – at their end – I’m projected on a screen on the wall (very Big Brother!)  This is the view I get – the pupils filling the window and me in a box in the corner.  They, of course, see the opposite.

The whole thing is still a learning process and, as with any new endeavour, there are pros and cons:

On the plus side…

• I get to work from home, so I can get some writing done instead of driving to and from the school

• The school only pays for my time and not travel and/or accommodation expenses

• I’m working on ways to show screen elements, such as graphs, illustrations and writing examples

On the minus side…

• There are occasional technical glitches – but nothing, so far, that’s stopped us from linking up

• I can’t point to individual members of the class to ask questions

• I have to make my own cups of tea!

It is, however, HUGELY EXCITING, and I intend to set up many more of these sessions.  If any other schools are interested in linking up with me in this way – from wherever you are in the world – please drop me a line.

There’s no end to where we could go with this kind of event – in fact, the Skype’s the limit!

Tommy

I enjoyed a wonderful visit to St. Peter’s Primary School in Ashton-Under-Lyne yesterday – my first school event of 2010!

Thank you to everyone there for being so welcoming and enthusiastic although I suspect they enjoyed the day just as much as I did.  Here’s what the assistant head had to say:

What a fangtastic day!

Tommy arrived at our school and spent the morning in class doing writing workshops. It was great for the children to see the actual process a ‘real author’ goes through when planning a story – an area the children struggle with.

One child sat near me kept asking, ‘Are we going to write the story Miss?’  They were all eager to be able to continue and finish the story they had planned. The workshop gave them a good basis to plan from and how to organise their ideas.

Myself and the children are really excited about the next writing process and can’t wait to get started tomorrow!

In the afternoon year 4, 5, 6 and visitors from another school arrived to take part in a gameshow style quiz – Vampires ‘V’ werewolves. My class were amazed that Tommy actually had the six relics that Luke has to find in the Scream Street series. It was brilliant that they could ask questions relating to the characters and that they could even win the chance to become a character in one of Tommy’s books.

I have never laughed so much and everyone was involved. Each challenge related to reading and promoted the importance of it in a fun and exciting way.

Previously in our class writing sessions we have been analyzing the first chapter of ‘Fang of the Vampire’. It has all the ingredients needed to teach better sentence construction: short sentences for effect, starting with an adverb, and use of powerful verbs. It can be difficult finding texts that have the elements that you want the children to learn. Scream Street is definitely the book for this. Perfect!

After today’s visit the children are not only excited about reading but also about writing…..what more can I say.

I would highly recommend inviting Tommy Donbavand into your school. He is well organised and the sessions are perfectly timed. I have enjoyed reading all of the Scream Street series so far and have even pre-ordered the next book. Fantastic books and a fabulous day was had by all.

Eileen Anderson
Assistant Headteacher
St Peter’s Primary School
Ashton-Under-Lyne

Those of us held captive at Trapped By Monsters have been here for a year now. Perhaps if I can find a way inside your computer, I may be able to get a message out…

I was delighted to receive this news article earlier this afternoon from one of Scream Street‘s top reporters, James Smart.

It’s a report on the appearance of Cleo’s mum in Scream Street 3: Heart of the Mummy.  James has managed to uncover some disturbing truths about her sudden arrival.  You can click on the article to view it at full size – but be warned, it’s shocking news!

Tommy

Hello to all my readers on the other side of the world!  I hope you’re ready for some fiendish fun – for THREE new Scream Street titles are published in Australia and New Zealand by Walker Books Australia today!

Scream Street 5: Skull of the Skeleton, Scream Street 6: Claw of the Werewolf and Scream Street 7: Invasion of the Normals are available NOW in the southern hemisphere!

What a scream!

Tommy

I was going to write a post filled with writing tips, but then I found this video – which says just about everything I was planning to cover:

Well, I couldn’t quite stay away from work over the holiday period and – despite the festivities – found myself sitting at my desk, cracking on with the second draft of Scream Street 10: Rampage of the Goblins (to be published here in the UK this Halloween, October 2010).  I finished last night and emailed the manuscript over to my editor for her comments.

With every Scream Street book I write, the plot becomes more involved as I made a conscious decision not to press what we writers like to call the ‘Big Red Reset Button’ at the end of each book and have everything go back to how it was at the top of page 1.  Everything that happens in a Scream Street adventure affects the next outing for Luke, Resus and Cleo and – with 9 books before this one – things are starting to get pretty complicated!

Of course, there’s no certainty that readers will pick up book 1 first and read through the series in order, so it’s quite a task to make each book follow on from those which have gone before, but also make each story readable as a standalone novel in case this is the first Scream Street you’ve ever chosen.  Dropping in what’s happened before and how the characters have come to be how they are is tricky – especially as I don’t want my readers to wade through pages of back story before they get to the action (nor would my editor allow me to do that!)

There will be 13 Scream Street books in all – and I’ve always known what will happen in the final chapter.  Creating the overall story arc for the series has been great fun, and I’ve dropped clues as to what will happen all along the way – many of which should only become apparent when you read those final pages.

I also spent some time over the last few weeks creating detailed synopses for the last three Scream Street books so that my editor and I can check that we’ve covered everything we wanted to include – and not get lost along the way.  It’s a strange feeling to be working on the end of the series already – 13 books seemed such a mammoth task back in 2007 when I signed the deal with Walker Books – but it’s come round very quickly.

However – even with the end of Scream Street now in sight – there’s still plenty more action to come from Luke, Resus and Cleo – and I’m enjoying every minute of writing the books!

Tommy

PS – and, yes, I do know what I’ll be writing next – I just can’t tell you yet!

Happy 2010 to website visitors and Scream Street fans alike!

This year, we had a double celebration as my sister got married yesterday!  In the picture below you can see (from left to right): my new brother in law Kev, my brother Bryan, my dad, me, and my sister Sue.

It was a wonderful day and I’m sure Sue and Kev will have a long and happy life together!

What a scream!

Tommy