Check out what top reviewer, Ella McKenzie, had to say about Scream Street 1: Fang of the Vampire…

Thanks to everyone at Holy Trinity School in Ashton (and the visitors from St Peter’s) for making me feel so welcome today – despite my failing voice!  I think I’m coming down with a cold – but everyone’s enthusiasm for writing their stories made sure I had a smile on my face from the moment I arrived.

I’ve just got back from a fantastically fun Renaissance Learning symposium in Belfast – where I got to enjoy a talk by Theresa Breslin, author of the powerful Divided City.

My own presentation was a little more low key than usual – partly because I’m coming down with a cold and rapidly losing my voice, but also because there was no way I’d have got my box of Scream Street relics through the airport scanners without being hauled off to a side room for interrogation!  As a result, I took the audience through a creative writing workshop and showed them how to construct a story plan with their pupils.

Thanks to Christine and the team from Renaissance Learning, Anna from Scotia Books, Barrie from Barrington Stoke and everyone who came along for another enjoyable event!

Tommy

I stumbled across an old notebook the other day, in which I’d written a few quick stories, poems and book ideas.  Most of them weren’t really useful for future projects, but one silly poem was fun to read back – so I thought I’d post it here and give you the chance to add to it…

—

How Do You Sleep?
by Tommy Donbavand & you!

How do you sleep?

Igor the boar does nothing but snore

Drake the snake simply can’t stay awake

Mark the shark likes to snooze in the dark

Sandeep the sheep sometimes sings in his sleep

Honey the bunny sleeps with carrots – how funny!

Pat the rat watches out for the cat

Mog the dog always sleeps like a log

Gayle the whale tucks up under her tale

Bruce the goose dreams of cranberry juice!

Zack the yak sleeps with birds on his back

Claire the bear snuggles up in her fur

How do you sleep?

—

Now, it’s over to you.  Feel free to add to this silly little poem in the comments thread…

On the Scream Street website, you’ll find two new wicked wallpapers to creep up your computer screen – one for Scream Street 7: Invasion of the Normals, and the other for the forthcoming book, Scream Street 8: Attack of the Trolls.

Both wallpapers are available in three different sizes, so you’re sure to find something that’ll suit your screen and your nerves!

Click here to download the latest Scream Street desktop wallpapers!

Regular visitors will know I’m a huge fan of Doctor Who and – judging by this trailer which has just been released by the BBC for the new series starring Matt Smith – I’m about to like it even more!

One of the questions I’m most frequently asked is whether I draw the illustrations for my Scream Street books – and the answer is always a resounding NO!  I have all the artistic ability of a teaspoon.  My publishers, Walker Books, however knew of a very talented artist by the name of Lily Bernard who works for Cartoon Saloon – and it’s Lily who brings my characters and stories to life in picture form.

To demonstrate the process Lily takes, here are three images of one of my newer Scream Street characters – Kian Negative.  You can see how each image progresses from a preliminary sketch to get a feel for the character (which my editor, designer and I get to see and comment on) through an intermediate stage and finally onto the finished picture.

I’m sure you’ll agree that Lily is not only very talented, but she has a real grasp on the feel of the Scream Street series.  I’m very proud to be working with her.

Tommy

I’ve been meaning to post this video clip for ages…

Louie was at Seven Stories in Newcastle to talk about one of his favourite books – Scream Street 1: Fang of the Vampire!

I’m back from two wonderful days performing for young readers as part of the brilliant Bounce Into Books festival!

I visited two schools in Beverley and enjoyed an anarchic afternoon at a Sheffield library (where my event was held up for a few minutes by the arrival of a Chinese dragon – not every day I get to say that!)

But, best of all, I was at the festival to talk about Zombie! – my first book for specialist publisher, Barrington Stoke.  I’m a big fan of the work they do, and I’ve now been lucky enough to write three novels for them – the aforementioned Zombie!, The Uniform (to be published in July) and Wolf (due out in 2011).

If you haven’t yet read a Barrington Stoke book – treat yourself to one soon and see for yourself just what exciting and valuable work they’re doing.

Tommy

Well, if you’re an author or want to be one, everything.  Your name is the most important part of your brand, and you have to make sure that it is protected at all costs.

By far the best way to protect your name online is to register it everywhere you can – along with the titles of your major projects.  That includes domain names (even if you don’t have a website yet), Twitter accounts, Facebook groups, YouTube channels – in fact, just about any social networking site that allows the registration of account names.

The vast majority of these accounts are free to set up and the time it takes to open the accounts will be worth it to stop anyone hijacking your name and possibly posting inappropriate material under it.  A lot of celebrities were slow to realise that about Twitter and, in its early days, the micro-blogging service was awash with imposters tweeting as though they were the stars themselves.

Even domain name registration is a lot cheaper than it used to be.  The service I use is 123-Reg, where a .co.uk domain costs just £2.99 for a year, and the .com equivalent for £9.99 a year.  Many other domain registration sites – such as GoDaddy – are available, so find one that has the best deal for you.  When I began to suspect that my Scream Street series might sell, I registered screamstreet.co.uk to use for the official website – but was disappointed to discover that the screamstreet.com domain had already been registered by someone else.  In the end, when the series launched in the US, I had to buy the .com domain name from the owner at a much higher price.

I’m already planning to buy the domain names for what I hope will be my next series of books.

A handy online tool to check whether your name is still available at various websites can be found here: http://namechk.com/

So – what are you waiting for?  Get registering!

Tommy