Great news for UK Scream Street fans – the official Scream Street website has undergone something of a face lift!

With spooky new graphics, a new downloads section and more updates planned (Scream Street bookplates, anyone?), there’s a creepy new corner of the web to explore!  Check out the new-look site here: http://www.screamstreet.co.uk

Tommy

Check out my spiffy new poster for top publisher, Barrington Stoke.  You can click on the picture to embiggen it, should you wish…

If you’re a visitor to either Nick.com or Neopets.com – you’ll be in for a spooky surprise this April, as you could find yourself faced with a couple of groovy new Scream Street ads!

The ads are the work of my brilliant US publishers, Candlewick Press, and they link directly to the US Scream Street site – www.screamstreet.com

So, watch out for Doug the zombie (that’s his ugly mug on the banners) and you could click through for some fiendish fun, courtesy of Scream Street!

The entries are in, and stories have been read, and I’m delighted to announce that the winner of the fifth Renaissance Learning Quest is…

10 year old Favel from Reading!

Favel wrote a wonderful story about what might happen if she woke up to discover she was a vampire – and her prize is that she will become a brand new character in the Scream Street series from book 11 onwards!

Congratulations!

The Completely Novel website has launched a contest to find the best author blog on the web.  So, if you’re a fan of my books, enjoy my posts on my site or just fancy being nice, why not vote for little old me?

Please?

Tommy

I was thrilled to discover that Scream Street 1: Fang of the Vampire has made the cut for the National Literacy Trust’s National Young Readers’ Programme Recommended Book List, in the age 9-12 category.

You can see the entire list here:

http://www.literacytrust.org.uk/assets/0000/1676/Booklist_2010_9_-_12_yrs.pdf

Some of my own favourite authors are also on the list including Charlie Higson, Andy Stanton, Mark Walden, Dav Pilkey and Roald Dahl!

Suffice to say, I’m very excited!

Tommy

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!

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

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…