Scorpions and Devil’s Blood
20 June 2007
I finished most of my book tour today and Puffin gave me a huge party tonight - well, not really for me. It was a very special party for all the writers and artists who are published by them. There must have been 400 people there - I saw some very famous authors and illustrators, and there were librarians, booksellers, editors - everyone who just loves being involved with children's books.
This is me with Olivia Mantle and Andy Taylor from Puffin
Top Guns here! Peter Field (Penguin), Nick Hornby, Francesca Dow (Puffin), Wayne Winstone (Waterstones) and Charlie Higson
How cool is this? Charlie Higson's mate, Paul Whitehouse - told you there was some serious talent at the party!
Meg Rosoff who's just won another Carnegie Medal. If you haven't read How I Live Now and Just in Case, you're missing out on an excellent read.
The amazing view! Didn't know where to look next - at all the famous writers or the River Thames. Authors won in the end.
Earlier today I met about seventy pupils from year 6 at Wellington Primary School at the Ecology Centre at Mile End Park, London. The quiz was one of the closest results we'd had, but The Scorpions team won.
Then it was off to Canary Wharf where's there's so much glass in all those office blocks that someone must be making a lot of money cleaning windows. The Ideas Store was a great venue for meeting boys and girls from Cyril Jackson Primary School and we had a nice noisy afternoon which annoyed everyone in the library room next door where a whole bunch of grown ups were getting really irritated but we just ignored them - because I was the only one they could moan at and I was enjoying myself - and Karen, who had organised everything so well, didn't mind either.
Once again the survival quiz was won by the narrowest of margins, everyone nearly cracked it - well done teams - but the winners were The Devil's Blood team!
The Ideas Store and Tower Hamlets Library Services are offering a brilliant reading scheme called The Big Wild Read. Great books, a lot of fun - bookmarks, magnets and stickers for free - and a certificate and medal if you read six books this summer. And what's a really cool idea is that The Woodland Trust will plant a tree for every book read so you'll help save the planet as well. So, if you live in that area this is a great opportunity to spend some time with wonderful stories that will transport your imagination to amazing places.
I have to go home now - sort out my sick cat, cut the lawn which is higher than elephant grass - and get back to writing Max Gordon's new Danger Zone adventure so you can have another Danger Zone story next year.
I'll try and keep writing this blog and hope everyone I met had as much fun as I did on my schools' tour.
Don't forget the Bushman word - Saa (sounds like sahr) - which means 'Do It!'
It's that easy.
