Carnegie Awards

The Carnegie Medal Award nominations for 2011 are in and a writer friend Candy Gourlay's Tall Story is amongst those nominated so I am very happy for her.

Here is an image of her book and a link to her site which tells you all about it.


It is a prestigious award amongst children's writers with individuals such as Terry Pratchet, Jennifer Donnelly, Melvin Burgess, Sharon Creech and David Almond having previously won it. A full list can be found at the Carnegie website and I urge you to look up the site.

I am currently working on some well overdue fiction redrafting. Sadly I have been snowed under with household repairs and other mundane things as well as educational writing that I have once more neglected the fiction. But no more.

Unfortunately I am not attending the SCBWI's conference next weekend in Winchester which no doubt would have fired me up even more but I have a timetable sorted to dedicate definite time to my fiction now so fingers crossed it gets done!!

Three Months and no Posts!

An entire three months and no posts- I know I have been very remisss.

I am happy to say this is because I have been exceptionally busy. Having given up the day job to pursue work as a freelancer, I have been very busy with inspection work this half term and had redrafts for the Animal Farm guide , pictured above, and on line material to complete. This guide will be published in March as part of Philip Allan Updates literature guide series which is fab!

I have also been busy doing some work for National School Partnerships

Now, I am working on some fiction which I will keep you posted about. As if all of that is not excuse enough, I also spent a week in the US and Canada as part of research for my MA dissertation and for a holiday at the start of September. With the days becoming dark and long I am contemplating another trip abroad soon! I need some sunshine, to the extent that I am beginning to wonder whether I was a plant in a former life.

Latest

This last weekend, I was working on my latest educational text book- another Philip Allan Literature Guide based on Animal Farm by George Orwell.

I also went for a boat trip along the Wey and Arun Canal which was a relaxing time out from the hard slog.

But today is the last day at my current place of employment and I am looking forward to a new year and new life next year when hopefully I will have more time to do all the writing I'd like to do and more!

Holiday hell and blissful awakenings

It has been an absolute age since I last posted and I have only the excuse that I have been writing some educational material, redrafting a fiction book, teaching and trying to escape my abandonment in Malta! Not much of an excuse really.

A week in Malta sounds like bliss doesn't it? But add to this, a volcanic eruption in Iceland and a certain airlines that sounds a bit like a version of BRAIN AIR, that has received some bad press of late- and you may well have second thoughts.

Put into the melting pot a decision to travel to Italy by ferry- based on a complete lack of information from said airlines- and three days spent in a car and hotels and perhaps now you have a clearer picture of what my last week on holiday was like!

Thankfully I made it home alive and well- but somewhat impoverished. However all is not lost!

Two of my books are now advertising on publishers' sites:

This career book is aimed at KS3 students and is published by Evans Books. It's not the most exciting book I have ever written but it does what it says on the tin.

And this literature guide is published by Philip Allan Updates, now part of Hodder:

This guide is absolutely jam packed full of useful information for anyone studying Priestley's play An Inspector Calls at GCSE level. Philip Allan also provides some useful on line material and a teacher resource pack which I also wrote. Highly recommended - even if I say so myself!

The Undiscovered Voices launch party

This week I went to the Undiscovered Voices Launch Party at Foyles in London.

It was a very busy evening, and after travelling from Berkshire across London I arrived late and after all the other winners- and I left early! I'm such a party animal.

However I did talk to a number of editors from publishers such as Oxford University Press, Scholastic, Puffin and Egmont, as well as a few agents and I did meet Mr Melvin Burgess!

I came away with a number of business cards and contact details and as a result of the party some editors have contacted me which is fantastic...so there are a few editors and agents interested in seeing my novel. I am keeping my fingers crossed that once I polish my novel off to the state in which I'm happy to send it out, something will come of this.

Sadly, I didn't take any photos and was generally pretty hopeless at recording the event for posterity, probably because I was sooo tired after work and just overwhelmed with it all. However I do have an image of my book with my name tag from the party attached which I've posted above.

For a fuller account of the party visit Candy Gourlay's blog which is superb.

UNDISCOVERED VOICES

This arrived in the post today. Nothing more needs to be said!

Snowed Under

Having worked feverishly for quite some time on my educational writing, I'm happy to report that my teacher pack and study guide for An Inspector Calls have had extremely good reviews from the reviewer, so, after I make one or two minor adjustments, the final draft of the teacher pack will be winging its way to Penny, my editor.

Then, I can concentrate a bit more on my fiction!

Besides all this writing and teaching what have I been up to? Well, I have literally been snowed under. My road and my car were well and truly covered in snow. I gritted my road with the help of a friend as the council had clearly forgotten my road and left it and two others leading off it completely abandoned in what can only be described as the Twilight Zone.



So, what's with the picture of Hugh Jackman? Well, a moment of indulgence on my part. Sadly despite it being my birthday this month, I did not receive a visit from him... nor even a phone call.

Yes, I have turned a year older and perhaps wiser....