How to use this Page

Hello again! Thought I'd better do a catch up and tell you about some more competitions that are running and what I've been up to.
I've been out and about quite a bit, took a fantastic trip down the Manchester Ship Canal on the Mersey Ferry (although we had a bit of trouble at the Salford end with a bridge that wouldn't open for two hours!) and I've been on a small mammals workshop in Cheshire where I got to learn about trapping to find out species live in an area.
I got to see a common shrew and lots of wood mice up close and had to help weighing them and picking them up by the scruff of their tiny necks which is very tricky! It was a really interesting day - with a very early start! I'm sure it'll come in useful for my Dr Midas stories one day too, it's great to get first hand experiences like that.

Speaking of Dr Midas I've been working on the second book again in the hope of entering it for the Times/Chicken Book children's fiction competition (deadline October 30th for whole novel up to 80,000 words - http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/books/article6733392.ece).
I entered the original competition with Dr Midas and the Pirates but didn't have any success and have wanted to try again but as you need a whole book I was a bit stuck. The only other completed children's book I have is the sequel Dr Midas and the Incas. I think it would be really hard to do well with a sequel but then I started wondering if it could be changed so that it read as a standalone which it is for the main part. The biggest hurdle is how to get round the fact that this is adventure starts with Max finding out that his sister Millie has been on a time travel adventure with Dr Midas. He is so jealous that he decides to do the same and steals the time machine.
I've actually entered the first few chapters in another competition and was happy with them but when Iooked at them again I realised the start was slow in the Max and Millie parts and definitely not strong enough for setting up a first book.
So I've re-written the first two chapters so far, now the book doesn't start at Max and Milie's home but at the museum where they are on a school trip. I'm much happier with the new start, but still have a good way to go. I also need to make sure I really keep in my characters heads all the way through. I do think that my writing has really come on since my Cornerstones critique.
Actually I got asked in a job interview last week (sady I didn't get it) how did I know if my writing was any good? It's an interesting question and my answer was that I'd had a couple of competition wins and some good feedback via my website and query letters but mainly I guess because I love reading and I know what makes me give up on a book. Of course it's much harder to judge when your so close to the work, but leaving a good length of time before revising definitely helps.
Anyway I promised aye-ayes, pirates and more comps!
Firstly aye-ayes - I hope you've been watching Last Chance to See with Stephen Fry - it's been a brilliant series so far, but the best is yet to come this Sunday (BBC 2 8pm) because he's going in search of Madagascar's aye-aye. In an interview with the Radio Times he was asked if he had a favourite animal from his trip.
He said: "We met a captive aye-aye eyeball to eyeball - and what strange amber eyes they have - and watched a wild pair from below a tree as they tapped and sucked at a coconuts. They're astonishing, but spooky too. I think the Mme Berthe's mouse lemur takes a lot of beating for sheer, unadulterated cute."
Another lemur fan! There was a great photo of him and zoologist Mark Carwardine with lemurs too.
Soon everyone will know what an aye-aye is! Hopefully they'll want to read adventure stories involving them and other lemurs too! I'm also pleased to read that the title of the next Pirates of the Carribean has been annouced. Apparantly it is going to be 'On Stranger Tides.' I'm glad pirates are still proving popular and marketable, especially as I'm still trying to find a home for Dr Midas and the Pirates! (I've sent it to another slush pile via email.)
Well there's the new Brit Writers' Awards which I saw advertised in Writing Magazine which is supporting this new competition. There are lots of categories including short story, novel and poetry and entry - which is usually £10.95 is free for WM subscribers. There are also young writers categories and schools can register so their pupils can also enter for free. There's a website www.britwriters.co.uk but information is a bit sketchy at the moment. The deadline is December 8th 2009. I'd be interested to know what other people think about this one - there's a big prize up for grabs too of £10,000.
The Sunday Times have also launched a competition for previously published writers - The Sunday Times EFG Private Bank Short Story Award. There's a £25,000 prize for the winning story and entries can be up to 7,000 words long. For more details visit http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/books/article6817172.ece
The Sefton Celebrates writing competitions are also open for entry again. Deadline is October 9th 2009 and the theme for this year is journeys. There are prizes for poetry, other writing (£2 to enter), and writing by young people (free entry) . Entry forms/details at http://www.seftonarts.co.uk/uploads/file/writing%20comp%20pdf.pdf Well good luck if you enter any of these competitions.
Susan :)

Hello again! Thought I'd better do a catch up and tell you about some more competitions that are running and what I've been up to.
I've been out and about quite a bit, took a fantastic trip down the Manchester Ship Canal on the Mersey Ferry (although we had a bit of trouble at the Salford end with a bridge that wouldn't open for two hours!) and I've been on a small mammals workshop in Cheshire where I got to learn about trapping to find out species live in an area.
I got to see a common shrew and lots of wood mice up close and had to help weighing them and picking them up by the scruff of their tiny necks which is very tricky! It was a really interesting day - with a very early start! I'm sure it'll come in useful for my Dr Midas stories one day too, it's great to get first hand experiences like that.

Speaking of Dr Midas I've been working on the second book again in the hope of entering it for the Times/Chicken Book children's fiction competition (deadline October 30th for whole novel up to 80,000 words - http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/books/article6733392.ece).
I entered the original competition with Dr Midas and the Pirates but didn't have any success and have wanted to try again but as you need a whole book I was a bit stuck. The only other completed children's book I have is the sequel Dr Midas and the Incas. I think it would be really hard to do well with a sequel but then I started wondering if it could be changed so that it read as a standalone which it is for the main part. The biggest hurdle is how to get round the fact that this is adventure starts with Max finding out that his sister Millie has been on a time travel adventure with Dr Midas. He is so jealous that he decides to do the same and steals the time machine.
I've actually entered the first few chapters in another competition and was happy with them but when Iooked at them again I realised the start was slow in the Max and Millie parts and definitely not strong enough for setting up a first book.
So I've re-written the first two chapters so far, now the book doesn't start at Max and Milie's home but at the museum where they are on a school trip. I'm much happier with the new start, but still have a good way to go. I also need to make sure I really keep in my characters heads all the way through. I do think that my writing has really come on since my Cornerstones critique.
Actually I got asked in a job interview last week (sady I didn't get it) how did I know if my writing was any good? It's an interesting question and my answer was that I'd had a couple of competition wins and some good feedback via my website and query letters but mainly I guess because I love reading and I know what makes me give up on a book. Of course it's much harder to judge when your so close to the work, but leaving a good length of time before revising definitely helps.
Anyway I promised aye-ayes, pirates and more comps!
Firstly aye-ayes - I hope you've been watching Last Chance to See with Stephen Fry - it's been a brilliant series so far, but the best is yet to come this Sunday (BBC 2 8pm) because he's going in search of Madagascar's aye-aye. In an interview with the Radio Times he was asked if he had a favourite animal from his trip.
He said: "We met a captive aye-aye eyeball to eyeball - and what strange amber eyes they have - and watched a wild pair from below a tree as they tapped and sucked at a coconuts. They're astonishing, but spooky too. I think the Mme Berthe's mouse lemur takes a lot of beating for sheer, unadulterated cute."
Another lemur fan! There was a great photo of him and zoologist Mark Carwardine with lemurs too.
Soon everyone will know what an aye-aye is! Hopefully they'll want to read adventure stories involving them and other lemurs too! I'm also pleased to read that the title of the next Pirates of the Carribean has been annouced. Apparantly it is going to be 'On Stranger Tides.' I'm glad pirates are still proving popular and marketable, especially as I'm still trying to find a home for Dr Midas and the Pirates! (I've sent it to another slush pile via email.)
Well there's the new Brit Writers' Awards which I saw advertised in Writing Magazine which is supporting this new competition. There are lots of categories including short story, novel and poetry and entry - which is usually £10.95 is free for WM subscribers. There are also young writers categories and schools can register so their pupils can also enter for free. There's a website www.britwriters.co.uk but information is a bit sketchy at the moment. The deadline is December 8th 2009. I'd be interested to know what other people think about this one - there's a big prize up for grabs too of £10,000.
The Sunday Times have also launched a competition for previously published writers - The Sunday Times EFG Private Bank Short Story Award. There's a £25,000 prize for the winning story and entries can be up to 7,000 words long. For more details visit http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/books/article6817172.ece
The Sefton Celebrates writing competitions are also open for entry again. Deadline is October 9th 2009 and the theme for this year is journeys. There are prizes for poetry, other writing (£2 to enter), and writing by young people (free entry) . Entry forms/details at http://www.seftonarts.co.uk/uploads/file/writing%20comp%20pdf.pdf Well good luck if you enter any of these competitions.
Susan :)

What a horrible and great day...and how often can you say something like that. We drove down on Thursday to Tarry Town to our current favorite "just out of the city with free parking and a pool" hotel (the Marriot). The drive down was fast and uneventful. I have my youngest assistant with me (pictures tomorrow). My son (6) Eli was great fun on the drive and has a strange obsession with hotels. He has asked several times if we can live here forever.

The drive into the city was exciting...in that "oh my god, I hope we don't die". I deliberately waited a bit to start in, in hopes that they would clear all the rush-hour accidents off the road. This turned out to be the right call. It was a long, slow drive (about an hour and fifteen minutes to do what should have been about an half hour drive). We passed several accidents and watched an SUV do a very exciting series of 360s down the middle of 287 (but did not hit anything). It was one of those "I know I can drive in this safely, but all these other whack-jobs are seriously unknown quantities". In the end, we made it in safe and sound, found the school in the Village where the show is being held.

I managed to hurt my lower back the day before I left for the fair and had promised my wife that I would, for the first time, hire porters to carry in my boxes. My shipping boxes came back from San Francisco and I did not repack things...I just threw them into the van with some additional material and hit the road. The net result of this is that I had 8 boxes in the 65 to 75 pound range plus my other stuff. They do not have "porters" at this fair, they have "stevedores" (mind you, a stevedore is "a laborer who loads and unloads vessels in a port"...but that is hair splitting.). That is, you hear "stevedore" and you picture big muscular guys who wrestle shipping crates for a living.

The first two pictures are the stevedores I was assigned. As you can see, burly dock workers able to move anything not bolted down *laughing*. They were wonderful. I convinced them to take a handle each (yet another reason Pelican cases rock) and they handled everything with aplomb. I did not let them schlep the plate display case...I just couldn't. I recommended them resoundingly to all others as people traipsed in...I hope they had a good day (this fair is, as I understand it, a fund-raiser for the school).

I managed to get in around 11:30am or so...the show started this evening at 6pm...that is, I had about 6.5 hours to set up. Anyone who knows me, knows I can set up a booth in no less than 5 hours...don't ask, I'm just that pathetic. That is, generally, with a real assistant (wife, mother or some other long-suffering supporter). Here I had my six year old son, Eli. In the end, not only was I able to get set up...and reasonably well, at that...but we were able to get it done *with* time to go down and enjoy the wonderful dinner the school provided for attendees (great salads, hummus, sushi, chicken and drinks). Ok, admittedly, only just barely...but it really was "ready" by 6pm.

Eli was reasonably helpful and especially helpful re all things I loath doing (crawling about on the floor running extension cords and the like). Once the fair started, he sat in our chair and played game boy and responded in very cute fashion to the myriad of people who asked him questions. I am hoping he tries to hand-sell his book tomorrow (he has an inscribed copy of "The Book that Jack Wrote" by Jon Scieszka and illustrated by Dan Adel). He helped research and write the description and is pretty excited about it. He was truly on his very best behavior. He might have received a Sky-High Sunday when he got back to the hotel.

Lots of people, good stickiness and some good sales. A great start to a show. However, a wildly long day and I need sleep. Show starts tomorrow at 12 noon and runs to 5pm. Come and visit...better yet, buy a book.

Well, one set of books are off to SF and another is packed in the van ready for the trip tomorrow. My six year old son is joining me to assist. He asked me the other day if he was going to be wearing a tie at the book fair and I said, "Probably"...to which he replied, "then could it be a bow-tie, they are so cool!" I will be hunting for a bow tie (that will fit a six year old) over the next day or so...pictures will follow.

I've posted .pdf catalogues on the site if you would like to take a look at what I will have at both shows (very different catalogues). I recommend right-clicking and downloading them as they are about 4megs each. Enjoy.