After more than a month off I'm now back on the touring circuit! Well, it's not so much a touring circuit as a couple of shows this month, but saying touring circuit makes it sound like I'm a rock star! I guess children's literature is the new rock and roll! Or should that be rock 'n roll?

Anyway, I'm blethering already. It's the heat. The weather this last week has been so gorgeous, a longer and more intense period of sunshine than I remember having all of last year! I've spent most of my time this week sitting in the garden reading books, which had been lovely, but not very productive I must confess. For a start it makes it difficult for me to focus on anything, my mind just goes a-wandering. Oh look, is that a squirrel over there...? Now where was I? Oh yes, hard to focus. Especially on the new book... Although if anyone from Faber is reading then it's coming along fine :-) Actually it is coming on fine to be honest, but it's very grisly! I'm still aiming to finish it by the first couple of weeks of June.

In the meantime, though, I'm back on the touring circuit! Yesterday I was down in the lovely Brighton, which was absolutely baking! The Festival was in full swing and the streets were packed with musicians and performers and poets and crowds of sun-loving families enjoying the show. I arrived a bit early and went and sat on the beach for an hour. As usual with events I was feeling really nervous, but the sea really helped calm me down. It was so beautiful! The only thing that spoilt it was the evil pigion that came and sat down next to me. I love Brighton, but I swear it is home to the most evil pigions in the world!

I'm blethering again! After sitting on the beach for a while I went to meet my publicist Helena at the venue. I say 'my publicist' because it makes me sound important. She's really Faber's PR guru, but I'm going to refer to her as my publicist until she tells me to stop! The event was at the Jubilee Library, which was a lovely space. And the staff were all delightful, really sweet and welcoming. Thanks for making me feel at home! The event was sold out, with about 60 people there despite the temptation of the sun outside. They were a wonderful crowd, full of suggestions for crazy inventions and superpowers. And they laughed at my jokes, which is always great! Thanks to everyone who came, you made it a fantastic day!

Afterwards Helena and I went for a cool drink, then I went and sat on the beach for a little while until I was even more sunburnt than when I arrived, then got back on the train for the long slog home. It was a nice journey though and I spent most of it reading a book. Ah, it's a hard life! Next up is the Hay festival, which I am really, really looking forward to! It's two weeks yesterday if anyone wants to come along!

Before that, though, I've got to try and get at least three quarters of the way through Furnace 2. And, more exciting still, The Inventors and the City of Stolen Souls should come back from the printers next Tuesday!!! I think I might take a trip down to London to get some copies, I'm so excited to see it!

Well, it's been another busy fortnight! Highlights include:
Science Week! Doing a workshop at the Norwich Forum for Science Week. It turned out to be quite a small event because of a horrid virus that's been going round the schools. But I had a great time with the few that turned up. We talked about all kinds of inventions and scientific superpowers, and when it came to the 'Invent Your Way Out Of Trouble' section they came up with loads of awesome gadgets and gizmos and potions. Paris, one of Lucy's best friends, was there too which was cool. She was one of the first fans of The Inventors!

Adventures According to Faber! Last Wednesday I was asked to do a little talk at the Youth Librarians' AGM, which was being hosted by Faber. I was one of four authors who was asked to talk a little bit about their books. Also there was Alex Milway, who has written the fantastic Mousehunter book which I have just started reading. We've met a few times and he's such a nice guy. We both got signed up by Faber at roughly the same time, so we've gone through the process together. It's great to have someone else to talk about the highs and, well, other highs of being a published writer! There was Steve Voake, author of the brilliant Dreamwalker's Child, Web of Fire and The Starlight Conspiracy, another really nice guy who's been nothing but supportive and friendly the few times I have met him! And Rachel Wright joined us. She has written a book called You've Got Blackmail, which sounds great! She was lovely too, and almost as nervous as I was!

It is always terrifying talking in front of a crowd, but all the librarians there were so lovely and laughed at all the right points in my talk, which is the most important thing! Afterwards we all mingled, and it was fab to talk to them all about libraries and children's books and other things. I even wore the cool librarians tattoos that Lynsey got me for my birthday, which went down very well. And, as always, it was great to talk to everyone at Faber. A brilliant night all round!

The New Book! Okay, I know I'm supposed to be writing Furnace 2, and I am (it's coming along very nicely and is much scarier than the first), but I've started writing something new for younger readers and I'm really getting into it. I'll put up some information, and maybe the first chapter, up on the website in the next couple of weeks, but I'll hopefully have finished it by the end of the month! I'm trying to write four books this year so not off to a bad start!

That will do for now, more to report but I'll do it tomorrow! The only downside is that my heating is still broken, and with the snow outside it is absolutely freeeeeeeeeeezing!!! You can see your breath in my house. I really should get it fixed, but like I said things are busy busy busy!

Well, it's been another busy fortnight! Highlights include:

- Science Week! Doing a workshop at the Norwich Forum for Science Week. It turned out to be quite a small event because of a horrid virus that's been going round the schools. But I had a great time with the few that turned up. We talked about all kinds of inventions and scientific superpowers, and when it came to the 'Invent Your Way Out Of Trouble' section they came up with loads of awesome gadgets and gizmos and potions. Paris, one of Lucy's best friends, was there too which was cool. She was one of the first fans of The Inventors!

Yay, I've finally done my first show! After being terrified of the thought of it for months on end, and paranoid that I'd freeze on stage and stand in silence for an hour or just run from the room screaming, I managed to get up there and keep some delightful Scottish children entertained!
It was a really lovely experience, and I'll talk about it in a minute. But first I need to get something off my chest, I need to have a grumble, about the trains...
I was supposed to get the 9.55 from Norwich to Peterborough on Wednesday, followed by the train from Peterborough to Glasgow which was supposed to get me there for 4pm. But no. The Norwich to Peterborough was cancelled, so I had to go to Ely, then to Peterborough. And the Peterborough to Glasgow was cancelled so I had to travel to Edinburgh. I arrived in Edinburgh at about 7pm to find that the trains to Glasgow Central weren't running, so had to wait for one to another station. I eventually arrived at the hotel five hours late and fuming! Things were almost as bad on the way back, the train from Glasgow to Peterborough was cancelled again so I had to go via Edinburgh, then change at York, then Peterborough then Ely then finally Norwich at way past midnight yesterday.
So, eight trains instead of four, and six hours more on them than I was supposed to have. When is this country going to sort out its rail system?!
Anyway grumble over. My time in Glasgow more than made up for late trains. When I got to the (extremely swanky) hotel I met Justin Richards, the author of many books including the excellent Death Collector which I am reading now. We had a great chat and he put my mind at rest about doing shows (I was pretty much quaking in my shoes all night at the thought of my morning's performance)! So thanks Justin!
After a while we were joined by the people who run the Aye Write Festival in Glasgow, which has an absolutely fantastic line-up this year (not just me)! Andrew and Karen were both really lovely and welcoming, and had some great stories about the literary celebs they had met whilst running the event. Speaking of which, Joanne Harris (author of Chocolat) and Blake Morrison joined us for dinner, which was cool! I had a few glasses of wine and soon felt quite relaxed!
I have to mention my dreams that night though. I must have had about three nightmares about getting up to do my show and forgetting all my notes and props and not knowing what to say! In one I even got to the venue and realised that I had to perform from the top of a tree, and I was trying to climb it but there were spiky brambles and slippery bits and I just couldn't get there! Talk about classic anxiety dreams!
Fortunately I didn't have to perform from the top of a tree. I was in a beautiful room in the Mitchell Library, and there were two classes waiting for me when I arrived. The guy introducing me was so friendly, and really made me feel at home, which I will be forever grateful for! But my heart was still pounding when I walked to the front of the room and introduced myself. But in the end I had a great time, and was soon discussing crazy inventions with the kids and future gadgets that can give you superpowers and even some inventions they came up with themselves! Before I knew it an hour had flown by and I didn't want to stop!
So now I've done my first show and I feel much happier about getting up and talking to people. It really is fantastic fun and it's amazing some of the ideas the audience comes up with! I'm doing many more appearances this year, so keep an eye on the website and if I'm coming to a town near you then pop along and say hi!
Just don't take the train...

Yesterday Jamie and I had a fantastic time in London. Faber asked us to come down and film a video for a website called meettheauthor.co.uk. It's a fabulous site, with hundreds of authors talking about their books and inspirations, and we were thrilled at being asked to become a part of it! We went down by train, practicing what we were going to say in between watching episodes of Lost on the laptop.

Money makes the world go round. It's an old adage that goes down well with yuppies and parents (especially when you're young and don't want to get a job). But I think it's one of the greatest fallacies of all time. Money doesn't make the world go round, it makes everything come screaming to a halt and stops good ideas from getting anywhere. Money grounds us in all the wrong ways, especially when it comes to contracts and rights for creative ideas.

Well it's taken me a little longer than I thought to get round to my New Year's post. Twenty-two days to be precise. But I do have a good excuse, kind of... I've actually finally properly really started my diet, the same diet I've been saying I'm going to start every other day for the past two years. I haven't touched any chocolates or sweets since the beginning of the year and I've only had two take-aways (treat days as I've come to call them) instead of, well, twenty-two!

I've been going down the gym too, which is actually quite daunting because nobody in there seems to need to lose any weight, they're all either very athletic or positively bulging with muscles! And then there's me absolutely drenched in sweat, my belly rippling like a statue made from jelly and grunting like a sick reindeer as I make my merry way on the cycle machine thing. I'm definitely getting fitter though, and it does feel good to lose weight. I've gone from a whopping 16st1lb on January 1st to 15st5lb today. Okay there's still a way to go, but I'm actually getting there this time!

Keeping with my New Year New Everything plan I've also got a brand spanking new computer, which is nice. My old laptop was steadily losing its grip on reality, constantly telling me it was actually 1968 and wheezing through its battery life in all of twenty minutes. I thought I'd give it a break and put it out of its misery. It's actually quite sad. I grow quite attached to my computers, especially this one which I wrote The Inventors in the City of Stolen Souls on, and Furnace and another book (huh? you ask, what books are these? I'll tell all soon). I might take it apart and use the case as a pencil pot or something so it's still here in spirit... I did that a while back with my ancient eMac, using the faceplate as a mirror for my bathroom! So New Me, New Computer too! That's a piccy of it up there, which you probably guessed.

I have always felt envious of writers of old, but never more than now. When composing their memoirs / journals / diaries all they had to do was leave them under the bed where, upon dying, their papers would be picked up and printed by a dear old friend who also happens to be a gentleman publisher. Simple. Writers of old didn’t have to worry about setting up MySQL databases, or panic about the possible meanings of PHP (Please Help, Please!!!) and methods of FTP uploads. But these, it seems, are the kind of problems that face modern writerly types who want nothing more than to share their thoughts with the world.

Anyway, after several days of struggling with complex pieces of code that look like some hideous poetic lovechild spawned from e. e. cummings and William Burroughs in the worst days of his addiction, I have finally managed to set up a blog on this site. Yay me. I owe it all to Wordpress, which is a fantastic piece of blogging software and simple enough even for me (their famous five minute installation only took me a day and a half). So now the three or people who stumble onto this site accidentally throughout the year will be able to read what’s on my mind.

This site is really just the gatehouse to the other, much more professional sites that host my various children’s books and other projects. But it’s also a place for me to be me! Right, now I’m going to try and change my theme…