Two months later…

11 November 2009

Boy, does time fly when you’re running round like a fly with a blue behind, or what? Since the last blog post I’ve successfully completed Parts 1 and 2 of the I Spy Tour (I had a holiday in between, and while away - in Cyprus - I did do one event at the InterCollege in Larnaca…big up to Panayiotis Voulgari for having me back for a second year running). And I’m glad to say that all the dashing about has meant that the book reprinted in its first month of publication - hurrah! I’ve also done another Litopia After Dark netcast, and been asked to start doing a column for the litopia.com website. Which is nice.
There has also been a surprise trip to Paris for the day to meet Albert Uderzo, the co-creator of Asterix; this was for Orion Children’s Books, who wanted me to write a piece for their website as part of the Asterix 50th anniversary celebrations. Uderzo is a complete genius, one of the very finest artists - the exhibition of his artwork at the Musée de Cluny was fantastic - and a very nice person, to boot. All in all, a fantastic day. A week later, invited by Haringey Libraries’ Sean Edwards, I went to the Bernie Grant Centre in Wood Green to see Morris Gleitzman, over here from Australia and on tour, do a Booked Up event for about 500 local schoolkids. I really enjoy watching other authors at work, and Morris had this audience in the palm of his hand.
One other reason for the lack of blogs is that I’ve been persuaded to join Twitter, and now do daily updates, plus a Pic of the Day, chosen from my own growing photo library; you can follow me at twitter.com/GeeMarks .
Oh, and before I forget, Usborne have agreed to do a sequel to I Spy, provisionally titled I Spy: Mean Streets.

Yeee-ha!!

10 September 2009

On 27th of August I flew out of Heathrow to Dallas/Fort Worth, changed planes and went on to Wichita, Kansas. Here I was picked up and driven on westwards for two and a half hours, arriving at the Moore Ranch, Bucklin, at about 9:00pm Central (3:00am the next day for me). Why? You may well ask. I was lucky enough to be on a press trip, courtesy of RanchAmerica, and about to spend a week on a working ranch. Not some stupid City Slickers dude ranch, but the absolute real thing. Considering that I’m working on the sequel to I Spy, which opens on a ranch, make that ‘sprinkled-with-fairy-dust’ lucky.
I had the most amazing time, worked my butt off, learned to saddle and ride a horse, fired a Winchester 30.30 rifle and a Colt .44, rounded up cattle, saw the sun come up on the prairie, and go down sitting on a stoop; I saw real cowboys at work, I went to Dodge City and saw Boot Hill, I saw vultures, eagles, Texas longhorn cattle, jackrabbits, raccoons and a beaver dam. It was an education, let me tell you, and I enjoyed every minute of it! Take a look at http://www.longhorn-cattle.com to see where I went. My thanks to Emma and Camilla at Angel Publicity for arranging everything, and to Joe, Nancy and Laramie Moore for taking such good care of this complete greenhorn.

Edinburgh 17 Aug - with Natasha Narayan

10 September 2009

A Busy Week…

24 August 2009

Since the last blog I’ve been up to Edinburgh Festival - by train this year, much more civilised - for an event last Monday with Natasha Naryan; the weather was rubbish, especially Monday morning, but we had a good crowd and excellent feedback. I stayed in Charlotte Sq the rest of the day and met up with a number of people, including Cornelia Funke, whose massively popular event I managed to get in to see. Spent Monday night with friends in Glasgow and then went to the wonderful Mitchell Library to do some Who Do You Think You Are? style research chasing ancestors.
Thursday saw me walking into Broadcasting House to meet Geraldine McCaughrean, and her fellow Oxford University Press author David Miller, to record a piece for that evening’s Front Row programme on Radio 4 - fifteen minutes of us talking about writing adventure stories and thrillers for kids expertly shaved down to eight or nine minutes for broadcast. Friday I had the headphones back on again for another Litopia After Dark online radio show, with agent Peter Cox hosting as usual.
And this week? This week I am mostly running round like a headless chicken getting ready to fly out to Wichita in Kansas to spend a week on a ranch. More about that next week…

11/08/09

11 August 2009

Well, never say never, (as they say). Having been very sniffy about Twitter I was charmed aboard the bandwagon by Liz de Jager last week and now - with the added assistance of the sensational Sally Oliphant at Usborne - I’m fully up to speed. I think. Next week is going to be a mission, with an Edinburgh Festival event (Monday), an appearance on Front Row with Geraldine McCaughrean and David Miller (Thursday) and Litopia After Dark (Friday).

The Reluctant Blogger…

06 August 2009

I think, subconsciously, I must see blogging, and its recent adjunct, Twitter, as homework. Something someone else is making me do, something that will, in the long term, be good for me. Why else would I be so bad at doing it? Dunno. I seem to be quite happy to go on Peter Cox’s Litopia After Dark online radio programme on a regular basis and blab, rather than blog, so I have no real idea why I’m so reticent (as you can see, last entry: six weeks ago). Go figure, as they say in the US. Except I can’t be bothered.

I have been busy this last month and a half. I presented Boys into Books certificates to a couple of classes from St Michael’s C of E School at Highgate Library (thanks to Sean Edwards, Haringey’s Children’s & Youth Libraries Manager for the invitation). A week later I met up with US author Judy Blundell at the Scholastic offices to interview her about her award-winning debut novel What I Saw and How I Lied for the Scottish publication Teen Reads; we then went up to Coventry Library to do an ‘in conversation’, organised by Joy Court for local librarians - a well-attended event, even though it was mid-Wimbledon. Judy was a delight to talk to, and the book is great - muchas gracis to Scholastic’s Alyx Price for the gig. On the 6th July I spent the day doing a couple of school events for the newly-formed Federation of Children’s Book Groups ‘cell’ in Bracknell. That week I also met up with my editor at Usborne, Megan Larkin, for a celebratory lunch (arrival of the first copies of I Spy) and later that week a catch-up lunch with Sophie McKenzie, fellow north London author. 15th July saw me chairing a kind of Fright Night event at the new Simon & Schuster offices in Gray’s Inn Road, organised by Elisa Offord; on the panel were Michelle Harrison (The 13 Treasures), Sarah Rees Brennan (Demon’s Lexicon) and Sarah Singleton (The Poison Garden) and I had a great night meeting three very different, all very talented writers. SRB, as she is sometimes referred to, is something of a force of nature! 20th July was the anniversary of the demise of Publishing News, a sign of the times if there ever was one, and on the 24th I was back on Litopia After Dark and banging on about this ridiculous ‘vetting in schools’ plan; frankly, a more wrong-headed piece of legislation I have yet to see. During these last few weeks I have also done some writing, completing and delivering my next book for Catnip to my editor Andrea Reece (working title The Thunder Road, due out next May), and pushing forward with a couple of new projects

Coming up to date, I was at the Catnip summer party last night (5th Aug), held at Brown’s in St Martin’s Lane; two of their Australian authors were in town - Lili Wilkinson (Scatterheart) and her mother Carole Wilkinson (the Ramose series) - and it was a treat to meet them and network with the likes of Cheltenham Festival’s Jane Churchill and the Bookseller’s Caroline Horn; I found myself at a table with Matt (Enfield Libraries’ YA maven), Urban Fantasy writer Karen Mahoney and uber-blogger Elizabeth de Jager, and before the evening was out had found myself agreeing to signing up to Twitter. I sometimes think I shouldn’t be let out on my own. Anywhichway, a triff evening, and I got home in time to see Lie To Me on Sky. Top man, Tim Roth.

Stuff…

17 June 2009

One of the many advantages of living in London is that there are a lot of other writers within easy striking distance, so it was great to properly catch up with Andy Stanton last Friday and hear all about the progress ‘Mr Gum’ is making towards being an actual animated TV programme; we were joined by Tamara Linke, who, apart from running two of the best independent children’s bookshops in London (Tales on Moon Lane, Dulwich and Primrose Hill), now has a publishing deal of her own. Don’t know how she does it. And Saturday morning it was coffee with Teen Queen Cathy Hopkins, then back to the keyboard to work the rest of the day to make up for all the schmoozing…

Yesterday was a day spent in Bath - for the funeral of a wonderful old lady, Dorothy Hall; her son-in-law is a really old mate of mine, illustrator John Sibbick (do yourselves a big favour and visit his site: johnsibbick.com).

Children’s Laureate 2009-11

09 June 2009

It’s hard to believe that it’s two years since I interviewed Michael Rosen, in the Poetry Cafe in Covent Garden, for Publishing News at the start of his Children’s Laureateship. Today a Who’s Who of children’s publishing gathered on Level 31 of London’s Centre Point (amazing view…forgot to take a camera, but believe me, probably the best panorama in London, even on a dull day) to listen to some nine short-ish speeches before we found out from Michael that he was handing the reins over to illustrator Anthony Browne, who now becomes the sixth Laureate. Great choice, and no surprises to find out that his focus will be picture books.

Recent events…

03 June 2009

These last few months I’ve been the occasional guest on Peter Cox’s weekly online radio show, Litopia After Dark (shows can be heard/downloaded at: http://podcast.litopia.com/), and I was back again on Friday night, with regulars Eve Harvey, Donna Ballman and Dave Bartram. This a Skype-driven affair, just like the ‘real thing’, except that you’re at home, talking to your computer, and not in a studio. Radio is a totally brilliant medium, and who needs the Beeb now you can DIY so professionally?

Yesterday Andersen Press launched Melvin Burgess’s new YA novel, ‘Nicholas Dane’, at Waterstone’s Piccadilly, and even though my news gathering days are far behind me now (it’s been almost a year since the demise of Publishing News, for whom I was Children’s Editor), I still get invited to these events. This was one not to be missed, with Melvin on fine form and in conversation with Kevin Brooks (new book ‘Killing God’/Penguin) and Jenny Valentine (new book ‘The Ant Colony’/HarperCollins), all chaired by the National Literacy Trust’s Jonathan Douglas.

Today I was at Alexandra Park School doing a day of events - two talks and a workshop, pictured - for Year 7s, all superbly organised by Librarian Sonia Constantinou and her team, with the bookselling assistance of Tim, who electric-biked it all the way from the Big Green Bookshop in Wood Green. Marvellous.

Tomorrow it’s back to work on the up-coming re-issue from Catnip…

Catalan award

27 May 2009

Got a surprise e-mail a couple of weeks ago from my publisher at Bloomsbury - Tokyo (or Toquio) had won the Young Adult prize in the Catalan Protagoniste Jove awards! Hurrah! Unfortunately I didn’t get to go and receive the prize in Barcelona on May 6th, but I did send a Thank You message in Catalan, translated for me by my friend and fellow crime fiction aficionado Prof. Paul Preston. Last week the prize arrived in the post - a fantastic construction of granite’n'glass which is now on prominent display.