• Phew! The artwork for my sixth Axel Storm book is finished. Sea Wolf is probably the most exciting, involving dangerous rescues ant se and general danger of loss of life and limb! Printing and publishing schedules mean that I’ll hardly have time to draw breath before beginning the last two books, which need to be finished by the end of the month, because I’m spending the whole of Children’s Book Week in Gurnsey this year. An exciting few weeks coming up.

  • I’m visiting Dorchester Primary School, near Kingston, Surrey (where I was born) on Monday. I’m doing a whole day of Just So Stories, so I’ve done this drawing lesson of a Baby Elephant for them. Don’t do the drawing yet, I’ll be showing you how first thing Monday!

  • Santa's Secret PodcastDuh! I guess that’s what makes publishers publishers – they think like publishers. We who spend all our time at the creative edge are not thinking abut markets or marketing. There I am busily starting to work on Craig Mnure, when really I should be working like mad on Santa’s Secret Diary, which is not only out of print, but all the rights have reverted to me.

    The basic book is still good and relevant, but there are one or two parts that could do with updating – CdPlayers should be updated to Mp3 players and the toy that everyone wants wants for mChristmas needs to be changed. I called it a Grommit twenty years ago – a cuddly furry thing that every child desires – not knowing that Wallace and Grommit were coming along hard on my heels!

    I think it’s worth pulling the stops out to see if I can sell a few copies before Christmas. I certainly don’t have the manuscript file for this one! I wrote it on a Smith Corona word processor that had it’s own proprietary disks that I’ve never seen since. Better get my skates on!

    If you can’t wait, click here or click the picture to get Santa’s Secret Podcast – the audio version of the book.