• Phew! Just got back from my first drive with my dear son, Ed. He’s had lessons and his mum has been out with him, but this was my first time. He’s very calm and quite together, but we had an interesting route.

    I took him to a very strange junction. He couldn’t work out where to go and stalled in the middle of it. My fault, I think. Then we met several enormous tractors down narrow country lanes and, the most difficult maneuver, getting past a couple or horse riders that didn’t want to go in single file, on a hill in a narrow lane. He did it though!

    So many things to think of at the same time.

  • I’ve been off to Warwick University today, for a campus tour with my son. It’s the start of the long year of University applications and this was the first Uni to go and visit.

    We arrived and got ourselves registered and waited for our party to be led of round the campus by Patrick, a soon to be second year student, seeing all the major sites and getting a feel for the place.

    As I looked around I realised that you could easily pair up the parent to the child if they were separated or if you had a collection of random photos. So many variations – ethnicity, hair colour, skin tones, nose shapes, eye colour and shape, and that indescribable something that is kindredness – a way of walking, talking and holding oneself. I guess the young people have reached that age were they are looking like their grown-up selves and so look like mini versions of their parents

    And yet each student had that same air of excitement and worry – it’s AS levels results day tomorrow and that will determine where they will aim for.

  • dinodestroyermummymenaceOh! I forgot to mention that the first two books of my new series, Monster Boy, were published on the third of this month by Orchard Book, whith whom I have an awful lot of books published.

    Monster Boy is half monster half human and has a way with monsters, so he is the number one agent for the Ministry of Monsters – It’s a lot of fun.

    There are eight books in the series. The hardbacks are coming out two a month and the paper backs will come out next year.

    It’s been a lot of work over the last year. The artwork is all done on Adobe Flash. I worked out a style with Flash when I wrote Ricky Rocket. Since then I’ve got cleverer at the software, but have made it harder on myself too.

    My next two series will be drawn by hand on paper – Hooray! You can drive yourself crazy staring at a screen all day – give me paper.

    My next two series? Yes, I’m just starting out on an eight book series called Axel Storm and today I heard that Orchard have agreed to acquire another eight book series set in ancient Greece, so my holiday was a research trip too!

    Now I’d better try and find a bit of time to bring my website up to date and get some Monster Boys stuff on there.