• I’ve been so long away from the drawing board that I didn’t know that Berol have stopped making Karismacolor Cayons. Shock Horror. If you scroll down, you will see a crab drawing. Well I’m really starting into the artwork for the book now. My electric pencil sharpener is grinding it’s way through my old stock of Karismacolour warm grey 70% crayons. I realised I had better order some more.

    I looked on line to find out that they don”t make them anymore! What am I supposed to do? The crayons have a very particular quality. Well, I just managed to find someone online who had three in stock, so I got them. They might get some more, but do you really think I’m going to let you know where I found them?

    I think they are now made as Prismacolor, but I don’t want to experiment half way through a job!

  • Every now and then an envelope arrives from one of my publishers. It usually has the look of, “would you mind checking these text edits?” about it. That’s not my favourite part of the job. But, to my surprise, the envelope is full of fan mail that has been passed on to me. It’s always nice for authors to know that someone out there actually cares and reads your books!

    fanmail

    I got this little lot from a group of children at Falkland’s School in Newbury Bucks. I love all the drawings, they make them so much more fun. Thank you Abby, Hannah, Oliver, Thomas, Rebecca, Austin, Charlie, Anna, Emma, Archie and Dulcie. You’ve brightened up my day.

  • I was quietly working in my shed just now, when an extraordinary and instantly recognisable racket outside rent the air. Having watched a million war movies as a child, I can tell the sound of Rolls Royce Merlin engines a mile away and that can only mean one thing – A Spitfire! I made a million airfix models of them too.

    Sure enough, we had a minute long display over the town of a Spitfire diving and climbing through the air. Thrilling! Gone as quickly as he came.

    Later… Now I find out there was a parade of the 1st Battalion of the Rifles in town and I missed it. Not sure how I didn’t know about that. A friend of ours’ son would have been amongst them, recently back from Afghanistan. The Spitfire was a fly past in honour of them getting the freedom of the district. The Rifles are barracked at Beachley, not far away, near Chepstow.