Round up BLOG of the last few (busy) months

MY big news is Book 6 is written Tom Gates EXTRA special TREATS (not) and I'm doing the drawings NOW. AND there's going to be a Tom Gates ANNUAL.

I'm totally RUBBISH at keeping up the blog when I'm writing.

So here's a round up of what I've been up to over the last few months and some other stuff too.(It's a lot.) 

Tom Gates Best Book day EVER - World Book Day got to NUMBER ONE in the WHOLE book charts for two weeks which was pretty special. I went on a mini book tour after and met a LOT of Tom Gates fans that were all really enthusiastic. 

And the WINNER is...

Stockton Book Award
visiting schools.

Other award nominees - Sarwat Chadda
(you can see his arm!)Penny Dolan,Lissa
Evans and AF Harrold (with beard).

Went STRAIGHT to Bologna Book Fair
with Mark to meet up with
Team Scholastic.

Scholastic stand.

Scholastic had arranged a special dinner
for some of the Tom Gates publishers
from around the world.

Scholastic group MD Catherine Bell
and part of the "rights team" 
Emily and Ruth. Who have done an AMAZING
job getting the book out there. 
Tom Gates is now in 23 different 
languages and in Canada - Australia-
New Zealand South Africa AND will be in the USA soon.

French publisher with the Japanese.

Japanese Tom Gates and the presents they
gave me too. A lucky cat and lovely scarf.

Bookseller used Zak's picture of me.

YES OK - we looked in the bookshop in Florence.

We took the fast train (200MPH) 
to Florence on the last day.
It was STUNNING.

Back home practicing banana 
doodles that feature in
book 5.

A keen fan sent me pictures of the T-shirt he wore
on World Book Day. It's brilliant.

Along with all the Tom Gates stuff
I'm still working on a painted picture book - written
by Rachel Mortimer and one in a series called
Jack and The Jelly Bean Giant.
It's really weird painting again and took
me a while to get back into it. All those JELLY BEANS!

Had the PRIVILEGE of being Author Of The Day
at The London Book Fair this year.
I've never been before and it was ENORMOUS.

Giving the interviewer the EVILS.

Being interviewed by Martin Chiltern from the
Telegraph was fun. He brought a banana for me
to doodle on (it's sounds wrong I know).

Everyone looks enthralled.

The real banana doodle.

AND TOM GATES CAKES!

Booktrust had drinks at the end of the book fair. 
That's Sarah McIntyre in green and the lady in 
pink is the fabulous Babette Cole who 
wrote one of my FAVOURITE
books ever - Dr Dog.

I'm missing a HAT.

Publication celebration at the Book Nook in hove.

I met with Gary at Waterstones who's in charge
of EVENTS and he showed me the card
I did a while back, which I hadn't seen. 

Southampton and signing the tablecloth
next to Jacqueline Wilson.

Fantastic doodles

Up to the Norfolk Children's Book Centre.Their walls are COVERED 
with authors drawings and signatures.
Including mine now...

One boy at an evening event I did showed me his
book that he'd been drawing in.
WOW there were PAGES and PAGES of these wonderful
drawings. 

Really amazing!

Simon and Marylyn run the
Nofolk Children's Book centre and that's
Simons sister and Corrine from Scholastic.

More events on tour.

I did a lot of pointing.

I popped into to see lovely old friends in Norwich
Ben and Claudia. Ben showed me his new tattoo.
I thought it might have been easier
and less painful to just buy the book?

Back to London that night and OMG had
the BEST view ever had in a hotel.

Muswell Hill Book Shop was ACE.
Signed and chatted a LOT.

Shrewsbury next. Stayed in the gorgeous B&B that
looked like a page from a magazine.

More really wonderful art. I got to keep
this one and I have it on my shed wall now.

BRIGHTON Festival in May.This is the very
talented Laura Dockrill who has written and illustrated
a funny book called Darcy Burdock. She's currently
Booktrust Writer in residence too. 

Mr Rosen and Mr Ardagh taking the p**s out of me
(which they did a lot.)
We were on a panel called
How Do You Write Funny Books For Children?
(A good question.)

Trying to get a word in edgeways...

Jamie Thomson (AKA The Dark Lord) had enough of Philip.

I sent this to Philip - "Saw this and thought of you."

Scholastic was up for
"CHILDRENS PUBLISHER OF THE YEAR"
at the industry BookSeller Awards.
Here's Alison Green and Zoe.

Team Scholastic Andrew (Creative Director) and Hilary
who sipped water all night UNTIL THEY WON!
She made a great speech and TG got a name check too.

With Axel Scheffler and THE AWARD.

Me giving out prizes for READ FOR MY SCHOOL
run by Booktrust. 

Mr Rosens EYES were everywhere in Brighton.

I started to write book six and went to visit Zak who's
working in Greece for seven months. It's the first time I've tried writing anywhere but the shed.
 I didn't do too badly!

Mr Ardargh (again) and Justin Somper at the NEW Children's
Laurette announcement in Kings Cross.

Philip SUNG and Patrick Ness had
to listen to him.
He left early.

The FANTASTIC Malorie Blackman
who everyone agrees
is a great choice of Laureate.
She's already ruffling feathers nicely.

Book SIX Tom Gates EXTRA SPECIAL TREATS (not)
 cover taking shape.

French addition of Tom Gates - I LOVE the translation.

With the old gals Alyx and Catherine from Scholastic
(now BOTH at Macmillan).
In Belfast for the School Libraries Conference.

Getting ready to SKYPE for Leicester BEST Book Awards.
The Brilliant World Of Tom Gates won!
Tom Gates won the Doncaster Book Award AND
Wakefield Book Award and I was sent a fantastic medal
from the international Schools in Japan -
The Sakura Medal. I've never won a medal THAt big.

Sakura Medal for The Brilliant World Of Tom Gates.

Somerhill School in Hove -
looks like I'm doing shadow puppets.

We doodled too.

On the way to Number 11 Downing Street.
For the launch of the Summer Reading Challenge.
It was VERY hot and we could SEE into number 10
Downing Streets garden where ANDY MURRAY was
being given a party.  

More number 11 pics next blog.
It's not as fancy inside as you'd expect!