Two small green photos from The Big Green Bookshop…!

…the FABULOUS new independent bookstore that opened in London’s Wood Green (a short hop from where I live!) just a couple of months ago. To my great glee and delight, samurai booksellers Simon and Tim invited me there to come and speak this morning to a fantastic group of young people from nearby Noel Park Primary School.

Questions flowed fast from the outset (just how I like it! thank you!) So much so, in fact, that despite the session lasting more than an hour there was only time for one reading: to make it count, I went for one of the flying kung fu scenes from The Black Tattoo (from the chapter called Skills). If anyone who was there is reading this, I hope you enjoyed listening to me – I certainly enjoyed talking to you! 🙂

In other news, here’s a video about modular robots, courtesy of my absolute favourite magazine right now (and constant source of story inspiration) New Scientist.

OK, I appreciate you’ve maybe got to look at this with the eye of faith! But it seems to me that human technology is already making a reality of the opening ‘self assembling’ scene of Ted Hughes’ The Iron Man [that’s The Iron Giant, if you’re tuning in from the US.] How much longer, then, before modularity, distributed processing and nanotech combine to form something like what Tim‘s PROFESSOR MALLAHIDE can do?? The book’s written to be fun, but suddenly it doesn’t seem all that unfeasible. HEE HEE HEE!

The New York Comic Con was amazing! But I’m putting this post together in great haste, fully expecting my internet connection to conk out on me again at any second (RRR!) so I’d better tell this one in pictures. 😉

I’d been to conventions in the UK, but nothing prepared me for this. I hear the comics Con in San Diego is even bigger, but this one seemed pretty floomin’ large to me…

Still, enough members of the supernatural community were present…

for a demon like me (see THE ENTHOVEN IS DEAD) to feel right at home. 🙂

One of the Con’s particular highlights, for me, was getting the chance to meet at last with artist Dan Dos Santos, creator of this awesome painting that’s included as a a gatefold in the US hardcover of Tim. Here’s one pic of him demonstrating his incredible skills…

…and here (below) is another. Almost unbelievably, between my taking these two photos only ONE HOUR had elapsed. Watching the painting appear was something like magic. Brilliant!

My reading, yesterday, was a blast. I’d thought I was going to be doing my stuff in a room somewhere at the back of the Con, but due to some organisational shenanigans – and much to my own amazement – I found myself on the MAIN STAGE!

What with the size of the space I got a little flustered and lost my place at the start (AGH!) But I soon found my feet, getting a nice round of applause at the end (and if you’re reading this, a particularly big thank you to the lady in the front row who yelled ‘YOU ARE AWESOME!’ Hee hee hee!)

A blur of signing followed, first at the booth of excellent NYC comics shop Midtown Comics…

…and then the Penguin booth…

Then my ‘official duties’ were over, and I could get back to buying more cool books (Yeesh, I hope I can fit ’em in my suitcase!)

What a great convention. I was very happy with how it all went, and I hope the team at Razorbill (my US publishers) were too. Here’s a pic of us together.

You see the lady on my immediate left? That’s the legendary Sarah Beth Durst, creator of the hugely cool books INTO THE WILD and (soon!) OUT OF THE WILD – and as well as being a fabulously talented writer she’s also an absolute sweetheart! We’re meeting up again tonight at the fabled “New York YA Authors’ Drinks Night”, a monthly bash that is fast developing something of a reputation: the traditional snack of choice, I’m led to believe, is ‘vodka pizza’. The mind boggles. If I survive, I’ll catch you later! 😉

Yes, following on from my last crack at it back in November ’06, here I am about to embark on my SECOND ATTEMPT TO CONQUER THE USA! Well, erm, at any rate I’m just this minute setting off on a trip to New York. And I’m very excited!! 🙂

The main purpose of the trip (apart from cocktails and shopping, hee hee hee!) is to catch the New York Comic Con, which is taking place this weekend (April 18th-20th). Are YOU, reading this, going to be there, by any chance? If so I’m going to be doing a READING in the Author Room(?!) at 3pm on Sunday, followed by a signing at the Midtown Comics booth from 3.30 to 4pm. In addition, I’ll be lurking around the Con most of that day and the Saturday, and will definitely (but details tbc) be spending some time doing my stuff at the Penguin booth, too. Drop me a line in the Tim Guestbook if you want to meet up with me there for a chat!

Got to dash, I’ve a plane to catch. I’ll do me best to keep you posted on my adventures while I’m away – but…! 😉

Here are some pics from yesterday’s AWESOME visit to Alcester Grammar School, near Stratford-upon-Avon in Warwickshire. I did three talks, with around sixty young people in each audience, followed by a signing session in the library. I’d thoroughly enjoyed coming to the school to do my stuff back in October ’06, so was keenly looking forward to my return – and let me tell you, I wasn’t disappointed.

AGS students are an absolute pleasure to speak to. They love to ask questions! At each talk hands shot up straight away…

…so many, in fact, that I occasionally was a bit nonplussed about who to answer first…!

…But I did my best to respond, albeit in my traditional manner:

Spike Milligan wrote a poem once about a baboon who wanted to fly to the sun. It was a formative influence on me in my childhood years, as I think the above image demonstrates somewhat conclusively. 😉

All three sessions were an absolute blast, as I fielded questions on everything from where ideas come from to what car I drive (btw: heh! I don’t! ;p) But a particular highlight of the day was seeing a display of giant monster artwork that students had put together to celebrate Tim.

My hasty photo does no justice whatsoever to the glory of these monsterpieces (can you make out that green dude with the manga-style hair?? And look at that one top right of Tim asleep as he appears in chapter one! Fantastic!!) HOWEVER…

Inspired by the sight of the above, THE WEBSPHINX and I have had an idea. We would LOVE to create a Reader Art Page for the Tim website if we can (along the lines of this one for Black Tat). We’re raring to go: all we need is some art! So: if TIM has inspired you to create some giant monster artwork of your own, and you fancy seeing it displayed for the amazement and edification of all, then simply scan it into a computer and send it to the following brand new email address: readerart@timdefenderoftheearth.com -We can hardly wait to hear from you!

Meanwhile, a MONSTER thank you to the students and staff of Alcester Grammar School (and particularly Mrs Doubleday) for what was another thoroughly brilliant visit. HEE HEE HEE! 🙂

‘I was wondering who inspired you to write?’ asks Josh, from one of the schools I visited last week.

Great question. Thanks, Josh! There are a few different possible sides to it – and more than few possible answers.

In my case (as I suspect it is with most writers) the drive to write comes from all sorts of different directions. If you’re talking about people who pushed me to chase my dream of being a published author, I’d have to include – for instance – my friend Mary. Her sudden and utterly unexpected death in a car accident when I was 18 (and she 16) was a timely reminder that life is short, it can stop at any time, and if you have an ambition then, well, you’d better get on with going after it. If, by contrast, you’re talking about writers whose work has inspired me – positively or negatively – then the list is very long indeed, and growing all the time (check my LibraryThing profile for some of the positive ones!)

But I guess there is one person I can point to who had a big effect on my choice to do what I do. He’s also a large part of the reason I’m always looking for opportunities to do my stuff at schools, by the way! I’ve mentioned him on this blog before (though THE IRON MAN is by no means his most representative piece of writing). His name was Ted Hughes – and I GOT TO SEE HIM IN PERSON.

He came to my school. If you haven’t heard his name before then it’s hard to explain what a big deal that was: his writing is still loved and admired today, but at that point he was arguably the most famous living poet in the world – and (to repeat) HE CAME TO MY SCHOOL!

He’d been asked to read some poems of his that we students were supposed to be studying for our exams. To my absolute glee he refused, reading instead from what is still one of my favourite books of his, namely CROW. And as if all of that wasn’t wonderful enough, it was a magical performance: his craggy face and deep, slow reading voice were utterly hypnotic, and are etched on my memory forever.

But something else is etched there, too. I was sitting in the front row of the school auditorium, and pardon me if this sounds a little weird, but as he read I realised I was close enough to him to smell that he’d just drunk a cup of coffee.

You see: he wasn’t a wizard, or an alien, or a myth. His writing may have been phenomenal and his life was dramatic – but he was a person. He was a human being, who got up in the morning, who drank coffee. This was a revelation to me, because until that point, while I’d written stories at school, becoming ‘a writer’ myself was something I’d never even considered. Writers were different (I thought). Writers were special – bizarre, mythical creatures separated from the rest of humankind. As far as I could see, becoming ‘a writer’ was as likely as getting superpowers – being able to shoot laser beams from my eyes, say. But there he was, Ted Hughes, this writer I admired. And I could smell his breath! 😉

Writers are people – just like (for instance) brain surgeons, or particle physicists, or polar explorers, or Olympic javelin-throwers are all people. Writing is a job: it’s done by people who sit in rooms and put words together – it’s as simple, and as difficult, as that. And passing along what Ted Hughes passed to me that day as I sat in the audience – namely that if you want to do it, and if you’re prepared to work hard enough, you can do, not ‘just’ writing, but whatever you want – is a big part of the reason why I love doing school visits so much. Seeing (or, heh, smelling-!) that he was a real person made the idea of being a writer suddenly seem real too. That was hugely inspiring to me. And if I and my stories even come close to having that effect on someone else, I’ll be very happy! 🙂

Saturday’s event at Waterstone’s Guildford with Mark Robson was tremendous. For those who don’t know, the traditional drill with bookshop appearances is for authors to sit at a table somewhere, waiting for people to come and ask them to sign their books. Well, let me tell you, that’s not Mark’s style at all. Hee hee hee!

When I arrived he’d set up a low table with some stacks of our books – but it was at the front of the shop, about three paces in from the door. And from there, from about 10 am until 4pm, he and I stood there and approached almost everyone who came in. We engaged them in conversation, we put our books in their hands and (as often as not…!) we convinced them to buy ’em!

I found the business of hand-selling our stuff to be very satisfying. I guess it helped that I’d been a bookseller myself for ten years: I was used to the idea of recommending books to people. It helped, too (of course!) that Mark and I enjoy each other’s work: his IMPERIAL series, for instance, is TERRIFIC! But having to convince someone of the merits of my own stories, enough to part with their cash and give a book of mine a go, was a great experience – humbling, sure, but empowering, too. The day passed in a flash and we had a lot of fun, and I’m delighted to say that Mark has indicated that he might be up for us ‘double-heading it’ again sometime soon. Watch this space! 🙂

Here are a couple more pics of me blethering like a madman to the bemusement of young students yesterday… 😉

The first session was a gleeful return to Westleigh High School, this time to do my stuff for some Year 7’s, in the library. This was great fun, with loads of good questions, my favourite of which (after I’d been expounding on how much I love writing about monsters) was, ‘Are you ever going to write a romantic story?’

‘Yes indeed,’ was my reply. Believe it or not, my fourth [published!] book – the one that comes after the one I’m writing now – is going to have a strong love story element. But when I explained who (or, heh, what) the “lucky couple” are going to be, the person who asked the question seemed a bit surprised – or was that disgusted? HEE HEE HEE! ;p

After a swift lunch it was off to the beautiful and newly-refurbished Ashton Library, to talk to some students from St Edmund Arrowsmith High School.

All five sessions from my Wigan Borough Wanderings have been an absolute delight. But if I had to pick one that was my favourite, this was it.

The way my talks work is that I like to throw them open as quickly as possible to questions from the audience. I’ve got some passages from my books that I’ve been practicing reading, sure, and I’m more than happy to stand there yakking – but it’s much more fun for me (as well as for my listeners, I hope!) if the pace and direction of a session is largely directed by the people I’m speaking to. Well: the questions from the Arrowsmith students were so much fun that the session ran for more than an hour and a quarter! I was gobsmacked when I caught sight of the clock – the time seemed to have shot past. But one would never have guessed I’d been rattling on that long from the pin-sharp concentration and attention of the students. The fact is, I can’t sit still for that length of time – especially not on the floor! So if anyone from the Arrowsmith group is reading this, I’d just like to say THANK YOU. I hope you got something out of listening to me, because I thoroughly enjoyed speaking to you.

I’ve got one more event this week: tomorrow – to my great delight – I’m sharing a bookshop appearance with the brilliant fantastical action thriller author MARK ROBSON! From around 10am to 4pm we’re going to be in one of the Guildford branches of Waterstone’s: the address is 71-73 High Street, Guildford GU1 3DY, and you don’t have to pay to get in. If you’re in the area, drop by for a natter!

…But before I stop for now, I must just say a special MONSTER thank you to Supreme Ninja Librarian KATHY WILLIAMS, of the Wiend Children’s Centre for inviting me to Wigan, for fixing up the events, for driving me around and looking after me while I was there, and for generally being a complete superstar. One of the greatest things about the book trade is the passion, enthusiasm and belief of the people who are involved in it, and Kathy’s commitment to young people and reading is an absolute inspiration. Thank you, Kathy! My first visit to Wigan was AWESOME, and I hope to come back one day very soon.

Out on the campaign trail again: since Tuesday night I’ve been here in the wonderful borough of WIGAN, where I’ve been invited to do my stuff at schools in the area as part of The 5th Annual Leigh and Wigan Words Together Literary Festival. I’m always looking out for more event opportunities, that’s a huge part of my sinister masterplan to conquer the universe but, let’s face it, I haven’t been a published author for all that long (only since Sept ’06!) The festival scene is really thriving here in the UK just now, so the fact I’m starting to get invited to those is very exciting! YAY!

Ahem. OK: now I’ve stopped waving my tentacles in the air I guess I’ll tell you how it’s gone so far. 😉

This morning I did two talks at Westleigh High School. Here’s a pic…

At one point in the first session I was just taking a swig from the water-bottle, preparatory to tearing into a reading with my usual gusto, when a couple of young gents in the front row suddenly burst out laughing.

‘What?’ I asked, brilliantly. It was only then, of course, that I realised I’d managed to pour a goodly amount of the water straight down the front of my shirt. Ho, hum. Well, manual coordination has never exactly been my strong point. And stain invisibility, I’ve learned, is one of the great advantages of wearing a lot of black! ;p

This small mishap aside, both these sessions were a lot of fun. Being asked for more at the end of one of my readings was a particular highlight for me – and since the passage in question (from Tim) involved the total and utter destruction of Britain’s Houses of Parliament, I was more than happy to oblige.

The second session was followed by a slap-up lunch in Westleigh High’s LRC. Bearing the lovely food in mind on top of everything else, let’s just say I’m looking forward to returning to Westleigh for another session tomorrow morning. 😉

The third and final session of the day was at St Mary’s RC High School.

If you look carefully at the above pic, you’ll notice that the camera flash in my eyes has rather revealed my true demonic identity (see ‘THE ENTHOVEN IS DEAD’) But you’ll notice I wasn’t the only one in the room, HUR HUR HUR!

This was another terrific session. I was worried, going in, that having a mix of age-groups in the audience (about half Y7, half Y10) was going to make things awkward, but not a bit of it. Questions from both groups started flowing straight away, and were uniformly excellent. HUZZAH!

My thanks to everyone I met today for giving me such a warm welcome. Example: I’ve only just returned from being taken out by Gillian Forrester, one of the masterminds behind the Festival, for a restorative mountain of sausages, mash and mushy peas. All is right with the world. Or (urp – ‘scuse me!) this corner of it, anyway. ;p

Take a look at this…!

Today it was my great pleasure to return to the Marcus Garvey Library, to speak (for the second time!) to its excellent Teenage Reading Group. Supreme ninja librarian DAMLA, the sinister mastermind behind the Marcus Garvey TRG(!) always creates wonderful posters and literature to promote events. Her flyer for the Enthoven’s previous visit was a very fine thing, but this (above) was an absolute beauty. Thank you, Damla!

To my delight, two of the young people who were there last year had come back to see me again — and seemed to have no trouble recognizing me even though I’ve hardly got any hair these days! (;p Together with the other attending members of the TRG we had a fine natter ranging over all sorts of topics, including the nature of horror in fiction, poetry, punctuation, and the process of submitting one’s work to agents — plus, of course, the indisputable fact that reading is the SECRET KEY TO THE UNIVERSE. Special thanks to Deko for bringing me in the copy of her school magazine with the interview she conducted with me last time (YAY!) And thanks again to Damla for inviting me back. I’m already looking forward to next year — except, yikes! I guess I’d better get on and write another book! 😉

Currently Reading:

DEATH IN THE AFTERNOON, by Ernest Hemingway

FLAT EARTH NEWS, by Nick Davies

and (slowly-!)

A STUBBORNLY PERSISTENT ILLUSION – The Essential Scientific Works of Albert Einstein, ed. Stephen Hawking

Favourite human word of the week: GRUMOUS – ‘1. Of a fluid, esp. blood: clotted, viscid.’ (New Shorter Oxford English Dictionary)

Today’s big event for me was a visit to Jo Richardson Community School, in Dagenham, Essex – one of the finest-looking and best-equipped schools at which it has been my privilege to do my stuff so far. The JRCS Boothroyd Hall, where my sessions were held, in particular, is absolutely jaw-dropping – take a look:

This pic’s a bit dark, but the whole of the rest of the school seems designed to be as light and airy and modern as possible: it looks fabulous, and its facilities (particularly the music department) are nothing short of stunning. But my positive feelings about the place were more than matched by the impression I got of the JRCS students, who were without exception an absolute pleasure to speak to. Each of the three sessions bubbled and fizzed with energy and enthusiasm – and questions, on everything from inspiration to Batfink. Awesome!

My thanks to Miss Meek and Miss Foreman for inviting me to JRCS and for making me feel so welcome. My thanks, too, to the students: I hope you got something out of listening to me – I certainly enjoyed speaking to you.

Wow. What a week it’s been. I am absolutely shattered, and just like last year (ew) someone I met at one of these events has left me with a powerful cold to remember them by! My nose is running like a tap, I feel like I’ve been punched between the eyes, and – now all the day’s coffees are finally wearing off (thanks, Heather!) – I’m drooping like a puppet whose strings have just been cut. But when I think of all the terrific young people I’ve met this week, I couldn’t be happier with how it all went.

As an author of books for young people, I sit at my desk and write books that I think young people would like – or, more accurately, what I think /I/ would have liked when I was eleven to fifteen. But of course, I’m an adult: separated by years, there’s no way of knowing whether my stuff is really getting across to my audience unless I take it out to schools and libraries and bookshops and actually put it to the test. Speaking to young people – listening to their questions, discovering their concerns and interests – is a crucial source of inspiration for me and my work. I’d therefore like to offer my thanks to every single young person I’ve spoken to over the last five days.

Sincerely. Thank you.

-So: just one more event now remains before my second World Book Week as a published author comes to an end. Tomorrow is a bit special: it’s the gala opening day of a brand new independent bookshop in my area – The Big Green Bookshop, in Wood Green. As you’ll see from their blog if you click on the link, samurai booksellers Simon and Tim have been working flat out to get everything ready in time – I can’t wait to see how it’s all turned out! Do come down for a natter if you’re in the area: I’ll be there (to help celebrate!) from about 2pm.

But now… now I’m going to fall into a deep sleep. Hope I can muster the energy to turn the computer… off… before… I… zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz ;p

YAY! And the event onslaught continues. I’ve only got about ten hours ’til I’ve got to be back out on a train again – and I ‘aven’t ‘ad me dinner yet! – so this is gonna be brief. But today was tremendous. The main meat-and-potatoes of the day (yeah, food’s on my mind right now! ;p) was a sort of flying tour around the libraries of Haringey, through which I was ably shepherded by supreme ninja librarian Sean Edwards, of Wood Green Central Library (thanks, Sean!) At each stop, young people from nearby schools were visiting their local public libraries, in order to find out all about them and the fine reading delights on offer there (particularly the book clubs!) First up was Alexandra Park Library, for a fine question-filled session that was also (I couldn’t help noticing) attended by this dude:

The session went so well that the librarians there kindly presented me with – I kid you not – a KIPPER TIE of all things! I’m always on the lookout for a good kipper, they’re hard to find these days, and this one with its brown stripes and all-unnatural feel is an absolute /corker/. Hurrah! 🙂

Next came St Anne’s Library, for a fine natter with some students from Crowland Primary School – another great group, full of fantastic questions.

After a quick sandwich break I did another forty-min talk, for another 24 spirited and enquiring young people, this time at Coombes Croft Library. Then it was off to my fourth event of the day, a panel discussion and talk at Hackney Museum – a special World Book Day event organized as part of the borough’s current Big Read initiative.

This was a fine affair, nicely relaxed and not too formal. The other two authors with me in the pic above are (on the left) the awesome David Clement-Davies, and (on my right) the delightful Catherine Johnson. The young gentleman on the right hand side is called Henry. While the camera has accidentally caught him looking a bit dubious here, he chaired our discussion in fine style, fielding the audience’s questions with professional panache.

Here (above) is a last shot of me attempting a Jedi mind trick on another young attendee, whose name was Ben. But such feeble ploys work only on the weak-minded: Ben soon put me in my place, and I had to apologize. ;p

What a day. What a week. And there’s more to come. Got to stop, I’m knackered (but happy! HEE HEE HEE!)