Last Saturday’s Crystal Palace Children’s Book Festival was AWESOME. Not “only” did I get to meet all sorts of lovely people, including festival mastermind Alex Milway; not “only” was there a particularly brilliant and unusual DJ – but I also met and chatted with Alexander Gordon Smith, the author of a new book called Furnace: [...]
Archive > April 2009
Do you know your monsters?
I just tried this quiz and did pretty well. It’s not so hard when you can look around and see most of the answers staring back at you! Mythical Creatures Trivia Quiz Not sure that the makers of this quiz realise that the word ‘mythical’ depends on where you’re standing!
Double Whammy!
I’ve been catching up with some reading. I know these have been reviewed recently here, but I thought I’d give my view on them anyway. Firstly, Scream Street Book 1 – Fang of the Vampire. What a great read! Quick-witted, fast-paced, with just enough scares to leave the reader satisfied on all counts, this is [...]
Poetry Challenge – my entry
I was trying to avoid rising to the bait of any poetry challenge. But you can’t stay curmudgeonly forever. So here I am, with my effort. the question I had to answer was ‘Where’s that smell coming from?’, and I had to use the word ‘LUNAR’. I hope you (and the monsters) feel that I [...]
W&Q Poem entry
Word: Lunar Question: Where is that smell coming from? Well, don’t go blaming me for this. I didn’t let it out It smells quite like my granny when she’s eaten too much sprout. In the loamy lunar landscape that I sometimes call a garden The stench is getting so intense it’s made the mushrooms harden [...]
David’s second poetry challenge
Following Mark’s poetry challenge (posted April 20th), here’s my mournful effort… CLOUD Upon the air there hung a cloud, A most unpleasant smell. Could it be my Grandma’s feet? It’s very hard to tell. Or maybe next door neighbour’s pet, A llama, white as snow. They call him Loony Lunar, But why? I [...]
LIGHTS ON EVERYONE – IT’S INVISIBLE FIENDS
When I was a teenager I watched Nightmare On Elm Street; the classic horror film about a terrifying deformed man who came to get you in your dreams – but only if you were young, American and very fit. I was young, English and not that fit, but even so I was freaked out and [...]
Too Scary For You?
This is a weird one for me. Yesterday, on my favourite film site, Twitch, I found a post with an astonishing clip from thrilling-looking upcoming animated feature film 9 by Shane Acker… …But the Twitch team are worried it might be too scary! It’s a serious point I guess, so I’m not going to attempt [...]
MONSTER MAKERS DAY OUT!
YESSS! At last, the launch date of the next two Monster Makers books is on the horizon and the monsters have agreed to let me out for a few hours to get to Waterstone’s in Fareham Shopping Centre (Hants) and sign the shiny new copies of SPACEMITE and ROCKATAUR from midday until 2pm on Saturday [...]
And the Winner is … Me!
My mother always told me that I was an independent child, and my father told me I was a good judge of character, so as an independent judge I hereby declare myself the winner of the poetry challenge! (As I did two poems to everyone else’s one, I’d probably have got more combined votes anyway.) [...]
