I was let out of my cell yesterday to join some other writing colleagues at Broxbourne School in an effort to beat the best young literary brains in the London region at a Literary Quiz. Our team consisted of M.G. Harris, Echo Freer, Matt Whyman and me. We were pretty confident until we saw the opposition! These young folk really know their books! And there were lots of them.

The teams gather ...

There were eight authors present. Aside from the four team members, there were: Amanda Lees, Pauline Francis, Gareth Mottram and Lee Wilkinson. The authors who were not a part of the team were given the tough jobs of marking the 10 rounds of questions and compiling the scores for the leaderboard.

It was a close run contest and the authors were up in the mix for the entire competition. We were eventually beaten (by half a point … fix, I say, fix!!) into second place by the fantastic team of girls from the City of London School for Girls, whose combined knowledge of children’s literature was most impressive.

M.G Harris presenting the worthy winners with their prizes.

I’d love to know what the Quizmaster, Wayne Mills, (standing just behind M.G. and pointing) was saying to M.G. as she prepared to hand out the money! Suggestions?

The best caption will win a hardback copy of Gone by Michael Grant - my personal pick of the new books in 2009.

Anyone can have a go … including the other captives, if you like. You have until the end of next week.

I found myself happily drawing these silly creatures the other week, in between signing books with Mark Robson at Waterstones in Oxford. It struck me, not for the first time, how curious it is that people are surprised that I should be doing this for a living. There I was bent over a corner of the picture, rendering a bit of toe nail, when a discreet cough over my shoulder had me jumping to attention. I turned around and was met by a man with a look of amusement on his face. Mildly impressed by my efforts (that’s fair enough), he then asked me what I did for a living. I told him I wrote and illustrated children’s books. He looked at me, blinked, and asked what else I did?

I almost apologised. “Um, that’s it!” I said. We smiled and I went back to the toe nail. I could feel him standing there for a while, silent in thought, but by the time I turned my attention to the nose hair (or should that be beak hair?), I noticed he had gone.

I can’t deny, it is a funny way to make a living. But, quite frankly, I wouldn’t have it any other way. I consider myself very lucky indeed.

Um…sorry.

Oh, the joys of a new Mr Gum book… (yes, I know it’s been out for a few weeks, but I’ve only just got my mitts on a copy!)

In What’s For Dinner, Mr Gum?, the 6th installment of sheer joyful madness from Andy Stanton (accompanied by the usual incredible illustrations from David Tazzyman that somehow manage to look perfectly scribbled by someone in a huge rush), Mr Gum crosses yet another line and ditches his long-time friend and greasy accomplice, Billy William The Third.  Could it be that nasty Mr Gum has found somewhere else to order his disgusting, fly-infested meals?  Will Billy simply put up with his funty behaviour?  And what can Polly and friends do to restore peace to a war-torn Lamonic Bibber?

You’ll just have to read the book to find out – but, believe me, you won’t regret doing so.

Tommy

Eeee(book) by gum!  It’s grand news…

The first four Scream Street titles – Fang of the Vampire, Blood of the Witch, Heart of the Mummy and Flesh of the Zombie – are now available to buy as iPhone apps from the iTunes App Store.  Each book costs just £3.99, and is instantly available to read as soon as it has downloaded.

Simply click here to launch the App Store on your computer: http://ax.search.itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZSearch.woa/wa/search?media=software&term=scream+street

And, as if that wasn’t enough – ALL SEVEN Scream Street novels are now available to buy from the Waterstones website as ebooks by clicking here: http://www.waterstones.com/waterstonesweb/advancedSearch.do?buttonClicked=1&title=scream+street&author=&bookkeywords=&format=3757&ctx=&price=&age=&isbn=

What a scream!

Tommy

JETHRO’S ACE OF HEARTS

a thirteen-part story, EXCLUSIVE to Trapped By Monsters

story (c) Sam Enthoven / illustrations (c) David Melling, 2009. All rights reserved.

(Click here for previous slices: 1st ; 2nd ; 3rd ; 4th ; 5th ; 6th ; 7th)

-Eighth Slice-

Jethro looked blank. Mr Theophilus’ smile did not waver.

‘Those were primitive days, so you can imagine the way they saw it at the time,’ he said, still grinning. ‘Her “steadfast heart” eventually caused her to end up being made a saint herself! And all the while the real reason it didn’t burn was actually very simple. They didn’t cook it for long enough.’

Jethro’s face was very pale by now, but Mr Theophilus was hitting his stride.

‘You see, Joan of Arc had a very strong heart. She was a fit and healthy young woman who, if it hadn’t been for the saints, would probably have lived to a ripe old age. So: if her executioners had wanted the cooking process to last anything less than about fourteen hours, they would’ve needed considerably better equipment than what was available in 1431!’ He shook his head with amusement. ‘Now,’ he went on, ‘young, strong, tough hearts like hers aren’t usually any good to me.’

‘No?’ said Jethro weakly.

‘Oh dear me no. The problem is, if a heart’s too healthy the roasting process just dries out all the juices. It’s a crying shame. All you’re left with is this ghastly lump the consistency of a squash ball. Ugh! No: my speciality’s strictly a twenty-first century thing – a true marvel of the technological age. I like a modern heart. Succulent. Juicy. And, of course, marbled with fat.’

‘Fat?‘ echoed Jethro, in a voice from far away.

‘Yes indeed,’ said Mr Theophilus.

Silently, Jethro began to cry.

-Click here for Slice Nine-

To be filed firmly in the ‘so utterly, horribly wrong it’s right’ category, allow me to introduce you (via Boing Boing) to The Adventures of Lil’ Cthulhu — a bloodcurdlingly chirpy animated short film that narrates H P Lovecraft‘s classic and terrifying Cthulhu Mythos in a way that now – at last! – the whole family can enjoy.

I particularly like the bit where Lil’ Cthulhu gets hungry. -Aw! [shudders]

It’s been a busy few months down the caves – and I’m bursting to tell you all about the things that have caused me to leap up and down with glee… but they’ll have to wait.

In the meantime, I received a few cool concept designs for a new comic I’m working on called DINO-CORPS – think of the movie Transformer with dinosaurs…

Let me know your thoughts!

Also, come and tweet with me on Twitter – although I’m about to be allowed out of the caves for a few weeks so may be tweet-less for a few weeks!

JETHRO’S ACE OF HEARTS

a thirteen-part story, EXCLUSIVE to Trapped By Monsters

story (c) Sam Enthoven / illustrations (c) David Melling, 2009. All rights reserved.

(Click here for previous slices: 1st ; 2nd ; 3rd ; 4th ; 5th ; 6th)

-Seventh Slice-

‘Hearts?‘ said Jethro, and turned his head to face his host at last.

‘Ah, splendid! So nice to see each other again, yes? Yes: hearts,’ said Mr Theophilus. ‘I remove them, roast them for not less than eight hours until the meat is completely tender, then I eat them with various special sauces of my own devising.’

There was short silence.

‘Eight hours?’ spluttered Jethro, finally.

‘Why, yes,’ replied Mr Theophilus. This commendable show of curiosity clearly pleased him. ‘The timing’s rather crucial, actually. While the heart is undoubtedly an organ best consumed rare, anything less than a full eight hours is, frankly, impractical.’ His green eyes twinkled, laughter lines deepening around them. ‘I see that what I say surprises you.’

Jethro did not reply.

‘Well,’ said Mr Theophilus, taking a deep breath and fixing his eye on the middle distance, ‘it’s simply because the human heart’s so astonishingly tough. You follow? It’s the job, all that pumping all the time. The heart is solid, gristly muscle by its very nature, because expanding and contracting is really all it ever does.’

He turned to Jethro, smiling broadly.

‘Take Joan of Arc. I’m sure you recall the story about her. No? French lady? Led a rebellion, claiming she was under orders from the saints? Well, anyway: in 1431 she was burnt at the stake, and when they put out the fire the only thing that was left of her was her heart. No matter how hard her executioners tried, the bally thing just wouldn’t catch light. Now: why do you think that was, hmm?‘

-Click here for Slice Eight-

I decided to shoot a new video blog yesterday, so stuck the camera on the tripod, removed the lens cap, and flicked the button marked ‘Record’.

It was at this point that I realised I had absolutely no idea what I was going to talk about. I spent three or four nanoseconds debating whether I should switch off the camera and plan what I was going to say, but I decided just to blunder on and talk about whatever came into my head.

The result is the wandering, semi-coherent video you see below. If nothing else it has taught me that planning videos is just as important as planning stories. Next time I’ll be figuring out the subject of my video blog BEFORE I start shooting it.

If given a taste of the first in her new Joshua Files series, anyone could be forgiven for thinking M.G. Harris was a male writer. I wonder if it was a tactical ploy to only give her initials in an effort to get those young boys on board who normally read books by Anthony Horowitz, Robert Muchamore, Charlie Higson, Chris Ryan and (of course) Joe Craig. If so, then she’s one smart lady. From the outset Invisible City sets itself alongside many of the books by these writers. The main character gives the feeling of a young Jason Bourne, discovering his true identity for the first time.

M.G. starts the story in the UK, but it is obvious from the outset that the real mystery lies hidden in the home of the ancient Mayan cities, somewhere out in Mexico. Hidden behind the garish orange sleeve lies: murder, theft, UFOs, rumour of an ancient Mayan codex, government agents, police investigations, car chases, martial arts and more. Add to this that it’s written in an easy to read style and with enough mystery to keep you guessing right to the end and I’d say that M.G. has come up with a winning formula.

I’ve just now finished Ice Shock as well. Wow! It’s breathless action from the start. More undercover agencies, secret cults, mystery and murder – great stuff. This time the story seems to have more of an “Indiana Jones meets Dr Who” feel to it – two of my all-time favourites. Needless to say this series gets a huge thumbs up from me. Well done, M.G. Can’t wait for the next instalment.