The title of this book was the first thing that caught my eye. They’ve finally done it, I thought to myself, the monsters in our cave have published a book revealing the dark truth of what really lurks under your beds. Thankfully, I was proved wrong.

Ben Horton’s debut novel is about Cameron Reilly – an ordinary teenage kid whose world is about to change in a horrific explosion. Waking on an operating table, under the knife of Doctor Fry, is only the beginning of Cameron’s nightmare. He has been saved from death by having almost every part of his body turned into a cybernetic machine – a cybernetic assassin to be precise. With his flesh half-ripped off, Cameron looks more like zombie than a futuristic weapon.

Springing from Fry’s lab, Cameron meets others like him – hideous teenage cyborgs, who are all rejects from Doctor fry’s nefarious experiments. They have formed the Monster Republic and offer Cameron a chance to reboot his life…

I’m a huge fan of Robocop and the Terminator movies, so it wasn’t a huge leap for me to get swept away with the story. The pace is relentless, the action is gripping and Horton’s easy style and the publisher’s choice of using a larger font ensures Monster Republic will be perfect in the hands of those reluctant readers. Monster Republic is a perfect stepping stone towards Joe Craig’s “Jimmy Coates” series.

I’m ready to join the Monster Republic – come and join us.

It’s here. I’ve bought it. It’s gone straight to the top of my reading pile. I’m dead excited about this book and I will be reviewing it very soon.

Books I’ve read in the past couple of weeks and will be reviewing soon:

Missing Link – Elizabeth Kay
Percy Jackson and the Sea of Monsters – Rick Riordan
No Such Thing as Dragons – Philip Reeve

Last week I slinked out of the caves for a couple of book events at the amazing “Weald School” in West Sussex (where I discovered traces of Ali Sparkes’ last visit there) and the incredibly enthusiastic Hounslow Manor School in Middlesex (with traces of Joe Craig still strewn around). Both events were great fun and the audience was particularly loud… so loud we almost blew the roof off the Hounslow Manor hall!

What is really inspirational about visiting schools, from my point of view, are the people who take the time to come and speak to you at the end of events. One such guy at The Weald School, Jordon Watson (year 8), did so, armed with a story he’d written. It took a lot of guts for him to show his work, and sometimes that kind of initiative can create its own rewards. So, with the monster’s permission, here is Jordon’s story: “The Runaway Dog”. This is Jordon’s first step in creative writing – I hope he finds this post encouraging enough to continue!

CLICK HERE FOR: The Runaway Dog (downloads as an RTF file)

If any school libraries have a section on their websites (as space is limited here) for pupils’ stories, then send us the links. It could be a new feature…

From TBM Guest Blogger, MG Harris…

Is it really necessary to actually experience the real-life locations in which we set our novels? Anthony Horowitz loves to travel to the places where he sets his Alex Rider and Power of Five novels – he’s been to Perth, China, Peru and doubtless many other exotic locations. Michelle Paver spends time living wild in the northern wilderness where her Chronicles of Ancient Darkness stories are set.

But then Costa Winner Stef Penney wrote The Tenderness of Wolves without setting foot in any place which resembles the wintry Canadian wilderness of her novel.

And fantasy novelists, brave people, have to invent everything! I guess at least no-one can argue that they’ve got the facts wrong.

I’m with the travellers. But only because it’s fun! I’ve tried it both ways. Reality can inhibit the imagination. On the other hand, it’s so much easier to describe a place you’ve actually experienced with all five senses.

The idea for The Joshua Files came to me during a long stint as a bit of a cripple after a skiing accident. I pretty much confined myself to my bedroom, intending to write a best-selling novel. (Ha!) It would be one way to make up to my husband the grueling 3 months during which he had to hold down a full-time job plus all the housework and childcare.

Okay, the first two novels I wrote whilst in crutches didn’t end up getting published but both of them were based in a fictional universe where a 2012 prophecy predicts the collapse of technological civilisation, and the struggle between secret societies and government agencies to control an ancient technological solution.

Like many authors I’d always hoped to write. But I’d never really known what kind of book I’d write. Then in summer 2004 I picked up The Da Vinci Code. I enjoyed the mixture of daftness and seriousness, the playful intellect of the novel (or for what I read as such!). It hadn’t occurred to me that people would so enjoy something which blended fact with fantasy in such a monstrous yet enjoyable way. “Surely I could write something similar,” I thought. “It’s got to be worth a try!”

Stuck in my bedroom, alone for up to ten hours at a time for the first time in my life, the rampantly escapist nature of a conspiracy thriller set in exotic locales seemed like the ideal writing project.

But…I wanted to experience new and exciting places – at least in my mind.

So here’s a little secret – the first Joshua novel was set entirely in places that I’d never actually been!

I’d been to similar parts of Mexico but not those actual locations. The writing was based on Web research and memories of road trips to other places in Mexico.

Since then however, the research trip is an essential part of the writing process.

In fact – the very week I received the advance for Invisible City, I booked a family trip to Cuba, my first official research trip. (Another as-yet-unpublished novel…)

We eventually did manage to visit the locations in The Joshua Files. Here’s a couple of videos, the first from a trip in autumn 2007, the second from 2008 includes scenes from Brazil, the setting for the latest Joshua story, Zero Moment.

So – where do you stand? Travel or stay home?

Check out more Joshua Files fun at www.mgharris.net

Invisible Fiends: Mr Mumbles publication day deserves something special to mark the occasion.

Unfortunately, I couldn’t think of anything special, so I’ve done a video blog instead. Enjoy!

Want to meet Frank Cotterell Boyce (author of Millions and Cosmic), Harriet Goodwin (author of The Boy Who Fell Down Exit 43, and… me?

We’re all meeting up (monsters allowing) for a special event at the Oxford Literary Festival on Saturday 20 March when BBC Newsround’s Sonali Shah will be chairing a big Q&A session with us all – because we’re all shortlisted for the Blue Peter Book I Couldn’t Put Down Award 2010.

You have to bag tickets to come and you can get them on line by going HERE and clicking on Children’s Events.

Hope to see you there!!!

Wha…? Where… where am I?

Oh. Wow. I’m back in the cave. I never thought I’d say it, but I’m glad to be back in here.

For the past few weeks the monsters have been running be ragged, shunting me from school to school, shoving me into libraries, and generally making sure I spoke to as many children as possible. It’s all because my horror series, Invisible Fiends, has now been published, and one thing the monsters here love is horror.

Here’s me at a recent visit to Bridge of Allan library, near Stirling. See if you can spot which of the “children” behind me was actually my monster escort in disguise.

That’s right, it’s the one doing the two-finger rabbit ears behind my head. You can’t see it in the picture, but he actually has six legs and four tails of varying shapes and lengths.

Anyway, I’m back for a few days, before heading off again at the start of next week. I’m hoping to sleep for the next 72 hours, but before I do I thought I’d tell you about a competition to win one of 50 copies of Invisible Fiends: Mr Mumbles. To be in with a chance of winning, all you have to do is add me as a friend on Bebo between now and the end of February. That’s all there is to it.

Good luck!

If you’re not up to speed with The Joshua Files by the lovely MG Harris, then shame on you! Get out and find the first two books Invisible City and Ice Shock immediately! Book One reads a bit like Jason Bourne meets Alex Rider, while Book Two is more like Indiana Jones meets Dr Who! They are great fun, with bags of action, mystery, pathos and more twists and turns than a twisty turny thing! I can’t wait to get stuck into my shiny new copy of Book Three – Zero Moment.

Zero Moment - The Cake is Cut!

Here was MG at Zero Moment last night. The cake is cut, the book is out. Go get ‘em!

Alternatively, you might just get lucky. You see, I bought an extra copy at the launch party last night and got MG to sign it. I will give it away to the person who can convince me that they deserve a free copy by coming up with the most outrageous reason why they should be sent the book, rather than anyone else. Example candidates might be:

My surname is O’Brien, but everyone calls me Zero Brain. This book must have been written for me personally because the title alone tells me my moment has come.
Or

My mate’s nickname is Kelvin Rucksack because he’s an absolute zero and everyone else has to carry him. You’d be far better giving it to me than a loser like that!

Make me laugh more than anyone else and the book is yours.

OK, with my own new book Crawlers coming in April I’m obviously biased(!) but I think 2010 is going to go down as a great year for thrilling new young people’s literature – particularly if you like stories that come in a series. Not “only” has our very own Barry Hutchison’s Invisible Fiends: Mr Mumbles just been unleashed at last (and to hear how awesome we at TBM all think that is check here, here and here) – but I’ve just read two more brand new series openers that I think are also HUGELY promising.

First up, MONSTER REPUBLIC, by Ben Horton. Unsurprisingly my initial reaction on hearing the title was “What? The monsters have a republic now??” But I soon realised my mistake and I’m glad I did: this book is FUN.

The last thing unlucky Cameron Reilly remembers is a school trip to a nuclear power station, then a dreadful explosion. Now he has woken up in a laboratory to find that his life as he knew it has gone. The flesh of his ravaged body has been stitched back together with bodyparts from his dead schoolmates (at one point he’s memorably described as a ‘walking school reunion’). But as if that wasn’t bad enough, Cameron’s now a cyborg – an experimental military prototype mixture of human and machine.

MONSTER REPUBLIC is a hugely entertaining action romp, full of widescreen Terminator-style servo-assisted smackdowns and a pleasing streak of evil-minded humour. It’s a satisfying self-contained read, but like any great series opener it also raises questions. Who is the mysterious and sadistic Dr Lazarus Fry? How will Cameron and the ragtag band of escaped mutants he meets team up to stop him? How does Cameron manage to wash himself in the mornings without shorting out and exploding in a shower of sparks? I look forward to discovering the answers to all these and more as the series continues – and so will you.

Next up, WITCHFINDER by William Hussey…

The first book DAWN OF THE DEMONTIDE isn’t out ’til March, with two more to follow after that, but I’m telling you right now folks, this will be a series to savour. William Hussey cut his authorial teeth writing horror for adults. He’s got a master’s eye for the minutiae of fear: the quickened pulse, the hairs’ bristle, and the way – in moments of purest terror – that time seems to slow to a stop. And, do you like witches? Golems? Ancient conspiracies? Demons, including one with a girl’s head on a giant spider’s body and, even scarier, one that’s taken the form of a magician’s cabinet? …Um, ok, you don’t have to answer that! But if you like stories that are weird and frightening as well as fast and thrilling (I know I do) then WITCHFINDER is for you. Don’t just take my word for it: click here and hear the author read from the opening scene.

Invisible Fiends. Monster Republic. Witchfinder. Any one of these three could be the best new series of the year – and it’s only February!

Happy Reading.

Sam