Do your classroom or library walls suffer from blandness and boring areas? Do you yearn for something to look at other than that tattered old picture of Duran Duran? Then panic no more – the Poster Boys are here… At Write2Excite – www.write2excite.co.uk – you can claim your FREE set of four posters, featuring best-selling [...]
Category > Links!
The Darksmith Legacy
Anyone who knows me will be able to tell you that I’m a big Doctor Who fan (although obsessive geek might be closer to the truth!) One of the fantastic things about the Who universe (Whoniverse?) is that stories aren’t limited to the TV series. There are radio plays, activity albums, comics, magazines, audio downloads [...]
Scream Street Fan Art
I found this superb piece of Scream Street fan art online over the weekend: Luke and the chihuahua from Fang of the Vampire, created by an artist who goes by the name of Marticus Productions: I think it is FANTASTIC, and I look forward to seeing more! You can see the original posting here: http://marticusproductions.deviantart.com/art/Tommy-Donbavands-SCREAM-STREET-136015157
Who’s up for writing some RESCUE FICTION?
Warren Ellis, who I think is a genius, has just published this typically splenetic but utterly inspiring response to news that the BBC are to adapt the Just William books (again). He’s – ahem! – not a Just William fan let’s say, and I suppose I should warn you that if you’re bothered by the [...]
National Literacy Trust Interview
I was recently interviewed by the National Literacy Trust for their newsletter – covering topics such as getting boys gripped by books, authors being vetted prior to class visits and even what I would change about schools if I got the chance! To find out what I think about these important matters and more – [...]
‘Leave out the part that readers tend to skip’
This is Elmore Leonard. Though I didn’t personally get into his books until I was in my twenties, now he’s one of my absolute favourite authors. You can pick up any one of his books (the cowboy stories are a great place to start) and know that in a quiet way there will be something [...]
Getting Lost in a Book
The science of reading seems to me about as well developed and researched as the science of extracting gold from the stone of a mango, so any sniff of extra study or information is welcome. What’s your brain doing when you read a story? Have a look at this article and you might find some [...]
Snack Attack
It’s Friday in the caves, and the monsters are celebrating the impending weekend with some brain cupcakes. I hear the ones in the pic above are made with red velvet raspberry cake with French vanilla cream cheese frosting and a chocolate brain. The ones that the monsters are eating… are not. Mark? Ali? Tommy? It’s [...]
Bwah ha. BWHA HA HA HA!
Ahem! Er, sorry about that, but I’m rather excited. Here’s an interview with me by Tracy Baines for her blog, Tall Tales & Short Stories. Tracy’s brilliant blog is a great information source for aspiring and up-and-coming authors. I’ve done my best to pass on a bit of whatever wisdom I’ve managed to hang onto [...]
Nice one, Mike!
Here’s a fantastic early candidate for my Monster Art Attack giveaway… Very early, in fact: this was painted by a promising twelve or thirteen year old artist by the name of Michelangelo – around five hundred years ago! The above is a (cropped, lightened) detail from The Torment of St Anthony. Like they say on [...]
