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!

There is now just over one week until my first ‘proper’ book – Invisible Fiends: Mr Mumbles – is officially published. It’s possible you may start to see it in bookshops before then, though, and if you do it’d be fab if you could let me know.

It’s a very exciting feeling having your first book come out. Yes, I’ve written quite a few books in the past, but none of them have been completely my creation. I did not created Ben 10 for the Ben 10 books I wrote. Nor did I give birth to David Beckham, so I can’t take credit for the book I wrote in the David Beckham Academy series, either.

But Invisible Fiends? That baby is all mine.

Late last week my author copies fell through the mail chute into my section of the cave, and – once I’d wiped the slime, snot and excrement off the package – I haven’t stopped smiling since. So you know what to watch out for when you’re at your local bookshop, this is what the cover looks like:

Pretty nice, huh? Well, in as much as a large, sinister man with stitched-up lips reaching out to try and kill you could be described as “nice”.

I’ve wanted to be a writer for a long time. A really long time. Being in here with so many accomplished authors, I’ve always felt like a bit of a fraud. Now, though, with Mr Mumbles about to be unleashed upon the world, I can perhaps start to feel that I’ve truly earned my place here in the stinking, decaying cesspits that are these caves.

Want to read an extract from Mr Mumbles? Pop along to the official site and click the book icon on the bottom left of the page. Feel free to leave a comment here telling me what you think.

By “shorts” I mean “short stories”. Sorry if I caused any confusion there.

I found the following on the BookArmy site and thought maybe it would be of interest to some of you.

HarperCollins and Act on C02 are running a writing competition.

They would like you to re-write a short story or fairytale to help to educate people about climate change and encourage them to take responsibility and make changes in their lives to reduce their carbon footprint.

The winning stories will be submitted to a panel of judges and the best ones will be published by HarperCollins in a special Act on C02 book.

Write your own short story or fairytale. Click here to find out more and enter.

Stumbled across this today – it’s a bursary scheme for young people aged between 13 and 19, designed to help them fulfill their writing ambitions.  To be eligible you need to live in certain areas, and … oh, why don’t I just post the criteria here?

MyVoice Bursary the facts:

• Nine MyVoice Bursaries are available
• You need to be aged between 13 and 19 and live in either Birmingham, Blackburn (Darwen & Pendle), Bradford, Leicester, Luton, Manchester and Oldham, Slough, Tower Hamlets or Waltham Forest to apply
• Only your own original work is eligible to be entered for a Bursary Award
• You’ll need a referee (for eg: a teacher, youth worker, librarian etc) to support your application
• The Bursary runs from October 2009 through to January 2010
• If you are shortlisted for a MyVoice bursary we’ll be in touch with you and your referee by week commencing 2 November.
• Winners of the Bursaries will be invited to a ‘Welcome to MyVoice’ session at their local library in October half term break
• The decision of the selection panel will be final
• The deadline for MyVoice Bursary applications is: 12pm, Friday 23 October 2009

Sound like something you might be interested in? Check out http://www.myvoicewriteorwrong.org/ for all the information on how to apply.

Good luck!