I stumbled across an old notebook at the back of the cave the other day, in which I’d written a few quick stories, poems and book ideas.  Most of them weren’t really useful for future projects, but one silly poem was fun to read back – so I thought I’d post it here and give you the chance to add to it.

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How Do You Sleep?
by Tommy Donbavand & you!

How do you sleep?

Igor the boar does nothing but snore

Drake the snake simply can’t stay awake

Mark the shark likes to snooze in the dark

Sandeep the sheep sometimes sings in his sleep

Honey the bunny sleeps with carrots – how funny!

Pat the rat watches out for the cat

Mog the dog always sleeps like a log

Gayle the whale tucks up under her tale

Bruce the goose dreams of cranberry juice!

Zack the yak sleeps with birds on his back

Claire the bear snuggles up in her fur

How do you sleep?

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Now, it’s over to you.  Feel free to add to this silly little poem in the comments thread…

It’s always very nice to receive fan mail – but it’s more fun when fans go all out to dress themselves as their favourite hero… or in this case, villain!

Here’s Max Stockdale in his sinister guise as Jake Hunter from my VILLAIN.NET books – dressed to impress for his school’s book day.  Go Max!!

As if the monsters around here weren’t terrifying enough – you can now make your computer a petrifying place on which to read about our constant battle for freedom!

On the Scream Street website, you’ll find two new wicked wallpapers to creep up your computer screen – one for Scream Street 7: Invasion of the Normals, and the other for the forthcoming book, Scream Street 8: Attack of the Trolls.

Both wallpapers are available in three different sizes, so you’re sure to find something that’ll suit your screen and your nerves!

Click here to download the latest Scream Street desktop wallpapers!

I snuck out of the cave last night to take my final club level exam at Tae Kwon Do. Assuming I passed, I will be entitled to wear a ‘black tag’ belt from now on. I aim to take my full black belt in Bristol in the Autumn. My examiner for the evening was Master Don Atkins, eighth dan black belt and National Secretary of the TAGB (Tae Kwon Do Association of Great Britain) – scary!

In earlier gradings the theory side of the test was conducted by our club black belts, but for this belt the questions were asked by the senior examiner. Master Atkins also took time to comment on our performance and to offer tips for the black belt grading later in the year. I faced him after the practical part of the exam confident that I had done well up to that point. Master Atkins was kind enough to confirm this before beginning my grilling on Korean terms and history. I knew the answers to all his questions, so I think it fair to assume that I passed. I just have to await my grade now.

For anyone interested in martial arts, I can very much recommend Tae Kwon Do as a great way of learning a powerful self defence system, while getting fit and having fun at the same time. My local club is run by Master Jackson White. If you live in the Midlands, why not come along and join us? Who knows – if I get good enough I might even be able to fight my way out of here!

One of the questions I’m most frequently asked is whether I draw the illustrations for my Scream Street books – and the answer is always a resounding NO!  I have all the artistic ability of a teaspoon.  My publishers, Walker Books, however knew of a very talented artist by the name of Lily Bernard who works for Cartoon Saloon – and it’s Lily who brings my characters and stories to life in picture form.

To demonstrate the process Lily takes, here are three images of one of my newer Scream Street characters – Kian Negative.  You can see how each image progresses from a preliminary sketch to get a feel for the character (which my editor, designer and I get to see and comment on) through an intermediate stage and finally onto the finished picture.

I’m sure you’ll agree that Lily is not only very talented, but she has a real grasp on the feel of the Scream Street series.  I’m very proud to be working with her.

Tommy

If you haven’t met already, allow me to introduce one of the most famous and fascinating Japanese monsters, the Kappa.

Handsome, dapper, charming…

…are all words that /don’t/ usually get applied to Kappa.

However, as I’ve just discovered from this video, it turns out that Kappas can be excellent dancers. Click the link to see for yourself.

-Sam

Here’s an interesting article exploring whether it’s more educational for children to play games and read comics instead of ploughing through homework they are reluctant to do.

Discuss!

CLICK HERE TO READ ARTICLE

Last week saw the official launch events for my new horror book – INVISIBLE FIENDS: MR MUMBLES. I spent a few days touring schools, talking to enormous groups of children, signing books, and generally having a fab time.

One of the events took place at the Scottish Book Trust in Edinburgh, with pupils from three schools shipped in specially for the occasion.

It was probably my favourite event of the lot. Everyone was really eager, with lots of great questions. They even laughed at my jokes. Trust me, that’s a very rare thing indeed.

One of the organisers – the lovely Chris Newton at Scottish Book Trust – sent me over a few photos from the event. Scroll down to see some of them, and get a glimpse of the banner the wonderful people at HarperCollins had produced for me.

Barry reading from Mr Mumbles

Taking questions

Me and Mr Mumbles

Clicking any of the pictures will make them larger, by the way. Probably should have mentioned that before.

Someone has stolen Professor Weirdo’s hearse and the evidence points to Milton the Monster. But is he ghoulty, or not ghoulty? You’ve got to love the monster justice system as Professor Weirdo and Count Kook play judge, jury and … ehm … monsters!

As I have stated in a previous post, somewhere back in the mists of time, I’m a huge fan of Philip Reeve’s Mortal Engines. I would go as far as to say it is my all time favourite book for the YA market. As such, when I saw that he had written a story about dragons – even one with such an erroneous title – then I had to buy it and see if it lived up to his previous work.

No Such Thing as Dragons tells the tale of a young mute lad, Ansell, who is sold to a travelling dragon hunter named Brock. His new master is full of grand stories of his adventurous career in slaying the enormous creatures and he is also full of himself and his reputation. However, Ansell soon discovers Brock’s secret. He is a fraud. He has never really encountered a dragon and doesn’t actually believe in their existence. It comes as no great surprise to the reader when the two travellers arrive at a village who are living in fear of a dragon and discover there is more to the legends than Brock thought.

This story is written for a younger market than the Hungry Cities series. Philip’s descriptive writing is as breathtakingly brilliant as ever and I will most certainly read this book aloud to my son when he is old enough. However, for fans of the Mortal Engines series, I wouldn’t recommend this as a book to progress to because it doesn’t have the depth of his previous works. The story lacks the twists and turns that he so masterfully engineers in his other books, but makes a superb introductory book to the dragon genre for younger readers.

One bone I would have to pick with Mr Reeve is his choice of title … is he yet another author who has not heard of our plight? Of course there are such things as dragons! If I ever get the chance to meet him … and I hope to do that one day … I shall be quick to raise this issue. Maybe I’ll even introduce him to a dragon or two.