OCTOBER

Hello everyone!

I'm not a very good blogger. I haven't written anything in this space since August. It's now October - Hallowe'en tonight! I've bought lots of sweets and hope we'll get some trick or treaters so I won't have to eat 'em all myself, which would be a tragedy.

So. What's been happening? Well, I enjoyed having a bit of time off back in the summer, but September came really quickly and now I can hardly remember it. I've been incredibly busy. I wrote three short plays for tiny children called Three Little Celebrations (published by Black) which is coming out shortly. I also wrote three plays for children to perform in assemblies (also Black, out next year.) Started my new novel - enjoying it so far, but will start to panic when I get further along with it (I always do.)

I've done lots of travelling too. I flew to Stirling in Scotland and talked to loads of lovely children. I sat on a panel at the YLG conference (Youthful Librarians, in case you don't know.) My fellow panelists were all funny writers - Andy Stanton, John Dougherty and Anthony McGowan. We went on and on about the importance of funny books. I went to the Bath festival and met more lovely children, most of whom were dressed up as witches and goblins as it was a Pongwiffy event. While I was there, I bumped into Philip Ardagh. Well, I didn't literally bump into him, which is just as well as he's about nine feet tall. We are both thrilled to be writing the funny option for 2010's World Book Day. (I've finished my story for this - don't know how he's getting on!)

I also did an event for Haringey Libraries ( that's my borough, in London.) I met a wonderful story teller and a great singer as well as Johnny Zucker, a fellow author who lives near me. We had a huge audience of great kids and really enjoyed ourselves.

Then I did the Cheltenham Literary Festival - and finally ended up with flying to Lanarkshire in Scotland for my final gig of the year. I've also done a bit of radio and a couple of newspaper interviews, so it's been all go.

My daughter Ella went in for a cycling marathon (100 kilometres - phew!) and raised loads of money for Water Aid. Two days later, some stinker stole her bike, so she's had to buy another one.

My husband Mo has been cooking us some wonderful meals and organising loads of boring jobs around the house because we had a leak which brought our shower room ceiling down and caused loads of damage.

Both cats are well and haven't been bringing in any dead things for a while, which is a relief.

If you were amongst any of the crowds of kids I've spoken to over the last couple of months - HI!

Hope you have a great Hallowe'en, everyone - see you in a month or so!