Autumn's Here!

Hello everyone!

Autumn's here, bringing with it a load of soggy leaves and bloggy musings from me. The last time I blogged was in June. I am truly rubbish at it. Anyway, if you're interested, I'd better catch you up on what I've been doing over the past five months. If you're not, what are you doing reading this?

Back in June, I had a lovely gig in Southampton, organised by Waterstones, followed by a day talking to some splendid children at the Southampton Book Festival. Then I went to Norwich where I was well looked after by the splendid Marilyn Brocklehurst, book lady extraudinaire, and visited some terrific schools.

Then - two fabulous weeks holidaying in Corfu, doing lots of reading and swimming and eating and racing around on quad bikes. Our Ipod packed in after two days, but we still managed to have a good time dancing to the music in our heads.

When we got back, my daughter Ella did a bike ride from London to Paris to raise money for the Big Issue charity. Rather her than me. Her bum hurt A LOT. August was a sociable month, with lots of weddingy birthday sort of stuff. I visited my relations in Devon, which was nice.

In September I went to Italy for a wonderful literature festival held in the town of Mantova. They had over 700 volunteers to help out - mostly teenagers. The sun shone, there was a castle and a Duke's Palace and cobbled streets and fantastic food. I was a bit anxious that no one would turn up to my sessions (I don't have that many books translated into Italian, and the audiences wouldn't speak English.) But I needn't have worried. I was given a great translator and the sessions were hosted by two wonderful guys who got the audiences up and running - it was huge fun. Probably the best literature festival I've ever been to, which is saying a lot. Thank you to all my new friends in Italy.

Then I was on Jury Service for two weeks, which I hated. Lots of sitting around. I was there for ten days and only spent two half days in court. I got a lot of reading done, though. It wasn't a bit like Judge Judy (who I regularly watch on tele.)

I had an enjoyable day at the Barbican Library in October, and two more days in Southampton, where I met more lovely children and had to judge a fancy dress competition. Very difficult - they were all so good! Mostly little witches with the odd vampire/Frankenstein monster thrown in.

I've now finished all my visits for this year. My new picture book with Korky Paul has just come out - it's called Dodo doo-doo. I'm working on the follow-up and also will be starting on a new novel shortly. Crash 'N' Bang, the latest novel, is coming out next March.

I have had some great letters from children. One was from Izzie, who didn't put her address on. I hope she reads this and knows why I didn't write back. Don't forget, kids, always put your address on.

Firework night has come and gone and next up is my birthday, followed by Christmas, hooray! I intend to start on the new book and catch up with emails and letters and phone calls. Mo (my husband) needs to update my website and add on new books. He's forgotten how to do it, I think, so it might take a while.

Many thanks to all fans, friends and readers who post comments on this blog. If I haven't responded, please forgive me - I find this blogging business truly complicated, being pathetic around computers or technology of any sort. It doesn't help that Heathcliff (annoying cat number one) is strolling around on the keyboard.

I think I've covered everything. I won't leave it so long next time - promise. I'll end with saying hello to all the terrific librarians, teachers, bookshop people and kids that have treated me with such kindness and enthusiasm over the past months.

lots of love from

Kaye
xxx

Too Busy

Hi everyone! It's me again.

I'm too busy. That's why I'm so late doing this blog. Also I need a lot of help to get it up on screen because I'm rubbish and Mo has to help me. I know it's pathetic but I'm just not technical. And he's been busy too so it's hard to pin him down.

Anyway. I'm here now and apologise to all my lovely friends and fans across the universe for failing to keep you up to speed. I'm sure you'll cope.

If anyone's interested, here is what I've been doing since World Book Day, back in March.

I worked really hard and got the first draft of my next novel finished. It's called Crash 'N' Bang and it's set in the world of Witchway Wood, but it doesn't star Pongwiffy or the Goblins. It's about The Witchway Rhythm Boys, who have stepped out from the background to take their place in the limelight instead of just being the backing band. It comes out next year.

I've also been working on another book I'm doing with Korky Paul, who illustrates the wonderful Winnie the Witch books. Our first book together is coming out this Autumn. The title's a secret. I haven't had a good enough idea for the follow up yet.(Suggestions on a postcard.) I'm hoping my brain will start working again after my holiday in two week's time! (We're going to Corfu. Sun, sea and quad bikes. Hooray!)

I've also been to Cheltenham, Tottenham, Portsmouth, Farnham, Oxford and Wales. I met some lovely librarians and teachers and book shop people and hundreds (thousands even?) of fantastic children - you know who you are. Thank you for giving me such a wonderful welcome. I loved meeting you all and really enjoyed my time with you. I really appreciate your letters, kids. Thanks to those of you who bought my books - I hope you enjoy them. If you don't, keep quiet about it and donate them to charity or throw them at a friend.

I really enjoy going to all these places, but the travelling is usually awful. I cart along too many books and always manage to hit the tube at rush hour. And I'm always fed too well and eat too much. I miss the family and cats too. Ah well. Next year I think I'll have to cut down. Mind you, I always say that. It's hard to say no when people are so lovely.

Yesterday, I got back from two terrific days in Wales, which looked at its best in the summer sunshine. I stayed at the most amazing hotel overnight, and then sat on a panel and helped judge the Grand Final of the North East Wales Children's Books Quiz, which is an amazing event. The teams had to read six books and answer questions on them, then present a little dramatic scene which will tempt people to read the book. The acting was incredible. There were balloons and a quizmaster and juice and biscuits and picnics on the lawn and we all had a wonderful day. The children got certificates and prizes (very hard to choose between them) and everyone who entered got to take home my first Pongwiffy book! How good is that?!! Everyone was very patient in the queue - there were a lot to sign. The organisers were wonderful. Thank you Frances and Gareth and the rest of the team. And thanks also to my fellow judges who were much more experienced than me.

I've also been to some summer parties - family, friends and publishing events. Met loads of old friends and made some new ones like Jade, who went to uni with my daughter Ella. Hello, Jade! I keep forgetting to talk to her about you, but I will.

Next week I'm going to Southampton and Norfolk. Will tell you all about it on my next blog - after my holiday.

By the way, Dylan and Michael - the replies to your previous comments are attached to the previous blog. Ooh, it's all so complicated!

Bye bye, everyone - 'til the next time. Have a lovely summer.

lots of love,

Kaye
XXX

Hi everyone!



Yet again I am seriously behind with my blog - really sorry. My hard disc crashed causing untold nuisance to my poor husband, who had to deal with it. Thought I'd lost all my emails - arrrrgh!



But didn't, hooray!



I've had such a busy time, what with World Book Day and trying to move my current novel on. I had a lovely day in Portsmouth, meeting lots of great kids. I went to a fabulous dinner in Birmingham to celebrate forty years of the Children's Federation of Books, along with Alan Ahlberg, Robert Swindells and Korky Paul.

In World Book Week, I shared a stage three times with Philip Ardagh, because we were teamed together for one of the World Book Day books. We did a great gig in a school organised by the Tales On Moon Lane bookshop, followed by an event at Waterstones in Piccadilly - and finally, we talked to nearly a thousand(!!) lovely children in the Rose Theatre in Kingston. Philip is tall and beardy and very funny. He had a poorly ankle but didn't complain much.

Our book - Pongwiffy and the Important Announcement/ The Great Pasta Disaster is selling nicely. Philip thinks his story is much better than mine and tells kids to just keep re-reading his. I hope you don't!

Next week I'm off to Shrewsbury to do a couple of events in schools. Then it's quiet for a bit, which is just as well as I really need to get this book finished - the dealine is perilously near.

I went to see Avatar and loved it. Oh - and the second book about Clover Twig is coming out any day now. It's called Cover Twig and the Perilous Path. I hope Clover fans enjoy it.

Lots of love 'til next time.

Kaye
XXXX

Hi everyone!

I am a useless blogger. Before Christmas I scuttled out into our freezing extension, where my husband's computer lives. My own computer lives upstairs in my office and I can't send emails or access the internet from it, so I generally use Mo's for that sort of stuff. Anyway, it's situated right next to the cat flap (which has lost its flap so is really just a hole in the wall, through which the arctic winds do blow). Teeth chattering, I dutifullywrote my Christmas greetings to anyone who can be bothered to read it and posted it. Or I thought I did. It must have been the cold. Anyway, when I checked yesterday there was no sign of it.

So. Instead, I'm wishing you all a Happy New Year. Especially to all the lovely kids, teachers and librarians I met last year - there were thousands of you and I loved you all. Thanks too to all the people who bought/borrowed my books.

News-wise, stuff is happening. Clover Twig got a couple of awards in America, which cheered me up no end. The follow-up - Clover Twig and the Perilous Path - is out in March, around about the same time that my World Book Day Pongwiffy story comes out. I've written three little plays for younger children which will be coming out in May in a series called Little Assemblies. I've just seen the art work which Korky Paul has done for our book Dodo Doo-doo, which comes out in the Autumn. It's lookin' goooood. I'm busy working on another book set in the world of Witchway Wood, but this one doesn't star Pongwiffy. It follows the adventures of some other characters that have appeared in the background in previous Pongwiffy books. It's supposed to be finished by March, but I think I may have a bit of trouble making that deadline. Ella (my big girl daughter) got knocked off her bike by a careless lorry driver and broke both her wrists and a finger, so I had to stop writing and be a nice mum to her for a month or so. She's getting better, though.

Our cat Heathcliff has holes in his fur where he's been licking a lot, so I guess it's off to the vet next week. I've been loving the snow and will be sad when it's all gone. Just before Christmas, a book came out called Alien Alby, and another one called Three Little Celebrations, again for little kids to put on in school.

I think that's it. I'm off to watch tele. Hope you all had a lovely holiday- speak to you again in a few weeks!

love
Kaye
XXX

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!

August

Whoo-hoo! Back from me holidays! Phew!

Two weeks in sunny France, oo-la-la, doing lots of swimming and reading and spoiling an abandoned dog called Friton who we loved a lot. Then a few days in sunny Devon with Mo and Ella, visiting our far flung relations and eating pasties, oh arrr!

I've been reading loads of children's books I'm reviewing for Junior Education magaine - the spooky October titles. My favourite was Feather and Bone, by Lazlo Strangalov, which is wonderfully strange and creepy. But don't tell anyone I like it best because the review's not out until October.

I've been finishing up bits and pieces of work because I want to take three weeks off to spring clean and be in the English sunshine, hem, hem, wot a laugh. The Pongwiffy series is done and dusted for now - one more next month, then the final title comes out in October. Clover Twig is setting off along the Perilous Path and I've just finished writing a short Pongwiffy story for Puffin Post. I enjoyed it - I really enjoyed that - I always love getting back to work after holidays, because I miss it. But right now, I want time off. I need to think about things before starting the next book in September.

The travelling heats up again from mid September, when I'm off to conferences and festivals and whatnot - Scotland and Bath and Cheltenham and one in the country with lovely librararians - more about those later. In the meantime, I'm just about up to speed workwise. Famous last words, of course. Something usually crops up.

But I've been doing some gardening and rode my bike, which is good.

Ella looked on my Oh-so-new blog and, to my thrilled delight, told me that some lovely people have actually written to me! I don't understand technology. I didn't know that would happen. I am seriously stupid about these things. How exciting.

Thank you so very, very much. It really makes your day when someone tells you they've enjoyed your books. It's great to have fans in their twenties who can still be bothered to write and pay me compliments. And whole families. And new readers. Please do keep them coming - it's made me so cheerful that I think I'll go and cook some stewed blackberry and apple and eat it with yoghurt because we're on a health kick that sadly excludes cheese and cake.

I think they'll be reading for the Funny Prize by now. Last year I was on the panel of judges. This year I'm hoping I'll get entered. Hope I'm on the short list. Will go all sad and sullen if I'm not.

Right, that's it. That's my August blog. Except that Heathcliff's still got his allergy. But he's eating a lot. Jeremy brought in a bird. The tomatoes on my balcony are turning red! I've never grown them before.

Off to cook now. See you next month.

1st July 2009

Hi everybody!

This is my first ever blog. Will anyone read it? Probably not. But the whole world seems to be blogging so I thought I'd give it go. I won't take long though, because the sun is shining and I want to go and read a book in the garden because - YES! I'm on holiday.

I didn't think this time would ever come. I've been so, so busy over the last few months that actually taking time off seemed like a distant dream. In case you're interested, here's what I've been doing.

This year, the entire Pongwiffy series is being re-published, with lovely new pictures. For those of you who don't know, Pongwiffy is a Witch of Dirty Habits. I wrote the first book about her twenty one years ago. Then I wrote six more. Books eventually go out of print, which is sad. Imagine my delight when Bloomsbury, my publisher, decided that they would reissue the whole series and asked me to write a brand new title to kick it off. So I did. It's called Back On Track and it hit the shops in May, together with the first title in the series. Every month, another title will be coming out, all the way through to October. I was even more thrilled when I was asked to write another Pongwiffy story for World Book Day, 2010! Hooray! We had a 21st celebration for Pongwiffy. The publisher presented me with a cake in the shape of the latest Pongwiffy book, with the cover and everything!

So that's what I've been doing writing-wise. I've also written a follow up to Clover Twig and the Incredible Flying Cottage, which came out last year. That will also appear in 2010. It's called Clover Twig and the Perilous Path. And I wrote another little story called Alien Alby which will be out soon, plus three mini musicals for very tiny children called Three Little Celebrations - coming out later this year - and finally, a follow up to a book called Sir Quinton Quest Hunts the Yeti, in which the Yetis come to London and hunt Sir Quinton.

I've been doing loads of visits too, all around the country. It's quite possible that I came to your school! I spent World Book Day in a local school called Campsbourne, along with lots of other wonderful authors and illustrators. Then I went up to Stockton for a book award, which, amazingly, I won! I was up against four other terrific authors, but Clover Twig won the day! I was so excited, I kissed the mayor! It's so, so wonderful to win an award. I was involved in a nation wide short story competition, which meant I had to talk on the radio and record seven of the short listed entries. Then I went to Oxford, Kingston, Plymouth, Warminster, Wales, Reigate, Finchley, Wandsworth and Nottingham. I was on the very last Go4it radio programme, along with Michael Rosen and Phil Ardagh, which was fun. I went to the Children's Laureate handover and was thrilled to know that the new Laureate is Anthony Brown, who I love. I went to a big librarian party and met lots of big, important librarians. It's been lots of fun, but incredibly hard work and I'm really relieved that I can take it easy for the next couple of months. I intend to read a lot, swim, and jot down notes and ideas for the next book, which I'm starting in September.

Other interesting news is that Clover Twig is coming out in America, a film company has taken out an option on Sir Quinton Quest Hunts the Yeti (taking out an option doesn't mean it'll actually get made), my cat Heathcliff has some sort of allergy and leaves white hairs all over my office chair, my other cat Jeremy hasn't brought in anything dead recently and I'm really trying to cut down on eating cheese.

That's it! See you the next time!