Hold That Thought

Okay, let's focus a bit on Ely Plot - Book One of The Wickit Chronicles. I have a finished copy sitting right here beside me as we speak, which arrived this week - and a fine-looking volume it is too. Here's what the front cover looks like - which doesn't, of course, show you the spot laminations (groovy technical talk for the shiny bits). You'll just have to wait till 5 April to get your own copy and see that for yourselves.



I'm leaving for Canada on Thursday for a fortnight, so there will be no more blogs until we're into March. If you're looking for something to read while I'm gone, try this link It'll take you to a fine collection of comments by some of the kids I met on the Questors tour. They're all great, but I want to quote just one, by Umar, from Windyknowe Primary, who says:

Oh and Joan should write more book because I believe she will then become a famous writer. I am forseeing that she will and good luck!


Okay, World, Hold That Thought!


Cheers, Joan.

Physician, Heal Thyself

I went back to check, and, yes, the last time I mentioned the possibility of getting stuck into The Walking Mountain was about two months ago. I've dipped in a toe from time to time since then, but the great big happy plunge hasn't happened. The nice people out there will say, "Well, you have been rather busy." The not-so-nice ones, me included, are starting to think I should be taking my own advice. What is it I say, when asked for tips for writers?

"FOCUS! CONCENTRATE! YOU HAVE TO GET YOUR MIND IN GEAR!"

But ... but ... I worked hard this week, really I did. I finished the end-notes for Fen Gold, and a synopsis for The Walking Mountain plus another one for The Singing Cave, and did another interview, and got into a flap about my Edinburgh Book Festival sessions and then got out of a flap about my Edinburgh Book Festival sessions, and signed stock for Borders, and didn't take two last minute invitations for events for World Book Day, and worried about what to do about being asked to judge a children's writing competition, and made changes to the biographical bit for the American version of Questors ... and that's just the stuff I remember.

Doth the lady protest too much? She really doth.

Meantime, wish me some really concentrated focus for next week! Joan.

Having Been Run Over by a Train ...

... is how I feel. An exciting train, an intensely up-and-down mountain sort of train, a train that has kept me on my tiny toes, but a train nonetheless. Which is why I've spent so much of my time since I got home yesterday either asleep or drinking many, many cups of Earl Grey tea. (The tea of choice for train crash victims and writers at the end of tours everywhere.)

The Questors tour was great! The grown-up organising-type people were great! The kids I talked to were great! I was completely thrown a bunch of times when the numbers were way bigger than I'd expected, or the age range of the group was way younger - or way older - than I'd expected, but by dint of some more-or-less gazelle-like editing in mid-stream (do you get gazelles in streams?) it all worked out. Really well. Okay, it was fabulous - I loved it!

Fascinating, the differences between one group of kids and the next, one teacher and the next, one school/library/bookshop/bit of the country and the next. I guess adrenalin does this to you, but I have all these incredibly vivid snapshots, mostly of faces, racing about in my head. Snippets of conversations. Odd bits of architecture. And what do you think I should do with this bright, shiny material? Well, my current plan is to make it a cup of tea, and go to bed.

Night! Joan.