Other Worlds with Joan Lennon and Angie Sage

As part of the Baillie Gifford Schools Programme, Angie Sage and I will be talking about our latest books - Angie's TodHunter Moon, Book One: PathFinder and my Silver Skin - on Monday 31 September at 12:15.

Should be fun!

2 good things about 26 pairs of eyes

One is that the Foundling Museum exhibition 26 Pairs of Eyes: Noticing the Unnoticed* is to be extended until 25 October, which gives you more time to have a visit.

And the second is, there is a beautiful booklet of all of the objects and sestudes available by mail order, in case a visit just isn't possible.

2 good things! 

* This is a collaboration between the curators of The Foundling Museum in London and 26 members of 26, the writers' collective, that I was lucky enough to be part of.  Another way to read the pieces and see the objects beautifully displayed can be found here.

Gutter 13 - Now Out!

Pleased to have a poem in Gutter 13!

(The kittens were well impressed ...)

A Bedtime Story from Me to You*

If you like this ...

and this ...

...then you might like Rob Griffith's rendition of my story Robin Hood and the Rather Rude Martian on Bedtime FM.

* though you don't have to wait till bedtime to listen.

And if you like the look of this ...

... you might like to come to an event on Monday 17 August at 2:00 -

Silver Skins and Wild Wolves

with Joan Lennon and Katherine Rundell

More info here - it'd be lovely to see you there!

P.S.  I'm also one of the readers for Monday's Amnesty International Imprisoned Writers event 5:30 - 6:15 in the Corner Theatre.  The series is free and runs daily during the Festival.  Come if you can.

Stromness Bookshop Has A Lovely Window!

Many thanks to Elisabeth Slater for sending me this photo of the window of Stromness Bookshop in Orkney - and thank you Stromness Bookshop for liking Silver Skin!  (The story is set in Skara Brae, a marvelously preserved Stone Age village about 8 miles from Stromness, and both the village and Stromness Bookshop are well worth a visit!)

Sleeping Muses

It's no secret that writers find working with a sleeping cat or dog or gerbil nearby deeply - if oddly - helpful.

It's one of many reasons I've missed our old cat Katie.  But now I have not one but two small muses (notice how I'm resisting the urge to make the bad joke here) to help me get on with the words -

Even though, sometimes, falling asleep is something to be fought ...

There's room for at least one of them and a clipboard on my lap, as long as I don't care about the handwriting -

- though by the time they're St Jerome's cat's size, this won't be an option any more ...