Wonderful World Book Day

Mad March Hare a random Monk and the Mad Hatter

World Book Day at Waterstones Barrow

What a great day...I was invited to attend Waterstones World Book Day at their Barrow shop. There was a steady flow of book buyers and browsers and I had a variety of conversations with people about Out of Time and signed a few books too. I enjoyed browsing too-and as always didn't leave without buying. Instead of my usual historical novel or biography I thought I would change track and have a go at "We need to talk about Kevin" by Lionel Shriver...looks interesting and I'll have a go. Of course, couldn't  leave without a couple of purchases for grandson Noah-good old "Where the Wild Things Are" By Maurice Sendak and"Hairy McLary from Donaldson's Dairy" by Lynley Dodd. Can't wait to read them to him.

March Hare, monk and Cheshire Cat

 I've had a busy week this week-earlier I had a second visit to Lindale Primary School. This time worked with the Foundation Stage and Key Stage 1 as well as Key Stage 2. We shared Guy the Grumpy Gargoyle and then drew pictures of the characters. In KS2 we had fun with settings and words to create atmosphere. Lovely day. Tomorrow I am off to Thwaites School Millom to share the books and work together-should be good!

Which way?

Phew! Busy old week so far! Made some lovely friends on Saturday at Blackpool Waterstones and even sold some copies of Out of Time. Sunday-a glorious day for walking...and walk we did! 12.2 miles across field and dale-and muddy puddles good training for Keswick to Barrow walk dystonia teams(please see link to sponsor page-every pound helps). http://www.keswick2barrow.co.uk/sponsor/welcome.asp?ID=60
Been busy ringing schools and book stores to promote wider and wider. So far got another signing in Preston at Waterstones. If you know any schools etc who wish to avail themselves of my services please get in touch. Its very hard all this promotion-and as I've said previously not my natural environment-I am getting better, but I am not keen. Don't mind the social networking etc but its hard to cold call shops and schools.
Got a number of school visits coming up-Lindale Primary for a second day with the younger children this time too. Then Cartmel Priory School, Thwaites School near Millom,Dane Gyhll in Barrow,and Walney Secondary School during World Book Week. The piece de resistance is  Waterstones Barrow on World Book Day-a dress up day....hmmm! ot telling-you will have to come and see me!


I'm excited about the promotional film I am going to be doing with Comely Media soon-take a look at their website-good work! The two main parts are sorted and I can see it will be brilliant! Hopefully getting it on Youtube will bring the book to a wider audience.


Still awaiting Guy the Grumpy Gargoyle's arrival-it is just like a pregnancy! He is due 1st August...4 days before my lovely grandson's 3rd birthday. It will be a special birthday present because I have dedicated it to him and to the children of Dalton S Mary's School-who were responsible for its creation.


We are holding a "friends" of Furness Abbey meeting on 22nd March at the Red Lion pub at 7-30pm. We want to see if we can help to support EH in promoting and expanding visitor numbers. We should take a leaf out of David Gill's book at Dalton Zoo-he seems to know what its all about! If you are interested in joining us feel free..we would love to see you.


Work tomorrow-with my lovely TA students. We are progressing well with the new course and hope to be able to run some new ones very soon via Cumbria Adult Learning.

Even more visits...

Busy week again-which is nice. The first half of the week we were interviewing new students for Bluebirds Study Centre and then I had a spectacular visit to Lindale Primary School near Grange over Sands.The children were extremely inventive and imaginative and we had a great time. So much so that I am returning in February for another day-working with KS1 and Reception as well. I will take photos of the views next time-they were quite breathtaking! The phone and internet were off this week which made communication difficult-but it didn't stop some more bookings coming in-so it looks like  will be busy over the next few weeks! I registered our teams for the 40 mile Keswick to Barrow walk this week-we will have 5 teams for Dystonia and 1 for Bluebirds Study Centre (in memory of a little chap called Cameron who sadly died at the age of 6). So the training begins in earnest-I can't wait-been out a few times but we need to stretch it to a longer walk now-a trip over Kirkby moor beckons I think!

Gargoyles, competitions and creativity

What a week! On the work front-busy, we do at last seem to be making headway with the study centre. Then on Thursday I had a fantastic day at Lindal and Marton Primary School. I spent the whole day with the most delightful children and friendly staff. We had writing workshops and the children created wonderfully imaginative characters. For the infants I read Guy the Grumpy Gargoyle and it went down a storm!Te pictures above are of the competition winners. In fact so much so that I believe the children have made clay gargoyles today and little houses for them! Aw! It was great to be in school and I'm at Lindale (not the same school) next week-can't wait! 
Guy is with the publisher as I write and I expect to see it coming out soon-I will keep you posted.