Trevor Forest's Blog, page 15

Competition winners announced

Firstly I'd like to thank everyone for entering my competition. Because your entries have been so brilliant, I've had a difficult time choosing the winner. It was so hard to choose that in the end I've decided to give out FOUR prizes.

The winners are:

Georgia: for her wonderful entry telling us what she got up to in the Easter holidays.

Caitlin: for letting us know about her family and what she did in the holidays.

Libby: for a lovely rabbit story.

Mary: for managing to tell us so much in such a concise way.

Congratulations everyone. I'll be in touch by email shortly and your prizes will be on their way as soon as I have your addresses.

Thanks again to everyone who entered the competition. I've had a lot of fun reading your entries.

Trevor Forest

The four winning entries can be read HERE.

 

Another wonderful review for Peggy Larkin's War

Rebecca Emin on Goodreads, said:

What a gorgeous book. Aimed at 8-12s, but I believe it would be enjoyed by anyone with a pulse. This book reminded me of everything I ever loved about adventure books as a child. It made me smile, a lot. And it brought a tear to my eye at the end as well. Loved it!

Thank you Rebecca

5 Star Review for Faylinn Frost and the Snow Fairies

Lovely review of Faylinn Frost by Maureen Vincent-Northam on Goodreads  http://bit.ly/j3vmmO

Imagine a world of snow fairies. Now imagine their winter land under threat from a wicked 'net slinger' and his big black, yellow-eyed Sniffle and you have Faylinn Frost and the Snow Fairies.

The fairies are no longer safe; they're losing the magic dust that controls their weather and Coldhaven is warming up. Faylinn Frost is called upon to help the snow fairies but to do this she has to devise a cunning plan.

This is a delightful story with an underlying environmental theme and Faylinn herself is a beautifully drawn character with oodles of charm. Absolutely love this.

Thanks so much, Maureen

Special Offer! 20% off all Trevor Forest Books

20% off complete order on any Trevor Forest children's books until the 16th May. Use code LUCKYUK305  http://bit.ly/fWVFKt

Special Offer! 25% off all Trevor Forest Books

25% off complete order on any Trevor Forest children's books until the 16th May. Use codes LUCKYUK305 or CHARMUK305  http://bit.ly/fWVFKt

Trevor Forest working on a new book.

Hi Kids,

I'm currently writing a new book about a young girl called Agatha Tapp who moves from the city to a cottage in the small village where her father was born. Each summer the children from the three different parts of the village called Three Farthings, enter teams in a treasure hunt competition. Unfortunately Duck Pond Lane, where Agatha now lives, hasn't been able to enter a team for over ten years. Agatha is taunted by the members of Duck Pond Lane's biggest rivals, the Brickley Road Bears, who are regular winners of the competition.

Agatha has a job on her hands to build a team as there are only four other children of qualifying age in her part of Three Farthings village and she will have to get all of them on board if they are to have any chance of winning.

During the treasure hunt the Duck Pond Lane team are digging for a clue when they find an old metal tin containing a bag of silver coins and a cryptic clue. The object has nothing to do with their own treasure hunt and once word gets out, Three Farthings is overrun with strangers carrying metal detectors, spades, and maps.

As the story of Agatha's find hits the national papers, she realises that her team is now involved in two treasure  hunts. One of them is a competition set up thirty-five years earlier, with a prize worth two hundred thousand pounds.

Can Agatha, Sarah, Freddy, Gabby and Jake, solve the riddle and find the big prize, or will nasty Fritz Fellows and his friends, helped by Agatha's fiercest rivals, get there first?

Trevor Forest

Magic Molly Review

Wonderful review for Magic Molly.

'Another  excellent tale from Trevor Forest. This tale is on par with Roald Dahl in my opinion, so keep turning out those tales, Trevor.'

Read the full review.  Read Full Review Here

Lovely review of Abigail Pink's Angel

by Marit Meredith

Here's a taster

Abigail Pink is a good girl, but things go wrong even for good girls sometimes – especially when a mischievous angel comes into her life -

literally out of the blue.  This is a beautifully crafted story, with a contemporary tone, that subtly shows the difference between right and wrong, and how good intentions don't always achieve the desired result.

Read the full review here.  Abigail Pink's Angel Review

See Also; A Review by Mandy James.   Abigail Pink's Angel Kindle Version Review'

'Girls of Abigail's age will absolutely love the way Arella helps Abigail to get her own back on her annoying brother Ben. He finds his world turned upside down in the most imaginative ways!'

Trevor Forest answers your questions.

Why did you start writing for children?

I prefer children's stories to adult stories. There is more magic and excitement in them.

I used to imagine myself as the main character in a book when I was young, so I've always wanted to write an adventure myself. Some people think writing for children is easy. It isn't, it's probably harder than writing for adults because when you are an adult you can easily think like they do. When you write for children you have to remember what it was like when you were young. What excited you, what scared you, what made you laugh.

What do you like most about writing a book?

Inventing new characters and giving them problems to solve. The trickier the better. I like writing the conversations my characters have best of all, especially if I can think of something funny for them to say. I love writing, The End, when I've finished a book too, it's always an exciting moment.

Is it hard to think of new ideas?

Not really. I have a folder on my computer where I keep my ideas files. I have quite a lot of notes in there with bits of stories written on them. I'll never use them all, some are far too silly. I sometime wake up in the night with an idea in my head, so I jot it down on a notepad on my bedside table in case I forget it in the morning. Ideas come from everywhere. Sometimes from an item on the news, sometimes something funny happens to someone I know and sometimes something funny happens to me. Sometimes I have a brainwave when I'm sitting at my desk or driving around in the car. Ideas can come at any time. The hard thing is remembering them until I get home. Sometimes I record them on my phone so I don't forget them. I once had an idea about a policeman who practiced ballet dancing while he was directing the traffic on a busy road. I've never managed to actually use that one.

How long does it take you to write a book?

I usually manage to get the rough story written in about four to six weeks. Then I leave it for a few weeks before I go back to it and read it again. It's easier to spot mistakes if I do that. After that the story is edited, added to, rewritten and edited again. When I'm happy with it I ask my artist friend and cover designer, Marie Fullerton, to paint me a new book cover. While she's doing that I send the book to my friend and editor, Maureen Vincent-Northam, who gives it a proper edit to put right all the mistakes that I didn't find. Then she makes sure it's set out ready to go to the printers. I'd say the average is about six months. There is more work involved than people think.

What is your own favourite children's book character?

Just William. He was a bit naughty and was always getting into some sort of trouble with grownups. I used to read the books over and over again. I would have loved to have lived near to him. As long as I was his friend of course. I wouldn't have liked him as an enemy. They have just made a TV series about him. It's still very funny. I used to love Paddington Bear as well, he was always getting into trouble too.

What are your hobbies?

I love loud guitar music. I watch Nottingham Forest play football. I play golf (though not very well). I'm still learning and the ball sometimes goes in the opposite direction to where I aimed it. I build my own computers…Oh, did I mention that I love reading, and writing children's books?

What lesson did you hate most at school?

Oooh that's a tough one. I wasn't too fond of metalwork and woodwork, mainly because I wasn't very good at either of them. I once made a little table in woodwork and it fell to bits when my mum rested a plate of jelly on it. I hated maths though. I could add and subtract really well, but I could never see the point of algebra. I still can't. I never could work out why, if Tom had 5 apples, he would give Jim 2 of them. What if he really liked eating apples and didn't like Jim? I'd have kept the apples for myself and given Jim a stick of celery. I hate celery.

What scares you?

Snakes, and spiders like they have in Australia. The huge hairy ones that are as big as your fist. Urgh. I'm scared of ghosts too. I thought I saw a ghost once. It was floating about at the bottom of my bed. I tried to pretend I was asleep so it would go away but I don't think I fooled it because it hung around for ages. I could have been asleep and dreamt it all of course. It did seem very real at the time though.

What makes you laugh?

Silly jokes, like:

What's green and stands in the corner of the classroom? A naughty frog.

What colour is wind? Burple.

What sits on the bottom of the sea and shivers? A nervous wreck.

What's yellow and smells of bananas? Monkey sick.

What's big and makes a noise when it sleeps? A dinosnore.

Tell us 3 crazy things about you.

I call my Satnav Betty and sometimes argue with it when she gives me directions.

When I was a teenager I used to wear a pea-green denim suit with a yellow silk shirt and bright red platform shoes. My best friend said I looked like a canary but I thought I looked cool. He was wrong anyway,  I looked more like a budgie than a canary.

If I see hop scotch squares marked out on the pavement I can't resist having a go.

Do you have a question for Trevor Forest? Use the 'send a message,' link on the home page. It's in the top right box.

KIDS! Win a copy of Peggy Larkin's War

Mums & Dads! Here's a competition for all children aged 7-12 The prize? A signed copy of Trevor Forest's book, Peggy Larkin's War. All they

have to do is send an email via their parent's email address, telling us what they did during the Easter Holidays. It could be genuine or  completely made up, it's entirely up to them. No word limit, so just let the ideas flow.
Parents should send their children's entries with PLW in the subject line, to. trevorATtrevorforestDOTcom (I've written it this way to deter spammers) Competition ends May 15th 2011.
The winning entry will be published on this website. The competition will be judged by the wonderful writer/blogger/teacher   Anne Stormont. Anne's Write Enough Blog

Artwork by Marie Fullerton