Dave Cousins's Blog, page 11

My HAYlights from the 2012 Hay Festival!

Check out the highlights from my trip to the Hay Festival on the Hay Fever Blog …

Hay Festival or Bust!

I'm off to the Hay Festival! With any luck I'll arrive in time for my event on Tuesday, 2:30pm on the Starlight Stage. Maybe see you there …
Thanks to D for coming out in the rain to see me off and take the photo.

Nower Hill and Northwood School Tour with The New Leaf Bookshop, Pinner.

 I had a great time visiting two secondary schools in Pinner today, with Martin and Judy from The New Leaf Bookshop. 
Martin, Judy and Emily at the shop
Before setting off for our first event, I was invited to add my name to the wall of honour!

As usual, Tim Bowler puts the right words in the right order.
Cathy Cassidy added cake and stars!
Brilliant! If only I'd thought to draw Jay as a dog …
Then it was off to Nower Hill School for two sessions with Year Nine to talk about 15 Days Without a Head and my journey to becoming an author. Big thanks to all the staff and students for making us so welcome and not complaining they lost half of break because of my talk!
Action shot – talking so fast, I'm blurred!
We arrived at Northwood to fantastic welcome – Jaffa Cakes and a series of posters advertising the event. Thanks again to all the staff and students at the school, especially Louise and the artists who made the posters.



I particularly like this one as it shows me with hair!
In action – acting out the comic book I drew when I was 11.
If you're ever in Pinner, make sure you visit.
Find the New Leaf Bookshop on Facebook or visit their website.

15 Days Without a Head reviewed in Book Time Magazine

The April issue of Book Time magazine featured a whole page of reviews for 15 Days Without a Head!

Thanks to the staff and students at Queen Elizabeth's Girls' School in Barnet, Hertfordshire for reading and reviewing the book. 



Thanks also to Frances and Peter at Urmston Bookshop in Manchester, and Karmjeet at OUP for sending me copies.

15 Days Without a Head review in The Scotsman

I was delighted to see 15 Days Without a Head included in the Easter Teen Fiction round-up in The Scotsman newspaper. To be included alongside such esteemed writers as John Green, Celia Rees, Chris Wooding and Elizabeth Wein was a real buzz!

15 Days at the Hay Festival

I'm delighted to announce that I'll be doing an event at this year's Hay Festival of Literature and the Arts. 15 DAYS WITHOUT A BLOG!  is part of the Hay Fever programme and takes place on Tuesday 5th June at 2.30pm on the Starlight Stage.
 
For 25 years Hay Festival has brought together writers from around the world to debate and share stories at its festival in the staggering beauty of the Welsh Borders. Hay celebrates great writing from poets and scientists, lyricists and comedians, novelists and environmentalists, and the power of great ideas to transform our way of thinking. Hay is, in Bill Clinton's phrase, 'The Woodstock of the mind'. (from the Hay Festival website)
15 DAYS WITHOUT A BLOG! is open to anybody aged 12 and over, but will be of particular interest to those currently writing a blog, or thinking of starting. Blogging can provide a great platform for writers to hone their skills and find an audience. I'll be giving tips on how to set-up, write and publicise a blog, as well as a glimpse into my journey to publication as children's author, via eight years as a minor rock star!
It would be great to see you there.
Visit the Hay Festival website to book tickets and for details of all the fantastic events taking place.

15 Days at Number One!

A big thanks to everyone who came down to my book signing event at Waterstones in Hemel Hempstead on Saturday. I'm delighted that 15 Days Without a Head is now at Number One in the store's kids' chart.


I've always dreamed of being at number one …

This lofty position is due to the sales of 15 Days Without a Head on Saturday and during my visit to The Hemel Hempstead School on Thursday. It was great to see some of the students from Hemel and South Hill Primary again on Saturday. I was pleased to hear that some of you are writers yourselves. Good luck with the words! Keep reading and keep writing!


Action shot: the serious business of book signing.
Note shameless self-promotional T-shirt, useful for those moments of panic when I forget who I am.
(Thanks to Mel Walker for the photo)

I had some interesting entries in my best/worst day of the week competition, and it was hard to choose a winner. But the entry from Joe made me laugh out loud, so in the end the prize had to go to him. Thanks to everyone who entered.


Me in the big chair, flanked by Clare and Tina from Waterstones

Finally, I'd like express my appreciation to all the staff at Waterstones Hemel Hempstead for looking after me on the day and for their fantastic support for the book since it came out in January. You don't get that from an online bookstore folks … 

Book signing at Waterstones, Hemel Hempstead, Saturday 10 March.

I'll be at my local branch of Waterstones in Hemel Hempstead this Saturday, signing copies of 15 Days Without a Head.

I'll be in-store from 11am, so if you're in the area do stop by and say hello. As well as signing books, I'll be chatting to customers, giving away postcards and running a competition. Plus FREE Scooby Snacks (all the way from the US) for everyone who gets a book signed (while stocks last!) 
Hope to see you there.Cheers, Dave.

Celebrating World Book Day 2012 at Hove Library

World Book Day is a worldwide celebration of books and reading, and is marked in over 100 countries around the globe. I'll be taking part in the celebrations at Hove Library, reading and talking to pupils from two local secondary schools.
Hove Library – lending books for over a hundred years

I'm hoping there'll be time to visit The Book Nook before catching my train home. I've been informed they serve tea and homemade cakes and have a pirate ship, not to mention the books …


World Book Day aims to encourage children to explore the pleasure of books and reading by providing them with the opportunity to have a book of their own. School children receive a World Book Day £1 Book Token (or equivalent 1.50 euro in Ireland) which can be exchanged for one of eight specially published World Book Day £1 Books, or redeemed against any book or audio book of their choice costing £2.99 or more at a participating bookshop or book club.
Visit www.worldbookday.com for full details and a host of other World Book Day stuff.
Keep up with World Book Day on  Twitter ,  Facebook  and  YouTube .

William Hussey's Essential Six: Author Interview with Dave Cousins

Huge thanks to the brilliant William Hussey for featuring me in his Essential Six author interview series. If you've not read any of the Witchfinder books yet, you're missing a treat. I had to sleep with the light on after the reading the first one! Superbly scary stuff!
William HusseyWelcome to the first in an occasional series of interviews with some of my favourite authors! I’ve called this series ‘The Essential Six’ for two reasons: first, writers need to write! I love the work of these authors so much I don’t want to take up too much of their precious scribing time. Secondly, I wanted to narrow down my questions to a core half dozen so that we could get down to the real nuts and bolts of their life and work.
What follows is an interview with debut author Dave Cousins. Last year, I was lucky enough to get hold of a proof copy of his moving and laugh-out-loud funny novel 15 Days Without A Head - the finest Young Adult book I read in 2011 …

Read the full interview here