Rachel Hamilton's Blog, page 4

Things I Learnt From Joe Craig

  When I was a trainee teacher I learnt far more f [...]

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Things I Learnt Watching Joe Craig

 

When I was a trainee teacher I learnt far more from watching  fellow teachers than from any text book. So now  I’ve started doing author visits, I thought the best way to keep kids awake during them was to watch some of my fab fellow writers in action and pick up a few tips.

I had heard great things about Joe Craig’s school visits so I gave him a shout and he very kindly agreed that I could join him, ride-along-cop style, on his visit to Burlington Danes academy last week. These are few of the tips I picked up:

 

 

If you’ve found your way here and you’re a writer, teacher or student, I’d love to hear your school visit dos and don’ts  below . . .

 

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The Weekend I YALC-ed

  It’s been a while since I last blogged as life h [...]

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The Weekend I YALC-ed for the First Time

 

It’s been a while since I last blogged as life has been crazy (in all the right ways!). But I have a few minutes sitting here on the couch, drinking tea, so I thought I’d try and catch up with a blog post or two, as this week has been full of brilliantness, which began with a trip to YALC at the weekend.

 

 

 

 

If you haven’t heard of YALC I should explain that it’s not the onomatopoeic name for a mass vomit-fest, it’s the acronym for the first ever large-scale Young Adult Literature Convention in the UK. It was organised largely by superhuman Children’s Laureate Malorie Blackman, who had the inspired idea to make it part of the London Film and Comic Con, adding a brilliant surreal note to the event. Check out my friend Sarah Sky (author of the ‘Jessica Cole: Model Spy’ series) making new con buddies.

 

 

I have to confess that despite having tickets for both days I chickened out of Saturday’s event as my Twitter feed was full of people commenting on the heat and the crowds. I strongly suspect I was a pickled sardine in a former life/death as I have an intense phobia of being squashed among other bodies . . .

 

 

I have been known to freak-out rather foolishly in large groups of people even when those people don’t include Darth Vader, Malificent and Hell Boy. So I bypassed Earl’s Court arena and headed 5 minutes away to the pub garden at the Troubadour, where we had our own mini YALC among the fairy lights and strawberry daiquiris (from left to right: Marieka Nijkamp, Dawn Kurtagich, lovely ‘Luna’ from ‘Luna’s Little Library’, Kat Ellis and my favourite crit buddy, Tatum Flynn).

 

 

 

On Sunday, I conquered my sardiney-squeamishness and braved the conference. I’m so glad I did, because I met some wonderful people including:

-My friend Shazia from university, who I haven’t seen for 10 years and is now part of the Book Trust and was as funny as ever

-Lindsay Moakes, who became my instant best mate for life by lending me her Converse when my stupid shoes broke

-Bloggers Jim and Debbie who were full of great book recommendations

-Authors Keris, Liz, Beth, Gary, Sophie, Suzie, Sarah and others whose names I have very rudely forgotten, who gave good book chat

 

I went to three fantastic panel discussions:

 

 

1)The ‘I’m too sexy for this book’ panel, featuring Cat Clarke, Non Pratt, Beth Reekles, and James Dawson, which was innuendo-tastic and as hilarious as you’d expect from a discussion featuring repeated use of the phrase “alternative hole use.“

 

 

2)The “Crossover: not just for kids” panel, featuring Nick Lake, Matt Haig, Meg Rossoff, David ‘Hello Stan Lee’ Maybury and Anthony ‘Death Wish’ McGowan, who made the interesting decision to criticise fantasy fans who dress up in costumes in a room full of fantasy fans dressed in costumes.

 

 

3)The “Sisters doing it for themselves” panel, featuring Tanya Byrne, Isobel Harrop, Julie Mayhew, Holly Smale and Sarra Manning, which was soundbite-tastic: ‘Bad girls are more interesting – we’re only a few bad decisions away from disaster’ (Tanya ‘fab hair’ Byrne), ‘There is so much pressure on women to be perfect. Authors don’t help if all their characters are shiny and perfect.’ (Holly ‘really rather perfect’ Smale)

 

I could waffle on endlessly about what a magical time I had and how wonderful all children’s/teen booky people are (even Anthony McGowan). But the sun is shining outside, so all that’s left for me to say is that the conference was brilliant and I can’t wait for the next one. YAY YALC!

 

 

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A LOO’VELY LAUNCH . . . IN PICTURES

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RACHEL HAMILTON: COUNTDOWN TO LAUNCH – 1 WEEK TO GO

In exactly one week my book will be an official, published, on the shelf thing. I can’t believe the date has come round so quickly. It still feels as exciting as it did this time last year, when I got my two-book contract and danced, non-stop, around the kitchen.

 

This week. I was invited to co-host a radio show about The Lost Art of Letter Writing with the lovely Suzanne Radford over at 103.8. I had a wonderful morning, although I fear that listening to me for TWO HOURS may have killed off some of the show’s frailer listeners. It was an emotional session (yes, I know I don’t show them all that often, but I do have a few deeper feelings hidden away in there somewhere). I talked about the letters I received from friends when my dad died and how much they meant to me. For anyone who ever wonders whether to drop someone a note in that situation, the answer is YES. Absolutely 100% YES. Much better to offer your sympathies and memories in a letter that can be read at private moments. I’m not speaking for everyone, but personally I hated people being all nice and mushy in public – it created too much sadness and sogginess at a time when I was fighting the urge to collapse in a big heap of  emotional wreck-ness.

 

So, write letters, people.

 

Also who knows how much your letters could be worth someday? Francis Crick’s letter to his 12-year-old son Michael explaining, with illustrations, his joint discovery of the “very beautiful” structure of DNA sold at auction recently for $5.3m, making it the most expensive letter in history.

 

Anyway, enough about  letters. More about ME. I had a few more people reading advance copies of my books this week. And I valued their opinions at least as much as I valued those of the authors I quoted in HUGE FONT last week,  because these were people in – or not far from – the age group I’m writing for. Two of my favourite young bloggers, Charli (check out her site HERE) and Jessica (Nayuleska) (HERE) were sent review copies and I loved being kept updated on their progress. I am particularly loving the sound of Charli’s brother, Tyler . . .

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Also, my official ‘first reader’ for both books, Amber, was casting her professional eye over Book Two this week to check it was okay to send to my ace editor, Rachel (who was always going to be ace with a name like that). I think this line from Amber’s comments is the most perfect response ever:

“I LOVE IT! . . . I simply could not stop reading and laughed out loud so much my sister got really annoyed.”

 

 

 

 

 

There was much silliness to be had this week, which always makes me happy. My friend Jack Cheshire and I  created a Sort-of-Trailer for ‘The Case of the Exploding Loo’, featuring an exploding portaloo, a mutant freak and a turquoise hippo. I am thinking of starting up Ham & Cheese Productions (Hamilton, Cheshire, geddit?). I may have to ask Max Dowler to rename himself Max Egg, so we can become Ham, Cheese and Egg productions as Max is now the official voice of Exploding Toilets everywhere.

I loved my Sort-of-Trailer even more when my friend Sally pointed out that the youtube subtitles function had mistranslated the line about my main character being a ‘born Sherlock’ and turned her into a ‘porn Sherlock’. Guaranteed bestseller.

 

I’m still trying to firm up dates for my UK visits (it’s tough when I’m not in the country) but it looks increasingly likely something might be happening in Bristol around the 24th/25th July – I’m aiming for a book signing on the 24th and drinks that evening and then on the 25th I may be sharing a kids’ party for kids with a very cool 4 year old. I’m talking to Jody, one of my oldest friends (I’m referring to length of time we’ve know each other here, not number of wrinkles), about combining her daughter Aina’s birthday with my book launch celebrations (Aina obviously gets centre stage and all the presents). You will also be pleased to hear that the doughballs are confirmed for the Grantham launch near my mum’s house.

 

Mum is doing sterling work, press-ganging all her friends into buying books for their grandchildren. Go, my mum! And speaking of mothers, I have learnt that Max Dowler’s mum read last week’s blog, so in the hope she’ll pop back again this week, I’d like to say, ‘Hello, Mrs Dowler!’ Because mums rule.

 

A quick update on the virtual launch party. I have changed the start time to 2pm UK time and 5pm UAE time (American friends, time zones confuse me, but I think that might be 9am in NYC?) This is to give our celebrity guests time to make it, and nothing to do with me setting the original start time right in the middle of the school run.

 

 

 

 

It’s been a busy week and it’s time for the weekly thank yous. I’d like to begin by thanking my son, Dylan, who has tried to be helpful while I’ve been busy this week. His efforts are much appreciated and their value is best demonstrated by this picture of the laundry he hung up for me. Thanks, love.

 

 

 

Huge thank yous to Charli, Tyler, Jessica, Amber and any one else who has looked at my book this week and liked it. Great big thanks to Jack Cheesey Cheshire and Max (Egg) Dowler for helping me put silly things on youtube. Equally big thanks to Alice Potter and Ranga, who are in the process of helping me create slightly less silly things on film. To Tracy Donnelly for bullying people into pre-ordering my book and for offering to make lots of lovely cake for my launch party. Nom nom nom. To Annabel Kantaria for being very gracious about me accidentally pretending to have won her prize.  And to Svenja for helping me stick up posters around the school and for advising on the best placing of the selotape. Advance thanks to Dominic Vipond, Harry Kittermaster, Hugo Donnelly, Ava Stoddart, Freya Moody, Aafaryensh Pourghanad and Jodie Hamilton for agreeing to be the entertainment at my school launch party, and to Ali Kittermaster, Sally Dawson, SUE HARRISON (in capitals because I know she likes to check she got a mention), Emma Wright, Tracy Donnelly (again – two mentions! Sue is going to get cross), Amber, Daisy and Ruby for agreeing to be my glamorous assistants.

 

And I want to say a big thank you to any of you who have bought my book or are planning to. I know there are hundreds of millions of books you could have bought instead so I am hugely grateful! Superisized thanks to those of you like Maria, Madiha, Sue, Jessy, Perviz, Amanda, Anne-Marie, Heba and Milliewho have bought more than one copy – that’s above and beyond the call of duty and I am extremely chuffed.

 

This time next week it will be my LAUNCH! Make sure you join me (and the A-list celebs) at my Facebook Launch party and look out for me popping up somewhere near you (with or without doughballs).

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RACHEL HAMILTON’S COUNTDOWN TO LAUNCH – 2 WEEKS TO GO

Only a fortnight to go! I’m so over-excited I’m starting to look like the freaky Total-Recall-Lady. Luckily I still have a bit of hair left.

 

The coolest thing in the world happened this week when the ‘Worldofminifigs’ blog created a post called ‘Toilet Humour’ with a Lego-Me sitting on a Lego-Toilet reading a copy of ‘The Case of the Exploding Loo’. Life does not get more exciting than that!

 

 

 

 

. . . Although it came close when I got to hold my book for the first time. An advance copy arrived in the post and I have been patting and stroking it ever since.

 

 

 

I was nervous this week because three authors I admire were reading advance copies of my book and I didn’t know what they were going to say about it. Luckily they didn’t make me wait long and they came back with lovely comments that I’m obviously intending to plaster everywhere:

 

I know it’s a bit show-offy to share them in my blog (especially so enormously -  I’ve been struggling with formatting this week) but I’m so chuffed I couldn’t resist. And since I’ve started to show off, I’ll continue for a bit longer as I’ve learnt that my talk in the local library has sold out. No, it’s not a big library, but yes, I am very happy!

 

I got a glimpse of the poster for my launch event at Magrudy’s, which is lovely but says I won the Lit Fest competition in 2013. I didn’t, I came second and there’s nothing wrong with being runner up, just ask One Direction (no, that joke never gets old). I might have tried to claim the fake glory if the winner hadn’t been the very splendid Annabel Kantaria, who deserves all the prizes. When the wording is fixed, I’ll circulate it, and if you think you’ll be in the Jumeirah Beach Road area on Friday May 30th between 3 and 5pm please book yourself in because it’s another cosy venue and I’d like to claim I did a sell-out book tour . One Direction eat your handsome young hearts out!

 

 

And to demonstrate that this is the week I truly made it. I appeared on the minutes of my kids’ school parent rep meeting! Number 13 … unlucky for some, exciting for me. ‘In the Prep’ is a new phrase to me but I think it means ‘in Year 5 and 6′:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I’ve been a bit quiet this week on Twitter and Facebook. This isn’t just because I’ve been hanging out at parent-teacher meetings. I’ve also been beavering away on Book Two, and less than three minutes ago I typed ‘THE END’. It will need tweaking and editing but my second book is now A THING. *Cue freaky Total-Recall-Lady face.*

 

 

A quick update on the virtual launch party. Barack Obama and Kermit have confirmed that they’ll be attending and I’m still waiting to hear back from David Beckham, so get here early or they’ll eat everything on the cyber-buffet.

 

 

 

 

Time for the weekly thank yous. ENORMOUS thank you to Ruth from Worldofminifigs for my favourite image of all time! To Tony, Liz and Jonathan for not only taking the time to read my book but also being so nice about it. To Max Dowler for being Max Dowler. To Tracy Donnelly for coming with me to get Exploding Loo t-shirts made for my junior Book Walrus helpers and for all her helpful thoughts on Book Two. Similar Book Two-ish love to Sue Harrison and a special mention for inspiring a jacket potato and NASA glove related ending. To Abi from Moontrug for making me laugh while we work on our blog tour post. To Eimear Singh who stopped me throttling people who didn’t deserve to be throttled and who has been my book-angel this week. To Lesley and Claire for being toilet-filming superstars. To my sister Kate and brother-in-law Rick for not being cross when my niece didn’t get a birthday present (#badaunt) and to my other sister Debbie for being much funnier than me. Finally, to a brilliantly enthusiastic man called Matt in a Grantham pizza restaurant for his extreme dedication to  buttoning down the details of my doughball buffet at the Lincolnshire launch event.

 

My ‘thing you can do if you’re feeling lovely’  this week is just to mention The Case of the Exploding Loo to your friends and help me spread the word. Perhaps by sharing facebook comments, retweeting tweets or just mentioning the book in conversation. Thank you in advance.

And that’s it until next week . . .

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COUNTDOWN TO LAUNCH – 3 WEEKS TO GO

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Only three weeks left. Everything is really starting to happen and it has been a mad week.

I was asked to contribute to the Writer’s Process blog tour, which was interesting as it made me thing about why, how and what I write. If you want to see my thoughts on the subject (and a few tiny extracts from The Case of the Exploding Loo) you can click HERE.

Next, with the help of the wonderful Alice Johnson, I created a child-friendly author interview. It was a scary experience - the minute Alice pointed the camera at me I came over all ‘demented kids’ TV presenter’. Watching the video, my son muttered, ‘you smile too much,’ and wandered off in disgust. That’s my boy! When a friend asked him what he thought of the book itself, his response was, ’Yeah, it’s funny but it’s not as good as The Wimpy Kid.’ (I’m thinking of using that as a cover quote)

 

This is the week I discovered how few detectives kids today have heard of. When I asked a group of 7-12s which names they recognised among the following:

Nancy Drew, Miss Marple, Columbo, Poirot, Inspector Morse, Inspector Clouseau, Kojak, Sam Spade, Inspector Gadget, Jessica Fletcher, Veronica Mars, PK Pinkerton

A significant number came back with ‘none of the above . . .  where’s Sherlock? Apparently ‘Veronica Mars sounds like a ‘twerker” And I was told off for forgetting PC Plum, the Secret Seven and the Famous Five

It was also a pretty productive week for Book Two (Go, writing dungarees!) – I am now on my final chapter and my family have given me their final warning that if I don’t move all the bits of paper that have taken over the entire living room, they will eat/bin/burn the lot.

 

 

 

I have firmed up my first event in the UK for the beginning of July. I am having a book signing and party in Lincolnshire, near my mum’s house (Mum, you will be expected to bring along all your friends, who will, in turn, be expected to buy a book about exploding toilets. Just so you know). So if you’re in Grantham on Saturday July 5th, pop along to WHSmiths on the High Street at around 2.30pm, and then follow me to the Italian restaurant a few doors down for cake and doughballs.  I am still in the process of organising similar events (although perhaps with fewer doughballs and more wine) in Bristol and London later in July and August.

If you’re in the UAE, then events are already confirmed for the following dates:

Magrudy’s, May 30th late afternoon
Repton, June 3rd, 3pm
Kinokuniya, June 6th, 1pm and 3pm
The Old Library, June 13th, 10.30am (pre-booking required)
Costa, Arabian Ranches, June 14th, 10am (book club)

I  am also chuffed to pieces that brilliant comedian/impressionist/actor off the telly, Max Dowler, (he’s been on Heartbeat, Ashes to Ashes and Celebrity Stalker … so something there for grans, mums and stalkers) is going to do a reading of the first chapter of The Case of the Exploding Loo, which I just know is going to be ACE.

Here is Max as Alan Rickman as the Sheriff of Nottingham as Queen, which is as mad as it sounds, and has been making me laugh all week. He’s promised to do me my own personal recording of ‘Alan Rickman’ reading the first page of my book, which would be the most exciting thing ever (unless he added in the voices of Russell Brand and Tom Hiddlestone, in which case I would listen to it on loop for the rest of my life).

 

 

Things are all happening with the virtual launch party. I have been speaking to Barack Obama’s people and it looks like he might be putting in an appearance, along with David Beckham, so watch this space . . .

On an utterly random note, for purposes that will soon be revealed, I am looking for 5 volunteers to shoot video footage of closed doors to men’s toilets. In exchange, those 5 lucky loo-filmers will receive a copy of ‘The Case of the Exploding Loo’. Anyone? Anyone?

 

 

 

Time for the thank yous – the usual weekly thank you to Alice Johnson, who just rules. A big thank you to Sue Harrison for being so keen to get a mention that she performed extraordinary feats of proofreading. Huge thanks to Reem Haroun who has been working like a trooper organising school visits and exciting me with cake ideas. To Jack Cheshire, for being  mad as a badger and forcing me into strange conversations with Harp Smiths. A great big ‘YAY!’ to Renuka Koninger who has been my one woman PR machine all week and who has offered  to buy 10 copies of my book as Summer gifts for friends, making me fall a little bit in love with her. To Max Dowler for being a star and for sounding like the lovely Alan. To Ray Addison for being my comedy mate. To the lovely people who have been sharing and re-tweeting things, which is HUGELY appreciated – Kate, Tracy, Clare, Elen, Emma, Tatum, Abi, Nichola, Rania, Lynne, Nikki, Sam, Sarah, Lindsay, Rachel and co. And last, but definitely not least, to the kind authors and bloggers who are currently reading review copies of the book. Eeek. I hope you like it!

The cover is now up on AMAZON and GOODREADS, and I wouldn’t mind at all if you wanted to press the ‘Add to wish list’ button or the ‘Want to Read’ button. Just saying.

That’s it from me until next week when it will only be TWO WEEKS UNTIL LAUNCH!

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Writing Process Blog Tour

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I have been tagged by author, musician and all round creative type, Joe Craig, to take part in the ‘WRITING PROCESS BLOG TOUR’, which has been set up to showcase different author writing methods across the globe. Here’s Joe being authorial with one of his Jimmy Coates books:

 

 

 

 

 

You can find out more about Joe by visiting his website HERE, or by following him on Twitter (@joecraiguk) and you can  read his answers to the four ‘Writing Process’ questions HERE.

But enough about the charming Mr Craig, and more about ME!

 

What am I working on?

I am working on Book Two of my kids’ detective series. It follows on from ‘The Case of the Exploding Loo’, which as the back cover blurb will tell you, is ’a brainy zany mystery about poo, shoes and the colour turquoise’.

I can’t say much about Book Two as my editor hasn’t even seen it yet, but I realise that’s a rubbish answer to this question, so I’ll give you a clue by sharing a photo taken on my recent research expedition (I’m the one who can breathe in the Earth’s atmosphere).

 

 

 

 

 

 

To be honest, it might be an exaggeration to claim I’m ‘working’ on the second book. I’m far too excited about next month’s launch of ‘The Case of the Exploding Loo’ to do anything useful. So I’m spending my time making posters and party invites and order forms and anything that doesn’t involve much concentration because I have New-Book-Coming-Soon-Attention-Deficit-Disorder . . .

“Squirrel!” 

 

How does my work differ from others in its genre?

This strikes me as a trick question, designed to lure me into show-offy declarations about how my books are more brainy, more zany, more somethingelseabsolutelyfabulous than all the other books in the world. I have a sneaking suspicion that might not be completely true, so I WILL NOT BE LURED.

What I will say is, perhaps, what makes my books a bit different is the mishmash of different narrative formats inside. Some sections look ’normal’ as you can see by the opening of ‘The Case of the Exploding Loo‘:

 

.

 

 

 

 

 

 

But I also like pictures and shapes and charts and news articles and text messages and so my books  have a bit of this …

 

 

 

and a bit of this . . .

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

and a bit of this . . .

 

 

 

 

 

 

. . . which I hope will appeal to kids (including overgrown ones like me) who like clutter and nonsense and lots of stuff going on on the page.

My books also have a secret weapon – the illustrator The Boy Fitzhammond. I call him The Boy Wonder for short (well short-ish – I’ve knocked off a syllable) because that is what he is. I have a sneaking suspicion some people will be buying ‘The Case of the Exploding Loo’ just to look at the brilliant pictures – and I wouldn’t blame them.

 

Why do I write what I do?

I write what I do because I have two desires in life

To explore the answers to all the questions in my head
To laugh and to make my kids laugh

Hmmm. Maybe that’s three. Let me start again . . .

I write what I do because I have three desires in life

To explore the answers to all the questions in my head
To laugh
To make my kids laugh

Oh and also . . . because the voice that comes naturally to me is a silly one.

So that’s four.

I’ll start again.

I guess the short answer is I do what I do because I love doing it.

 

How does my writing process work?

As I say, I love to write – it makes me laugh, it makes me think, it makes me happy – but then suddenly I’m not doing it anymore because . . . ”Squirrel!” . . . something else grabs my attention.

So my writing process mainly involves me trying to stop myself getting distracted.

First, I have to force myself to stay in the house despite my friends’ attempts to lure me into a wonderful world of chatting, coffee-drinking and cake-eating. I have two lines of defences:

My Animal ( Muppet) pyjamas. However, these scare takeaway delivery men and embarrass my daughter when her friends came round, so I have a slightly (but only slightly) more socially acceptable alternative . . .
My writing-dungarees

 

 

 

 

 

Writing Process Stage 1: Wear something that stops me leaving the house.

 

Second, I have to prevent my mind wandering off my book and getting hooked into something else . . . like which Game of Thrones character I’ll be if I answer a set of questions on the internet in a certain way. So I surround myself with things that pull my brain back into my story. In the picture you can see a mind map I made for The Case of The Exploding Loo, a fake newspaper article about Dad’s disappearance, and a pair of smoking shoes, which were the initial inspiration for my story.

 

 

 

 

 

Writing Process Stage 2: Surround myself with thi ngs that immerse me in the story

 

Thirdly, I need to make my writing process sociable to save myself from becoming a miserable, juniper-berry-munching hermit.

I love brainstorming different elements of the book with friends:

Matthew (policeman) and Robert (ex prison service) are great sounding boards about what might or might not be realistic – so I do my research via the medium of chat.
My favourite superbrains – Heidi, Omar, Giles and Chris – are brilliant for bouncing around ideas about nerdy science details, and I have set up a special Facebook group of wise people to help me out with random techy questions
I am a (very inactive) member of a group of standup comedians so I like to ’funny up’ my books by talking to them or to my TV-land-friend Jack or my comedy kids’ author crit-partner, Tatum Flynn.

I also like pulling people into my research trips because they are FUN. So I dragged my sister and my cousin Chris along on my latest research trip for Book 2 and we had a blast pointing at things and plotting a museum heist.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Writing Process Stage 3: Drag my friends into the process, because they’re a fab bunch of people and I want to be socially antisocial

 

A final key part of the process of any piece of writing is knowing when to stop. Although sometimes I stop rather abruptly because . . .

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I will now hand over to two of my favourite authors, who will be blogging on this subject next week.

 

Nikki Sheehan, the author of the brilliant ‘Who Framed Klaris Cliff?’

Nikki is the youngest daughter of a rocket scientist. She went to a convent school in Cambridge where she was taught by real nuns in long black habits. She studied linguistics and then psychology and worked as a subtitler for the Simpsons, followed by many years as a journalist. She lives in Hove near the beach with her husband, three children, two dogs, one cat and definitely no more hamsters. You can find out more about Nikki HERE or by following her on Twitter: @NicoletteShhh 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Nicolas Forzy, the author of a fascinating new novel,  ’Alphanumeric’, which will be released in May.

AlphaNumeric is Nicolas Forzy’s debut novel, after over a decade writing scripts for corporate films as well as for the silver screen. His passion for storytelling has grown over the last twenty years working in fields as varied and diverse as investment banking, the military and the movie industry. Now based in the United Arab Emirates with his wife and son, Forzy dedicates every spare moment to the improvement of his craft. You can find out more about Nicolas HERE or follow him on Twitter: @nforzy

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COUNTDOWN TO LAUNCH – 4 WEEKS TO GO

Less than a month to go. Gulp! And my book is a THING. I saw a picture of it last night. My editor sent me a photo and there are now people in the world who have touched it. I’m not sure how long it will take a copy to reach me but it is safe to say I am ridiculously over-excited at the idea of holding it, so there will soon be lots of ‘me with book’ shots appearing on the website For now, here is a ‘book with other books’ shot:

With the launch fast approaching, that also means the deadline for the first draft of Book 2 is looming, so I’ve been working hard this week. But it’s difficult to focus on writing a new book when my head is so wrapped up in the excitement of ‘The Case of the Exploding Loo’. At least they’re part of the same series. I don’t know how people manage when they are promoting one thing and creating something entirely unrelated.

I managed to convince myself that the secret to a successful week’s writing lay in my new writing dungarees. I’ll put these on, I thought, and suddenly I will become efficient and committed to The Case of the Unfinished Second Book. Hmmm. Not so much. I was as easily distracted as ever, but now I was dressed as an oversized toddler.

I had a fun meeting with the lovely Sam at the Dolphinarium on Monday, where I discovered all sorts of things about the amorous exploits of Dolphins I hadn’t known previously! We discussed the possibility of me doing a book event there in October, which would be fab. I considered asking if horny dolphins could be trained to re-create the effect of an exploding toilet. But, then again, perhaps not.

I went to the launch of A4 on Monday night, which is a new ‘dynamic space . . . in the heart of the most prominent arts district . . . for writers, designers, artists and all creatives alike to work within . . . the hub for arts & creativity and a connecting space for those starting out to meet the experts of the creative world’

Okay, so that doesn’t sound like the natural home for a woman in dungarees. And, indeed, it was full of beautiful people with bonkers shoes and interesting hair. But it is a lovely space and the bit that really appealed was their mission to create within it ‘a book collection built by the people, for the people.’ Everyone was asked to bring along a book of their choice and explain why they wanted to donate it. Chris Fraser, from 7 Days, asked for my suggestion, so I popped into the launch with my lovely friends, Annabel and Heidi, to drop it off –

Yesterday I had the first glimpse of the kids’ author interview that the lovely Alice Potter did with me last week. She is a whizz and it made me laugh (as well as cringe at the weird twitchy faces I seem to pull – I need keeping-face-still lessons if anyone knows someone who teaches that as a skill). So hopefully I’ll be able to post that soon too. So much excitement, I may explode.

All that’s left for this week are the thank yous. Thank you to Alice, who is a whizz and a wonder and to whom I owe several decades of babysitting. Thanks to Reem for all the help and the school introductions. Thanks to the Boy Fitzhammond and Nick Stearn for creating such a photogenic cover. Thanks to Rachel M for leaping into the editor’s shoes so brilliantly. Thanks to Sam for getting me excited about book events and educating me in the way of dolphin shenanigans. Thanks to Annabel and Heidi for accompanying me on my travels. Thanks to Tracy for being my poster-related-issues sounding board and to all the lovely people who convinced me turquoise was best. Thanks to Tatum for entertaining me with tales of demons and boneheads and being such a wise crit partner. Thanks to Jodie for always looking interested long after Dylan has wandered off bored, and thanks to my sister Debbie for being the queen of the walruses (and that’s a bigger compliment than it sounds!)

And the biggest thanks of all to those of you who’ve pre-ordered, or are considering buying ‘The Case of the Exploding Loo’. I’d love it to be a success – because then Simon & Schuster will let me write Book 3 and Book 4

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