What Colour is Love? Giveaway

 If you visit Picturebook Den  (one of the collaborative blogs I write for) sometime before 28th October 2012 you  have the chance to win a signed and dedicated copy of What Colour is Love? in either English or in Portuguese.


UPDATE - GIVEAWAY WINNERS!!

Thanks to all those who entered the giveaway.

The winner of the English Version of What Colour is Love? is - CLAIRE F

The winner of the two Portuguese versions of What Colour is Love? (Qual e a Cor Do Amor?) are

- lAURA S and NATASCHA BIEBOW

Could the winners please contact me on
picturebookden@gmail.com with their full names and addresses, also who they would like the books to be dedicated to (or if you simply want it signed let me know that, too.

Don't Judge Me

I always feel a mixture of excitement and dread when it comes to the cover of a new book.

 Excitement because after spending all that time writing it it is going to be great to see someone else's vision of what the book is about.

Dread because this is your baby and you want it to be right, even if you don't really know what 'right' should look like!

SO what is the book about?     DON'T JUDGE ME  is about just that. We all make snap judgements about people we meet or see in the street.

We even make judgements about our friends. But do we really know them and do they know us as well as they think they do?
 
Among other things  DON'T JUDGE ME is about Arson, sometimes called Fire Setting.  It is about a group of teenagers and an arsonist. It's about lots of different kinds of people and how we make sometimes make judgements about them.

Thankfully when I saw the ideas for the cover I was delighted, and after some small tweaks it was settled.  I love the cover and I can't wait to see the finished book.


I really like the way the flames continue over the spine and onto the back cover.


The title font works really well, too.   It is the same as on the titles on SPIDER and   DEAD BOY TALKING





.
I like the way the font looks so different on each book, but still links them together.
There's a great poster, too.
 

And as it says on the poster

DON'T JUDGE ME published by STRIDENT
comes out  in OCTOBER 2012

Road Trip - France - vineyards and sculptures

Not being too good at making decisions and being hopeless at planning in advance........
deciding where to go on holiday often seems to involve throwing a lot of ideas in the air at the last minute, and seeing what happens.
Perhaps it is partly because we are so fortunate to have this lovely beach practically on our doorstep although admittedly the Scottish weather at home in East Lothian is not always wonderful.  

  In the opposite direction there is beautiful countryside to wander through and we are only half an hour from a capital city.  Makes you wonder why we go elsewhere!

But a few weeks ago we decided to take the car and head across the channel.  A road trip.  It's not something we've done for a good number of years. 
 
When the children were small we drove to Italy a few times to visit relatives.  A few years back we did a similar journey on a research trip. So it felt like time to pack up the car and head off again.

With no particular plan we set off and finding ourselves in the south we headed for the Channel Tunnel crossing  early one Wednesday morning.

This kind of trip has positives and drawbacks. You can find yourself missing things you pass by that you later wished you had known about at the time,  but there are also the unexpected discoveries. 
 











We stayed a couple of nights in the Loire valley at a lovely vineyard where our room had patio doors opening out onto a great view and we had breakfast out on the sunny terrace.
 






 Later we were looking for a place to stay and it was late in the afternoon when someone suggested we stop at Chateaubourg where there was a hotel, an old mill with a beautiful 10 acre garden. We stayed a couple of days there and had time to wander around and look at all the amazing sculptures. They were all quite unique.

I love the colour and movement in this one

 

This bird was about half again as tall as me!

Reminded me of Eduardo Paolozzi's foot  in Edinburgh- Not sure about the red toenails!

I really liked these figures on bicycles - but Stuart wasn;t quite so convinced

 It turned out that this was the 10th year that they have held this exhibition of sculptures in the gardens. Local people are encouraged to come and choose their favourite.

This tree had little ceramic nests each filled with a small roll of paper

A local school class had written wishes on the paper

A tumbling man

Creating a loveable character from a Haggis!

Creating loveable characters  on  Picturebook Den Blog.




Pictrebook Den is a blog by10 different picture book authors.  

New Hamish McHaggis adventure - Glasgow Book launch

Hamish goes to Glasgow!

The 10th Hamish McHaggis  book is being launched this weekend .

On Saturday 27th April at the wonderful Kelvingrove Museum in Glasgow and on Sunday 28th April at the new Glasgow Riverside transport museum.

It's all free!


I will be there reading from the new book and Sally J. Collins, the illustrator, will be drawing with children.  There will be all sorts of activities for families all through the day. You might even catch a glimpse of Hamish himself! 

Why not come along and find out what happens when Hamish and friends try to discover clues for the Great Glasgow Treasure Hunt.
at  Kelvingrove Museum - Saturday 28th events
 
and

at Riverside Museum - Sunday 29th events


 Information about the events are on the Glasgow Life website

# Days 3/4 -at MES Cairo The primary school

On my second and third days at MES (Modern English School) in Cairo I met some of the Foundation Stage children in FS1 and FS2



We talked about colours, animals and feelings such as being happy, or sad, or shy and about what colour love might be.

After that I read from What Colour is Love?

And some of the children came up and helped to tell the story with some toys of the characters.

 I spoke to some of the primary classes about  Hamish McHaggis and some of his friends.   

We also tried out some Scots words like Coorie Doon and Blether ..........and they all became honorary Scots for the day!

With the oldest primary classes we talked about myths and legends and I read the much loved story of Greyfriars Bobby. 

One of their teachers came up at the end of the session and said that he had read one particular book of mine hundreds of times! 





He told us all that  What Colour is Love? had been a family favourite in his house for years.

It was a lovely end to the day!

 I would like to thank the MES for inviting me to Cairo, I had a wonderful time.  And a big thank you to the teachers, all the other staff and the students for giving me such a warm welcome and for making my visit to Cairo so special.

I hope they all enjoyed it as much as I did and are enjoying reading their books.

# Day 2 - Cairo - Visiting the MES (Modern English School)

On my first day at the MES the school bus came to collect me early in the morning and at that time the roads were fairly quiet, although there were a number of other school buses.



Driving along it was a chance to see the dry and sandy landscape that was such a contrast to the wet, greenery of Scotland. It was thankfully not too hot while I was there but warm enough to be a welcome change from a chilly spring back home.

Little did I know at that point that the weather at home had changed as I left and they were enjoying a week of glorious sunshine!!!


 









All of my sessions would take place in the school hall and my first day was with the Year 9 students.


I ran a series of writing workshops with three different classes.


I had planned a mixture of short exercises and some readings from Dead Boy Talking and Spider.
The day went well with really interesting ideas coming from the students.
Some came by afterwards to get me to sign the books they had bought and others were able to come back to see me later in the week to ask questions and get their books signed, too.