HURRAH! SPARKS LONGLISTED FOR CARNEGIE 2011

This is the sort of news that keeps me pounding the keyboard late into the night...

http://www.carnegiegreenaway.org.uk/pressdesk/press.php?release=pres_nom_car_2011.html

As ever, very stiff competition... but go SPARKS!!

NANOWRIMO 2010

www.nanowrimo.org.


like reading books? why not write one?

I am going to try to fire out the first draft of a new book this November along with the crazed organisation that is NANOWRIMO. You write 50,000 words in a month. That's 1667 words a day. I did my first drafts of SPARKS and BERSERK this way, and most of it was dreadful, and I had to throw most of it away. But some of it was ok! and it is great to have something to work with rather than the empty screen.

Why don't YOU try and write a novel in November too? (but don't make it too good because I don't want to be out of a job!)

QUARRY UPDATE

I've just sent off the proofs for QUARRY, my new teen thriller, and it is due to be published by Marion Lloyd Books in February 2011.

It's about Scrappy, a 15 year old boy who lives in a breakers yard who is being sent crazy anonymous dares. Once he gets caught up in them, he finds he can't stop, no matter how much he wants to, and the last challenges send him to the very edge...

more on QUARRY soon.

The Hedgehog Mystery

This is my new book for Collins Big Cat Educational series, for younger readers, 8+ out in January. It's about a wild motorbiking granny, a conniving circus acrobat and two small, determined children. It's published in January 2011.

I LOVE Mark Beech's illustrations.

Check it out at..

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Collins-Big-Cat-Hedgehog-Sapphire/dp/0007336381/ref=sr_1_12?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1286697824&sr=1-12

http://www.waterstones.com/waterstonesweb/products/ally+kennen/the+hedgehog+mystery3a+band+16_+sapphire/7913364/

Appledore Book Festival

A busy week visiting Holsworthy Community College and Holsworthy Primary School (incredible art at this school!) And on Friday 1st Oct I'll be dropping in at Torrington Community School and South Molton Community College.

http://www.appledorebookfestival.co.uk/

Interview on Guardian Online

Check out the interview...all about SPARKS and I would officially like to credit Dan Amos for the photo (taken a few years ago I might add and the years have not been kind!)

Lots of school visits coming up...

http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2010/sep/10/ally-kennen-childrens-fiction-sparks

The Edinburgh Book Festival and socks

I shall be appearing at the Edinburgh Book Festival on Sunday 29th August at 4.30 at an event with the fabulous Lucy Christopher (Stolen and Flyaway) to talk about our books.


http://www.edbookfest.co.uk/the-festival/whats-on/lucy-christopher-ally-kennen

Am away for five days and that means five pairs of socks for the five people in my family. That means 25 pairs of socks! They will not match.