As well as lots of very fun parenting, trips to the zoo, Hampstead Heath and the like and a busy schedule in my day job, I’ve fitted in lots of writing.  I completed and edited a manuscript for a new children’s book, one which I am very excited about.  I am playing a waiting game now, constant checks of the electronic and regular post to see what the powers that be think of my months of work.

I have gone back to several old manuscripts in varying stages of completion pushing, pulling, moulding, seeing if any one screams out to me.  I put a good amount of time into a adult novel I’ve been working on, very happy with how it’s going, but that one’s more a marathon than a sprint, or to be more accurate with my metaphors, more a 10,000 metre race than a 3,000 metre steeple-chase i.e. it’s going to take thrice as long as my last completed novel, In Too Deep, to be released in 2013.

The final project I’ve been working on started as a bit of fun, an experiment if you like.  I’ve had, for several years the idea of a short murder mystery set on an allotment.  It struck me as one of the least likely places to for murder to occur and a story that needed to be written.  So, in this technological, self-publishing kinda world I decided to finally commit it to screen and put it out via Kindle Direct Publishing.  As I write, The Missing Gardener, is free on kindle and doing rather well, #105 free in Kindle store.  Thanks,  I’m sure to the wonderful cover art by my fantastic wife, Chloe.

When an elderly neighbour requests DCI Amos’ help, the newly suspended detective can’t resist the mystery of the missing gardener.

Despite my intentions of one short story as a spot of fun, I found, as I wrote, a character fully formed, strutting across the page with a much larger story to tell.  Over the next few months, therefore I have decided to write his story, as I began, in short form, as a serial.  Part two, Consequences, came out today and is also available exclusively on Kindle.

After discovering the fate of The Missing Gardener, Amos returns home where his indiscretion with a gangster’s wife begins to catch up with him.
Taut with pace and tension, the second short story in this serial plunges the detective deeper into his self made mire.

Look out for each new part every Monday.  Also watch for regular free give-aways of each part, on a Monday too!  Really hope you enjoy, would love to hear what you think of this new endeavour.

My Name is Mina – David Almond

One of those rare books which jumps straight into your catalogue of best loved books.  This prequel to Almond’s best known and best loved work, Skellig, tells Mina’s story in Mina’s words.  The voice is absolutely pitch perfect, faultless, as you expect from Almond’s writing.  She is a beautifully eccentric child, with the most excitingly formed opinions who confides them all in this beautiful journal.

Slog’s Dad – David Almond, illustrated by Dave Mckean

Almond, again, this time joined by the artistic prowess of Dave Mckean, whose illustration does more than add to the story it takes it in breath taking new directions.

Ways to Live Forever – Sally Nicholls

Another, truly excellent, diary-novel, one that passed me by until I heard it reviewed by a young lady, I have the pleasure of working with.  Sam has leukaemia and lives with the knowledge of his impending death.  In this book he tells of his last wishes and great friendship that helps him fulfil them all, well sort of.

The Knife of Never Letting Go – Patrick Ness

Wonderful.  Wonderful.  Wonderful.  I have been touting this book to all who will stand still long enough to listen.  It’s a book that I’ve been meaning to read for a very long time and it was well worth the wait.  Get this book, read it, like me, as quickly as possible, and read on, in books two and three.

There’s a boy in the girl’s bathroom – Louis Sachar

This was a re-read and I enjoyed the tale of Bradley Chalkers as much as I did the first time.

Finished at last

I finished a manuscript last night, yes a whole manuscript.  And I say, with great caution, that I think it’s the best thing I’ve written.

Yes, great caution, because now begins a period of rumination, a time when I won’t even glance at the finished article.  This is important, he says with his limited experience.  I’ll go away, work on something else, (a manuscript for a novel for adults I’m working on), try not to even think about the finished one, so that in a few weeks I can come back to it with fresh eyes. Hopefully, when i do come back to it, it’ll be as good as I think it is now.  We shall see.

The award is for a manuscript that celebrates cultural diversity in the widest possible sense, either in terms of its story or the ethnic and cultural origins of its author.  The prize of £1,500, plus the option for Janetta Otter-Barry at Frances Lincoln Children’s Books to publish the novel, will be awarded to the best work of unpublished fiction for 8-to-12-year-olds by a writer, aged 18 years or over, who has not previously published a novel for children.

And, this year, there’s a few new faces on the judging panel, joining Janetta Otter-Barry, my fantastic editor, Kate Edwards, Chief Executive of Seven Stories, and Jake Hope, Children’s Librarian for Lancashire libraries are Shami Chakrabarti, Director of Liberty (The National Council for Civil Liberties), and Alex Wheatle MBE, the award-winning British novelist of Jamaican heritage.

To date there have been three awards and Janetta Otter-Barry has commissioned or published eight books by writers who entered the award: four Takeshita Demons books by Cristy Burne, winner of the inaugural award; Too Much Trouble by Tom Avery, the 2010 winner; last year’s winner Om Shanti Babe by Helen Limon, which will be published in 2012; and A Hen in the Wardrobe and The Black Cat Detectives, the first two titles in the Cinnamon Grove series by Wendy Meddour, who entered the 2009 award.

So, if you’re out there writing your first novel, your first fantastic novel I might add, then check out this award.  It could be, like it was mine, your break!

Helen Limon (2011 winner), Me (2010 winner) and Karon Alderman

My sister says that I am disgusting,
To mum I am a disappointment,
My teacher tells me I am disruptive,
But I am none of dis.

Lucie, that know it all, says that I am disengaged,
The head teacher told me that I must be very disturbed indeed,
That psychologist says I am disenfranchised,
(Whatever that might mean!)
But I am none of dis.

Dis is not a nice way to talk,
Dis has made me very unhappy,
I am disinterested in what they say,
Because I am none of dis.

Andy Mulligan receiving his award from last year's winner Michelle Paver

A little while ago, I shared the happy news that a group of children, whom I’d been working with, had won the Guardian Young Critic’s Award.  Today they received their prizes, including an invitation to the Guardian Children’s Fiction Prize award ceremony.

They spent the day at the Guardian newsroom, writing, editing and setting the front page of their own newspaper in the newspaper’s incredible, state-of-the-art, education centre.  This was followed, this evening by the opportunity to attend the ceremony for the Guardian Children’s Fiction Prize and at the same time pick up their own award.

Tom with the evening's winner Andy Mulligan

We were delighted to be in the presence of so many fantastic authors, David Almond, Frances Hardinge, Simon Mason, Tony Bradman, Michelle Paver and, one of the boy’s personal favourites, Andy Stanton.  But the evening’s excitement focussed around Andy Mulligan, who picked up the prize for his wonderful book, Return to Ribblestrop.

Here is just a snippet of one of the children’s reviews of Andy’s sequel.

This incredible book, written by Andy Mulligan, is packed full of exciting adventures, amazing experiences and close insights into the main characters’ minds, as well as plenty of emotion, love, hate, anger, happiness and sadness.

Check out this beautiful copy of Rudyard Kipling’s Kim that I found on holiday in a charity shop.  They certainly don’t make children’s books like this any more.

Printed in 1935, this edition is leather bound with gold in-layed design.  It is also complete with illustrations by Kipling’s father, John Lockwood Kipling.

I love it.  Kipling is a genius and this little hand-held work of art makes reading his words even more enjoyable.