Is Anybody There????

This blog thing ......i have kept doing it cos i never knew who reads it, if anyone. I ask people in school but nobody says they read it, or at least admit to it. So, just for the sake of doing it i will keep doing it. In fact over December i reckon that i will try and blog everyday if i can. I read other writers blog and you can get an idea about what the writer is thinking about and where they are coming from. So i'll blog on, if just for the typing practise. if you are out there, let me know.....

The Pants On Tour

I have been going into loads of schools recently, its what i do!! I have been up the Lake district a lot , driving down windy little roads in the pitch black ( its dark at 4pm now) trying to find the schools or the hotel where i am staying. I haven't got a sat nav but i can feel one coming on!! I have been selling my new book POETRY IS NOT PANTS and we have sold about 200 copies so far, which in ten days for a poetry book, isn't bad going!!! I have ten more schools to visit and some radio to do before i finish for tthe holidays but its the 1ts of December tomorrow and its all getting a bit like Chrimbo. We will put the tree up this weekend and they will be tinsel everywhere.

POETRY BURP

Just finishing another new book -POETRY BURP - which should be out soon. I'll let you know.

Up In Newcastle.....again!!!!!!!!!!

I have spent the weekend up in the North east of the country at Newcastle. I was launching my new book at the Northern Children's Book Fair which is the biggest children's book fair in Europe. It was a good day with loads of other writers there including Jeremy Strong who has written 90 books!! After i had done my bit- and ta for everyone who came, i did two shows and they were book sold out!!! blimey, well..after i went to South Shields cos it was lovely sunny day and i wanted to walk on the beach.

Today i was in York working with looked after children and had a hoot!!! We were doing the session in the University and its been a while since i was in one of those!!!

POETRY IS NOT PANTS

Yesterday i saw my brand new book - POETRY IS NOT PANTS - for the first time. I held it and sniffed it and looked at it. Its always a real buzz to see a book, a real book with my name on it. Bit exciting and a bit weird. It always gets me thinking about books and stuff. I never planned to be a children's poet, i didn't even know there was such a job really!! Lots of people write books that get get read by anyone else. Lots of people call me a writer and i am (poems don't write themselves!! ) but i always feel that i am a performer first. I have been performing in some way since 1981, first as a drummer, then as a stand up comedian and now as a poet. I spend a lot more hours a year reading my poems out that writing them. If i didn't read my poems out in schools and get paid for doing it then i would have to drive a van or something. To be a poet, a full time professional poet, then you HAVE to read your poems out, you HAVE to perform then to anyone who will listen, sometimes you perform them to people who don't listen!!! Though not too much of that these days!!! And i think that is only right. I always say that poems are not finished until they have been read out and heard by somebody else. Its only then that your poems come alive and takes off and surprises you. I love surprising myself. I keep on being amazed that i perform and write poems for a job, even now after nearly 10 years of doing it. In fact its my tenth year next year, 10 whole years of getting away with it!!!!! bring on the next ten, thats what i say!!!! Lets keep on being amazed!!!

Bonfires, Books and er... Beetroot

I have just eaten loads of beetroot but that's another story....its all getting exciting now..my new brand new book POETRY IS NOT PANTS should be in my hands in the next 10 days and POETRY BURP should be arriving soon after that!!! I have got loads of schools lined up to go into so its going to get a bit mad but in a good way. I have already started writing more poems for another book that will be out next year. Its called Rhyme O Rama - well it is at the moment, that might all change though. Just had bonfire night, new books and Chrimbo around the corner, blimey, i can't keep up.

Might as well go and finish the beetroot jar....