The Big News

It's official. I've just signed the contract for a second novel in Walker Books' fun Lightning Strikes series. This one is called The Big Dig and again features Nathan, Weasel and Ronnie, the three hapless characters who barely survived Going for Broke.

The Big Dig will be out in July. Which is a little alarming, because I haven't finished writing it yet.

Must get onto that.

Writing these books is quite a change of pace for me. Somehow, I never saw myself as the sort of writer who would ever annotate a manuscript draft with the note:

**NEED BIGGER EXPLOSION HERE**

It's a lot of fun.

Book (Week)-ed Out

I am now officially booked out for Book Week. If you'd like to have me visit your school or library, I'm happy to discuss alternative dates. Just contact me here.

Penguin Pics

Those of you paying close attention may remember I had a picture book called The Truth About Penguins accepted for publication a while back. Well, something marvellous has happened.

I have illustrations.

First, I had 'pencil roughs' - black and white sketches of what the illustrations would look like, where things would go and so on. My editor sent me a note saying "We think they are FABULOUS! Hope you do, too."

I did.

But it was top secret, so I wasn't allowed to show anyone anything.

Then, I had 'colour roughs'. They were even more fabulous.

My penguins are coming to life and I am so excited seeing what the very talented Mark Jackson has done with my words.

And now, just for you, I can offer an exclusive preview of the work:

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Yes, sorry about that. It's still top secret, actually. But if you look really closely at this grab from one of the pages, you can just about kind of sort of make out a hint of penguin.

That will have to hold you for now