Hay Festival and Shenfest

Oh I’ve been having fun!  Most of the time, being a writer means sitting alone in silence staring at a computer screen but sometimes, I get let out of the house.  Last week, I was lucky enough to be at the famous Hay Festival in Hay-on-Wye.  [Anyone who reads my blog / twitter / facebook will know I was ever so slightly excited about this.]  I was on the Starlight Stage talking about Young Adult fiction with superstar authors Malorie Blackman and Melvin Burgess and also Jonathan Douglas of the National Literacy Trust.  Apart from being massively excited to meet all of them, I was extremely glad they were there and I wasn’t on my own because I was SO NERVOUS I might have spontaneously combusted otherwise.

But anyway it was great and I learned that:

-          Malorie Blackman is blates lush and extraordinarily clever (I'm sure I already knew that really)

-          Melvin Burgess is both of these things too and has a NAUGHTY STREAK (deffo knew that)

-          So do I (have a naughty streak).  I hope Malorie doesn't mind but I've 'shared' a lovely photo from her website because the camera on my phone is made from a fairy liquid bottle cut in half and glued to an empty loo roll.

After the event, I got to meet my fellow (almost won a) Costa author, Dave Shelton.  Him of the beautiful book, A Boy and a Bear in a Boat.  And we are now Hay Buddies as well as Costa Buddies :-)

And then I went to Banbury in Oxfordshire and met students from the North Oxfordshire Academy and the Warriner School as part of the Shenfest festival.  And I learned that those kids from the Warriner School don’t like a secret -  they prefer to get stuck right in with the spoiler :-)  Ha ha.  Me too!

Anyway, if you want to hear me chatting with Mal B and Mel B and JD, click here.  And if you live in the Felixstowe area, you can come and chat to me in Felixstowe library at 3pm on Sunday 16^th.  It’s only THREE QUIDS and that INCLUDES COFFEE!

Hope you’re enjoying the bits of sunshine.