Alpaca (and bear) on Tour

Alfonso and Colin have had an absolute ball this week! They’ve been warmly welcomed by lovely bloggers and are super grateful for all the lovely words.

This weekend they’ll be resting with a HUGE pot of honey and plenty of grass pies. They deserve it! Look how busy they’ve been…

Friday: the tour kicked off in the only way possible - with a special post from the fabulously talented, Rikin Parekh. Rikin gave readers a super insightful peek at the process behind his creation of This Books Has Alpacas and Bears.

Saturday: heaps of alpacas facts were shared over at Madge Eekal Reviews. Seriously, how much DO you know about alpacas - other than the fact they’re wonderfully charming?!

I also popped on to BBC Radio Bristol to have a chat with Steve Yabsley. You can catch it here - my voice pops up at 3hrs and 20minutes into the broadcast.

Sunday: Colin was particularly pleased with this one. Alfonso steps on Colin’s glasses half way through the book, and so the readers of North Somerset Teachers’ Book Awards were given the opportunity to design Colin’s Spectacular Specs. Download the activity here.

Monday: be honest. Are you Colin? Or Alfonso? Take the ALL IMPORTANT test right here at Book Monsters.

Wednesday: Colin stepped in here, and selected his Top Five Books about… Bears. He had a rather unusual take on each one, Rikin Parekh and I are relieved at his No.5 choice… or things may have got a bit awkward!

Thursday: for the final stop, over at BookLoverJo’s, it was ALL about the bow tie. Discover the reason Rikin fitted Alfonso with a bow tie, and download the bow tie activity to complete at home. Have fun!

Reviews have been popping up on certain online bookstores - we’re super grateful for those. Thank you!

This Book Has Alpacas and Bears is now available at lots of places, here are some great ones to try…

Time + ideas + imminent book = this. Oops!

Anyone else finding that the current situation has left them doing things that they might not, ahem, have attempted under more ordinary circumstances?

Ill by Rikin Parekh

Urm, just me then?! PS Let’s not mention the badly painted garage door, that was a BAD idea.

Putting the garage door to one side (is that possible? Asking for a friend), I managed to drag my teenage son in on my latest idea.

He was delighted. Honest.

My latest idea started when a friend pointed me in the direction of I Can Animate.

And then it grew, after a discussion with some lovely writerly friends - about the weird predicament of having our books coming out, when fabulous bricks & mortar shops have been forced to close their doors to physical customers…

Hmm, what’s an author to do I hear you ask?

You did ask… didn’t you?! I’m dearly hoping so, ‘cause I’m about to tell you.

I grabbed my crochet hook, some yarn, Rikin’s illustration of the excitable Alfonso from our picture book This Book Has Alpacas and Bears, plus my less than excitable son clutching the iPad loaded with the aforementioned animation app.

And here’s the result… because I thought Rikin’s amazing Alfonso deserved a bit of a ‘yippee’ as he gets ready to bound into bookshops on the 4th June.

What do you think?

*runs away & hides*

This Book Has Alpacas and Bears bounds onto the shelves in June. If you fancy it, you can pre-order from your super lovely indie bookshops (LOTS are still taking orders & delivering, give them a try). Some options are:

Illustration by Rikin Parekh, taken from This Book Has Alpacas and Bears.

World Book Week 2020

My first World Book Week as a published author. I did it! I loved it! Yippee!!

Sharing I Don’t Like Books Never. Ever. The End. with so many eager little listeners was an absolute privilege. I had such a blast! There was a mixture of whole school assemblies, workshops and let’s not forget… judging the all important veggies-dressed-as-book-characters competition! What a treat!

I really enjoyed sharing my own journey to publication - with all its ups and downs and funny moments - always a relief when the audience laughs at the right places.Phew!

We made dragons and told stories and dressed up and sang and guessed how many words were in JK Rowling’s Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince (169,441 fact fans!) and generally had a lovely bookish time.

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Highlights for me have to include…

• the gasps (seriously, really LOUD gasps) from BEE class when I pulled out the costumes from my prop bag… what a very appreciative audience they were!

• singing with a Reception class and the dragons we’d just made together.

• being approached after one of the whole school assemblies, by two quiet boys, who separately came to tell me about the stories they’d written and how they hoped to be published one day too.

And… such lovely feedback too x

“Emma was a natural with the children and they thoroughly enjoyed the story. The whole school was captivated by what she had to say. Thank you Emma for creating such a memorable experience for the children!” Nathan Jeffrey, Literacy Coordinator, Winsley Primary School

“I really liked how she spoke about how she wrote the book as it showed us that it probably took a lot more than just writing it because it needed to be published too. Even though it wasn't easy at times, it was still achievable though." Year 6 pupil

"It inspired me because the main character in the book doesn't like books and sometimes I don't like books either but it made me think, maybe I could enjoy them if I gave them more of a chance." Year 6 pupil

“It [the assembly] was absolutely super! Highly engaging for all children.” Caroline O’Neill, Literacy Coordinator, Combe Down Primary School

““the assembly was great, I loved hearing the book read out loud, especially when the girl went into the book and she kept jumping into different stories” Year 5 pupil

What Happened At The Launch...

Yesterday was a top notch day. No other way to describe it.

Sharon Davey and I officially launched our picture book, I Don’t Like Books. Never. Ever. The End. in Waterstones, Bath and we had an absolute ball!

The bunting was hung up, the cup cakes (thank you, Phil Perry!) laid out and the pencils sharpened.

Storm? What storm? Bundles of guests made their way into the new event space, nicely protected from Storm Dennis’s threats. Extra chairs were hastily brought out, and some lovely people kindly made do with sitting on the stairs!

We read from our book, telling Mabel’s story. As Mabel fell into various book adventures we had no shortage of volunteers to dress up as some of the characters Mabel met along the way.

Once we reached the end, Sharon picked up her pens and showed us all not only how to draw Mabel but also how to convey different emotions on a character. There were lots of impressive drawings in the audience!

We finished up with a dragon making station, lots of cake eating and chatting whilst Sharon and I happily signed books and chatted to lovely readers.

We are still dancing on air - we had such a fabulous time and loved having you all there. Thanks so much for braving the elements, and celebrating the power of stories with us xxx

Feel free to have a browse through the lovely photographs below. Huge shout out to the official photographer of the day, Bertie Nash (Instagram: @nsh.milk)

Our next event will be at Nomads Bookshop on the 29th February.

Beautiful cupcakes driven to Bath, by Phil Perry

Bunting… useful procrastination exercise when you’re stuck on a story idea / trying to avoid watching your inbox!

Storytime!

The detective!

Don’t they look amazing?! They were all so brilliant!

Photo by Bertie Nash @nsh.milk

Sharon shows us how to draw our own Mabel.

Photo by Bertie Nash @nsh.milk

Photo by Bertie Nash @nsh.milk

My fabulous writing buddies, Ele Nash & Tracy Darnton

Photo by Bertie Nash @nsh.milk

Party time! Photo by Bertie Nash @nsh.milk

The dragon making station in full swing - suitable for all ages!!

Pic by Karen Minto

Jasbinder Bilan, Sally Hamerton and James Nicol.

I even got to sign Sally’s amazing teeny tiny earrings - that wasn’t nerve wracking at all!

It's A Wrap! On the #IDontLikeBooks Blog Tour

It’s been a whirlwind of a week, as Mabel has popped up on lots of lovely blogs as part of the Blog Tour for I Don’t Like Books. Never. Ever. The End by Sharon Davey and I.

Hugest thank yous to the bloggers who hosted us, asked us tricky questions and said the most wonderful things about our book - thank you xxx

Here’s a whistle stop tour of our adventures, click on the images to read the full posts.

First stop, true book champions over at North Somerset Book Awards (@JustAboutBooks) where I chatted about which books I’d love to jump into & fab books from my childhood…

Next up, we were hosted by the very knowledgeable Alison, at Books for Topics where I got to chat about books featuring books. I’m hoping I picked out a few that you many not have heard of before… go take a peek. They even featured a review too.

On Wednesday, I was super excited to host illustrator extraordinaire over on My Book Corner. I can’t tell you how lucky I feel to have been paired with Sharon Davey for my first EVER picture book - and this post was a brilliant insight into the illustrator’s role when creating a picture book

Thursday, saw me pop over to Alexis, at BookMonsterAlly, a passionate librarian. I spilled the beans re my typical day (it’s organised chaos - honest!) and was treated to a fabulous review too.

Friday, I stopped by at BookLoverJo’s vibrant blog where she champions authors so brilliantly! Friday was a day for a reflection as I looked back over the last five years - from reviewer to author… how on earth did that happen?!

The final stop of the tour was over at Madge Eekal Reviews, a treasure trove of great books, where I answered some brilliantly tricky questions…

Tales from the Big Honk

My first tentative adventures into writing were wonderfully encouraged by my acceptance into the Golden Egg Academy. Their editors were the first people to see my early drafts of both This Books Has Alpacas & Bears, plus, I Don’t Like Books. Never. Ever. The End.

Each year, to celebrate the wonderful Egg community, the Big Honk is held in January. Taking place in The Savile Club in Mayfair, it’s always a brilliant opportunity to catch up and party, with old friends and new in a lovely setting.

Photography by Madeleine E. Vaughan

We were treated to readings, and pitches, and bubbles, and nibbles.

Hugest congratulations to picture book writer, Lucy Heaven, who won the Big Pitch! Hooray!

I even got to read our book, I Don’t Like Books. Never. Ever. The End to the audience, with Sharon Davey’s glorious illustrations displayed behind me as I went through the pages. I’m much more accustomed to speaking in front of little readers, but they giggled in all the right places (thank you!), and I overcame my nerves. Phew!

Photography by Madeleine E. Vaughan

It was a huge night for the latest clutch of Picture Book Eggs who all graduated the Golden Egg Academy with flying colours… watch this space for this talented bunch!

Photography by Madeleine E. Vaughan

Photography by Madeleine E. Vaughan

Becky Hamilton, Rashmi Sirdeshpande and me.

Photography by Madeleine E. Vaughan

It was a lovely celebration of writing.

All of these great photos were taken by the talented Madeleine E. Vaughan.