The Scottish Children's Book Awards Ceremony

Well, it arrived at last - the Scottish Children's Book Awards Ceremony, held at the Lyceum Theatre in Edinburgh yesterday.

Unfortunately, I didn't win but it has all been such a great experience that I FEEL like a winner - and yesterday's ceremony was the icing on the cake! It was really good fun from start to finish ...

Here I am at the first signing session of the day, with Nicky Morgan and Joan Lennon.

Nicky won the 12-16 category for her wonderful book 'Wasted' and Joan, like me, was worthy runner-up in the intermediate category with her brilliantly wacky 'Slightly Jones' book, 'The Case of the London Dragonfish' which I've just finished reading.

Our category was won by Ross Mackenzie for his 'Zac and the Dream Pirates', and I personally found Ross's acceptance speech particularly honest and moving.

There were, of course, hundreds of children, whipped up into near-hysteria by all the exciting onstage happenings - 'magic' being the theme, we had people appearing out of boxes and real fireworks - but they were really well-behaved and absolutely lovely and it was good to see the winners of the review competition receive their prizes too.

My editor at Frances Lincoln, Emily Sharret, had flown up from London to be at the ceremony, and it was great to have time to chat because usually when we meet we're busy editing!.

My friend Moira Kinniburgh took this photo of Emily and me having a well-deserved glass of champagne at the end of the afternoon.

Possibly the Very Best Bit of the entire day was the champagne and profiteroles actually. I must say, as well as tirelessly championing authors and promoting reading throughout the country, the Scottish Book Trust does a very nice line in cakes.

I even had my very own photographer for the day, in the quite delectable shape of Jamie Heitler, Joan's son.

Here's Jamie, patiently listening to my advice about posing for photoshoots. This advice (to 'smise', which means 'smile with the eyes') is gleaned from my favourite TV programme, 'America's Next Top Model', and comes from no less a person than Tyra Banks.

Keep smising, Jamie - and thanks!

A Tree for Sadler's Wells ...

Should you ever want to make an artificial snow-covered hazel tree in February, take it from me - you'll have your work cut out.

The shops that, during the summer months, stock any number of plastic plants and shrubs (why on earth in summer, when you've got real ones then?) run right out of them after the holly and ivy of Christmas, and there is a very, very paltry selection left.

So, after a frustrating afternoon trailing round depressingly empty shelves, all I could find (and was grateful to find too!) was THIS beautiful creation ... don't ask me what it's meant to be, but once it was de-petalled and de-leafed, the stems weren't bad and, several hours later, a bunch of them was transformed into this ...

... which, though I've seen more robust trees, will hopefully work under stage lighting - and it EVEN has hazelnuts (they're the middle bit of the flowers painted brown).

Let's hope it, and the mouse from The Gruffalo's Child, breaks a leg!

The Gruffalo's Child

Today I've been making props for Julia and Malcolm Donaldson's performance of The Gruffalo's Child. 

They're performing this 'Singalong Show' in Sadler's Wells at the week end, and it was felt that the existing props (which I made several years ago and which have been well and truly used!) could do with a Radical Makeover.

This is the mouse puppet which is used to cast the scary shadow which terrifies the Gruffalo's child. I'm making a slightly bigger one this time round.

Tomorrow I need to shop around for a suitable 'hazel tree' and then paint it wintry white.But at least I've managed to get the 'snow' for the base of the tree tonight - a single flat white sheet from Tesco.

It's all in a day's work, I suppose!

Castle Hamster goes to Broughty Ferry library ...

Yesterday I had a sunshine drive up to Broughty Ferry where I gave a talk to two Reading Groups. Here I am in full flight!

It was, all in all, a pretty LIVELY talk, and at the beginning there was much speculation as to what was inside the big black box. 

Suggestions ranged from 'someone with a hamster in their pocket' through 'a hamster in a cage' to 'one of my cats' and definitely reflected the imagination of the Broughty Ferry Book Monsters!

When Castle Hamster was eventually revealed and the Toffee 'n Caramel Game played, the noise level hit a new record level ... I hope all the serious readers had gone home for their tea by then!!

I was made very welcome by Fiona and her colleagues and once the talk was over, refreshed by apple juice and custard creams, I drove to Falkland where I'd decided to spend the night.

I stayed at The Bruce Inn where I was made doubly welcome! Asked to choose between 'a room overlooking Falkland Palace with no TV' and 'a room not overlooking Falkland Palace but with a TV' I opted for the latter, to be told that actually I could have BOTH rooms - since no one was in the 'room overlooking Falkland Palace' I had it at my disposal too. And what a view it was!

Today I spent a lovely morning exploring Falkland, and found two particularly interesting shops.

This one was full of fascinating fiddles and other antiques ...

... and this one, the Cottage Craft Centre, has to be one of the best craft shops I've ever seen. It looks quite small from the outside, but inside it's like the Tardis - the rooms just go on and on!

All in all, I really liked Falkland!

Nice review in Scotland on Sunday

Got a review from Jasmine Fassl on Scotland On Sunday's 'Santa's Spellbinders' ...


'... for newly confident readers, There’s A Hamster In My Pocket by Franzeska Ewart (Frances Lincoln, £5.99) is just about perfect – a laugh-out-loud tale about pets, deadly curses and eccentric families.'


That's a nice little Christmas present!

Christmas holidays!!

Yes - they're finally here, I've decided! On Thursday I wrote the last part of Chapter 5 of my latest book and now I'm concentrating on Christmas.

The 'latest book' is Book 3 in the series for Frances Lincoln which so far contains Sita Snake-Queen of Speed and There's a Hamster in my Pocket!


In this book - which hasn't quite got a title yet - I'm introducing the indomitable Poppy O'Day, aka 'Pod' who, with the help of her psychic red squirrel glove puppet Mr Mystico, makes poor Yosser Farooq's life a bit of a misery one Christmas time.

Delivery date is the end of February, so I'm well on track and even hoping perhaps to have it finished ahead of time.

Not that the end of February will see the end of Yosser and Kylie! I've got a two-book contract this time, so there will be another title following soon after.

Which is great news - but right now I'm knee-deep in tinsel, candles and festive fayre, and enjoying every seasonal minute of it!

Nicola Morgan - Mondays Are Red

I braved snow, ice and sleet today to visit my 'old' friend Nicky Morgan in her lovely flat in Edinburgh.

I hadn't seen Nicky for quite a while, so we had a lot to talk about, including the Scottish Children's Book Awards which take place in February 2012. Nicky's fabulous new novel Wasted is shortlisted in the 'Older Readers' category and her The Highwayman's Footsteps was previously shortlisted.

One of the projects we discussed today was her latest venture into the world of ebooks with a title of hers I particularly like - Mondays Are Red. 

When I first got to know Nicky Mondays Are Red had just come out, and I loved its vivid, chilling descriptions of the world of synaesthesia.It's great to see it making a come-back now, with all sorts of new additions.


If you'd like to have a look at the Kindle edition of Mondays Are Red click here.