It's been a busy couple of weeks touring with my publisher UCLan Publishing and bookseller Tony Higginson, following The Light Hunters book launch event in Waterstones Nottingham last month.
The tour started with the live broadcast of reading from The Light Hunters and a Q&A session with participating schools on Learn Live UK. There were some cracking questions from pupils, such as "How did you build up the characters and create their individual personalities and qualities?" and "If you could have any of the powers from the book, which one would you want?". If you'd like to see answers to all the questions, you can view the recording from the broadcast here or by clicking on the image below.
Following the Learn Live broadcast, we visited a fantastic range of primary and secondary schools across Preston and Nottingham, who were the first to meet Lux and the Light Hunters. A big shout-out to all the fabulous schools who were super welcoming and uber friendly, and gave The Light Hunters so much love.
Churchtown Primary
Forfield Juniors
Larkfield Primary
St Leonard’s Primary School
All Saints in Accrington
The Kimberley School
Arnold Hill Academy
Ashfield School
Magnus CofE Academy
Rushcliffe School
Kirby College
Wilsthorpe School
To give you a quick snapshot from this tour, see the photo gallery below.
12 schools in two weeks and nearly 1000 copies of The Light Hunters signed! That's what I call a spicy meatball!
With the school visits done, I was invited by Derbyshire Schools' Book Awards (DSBA) to host this year's event, with six fabulous children's titles shortlisted:
A Pocketful of Stars by Aisha Bushby
Illegal by Eoin Colfer and Andrew Donkin
High Rise Mystery by Sharna Jackson
The Haven by Simon Lelic
Armistice Runner by Tom Palmer
Can you See Me? by Libby Scott and Rebecca Westcott
I was over the moon to not only be part of this year's award, but also to host the event AND announce the winner! Congratulations to Libby Scott and Rebecca Westcott for the win!
Here are a couple of pics from the ceremony.
Finally, to top off a fantastic couple of weeks touring with The Light Hunters, I filmed a #CarpoolReadeoke episode - a scheme run by Discovery Schools Academy Trust Literacy (DSAT Literacy). The concept is quite simple; you jump in a car, like in James Corden's Carpool Karaoke, but instead of singing you read a chapter from your book - all to spread the love of reading for pleasure.
Here's me reading chapter 6 from The Light Hunters.
Now it's back to writing new material and editing (there are a couple of new stories in the pipeline that I can't wait to share with you in the future!).
Next up: If you're in Preston for the Northern YA Literary Festival, you can catch me at the KIDSLitFest on Sunday 22nd March, where I'll be running a workshop on stories' structure. Hope you can join me! :-)
Catch you all soon, ciao!
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