I’m visiting quite a few bits of Scotland during the summer holidays, but not on holiday!
Because I’ve had two books published in the last couple of months, my publishers are sending me round various book-y locations to read the books and chat about writing (and sign any books people want to buy!) I’m visiting bookshops, libraries and a cave. Is a cave a book-y location? It is, if you’ve written a book set in a cave!
And what am I doing in all these place? Usually I’m reading my picture books (How to Make a Heron Happy and The Big Bottom Hunt) and chatting with small people about stories, then after a quick drink of water, I’m shifting gears into Storm Singing and talking legends, myths, location research and cliffhangers with older readers.
It’s an uneven tour because it’s spread around places I know and have been before, like Skye, Ayr, Inverness; places I’ve never done an event before but thought might be fun, like East Kilbride and St Andrews; and the one place where Storm Singing is actually set, ie Sutherland. (That’s where I’m doing the event in the cave, and if you are anywhere near Smoo Cave on 28th July, it would be lovely to see you there!)
However, today wasn’t quite as exotic or dark as a cave, because I’m just back from meeting readers and families in Stirling, in the Waterstones in the Thistle Centre. And what brilliant readers they were. There was a lovely little girl who did a great grumpy heron face every time I read: “But the heron still looked….grumpy”; and then later, there was a large group of readers, lots of whom had met me at local schools, had read First Aid and Wolf Notes and were very keen to get stuck into Storm Singing. They asked the most fabulous questions I’ve been asked in a bookshop, including really complicated ones about publishing. I was very impressed with the calibre of bookbuyers from Stirling (and Clackmannanshire) and would love to go back and do more events!
So if you want to come and see me in the summer, check out my diary page and if my uneven and very unsystematic way of picking event locations means that I’m not coming anywhere near you, then do just ask your local bookshop or library or even your school to see if they can arrange for me to visit. Though I wonder if anyone else will ask such knowledgable questions as the Stirling audience?
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