Thursday, May 16, 2013

Mysteries!

I've been holding off sharing this exciting news for as long as possible but have finally received the go-ahead to spill the beans. So here it is! A brand new Billie B Brown series - for older readers!

Over the last couple of years, I have been noticing older girls in book signing queues, who tell me while they know the Billie and Jack books have become too easy for them to read, they're not quite ready to let them go. I have also come across young girls who are such great readers that they read a whole Billie book while waiting in line! So, if you know a little girl or boy like this - this series is for you!

There will only be six books in this series, and they follow Billie B Brown and her friends; Jack, Mika and Alex, all of them now a few years older. They decide to start up a Secret Mystery Club and scour the neighbourhood looking for mysteries to uncover, beginning with the haunted house at the end of their street. The books will be triple the length of the existing Billie books with a much more complex writing style and story structure for older readers, but still maintain the accessibility and child-friendliness of the original series. The wonderful Aki Fukuoka will be illustrating them again and this is a sample cover. What do you think?

I have just finished writing the first book, which will come out in September, the second not far behind in November. Each story will link up with the others though they can be read in any order. I am really excited about this series, I hope you will love them, too!

*NB: originally this book was going to be titled Haunted House - but we changed it to Spooky House at the last minute, so if you see books online advertised as Haunted House, you'll know it's the same book, they have just used the old cover image *


Monday, May 13, 2013

Sydney bound

Next week I will be at the Sydney Writers Festival as a part of the Schools Program and then running a workshop on Writing For Children on the 25th. At the festival I will be mainly talking to upper primary children, but for any Billie B Brown and Hey Jack! fans, I will be touring schools and bookstores the following week.

Here is a list of public events if you want to come and say hi or have your book signed:

Monday 27th May:
The Children's Bookshop
6 Hannah Street
Beecroft.
4.30 - 5.30pm

Tuesday 28th May:
Shearers Bookstore
Shop F6, Market Place
122-138 Flood Street
Leichhardt.
4pm - 5pm

Wednesday 29th May:
Better Read Than Dead
265 King Street
Newtown.
4.30 - 5.30pm

Saturday 1st June:
Kinokuniya Books (Costume Party!)
The Galleries, Level 2
500 George Street.
12.30 - 1.30pm

Bloomin Books
1/153 Denman Avenue,
Caringbah.
2.30 - 3.30pm.

Okay I am excited enough about going to Sydney for two weeks but guess what? Molly Ringwald is a guest of the SWF! I will have to hope I don't run into her in the lift or I may just faint. The Breakfast Club is still one of my all-time favourite teen flicks.