It’s been a busy few weeks! I’ve been out and about in schools, bookshops and libraries – below is a round-up of my latest author adventures.
On the 8th, I put on my editor hat and did a talk with my friend Non Pratt (author of Trouble and Remix, and also someone whose day job used to involve editing other people’s books). We spoke to a group of new and upcoming authors about what to expect when you’re expecting a book, and how best to run your author life after you’ve been published. Here we are below with our fancy BatNon & Robin logo, and also our frog pens (because all good superheroes need frog pens). Check out the #BatNon hashtag on Twitter if you want to read more about the event, and find out about our (hopefully useful) tips.
On the next night, for a complete change, I gave a talk at Waterstones Hampstead with adult crime writer (and author of the authorised new Poirot novel The Monogram Murders), Sophie Hannah. We spoke about Agatha Christie’s influence on our lives (we’re both equally obsessed, and we even have oddly similar origin stories – both of us were first given second-hand copies of a Poirot by our fathers aged about age 11) and how much we’re in debt to her as authors. The event was given a fantastic write-up by Sophie, aged 9, who I’m pretty sure is going to take over publishing and/or authoring one day very soon.
On the 12th of June, I had the amazing and extremely odd experience of being invited back to my old primary school, the Dragon, as an author. Everything was much smaller, but otherwise strangely the same – same uniforms, same bunbreaks, same buildings and even (strangely) some of the same teachers – only now, those teachers just turn out to be other grown-up humans. It felt a little like being on the other side of a mirror. I gave two workshops to the pupils there, and helped them come up with some amazing murder mysteries – one involving a secret robot dinosaur, one about a murderous sidekick, and one where the murder weapon was a trained monkey.
In the afternoon, I went to the ever-brilliant Story Museum to help a group of girls from Didcot Girls’ School with the plot and script for their awesome Gothic murder mystery, Night at the Asylum. It’s taking place on Friday 19th June, and I can guarantee that it’s going to be terrifying. If you’re in Oxford, and you can go, you absolutely should. If you can handle it, that is …
And finally, on Saturday 13th, I visited Oxford Central Library – which was another time warp moment. I grew up in central Oxford, and I went to the Oxford Library almost every single week. It’s where I discovered Terry Pratchett, and L M Montgomery, and so many more authors who I’ve been in love with ever since.
Coming back as an author was incredibly weird and wonderful – and I also got a very special surprise when I discovered that three of the girls in the audience had actually dressed up as Deepdean pupils. We did detective activities (and we all wore Detective Society badges, courtesy of librarian Jo) and I answered everyone’s questions about me and my books.
So there you go – that’s my author round-up. I’ve had a brilliant time over the past few weeks, and I hope that if you came to see me at any of the events you had as much fun as I did.
