The New York schools were an absolute delight…as usual.

Big Smiles at PS 155

DPH, PS 76, CS 200, PS 155 and PS 171 all provided great visits for us. The students varied in age from Grade 4 through to Grade 8, but it didn’t seem to matter. All our audiences loved hearing about our books and provided a great incentive for me to keep on writing. New York is such a cool place for an author to work and we can never thank Carmel Hill enough for giving us the opportunity to keep returning here.

We spent much of our time staying in the Park Central Hotel on 7th Avenue and I’ve never enjoyed Central Park so much. I love joining in with the throng of runners there. However, a

Fans at PS 171

few days ago, I got myself lost and a two-mile run turned into a FIVE-MILE run! Kath was on the verge of sending out a search party for me before I finally arrived back looking red-faced and sorry for myself. Perhaps another story in the making!

On Sunday just gone, we flew down to Atlanta and took a small plane onto a favourite place of ours…Monroe, in Louisiana. It’s become home-from-home for us. Our ‘lil old friend, Margie, was waiting for us at Monroe Airport and before we knew it we were safely tucked into the Courtyard Marriott…a great hotel.  The next morning we were in Carroll Junior High…Wow! What a superbly enthusiastic audience! We loved it there!  In the afternoon we were amongst old friends at Lee Junior High…massive fans of ours! Both schools had entered a Mokee Joe essay competition and the standard of the winning entries was incredible. We presented prizes and revelled in the adoration for our work…it is VERY humbling for an author to receive such great feedback and enthusiasm for their books.

The weather in Lousiana was around 90 degrees when we arrived (they would never believe it back in the wet and soggy UK), but now thunderstorms are brewing…totally appropriate for my spooky presentations. Watch out everyone…Mokee Joe is stirring from somewhere deep in his swampy Louisiana grave!  More news coming as the week progresses…watch this space.

PJM

Audience at New Roberto Clemente School

So sorry for the delay in publishing this post!  My laptop had a problem…an unreachable server address…if that means anything to you. However, the problem has been solved and corrected by an expert in the Carmel Hill team and I am now back in league with the internet and able to update!

Last Sunday Kath and I checked into a fab hotel in a place called Paramus, in New Jersey. The Crown Plaza turned out to be one of the best hotels we ever stayed in…and so convenient for all five schools in nearby Paterson. The schools we visited were the New Roberto Clemente School, PS13, PS24, PS20 and PS26.  All of the schools gave us a great welcome and our audiences were already familiar with many of our books. We used a screen, projector and laptop to project images during our presentation and I have to say that it was the pic of the Dawn Demon doll that always got the biggest and most awesome reaction!  At all five schools, the librarians proved great hostesses and many, many thanks to Gloria, Joanne, Debbie, Emily and Doris. Kath and I feel we have made five new friends and look forward to working with them in the future. We mus also extend our thanks to Dennis Vroegindewey for organising our New Jersey trip and for all his support.

Kath (Mrs Mokee Joe) with Ashley

I was so taken up with my visit to PS13 that I wrote a really scary story about the school over the weekend. I will be using this spooky, scary tale in a new book I’m going to be putting

Pete with Doris at PS 26

together in the near future…so ‘watch this space’as we say…an exciting new project is firmly under construction. I have to say that all of the students we met in New Jersey were so kind to us and seemed genuinely pleased to see us. We can’t believe that so many students over the other side of the world are reading (or have read) our books and are so keen to read more.  This provides the perfect incentive for me to keep on writing…so thank you to you all…Kath and I will be back in New Jersey- you can be sure of that!

Off back to New York now to begin work in more schools. Looking forward to it…and especially to jogging around Central Park in the spring sunshine…ha ha…I know all about the wet and soggy weather back in the UK!

PJM

Pete reading at Meadowhall

The Meadowhall World Record Reading Event was hard work…but thoroughly enjoyable!  If I’m really honest, I think the promotion could have placed more stress on the joy of books and reading, but it was still good to see so many listeners sitting in front of me to absorb Roald Dahl’s BFG. Hope you like the pics.  Incidentally, I’m still waiting to hear whether or not the record was broken…and already making plans of my own to break it again!  Watch this space! In case you’re interested, my two new books are currently in Waterstones on the lower level of the shopping centre and Liz, the Children’s Book Person, will be only too glad to steer you towards them.  She has contacted me and asked me to do a signing during the summer. Apparently, my books are selling in the well in the store. Thank you to Liz and the team for all their support.

Avid listeners at Meadowhall

From Meadowhall, it was a case of dash home and start packing for our BIG trip to the US…six weeks, visiting 29 schools starting in Boston, Massachusettes, onto Concord, Connecticut, New Jersey, Louisiana and finishing in New York City. Phew!!  Tiring, but very exciting. Couldn’t wait!

The first school we visited was The Fenn Boys School in Concord. We visited last January after the book launch of Mokee Joe 4 and the boys became instant fans. It was great to be back. This time we performed our Bonebreaker Presentation and the audience loved it. By the time we had finished, the boys were mad keen to read more of our books and we have already promised to return next April to visit FIVE schools in the same area…the teachers are so keen to have us working in the whole region.  Before we left Concord, we saw some of the

Attentive audience at Fenn Boys School

local history landmarks including a famous bridge where the first shot was fired during the American Revolution…I still remember studying the famous poem ’Paul Revere’s Ride’ at school (Longfellow?)…little did I believe I would ever visit the town where it all really happened!We also visited the famous graveyard at Sleepy Hollow…so many dead authors are buried there  (well…they wouldn’t bury live ones, would they?)

From Concord it was on to Connecticut to visit Kath’s cousins in Kensington. They showed us the usual amazing hospitality and gave us a wonderful three days ‘R and R’ in readiness for our extensive school visits.  A huge thank you to Corrine, Judy, Stanley and Frankie for being such ‘youthful’ hosts and wining and dining us so well. We are hoping to be back next Easter to visit a number of schools in the area. It just so happened that the students were all on holiday the week we visited, but as I said, it gave us a great chance to rest and enjoy the amazing Spring weather.  Oh, well…off to the rail station to jump on a train to New York. We’re staying overnight in a great NY apartment thanks to the generous nature of Audrey…the grandmother of the one of the Fenn boys (Kaden). And then on to New Joisey  (hope you like the accent) to begin work in earnest.  Keep up with events in the next blog…promise to have it published by Thursday!

PJM

It’s good to have a break at Easter and escape for a little, but it’s also good to get back to work…especially if you’re lucky enough to enjoy what you’re doing!Life couldn’t be more exciting than at the moment!

Apart from the two new books about to come out…Mokee Joe Mutant Resurrection and Ten O’ Clock Caller…I’m about to be involved in a breathtaking World Record Reading Attempt at Meadowhall Shopping Centre on Friday (13th!!) and then embark on a six-week tour of the US visiting 29 schools. You can check out the Meadowhall event and hopefully join me if you’re up for it…click on events at www.meadowhall.co.uk  You will see that another ‘Peter’ is joining me…I wonder which one?

Some of my keen Mokee Joe and Scabbajack fans

I’m hoping that some of my many fans from Rotherham and Sheffield will be at Meadowhall tomorrow (Fri) to support me with our record attempt. I’m told that everyone present will receive a certificate to prove that they took part in what should be a record-breaking event. I’ll be reading BFG by one of my favourite authors, Roald Dahl himself! I love his sense of humour.  I will also be signing limited edition copies of my two new books at Waterstones from 1.30pm.

Hope to see you all there!

PJM

What a week!

Started with a school that has supported me for a considerable time – Birkdale Boys Prep School. Our librarian friend, Pip, looked after us and placed us in front of an enthusiastic audience of Year 5 and 6 boys. I talked (with a considerable amount of passion) about the two new books, Mokee Joe Mutant Resurrection and Ten O’ Clock Caller and by the end of the presentation the boys were desperate to get their hands on the books. We always enjoy being among old friends at Birkdale…thank you so much to Chris, Pip and all the other staff for their continued support.

Next, it was back to my boyhood roots, to Kimberworth Park in Rotherham to re-visit Roughwood Primary School. What a pleasure to perform our scary Saxon/Viking presentation of the Bonebreaker story. The audience were inspired…as proven during a book-signing the next day – which was an equally pleasant experience. Another big ‘Thank You’…this time to Kevin Cadman, Kay and all the other staff at Roughwood for giving us a true ‘Rotherham Welcome’!

Keen fans at Sheffield Girls High

Following day back to Sheffield, this time for a first visit to the dead-keen gals of Sheffield Girls High School. Imagine our delight when we arrived…the librarian was an old friend and we didn’t even realise she was responsible for our visit…Katherine Harrison…formerly Katherine Russell of Ottaker Bookstore days in Meadowhall. Katherine has always been an avid supporter of our books and we owe much to her. Needless to say we put 110% into our performance in front of a big audience of some of the keenest girls we’ve ever encountered…even the magnificent Wakefield Girls have rivals in this school! I’ve had lots of great e-mails from Sheffield Girls High since the visit, which in itself is testament to the success of it all. Keep in touch and see you again soon girls…with the Bonebreaker trilogy.

Final visit of the week was another Rotherham ‘cracker’ of a school – Badsley Moor Lane. We performed the ‘Bonebreaker’ presentation again and it went down a storm. I have to say that the improvised acting by our willing volunteers was of the highest standard. We so enjoyed the session and had a whale of a time. The climatic moment must have been Mr Pursehouse falling victim to the Moonwailer Beast. I still don’t know if he survived the horrific experience, despite providing him with silver bullets from the boot of my car!

FINALLY A BIG THANKYOU TO LUCY AND IZZY FOR THEIR SHORT STORY AND TO CHARLOTTE AND KEIRA FROM Y5 MAC FOR THE WONDERFUL MOKEE JO ARTWORK.

Thanks everyone for a ‘cracking’ week.

PJM

It was lovely to get up on Monday morning and head off locally for once…to Wakefield.  To make matters more interesting, our son Simon, famous author himself of the Icky Doo Dah series, accompanied us.  Little did we realise the ‘magic’ experience waiting for us just up the A1.

Pete with Mr Clewarth and fans at Silcoates

We arrived at Silcoates Junior School with the Deputy Head, John Clewarth, waiting anxiously at the

The first girl to get hold of 'Ten O' Clock Caller'

 front entrance to greet us. John proved to be the perfect host, everything organised meticulously…including a much-appreciated cup of tea on arrival!  The presentation took place in front of one of the most enthusiastic audiences we’ve ever encountered – great in every way – joining in with gusto, but always extremely attentive, especially during readings. All in all it was a great morning and a massive thank you to Mr Clewarth and everyone at Silcoates for making us so welcome. The signing on Wednesday morning had to be seen to be believed. By the end of it my hand muscles had almost given up and my brain went numb! I hoped Mr Clewarth was taking notice because he is about to become an author himself and his new book ‘Firestorm Rising’ is sure to be a success. Start training the hand muscles Mr Clewarth!

Another Icky Doo Dah sketch

Well! After the wonderful Silcoates experience, how could Wakefield Girls Grammar School followthat.

Simon with lots of Icky Doo Dah fans

 Easy…show just as much enthusiasm and get just as much fired up as the boys did. The girls were stars and another real pleasure to introduce our new books to.  During another hectic signing the next day (straight following the Silcoates megga-signing!), the girls lined up to chat with us and get hold of their books. Afterwards, Kath (my wife) commented that every girl without exception had a big beaming smile on their face and had something nice to say as they collected their books…a real credit to QWEGS girls!  No wonder we keep going back!  I’ve also just received a letter card from them today expressing their thanks for my visit. It doesn’t get much better than that…Kath and I often say we are truly blessed to have our job!  (I’ll be blubbing if I don’t watch out!) Simon, meanwhile, was having a whale of a time firing up the imaginations of younger audiences all over the Wakefield Schools site and later that day we saw countless small boys and girls clutching on to their sketches of the infamous Icky Doo Dah…all great fun and Simon loved it!

Well, after all the wonders of Wakefield we headed off down south to London! Oh dear!  Long drive down the M1, the lovely South Circular, and finally arriving in Kew at a very expensive Premier Inn!  Overnight car-parking charges, no-where to park at the school the next day… the delights of working in the capital!!  Thank goodness that Darell Primary proved to be a very pleasant school to work with. The pupils we so enthusiastic and the staff so supportive and appreciative of our visit. A huge thanks to Kath Robertson for looking after us so well. The pupils looked stunning the next day during our signing. They wore ‘bad guy’ outfits and we were very impressed!  London is not the easiest place to visit, but ‘thank you’ to Darell Primary for making it all worthwhile.  Oh well…a few days rest now and then off to visit our old friend Mr Lewis and our fans at Warwick Prep School. Wonder how that will go? Watch this space!

Finally…the brand new Mokee Joe book was launched in the UK…at Stockton-on-Tees in the lovely new library. Helen and Karen were the usual fab hostesses and put on an excellent day for us.  The schools attended with an abundance of Year 7 fans and even before the second session was in swing, the new books had gone! Oops…I knew I should have taken more books!

Mokee Joe: Mutant Resurrection

The presentations went down a treat with the new technology provided by the refurbished library…computerised presentation lecturn, dual audience screens etc etc…WOW!  I could definitely get used to this. I also had chance to talk about the next new book, Ten O’ Clock Caller, and this also brought about a lot of interest.

Thank you to the afternoon schools for your patience in awaiting the new book. I signed the copies and my wife got the orders off yesterday (Thurs 1st March) and I believe some were received the very next day.

Another exciting result of the book launch was a competition to see who could come up with a new enemy to face the evil Mokee Joe. I’m told there has been a big response to this competition and it seems I’m going to have a lot of judging to do! Stockton Library even came up with a great poster to promote the competition and I thought I would show it here.

Mokee Joe Monster Competition

I’m planning to come up to Stockton in the Autumn Term with my other new book and can’t wait to meet up with all our fans again. It’s always a pleasure to work in an area where we have so much support for our work. I’m still so proud of winning the Stockton Children’s Book Award for my VERY scary book Scabbajack.

We will shortly be judging the Monster Mayhem competition and awarding a full set of books to the winner…with some good runner-up prizes in addition.

Just a couple more pics to finish off showing the book-launch signing with our loyal Stockton fans around us.

Loyal Stockton Fans!

Eager Year 7's!

DESS 'We got our books!'

Dubai provided some wonderful moments again. Our fans were eagerly awaiting the new fourth Mokee Joe book. DESS (Dubai English Speaking School) provided another great visit, as did Jebel Ali Primary. The following week found us in Wellington International School (WIS) and yet again our good friend Dolores proved the perfect hostess. And then it was on to a new school – Winchester School in Jebel Ali Gardens. This proved to be a most interesting and welcoming school. I’ve never seen so much so artwork and met so many keen students ready to come on board with our books. Simon accompanied us and his Icky Doo Dah books went down a storm.

Winchester School 'Mmmm...interesting!'

We finished off at the Royal Dubai School and this provided a great conclusion to our Dubai Tour. The pupils went crazy for our books and we even had a few ‘Mokee Joe’s’ turn up at the book-signing! All-in-all, the Dubai experience was once again very pleasant, and much of it down to the warm welcome and

Pete with a 'Mokee Joe' at the Royal Dubai School

friendliness of the countless pupils we worked with during our two-week stay. We had some bad luck in the form of a sandstorm during the weekend; it was almost like being back home in the UK – we had to stay indoors! 

After the delights of Sunny Dubai, I have to say that Sunny Liverpool was just as delightful!

Holy Rosary, St Andrews’s, Northway and Summerhill gave us a great welcome and were an absolute pleasure to work with. At each of the schools we performed our Mokee Joe presentation and built up the spooky atmosphere quite nicely leading up to the introduction of the new book. Needless to say that subsequent book-signings proved exhausting…but in the nicest possible way!  The fourth Mokee Joe book was sold out within two days and I now have a whole load of orders to deal with, many new fans waiting restlessly for their limited first editions.

Three keen helpers at St Andrew's

Thank you to the staff of the Liverpool schools for making us so welcome, and to all of our new fans for their wonderfully-encouraging e-mails. It seems that a good number of Liverpool pupils now want to be authors, and a brilliant complement came in the form of a Summerhill pupil who gave up his obsession with Leggo (well at least  for the time being) in order that his father would purchase all four Mokee Joe books for him…that is serious commitment and I feel very proud about that!

A further complement I must pass on is to all the effort that went into World Book Week regarding dressing up as characters etc  The amazing costumes of students and staff gave a totally surreal feel to the week and I’ve heard of at least one teacher who went to school dressed as Molly – the

Summerhill - World Book Day

 tough girl character in my Mokee Joe series. I hope she fared well and managed to find Hudson and Ash! Another brilliant get-up was Toni from Summerhill dressed in a home-made Charlotte’s Web costume…complete with six legs to add to her own. She looked so spiderlike that I didn’t recognise her the next day in her normal dress!!

Oh well…home again and paperwork to sort out. Next week we’re in Wakefield and then on to London…I’ll have to be careful in pronouncing the word ‘bath’….ie. baf or barf !

See you all soon…keep on reading!

In Dubai with Simon and Elizabeth

We are now settled in our favourite location in Sunny Dubai and looking forward to meeting up again with all our UAE fans!

It was nice to leave the cold and grey weather behind, but two schools in Yorkshire made it hard to say ‘good bye’. The first of these schools was Dronfield Junior School near Chesterfield.  The Headmaster, Martin Finch, must surely be proud of his school. A big school with a small hall meant we could only present to the Year 5 group, but they proved a wonderful audience and the Year 5 staff also joined in enthusiastically to ensure a great result  – a real ’buzz’ about books and reading. The consequent signing was also a very enjoyable experience….everyone of the pupils a delight to meet up with again and to have a brief chat to. Thank you Dronfield Juniors for helping us turn a dull, grey Monday morning into a lively and pleasant experience.

The next school was Churlwell Primary School at Moreley in Leeds…our final school before packing for Dubai.  At the risk of being boringly repetetive…I have to report that this school alslo turned out to be a fantastic place to work…once again the staff and pupils couldn’t do enough for us!  This time, we were able to see all of KS2 from Year 3 to Year 6 and the audience was an absolute delight to perform in front of. Immediately after the event, it was apparent that we had enthused and inspired them all. We travelled up to Leeds the following day to perform a book-signing and it went on for so long, we were delayed in getting home to pack and get ready to head off in the direction of Heathrow Airport…but we weren’t complaining!

Hope all our fans back home are enjoying our books…we’ll be back at your schools before too long! Thank you for all your e-mails and keep in touch with this blog. I’ve another new book about to come off the press!

PJM

Many thanks to the Fenn boys!

Fans are fans wherever you go. I’ve just had some wonderful feedback from The Fenn School near Boston in the US. It seems that the boys are all getting hooked on my books and their classrooms are now plastered with images of Mokee Joe…and even scarier images of me! Thanks to the boys for all their enthusiasm, for the cap and the lovely signed ‘thank-you’ card you sent me. I’ll be back soon.

I left the US after visiting more wonderful schools – our last day saw us at PS152 where we met the fantastic choir (they made me cry again by singing in front of me!). They also gave us a CD of their performance to bring back home with us – all our folks love it! Be back soon.

Onto PS171 in the afternoon. A first visit to this school, but did we enjoy it there? You bet! Great students and great questions! We would love to return to this school and present and perform for them – though they proved great fans of our books already.

We left a snowy, icy Newark, New Jersey airport on Saturday night and were soon back in the cold and

Berkeley Juniors Engrossed!

grey UK…and straight back into schools the following week. Highfield Hall in Chesterfield, Broom Valley Juniors in Rotherham and Berkeley Juniors in Scunthorpe help us to stave off a feeling of anti-climax. In fact, far from it! These three schools provided a wealth of enthusiastic fans and Kath and I enjoyed a most fulfilling week. It was good to be back home and have our feet firmly on the ground again after all the glitz and glamour of New York, but what was clearly evident to us is that no matter where you go, it is the enthusiasm of our young fans that drives us on…people, not places!

It’s the end of the week and the jet-lag is only just beginning to fade, but we would just like to say a HUGE ‘thank you’ to all our fans, both in New York and in South Yorkshire…we love you all and can’t wait to see you again…with yet another new book....watch this space!

A final vote of thanks to all the staff who made our visits so pleasurable…to Gary Martin at Highfield Hall, to Adam Dawson at Broom Valley Juniors and to Justin Cowell at Berkeley Juniors.

PJM