Yvette and the team at JESS Arabian Ranches

We really are having the most amazing time in Sunny Dubai!

All of the schools so far without exception have scored 10/10 on our performance monitor! They have proved wonderful hosts and our audiences have been an absolute pleasure to entertain and perform to.

DES, JBS, the two JESS schools, SAFA, HORIZON, DESS, DIS and DAA (today) have delivered us to the half-way point of our Dubai tour in a mood of elation. We have LOVED everyone of them.

DESS was a new school to us…and why we have never visited before is a bit of a mystery to us.  Well, one thing is for sure, we won’t ever miss out on DESS again. The audience of 460 students went wild with energy and enthusiasm…and the staff were more than excited too!

Fab time at DESS

We signed a lot of books following our performance and I am currently undergoing ‘wrist and hand therapy’ to remedy the situation. A big thank you to Lynda, Jane and all the other lovely staff for making our initial visit so memorable.

After all the success of our school visits, I think my adrenaline level must have been running high.  Yesterday, at the Deira International School (DIS), I got a little carried away and walked off the high stage into thin air. The resulting crash as I hurtled forward and crash-landed on the floor proved more than spectacular! Half the audience thought it was part of the act and burst into hysterical laughter, and the other half looked horrified and ran to my assistance. In true professional style I jumped to my feet and made a string of funny comments. The good news is I escaped with just a bruised ego and no broken bones…but I will never forget that dreaded moment when I sensed I had taken a step too far!

Have to finish now…I’ve an urgent appointment with a swimming pool. It really is hard working out here in the Dubai sunshine!!!

Pete and Simon cooling off!

Simon in action at JESS Arabian Ranches

No…I don’t mean Simon or myself are monsters! I’m referring to Mokee Joe, Scabbajack and Icky Doo Dah!

Over the last five days, Mum, Dad and Simon have roared into five schools and had a wonderful time frightening all the staff and pupils and encouraging them to use their imagination in reading and artwork.

Dubai British School (DBS), a fab new school (JBS),  the two JESS schools, SAFA school and the Horizon School have all proved to be wonderful hosts and a MASSIVE ‘thank you’ to all concerned in helping to make our visits so enjoyable and successful. The JESS Jumeirah school was especially of interest to Simon…he attended there as a pupil back in 1987 when Dad was out working in Dubai at the DUBAL company in Jebel Ali. Needless to say, Simon was awestruck by the changes in Dubai over the last twenty years!

Today (Fri 21st) the Murray family have visited the Dubai Mall…wow!…the aquarium is amazing! In fact, the whole place is quite staggering in size! Morrison’s, back home, will never seem quite the same again!!

Anyhow…watch this space for news on our Dubai trip – we are here for another two weeks and will be visiting (and scaring!) just about every international school in the city. So brace yourselves – there’s a whole lot more to come!

Over the last three days Kath and I have visited two primary schools – one in Yorkshire and the other only a short distance away in Lancashire. As the farmer at our B&B said….’The only good thing abart Lancashire, lad, it provides a good road in t ‘ Yorkshire!’

You can probably guess which county our farmhouse B&B was in!!

Infact, we rated both schools 11 out of 10!!  Embsay Primary School (in Yorkshire) and Coates Lane ( t’other one in Lancashire) were both brilliant! In both cases the pupils and staff were an absolute delight to work with. The pupils joined in the Mokee Joe presentation with gusto and went crazy for the books afterwards. Both schools seemed more than keen on books (and authors!) and provided the perfect finish to our UK visits before packing for sunny Dubai! A massive ‘thank you’ to Alison Bell and Graeme Lucas for all their help and for being perfect hosts – providing the endless cups of tea and coffee required to keep Kath and I up to spec.

We are already planning to visit these two ‘cracking’ schools next year to blast them with our Bonebreaker presentation. I should also have the much-awaited fourth Mokee Joe book finished by then…so Embsay and Coates Lane…watch this space!

And now…au revoir to the cold, wet UK, (ha ha)...sunny Dubai – here we come!

The new Hudson, Molly & Ash

A very ‘Happy New Year’ to all our fans!

It’s been a strange Christmas what with the extreme weather and lots of colds and flu around. But we’ve survived and the spooky writing continues. I’m on Chapter 10 of my new, exciting fourth Mokee Joe book and really enjoying being with Hudson Molly and Ash again. Paul Bryn Davies, my cover illustrator, has given my three characters a fresh new look and I hope you’ll agree that Molly’s new hairstyle is especially impressive.

During the last few weeks I’ve had a couple of big interviews with the Sheffield Telegraph (30th Dec) and the Yorkshire Post (5th Jan) and I have to say that both newspapers have done me proud. You can check them out online at www.sheffieldtelegraph.co.uk and   www.yorkshirepost.co.uk I think you will be impressed!

My schools start next week with Embsay Primary School near Skipton…I am their guest author, and then onto Coates Lane Primary

Pete's new Swiss Chalet style office

School at Barnoldswick near Bradford. Kath and I are very much looking forward to visiting these schools before we pack our bags to leave for the sunny climes of Dubai.

During the last few months I have invested in a new office and you can see from the picture that its quite impressive…more like a Swiss chalet than a garden shed!  I’m thinking of adding a sauna on! We will be moving things in when the weather warms up and then I expect I will spend many hours in isolation completing my spooky novels. I just hope that Mokee Joe doesn’t discover its whereabouts and attacks when I’m least inspecting it!

Oh well…that’s all for now.  I’ll be updating this blog a little bit more regularly now that we’re getting back into the swing of things, so please keep in touch and follow our progress through what promises to be our most exciting year yet…2011 here we come!!