Scabbajack

I apologise if this sounds boring, but yet again the schools we have visited have been nothing short of fantastic.

St Benedict’s RC MS at Ashington provided a somewhat smaller audience than usual…about 260 pupils. However, at our book-signing the next day we signed just over 200 books and the most popular book by far was the latest scary novel, Scabbajack!  Hope all you guys at St Benedict’s don’t have nightmares!

The next day it was back to the school we had a fabulous time at just over a year ago – Valley Gardens. The main man who looks after us there is the handsome and suave Mr Jonathan Royds. He’s from my home town of Rotherham, so I’ve got to say that! For those who don’t know, Valley Gardens is the biggest Middle School in the land…about 800 pupils.  I saw about half of them last year, but this year I saw them all. I have to say that the pupils there are wonderful to entertain. They are really up for the scary stuff and have no problems with joining in whatsoever.  They even applauded when I went into my embarrassing ageing pop-star routine and sang my favourite Kelly Clarkson song into my hairbrush…though I think they were really just being polite!  While I was at Valley Gardens, I met up with my old friend Adam.  I will never forget Adam…he has no belly button, just like Hudson Brown in the Mokee Joe story. Last year, when I first met him, I didn’t believe him…until he showed me along with the audience of 400 other people while he was up on stage with me. As my wife said later, it was the first time she had ever seen me speechless!

Tomorrow, we’re off to the other side of the  A1, to Pontiland. I’ll be re-visiting the Richard Coates MS and a first visit to Pontiland MS. I can’t wait.

As usual, a big thank-you to all the staff and pupils in the NE for making our visit so ‘special’. We love it up here. Real people…real hospitality… and a real thirst for the supernatural!  Please look under your beds tonight…the Scabbajack boy might just be hiding there!

Pete with ScabbaJack

Yesterday, April Fools’ Day, was destined to be ‘Scabbajack Day’.

At around 10am a lorry pulled up outside my house with 2000 copies of my new ‘Scabbajack’ book. This was my first opportunity to see the finished book and the lorry driver watched with a puzzled expression as I eagerly ripped open one of the plastic packages and removed one of the books.

Wow! I could hardly believe my eyes! The books have a real ‘wow factor’ appearance. Once again, my cover artist, Paul B Davies, has come up with a truly amazing cover. The more I looked at the book, the more I couldn’t put it down! My son, Simon, and our designer friend, Alex, have also done a brilliant job in putting the whole thing together…title, font, blurb, inside cover etc etc. I am soooo very lucky in having a wonderful team behind me.

After the lorry driver had gone and all the books were safely inside, I sat down with a cup of coffee and read some of the story just to remind myself of how scary it is…and believe me…it really is very scary! I know all you fans out there are just gonna love it!! But you will have to be patient and wait just a little while longer until the book is officially released. Watch this space!