Have you been out today?

So this week I have started work on the third draft of my children's novel for David Fickling Books. Last time I read through the typescript I started feeling rather sleepy by the end of chapter three. I took this to be a bad sign. This view is confirmed by a reader's report from a ten year old son of a postman who thought that "the beginning part was a bit long". Happily he was pretty enthusiastic about the rest of it though so there's more than a glimmer of hope for the end result. I am currently taking a hatchet to the early chapters with the comments of both the ten year old and my editor (Mr Fickling himself) very much in mind.

In other news (actually not news as I mentioned it before but never mind): I shall be present at the DFC stand at MCM Expo this weekend, along with fellow DFC alumni Sarah McIntyre, Gary Northfield, Ben Haggarty, the Etherington Brothers, Neill Cameron, John Aggs and Emma Vieceli. Oh, and I think Faz Choudhury and Jamie Smart may be knocking about for some of the time too. Come along and say hello to us all and buy books and get badges and sketches and all that stuff. You know you want to. You do.

I'll be leaving slightly early on the Saturday and arriving slightly late on the Sunday so as to facilitate my attending the social event of the year: my friend Nicky's Eurovision Song Contest party in Worthing. Apparently there will be crisps.