the-childrens-media-conference

CMC, Yeah You Know Me

This week I’ll be heading up to sunny Sheffield for the annual Children’s Media Conference. It’s Europe’s big confab for all things related to media for young people. When I first attended, the CMC was mostly TV focused. It’s grown in scope and ambition as the media landscape has evolved and fragmented, and now covers […]

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C'mon over!

Back to Banff

After 29 years, I finally returned to the magical mountain town of Banff, Alberta, Canada. If you’ve never visited, Banff is probably the most beautiful place I’ve ever been to. I first went as a boy, en route home from Expo 86, and blogged about it for the awesome Canadian literature blog 49th Shelf.  It […]

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Let's make some TV!

Banfftastic

This week I’m heading to Banff, Alberta for the World Media Festival. I’m wearing my TV hat (not my cowboy hat) this week, meeting with producers and broadcasters on the Awesome slate of drama projects we’ve been cooking up. It’s a different process to writing books, but not that different. It’s still about story, character, […]

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Feelin' like a rock star

Hay Fever

I played my first Hay Festival this week! If you don’t know, Hay is like the Glastonbury for books…or the ComicCon for literature. It’s a huge festival in a tiny town. The organizers (who must be super organised) set up a tent city in a  field, complete with bookshops, bars, restaurants, a swishy green-room, and […]

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UK Flag

Voting For Fairness

I usually don’t get political online, and keep this blog for musings on creativity, the arts, and general geekiness. But here in the UK we’ve got big day tomorrow and I thought I’d share my perspective…which is worth just one vote. I’m voting Labour. For me, the choice is about ethos and orientation. I choose […]

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Tough competition

Hull, April 28 & 29

I’m delighted to be shortlisted for the Hull Book Award with Memoirs of a Neurotic Zombie! There are four other amazing books on the list, so readers have a tough choice on their hands….though I suspect my books is the very best zombie title on the list!! I’ll be visiting schools on the 28th of […]

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Shelfie Selfie.

Homecoming

This week I’ve been back in Canada, in the Toronto area, launching all four MetaWars books!  It was great to be back, see old friends and make new ones. I thought I’d share a few highlights…. Flying over, I was starting to wish I’d packed my toque (that’s Canadian for winter hat)… The weather in […]

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Memories As Raw Materials

This week, while on book tour in Canada, I guest blogged on the fantastic website 49th Shelf, a site that celebrates Canadian literature. In the spirit of giving them the web traffic they deserve, please click here for my piece on mining memories to create new fiction. I hope you enjoy…and maybe while you’re on […]

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Earth Day Every Day

I write fiction about the future, but that doesn’t mean the future I invent is fictitious. And while I can’t study the future the way historical novelists can study the past, I can, and do, extrapolate today’s trends into future possibilities.  And I say possibilities, because it’s my hope that in some small part, my books […]

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chapters_burlington

Chapters Burlington, April 25

Home town boy makes good! I’ll be back in my home town of Burlington, Ontario to read from MetaWars and sign books. 2pm at Chapters Fairview, 3315 Fairview Street, Burlington, Ontario L7N 3N9. They’ve got a Facebook page for the event here: https://www.facebook.com/events/806096516146689/

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