Week Ending 27th May 2012 - Third book taking shape nicely!

Totally fell into a creative time warp of words this week... started and finished a mind blowing "write-athalon" culminating in in over 10,000 words being contributed to the third Bradley Baker adventure "the Pyramids of Blood". I'm really excited about this new adventure in the series and pleased to say that all the Bradley Baker fans patiently waiting for the new boy hero's third installment (which is still on track for release during September)... will not be disappointed. The book is really taking shape nicely and I'm very pleased with how the plot lines are developing.

 
I'm also looking forward to the start of June because KS2 students at schools in the Torbay area will be entering their creative writing tasks into my Bradley Baker competition. The judging will take place in July and the overall winner will be rewarded with their work being edited and published to appear within a chapter of the third book.

My writing is taking most of my time at present so not much else to shout about... and I don't want to give away too much so as to spoil it for all the Bradley Baker fans!

So catch you all next week with some news of my four up and coming library events, to which I received an unexpected invite a few days ago.

Thanks for reading and have a great week ahead. :)

Week Ending 20th May 2012 - Preparing for Wychbold

Received correspondence this week from the Wychwood Festival confirming my arrangements from the event organisers... I'm really looking forward to presenting my Bradley Baker adventure books in the Waterstones Marquee on Saturday 9th & Sunday 10th June at Cheltenham Racecourse. I'll be talking to the lovely folk of charming Cheltenham and visitors to the festival for about an hour on each day... both sessions will start at 1.30pm. You can find out more information about my activities at Wychbold by clicking on the following link... http://www.wychwoodfestival.com/david-lawrence-jones/ and you'll find lots more about what's going on at the festival too.

Moving away from my book activities for a moment... later in the week I called in to Haddons Gallery at Torquay's harbourside to see my good friend and artist Becky Bettesworth. Becky's work is currently on  display in the gallery and you can also check out her fantastic commissions at http://www.beckybettesworth.co.uk/

Back to Bradley Baker... I've been working on some brilliant ideas for props this week. These will feature in my up-and-coming school events but I'm not going giving too much away at this point... I'll wait till they are finished then I'll post some pics. Watch this space!!!

That's it for now... catch you next week :)

Week Ending 13th May - Very inspired by Vinspired!

This week was totally dominated by the Vinspired awards with "The Power of Stories in Torbay" - Young writers were invited to enter their 500 word short stories with the theme "Changing the World for the Better.

Team v is a new program run by the national charity Vinspired, which gives 18 – 24  year old volunteers who want to encourage positive change in their communities the chance to become effective social campaigners whilst gaining valuable leadership skills. Team v leaders run a variety of projects throughout the country, and their current project was aimed at improving literacy among children through the power of stories, and encouraging children to use their imaginations and have fun with creative writing.

As part of this project Louise Gaubert, Team v leader for Torbay, organised the story writing competition for local children aged 7-11. The ‘Torbay Stories’ competition encouraged local children to let their imaginations run wild. Over the past month, school children across Torbay have been busy writing their stories of up to 500 words on the theme of ‘Changing the World for the Better’. A short-list of eight stories were subsequently judged by myself and two other local authors, Ellen Renner and Myfanwy Cook. 

A talented young writer called Nicole Burns from Ilsham C of E Academy School won the competition and a signed copy of “Warhorse” by Michael Morpurgo. Two other highly commended stories were selected and the awards went to Rueben Renton and James Rowe, who won signed copies of my first children’s adventure book “Bradley Baker and the Curse of Pathylon”, plus there were more great literacy prizes for all the winners.

All three winners of the “Torbay Stories” competition received their prizes during an awards ceremony, which was held at Torquay’s Central Library in Lymington Road on Saturday 12^th May  and I was quoted on the day as saying; "It's a great privilege to be involved in this local incentive for local children and it's also an excellent opportunity to recognise the work that vInspired carry out within our community."

Here are a few of the pictures taken during the event;-

Me and Louise Gaubert (Team v Leader) with the competition winners

Rueben, Nicole and James

Checking out the winning stories in Torquay Central Library

Oh nearly forgot to mention... I wrote another 5,000 words towards my third Bradley Baker adventure "the Pyramids of Blood"... taking the total word count so far to just over 30,000... so all in all, a very successful, productive and rewarding week.

Catch you again same time next week.

David :)

Week Ending 6th May 2012 - writing, writing and more writing...

I really managed to get ahead with writing the new book this week and a good job too!!! I was starting to get a little concerned that the deadline for Bradley Baker and the Pyramids of Blood would be missed. End of June seems a long way off but with another 70,000 words plus editing, I'm glad I managed to pen 5,000 words this week... and most importantly the words flowed well and they all stayed in the draft manuscript.

The Torbay school visits in June are all secured in the diary now and I've been working on the related KS1 and KS2 exercise sheets. I've decided to let the children enter a Bradley Baker competition to coincide with my visits. Should be fun and the winner will get to have their work edited & published in Bradley's third adventure. I'm really excited about this project and it's nice to involve children in a literacy exercise of y very own that has such a rewarding initiative to work towards.

This week I also found time to judge the Vinspired Torbay Literacy Competition for local school children, who had entered their work under the theme "Changing the World for the better!" Vinspired is a national charity encouraging 18 to 24 year olds to get involved in local community activities. Louise Gaubert is the V Team Leader for the Torbay project and I'm looking forward to meeting her and the winners at the prize giving ceremony on Saturday 12th May... at Torquay Library. Local press, TV and Radio have been invited and I've also donated signed copies of my first Bradley Baker adventure book to the three winners.

Hey and some great news... here's a quick SHED UPDATE....!!!! At last the sun shone through the clouds this week and allowed enough time for the "Writing Shack" roof to be mended... so no more raindrops falling on my manuscripts!!!

Finally, I thought I'd post some artwork from my publisher this week... this just shows off the talented Abie Greyvenstein's work in perfect style. Three stages are shown from initial sketch to finished artwork for the new front cover image... Bradley Baker the Pyramids of Blood. I love working with Abie and it means I get to keep control of the illustrations as well as the narrative.

Well thats all for this week... take care all and catch you again same time next Sunday.
Best wishes, David :)