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UV III - The Return of the Longlist

12/2/2017

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First there was a cat, his witch and her magical snot.

Then there was an orphan, a half-pint highwayman and an unrobbable stagecoach.

Now there is… THE TIME TOILET!
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​​I’ve done it. I’ve made it a hat-trick! This is the third time I have been long listed for the Undiscovered Voices Competition. And in honour of all things hat-trickery it seems only right that there is a strong football element to my new story.
‘School footy hero ‘Great’ Scott Gray has no time. No time for homework, no time for friends and no time for Mum’s vintage home improvements. But when Nana accidentally flushes herself away on a reclaimed Victorian time-travelling toilet he has to make time. With the help of science geek Jahid and the toilet’s crackpot inventor George Cavendish they go in search of Nana. But will Scott make it back for his school’s first-ever cup final?’

'The Time Toilet’ is a story a long time in the plumbing and wasn't  inspired by my love of football but my love of toilets! I mean, it is completely normal to hang around old Victorian public loos and photograph them isn’t it?
‘The Time Toilet’ is a latrine punk novel that’s going to yank your chain and leave you flushed! It's packed full with football mad heroes, mad crackpot scientists, knitting, near misses, friends, Romans, and medieval countrymen. Quite frankly it has more twists than the spaghetti junction sewers!

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So, in the true tradition of trilogies, will this third UV encounter lead to a satisfying resolution? Only time will tell. I’ll just have to sit down, buckle up and wait to see what lies around the u-bend.

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​(Purple is my favourite colour, just sayin’).
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Undiscovered Voices Stands and Delivers

11/30/2015

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When I was 6 years old this was my favourite thing ever...
Highwaymen were cool!
(Remember I said that).
I read every book I could get my hands on that had a whisper of a highwayman in. A sniff of a Dick Turpin or a whiff of a Claude Du Vall and I was there. Highwaymen were exciting, dangerous, flamboyant and galloped about on big black horses. I wanted to be one.

Later, when I was a older than 6 and writing for children was now my favourite thing ever, I wondered 'Where all the highwaymen gone?' There are loads of kids' books full of the baddies we can't help but love. Pirates, wizards, dragons, werewolves, vampires are all still there, but the only highwaymen stories I could find were the icky sicky romantic ones.
But highwaymen are still cool!
And so I wrote 'The Lowayman'

'Mystery, adventure and a life on the open road, that’s what young George Beckett wants. What George has is a shrieking aunt, a bed in a hayloft and a collection of highwaymen posters. So George goes in search of ‘The Phantom’ who turns out to be half the man George thought...literally! '
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A few months ago I sent  'The Lowayman' to Undiscovered Voices. UV is a biannual competition run by the British Isles Region of SCBWI. Its aim is to help fresh, new voices in children's literature- both writers and illustrators-find agents, publishers and ultimately readers. 

Today I heard that 'The Lowayman' has been  LONGLISTED! 
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See! I told you Highwaymen are cool!
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So now I'm 41 years old and this is currently my favourite thing ever...




(black, leather gloved fingers crossed for the shortlist)

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Oxford University Press Slush pile Challange

3/25/2014

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For a cat whose only ambition in life is to break the world record for longest ever cat nap (currently held by Tabby McFlabby) Manfred is having a very successful year.

Following the long listing of  'Man Up Manfred Cat' in SCBWI's Undiscovered Voices competition the ginger hair ball has now won the latest SCBWI Slush Pile Challenge.  Next month Manfred and myself will be off to dream among the Oxford spires. We will meet the lovely Clare Witson at OUP for a meeting where, among other things,  we will discuss how Manfred might develop the relationships with his friends Goren and Arthur. 

Manfred says he'd rather not develop them at all, but I'm sure we'll talk him round... eventually.
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Manfred does not appreciate having his nap time disturbed even with news of a win.
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Undiscovered SQUEEEEEEEEEEEEE

12/9/2013

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Manfred Cat here.

Apparently  'Man Up Manfred Cat,' George's story all about me, has been long listed for something called,
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George is supposed to be blogging about it right now. But every time she tries she just runs around going-                                                                                                                                                                                                                          SQUEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!


So far she has 'squeeed' though my:
  • lunchtime nap
  • afternoon nap
  • late afternoon nap
  • tea time nap

So if I'm going to get any nappiness I'm just going to have to get it done for her.

I am pretty pleased about it too. Mainly because when my brother Fallacious hears he'll get his whiskers into a real wot-not. No one's ever bothered to write a book about him.



YAAAAAAAWN! That was hard work. Time for my post blog nap now.



Manfred

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    George Kirk

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