January has started well! There has been mild weather in London – long may it continue, every day Piccadilly titles are being added to shortlists – some of this is confidential so more will be revealed later, AND Hilary Freeman launched her book last Thursday. Waterstones (with or without the apostrophe) made us all feel welcome and Hilary and friends and family had prepared a lovely spread. Her new novel is called STUCK ON ME and it is about the three Camden Town friends with Skye thinking she needed a nose job, and her friends trying to persuade her it was not necessary.

Piccadilly, Hilary and her agent celebrate

The title STUCK ON ME is very appropriate.

To celebrate Catherine (Hilary’s agent) got some false noses for partygoers to wear, and here we are looking very Cyrano-esque

To top it off there was a full page interview with Hilary by Geraldine Brennan in the Camden New Journal.  All very satisfying for such a bleak month.

After all the Xmas rush and sleepy mornings it is good to be back in the office – except, oh dear!  Piccadilly had a leak over Xmas which dripped right on to our server. Down went our telephone lines and even more important – our emails!!  Our IT support company were magnificent and rescued us from an impossible situation. In went a new router, so we could be online. Out came the discs from the server which took the brunt of the dripping. And the data was recovered. Many thanks THEM you were a god send! Our phones are still not functioning properly, but you can call our mainline so we can talk through the one phone. Hopefully, a replacement system will be up in a couple of weeks.

To cheer us up we are looking forward to seeing our new catalogue for 2012 with the wonderful Flint Beastwood on the cover.

Flint Beastwood our favourite character from Dinosaur Olympics!

Catalogue is now online at the Piccadilly website, and the hard copy available from tomorrow.

Unlike a lot of professions, publishing finally slows down a bit this last week before Xmas. The post Frankfurt rush, the trip to New York, and then the sales conference and. for Piccadilly, a Quantum Leap meeting where we all sit around and discuss the company and the future, are now finished.  Time to catch up on reading and sorting out the list for next year.  We do have this amazing list for next year.

We start off with the type of teen novel which Piccadilly is known for:

Sky thinks her nose is too big and is desperate to have a nose job

And then watch out for copies in late January of stars of the the hottest new film:

Everyone is going to want to know about these soon to be mega stars

More soon!!

Author Abi Burlingham gave a lovely party in Waterstones in Chesterfield for the launch of her book GRUB’S PUPS. It’s a charming story about our favourite pup, Grub, who becomes a father when his friend Tilly has 5 pups. Sarah Warburton’s deliciously funny illustrations enhance the warmth of this family story. Here is Abi with her daughter looking very much like Ruby the little girl in the story:

Reading Grub's story

And we are biting our nails with regards to the Roald Dahl prize. We are thinking Ros Asquith’s book didn’t win as we would have heard, but we are keeping hopeful. Some awards do not let the winner know beforehand. Still, on Friday LETTERS FROM AN ALIEN SCHOOLBOY was on the front page of the Guardian online. Some of her funniest drawings from the book were in the gallery. Yipee! It looked terrific. Have a look.

On the Roadl Dahl shortlist

This needed to be posted as you will all think differently about Halloween when it is viewed by an Alien.

GREETINGS EARTHLINGS

I have been informed of a curious Earthling ceremony  called ‘Hallo Ian’ that occurs once every Earth Year on OCTOBER  31st . I don’t know who this ‘Ian’ person is, but you have to say hallo to him anyway if you want to play. You also have to have a fat orange vegetable called a ‘pumpkin’ dressed up to look like a person. Younglings  dress themselves in odd ‘costumes’ called ‘witches’ or ‘ghosts’ and make noises like ‘woo woo’ and bang on doors shouting ‘trickortreat’. Grown ups then open the doors of their dwellings  and give the little savages sweeties!  Sometimes the grown ups give out smaller orange vegetables called ‘tangerines’ but if they do, the younglings are very rude and go ‘yuk’, even though these little vegetables are much better for their chewing blades. As you know if you have read my excellent ‘books’, I have grown very fond of an Earth sweety called ‘chocolate’, so I am going to join my new school friends in their ‘Hallo Ian’ games this year. They say the point is to look scary, but between you and me my friends look like bin liners in bandages. I am going to take off my Earthling disguise and go as myself this year. That should get us lots of sweeties. I love the nice crunchy ‘wrappers’.

Look out for me, I’ll be looking like this.

Everything seems to happen in October. First of all there was Frankfurt which takes up an enormous amount of time and energy. We seemed to have had a good one with lots of foreign publishers asking to see Piccadilly titles which is the result you want. Particularly popular were DINOSAUR OLYMPICS by Jeanne Willis with inspired illustrations by Arthur Robins, and a new book NEPTUNE’S TEARS more of this anon.

And while Margot and I were eating Wurst in Germany. Andrea was pounding the pavements of Cheltenham with authors Ros Asquith and Ciaran Murtargh.

Just as funny as the first one

And then last week there was a trip out to Chelmsford to visit Just Imagine and talk about teen writing for Hilary Freeman and Caroline Green.  And now Ros is on the go aT Just Imagine.  More news about everyone else soon!!

We are thrilled that Ros Asquith has made this shortlist with LETTERS FROM AN ALIEN SCHOOLBOY. We think Ros is one of the funniest wittiest writers around and at last she is getting the recognition she deserves. If you haven’t read this book you need to:

Revised cover with the shortlisted sticker. Ya!!

We were all feeling a little gloomy today what with all the rain and the feeling everyone is on holiday but you. But then copies of THE BEXT FACTOR arrived:

Fascinating behind scenes look at reality TV plus a slow burning romance

And then we just had a delivery of the sweetest picture book ever – GRUB’S PUPS

When Tilly has 5 puppies how does Grub feel about being a father!

So we have cheered up immensely. Maybe September will bring sun, crisp blue skies and lots and lots of sales!  We are looking forward to autumn.

We have an amazing array of authors who have been going all up and down the country organizing and helping with events. Last post you could see what Tracy Alexander was doing. Here is Isla at Waterstones signing her debut book, TRAPPED. A fast-paced thriller with an eco twist:

Isla signing at Waterstones Northampton

Isla will be doing more events in the autumn. Look at our website for details of all author events.

Simon Packham in the meantime has been promoting his new title THE BEX FACTOR which will be out next month. And you have probably guessed the contents – the real story behind these famous talent shows. But there is much more to this novel than just an inside story. It is a near romance which reveals the value of friendship between Bex and Mathew. Order your copy now:

Simon discusses being Simon Cowell with workshop visitors

Have a good weekend!

On these rain-soaked July days, Tracy Alexander had the perfect solution to the lack of summer sun. She launched her latest book MONKEY BARS AND RUBBER DUCKS giving a party that paid homage to Mandela’s 93rd birthday. Here’s how it went:

The new book needed a coming-out party so yesterday we baked 91 cakes and 40 truffles. The decorations were haphazard, but charming. I was particularly proud of my Mandela cakes, flaunting the colours of the African National Congress to mark Nelson Mandela’s 93rd birthday, also this week. For some of the others we used Bee’s recipe with marshmallow flowers on top. See http://tribers.co.uk/cup-cake-recipe. The guests ranged in age from 2 (this coming Sunday) to 80-something. The highlight of the affair was the showing of Henleaze School’s Year 5 trailer made for the new book. The children played the characters, followed the early story line and left cliffhangers. Excellent. We had a questions session afterwards and then people left just as the rain started. 

Book 4

Book 3