Grumpy King launch

Really good turn-out for the launch of David and the Grumpy King, the 5th book in the Young David Series by yours truly and illustrator Amy Barnes. Books are available at Christian bookshops and independent bookshops in the UK or worldwide from our online bookshop  Amy and I have also been working with Brief Lives Digital Entertainment company to produce interactive apps! They will be available for download on 10 April – so watch this space!

And in other news, yours truly is Author of the Week at Sarum College Bookshop, Salisbury. So if you’re in the Salisbury area pop in to this fabulous bookshop and check out Grumpy King and other titles. Alternatively, here they are online.

 

Grumpy King book launch

The long-awaited 5th book in the Young David Series, David and the Grumpy King, is finally here! Come and hear yours truly and illustrator Amy Barnes read from and talk about this brilliant new episode in the life of Young David as he gets on the wrong side of the mad King Saul. Coffee, tea, juice, cakes, colouring-in and storytelling. Suitable for children 3 – 7 or anyone who wants a bit of fun!

Venue: Heaton Baptist Church, Newcastle upon Tyne

Date: Sunday 23 March

Time: 12.30 – 1.30pm

The Labour

I don’t write many poems. But here’s one that you can use for Christmas and Easter interchangeably …

The Labour

The stable was dark and rank
On that fateful, cosmic night;
And light seeped through the dusty cracks
As a man made a bed for his wife.

The woman was in torment
As the labour pains began;
And she closed her eyes to see the dream
Of the child and the future man.

As the passion reached its hilt
Her nails gouged a wooden door;
She saw a cross soaked in blood and
Wondered what it was for.

She saw a soldier take a stick
– a sponge to a dying man;
She drank sour wine to calm the pain
But a deeper thirst began.

Cool water bathed her brow and cheeks
And tears splashed on the floor;
Then sudden pain, a spear-sharp jab,
As blood and water poured.

With one last push her child was free
And she clutched him as she cried;
Her soul was rent, she knew that face:
His birth, His death, His life.

Fiona Veitch Smith (one of my rare poems)

The dark is a good setting for a scary beast

A review of David and the Hairy Beast by 6-year-old Alice Grant. “I liked David because he was really brave. I liked the jobs of the brothers and sisters, especially Abigail. The setting of the book is in the dark, the dark is a bit scary and so it’s a really good setting for a scary beast. I love this book.”

Thank you Alice!

If you want to know what Alice is talking about, you can order your own Hairy Beast here. Crafty Publishing are offering free UK postage up until Christmas Eve. And if you ask very nicely, I will sign the book to you or your loved one.

King’s Cross Theatre Award

I’m very proud to have been selected for the long list of the King’s Cross Theatre Award for my play, A Proper Spectacle. Unfortunately I didn’t make the final cut to the short list but am well chuffed to have been in the top 18 out of over 300 plays. The King’s Cross Award is one of the leading UK theatre awards for new writing. I wish the shortlisted candidates all the best for the rest of the process and thank the Courtyard Theatre, London, for all their hard work in managing the award. http://www.thecourtyard.org.uk/content/25/writers-group

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