Football Academy - Africa

I spent a great day today with the Right to Dream football academy players in Accra, Ghana. They are good. Very good.

The amazing men who run the academy took me to some games and got me talking to some of the players. It has been invaluable.

I am here to research a book about a bad football agent who exploits boys in Africa. But this was the opposite. I met a group of men who are doing amazing work to help bring footballers to their potential, both in football and their education. Some of the their players have ended up working with Man U. Others have gone on to get great educations around the world. I was so impressed.

Trips like these really help me write books. I could sit at home and write stories about what I think it is like to be a sixteen year old boy in Ghana who is great at football. But it would be full of errors and cliches. This trip has meant I will make less mistakes.-

They even gave me a lift to the academy in the morning past one of my footballing heroes houses. Tony Yeboah. And tomorrow I'm going to the Ghanaian Premier League decider.

C heck out Right to Dream at www.righttodream.com.

Train Travel

I am in Plymouth to do some events in schools tomorrow.

On the train down - direct from Leeds - I wrote three chapters. They need a lot of work, but I feel pretty good about doing them. I am hoping to finish the full first draft of Off Side before I go to Ghana.

I do a lot of my writing on trains. I like the fact there's not much else to do. Although I was a bit distracted by FIFA 09 for a while.


Saying all that I will have to rewrite a third of the novel once I've been there. I am going to be able to speak to a lot of young people who have travelled from Ghana to the UK. Their thoughts will be invaluable.

It was good to see President Obama in Ghana this weekend. He's a man of good taste.

Ghana in one week...

I am really excited now.

Kuapa Kokoo are a cooperative of farmers who farm the cocoa beans that make Divine chocolate. As well as that they actually own Divine and Dubble, rather than just supply the beans. They are showing me round some farms in the rain forest a week on Monday. I will meet farmers and talk to children in a school. I can't wait. It's all been set up by Divine chocolate.

My daughter's school has kindly asked parents to collect some books to take out there, so my suitcase is full of books, insect repellent and chocolate. Thank you to all the kids and parents for that!

Why chocolate? Because Divine gave me a large box of sugar coated choc eggs and Dubble bars. Most of the kids in the cocoa farms have never tasted the chocolate made with their beans, so I am taking some of that too.

I have read a lot about fairtrade chocolate in preparation. When you buy chocolate you have a choice between knowing the farmers are being paid properly for the chocolate and not knowing, with the risk that some of the chocolate you eat has been farmed by forced slavery.

Have a look at http://www.dubble.co.uk/ for more info. It's a great website with lots of films interviewing Ghanaian kids.

Calderdale Book Award

Congratulations to Matt Haig who won the Calderdale Book Award last night at an event with 100 Calderdale children.

It was a great day, organised brilliantly by the library service. The kids and the teachers were all really up for a good day. As were the authors.

That's twice Matt's beaten me to a book prize, but I wasn't so upset, seeing as he is a nice man.

Ghana in 2 weeks

I'm going to research Football Detective 3 in Ghana in two weeks. I have had some wonderful help from Divine Chocolate. They are amazing. I hope to be meeting some footballers out there as well as going to some cocoa farms.

The novel is half written. My writing group gave it a good report last week, but it still needs tonnes doing on it. After this coming week I have less events and plenty of time to do that.

I am a bit nervous about going to Ghana. But that is good. When I'm nervous I notice more around me. That will help me write a better book, I hope.

I am happy that there are some family coming to stay with my wife and daughter while I'm away. I always feel guilty goiong on research trips. But not this time.

Windmill Primary

I had a great day at Windwill Primary school today. In Northamptonshire. We did some quizzes and took some penalties. But the best bit was the questions. They were brilliant. From years 3 to 6. The star performer was one of the teachers, whose name I didn't get... but you know who you are. He was an excellent keeper!

I have been asked to do a story for the Puffin Post magazine tonight. A 400 word mystery. I'm used to writing stories of 15,000 or 40,000 words, so it'll be a great challenge.

Best get started then...

Northampton

I'm in Northampton. In a hotel. Eating chocolate. Listening to Duffy.

I just finished reading the first 25,000 words of Football Detective III. It needs work. But is getting there.

I have my writers' group in a week. They'll read the book this weekend, then tell me what is good and bad about it, where it needs work. I love this process. I have learned so much from Sophie and James doing this. I have 48 hours to knock it into shape before sending it off to them.

I have been reading a great book called The Belly of the Atlantic by Fatou Diome. It's about a boy who wants to play football in Europe. He lives in Senegal. Not really that much like my book, but a great way to help me build one of my characters. Reading books and seeing films about things close to what I am writing about helps.

Feet of the Chameleon

There's a great new book about African football coming out soon. Ian Hawkey's Feet of the Chameleon. I read it early, thanks to the generosity of the author. It is amazing. If you remember Roger Milla and others and want to know more this is an amazing book.

I have read three books about African football now. This is the best by a million miles.

Chocolate

My wife likes Divine chocolate.

She was eating some recently... and she read the back of the bar where it says about how the chocolate is made and how the farmers in Ghana get a lot more of the profits than other chocolate producers give them. In fact they own the company!

So she emailed Divine. To see if they could help me with the next book I'm writing, partly based in Ghana. They sent back a lovely email and I went to see them last week.

I am really exicted. They are going to help me meet people in Ghana and hopefully help me visit a school there to talk about the books. And we came up with some great thoughts on who I could meet out there and how I could work it into the books.

I feel like the novel has taken a great leap forward. Thanks to Divine.

I say this while eating a Divine Dubble Bar. Very nice.

Back

I've had two weeks off with my family in Cornwall. On the beach. In the sun. Eating cream teas. Building spectacular sandcastles with my wife, as my daughter watched on, puzzled.

But now I'm back. This week I'm in Manchester, St Helens, York, St Helens (again), Basildon and London. I am looking forward to getting out there. Although I love writing most, I love hearing kids talking about what they like to read and taking penalties at me.

I was supposed to be writing in Cornwall. 20,000 words was my target. I managed 5,000. So now I've got some serious writing to do. I want to get the first draft done before I go to Ghana in July. Once I've been to Ghana I will have to change loads, but I need to get it down so I know what to look for in Ghana.

I have to admit I am a bit rusty. I need to do 2,000 words tomorrow on trains and in the cafe at Manchester's Victoria station.

I can't wait.

I have started two new blogs today. One about crimes in football. One about being a dad. I'm told I need to do more on line. Have a look. If you think they're rubbish let me know.