CITV

There's a new You Tube film about Foul Play put together by Andy Weir, who does work for Puffin. He's done a great job. It's at: http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=D04CF9311FA0822A.

Leeds won 2-0 at Carlisle last night.

I let my little girl stay up for the first 15 minutes. Her first late night game. She jumped around the room when we scored our first. It took hours getting her to sleep after that. When we'd won I whispered to her 'We won'.

Doncaster now at Wembley. They just routed Southend 5-1. It's going to be a tough game.

Eventastic

I've had a great couple of weeks doing events since the book came out. Hexham. Leeds. Bury. Oldham. Manchester. Shropshire. White City. Winchester.

I love it. I get to do see which parts of the country are the best at football quizzes and taking penalties.

The best penalty taker I met was in Leeds. He got his first three past me. His mum said 'You're rubbish.' That cut me up. I managed to save his next two shots.

Overall I'd say the further north you go, the more people know about football. That is, they do better in the quiz. I'm not being North-biased, but Newcastle is defintely clued up about football. They win the top prize.

Can your town do any better? See the 'Meet Tom' section and come and have a go...

Leeds lost 2-1 to Carlisle on Monday. In the play off semis. I watched it in a Brighton hotel, away with work. It was depressing - but we could get it back tomorrow night. As I sat in a massive velvet arm chair I heard a woman behind me say 'Who are LU? They're not very good, are they?'

The Sunday Times

The Sunday Times reviewed my book this week. Children's Book of the Week. If you want to see the review it's at:

http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/books/children/article3853735.ece

On tour with Puffin

I've been out with Puffin this week. Schools in the North West, Shropshire and London. It's been amazing.

I've met 500 boys and girls and faced about 2000 penalties. Sold over 200 books too!

It's been brilliant talking to people who've read the book. I wanted to know what they thought of the book. Everyone said really positive stuff.

I had to do a filming in a London park this evening. For something that's happening later in the year. I had to say what the book was about in 30 seconds. This is what I said:

'Foul Play is about a boy who loves football. And who wants to be a private detective. While he's out investigating crimes he stumbles across the kidnap of England's leading scorer. For the rest of the book he has to investigate who has kidnapped the player, why and work out a way to rescue him.'

It feels weird doing this. But I like it. The best bit is meeting readers who have really interesting comments on the book.

I wrote two chapters of Dead Ball today. At the moment a famous keeper is cornered by three Russian gangsters and Danny is looking on from a window. Next chapter: tomorrow.

May 1st

My book comes out in a week. Foul Play. There's a launch at Puffin on 1st May. I am very excited.

I got my first finished copy in the post today. Getting it was a lovely moment. I sat down on the steps outside the Post Office to enjoy it. To relish it.

All week I've been in libraries doing Premier League Reading Stars events. Sessions with families about reading football. Facing penalties, doing quizzes. I think I like doing these events as much as I do writing.

Leeds are one up at Yeovil, five minutes in. If we win we're in the play offs. We find out if we get our 15 points back on 1st May. I've been talking to football fans all week about it - Sunderland fans, Birmingham fans, Newcastle fans, Man U fans, Bolton fans. Most of them think we should get the points back. I don't think Carlisle and Doncaster fans agree.

I met a man in his 70s this week. He was at the 1973 FA Cup Final, where Sunderland beat Leeds. Infamously. It was good to talk to him. He said he'd met a Leeds fan before the game and the Leeds fan had predicted Sunderland would win 1-0.

Roll on 1st May...

Starting Football Detective II

I'm off to Moscow this week to research my next Football Detective novel.

I like to set my books in interesting places.

I set a book in Dubrovnik, Croatia, a few years ago. It never got published, but I had a good time there.

I think what I like about travelling to research my books is that because I feel on edge in new places, I write better. I need my character to be on edge, so it's best that I'm on edge.

Also, if I am setting a book in a place I've not been to before, I need to go there. If I wrote about what I thought Moscow would be like based on what I've read or seen on TV it'd be dishonest.

I'm getting a tour of the main stadium in the city, where the Champions League final will be this May. Then it's looking at settings like Red Square, the Kremlin and some of the backstreets.

Anthony McGowan, author

I was at a library conference in Surrey yesterday, there to speak about the National Year of Reading.

There was an author there: Anthony McGowan.

I'd heard of him, epsecially his book Henry Tumour. He did a talk - and read a bit of his stuff.

Because I do so many events myself, I can never justify to myself going to see other authors. This may seem selfish and insular, but the truth is if I'm not working, I'm at home with my wife and daughter.

But seeing this author was great. He talked about how he became a writer. Fascinating. He read from his books. Brilliant. He made people laugh, disgusted them, challenged them.

And then I found out he's from Leeds.

He's got a new book coming out called The Knife that Killed Me. It sounds good, if grim. I'm going to buy it.

Eoin Colfer and other things I've read

I've read the last of Eoin Colfer's Legend of books this week. The Legend of Captain Crow's Teeth. I love all that series. Especially The Legend of Spud Murphy, about a fierce librarian.

Now I'm reading book 3 of the Anthony Horowitz Power of Five series. Night Rise. It's good. Strong plot. Lots of suspense. Compelling characters. But they don't do it for me like Alex Rider.

I read a lot to my daughter. She's 4 and has got into stories in a big way. Rainbow Fairies. Magic Kitten. Worst Witch. I know them all.

You'd think a grown man should be reading grown man books. But I never read children's stories when I was a child. And, since I started reading children's authors like Horowitz, Higson and McNab, it's been hard to go back to adult fiction.

But to prove I sometimes read adult books... I am in Reading today. In a hotel room. Earlier I got a bus to the hotel from the station. The bus went past a house I'd lived in with a Boro fan in 1991. But also past what used to be Blackwell's Bookshop. Going past I remembered I bought my first Juan Goytisolo book in there. 1990. He became my favourite author for years. I loved him. He writes really hard to read stuff, no sentences: lots of colons: half phrases... dots: you know what I mean. I wonder if I went back and read him now, 18 years later, if I'd still be into it.

Feedback

I got my first feedback about my forthcoming novel last week.



Puffin sent early copies of Football Detective: Foul Play out to people in the media, books and football. One of them emailed me to say that her son, aged 12, had read it and she wanted to let me know what he thought.



That made me nervous. What would he say? Would he hate it? What if he spotted some dreadful mistake?*



He liked it. A lot. He said:



Really, really, really good. Clever, well written. Very good for people like me who like football. Really well aimed at my sort of audience. Almost as good as Cherub.



I'm happy to be almost as good as Cherub. I like Cherub.



I admit that this blog is a boasting blog - and I am sorry. There'll be no more like this, I promise.



But to hear that the first reader has read my book - and liked it - is a good feeling.



And that it was a 12 year old boy I've never met that likes it, not a reviewer or a friend or any other adult.



*******



* - not that that would happen... the editing and proof reading team at Puffin have been brilliant.

Capello

The first half of the England game against the Swiss was difficult. But once the second half got going I was happier. I loved seeing Capello prowling on the side of the pitch, like a caged lion.

Most people I meet are behind him. Young and old. I think there's real hope.

To help him with his English, Puffin are sending him a proof of my new book, Foul Play.