When I first met David Cradduck, I was working as a marketing manager for Guildford and Farnham solicitors, Stevens & Bolton.  His company was then known as The Cradduck Partnership, TCP for short.  When I think of David and his company, I still think of him as TCP, though TLC might have been more appropriate.

David, Liane, Ann and John helped madaboutsnailbooks to become a reality.  They supported us through the creation of our book design, the website, guided us through getting the best treatment for Amy’s illustrations and advised me, in my enthusiasm, against publishing all of our books in one go.  This was wise advice indeed.

Our first book, Snail Trail, was a real springboard for the madaboutsnailbook brand.  Through it, we learnt lots of lessons.  Those lessons were carried through to Snails Don’t Burp! and Snail Park; they helped to oversee the production of the school book, The Secret Scroll.

I am only sorry that they won’t be with us for Slime in Time, holding our hand.

Cradducks gave us tender loving care.  On behalf of my whole family, and everyone who has ever bought a madaboutsnailbook, I’d like to send a belated and heartfelt thanks to David and his team.  We wish you all much happiness.

It’s been a sad time with designers and printers going out of business.  Slime in Time has been delayed because of it, but we are thrilled to hear that we are now able to bring the new book out in the spring!

We took advantage of the difficulties to add another layer into the story.  In a way, this has worked very well.  Many of you have been asking about the launch date of our next book.  I will let you know as soon as the book has been laid out.  All I can say for the moment is that the story has benefitted from the delay.   As soon as I have some idea of the launch date and location, I will post the details here.

Slime in Time is aimed at primary school readers, though will suit more advanced readers who enjoy mystery stories with plenty of twists and turns.  The language is accessible for primary school readers, and, with over 24,000 words and some 16 illustrations, is excellent value at a rrp of £5.99.  Orders are now being taken through the website shop.

Chapter one will be posted here shortly for those of you wishing to get some idea of the book’s flavour.

Hi to all the schools and nurseries out there who are taking part in World Book Day or Reading Week 2012.  I am looking forward to visiting the Caring Day Care Centre in Godalming this week, as well as Victory Primary School in Porstmouth.  Exciting times are ahead! 

The good news is the snails are out of hibernation – good news also for all gardeners as it means the winter weathet is coming to an end. 

The bad news is we lost a snail during the hibernation period and we are sad about that, but all the others are healthy and are looking forward to their school and nursery visits this week.  They will be hungry snails though, so bring in some cucumber!

For those of you who have never met a giant African land snail, then remember that they do have mouths and they do have tongues but ask youselves this: do they have ears?  For those of you who don’t know, find out this week!

Happy Reading Week and World Book Day.

Sarah

I’m going to two school assemblies tomorrow to help congratulate the writing competition winners from two of the schools. The really wonderful news is that all four schools who entered the Rotary Club writing competition have at least one winner. This is wonderful indeed! I can’t wait to meet some fo the winners tomorrow.

Once they know who they are (and maybe they know already?)  I will let you know why we thought their pieces of writing were the best out of the 107 entries, what made them stand out.

I can’t wait to meet the children from Four Marks tomorrow morning and those from Bentworth in the afternoon.  The others I hope to meet at a future date.

Everyone who entered the competition needs to pat themselves on the back; each entry was brilliant in its own unique way.

Well done to you all!  And remember, if you enjoyed the experience then keep on writing!  A few sentences a day are better than none.

Happy writing.
Sarah

Oh yeah! Go authors! Go poets! I am SO excited I feel I might burst!

An announcement is coming …..

From one hundred and seven entries, down to eight.  We have to decide today on the top six.  It won’t be easy.  There are some stunning entries; they all have something to offer.  But there are some unfortunate typos, punctuation errors, little details that a young poet or author needs to become hyper-sensitive about.  But then, given the nature of the competition, it’s sometimes easy to overlook the little things that other judges may penalise by concentrating on the bigger picture, be it the theme, the words themselves, the tone, the pace.

 One hundred and seven entries; three judges.

 Will we be so off the mark that we cannot agree?

 My heart is in my mouth.

 Watch this space ….

I’ve been reading the Rotary Club competition entries since last Friday and have finally made a shortlist. However, just to make sure I’ve given everyone a really good chance, I re-read every single entry yesterday.

Every one of them is a winner, be it because of great punctuation, inspiring ideas, story twists or just plain good spelling!

I can’t tell you how hard it is to pick three winners from both categories.  There are children who have written about their sporting heroes and how they’ve been inspired by them; there are personal stories about how a child has overcome a fear, taking inspiration from those around them; there are children who have written stories from the point of view of a famous sportsman or woman.  The poems are about the colour, the excitement, and the smell of an Olympic win. 

Like I said, each one is a winner.

Now it’s come down to the final few, I’m taking a break so I can go back to the entries with a fresh mind in a day or two.

So, do I judge these now on perfect punctuation or a terrific storyline? Do I favour those stories with a twist? 

I’m waiting to hear how Lisa and Helen got on with their judging, if they picked out the same kind of entries, if we’re all thinking along the same lines.  Then I’ll take it from there.

Like I said, it’s going to be tough, but incredibly exciting for the six children whose entries are selected for the bronze, silver and gold.

Thanks again to the organisers for supporting this competition and well done to all the schools who took the time to encourage their children to take part.

Watch this space for more news soon

Sarah