More touring today with the new UK edition of TIM. First up, a fantastic session at Alexandra Park School, taking a barrage of brilliant questions from Year 7 boys there. Look at all the hands…!

To my particular delight, one of the questions that I was asked in this talk was about TITLES. As with any aspect of writing, sometimes titles don’t come easily: my next book, a case in point, is currently about to try its /third/ for size.

Until this session, nobody officially knew my latest idea for the title except my UK editors (and they’d only heard yesterday!) But since the subject had come up — and since I believe in testing my ideas on the people they’re aimed at — I decided to take a chance and see what this young audience thought. I won’t say the new title here just yet. But I will say that reactions to it today were almost all extremely positive, so I think, perhaps, that I may have cracked it at last. This makes me very happy! 😀

Having spent the morning discussing another large reptile, as soon as I saw this dude (below) outside a cafe I knew immediately where I was going to have lunch…

Then it was off for another visit, to Fortismere School, Muswell Hill.

I gave two talks in Fortismere’s excellent library. The first was very short, ten minutes, more of a chat really. The second (pic above) was longer, nearly an hour. But both were excellent, and full of more great questions. Have I mentioned lately that I love my job? Well, it’s worth saying more than once! ;p

Thanks to Kelly T of RHCB and to Tim Non Monster! of The Big Green Bookshop for looking after me today. And my thanks and best wishes to everyone I met and spoke to.

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