As mentioned in Blog 4, The Spook’s Apprentice has been turned into a stage play, which will be performed on 1st and 2nd December at Thornton Little Theatre in Lancashire.
Tickets are priced at £5 for adults and £4 for OAPs and children and are available through the theatre box office on 01253 869138.
Visit the website at www.wyrebc.gov.uk
The visits to Australia and New Zealand went really well and they were followed by a tour of America (six cities in two weeks) and a short tour of Romania. So I’ve been really busy but it was great to see those countries and talk to readers of the series. In Romania I was taken to Transylvania and toured Bran Castle a place that ‘Vlad the Impaler’ once visited. There I got lots of inspiration for a future book.
The ‘Spook’s Sacrifice’ (Book Six) is mostly set in Greece. In Book seven we’ll return to the County but I am seriously considering setting Book Eight in Transylvania. As I write the ‘Spook’s Bestiary’ I’m developing the mythology further and there will be three places on the earth where dark forces are most likely to stir; three places where portals to the dark are most easily opened. They are: Greece, Romania and, of course, the County.
As part of ‘Lancashire Reads’, an initiative by Lancashire Libraries to encourage reading and get everyone to read the first book in the series, Dawn Spooner from Thornton Library came up with the idea of getting local children involved in a dramatisation of ‘The ‘Spook’s Apprentice’ and she is now the project manager. Jaclyn Pope, of the Paul Nicholas School of Acting, wrote the script and directed the students’ rehearsals. Additionally, five young artists from Millfield Science and Performing Art College have created the backdrops which are to be digitised and projected onto the stage
I went along to a rehearsal of the play on the 13th of November and I was really impressed by the acting and the hard work that has gone into the production and I will be attending both performances to give a very short talk and sign books in the interval.
So the play will be performed at Thornton Little Theatre, Lancashire on the 1st and 2nd of December at 8pm. Tickets are £5 for adults and £4 for oaps and children. Tel 01253 869138.
I’m about to start working on Draft Five of ‘The Spook’s Sacrifice’. I’ve also just written a short story for America called ‘Grimalkin’s Tale’. Hopefully, this will be featured in ’The Spook’s Mistake’ paperback in summer. It tells the story of how Grimalkin fought to become the witch assassin of the Malkin Clan. One day I hope to write a full length book featuring her.
Well, back to the writing or I’ll miss my deadlines!
Best wishes,
Joseph Delaney
Thanks to everyone who took part in the recent Ghost Story Writing competition that ran during Joseph Delaney’s live events. Congratulations to our three winners, whose stories were chosen from the many entries by Joe himself.
1st: Bones Baby by June-Marie Jolly (read June-Marie’s winning entry)
2nd: Mysterious Mabel by Tara Griffin (read Tara’s winning entry)
3rd: The Spirit of the Cliff by Shannon Jackson (read Shannon’s winning entry)
I’m off to Australia any day now so I’m really busy trying to finish things off. Draft 2 of The Spook’s Sacrifice has just been sent my editor; tomorrow I hope to finish Draft 3 of The Spook’s Bestiary. The World Book Day (£1 book), The Spook’s Tale is finished and has gone off to the copyeditor and illustrator. Can’t believe it but, so far, I’m still on schedule to get three books out next year.
On a sad note, some of you might be aware that my wife, Marie, died suddenly last November. She was a great inspiration and support and each book in the series has been dedicated to her. Without her help I now have many more things to do and organize for myself. That, together with the pressure of writing extra books and the foreign tours means that I’ve not yet managed to reply to all the letters that I’ve received recently. All I can say is sorry and to promise that even if it takes months, I will reply to them all eventually. Also I do read all the comments you send to the Blog. I haven’t the time to respond individually but I do take note of what you say and it’s really valuable to get feedback from readers of the series.
I now have firm dates for two of the events in the Lancashire Reads (which will focus on The Spook’s Apprentice). On the Tuesday evening of the 16th of September, it will start at the Pendle Heritage Centre (where there is a permanent exhibition based on the Pendle Witches). I’ll give a very short talk and all the people involved will get to meet and discuss what’s going to happen.
The final event will be at Lancaster Castle on December 5th. There the Paul Nicholas Acting School will perform a dramatised version of The Spook’s Apprentice’.
Finally, here are the winners and runners up of the Ghost story Writing Competition. All three will be placed on the website. The winner will be taken on a trip to a haunted place.
Winner: June-Marie Jolly ‘Bones Baby’
Second: Tara Griffin ‘Mysterious Mabel’
Third: Shannon Jackson ‘The Spirit of the Curse’
So congratulation to all three.
Joseph Delaney
Several of you have asked for a postal address for where you should send your letters to Joseph.
Please use the following:
Joseph Delaney (Spook’s Books)
c/o Random House Children’s Books
61-63 Uxbridge Road
London
W5 5SA
Joseph does read every letter that is sent to him and replies to each as soon as he can. 2008 has been a particularly busy year, what with 3 Spook’s books coming along in 2009, so it might take a little longer than usual for you to receive a reply.
Joseph also regularly reads the messages you post on this blog and loves hearing from you all, so do please keep writing.
First of all thanks for all your replies to my first blog. I’ve read them all and it’s really encouraging to know there are so many enthusiastic readers of the series out there.
I’m still as busy as ever but, so far, all three books are still on schedule. The Spook’s Tale should be published in the first week in March, 2009 along with all the other World Book Day £1 books. The Spook’s Sacrifice (Book Six in the Wardstone Chronicles series) will be published in the first week in June, 2009. Finally, The Spook’s Bestiary will be published in October, 2009, just in time for Halloween! Yulek Heller is doing the illustrations for the ‘Bestiary’ and he’s a great artist having done work on many fantasy novels. So I’m really looking forward to seeing the finished product.
Here’s a bit more news about the tour of Australia. On August 25th I’ll on a panel with John Flanagan, the author of The Ranger’s Apprentice. The title of our discussion will be ‘Apprenticed to Adventure’ and we’ll be discussing our two apprentices and talking about how we created our worlds. The following day the event is called ‘Joseph Delaney in Conversation’ and I’ll be answering questions. The events take place as part of the Melbourne Writers’ Festival School’s programme at the Australian Centre for the Moving Image, Federation Square.
Later in the year I’ll be doing lots of events around Lancashire. The Spook’s Apprentice has been chosen for this year’s Lancashire Reads. Plans are still being discussed and developed but the focus on the book will hopefully start with an event at the Pendle Heritage Centre and end at Lancaster Castle where the Pendle witches were tried in 1612. A group of young actors in Thornton are developing the book into a play which they are hoping to perform at the Castle. I’m looking forward to seeing that!
Finally, there is no more film news yet. I hope it will be shot in Lancashire but we are still waiting to find out. Talking about locations I was on holiday in Wales last week, near Bethesda. I found a great valley with the river Ogwen running through it which was inspirational for Book Seven. That book will probably mostly be located in the Isle of Man and I’ll revisit that island as part of my research but my visit to Wales certainly gave me lots of ideas. I took a notebook and pen with me and worked for about an hour each day before breakfast.
Best wishes,
Joseph Delaney
PS I keep getting asked when the film auditions will be held. I don’t even know if there will be open auditions but promise that if there are and I find out, I’ll give you the information you need on this website.
Please be aware that this blog contains comments from members of the public and may contain reviews and spoilers about the content of the Wardstone Chronicles books.
If you haven’t yet read all of the books, please bear this in mind before reading people’s comments so as to avoid disappointment.Â
Joseph Delaney discusses the Wardstone Chronicles - talking about the County and each of the five books in the series.
To see the full interview, read comments and post your own, visit the BBC website.
This, my first blog, will have to be short. You see, I’ve never been busier. Usually, I write just one book a year. This year I’m trying to do three!
The first is the sixth book about Tom, Alice and the Spook - it’s called ‘The Spook’s Sacrifice.’ Additionally, I’m writing ‘The Spook’s Bestiary’. That will be an illustrated catalogue of all the creature of the dark and will also contain some new pieces of fiction - accounts told by the Spook of his early encounters with ghosts, ghast, boggarts and witches. Thirdly, I’m writing a story for World Book Day 2009 (the £1 books). This will be the earliest of the Spook’s adventures, telling how he left home, met his new master and faced double threat from the dark.
At the moment I’m also busy promoting ‘The Spook’s Mistake’. I’ve just finished a short tour of the Sefton area managed by Tony Higginson of Pritchard’s Book Shop, Formby. It was hard work (as many as four or five talks a day) but we sold a lot of books and I enjoyed the talks and meeting my readers. After that we visited Moorhead school in Accrington and received a great reception from a large audience of pupils and teachers from local schools.
This is my schedule of public events for the next few weeks.
Saturday June 7th Waterstones, Wigan 10.30am
Tuesday June 10th Borders, Preston 9.45 to 10.45
Wednesday June 11th Waterstones, Bolton 1.30 to 3.30
Friday June 20th Waterstones, Lancaster 3.30
Friday June 27th Waterstones, Kendal 2pm
Of course, there are other events but they are mostly in schools. Scheduled for later in the year are book tours of Australia, New Zealand, the USA and Romania. When am I going to find time to finish my three books?
Best wishes,
Joseph Delaney