18th June 2009

4th June 2009

Working hard on the new project, which I’ll hopefully be able to talk more about sometime over the summer. Ideal writing conditions: outside we’ve got blue skies, the heavy greenness of the trees, bright sun and silence; inside it’s cool and dark and orderly, with creative chaos confined to the books and papers on my desk.

Went to the Hay on Wye Literary Festival last week and did a talk on Heroes. Showed the Heroes trailer on a big screen behind me, as well as various covers etc. Hay is a very exciting festival to be part of: zillions of people, hundreds of writers of every conceivable shape, size and degree of fame, piles of strawberries, mountains of ice cream, tv crews, side-stalls, tents and tea, with lovely green hills peeping over it all. One day I’ll come as a punter and enjoy watching the shows myself, but this was a flying visit – a quick trip into the town for a rum-and-raisin ice cream below the castle, and then the long drive home.

The Heroes site has now been nicely updated: it’s got examples of my notes and sketches, as well as a couple of unseen bits of writing – the very first thing I wrote for the book, and a late, discarded, chapter.

19th May 2009
Last Wednesday I flew to Luxembourg, and from there took an hour’s taxi ride to Saarbrücken, where the 9th European Children and Young Person’s Book Fair was taking place. The road led through endless darkly wooded hills of the Saarland, the valleys between studded with towns in which vast black furnaces and factories sat hunched like colossal alien dragons over the surrounding homes. In Saarbrücken itself the main building is less brooding – a pleasant 18th-century schloss, perched on a small hill beyond the autobahn. Here the Book Fair took place, a delightful and relaxing five-day event, with artists and writers from many countries talking to bus-loads of children from Germany and France.

On the first evening I met Sally Nicholls, whose debut novel Ways to Live Forever has had enormous success: we did an interview with a local paper, and found we had a lot in common, despite the very different books we write. All authors, in some way, are seeking to fashion their own created worlds which reflect, like imperfect mirrors, aspects of the human experience, who and what we are. The problems and strategies we use to tackle this are more often than not pretty similar, regardless of whether the result is a book about a boy with Leukaemia, or a short, stumpy would-be hero.

I was also delighted to meet the artist and author Julian Press, whose father Hans-Jürgen Press wrote The Adventures of the Black Hand Gang, one of the earliest and best interactive gamebooks for children, which I loved as a kid. Julian is continuing his father’s stories now, and if they’re anything like as good, I’d highly recommend them.

On Thursday and Friday I did a couple of talks about Heroes of the Valley up in the schloss, and had excellent question and answers sessions with the audience, as well as taking part in the ‘Summerlist’, a selection of books chosen by a children’s jury, and introduced by them on stage. It was all a great experience, imbued with the love of books: I drove back to Luxembourg through rain-lashed hills eager to get on with the next one… 

Friday 8th May 2009

Just realised a whole month and more has gone by without a journal entry! It’s been a quiet period – a lot of writing, a lot of outdoor work: trees felled, ground cover cleared away. The weather’s been good, mainly – the first flourish of the sun after the long drab days of winter. I throw my office window open and let the fresh air in to galvanise my mind.

Have been reconstructing the Heroes site, adding material about the writing process. This revamp should be ready soon. Also had a very exciting meeting about the Bartimaeus graphic novel, looking through early character sketches with the illustrator Lee Sullivan and the adaptor Andrew Donkin. Some brilliant things already: it’ll take shape over the rest of the year.

Otherwise I’m working on a new project, which I hope will gel over the summer months. Since it’s too early to talk much about it, here instead are a few of the books on the shelf above my desk:

Chambers Dictionary
The Penguin Historical Atlas of Ancient Civilisations
The Arabian Nights
Oxford Dictionary of English Folklore
Dictionary of the Bible
Procopius’ The Secret History
The Koran
A History of the Arab Peoples
Boethius: The Consolation of Philosophy
Herodotus: The Histories
Dictionary of the Ancient Near East

Wednesday 25th March    

A busy final day of touring for Heroes (these events had been postponed from last month). I met my publicist Georgia at Euston station and took the train up to Coventry, where I did a talk and signing at Westwood School. I tried a different structure to my earlier events, inspired by the readings Florian and I did in Germany. I focused a bit more on the character Aud, as well as Halli – and read out the bit when they get into a spot of trouble on the moors. It seemed to work well. Then a car journey across to Stourport, and Stourport High School, where we had a fantastic reception and a really great event; one of the nicest I’ve done. Then up to Halesowen, just outside Birmingham, to the Earls High School for an evening show. I’ve been here several times before and the events are always great: 18 months ago at a talk here I read out a fragment of Heroes in public for the first time. Now it was nice to come back and wrap up this whole period of touring at the same venue. A perfect symmetry!

Wednesday 18th March    

This evening I went to the Charlotte Street Hotel in London for the Book Video Awards ceremony. It was held in a fantastic mini-cinema in the hotel basement – all comfy red seats and snug, sumptuous feel. The kind of place that movie moguls have in their houses. At the drinks before hand I met Leevi Lemmetty, the director of the Heroes of the Valley trailer. He was a great guy; he’s from Finland and, while waiting for the funding to do a planned, full-length movie, is working on many short projects. You can see some of his films at his website (www.leevilemmetty.com). He did all the animation for the Heroes trailer himself, and this took him 4 months. I can’t believe the amount of effort that goes into making animations – or indeed any movie. You need to get money, locations, actors, props… It’s so much more complicated than writing, where all you really need is paper and pen (or computer) and a bit of peace and quiet. Everyone trooped into the auditorium and watched the three award-winning trailers on the big screen. As well as Leevi’s, we saw trailers for Malorie Blackman’s Double Cross and Jacqueline Wilson’s My Sister Jodie. All were good, but (biased as I am) I think Leevi’s was the best!

Saturday 14th March 2009              Munich

My last full day in Germany began with a quick hike to Cologne airport and an hour’s flight to Munich. I got to my hotel, had lunch, considered collapsing on my bed, but levered myself back to the vertical and headed out for the last talk, at yet another elegant Literature House, this one a fascinating mix of modern architecture and original old-style shell. The event was held up on the top floor: a wonderful space with glass walls looking out over the ancient roof-tops of the city. We had a big audience, and a great mix of young and old; for the last time, Florian and I did out double act, and then I plunged into my last hour of signing. A couple more interviews afterwards and the tour was officially over... It just remained to stroll through the Munich dusk to the centre of town and a traditional Bavarian restaurant, where with vast platters of roast pork and long glasses of local beer, my publishers and I toasted what had been (for me) a hugely enjoyable week. We’d been north, south, east and west, seen cathedrals and devils, talked to hundreds of people in theatres, loft-spaces, cinemas and festival halls, drunk beer in big glasses and small ones, travelled by train, plane and taxi, and crammed it all into 6 excellent days.

The next day I flew home to recover.

Friday 13th March 2009     Cologne

Walking around inside a converted water-tower is an unnerving experience: for some reason the round exterior makes the interior layout very confusing (all the rooms radiate out from the middle in the same way; all the levels are the same; there are not any windows visible in the interior). But I just about managed to find my way out to do several interviews before the afternoon’s event at the Arcadas Theatre across the centre of Cologne. Our show was part of the Cologne Literary Festival, a major event with hundreds of performances going on. We had a good sized audience – the biggest of the tour; nearly 200 people crammed into the steep seating. I couldn’t really see any of them – the lights were bright, and the auditorium very dark. But it was one of our best performances: Florian and I are a well-oiled unit by now.

Two more interviews afterwards, and then back to the Hotel Wasserturm for dinner and rejuvenation, before going out to the Cologne Philharmonic Hall for a big literary show. For once I was in the audience, and was able to relax and enjoy 2 hours of literary readings and light jazz. It was all about food in one way or another, and because it was in German I didn’t understand too much, apart from a bit at the end when someone dressed as a spaceman read a Douglas Adams excerpt about an animal who wants to be eaten and comes out to tell the diners which bits of him they ought to try. After this entertainment we went to a big Literary Festival party, and sat about feeling civilised and trying crisp Cologne beer in small glasses. I also had a nice conversation with the American author Adam Davies, who is a big Bartimaeus fan. Then out into the early hours of the morning, past the gothic immensity of Cologne Cathederal, and back to the water tower.

Friday, March 13th 2009            Frankfurt

A morning drive through Leipzig saw us pass through various stages in German history. From the beautiful historic centre, we drove past glum buildings from the Communist era, fading factories and weary apartment blocks, out to the countryside and the glittering, modern airport. A doze on the short plane ride to Frankfurt, and then a train ride into the centre, where my German editor Martina was waiting. After lunch we wandered on foot round the city, which is much more approachable than my memories of the super-giant Book Fair (located in a vast series of halls on the edge of town) would have suggested. Roman ruins, elegant Romanesque churches, lovely half-timbered merchant houses, charming squares and the vigorous river Main: I’d have liked more time to explore, but we had to head for the Literatur Haus – a fantastic classical building close beside the river.

This was one of the best readings we did: a great audience, mainly children, some German, others from International schools. Lots of interaction, lots of enthusiasm. It’s great listening to Florian reading in German – though I don’t understand it, I can hear the rhythms of the language, and see how he uses them to draw his audience in. Interestingly, when it came to the covers of Heroes, all the German kids preferred the German cover, while the International school pupils preferred the British one. Shows how important it is to get the look right for each country’s culture.

Another trademark scamper to the train station, and a trip across to Cologne, where we all staggered in, somewhat weary after our efforts in Leipzig the day before. I had barely time to explore my hotel – built inside what had been Europe’s largest water-tower – before I dragged my leaden limbs to bed.

Thursday 12th March 2009     Leipzig

A really busy day. First, a taxi out of town to a big, modern, business centre complex where the Leipzig Book Fair was taking place under a number of great glass domes. The place was thronging with a bustling, pleasant mix of publishers, booksellers and ordinary readers young and old. In the main halls were hundreds of booths, where publishers sold stock, authors did readings, and fans queued to get things signed.

Our first appointment was at a public booth, where Florian and I hopped on stage and did a short talk with sketches and readings, to a mainly young audience. Then I had to zoom off to the central forum of the fair, where, on a high pedestal, a big blue sofa was perched, surrounded by milling crowds. On ‘das blaue sofa’ I was interviewed for half an hour about Heroes, discussing issues such as the role of women in my books, and the issue of violence. Then some photographs were taken, and a couple of interviews, before another reading and signing in a different booth. It was all very hectic and exciting, and I felt filled with the buzz of the fair.

Late afternoon: a taxi ride in heavy rain to the medieval heart of Leipzig, and the not-so medieval Cinestar cinema, where we did a third show in one of the main auditoria. It was a fantastic location: all plush red chairs and carpet, and we got a good sized audience, containing many fans. Then to a much-needed meal at the Weinsock restaurant, and a late night trip to the Auerbach beer cellars where Goethe set a famous scene from his great work Faust. It was here that the devil Mephisto performed marvels for the magician Faust: statues commemorating the event stand above the steps to the vaults, and in the Mephisto bar above, where we had a final glass of wine, the devil occasionally appears in a two-way mirror, while demonic laughter rings from above. I feel sure that Bartimaeus must have been here at some time; it was an appropriate place to end an excellent day.

Wednesday 11th March 2009

Our hotel was in Potsdamer Strasse, a region of vast modern buildings, cinemas and leisure facilities, constructed (I guess) since the reunification. From the roof we could see the brown expanse of the Tiergarten stretching out into the old West Berlin; our road this morning took us in the opposite direction, to the Brandenburg Gate, the Reichstag, and the grand thoroughfare of the main street, Unter den Linden.

A block from the Reichstag, we found a TV studio, filled first with seating, and then with two classes of kids who had come to take part in ‘quergelesen’, a Children’s Book show. The first half was easy; we sat at the back while Marc, the presenter, and the audience, discussed their favourite books for the camera. A quick break, and now it was our turn. We hopped up on stage and did our readings, drawings and chat, before lots of great questions from the children.  Our bit took well over an hour, but it’ll be whittled down to a four or five minute segment for the TV show. I guess it’s a bit like boiling something down to a nice, nutritious stock or soup.  It was a fun morning, chaotic but full of happy energy.

I did an interview over lunch, and then headed down beyond Unter den Linden to the Babylon Cinema, a rather fine building, possibly Art Deco (I can never remember exactly what this style is), decorated on the walls with black and white photos of film stars from the 1970s, for our late afternoon event.  It was quite a small turn-out, but but that made it nice and intimate. The audience was varied too; it included Jasmin, who was 8 and attending her first ever author talk; Ina, who wrote short stories, and with whom I discussed methods of figuring out structure, and Katharina Orgath, who with Gerald Jung translated both Heroes and Bartimaeus into German. It was such a nice discussion that Florian, Malte and I ended up late for our train: we took a frantic taxi ride back to the station and ran pell-mell down a series of escalators to leap into the Leipzig train just as the doors were closing.

Late evening: dinner at the hotel. Remarkable for the most almighty cheese trolley, a vast box which looked like the kind of thing in which a magician might saw someone in half; also rather like a coffin on wheels. When opened, it contained more than 50 varieties; the eruption of their odours was like being struck about the face (in a good way). We sampled about 12, including one which tasted rather like pepper and soap. Then, much needed: bed.

Tuesday 10th March

Greetings from Germany, where I’m in the middle of the latest part of my Heroes tour! I set off early on Tuesday, flying from Heathrow to Hamburg, where I held my first event in the Literaturhaus. One really civilised thing in the big German cities are the Literature Houses, often very beautiful buildings where authors and readers can come together. They have rooms for events and talks, but also cafes, restaurants, reading rooms, newspaper collections, bookshops... Small children and elderly gentlemen, mothers and students: everyone  is welcome – there’s nothing quite like them in the UK, which is a shame.

First off, I met with Malte, my publicist from cbj, my publisher, and Florian Fischer (pictured with our suitcases), a well-known actor and my ‘voice’ in Germany. The way my events work here is for me to talk a little about the book, with Florian translating, do some little sketches here and there, and intersperse that with Florian reading passages in German. It seems to work pretty well, and it’s great to hear scenes brought to life in a different language. I follow the text in German, and each time decipher a little more.

Lunch: an interview with Lars Schiele of NAUTILUS sci-fi and fantasy magazine, and then a taxi tour of Hamburg on a grey, rain-lashed afternoon. A city of contrasts, it seemed, extensive sections of large villas and elegant lakes and rivers sitting close by the grimier, but more interesting, harbour regions. Great expanses of cranes, docks, ferries and container ships; magnificent and in some cases very old warehouse buildings on the quay fronts, steep roofed and seven stories high; cantilever winches projected from topmost apertures, with Persian carpets swinging down to waiting vans. 

At the Literaturhaus I had some photos taken, then we did our event, up on a little stage, with about 70 people sitting around us at tables. Florian and I did our performance, then answered a few questions: it was a very convivial atmosphere: golden light from the lamps, high ceilings with elegant plasterwork, mirrors, the night pressing in against the windows. A signing afterwards, then we had to hop in a cab and race to the station for the train out East. We spent the two-hour journey hunkered down in the restaurant car, sampling good food and Hamburg beer, and alighted in the great city of Berlin.

9th March 2009

6th March 2009

The last few weeks have seen a slight lull in the Heroes schedule, although I’ve done a number of one-off events, including a great visit to Hereford Cathedral School in the historic heart of the old town, to Kingshott School in Herts, and a World Book Day trip to South Hampstead High School, where I was treated to a fine lunch of healthy fruit and not-so-healthy doughnuts while chatting with some of the girls. After this last talk I ambled into central London, to the Royal Academy, to see the exhibition on Byzantium, a civilisation I’ve been interested in ever since reading John Julius Norwich’s excellent history. (My favourite Byzantine Emperor = Heraclius, who Bartimaeus served at one time…). Despite my enthusiasm, I found Byzantine art a bit of a tough sell: hugely religious and devotional, incredibly skilful, but (in these more agnostic times) hard to empathise with. My favourite things in the exhibition were a child’s hooded tunic, in perfect condition despite being more than a 1000 years old, and some ordinary household pots, decorated with zany, almost cartoony, birds and fish.

26th February 2009

The final leg of the UK tour was completed earlier this month, with some great events.

On Tuesday 10th Feb I took the train out west to Bristol, past flooded fields and landscapes still striated with snow, in time for a morning talk at Redland Green School, an amazing new school constructed like a kind of massive wedge jutting from a hillside above the city. A single curving avenue descended through the heart of the building, with several storeys of classrooms, halls and gyms rising like canyon walls on either side. We did a fun event here, then drove at speed to the elegant Georgian city of Bath, to Kingswood School, as gothic and (somewhat) Hogwartsian as Redland Green was futuristic. My event here took place in a beautiful chapel set on another hillside: it was a day of fine architecture and lovely views.

Wednesday 11th Feb: I drowsed on an early morning taxi ride through thick fog and sea mists, out of Bristol and over the magnificent Severn Bridge to Wales. The mists held close around the car until we climbed to the apex of the bridge’s curve – then we suddenly burst out under blue sky, above a world of boiling white vapours, with trees, promontories and headlands swimming in the depths below. A few days ago the blizzards had left the bridge dangerously overhung with ice: the army had been drafted in to drive tanks back and forth across it so that the ice came loose and shattered.

In Chepstow I visited the pleasant school of St John’s on the Hill, where I spoke to a hundred or more pupils, another very enjoyable talk. Then back to England, and an increasingly frantic drive to Devizes School in Wiltshire, as it became evident we were going to be late: in the end I arrived about 20 minutes after I should have been speaking, bursting at last into a hall where 200 patient souls had been listening to excerpts from Heroes in my absence. I rattled through a truncated version of the talk in double-quick time: it was a great shame I was late for this, because it was a great and lively audience, but I enjoyed a leisurely interview for the school magazine afterwards.

After that: tea with my friend Karen of the lovely Wellwisher Children’s Bookshop, and then another great event in a chapel, this time belonging to St Mary’s School, Carne. As always it was a pleasure to chat with newcomers to my books, as well as some old fans.

Thursday 12th Feb: A single event to finish the tour with, but a fine one it was, at John Hampden Grammar School in High Wycombe. The talk went well and we had a fantastic signing afterwards, giving me a spring in my step as I tottered homewards. It’s been a really wonderful few weeks, both here in the UK and in the States: I’ve spoken to several thousand people, travelled zillions of miles and enjoyed every minute of it.

16th February 2009

The first thing I saw when I got back from the States was a fantastic animated Heroes trailer, which you MUST check out! It’s by Leevi Lemmetty, and is one of three videos entered for the 2009 Book Video Awards. See it at here and cast your vote! I think it’s a brilliant visualisation of the book’s prologue – both Trows and heroes are beautifully realised.

Tuesday 3rd February: Chicago, Illinois
 
A travel glitch for the first time on the tour: my flight to Chicago was cancelled, so I hung about at St Louis airport for an extra hour or two this morning. Spent the time writing, and also reading an excellent book: The Road by Cormac McCarthy, about a father and son travelling through a post-apocalyptic world that can no longer support life. Gruelling, horrifying, remorseless, and a beautiful portrayal of our capacity for love - and all written in
sinewy, poetic language as vivid as a flashlight in the dark.

Arrived in Illinois around lunchtime to find grey skies, a few snowflakes and a strong wind whipping in from Lake Michigan. Drove to a warehouse the size of two city blocks and signed 560 copies of Heroes of the Valley; they'll be distributed to stores around the States. Then into Chicago itself, grand and soaring, where I had a couple of hours to wander up and down Michigan Avenue, gawping at all the swanky stores. In the evening I drove out to an outlying suburb, La Grange, and did my final US event at a Borders there. As with every stop on my 10 day odyssey, I met only kindness, hospitality and enthusiasm from everyone. It's been a wonderful trip, and a privilege to talk with so many readers, fans and friends.

Monday 2nd February: St Louis, Missouri
 
Watched Prince Caspian last night at my hotel. Not actually too bad - they'd filled out the CS Lewis original cunningly, adding some good scraps. But some of the lead acting was dreadful, and they never stopped the action long enough to fill out the characterisation or atmosphere. Off to St Louis, Missouri this morning - the gateway to the West. From the aeroplane we could clearly see the city's symbol - the Gate, a giant arch the height of a skyscraper - gleaming in the winter sun. On ground level I visited a couple of stores for stock signing, then in the evening went to the St Louis County Library for an excellent event, with a really nice and varied audience. I didn't just sign books afterwards - two sisters each brought their jeans for me to scribble on: they'd already got several notable author signatures on them, including Eoin Colfer, Dave Barry, Ridley Pearson... One man, a reservist in the US army, told me how the Bartimaeus Trilogy had given him great pleasure and a means of imaginative escape during his year serving in Afghanistan - this meant a great deal to me.

Sunday 1st February: Dallas, Texas

Drove out through endless low-lying suburbs, shrubby forests and vacant real estate to Houston’s Bush Airport, and caught a flight for the short hop to Dallas. Back home in the UK, reports emerge of unprecedented snowstorms, the worst for 18 years; here in Texas, the weather is benign. I discard my coat, and even my sweater, and enjoy the warmth of the summer sun. My Dallas escort, Janet, took me to a restaurant for a cheery lunch with Carolyn, Leigh-Ann and Katie, who work at the Dallas Museum of Art, and for the local Library authority. They’ve organised today’s event, at a school in a suburb of North Dallas. It was a fantastic auditorium, and I felt a bit nervous as I loitered in the wings as the crowd arrived. But I needn’t have worried; everyone was very enthusiastic, and most were Bartimaeus fans. I enjoyed the talk very much, going into Heroes with a bit more depth than usual, and doing an extra reading. Everyone hung around afterwards for the signing, which was great as today was Superbowl day, and most people were already at home with beer or popcorn. The streets were almost deserted as we drove downtown to take a look at the infamous place where Kennedy was assassinated. It was a strange, fleeting glimpse in the evening twilight: the Book Repository (from which, on the 6th floor, Oswald pulled the trigger) a deep blood-red colour; the road below banal and unremarkable, twisting down a gentle incline, with two white crosses painted on the tarmac, marking the points where the bullets struck. Despite that curiously exact reminder, the place seemed completely separate from the epochal events that happened there – events that live on in our collective consciousness, leaving this ordinary strip of road behind.

Saturday, January 31st: Houston, Texas

While the assembled booksellers of America were snoring in their beds, I went back to the airport and caught a flight to Houston. Again, the changing face of America below the window – the arid hills giving over to a sprawling agricultural landscape and, around Houston itself, vast olive-dark forests. Again, it would have been good to spend more time exploring, but after a quick stop off at the hotel I went straight to my event, one of my favourites of the tour, at Murder by the Book, a fantastic mystery store run by my friends McKenna and David. When I pitched up, a good crowd had already gathered, together with some ladies from Radio Disney, who’d been entertaining the troops through the afternoon. I did a chat, and talked and signed, and after doing stock signing ended up leaving the store when all was dark outside. David and Ann from the store took me to a Mexican restaurant and we ended up chatting about old movies for the rest of the evening. (My recommendations: The Innocents, a fantastic ghost story, and Night of the Hunter, a creepy but brilliant gothic fairy tale). Then bed. I’d been asleep for about 5 minutes when a massive mirror crashed off my wall, smashing into a zillion pieces. I checked the room for ghosts or revenants, found nothing, and went to sleep

Friday 30th January: Salt Lake City, Utah

At some frighteningly early hour I got a cab to the airport and caught a plane to Salt Lake City. Out of the window stretched mountains and wastes, snow fields glittering in the sun, twisting rivers surrounded by vast brown alluvial flatlands shining like spilled petrol, broken snags of rock, occasional straight dirt roads running with single-minded purpose through the twisted chaos of nature. At last to the left we saw a shimmering blueness: the Great Salt Lake, and the grid system of Salt Lake City hunkered below a range of beautiful white hills. It was my first visit here, and I was interested to see something of the city in between my commitments. I had lunch with Deborah from Disney and a new friend, Ben Esch, who’s just publishing his first novel with Hyperion, then Ben and I decided to go for an explore of the Temple precinct, the heart of the Mormon religion. We ambled over, and before we knew it were being conducted on a tour of the tabernacle and other key buildings (not the Temple itself, though – that’s out of bounds to non-Mormons), and hearing a little of the history of the settlement here by Bringham Young and his followers back in the 19th Century. Then back to the hotel, for a rest, and, in the evening, a visit to the American Booksellers Association Winter Institute, where many of the country’s independent booksellers were gathered for a conference. I signed copies of Heroes for a couple of hours, and met many old friends, and made some new ones: it all ended, late evening, with a jolly dinner. It would have been nice to stay at Salt Lake a while and explore it further, but I had to pack my bags, ready for another early start on the morrow.

Thursday 29th January: San Francisco              

A fairly restful day, to begin with. No events until the evening. I pottered about the area local to my hotel, visiting Union Square, brousing in book and toy stores and eating healthy (well, big) breakfasts and lunches. In the afternoon I managed to get a bit of sleep, which was good because my body clock is still pretty skewed. At 4.30 Frank pulled up outside the hotel and we drove out of the city over the Bay Bridge to the bedroom community (or dormitory town, as we Brits would say) of Walnut Creek, sitting amid pretty hills below Mt Diablo. Here I did an evening event at a fine Barnes and Noble store, with some avid Bartimaeus fans who threw a few fairly tough questions at me about the relative powers of some of the djinn. One of the interesting things I’ve noticed is that I meet fairly young readers (14, say) who talk about having read Bartimaeus ‘when I was young’ – I guess that it IS 3 years since Ptolemy’s Gate, which is a long old time for them. In an ideal world you’d produce a new book every year, to keep your readers continually at your side. But it takes longer, sometimes. After the event Frank and I drove back to SF, to the Mission district, where zillions of great restaurants run side by side with seamy dime stores, old used book stores, and the night-time streets thronged with young Bohemians, mad guys with cardboard guitars, down-and-outs and smart young couples. Went to an excellent Indian, ate chicken and eggplant curry and tottered off to bed.

Wednesday 28th January: Petaluma and Santa Rosa, CA

The weather in San Francisco is beautifully balmy: cool sea winds in the morning replaced by gentle, warming golden sunlight. Frank and I drove north in early morning, out of the city: as always I’m agog at the seductive scenery all around. The bay was blue, the mountains clear and soft, the Bay Bridge gleamed a ruby red at the entrance to the Pacific. Even Alcatraz seemed somehow friendly and welcoming, which is saying something. We headed north along the highway, past eucalyptus woods and cow pastures, to the town of Petaluma, which is apparently (according to Frank) the duck, egg and wrist-wrestling capital of the world. Certainly there was a statue of some guys arm-wrestling in the centre of town. I didn’t see any eggs, though, and no ducks came to my event. This took place at McNear Elementary School; we were late arriving, and I had to bound forth upon the stage and get myself set up in double-quick time in front of several hundred kids. But all went well, and there were some fantastic questions from the audience. I signed a bit afterwards, then drove to the local bookstore, Copperfields, to sign stock, chat with old friends and eat a mysterious pistachio honey cake thing that dissolved deliciously in the mouth. Then further north along the freeway to Santa Rosa and the Maria Carrillo High School, for another fun talk, this one in a great big auditorium, with people from several schools shoehorned in. It went well, as did the signing afterwards; late afternoon, Frank and I made the long trip back to San Francisco, and finished with a slap-up seafood meal at an Italian restaurant in North Beach. A good, long day.

Tuesday 27th January: San Francisco

Another early start, another trip to the airport, and this time a long haul across the continent to San Francisco. Sitting alongside me was an aged gentleman whose pleasure it was, during the six hour flight, to chat: he didn’t read, or watch TV, or even doze much. But he did like to chat. To me. Responding warily I discovered, somewhat to my surprise, that he wasn’t stopping at SF, but going on to Seattle. Gruelling enough, you may think, for an eighty-year old. But this wasn’t the half of it. What would he do in Seattle? ‘Oh, I probably won’t leave the airport.’ After three hours he would board a plane back to SF and then catch another back to Boston. His round trip would take him about 24 hours, 20 or so of them on planes. He did this all the time: he freely admitted to being addicted to flying. ‘I probably do 300,000 miles a year. If I didn’t travel, all I’d do would be to sit about the house.’ I think he liked the (captive) company that the planes afforded him; he was intelligent, beady-eyed and very, very talkative. It was a long six hours.

Authors arriving in new cities in America are given a local escort to show them round. Mine in San Francisco was an old friend, Frank Lauria, who I knew from one of the Bart tours. Frank is himself a writer, who was a bestseller years ago with books about a psychic hero, Doctor Orient. He dropped me off at my hotel, where I rested as best I could (keeping a wary eye out in case the old guy from the plane had somehow followed me), before  travelling off to Books Inc at Laurel Village, for a really friendly evening event. Books Inc is a great local independent chain of booksellers, which I’ve visited before, though this was my first event at Laurel Village. Among the audience was David Thorn, who’s done the readings for the US audio editions of The Last Siege and Heroes of the Valley; it was the first time we’d met, which was a delightful bonus at the end of a long day.

Monday 26th January: Boston

A frighteningly early start and a car to La Guardia airport, where I took a plane to Boston. Blizzards were threatened in New England for later in the week, but today it was clear and crisp, and the approach to the airport across the sea was spectacularly beautiful. Everywhere in Boston old snow is piled high: crisp and white in the squares and parks, black and soiled beside the freeways. It was a mite parky. My publicist Jen Levine and I took a car out to the pleasant town of Wellesley, where a great bookstore, Wellesley Booksmith, had a couple of events arranged. The first was at the elegant, snow-bound Dana Hall, a girls’ school, where I sat in the lobby signing books for unwary passers-by, before doing a nice talk after lunch. [To see photos of the whole day, check out the online journal of Alison Morris of Wellesley Booksmith here. I then went back to my hotel in central Boston, had a coffee with an old friend from my York University days, and then returned to Wellesley for a fantastic evening event. Among the crowd was a boy and his dad who had come all the way from Cape Cod (I think) – it was a 2 hour journey, each way, which made me feel very humbled. It’s a lucky author who is blessed with such amazing readers!

Sunday 25th January: New York

A beautiful blue sky above New York, with Central Park’s snow gleaming bright across the street. Late morning, I took a car across to Broadway at 95th Street, and the Leonard Nimoy Thalia Theatre at Symphony Space.  There was a neon strip sign above the lobby spelling out my event, among other forthcoming attractions, which I enjoyed greatly as I guess it technically means I’ve had my name in lights on Broadway... Inside I met the charming Katherine Minton, who runs the Kids’ Book Club here, and the equally urbane writer Matthew Cody (visit his site at www.matthewcody.com), who was going to lead the discussion with me and the audience. At 1.00 we went out on stage to meet our enthusiastic audience, and spent a very happy hour chatting about Heroes, Bartimaeus and writing in general. One great feature of the event was that the audience took part in a writing exercise inspired by our talk – they each did short pieces imagining members of their family as a hero. Several stories were read out, and all were much appreciated. Afterwards I did some signing and talking with everyone, and was really pleased to meet a pen-friend of mine called Maya, who’d come up from Pennsylvania. I spent the afternoon having an extended lunch with my lovely editor Jennifer, and then staggered back to my hotel, jet lag finally catching up with me. A great start to the tour!

24th January 2009 (continued)
 
Today was the start of the US tour, which'll see me visit eight cities over the next ten days. I got an early flight from Heathrow, and spent the seven hours eating, dozing, watching Indiana Jones 4 (much better than the dodgy reviews would have it, though a few hours later I'd forgotten pretty much everything in it), and staring out of the window at the broken pack ice of the North Atlantic - flat fields of fractured whiteness stretching to the horizon under thin twists of cloud. Soon Canada and Maine passed underneath - landscapes of snow, huddled houses and frozen lakes - and then we began the descent across Long Island towards JFK.

The immigration halls, where often I've been held up in hour-long queues, were practically deserted, and in record time I was ushered through and taken by car to my hotel by Central Park. The rest of the day was downtime; I took a frozen stroll through the park, skirting round piled ice, shivering inside my coat, marvelling at the joggers still skipping along the twisting paths. The trees were tangles of grey branches, their tops lit red and orange by the descending sun. Stayed up as late as I could (10 o'clock - 3 am UK time) then bed: tomorrow is the first event of the tour.

24th January

I’m writing this from my hotel in New York, having just arrived this afternoon. Earlier this week I completed the first part of my Heroes tour, doing three packed and hugely enjoyable days in the North of England. The tour went like this:

19th Jan: Nina, my publicist, and I started out in Doncaster, where I had my lovely first event at The Armthorpe School. Outside the weather was decidedly unpleasant, with rain gusting against the windows, but the audience, taken from several local schools, were great. I’m still working out what to say in my talks, and I’m improvising a bit each time, but it seemed to go ok. After signing some copies we took the train to Wakefield, where the weather worsened to a minor blizzard. I spoke that afternoon in the hall at Wakefield Grammar School, with a giant projection of my Heroes website on a screen behind me. This went well too; afterwards, in arctic conditions, we took the train north to York, where the great Minster was illuminated against the wintry night sky.

20th Jan: After a hearty breakfast we toddled over to St Olave’s School, not far from the medieval Bootham Bar, a great stone gate in the old walls. I’d been at St Olave’s during the Bart tours, and it was nice to be back. I spoke to a large audience from several schools, including one from the countryside north of York, which had sent its entire Year 6 to listen (this amounted to 2 pupils!). Then we zoomed across to Leeds and the Grammar School there, an ancient school recently rebuilt in the countryside outside the city and resembling a small town itself – a shimmering, shining labyrinth of corridors and chambers. Spoke to Year 8 in a sunlit hall, signed stock, then set off by car West over the Penines. The road lifted suddenly out of the heavily populated landscape into smooth, undulating humps of snow and nothingness. The lanes of the motorway passed on either side of an old farm house – the farmer having refused to sell up when the road was built. Now heavy traffic passes within a few feet of the walls on either side.

We came down out of the hills and into the city of Bolton, where vast neo-Victorian civic buildings housed a beautiful library where I did an evening event. It was fairly small, but great because of some Bart fans there, some of whom had also read Heroes (and seemed to approve). After this event, the third of the day, we drove down to Liverpool, and conked swiftly out.

21st Jan: This morning we drove past the great modern cathederals of Liverpool (the Anglican one of which is one of my favourite buildings – the gothic interior is breathtaking), to the town of Crosby and a wonderful theatre attached to the library there. We did a fantastic event with an audience of over 400, brought in from numerous schools. My only regret was that time was so pressing that I wasn’t able to chat properly with everyone as I signed books.

Then north to Kirkham for another great school event, this one at Carr Hill High School. Then off to Borders in Preston where, fortified with coffee and a giant slab of chocolate cake, I did my final talk of the three days, the eighth. By now I feel fairly well practised, and have been really chuffed by how good the book looks and how receptive the crowds have been. Then: train back to London, and home. Two days recuperation, ready for the US Tour....

Of which, more soon!

13th January 2009

Heroes was launched last week with a flurry of activity: on Thursday I zoomed in to Random House’s building in Ealing, where 500 copies were piled on a table like a diminutive Great Wall of China – I had to sign my way through them (took about 70 minutes): they’ll be sent off to booksellers round the country.

Then we had a small champagne toast to celebrate the book in the publisher’s offices, after which I was whisked off to the delightful Heywood Hill bookshop in Curzon St, Mayfair (www.heywoodhill.com )– a fantastically historic store with antiquarian books nestling alongside new ones, and stacks of books in brown paper parcels ready to be shipped off to readers far and wide. Here I did a bit more signing and an interview, then on to Pimlico for more interviews throughout the afternoon. One of them was with Sci-Fi-London, and was filmed: you can check out the interview along with a review at www.sci-fi-london.com.

The following day I did my first two official Heroes talks – the first at Francis Combe school, where I’ve been author in residence for a year, and the second at Loreto College, St Albans. Both events went well, and it was good fun to chat about the new book with the audiences.

On Saturday there was a great review of Heroes in The Guardian. You can take a look at this here.

More soon…!

6th January 2009

So, Heroes of the Valley is out at last, though I’ve not been to any shops to see it yet. It’s a great – and odd – feeling to know that something that’s been so private for so long is suddenly public. And I’m about to go out into the wider world too – starting on Thursday, when I’ll do some signings and interviews in London. In preparation I’ve been dusting off my smarter clothes, discovering moth holes and other horrors, and hurrying off to buy new garments so I don’t look too much like a blinking-eyed hermit when I venture out into the light.

A couple of days ago I got my first copies of the US edition, which looks fantastic – beautifully produced and handsome – in a completely different way to the UK version. I’m very proud of both, and eagerly anticipating the (different again) German edition, which should appear soon too.

TO READ JONATHAN'S JOURNAL ENTRIES PRE-2009, CLICK HERE