Competition time

Good day to you.

I am running a competition to win a siged book over at my Facebook page. Read all about it at the following link: https://www.facebook.com/bendavisauthor/posts/1892152304343905

Right, that'll be all.

As you were.

Joe Cowley 3 Video

Hello!

This is a video I made for my publisher's sales conference. In it, I talk about The Private Blog of Joe Cowley: Welcome to Cringefest.

Apologies for my daft voice/face/dining room.

Danny Dread

Guten tag, mein damen und herren!

As promised, I am back with an all new blogola about an all new bookola.

It's shiny, it excites.

Yes, it's Danny Dread - the tale of a innocent boy born into a family of evil geniuses. Here's the official blurb:

You know how it is when your dad's an evil super villain? 
OK, so maybe you don't, but Danny does. As heir to the Dread dynasty, he's expected to carry on the family business of kidnapping world leaders, maiming innocent bystanders, and brainwashing sharks. You know, general evil stuff. 
The problem is, achieving world domination isn't Danny's idea of fun. In fact, he'd much rather be saving the planet than enslaving it. 
But when Dad Dread hatches his most diabolical scheme yet, Danny realizes that to defeat evil, he's going to have to start thinking evil . . .

Sounds exciting, right? Darn tooting, it does.

If you're reading this as a Joe Cowley fan (does Joe have fans? If he does, what are they called? Cowleibers? No, that's terrible, forget I said anything) you will be pleased to know that there are some similarities between the two characters. They are both misfits and they both have embarrassing dads. They also both harbour ambitions to change and become more powerful.

Other than that, though, they are quite different. Even the way Danny Dread came about was unlike either of the Joe Cowley books. 

The idea for Danny Dread was actually cooked up by my brilliant publisher, OUP - specifically, Commissioning Editor, Clare Whitston and Harriet Rogers, who did such a stellar job designing the first two Joe Cowleys. I am told they came up with it while playing table tennis. Anyway, they asked me if I would be interested in writing a story about a wannabe superhero born into a family of supervillains and it took me about a quarter of a millisecond to say yes. See, I've always been a big superhero fan. I remember this once, at a party, I ran around all night with the hood of my coat over my head, pretending to be Batman. What a twenty-seventh birthday that was.

It was a new experience, writing to spec, but I enjoyed it immensely and had loads of fun crafting a big adventure story, complete with rockets and explosions and maniacal laughter.

The illustrations in Danny Dread are by the brilliant Stephanie Lidbetter. In fact, you can catch a sneaky glimpse of a few of them here. 

That's all from me, as always, if you'd like to get in touch, you can do so here, through my website, my Facebook page, or by standing in front of the mirror at midnight and saying my name three times.

Danny Dread is out on the 6th August 2015 and is available to pre-order from all the usual places.

Joe Cowley book news . . .

Yes, it's the news literally six of you have been waiting for! I can now officially confirm that there will be a third instalment in the Joe Cowley saga. It is called The Private Blog of Joe Cowley: Welcome to Cringefest. It will be published by OUP in April 2016.

I won't say what it's about because that might spoil things for people who haven't got to the end of Return of the Geek yet. (You know the bit I mean, where Mad Morris is eaten by a dinosaur and we find out that Ad is actually a visitor from the planet Plunksplat.) All I will say for now is that it is a tale of love, music and portaloos.

There will be more news to follow soon, including some more info about my upcoming book, Danny Dread. Until then, if you want to get in touch, you can do so here, or via the contact box on my website.

The Private Blog of Joe Cowley: Return of the Geek

HELLO!

In less than a month, my second book comes out. It is called The Private Blog of Joe Cowley: Return of the Geek.

Pwetty cover.

If you've read the first one, and if you haven't, what the HELL is your problem, man? Seriously. Get out. Go on. Out. You disgust me.

Anyway, as I was saying, if you've read the first one, you may be pleased to know that all the original characters are back for this instalment. Characters like:

• JOE!
• GAV!
• NATALIE!
• HARRY!
• AD!
• LISA!
• JOE'S MUM!
• AND HIS DAD!
• SVETLANA!
• JIM!
• DORIS!
• ADWINA!
• GREENY!
• MAD MORRIS!
• MR BOOCOCK!
• AD'S DAD WITH THE MEAT VAN!
• THE PEOPLE THAT LIVE IN JOE'S BRAIN!

Plus, several new characters, including a dastardly villain called Seb.

The story revolves around Joe's efforts to impress his girlfriend's posh parents while at the same time trying to avoid getting caught up in Harry and Ad's disastrous attempt to win a DJ competition. Add a new set of braces and an overflowing underpants hamper into the mix and you know it is only a matter of time before Joe's life is thrown back into turmoil. Which is how we like it.

The Private Blog of Joe Cowley: Return of the Geek is available to pre-order from all the usual places.

COMPETITION TIME!

Greetings me dears,

I have launched a new competition to win a super good prize.

OK, maybe not super good.

But it's a prize.

That's the main thing.

More info here.

To round things off, here is a picture of a dog recreating the Pixar logo.

Update!

Considering I’ve written two books in blog form, I’m pretty bad at blogging. It has been months since I last wrote anything on here. I do have genuine excuses – deadlines, dodgy health, Football Manager 2015, but the time for excuses is over. It is time to blog.

I recently visited Gosford Hill School where I am Patron of Reading. I met the Year Eight boys’ book group. They had just read Joe Cowley and had loads of great questions for me. I think they were slightly disappointed that the wee balloons bit wasn’t based on a true story, though.

After that, I ran a writing workshop with a class of Year Eight boys. We started off by writing ten word stories before expanding them into longer ones. There were some excellent ideas and some quite frankly bizarre ones. And this is from someone who recently gave some serious thought to writing a story about a haunted settee.

                

Anyway, I had a fantastic time and I’m looking forward to reading some of the finished stories that may come out of our session. And, if they go on to become best-selling novels with block buster film adaptations, I will only ask for seventy per cent of the profits. Pretty reasonable, I think.

                

Now, as a Patron of Reading, it is only right that I should recommend some books. This year has been pretty full-on, so I haven’t read as much as I would have liked, but I have still managed to read some brilliant books. Here are my five recommended reads from 2014.

1.       Who Framed Klaris Cliff? By Nikki Sheehan.

Gripping thriller about imaginary friends and shady government conspiracies. Has an ending that made me go ‘oooooh’ and I’m not someone who goes ‘ooooooh’ willy nilly.

2.       Pants are Everything by Mark Lowery.

Hilarious sequel to the equally brilliant Socks are not Enough. It follows the misfortunes of Michael Swarbrick and his crazy family, including his proud nudist Mum.

3.       Wonder by RJ Palacio.

If you haven’t read Wonder already, get on it. It is amazing. It is about a ten year old boy born with facial deformities and his efforts to fit in at school. There must have been some dust in the room when I was reading it though, because there was definitely something in my eye.

4.       Butter by Erin Lange.

One of the best books about bullying I have ever read. It is at times hard to read because of the viciousness of the bullies, but it is well worth sticking with to the end.

5.       In Bloom by Matthew Crow.

In Bloom is the story of two teenage cancer patients who meet and fall in love. Sound familiar? Well forget comparisons to the Fault in Our Stars, because this book stands out on its own. Stirring, heartbreaking and at times, laugh-out-loud hilarious, when I was reading it I was both awestruck and riddled with jealousy over the fact that I will never write anything this good. Well, except maybe that haunted settee story.

Stick one of those on your Christmas list – I promise you won’t regret it. Now, all there is left for me to do is to wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. To get you in that festive mood, I’m going to leave you with my all time favourite Christmas song.

               

 Seriously.