Jack and the Wish Factory: A ‘Beastly Bullies’ Children’s Book Collection Story: Out Now!

Jack and the Wish Factory: Another ‘Beastly Bullies’ Children’s Book Collection story is here!

Jack and the Wish Factory is out now and available on Amazon:

Click here for Jack and the Wish Factory

The newest story in the 'Beastly Bullies’ Children’s BookCollection', Jack and the Wish Factory tells the tale of a boy who has never had a wish come true! For his twelfth birthday, he decides enough is enough and while his family clap and sing "Happy Birthday" at him, he secretly wishes that if none of his wishes can come true, then nobody else’s should either!

However, Jack’s wish isn’t quite as secret as he thinks and it soon leads to him become involved in a titanic struggle between magical powers – in the end he must choose which side to take and risk facing the consequences...

For ages 7-12, or anybody else who’d like to read it! (14600 words)

Here’s an excerpt from Chapter Two:

I then heard a noise but before I could even open my eyes I felt something tugging at one of the sleeves of my pyjamas. I yelled ‘What?’ and leapt out of bed, frantically looking around the room. The curtains were open again, and this time so was the window! My whole body filled with fear.

I was about to call out to my parents when I felt something pulling at my sleeve once more. I waved my arms about, swinging them at whatever was doing it, and went for the light switch. But just as I did so, something began pulling at my leg too. I opened my mouth to scream as I was completely lifted off the floor and started floating towards the window.

You can find Jack and the Wish Factory on Amazon here:

Click here for Jack and the Wish Factory

The Pros and Cons of twitter - as a writer and a regular human!

The Pros and Cons of Twitter

(as a writer and a regular human)

As I try to finish my latest story, ‘The Wish Factory’ (the third of four ‘Beastly Bullies’ children's book collection stories to be released on Amazon Kindle) which will hopefully be out later this month, I've spent the last couple of days fiddling around on twitter during my writing breaks.

Doctor Gremlin of the 'Beastly Bullies' collection

I’ve never really 'used' it before but have found it to be quite involving, especially as you can choose who to ‘follow’ on it and find all kinds of interesting information, ideas and opinions.

This has also led to me becoming further distracted by the upcoming UK general election, as a lot of the content on twitter is focusing on that.
I would never ever include politics in any of my stories, as I believe children should be free of the worries of the adult world as they get on with the busy and confusing job of growing up, going to school, doing homework, making and breaking friendships, living with their family or whomever, and taking on all kinds of different hobbies, facing various personal challenges, etc etc etc!

Twitter: a good but time-consuming way to follow events?

I can’t really say that I have my ‘finger on the pulse’ at all – as following the news can take up a lot of time and I try to avoid spending too long staring at screens. However, twitter seems a potentially empowering forum for some without a voice to ‘speak up’, if you can separate the more interesting or insightful tweets from countless other random (and sometimes inappropriate) daily ones!

If you have a moment, why not visit my twitter feed to see who I’m following and find out what some of them have to say:

There’s all kinds of cool science feeds like ‘Physics World’ and 'Science Weekly', links to masterful documentary makers such as Simon Schama, Neil deGrasse Tyson and Louis Theroux, amazing images from Earth Pics, the insights of characters ranging from Ekhart Tolle to Kurzgesagt, and regular updates from great children’s authors including JK Rowling, Michael Rosen and Frank Cottrell-Boyce.

JK Rowling's twitter feed could be worth following

I suspect you either have to be famous or ‘time rich’ to manage get a lot of followers – something I’m not sure I’d be comfortable with anyway!

I aim to use my own twitter feed to 'retweet' or 'favourite' anything I think might appeal to any like-minded souls, while perhaps adding a few comments and observations of my own along the way if ever the mood takes me - so feel free to follow:

Feel free to follow me on twitter!

As for any aspiring authors reading this and pondering the use of such social media, I suppose it can't do any harm to try - although I’m not sure I’d recommend putting too much time into it when you're supposed to be writing...

Anyway, from a writer's point of view, twitter seems potentially useful for:

• Announcing new releases
• Keeping readers up to date with potential new developments in your stories, the evolution of your characters, new cover designs, etc
• Interacting with your readers
• Increasing your 'exposure'
• Giving updates on any readings, signings, talks, etc that you might be doing
• Interacting with other authors
• Announcing any new posts on your Blog or Facebook page

However, as great as all of this sounds, it's not all wonderful, as twitter can still be:

• Very time consuming to keep up with everyone’s tweets and respond when necessary
• Difficult when trying to separate ‘the wheat from the chaff’
• Open to abuse – are you ready for the possibility of negative comments on social media?
• No guarantee of increased book sales

twitter can be a good way to interact with readers

If you do decide to start 'tweeting', you might find these online guides useful:

Mashable twitter guide book

How to get more twitter followers

And for teachers, ways to us twitter in the classroom

You can also learn how to 'embed' your twitter feed into your blog page here (it's very simple, even I managed at the first attempt - see the right-hand side of this page)

Do you have a twitter feed already? Which are your favourite feeds? Can you recommend any interesting ones for young readers or children’s authors? Please share them...

Top ten best ever amazing (and surprising) nature facts!

Top ten best ever amazing (and surprising) nature facts!

DK's remarkable Natural History Book

I've recently been enjoying reading the nature section of Miles Kelly's Science Encyclopedia, as well as DK's remarkable The Natural History Book. Both are very informative and beautifully illustrated. Here are some incredible facts I'd like to share to help remind you just how amazing the natural world is - it's a real pity we seem to be destroying it!

Older than Civilisation Itself?

'Tjikko': World's Oldest Tree

The world’s oldest tree is ‘Tjikko’, a spruce in Sweden. It first prouted nearly ten thousand years ago when Britain was still joined to Europe by the ice age! As for sprouting, lotus seeds have been known to germinate after being buried underground for 400 years!

However, as Tjikko continues to slowly grow, half of the world’s remaining rainforest will be cut down by 2030, while in the past 40 years alone it is believed humans have reduced the world’s flora and fauna by HALF. Tragic.

A Real Flower Bed!

The biggest flower head belongs to the Puya Raimondii plant in Bolivia, which can reach over two and a half meters, meaning the world’s tallest man can lie down on one and still not touch the edges.

Favourite Foods

Tomato - a berry not a vegetable!

Rice grains are actually grass seeds, and people around the world eat more than 600 tonnes of it every second!

Some people believe tomatoes to be the most popular vegetable in the world, yet they are not a vegetable but a fruit. They are a type of berry. Tomberry anyone?

Animal Communication: Scouse Crows?!?

Lemurs have different types of calls to indicate varying types of danger, such as whether it’s coming from the ground, the trees or the sky (Harpy Eagles like to catch and eat lemurs). Bees ‘dance’ around flowers to tell each other where the pollen is, while crows have 300 different kinds of croaks, though crows from other areas might not understand them (like speaking Scouse in America?).

Dragonfish uses light to attract prey

At the bottom of the ocean, the only light is that which is generated by mysterious sea creatures attempting to communicate, such as the dragonfish or the cookie cutter shark, while the lantern fish’s whole body glows in the dark.

Small but Deadly

The tiny pygmy shrew - a deadly hunter

The smallest land mammal in the world is the pygmy shrew. Shrews like to eat slugs, worms, snails and spiders. Yuck!!! They weigh less than 2 grams and are barely 6cm long, including the tail! Apparently, their saliva contains a toxin which poisons their prey.

Powerful Predators

An adult male lion can eat up to 30kg of meat in one ‘sitting’ – then doesn’t need to eat for several days afterwards. I wish I could do that!

Nile Crocodile - easy to 'shut up'

A Nile crocodile has one of the most powerful bites in the world, at an astonishing 2000kg per square cm! However, the muscles they use to open their mouth with are so weak that you can hold it shut with an elastic band.

Bat-tastic Bat Caves

Mexican free-tailed bats form some of the largest colonies in the animal kingdom, numbering up to 10 million in a single cave!!!

'Lazy Tree Huggers'

Koala bear baby on its mother's back

A baby koala spends the first half year of the lives in their mother’s poach, then another half year on her back. After that, they spend the rest of their lives sleeping for 18 hours a day. Nice.

High (and fast and far) Flyers

Ruppell’s vulture flies higher than any other bird, at up to 37,000 feet – which means you might even see one when looking out of an airplane window. Arctic terns fly the farthest, covering 40,000km a year and reaching nearly 1,000,000km in a lifetime! The fastest bird is the peregrine falcon which swoops down on its prey at speeds of over 300km per hour!

Reptile Skin – something we have in common!

Gecko giving a 'hi 5' with its sticky toes

The skin of reptiles is made of the same stuff as our finger nails – keratin. Speaking of reptiles, the beloved gecko (I say beloved because they eat mosquitoes) has about half a million tiny hairs on the skin of each of their feet, and on each of those hairs are thousands of microscopic ‘stickers’ hence their ability to walk on walls and even ceilings.

David Attenborough: Arkive

I hope you enjoyed learning something from these amazing facts. Nature is truly wonderful. I hope you can enjoy any nature around you, even if it's just a bird in a tree or a 'mooch' around a garden.
If you want to see more, perhaps visit a zoo or natural history museum, like the fascinating Clore Centre in the World Museum, Liverpool. Or if you prefer to discover things from the comfort of your own home, you can learn all kinds of things at the great David Attenborough's nature website, 'Arkive'.

If you have any other cool natural facts, please share them with us...

How to write Poetry the quick and fun way: 'The Ten Minute Poetry Challenge'!

Writing Poetry the quick and fun way:

The Ten Minute Poetry Challenge!

I stumbled upon a poem called ‘Good Books’ by Edgar Guest while sitting in my dentist’s waiting room this morning and it made me realise something: I haven’t written - or even read - a single poem in ages!

So, while I was sitting there I decided to try a ‘Ten Minute Poetry Challenge’ (I’m sure I’m not the first person to have such an idea ;-).

It involves having 30 seconds to quickly think of a topic and decide on which type of poem you’re going to write, and then use the rest of the ten minutes to actually write the poem. Try to give yourself at least a full minute before the end to read through and check for any basic errors. Then think of a title and hey presto, your poem is born!

And remember, while you are writing poetry, you are a poet. Maybe not a professional one, but at that moment you’re a poet nonetheless!

Here is my effort from the waiting room earlier today, called ‘Remember Your Shadow’:

Shadows are scary when you don’t know

What they belong to or where they’ll go

They change shape throughout the day

They have no name but they never stray

Yet they disappear in the dark

And it’s difficult to see one from a shark

Shadows follow you around the park

But they never ever leave a mark

You’re never alone when you’re with your shadow

But people forget, or just don’t know

Sometimes they walk right over it

Even if they didn’t mean to do it

You can make your shadow climb the wall

Or use it to make your hands into a ball

Watch it grow across the hall

Rise up to the ceiling, then quickly fall

Shadows can change

You can watch them rearrange

They can warn you

They can cover you

They can shelter you

They can scare you

Some have two heads

They can even have three legs

Others look like giant birds

Or like buffalo travelling in herds

Well, my ten minutes have now passed

No more shadow poetry will I cast

After reading this, please remember your shadow

It’s the one thing that sticks with you, wherever you go...

If you think this one isn't so bad, there a couple of 'bonus poems' I spent more than ten minutes on in my 'Smell of Poo' Children's Story Book Collection, here:

'The Smell of Poo' poems: 'Your Poo & You' + 'Who Dunnit?'

Coming from Liverpool, I’ve always been aware of poetry and a ‘poetry scene'. I think it takes courage to recite your own work in public. Here’s what happened when writer Marcel Theroux – son of acclaimed travel author PaulTheroux and brother of brilliant TV journalist Louis Theroux – came to Liverpool to write and perform some poetry:

Marcel Theroux tries live Poetry in Liverpool

 You can find out more about the thriving Liverpool poetry scene by clicking here:

Liverpool Poets

Here are some other links that might help inspire you:

"Top 100 famous and best poems of all time about life, love and friendship. Read the 100 most popular and greatest poems and limericks ever written in English poetry by famous poets all over the world"

All Poetry's Top 500 Poems List

The best poems of all time (in English)

Why not have a go at the ‘Ten Minute Poetry Challenge’ and share your work here? You can do it anywhere, whether in your break at work or school, while sitting on the sofa at home, or even when you stop along the way outside wherever you are, be it a park, cafe, waterfront, you name it..

Let your surroundings inspire you. You don’t even have to read it to anyone, just have fun with it, it’s a great creative outlet – though the trickiest thing can be rhyming, in which case you can cheat a little by visiting here:

Find a rhyme at the Rhyme Zone

If you want a few hints and tips, go to the ‘For Poets’ page to help start you off...

The writer's guide to Poetry

Take care, enjoy, and happy writing!!!

Top Ten Tips for Meditation

Top Ten Tips for Meditation:

Meditation - not as simple as it sounds..!

Recently the woes of the world have been playing on my mind. An unfair society, violent crime, worries over loved ones, and so on. I’m usually quite ‘happy go lucky’ – but in a world that at times can be so cruel, it’s not always easy! So recently a good friend of mine recommended I gave meditation a go. It sounded a good idea and once I looked into it, I wondered why I’d never really tried it before.

Everyone probably has need for it, yet most of us never seem to have the opportunity – or rather the patience – to meditate.  Personally I’ve always used exercise or hanging out with friends to escape any deeper concerns or issues I might be having, but that is still just an escape and lately it hasn’t quite been doing the trick.

However, my first attempt at meditation was a bit of a disaster – in fact I had to quit before I went mad! It seemed that the more I tried to ‘empty my mind’, the more negative nonsense kept popping into it. I suppose if it was easy we’d all be doing it and the world would be a better place. Still, I’ve tried to keep going and have actually been having some very mind-opening experiences of late, especially at night when I end up just looking at the stars for a while after the meditation – feeling more ‘at one with the universe’ if not with the planet I’m actually living on!

Meditation can open your mind while calming it down...

Anyway, I’ve been researching it a bit and tried to ‘boil it down’ to the most useful tips I could find. Handy links with more detailed guidance follow below...

1)            Sit still and tall

You need to be comfortable but not too comfortable because you still need to be aware of your surroundings and not in danger of dozing off!

2)            Relax

Close your eyes and scan through the different parts of your body, from your toes to the top of your head, relaxing each one and then moving on to the next. Remember, nobody expects anything from you in this process, ideally yourself included.

4)            Breathe 

Breathe naturally until fully inhaled / exhaled: ‘follow your breath’ in your mind.

3)            Cleanse your 'chakras'

Breathe in the ‘clean energy’ from the Earth. Breathe out anxiety and stress. Purify your chakras by doing this with each one (see the link about chakras below if you’re not too sure about this part). The position (apparently) of your Chakras:

                              Tail bone (root chakra)

                              Stomach

                              Diaphragm

                              Chest

                              Throat

                              Middle eye         

                              Top of head

                   Keep your palms open, supposedly that’s good for energy flow...

 5)            Remain silent

Be aware but don’t react to or try to change anything. If you hear a sound, don’t ‘name it’ in your mind.

6)            Repeat your 'mantra'

Repeat your mantra with each breath. For example, “I am breathing in / I am breathing out”, or “Let it go” or whatever you like, but keep it simple...

Comedian Jerry Seinfeld loves using a mantra

7)            Keep a calm mind

Don’t dwell on any thoughts that may pop into your head. You can acknowledge them, but then just continue focusing on your breathing and your mantra if you’re using one. Keep an ‘empty mind’ – this is the greatest challenge for me, the more I try to relax (‘trying’ to relax is probably the problem) the more silly thoughts pop into my head – even more than usual! But anyway, don’t give up, a new calmness might end up taking you by surprise...

8)            'Wake up' slowly...

When you choose to ‘wake up’, slowly wiggle fingers and toes, and then gradually get up.

9)            Find the time 

Find the time to do this every day – even if it’s for just 5 minutes. It sounds easy, but I’ve found it takes more self-discipline than I expected!

10)         Find a place

Meditating in nature - as ideal as it seems?

You can supposedly meditate anywhere – ideally in nature. However, that might not be so realistic for some people. Even if you do find a place where nobody disturbs you, you might still feel a bit silly if you’re not in the comfort and safety of your own home. I tried to sit on a hill by the sea the other day, it was great for a minute or so but then I kept on imagining somebody creeping up behind me! Then again, I guess I didn’t help myself by watching ‘Constantine’ – a spooky TV series about a Liverpool trickster with supernatural powers –   just before heading off to meditate!

Constantine - probably not the best thing to watch just before meditating!

I know it all sounds very nice and healthy but it's actually been quite a challenge of sorts. If it’s difficult for you too, all I can really say is follow the steps and don’t give up! What’s the worst that can happen from trying this anyway..?

Of course, if you’re still struggling and there’s something that’s really bothering you, perhaps meditation isn’t the way to go? You could try counselling, such as Cognitive Behavioural Therapy, or try taking some action over your perceived problems if at all possible – you might just find you're worrying too much..!

Good advice...

Incidentally, if you need to meditate to help you relax before falling asleep, this ‘blue energy technique’ seems quite good (though I’m yet to find a good method to help me get back to sleep in the mornings – if you know of any, please share it in the comments section below!).

Here are some other useful links on the practice of meditation, including advice from esteemed thinkers such as Ekhart Tolle and a guru of Vipassana:

Cleansing your chakras.

Meditation for people who don’t meditate.

Viapassana Meidtation and body sensation.

How do we stop excessive thinking?

For books on Meditation, here are a few suggestions:

'Popular Meditation Books' (Goodreads)

'25 best Books on Meditation' (Amazon)

'Mindfulness' comes highly recommended

If you have children and they are disturbing your attempts to meditate, why not encourage them to read one of my stories while you practise (there's even a set of 'follow-up' questions for them to answer after each one, so you can read their answers with them when you're both done ;-):

Distract your kids with a book while you meditate!

If you're still finding it difficult to escape the 'reality' of everyday human existence, consider this: On Earth, you are presently spinning around at 1700 km per hour, while the Earth is orbiting the Sun at 108,000 km per hour. The Sun in turn is orbiting around the Milky Way galaxy at 790,000 km per hour (on a journey that takes around 200 million years to complete just one orbit), while the Milky Way is rushing through space at around 3,600,000 km per hour. It's all a bit hard to imagine while you're 'sitting still', but it provides a very different perspective does it not?

You're moving faster than you can imagine

Anyway, I hope you found these hints and tips useful. A peaceful mind makes for a more peaceful world – hopefully... Good luck.

Top Ten Most Amazing Science Facts Ever!

Top ten best ever science facts:

Big Bang Theory - making Science funny

Watching Big Bang Theory recently got me back into the incredible world of science. I loved watching Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey and went out and bought books on natural history, human history, geography, space, science and human biology.

Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey - one of the best documentaries ever!

Once I finally took some time out to enjoy reading them, I realised they were more amazing than any work of fiction – though it’s too bad I can’t remember most of what I’ve read! These facts come from a book that I believe should be on everybody’s shelf, Miles Kelly’s Space Encycolpedia. Concise but relatively comprehensive, I picked it up for a bargain at 'The Works':

Miles Kelly's 'mini' Science Encyclopedia

Science Fact 1: Too small to believe

You can fit 2 billion atoms inside the full stop at the end of this sentence. See how many words Doctor Gremlin can fit inside a full stop in his Battle of the Brats here:

Doctor Gremlin and the Battle of the Brats!

Inside each atom is mostly empty space with a few even tinier subatomic particles inside – if an atom was the size of Anfield Stadium, its nucleus would be smaller than a Subbuteo football!

Anfield from the air - on a subatomic level!

Science Fact 2: Driving on dinosaur juice

Mineral oils come from petroleum, which if formed under the ground over millions of years and made up from the bodies of tiny marine organisms like plankton – so the next time you’re in a car, just think, the engine’s being run on the remains of ancient creatures! Petroleum can also be used to make anything from DVDs to toothpaste!

Science Fact 3: A world without colour

Light travels in the form of photons. If you point a pin at the Sun, a thousand billion photons would hit the pinhead in a single second! When light shines on things, it makes them look like various colours because molecules in their surfaces reflect and absorb particular wavelengths of light.

Beautiful colours... but are they real?

Science Fact 4: Robots inside us

Scientists are now designing nanobots (microscopic robots) which might actually be able to perform surgery inside someone’s body in the future. An electron microscope can focus on something just 1 nanometre (a billionth of a metre) and enlarge it 5 million times!

Science Fact 5: Deadly medicine

Of the 118 known elements in the Periodic Table, the heaviest are actually man-made.

Periodic Table

About 75% of elements are metals; iron is the most common while Mercury is the only one that is liquid at normal temperature and melts at -39 degrees – the first Emperor of China – the remarkable Qin – drank it to help make him live longer but it ended up killing him:

Qin: First Emperor of China

Hydrogen is the lightest element – a swimming pool full would weigh just 1kg – but it is the oldest element and still makes up 90% of the weight of the universe!

Science Fact 6: Colder than ice

When you hear someone cracking their knuckles, the sound you hear is actually bubbles of nitrogen gas popping inside fluid in the joints! Nitrogen becomes liquid at -196 degrees Celsius and is so cold it can be used to make ice cream – you can watch people make it sometimes at fancy restaurants:

Liquid nitrogen: making ice cream

Science Fact 7: Good vibrations

Sound is actually vibrations in the air. If you inhale helium gas, your voice becomes high-pitched because sound travels much faster in helium. It also travels much faster than air in liquids and even more so in solids. Here is an example of how your voice can travel differently through different things:

Doctor Sheldon Cooper's helium surprise

Science Fact 8: Keep your brain moist!

Water usually boils at 100 degrees Celsius but at the top of Mount Everest it takes just 68 degrees because air pressure is lower there. 85% of your brain is made up of water, as is 33% of your bones – so make sure you keep yourself hydrated or your brain will shrink!

Science Fact 9: Underwater elephants

Pressure is measured in ‘Newtons’ per square meter. The pressure at the center of the Earth (inside its core) is around 400 million Newtons, while a shark’s bite is 30 million. At the other end of the scale, the quietest sound measures 200 millionths of a Newton, while sunlight has a pressure of 3 millionths of a Newton! Water pressure at the bottom of the ocean (about 10km deep) is the same as having 7 elephants standing on your head:

Visit the bottom of the ocean: Imagine 7 elephants on your head!

The fluids inside our body have their own pressure and without them we would be crushed by the air around us!

Science Fact 10: Too hot to handle

A campfire burns at around 800 degrees, lava from a volcano at 1200. The surface of the Sun is 6000 while the Earth’s core is even hotter at 7000! However, lightning strikes at 30,000 (turning the air around it into plasma!), a murderous Hydrogen bomb can cause heat of over 40 million degrees and a Tritium bomb over 400,000,000!!!

Lightning turning air to plasma!

Well, I hope you enjoyed learning something amazing today – all we have to do is pick up a book, watch a documentary or even just go for a stroll around a park and take in some of the weird and wonderful things all around us. There must be other forms of life all around our unimaginably vast Universe, but that doesn’t make what we have right now on Earth any less miraculous in itself...