Jinxed

As it's taken me so long to get around to blogging, there's a whole broom cupboard full of Stuff That Hasn't Been Blogged About Yet. And I realise I've never told you about the telly thing. So now, here it is:

The Telly Thing

Actually you see I haven't mentioned it because I was waiting for the Telly Thing to happen. Which it hasn't. Except that a pilot was made.

No, not that sort of pilot; the sort I'm talking about is a single episode, so that one bunch of telly people can show it to another, richer and more powerful bunch of telly people, to help them decide whether they want to make all thirteen episodes or not. That was, um, six months ago. And I've just had some news (drum roll): the big, rich, powerful telly people concerned (that'll be Nickelodeon to you and me) have...

...still not decided.

I had been waiting for news of an actual decision before telling you about it, in the superstitious belief that if I mentioned it any earlier, I would jinx the whole thing. Then I realised that me, my editor and my agent would all look like this if I waited that long:

So I'm telling you about it. And hey, who knows? Perhaps talking about it will make it happen! ANYWAY, I suppose I should mention what sort of telly thing it is. Well, first of all, it's loosely based on my Lulu Baker trilogy. I say loosely, because it's not actually a dramatisation, it's a sitcom version, and they've made quite a lot of changes. Here's a publicity image:

Note the title! I wonder whether we'll have more luck if they change it? That's Lulu on the right, by the way. And the lady on the left is Aunt Cookie. No, don't go rushing to your bookshelves, trying to remind yourself of who she is; she's nowhere to be found in the books! But in the Telly Thing, she's a sort of magical chef-type lady who springs out of Lulu's recipe book.

So there you go; that's the update. I've had a lot of readers ask if a Lulu Baker movie will be made...well, this, so far, is the nearest we've got. So no Cameron Diaz or Queen Latifah yet, alas! (see my FAQs if that makes no sense to you).

I also sometimes get asked if there'll be a film of Toonhead. And I reckon you could do something really interesting with that, along the lines of Who Framed Roger Rabbit, or Space Jam.


It's about time there was another live action/ cartoon animation movie, if you ask me.

Lambananas

Do you know what a lambanana is? Half lamb, half banana, of course!

A couple of weeks ago I was in Liverpool...But more about that anon. On the way, I bumped into this lot, from Whitby High School in Ellesmere Port:


They thought Toonhead might be good enough to win the Cheshire book award. It wasn't (Derek Landy's Skulduggery Pleasant was).

Here I am with Jane Peck and Ann Cowsill, the organisers of the award:


Here's just one of the reviews:



Going to Ellesmere Port meant that I got to visit Chester, which looks like this:


All of it. Then it was onto Liverpool, where I was visiting St John Bosco school, along with Frank Cottrell Boyce and Bob Wilson. There I met a pirate, a lot of Pippi Longstockings, and a series of unfortunate wardrobe disasters. That's because they were all dressed up as favourite fictional characters. Oh, and there was a dalek. Sorry for the lack of pictures, but I was very busy and even as recently as this, I had no idea I'd end up blogging about it! I DO, however, have a picture of a lambanana:


It's not great I know – I took the picture from my taxi – but you get the idea. Anyway, Liverpool, 2008 City of Culture, has lambananas round every corner, after the original Super Lamb Banana created by artist Taro Chiezo ten years ago as an ironic comment on the dangers of genetic engineering.

Unexpected Item in Blogging Area

Here is your very own unexpected item!

It's taken me a long time to get around to blogging, I know. That's because I was scared. I thought the blog monster might take over my life, because as everyone knows, blog monsters are very tiny, but once they enter your bloodstream they multiply into squillions of blog monsters, and the next thing you know, you're drinking maximum strength coffee at 2am, staring with bloodshot eyes at the glowing screen, and telling the world about your last irritating encounter with the automatic checkout machine at Tesco's, when NOBODY CARES.

Here is a picture of a Blog Monster:


Beware. It probably will take over my life: if it does, and I do get really boring/pompous/snarky do please tell me off, won't you? Ta.