Thomas Trew and the Island of Ghosts shortlisted!

The sixth and final book in the series, Thomas Trew and the Island of Ghosts, has just been shortlisted for the 2008 Aurealis Awards, in the Children's Long Fiction category.

The Aurealis Awards are Australia's premier fantasy, science fiction, and horror awards, and I'm delighted and honoured that my book was shortlisted!

You can have a look at the full list on http://www.aurealisawards.com/

Thomas Trew in book parades!

We had Pinch and Patch appearing in a parade for World Book Day in the UK(see earlier post)--and across the world, in Australia, here's Thomas Trew making his debut in a school book parade for Children's Book Week, complete with stripy jumper!

Thank you to Oliver, and his mum, for letting me put up this lovely photo on the blog. And to Ben Venue school too for inviting me to come in and talk about the Thomas Trew books this week--great to meet so many dedicated readers of the series!

Madman of Venice trailer

On my You Tube channel, I've just put up a trailer for my forthcoming novel for older readers, The Madman of Venice, which comes out in the UK and Australia in April 2009, published by Hodder Children's Books. In news just to hand, it will also be published in the USA, by Random House!

Go and have a look at www.youtube.com/sophievmasson

You can also read a bit about it at my Googlepages site, http://sophievmasson.googlepages.com/ , click on 'Shakespearean series vol 4.'

More BBC Audio..

Just heard that the BBC are buying audio rights for Thomas Trew and the Horns of Pan, which is fantastic! They'll be turning it into an audiobook, on CD. They did such a wonderful job with Thomas Trew and the Hidden People, so I'm delighted they're taking the second one in the series! It'll be released next year--more details as they come to hand.

Pinch and Patch on World Book Day!

Book character parades are one of the most fun ways of showing just how much you've enjoyed a book. It's also very thrilling for an author if one of their book characters is chosen. I'm very pleased and proud to say that on World Book Day this year, Cerian and Sarah of Gomer Junior School in Hampshire chose to come as Pinch and Patch! And don't they look just fantastic!

Back from a trip..

I'm just back from a trip to Europe. Part of that time was spent in London, where I went to see my wonderful editor, Beverley Birch, and got some very good news from her--Thomas Trew and the Klint-King's Gold(no.3) has just reprinted, and has a brand-new cover to go with it, and as well, Thomas Trew and the Selkie's Curse(no.4) and Thomas Trew and the Flying Huntsman(no.5) have also reprinted. So it's all looking good!

Bits and pieces

Yesterday I did a signing of the last three Thomas Trew books, which have just come out in Australia, in one of our local bookshops. I spoke to a few readers who came by to say hello and buy books. It's always good to do that. Look out for the books now too in your own local bookshops!

And out soon too will be the book Demigods and Monsters, which is a collection of pieces by various authors for young people--including yours truly--about Rick Riordan's marvellous Percy Jackson series, which is based on Greek myth, updated to modern times. Like Through the Wardrobe, it's published by Ben Bella Books and is a Borders exclusive. It features lots of interesting pieces about all sorts of aspects of the series--and guess what, it's edited by Rick Riordan himself!