Photos of the Australian launch of Thomas Trew!

John Heffernan and me in Dymocks Bookshop with some of the young people attending the launch!
John is ecstatic over Ted Dewan's illustrations...
me at the signing table...
some more of the people at the launch, where a good time was had by all!

Some exciting news!

Yes! Thomas Trew and the Hidden People has been chosen as one of the titles in the big UK Summer Reading Challenge, which is run in 97 percent of libraries in the UK. The Summer Reading Challenge, which is organised by The Reading Agency (www.readingagency.org.uk) is a big deal for readers aged 4-11, and features libraries ordering copies of the books, and children reading up to six books, collecting stickers as they go. It always attracts huge support, so it's very exciting indeed to be one of the titles chosen!
In other great news, the audio rights to Thomas Trew and the Hidden People have just been sold to the BBC. So soon there'll be a lovely audiobook version of the book, with the BBC's usual wonderful dramatisation. I'm really excited about this too!

NEWS: What a launch!

What a launch Thomas Trew got last night for his career in Australia! It was, in fact, a fantastic champagne launch, courtesy of the lovely people at Dymocks Bookshop, Armidale-thank you, Graeme, Susan, Elizabeth, Charlotte and Julie! And thank you very much to John Heffernan, who made the loveliest launch speech an author could hope for--especially from a fellow author! Thanks to all the people who were there--I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did! Next week, I'll post up some pictures from the event.
There's been a lot of interest around Thomas Trew this week in my region--I did three radio interviews, a TV interview, and two newspaper interviews! And some wonderful school visits as well. It all augurs well for Thomas and his friends. I'm very excited!

13: The Hidden People, Part C: The Montaynards

The Montaynards are the people who live in the rocks and mountains of the Hidden World. There are Montaynards living in all kinds of places, but in the third book in the series, Thomas Trew and the Klint-King's Gold, Thomas and his friends meet two sorts of Montaynards: the very rich dwarves known as the Klints, and their servants and bodyguards, the ginormous trolls! The Klints and their trolls live in the Klint Kingdom, which is far across the sea. It is a strange, rocky sort of place, and rather barren, but as Klints live actually within the rock formations and hills, they don't care about that.

Montaynards generally are pretty wealthy, as they trade in gold and all kinds of precious stones which they dig up from within the rocks and mountains where they live. Montaynard dwarves are great talkers, and love to make speeches. They also love fine clothes, banquets and parties and flowing hair(or beards, in the case of the men.) Their names reflect this--the men have names like Brock Blackbeard, the women names like Gilda Goldenhair. They are often brave, short-tempered and good people to have on your side! The trolls meanwhile are rather slow and stupid, though some of them can be rather cunning. They are huge and powerful and generally loyal to their dwarf overlords. They have long protected Montaynard realms from attack. But they can be dangerous, too...

12: NEWS! The Australian launch of the series!

The first book of the Thomas Trew series, Thomas Trew and the Hidden People, is just about to come out in Australia(official release date into bookshops is April 26). To celebrate, we're having a bit of a launch party. It's going to be held in my home town of Armidale, in northern NSW, and here are the details:
Date: Thursday May 10
Time: 5.30 pm
Place: Dymocks Bookshop, Armidale.
John Heffernan, the well-known children's author, who also lives locally, will be launching the book.
Anyone who' s in the area and would like to come, is most cordially invited!
You can contact Dymocks Armidale at armidale@dymocks.com.au or on 02 67714558.

11:The Hidden People, Part B: The Uncouthers

I'm going to talk about the Uncouthers now because Thomas meets them, in all their awfulness, in the very first book!

The Uncouthers live underground. Their realm is called the Land of Nightmare, and it's mostly taken up by the dark, crowded city of Pandemonium. At present they are ruled by their Queen, Lilith, with her second-in-command being her son, General Legion Morningstar (there he is, sitting on his throne, with his court around him).
In fact, the General has taken over much of the government in recent times. Uncouther government is very strict. In fact it's cruel and hard. The Uncouthers keep slaves, who toil without rest in the nightmare factories. But even those who aren't slaves don't have many rights. There are informers, secret police, torture and execution for anyone who dares to protest. Fear reigns in Pandemonium and Nightmare generally.

The Uncouthers produce nightmares. That is their main export, along with nasty spells that they sell to wicked magicians. They are the sworn enemies of the rest of the Hidden World's people, though they occasionally make alliances with villainous or ambitious types amongst the rest of the Hidden People. Long ago, they fought a terrible war with the rest of the Hidden World, and when they were defeated(with the help of the first Rymer, True Thomas), they had to sign a strict treaty which allows them to continue trading in their goods but forbids them from leaving their land, except for special occasions, such as the big Convention of Magicians and Enchanters. Even then, they have to abide by special rules. Queen Lilith abides by the treaty, but her son the General has other plans..

If the Uncouthers ever managed to break right through and send their armies to take over the rest of the Hidden World, it would be a disaster not only for the Hidden World. For they'd then send plagues of nightmares and evil spells to infect our world, and people would go crazy with fear.

You'd think no-one would want to form alliances with such people, but as Thomas discovers in the course of his adventures, that's not the case at all!

10: The Hidden People, part A--the Middlers

There's several different races of people in the Hidden World, and they live in all kinds of different environments. I just thought you might like to know a bit about each of them, the things they're famous for, and so on.

I'll start with the Middlers, as they're the first sort Thomas meets when he goes into the Hidden World. Both Owlchurch and Aspire are Middler villages, for instance.

Middlers live on the surface of the earth, usually in villages or small towns. There aren't any big towns in Middler country. But there are also some Middlers who live on their own, especially in forests or by streams and so on. Those kinds of Middlers are called 'solitaries'. Some solitaries are good, like Old Gal. Others, like Peg Powler, the dangerous solitary with sharp teeth who haunts one of the pools near Owlchurch, are bad. (In fact, all Middlers can either be good, bad, or in-between)

Middlers can be of all shapes and sizes and appearances, though usually they're not as tall as Ariels or as small as Montaynards. They are well-organised with village councils and Mayors and so on. Villages can often be very different from each other, like Owlchurch, which is cosy, comfortable and old-fashioned, and Aspire, which is glamorous and modern.
Every couple of years, the Middlers run the huge Magicians' and Enchanters' Convention, which allows human witches, wizards, enchanters and so on to mingle with people from all over the Hidden World and buy their pishogue.

The pishogue of Middlers is of all sorts, but generally it's recognised that they have the best Dream-makers and the best Tricksters of all the Hidden World. They also have great bookshops, and the best healers and ointment-makers. One of the oldest of the Middler realms, the realm of King Pan, deep in the forest, is recognised to have the best pishogue of all, and its award of the Horns of Pan is highly sought-after by everyone.
Middler country is usually very green, with nice streams and rivers, rolling hills and woods, and lovely little villages. The photo above (which is actually of the Wye River valley) gives you a bit of an idea of what a Middler landscape might look like.