h, how the mighty fall. There I was in my last newsletter banging on about how the new book I was writing was – and I quote – "right rattling off the page" and what happens? Four months in, forty six thousand magnificent words along and ... it wasn't working. OK. This is not a disaster, I kept telling myself, this is par for the course. It is 'one of those things'. It is what happens to real writers. Never mind all that - it is a shock is what it is! Worse than Town losing in the first round of the play-offs to Barnsley! Yes, that bad! So I have started my masterpiece again and will say no more about it until it is finished. My lips are seriously sealed.

One good thing to come out of all this is I have been reading more. Contrary to what some might think, reading other writers' books while writing my own doesn't tempt me to copy their ideas. Instead, reading reminds me why I write. There is that sheer pleasure of becoming so immersed in a book you don't want to do anything else apart from turn the page and see what happens next. I love that feeling of being half way through a book and knowing it is waiting for me like a loyal friend or, better still, a bag of Lion's Midget Gems (original ones – not the new variety).

I whizzed though the list of books I mentioned last time – Celia Rees' Wish House (first love, first sex, first death – great by-line) Rachel Anderson's This Strange New Life, Kelly McKain's Lost Goddess, Sue Limb's Girl 15, Charming but Insane. The only one from the list I haven't got round to yet is Ann Turnbull's Forged in the Fire as I'm saving that for my train journey to Preston next month.

ther books read include Once by Morris Gleitzman The Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants by Ann Brashares, The Wrong Hands by Nigel Richardson, The Story of my Life by Anne Cassidy. All good, pacy reads. Once will remain with me because it made me laugh and cry.

do read adult stuff as well! One I finally got round to reading Perfume by Patrick Suskind. A friend of mine recommended this to me a couple of years ago and I'm ashamed to say I had it on that 'to read' pile that long. It is excellent, though a bit macabre in places. Set in eighteenth-century France it tells the story of Jean-Baptiste Grenouille. Grenouille didn't have the best start in life – his mother gave birth to him while gutting fish on a market stall (as you do) and, thinking the baby stillborn, left him under the stall while she went for a wash. This warranted her arrest and she was hanged for abandoning the infant. Her fate sets the scene for most of those who come into contact with Grenouille ever after. Even as a baby he repulses those who come across him, beginning with his wet nurse who returns him to the priest, complaining, among other things that the baby has no smell.

It is this odd quality that sets our main character apart from his peers and around which the story is based – indeed Grenouille gives off no odours whatsoever. What he has instead is a unique sense of smell and here is where the writer excels himself. Suskind impregnates every page with descriptions of that sense. I need to quote. Am I allowed to quote? I hope Mr Suskind won't mind. I'm honestly not worth suing if he does. Anyway, description of the rue Saint-Martin reads:

'It was a mixture of human and animal smells, of water and stone and ashes and leather, of soap and fresh-baked bread and eggs boiled in vinegar, of noodles and smoothly polished brass, of sage and ale and tears, of grease and soggy straw and dry straw. Thousands and thousands of odours formed an invisible gruel that filled the street ravines ...'

And so on for 263 pages. Magnifique.

Memo to self: make my stories more smelly!

chools

April: Caerphilly for two days with the energetic and enthusiastic Lesley and Chris from Caerphilly Library Services. Hello to all at St Illtyd's, Blackwood Primary, Libanus Primary and Cefn Fforest Primary schools there. Following that I made a return visit to Djanogly City College in Nottingham. The Year Sevens I met were a delight but then they do have the indomitable Helen Pallett as senior librarian and the brilliant writer Stefan Collishaw as head of English so they're bound to be a bit special, aren't they?

May took me back to Wales. I worked for a day in Ruthin Library with seven keen teachers, any of whom I'd have been thrilled to have had as class teachers for my children (this is the biggest compliment I can bestow upon a teacher). This was an experimental day for all of us on how to develop creative writing with pupils. I can't wait to see what happens when we meet up again at the end of June for feedback. The next day I was in Rhyl with the ebullient Bernadette Thomas of Ysgol Emmanuel. Hello to all the children there who asked me so many original questions! I do like it when schools are well prepared for my visit like Emmanuel was; it makes the day much more fun.

I gave an evening talk to the Leeds and Airedale FCBG on the 16th. Many thanks to Josie for saving me from the rain and puddles of Leeds Station. On the 22nd I appeared at the Birmingham Young Readers festival and had a great day meeting schools at Weoley Castle and Sheldon Library. Again, the session at Weoley Castle went with such a bang because the children had been part of a Talking Texts initiative beforehand. Birmingham has often come up with innovative ideas to promote reading – check out their brilliant and up to the minute website on www.birmingham.gov.uk/youngreaders.

Forthcoming events include the Lancashire Children's Book festival, a day with Y7s at Turves Green, Birmingham and an appearance in September in Bexhill on Sea. I have cut down a lot on visits as I am trying to get my book written but I am hoping to do a signing at Ottakar's in Wakefield this summer as well.

Book signings can be a hit-and-miss affair. Sometimes they are a success, sometimes they aren't. I had one woman in Huddersfield getting her knickers in a twist because I wouldn't sign a copy of Harry Potter for her son. 'But I haven't written it,' I kept telling her. Would she listen? No.

I'm sure the good people of Wakefield will flock to the Ridings Centre to buy books I have actually written, especially the After school Club series which is set locally.

'll leave you with my suggested list of books to read between World Cup matches this summer:

• Keeper by Mal Peet (absolutely brilliant – age 9+)
• Match of Death by James Riordan (set in WW2 and based on a true story – it will blow you away – age 11+)
• There's Only One Danny Ogle by Helena Pielichaty (not going to leave myself out, am I? Anyway, it's a classic – age 8+)
• Dazzer Plays On by Steve May (funny and moving – ages 9+)

Best wishes,