Advance Copy of Klint-King's Gold

Exciting day the other day when I opened the post to find my first advance copy of the third Thomas Trew title, Thomas Trew and the Klint-King's Gold! This one takes Thomas from the bustling Magicians' and Enchanters' Convention in Owlchurch and Aspire to the rocky kingdom of the Klints, a Montaynard people famed for their wealth. They've donated some wonderful golden prizes for whoever wins the Tricks Tournament at the Convention--but there are many greedy eyes on that gold, and Thomas and the twins are soon whisked into an intriguing and dangerous adventure!
Thomas and the Klint-King's Gold will be out in Britain on June 21, and in Australia in August. It's dedicated to the Trew family of Ramsgate--Thomas, Alice, Linda and Dave--whom I talked about in an earlier entry. Watch out for its appearance at a bookshop near you!

NEW! Thomas Trew on You Tube

I've just made a little video talk about the Thomas Trew series, which is now uploaded at You Tube, at http://youtube.com/sophievmasson
It's intended as a kind of 'virtual author visit', for all those readers and schools I can't physically go and visit. In it, I talk about some of the sources and inspiration for the series, as well as lots more. I hope you enjoy it!

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...