Heading Down Under Again!

Yes, the rumours (and, er, the announcement in the back of a few books) are true- 2012 will see my second trip to Australia and New Zealand for a Skulduggery tour. I will spend two weeks in August- from the 6th to the 20th- going around meeting the Minions-who-talk-funny and signing whatever they have to sign. The first few days will be spent in NZ, then off to Oz. Details, such as exactly which cities I'll be visiting, shall be forthcoming as soon as I have them. I actually have no input into where I visit because my publishers do all the arranging, and I just go where I'm told to go.

My last tour, in 2010, was a huge success and every single day I was startled by the reaction. It was exhausting, with an astonishing amount of travel, but so worth it.

When I get back home, I have a little over a week to recover before the Ireland/UK tour kicks off. We're going to be doing something different this year- instead of heading over to the UK for 10 straight days, I'll be heading over for three weekends in a row. The plan is to pack as many signings in as possible on days when none of you will have school or college or work, so hopefully you can come along if you haven't had a chance to before. Again, further details will be available once I have them.

And now for something completely different...

How did you enjoy World Book Day? I know, I know, different countries have World Book Day at different times of the year, and some countries don't have World Book Day at all, so, the very term itself is kind of misleading... but ANYWAY...

I had a very good World Book Day, thank you very much. I was over in London with a bunch of other writers for a huge webcast thingy that was broadcast to three quarters of a million students across Ireland and the UK and, I don't know, possibly elsewhere. We each had five minutes onstage, which isn't a whole lot of time. I ended up talking about my dogs, for some reason. It was manic, but amusing.

Behind the scenes, however, was where the real fun was taking place. Put ten authors in a room, especially authors who write for young people, and after a while things are going to get slightly odd. And when a camera comes out to record interviews? Oh dearie me. I'm sure they'll be posted on worldbookday.com soon enough, so you can watch as responsible adults (such as me) turn into immature kids as we try to make each other laugh. Fun and games galore with Andy Stanton and Steve Cole and Chris Bradford, while Cressida Cowell looked on in astonishment. Eoin Colfer wasn't above having a bit of a lark himself, but Holly Webb and Jeremy Strong did the wise thing and stayed well away from the rest of us. Jacqueline Wilson, meanwhile, must have wondered what the hell was going on.

To end the webcast, we all trotted back onstage to meet The Duchess of Cornwall. I'm completely ignorant about all things royal family-ish, and I may have forgotten to stop chewing gum when I was shaking her hand. But I DID smile and say "pleased to meet you", so that was something, wasn't it? At least I didn't have my hands in my pockets, like Ronan O'Gara did when the Queen met the Irish rugby team.

Which, I have to say, I think is hilariously dim.

Annnnnyway...

I've been on TV quite a lot lately, and it's all thanks to World Book Day, so thank you, World Book Day, for interfering with my writing week. I was on the Alan Titchmarsh Show, which most of you know about, and then I was on Live With Gabby on Channel 5 a few days later, then I was on Elev8 on RTE yesterday, and on Tuesday morning I'll be on Ireland Am on TV3...

Good GOD. I'll be sick of myself, I swear I will.

And I can't even get away from myself in newspapers, either. The Guardian asked me to list my ten favourite villains from YA/children's fiction, and you can see if you agree with me by clicking here http://www.guardian.co.uk/childrens-books-site/2012/mar/01/derek-landy-top-ten?newsfeed=true .

( I didn't include any of MY villains, because obviously mine would be best, and I'm far too modest to proclaim that in a national newspaper.)

Okay, that's enough babbling. It's 2:30 in the afternoon and I haven't eaten anything yet. Must make lunch.


Oh! One last thing! Take a look at this video- http://www.standup.ie/index/ - which promotes standing up to homophobic bullying. I mean, life is hard enough to get through without bullies making things worse, and the only decent thing to do is stand up for your friends when they need you.


And NOW I'm going to make lunch.