I did an online school event with some of the students of Outwood Shafton Academy a couple of weeks ago, in which I chatted about my books, did a reading, and answered LOTS of questions. I've attached some photos that the school posted online afterwards, featuring a shot of the event, plus a couple in the library afterwards when my books were flying off the shelves like hot cakes!! I was especially pleased to see a copy of The Thin Executioner being checked out -- I mentioned in the event, when answering a question, that it was my favourite out of all the books I've written, so it was good to see that the students were paying attention!! :-)

I used to be very reluctant to commit to online events. Living in the countryside, my internet connection was unreliable, so I was always concerned about things at my end. And schools faced technical difficulties and limitations too, and often they only had one small computer screen at their end, meaning they couldn't accommodate more than a small selection of students in a single, cramped room.

That's all changed. My internet connection is much better than it used to be, while Zoom and the like have made it very easy to set up large-scale talks -- most of the events I've done recently have linked to several rooms in the hosting schools, meaning students from lots of different classes can get involved -- and they all have projectors, so the students can see as well as hear me! :-) Indeed, I'm doing an event in January in which several schools will be involved, all linking in at the same time, which should be a lot of fun.

In short, my doors are now VERY much open on the virtual event front, and I'm doing far more online sessions than I've ever done before -- I already have a few booked in for January. If YOU are a teacher or librarian, anywhere in the world (or if you're a student who wants to show this to your teacher or librarian) and are interested in contacting me to enquire about the possibility of arranging your own online event, please feel free to reach out and drop me a line using this email address: [email protected]

I don't charge, and I'm happy to talk about any of my books. I don't say YES to every request, but if you're well organised and can put together a sizeable group of students, then you've got a damn good chance of reeling me in!!!