New year, lots of new ideas – time to get cracking…

I’m rarely out of the papers these days, it seems. Actually, I’ve been in our local paper, The Isle of Wight County Press twice in a month. Still, I’m pleased.

Today’s story is about my new book, Jamie and the Joke Factory, which the County Press  kindly says: ‘guarantees to have youngsters in stitches with its wacky spirit’.

Jamie and the Joke Factory, is available to BUY NOW from Amazon, price £6.99.

Thank you to all of you who (metaphorically) rushed out and bought a copy of my new book, Jamie and the Joke Factory, at the first opportunity. It is so gratifying to see the sales coming through from Amazon almost as soon as the book was published, and I really appreciate your support.

For anyone who hasn’t already heard about it, Jamie and the Joke Factory is a slightly crazy combination of picture book and joke book (making it a bargain two-for-the-price-of-one stocking filler!) It tells the story of a little boy called Jamie, and his surprise day out at the joke factory.

You haven’t heard of a joke factory? Well neither had Jamie, but jokes have to be made somewhere, and a joke factory (logically) is the place they are made.

(Actually, when I read the book to a group of 4, 5 and 6 year olds recently, one of the boys claimed he’d not only heard of a joke factory, but he’d visited one! So maybe, after all, you have too?)

Anyway, the story follows Jamie and Grandad as they watch ‘doctor, doctor’ jokes; ‘I say, I say, I say’ jokes; ‘knock, knock’ jokes; and puns role off the production line, guided by the factory owner, Billy Bonkers. Any resemblance to Willy Wonka is not entirely coincidental, but though Jamie and the Joke Factory pays a small homage to Roald Dahl’s wonderful Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, they are quite different books.

Jamie and the Joke Factory is picture book, where the pictures tell the story as much as the words and the visual gags are as important as the written ones. The book is stuffed full of word- and picture-based jokes, which I hope extends the appeal of the picture book to slightly older children and even reluctant readers.

But please let me know what you think. And if you like it, please consider posting a review on Amazon too. Thank you!

Jamie and the Joke Factory, is available to BUY NOW from Amazon, price £6.99.

Pleased to see that the Isle of Wight County Press has included a piece about my Halloween reading and craft session in Bembridge Library last week:

Saturday (7 November) marks my first anniversary as an indie-published children’s author (and, coincidentally, my beautiful great niece’s first birthday). So woohoo on both counts!

I can’t believe it’s 12 months since I published Hairy Fairy, or that I have managed to publish two more books – Isabella, Rotten Speller and Jamie and the Joke Factory since then. (Just in case you were under the impression I am frighteningly prolific, I should point out that Hairy Fairy was actually written back in 2012 and Isabella, Rotten Speller in 2013/14, though I did manage to complete Jamie and the Joke Factory, from start to finish, this year.)

The best thing about having published books, available to buy from Amazon (among others), is that it somehow, at least in my own eyes, legitimises the time I spend on my writing and colouring in. I no longer feel I have to be secretive and apologetic about it. It’s what I do. It’s my job (albeit a not particularly well paid one!)

Since finishing  Jamie and the Joke Factory, I have been trying to address that last issue by sharpening up on my marketing. To be fair, I was starting from a position of almost zero effort, so it’s not much to my credit that I can say I have made some progress over the last few weeks.

I had actually resolved to concentrate entirely on marketing between now and Christmas…

But yesterday I dug out the story I started, and then got stuck on, back in the summer and realised I know how to move it on after all. So I’m afraid that marketing will once again be taking a backseat (though I’ll try not to ignore it altogether!) as I am now going to try very hard to complete the first draft of my next book before Christmas, ready to start with the pictures early in the new year.

In case you’re wondering, it’s going to be my first ever sequel (if you see what I mean), following the further adventures of my little witch, Isabella. I’m very excited about it!

So I think it’s time I stopped doing this and started doing that. I am very much looking forward to my second year as an indie-published author and illustrator.

I had fun at Bembridge Library this morning, reading spooky stories, including Hubble Bubble Granny Trouble, by Tracey Corderoy and Joe Berger and Funnybones, by Janet and Allan Ahlberg, as well as my own witchy book, Isabella, Rotten Speller.

We also made some creepy spiders and scary skeletons and some of us did some colouring in. Thank you to all the children who came along (and the grown-ups who brought them.) You were all so attentive during the reading and so very skilful with my (slightly rubbish) scissors during the craft activities. I hope you all enjoyed the morning as much as I did.

Thank you to the volunteers at Bembridge Community Library for making me feel so welcome and joining in the spirit of the event.

I have written this poem for Halloween, I hope you like it!

HALLOWEEN 2015

A swooping bat and spitting cat,
A witch that grins ’neath pointy hat,
A little monster, green and fluffy,
A vampire slayer, name of Buffy,
A ghost that wails and clanks its chains,
Ketchup blood and rubber brains,
A pumpkin and another witch,
In nylon cape that makes her itch.
From the gloom, a phantom looms,
Peering into lighted rooms.
All about are ghoulish gangs.
Dracula’s wearing outsize fangs.
Zombies, wizards, little devil;
’Tis the night when all spooks revel.

Sprites and spectres laugh and lark,
Excited to be in the dark.
A skeleton, a monster bride,
Elsa’s striding out with pride.
She doesn’t want to be a ghoul,
But this young Elsa is no fool;
Dressing up, she knows, is what
Is needed to fill up her pot,
With lollies, chocolates, gooey chews,
Candies in a range of hues,
Toffees, sherbet, liquorice strings,
And lots of other sticky things.
’Tis the night for all things sweet;
The night we all shout: ‘TRICK OR TREAT!’

Peta Rainford, October 2015

If you liked this poem and would like to see more of the same, please sign up for my email newsletter by filling in the form at the bottom of this page (don’t worry, your details won’t be published on the website!) or email me at: petarainford@gmail.com.

My new book, Jamie and the Joke Factory, had its first public outing today, when I went into school to read it to a group of four, five and six-year-olds.

It’s an age group that loves the format and conventions of jokes – all the ‘doctor, doctors’ and the ‘knock, knocks’ etc – but their sense of what a joke actually is, is, to say the least, surreal. At several points, Jamie and the Joke Factory challenges readers to come up with jokes. These were a couple of the highlights from this morning’s session:

‘Knock, knock.’
‘Whose there’
‘Jellyfish’
‘Jellyfish who?’
‘Just a blue one!’

and

‘Why wasn’t the banana peeling very well?’
‘Because he was a banana!’

All good stuff, I’m sure you’ll agree.

I was also slightly taken aback to discover that a joke factory is not something I invented for the purposes of my story. It turns out that one of the boys has actually visited one. I’m pretty sure he said it was in Bromsgrove. You learn something new every day.

Jamie and the Joke Factory, is available to BUY NOW from Amazon, price £6.99.

There’s Disney, there’s One Direction, there’s the Star Wars franchise, and now there’s Peta Rainford’s Books. Yes, my brand has merchandise!

I am very excited to have some bags (‘my big bag of stories’) to sell my books in, as well as colourful fridge magnets and dinky key rings.

I will be selling them all, along with my books, at various Christmas sales over the next few weeks, so watch this space for more details about when and where.

Very excited to announce that my new book, Jamie and the Joke Factory, is available to BUY NOW from Amazon, price £6.99. I really hope you like it!