Good Causes, Exciting Schemes, Book Birthdays And More!

G-Dog was e x h a u s t e d after his stint at blogging last week, so he's let me have the blog back for a while. I thought I'd use this opportunity to tell you about some stuff I and other people have been doing!

ACID is out in 5 weeks and 2 days (not that I'm counting or anything. Ahem)!! And it's featured on DARK DAYS author Kate Ormand's blog today, as part of her 'Sneak Peek' feature. You can find out more here!

RUBY AND GRUB and BUTTERCUP MAGIC author Abi Burlingham would like to know if any picture book or middle grade authors can help Ystruth Primary School in Blaina, South Wales, build a library by donating one of their books. The school is in a very deprived area, where many children have never experienced a library visit, so the school want to set one up to encourage the pupils to read and fall in love with books. However, they have very few resources, and will struggle to do so on their own. Please go and read Abi's post about the project, and if you can help, get in touch with her!

Have you heard about the Patron of Reading scheme? This is another project that's been set up at a school in Wales, Esgob Morgan, by the headteacher Tim Redgrave and author Helena Pielichaty. Authors anywhere in the UK can sign up to be a Patron and have their details added to the school's website, and then schools can browse the list and get in touch with them to see if they'd be a good match. I signed up a while ago and am now talking to a school about becoming their Patron – which is very exciting! For more details about this amazing scheme, see the school's website. You can also tweet Tim at @timredgrave.

 There's been LOTS of book birthdays among the Lucky 13s this month. You can now grab yourself Mindee Arnett's THE NIGHTMARE AFFAIR, Tamera Will Wissinger's GONE FISHING, Sarah Skilton's BRUISED, Steven dos Santos's THE CULLING, Debra Driza's MILA 2.0 and Nicole McInne's BRIANNA ON THE BRINK. And Liz Coley's PRETTY GIRL-13 releases in the US today as well! Woo-hoo!

Please also check out Bridget Zinn's POISON, which released on the 12th March. Tragically, Bridget never got to see her book in print, as she died from cancer in 2011. I didn't know her personally, but I used to follow her blog, and like many other people, was shocked and saddened when she lost her fight against her illness. POISON looks like an amazing book, and deserves to do incredibly well!

Finally, I'm involved in a top secret project, along with lots of other AMAZING authors, which I'm hoping I'll be able to tell you about soon! But not yet. Shh.

See you next week (if G-Dog doesn't get here first!)!