A few dates for your diary

Upcoming events in March 2013!

Saturday 2nd March 2013

C.J. Busby

C.J. Busby, author of the magical Frogspell series (www.frogspell.co.uk) will be signing books at WHSmith Exeter (Guildhall Shopping Centre) from 12pm


Jonny Duddle will be at Waterstones Liverpool One from 2pm

Sunday 3rd March 2013

Karen Saunders, author of Me, Suzy P will be signing books in WHSmith Bath from 2pm


Friday 8th March

Karen Saunders

Jonny Duddle is appearing at the Book Nook in Brighton from 4:30pm

Saturday 9th March

Jonny Duddle is at Waterstones Southampton West Quay from 11:30am

Simon Bartram will be at Discover Centre from 12 -1pm

Belinda Rapley will be at WHSmith Norwich from 12pm

Sunday 10th March

Michael Morpurgo is appearing at Oswestry Festival at 10am

Saturday 23th March

Simon Bartram

Jonny Duddle will be at Waterstones Chester 11:30 - 12:30 and then from

2:30 - 3:30 at Waterstones Wrexham


Sunday 24th March

Jonny Duddle will be at Waterstones Llandudno from 11:30 until 12:30

Wednesday 27th March

Jonny Duddle is at Waterstones Altrincham from 11:30am

and then from 2:30pm Jonny will be at Waterstones Manchester Deansgate

Saturday 30th March

Jonny Duddle will be at Waterstones Cheltenham from 11am until 12 noon.

Jonny Duddle

Keep an eye on our Twitter and Facebook to keep up to date with events and news!

We're very excited to announce a new imprint launching September 2013!

Big Picture Press is a new imprint to offer books that are visually intelligent, surprising and fun for readers of all ages, created by and made for the incurably curious. 

Big Picture Press is a new list of highly­‐illustrated books that is launching in September 2013.

Developed by our creative team and led by publisher Rachel Williams, Big Picture Press showcases work from internationally‐celebrated contributors including McSweeney’s and Keith Haring.

Inspired by the proverb “Many tongues, one eye,” the list has visual intelligence at its heart – speaking to readers around the world.

Our Managing Director Mike McGrath said: "We’re delighted to be launching a list that speaks so strongly of Templar's love for high quality, well‐designed and thoughtfully conceived books. Created as an antidote to digital publishing, these books are testament to the power of reading and the importance of the physical book in this ever‐evolving market.”

Bonnier Publishing CEO Richard Johnson said: "Following the announcement of Templar’s acquisition of Piccadilly Press Ltd, we are delighted once again to show our commitment to growing the company with the launch of this fantastic new list."

Created by a stellar list of artists, each title is design-­‐led, drawing on scientific research about visual acuity and its role in reading comprehension.

My week with Templar

Neave, age 16, spent her work experience week here at Templar Towers. Here are her thoughts on how the week went...

I’m extremely grateful to Templar for giving me the opportunity to spend a week with them, I got a great insight to how publishing works in a relaxed environment. Thanks to all the lovely people who helped me throughout the week. Some of the tasks I was set took a couple of hours whilst others lasted up to two days. Some days were creative, such as making posters for events and others saw me writing reviews on unpublished books. Also, I spent a lot of my time sending books out to magazines, radio stations etc. for reviews. I even sent one to a Hollywood film producer! Exciting! It was fantastic to be able to muck in with even the most basic tasks!

I appreciate the time spent by the Marketing team and a variety of other people to help me settle in and make sure I had plenty to keep me busy. What I have most enjoyed during my time was being able to sit in on a publishers meeting to witness how a book comes to life: From the initial idea to final product.

 I am very fortunate to have been able to spend a week here and have gained valuable skills, which, I hope I will take me into my working life. I found that the office was a pressure free and friendly environment. Everyone I met made me feel at home and welcome, which helped me to relax throughout the week, so I’d like to thank you all for this. Special thanks to Jayne and Emma for providing me with great jobs and making me feel very much at home.

Thank you very much for all your hard work Neave! We wish you all the best for the future.

Guest post: Katherine Roberts on Crown of Dreams

Katherine Roberts, author of the Pendragon Legacy, has written us a guest post about the series so far, what we can expect from Crown of Dreams and what the future holds!

Writing the third book of a four-book series can be tricky. The overall quest will not come to a climax until the final book, and yet Rhianna and her friends have already found the Sword of Light (Excalibur) and the Lance of Truth. If you’ve read The Sword of Light and Lance of Truth, the chances are you’ll know my characters and their world of Camelot almost as well as I do!

If you haven’t read them yet, you’ll meet Rhianna’s mist horse Alba, her friend Prince Elphin from the magical land of Avalon, her brave but rather hopeless squire Cai, and her shy maid Arianrhod. You’ll know what happened to Merlin (which probably served him right), and you’ll do battle with the dark knight Mordred, arch-villain of the stories, several times. In other words, the quest is in danger of getting boring… what new angles could I introduce for the third book?

Setting: Having begun book 1 in Avalon, and book 2 at Camelot, I decided to make the dragon’s lair (where the Crown of Dreams has lain buried since a dragon stole it from the battlefield after Mordred killed King Arthur) into a gateway leading to the shadowy land of Annwn. This added a ghostly dimension to the quest, and enabled Rhianna to meet her dead grandfather Uther Pendragon, as well as setting the scene for another encounter with Mordred’s witch-mother Morgan Le Fay.

Magic: The verse I wrote to introduce the Pendragon series names “the Crown of Dreams, which hides the Jewel of Annwn” – i.e. the Jewel is almost as important as the Crown. Since dragons were already involved, I decided this special jewel would contain the secret of dragon riding (which is not quite what you’d think). The smaller jewels were not going to be magical at all, until I realised they could be useful to my plot. Rhianna is given one of these jewels by her mother at the end of book 2, which turns out to contain King Arthur’s secrets… including how to find the Grail of Stars, which has the power to bring her father back from the dead. Unfortunately, the jewel is useless on its own. It needs to be put back into the Crown before Rhianna can see its secrets, while Mordred wants the missing jewel, because while it exists the Crown is dangerous for him to wear – which does not stop him from trying, of course!

I hope I’ve given Rhianna’s third adventure enough intrigue to keep you turning the pages until the final book The Grail of Stars, which is already with my editor and scheduled for publication this autumn (unless Mordred manages to stop Rhianna from completing her quest, that is… good thing she’s got Excalibur!).

You can follow Katherine on Twitter @AuthorKatherine, her website and blog.
Rhianna Pendragon tweets at @PendragonGirl

Happy publication to Crown of Dreams!

To celebrate the publication of book 3 in The Pendragon Legacy, Crown of Dreams, here is the first chapter from book 1, Sword of Light:

Crown of Dreams is now out in hardback! 978-1-84877-852-8 £9.99

and book 2, Lance of Truth 978-1-84877-866-5, is now available in paperback £6.99!

Help for Heroes: Guest post by Paul Collicutt - Author of Robot City

You know you’re with a good publisher when you ask them for a few books for a charity auction and they get right back to you and say “Hey here’s a couple of boxes of £150 worth of Templar books!”

 That is exactly what happened to me. I’m taking part in a charity auction on February 16^th organized by Cineworld in Brighton in aid of “Help For Heroes”. 

Last year I did a day drawing Robots in their Cinema Foyer and talking with people about Robot City as they queued up for the launch of “Avengers Assemble”. It was so much fun they asked me to take part in this year’s event. I thought….why not paint a picture especially for the event.

“Help For Heroes” is a charity that I support. Both my brothers used to be in the Army and I was always in awe of the way they coped with difficult situations…but don’t tell them that! They both served in the Royal Regiment of Fusiliers and they both wore the red and white Hackle on their caps. It was obvious therefore that I had to paint an image of Curtis The Colossal Coast Guard who sports a red and white livery.

I’ve blogged about the process of painting this image on the Robot City Blog on the Robot City website. The painting itself is 30in x 22in ( 762mm x 559mm ) and is in Acrylics on Illustration Board. It is finished off with a "Japan Gold Size " varnish.

The painting will be auctioned on the day in conjunction with an auction website and you can start bidding on it right now. Go ahead and pick up a bargain and support Help For Heroes at the same time. The auction website is now live! You can bid for the painting here. All the money goes to Help For Heroes!

Big big thanks to Templar and Emma O’Donovan for their instant support on this event…quicker than Usain Bolt. They got back to me within two minutes of me sending an e-mail…..and that’s just enough time to reflect on what a great publisher I’m with!

Paul  Collicutt

Author of Robot City Adventures