Guest Publication Day Post: Matt Brown - Compton Valance: The Most Powerful Boy In The Universe


I like to welcome Matt Brown to Mr Ripley's Enchanted Books. Thank you for taking the time to write this insightful blog post. I would also like to take this opportunity to wish you and your book a Happy Publication Day... 

How It Feels To See Your Book On A Shelf

When I first tried my hand at writing and getting a book published, the signs were not good.  Bad, even.  The first story I wrote and sent to agents came back with letters that began with “we are sorry to say” and “at the moment we have a large number of works on file” and “how dare you send me this putrid effluent you hideous waste of a pair of trousers” (I may have been reading between the lines here.) That was in 2004, so it has taken ten years to finally get to the day that I sometimes thought would never come. Drumroll please.  Today is PUBLICATION DAY! 

Compton Valance: The Most Powerful Boy In The Universe is a story about two ordinary boys who accidentally create a time machine.  Ever since I was a kid I have been fascinated with the idea of time travel and the kind of possibilities that would stretch out before you if you had a time machine.  I loved books about time travel like Tom’s Midnight garden and Stig of the Dump.  I loved TV shows about time travel like Dr Who and Sapphire and Steel.  And I loved Back To The Future more than just about anything else in the whole world.  After spending three quarters of my life thinking about where and when I would visit if I could travel through time it seemed only fitting that my first book be about that very notion. 

So, how does it feel to finally have a book in the shops?  It feels AWESOME!  Like a gold badger surfing a twenty-foot high wave whilst he’s high-fiving a hedgehog.  Only better!  My days at the moment are spent doing one of three things.  

  • Signing books in bookshops with wonderful, enthusiastic booksellers.
  • Chatting in schools about where I would go to if I had a time machine.
  • Frantically checking my author rating on Amazon. 


Now I just need to write the next book so I can keep doing this forever.  Or perhaps I just need to create my own time machine.  Hmmmmm, now there’s a thought.

Book Synopsis: When Compton Valance and his best friend Bryan Nylon discover the world's first TIME MACHINE (aka a mouldy, thirteen-week-old-cheese-and-pickled-egg sandwich), they become the most powerful boys in the universe. But how will Compton and Bryan decide to use their incredible new time-travelling powers? Will they use them for good? Will they use them for evil? Or will they just focus their efforts on perfecting a formula for the world's first pair of custard trousers? Things are about to get totally scrambled for Compton Valance.

Published by Usborne Publishing Ltd (1 Jun 2014) 

Comments

LuWrites said…
Look forward to reading this, Matt! Am ordering a copy immediately (though preferably not off boo hiss Amazon!)