Puffin/ Penguin books

Books.  From the moment you walk in to penguin offices at the strand, they're everywhere.  On the walls, in the tables.  I just wanted a make a massive pile of them and fall asleep in it.

So, this is the anticipated "Penguin books" Post.  Settle down, because it's gonna be a long one.  Make some tea, or coffee.  If that's not your thing, then maybe just some water.  Or milk, everyone loves milk.  Orange juice would be okay, if you fancy it.  I wouldn't say to break out the liquor though.  If you're drinking before 3 then you got yourself a problem.

But enough about beverages, here we go.

At 4 'o clock yesterday afternoon, Me and my parents met up with Sarah, the wonderful person from starlight who's been working on my wish, and arranged the visit, and entered 80 the Strand (You know something's going to be posh when the building's name is it's address) as we entered the reception we were handed VIP badges and clipped them to our clothes.  I suddenly felt very special.  After 5 minutes in the reception we met Laura, an editor at puffin.  as we navigated the confusing and disorientating halls of the magnificent building (I'm still dizzy from it) I was surprised to hear that she had read my book.  It sounded weird to actually hear the opinion of it from someone I didn't know.

The tour started off like most tours do.  We were lead through what could possibly be the best office in the world, at least for me.  I mean, the books.  Seriously, THE BOOKS! I'm tempted to do one of those beloved children's poems where it's a list.  They were...
On the counters...

I was taking pictures on my ipod so forgive me
for the shoddy quality.

And that's pretty much it.  But still, it was amazing how many there were.  I met a woman who gave me an insight on the process of picking the size, paper and font of the books and their covers.  I was sent off from this stop with my very first gift of the occasion, a nice hardback copy of the latest diary of a wimpy kid book.  I also met a woman who worked on creating picture books, who demonstrated how they put together children's books. (Not literally)  After that I met Ben, one of Penguin/Puffin's designers.  He gave me some books which he had designed the cover for (I wasn't sure if I could have it or not, so I was just standing awkwardly with the books until it was confirmed I could take them)  Ben then came along with us to the top floor, where we entered a spacious private conference room with a great view and some giant surprises.  I am talking, of course, about the plate of Ben's cookies on the table.  Not really, but that was a perk.  Firstly, we stepped out onto the balcony to admire the amazing view of a lit up London from above.  It was a rare opportunity to see the unusual beauty of the city from an amazing viewpoint like that.  Plus I could swear the building to the left was where that last scene of Skyfall was filmed.

That was the best shot I could get of the skyfall building.

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Once we were back inside it was time to address the   two gift bags I had spotted before.  Ben handed me a book from one of them and I stared right through it.  At first I didn't recognize it, and my mum and dad were talking amongst themselves.  But then I recognized the name on the book.  When I regained consciousness 20 minutes later, I was ecstatic.  It was my book.  Let me explain.  Penguin has, very generously, printed 3 copies of The World, my story, complete with a cover Ben designed, and a blurb an editor wrote, and gifted them to me.  I'd like to step out of this and thank everyone at penguin very much for taking the time to read my book and print it for me.  Later on, on the way home, we were discussing about what to do with them like they were the rings from "Lord of the rings."  "We'll give one to the dwarves, one to the      hobbits, and the third one can go to that Sauron bloke.  He seems nice."

Me and Ben with the book.

I unloaded the rest of the gift bags, which were full to the brim with stuff.  Today we calculated I was gifted £170 worth of penguin books.  Here's what they gave me:

Assassin's creed: The secret crusade by Oliver Bowden
Assassin's creed: Revelations by Oliver Bowden
Assassin's creed: Forsaken by Oliver Bowden
Colin Fischer   by Ashley Edward Miller and Zack Stentz
The true tale of the monster billy dean telt by hisself by David Almond
No easy day:  The navy seal mission that killed osama bin laden by Mark Owen
The serpent's shadow by Rick Riordan
The power of six by Pittacus Lore
The three musketeers by Alexandre Dumas

I love a big book.

Gladiator: Fight for Freedom by Simon Scarrow
The sacrifice by Charlie Higson
Fairy tales from the brothers Grimm
Diary of a wimpy kid: the third wheel by Jeff Kinney
A DVD of I am number four

Amazingly, out of all those books, there's only
One I have already, and all of them i'm
interested in reading.

All of my goodies together.

After all this gift giving I had a long talk with Laura and Ben about my writing, the book, how I like to write, and about my new book, when suddenly, there's a knock on the door, and the biggest surprise begins (This one is up there with the cookies) A woman announces that there's a visitor for me and in pops Charlie Higson (I'm sure everyone knows him, but if not, he's a famous adult and young adult author who has also written and produced TV shows)  At right about this point my already dropped jaw falls off.  He takes a seat and explains that he's read my book and that he really enjoyed it, and what followed was a long talk about reading and writing.  It was amazing to talk to a famous author who's books I've read and to know how he plans his books and how long it takes to write them.  Charlie signed my copy of his latest book in "the enemy" series (Check those out, they're pretty damn good) and was on his way.  and so ends the epic tale of  gifts, cover design, authors and cookies.  

I'd like to thank Sarah and the starlight foundation for arranging this amazing experience, and helping to make my dream come true.  Thank you as well to Penguin for the opportunity, taking the time out to  create an early copy of my book, to Laura for the tour and Ben for creating the cover of the book and the tour as well.

This has been an amazing experience.

I'm off to go and surround myself in books.  Hope you enjoyed this extensive post.

Stay frosty

-Joe