justin brown amazon Archives - Page 34 of 42

The first from Andy, who read it on a stag do, hence the the title of this post.

Pity the book is aimed at 8-12 year olds, otherwise I could have used his tagline in schools around the world.

From Kim: ‘I loved the book from start to end. Found it funny and loved the friendships. I especially loved Toby’s adorable relationship with his grandmother. The sister storyline is also hilarious. The only bit I found *annoying was Toby always having to prove himself to his Dad.’

* That sub plot was quite intentional; what boy, or girl for that matter, doesn’t?

* It is nice to know, however, Kim didn’t need any dutch courage to read it.

Feb 1st signals the launch of my debut junior fiction novel ‘Shot, Boom, Score!’ published by Allen and Unwin. If you follow this blog you’ll know what the story’s about – and how it came to be – so I won’t prattle on. Needless to say, if you have an 8-12 year old in the house who likes reading, and enjoys funny characters, you can buy the book here or download the Kindle version here – which also has a preview chapter. Enjoy!

So my debut junior novel is out.

It’s all pretty damn exciting. It’s also good to know – given how ruthless young reviewers can be – those who’ve read ‘Shot, Boom, Score!’ seem to have really enjoyed it.

So anyway.

I was walking along Ponsonby Road in Auckland on a beautiful Friday morning when I ran into an old mate with his ten-year-old son. Here was a kid dressed in a Manchester United shirt, with accompanying NZ Warriors shorts. He was a cool kid: funny and full of life, with mannerisms that seemed oddly familiar.

Then it clicked.

As we stood there in the sun, my mate apparently told me what he’d been up to over Xmas. I say apparently because I struggled to focus on a word he said, mainly because the main character I’d been working on for the past two years, the guy who had lived inside my head all that time, was standing right in front of me in a Manchester United shirt. If I was a casting director for ‘Shot, Boom, Score’ the movie, I would have chosen this kid right away.

Of course I tried to relay this to my mate (‘then for New Years we just had a quiet one’) but, not surprisingly, he failed to catch my enthusiasm.

It was all hellishly freaky. Even more so – the kid’s name was Toby, the same as my main character. I took all this as a good sign – though given the similarities – wondered if this new novel is fiction at all.

Justin Brown

‘Took six beers to finish your book!’

Launch Day!

When you accidentally meet the main character from your novel