What I am writing in 2014

My 2014 writing is going to be determined almost entirely by forthcoming major sporting competitions. That suits me fine. It will also be determined by my desire to use major sporting events to promote reading for pleasure.

And it starts now.

This week I am writing a story about a girl called Lily, who cycles to her local library. She takes out a book about the Amazon rainforest. She chose the book because she had just seen something on the TV about England playing their first World Cup match in the Brazilian rainforest.

But the story is not for the World Cup. It's for the Tour de France. The Tour de France starts in Leeds, where I'll be reading this story to over 2000 children in all of Leeds' 40 libraries. The idea is to get children already excited about cycling to get excited about stories and libraries too.

I hope Lily's adventures on a bike and in the Amazon will help do that.

I am writing something specifically for the football World Cup too. The World Cup takes place in June and July. I am going to be writing a 750-word chapter every day of the tournament. It will be read in schools. Somewhere between 2,000 and 20,000 schools, working with the National Literacy Trust. The idea is to write the story every day so that it responds to the events of the tournament. It will be a crime thriller, featuring Danny and Charlotte from my Foul Play books. It will begin in the Amazon rainforest. And it will challenge my writing abilities - a lot.

You can find out more about the World Cup story here.

During the rest of the year I will be writing a rugby union trilogy for Barrington Stoke. Three books about a rugby playing school taking part in the UK, European, then World Schools rugby union championships. It means arduous research trips to the South of France and New Zealand. But I'll cope.

My characters are three boys, based loosely on the childhoods of three celebrated rugby union people. They're called Chris, Jonny and Woody.

The three rugby union books will all be out in time for next year's Rugby Union World Cup, hosted in the UK. The first is out in October, later this year.

One other writing project in 2014.

Every month I will be working with Y6 and Y7 children in Guernsey, writing a story about each of their twelve favourite sports. This will be hugely challenging, taking me away from my usual grass pitch sports of football and rugby and into the worlds of sea fishing, coasteering and marathon running.

But I like a challenge. It makes writing a bit like taking part in sport. And that suits me too.

Happy 2014.