Sorry folks I have been through the Windsor Festival (14 to 28 September) brochure and there is no sign of fictional books like Vampirates.

For those close to Edinburgh, the Edinburgh International Book Festival is back in August with Justin Somper visiting. See www.edbookfest.co.uk
Curse of the Vampirates with Justin Somper
AGE 8 – 12, Saturday 23 August at 3.00pm, RBS Corner Theatre, £3.50
Ahoy Vampirates! Batten down the hatches and prepare for a hurricane of fun in this swashbuckling adventure at sea. Learn the hidden secrets of your favourite nightwalking pirates with Justin Somper, who gives you a top secret sneak preview of Black Heart – not out until 2009!

Others of interest

Eoin Colfer
AGE 10 – 14, Saturday 9th August at 11.30am, RBS Main Theatre, £3.50
The teenage criminal mastermind is back. The latest book in the Artemis Fowl series (described as ‘Die Hard with fairies’ by its creator) sees our hero come face to face with his worst opponent yet – his younger, more evil self! Join the outstanding, energetic Eoin Colfer for this thrilling, time-travelling event.

Terry Pratchett
Families & 8+, Saturday 16th August at 1.30pm, RBS Main Theatre, £9.00 £7.00
The inimitable Terry Pratchett takes us on an enlightening tour of his most famous creation, Discworld, in the year of its 25th anniversary. For fans from eight to eighty, this is a pleasure not to be missed at any cost.

Terry Pratchett
Adults , Saturday 16th August 1.30pm, RBS Main Theatre, £9.00 £7.00
The inimitable Terry Pratchett takes us on an enlightening tour of his most famous creation, Discworld, in the year of its 25th anniversary. For fans from eight to eighty, this is a pleasure not to be missed at any cost.

The Beano’s Barrie Appleby - seeing as it is based in Scotland and my son is a fan.
FAMILIES & 6+, Monday 25th August at 6.30pm, RBS Corner Theatre, £3.50
Barrie Appleby’s comic illustrations have been enjoyed by generations of children. For young fans and nostalgic readers, this is a treat not to be missed as The Beano celebrates its 70th birthday. Meet the artist behind Dennis the Menace and Roger the Dodger and watch as your favourite characters come to life right before your eyes!

If you ever wondered what Cheng Li's Katanas looked like, a set of three Japanese Katanas have appeared on ebay.

As part of Norfolk's Monster Festival of Children's Books, Justin Somper will be at Waterstones in Castle Street on Tuesday 10 June at 4.30-5pm. For more information see the official Website, The Nocturn or our news section.

I have just spotted the official website as it has just been updated. Check it out, it looks good.

First we had a comment on a letter sent to Sailor Quarxphonix in March,
"By the way, vampirates.co.uk is being relaunched next month so do keep your eyes peeled. There's going to be lots more going on on the site, from in-depth character profiles to a regular blog."
Then we has a comment on a letter sent to The Nocturn,
"we shall be announcing that officially via the website on the 26th May – this is also the date the new look website will launch. Do let us know what you think of it. We’ve completely redesigned it so that we can update the content much more easily and Justin will be launching his new blog on the site at the same time."

I don't know how many hits the www.vampirates.co.uk website received, but I am sure some crew members checked half a dozen times on Monday and no one has spotted any massage change to the website yet. For your comment try the Nocturn Forum nocturn1.proboards56.com

During the Richmond Lending Library talk I asked Justin Somper about Bartholomew (Bart) Pearce and apparently he is based on Bartholomew (Bart) Roberts was a Welsh pirate who raided shipping off the Americas and West Africa. He was the most successful pirate of the golden age of piracy, capturing far more ships than some of the best-known pirates of this era.

From Amazon.co.uk
Black Heart Synopsis
There's a new ship of vampirates roaming the seas, leaving a trail of fear and devastation in its wake. When a high-profile pirate is slain, the Pirate Federation takes decisive action and begins training up a ship of dedicated vampire hunters. The team will be led by newly appointed Captain, Cheng Li. Amongst her dynamic crew is young pirate prodigy Connor Tempest. Meanwhile, Connor's twin sister Grace enjoys a bittersweet reunion with their mother. Sally Tempest has some important and shocking news for Grace - the twins' real father is not the man who brought them up. When Sally disappears, Grace is left to pursue the mystery of her true parenthood alone. As she finally uncovers the shocking truth, she knows that both she and Connor are facing a very uncertain future.

From Sailor Quarxphonix
"---because I was bored..."
http://www.freewebs.com/vampirateseverything/index.htm

From Duck's Foot Darcy
Black Heart sounds absolutely amazing!!! I can't wait for it to come out! I'm part of this book award thing at school, and we should be able to nominate the authors this time instead of adults nominating authors for us; if so I'm gonna be adamant that Justin Somper gets in and then hopefully he can win an award!!! Fingers-crossed he'll be nominated!

- I hope he does and comes to your school to receive it. Keep us posted.

From Sailor Quarxphonix found on the Nocturn's leave a message page.
Hi guys! Tis me from the forum! Just to say I got an e-mail from Justin telling my Vampirates Number Four is called Black Heart, and is coming out around January 2009. For more info go onto the forum and see....it sounds AMAZING!

Again thanks to the Nocturne's message board I have been made aware of Fan Trailers on YouTube. They can now be found at the bottom of the Film or TV debate page.

Several of you already seem to know about the vampirate online petition to make Vampirates into a movie. But if you have not here is the link on the vampirates logo.

When Justin Somper went to talk to Portsmouth Grammar School he met Lika "He put me in his book Dead Deep...I'm the mermaid called Lika He told me that he was writing about me when he visited my school and a few months later the book was released)) Lika xxx"