Sammy and the Extra-Hot Chilli Powder by Charlie P Brooks

We have a brilliant guest blog from Charlie P. Brooks about his new book, Sammy and the Extra-Hot Chilli Powder!  His funny blog will have you itching to pick up this book!

 

How does a Dad that doesn’t have an office to go to everyday convince his daughter that he isn’t a moron. I tried driving her to school in a suit, but that didn’t fool her for very long.

Of course, lockdown levelled the playing field, when no one could go off to work. Happy days for some of us. But ironically, it also made being busy on a computer for hours a day all the more important to give the appearance of doing stuff.

So I decided to write a trilogy called The Super Secret Diary of Holly Hopkinson, loosely based on my daughter, and a mythical magic pocket watch with which she could hypnotise her parents and her teachers; sometimes with disastrous consequences.

But after three volumes, my daughter said ‘no more Dad…you’ve made your point…you’re not a moron.’

So I needed a new muse. And there she was, asleep on our bed. All curled up and snoring a bit.

We have a friend who can communicate with animals via telepathy – which has led to some interesting observations from our horses, our pig and our dog Sammy – so I decided to run an idea past her.

How about I write a trilogy about a sniffer dog who loses her sniff and retires to the Cotswolds.

Where she ends up having a lot of adventures with a new Best Human Best Friend [BHBF].

Sammy seemed keen on this idea, as long as the narrator was based on her, and the main supporting character was her BHBF Beanie, with whom she also communicates telepathically.

My daughter now has two characters masquerading as her in book shops.

I’m really thrilled by the way Sammy the Sniffer dog has come alive. She is way smarter than most of the humans she lives and works with. But she is very much a dog.

She loves all the smells that humans find disgusting; like tripe. And she has no idea why they peck each other on the cheek when they say hello, rather than sniffing each other’s bottoms.

But it’s the concept that there really isn’t any difference between dogs and humans that makes Sammy work for me. It just felt so natural.

One of the best bits of Holly Hopkinson being published was touring the country and interacting with children in schools. It was a chance to inspire them to express themselves without fear of judgement. Encouraging them to believe that there’s no such thing as a bad story. If they like it, it’s good.

‘Keep a secret diary,’ I now advise children. ‘Hide it under your bed. And whenever something happens that makes you really happy, write it down. And practise explaining why it was such a great moment. Even if no one else ever sees what you have written, it will be fun to look back upon in later years. And it will make you a better writer if you really describe what you feel.

“How do you write?”, I am asked a lot in schools. “Think of someone who makes you laugh. And then think of all the crazy things that they might do…and then keep thinking and push it a step further, until you’re immersed in their world,” I suggest.

What I realise from my many school visits is that there are a lot more budding authors in my audiences than first meets the eye.

Now when I’m visiting schools talking about Sammy the Sniffer dog, my first question to the children is always: ‘how many of you are already writing a book?’

Their teachers are always amazed by how many hands are raised.

CHARLIE P. BROOKS on his new book series, Sammy and the Extra-Hot Chilli Powder (HarperCollins Children’s Books, PB), which launches on Thursday 15th February