The Next Big thing
I’ve been tagged in this ‘Next Big Thing’ blog chain thingie. The whole thing bamboozled me at first but I think I’ve got the hang of it now! Basically, each week a different author blogs about the book they’re working…
Why I should have written ‘The Hunger Games’
I should have written ‘The Hunger Games’! No, seriously, it should have been me! Suzanne Collins – Schmollins. I should be topping those best seller lists and tripping down the red carpet to film premieres (although I haven’t a thing…
Reality TV and Novels get it on!
I’ve decided that my new novel ‘Pop!’ is in fact the secret love child of George Orwell and Jessie J! Or maybe Suzanne Collins and Simon Cowell…crikey! what a thought! Because ‘Pop! is perhaps only the latest chapter in the…
Recession Lit for Kids
The global financial crisis may not be good news for publishers, but it might just be great news for literature, particularly children’s fiction. Poverty, they say, is the mother of invention (or something like that!) and there’s long-standing tradition of…
My guilty pleasures – thinks that inspired me (even if I’m a teensy bit ashamed to admit it!)
OK, I’m going to start by saying that I have read ‘War and Peace’ – all the way through, might I add! Oh, and ‘Crime and Punishment’ (my dad was a professor on Dostoevsky; I had no choice) And when…
Help! My teacher is a teen novelist!
I reckon it must be a total nightmare having me as a teacher! I mean, I have my uses: I bring jellybeans to lessons, bake cakes with pupil’s names on and frequently fall off chairs whilst trying to write on…
Why I love school visits (dedicated to Year 7 at St Laurence School!)
So here’s why I love going into schools to talk about writing and work with students. Only before I tell you I need to say that this blog is dedicated to the fab Year 7s at St Laurence School in…
Publication Day!!!!!!!!!!!
Squeeeee! It’s publication day! The day ‘Pop!’ hits the bookshop shelves and Kindle … ? whatever the ebook equivalent of shelves is (is there are word for this? Someone should think one!) Anyway, the country is all decked out in…
I’m off on a blog tour again!
Ah, writers, they grow up so fast! I’m feeling all grown up and big and ‘my haven’t you grown!’ about my wee writerly self today. And sadly it’s not that I’ve acquired any more inches (I wish!); it’s just that…
Thirteen sleeps till publication day!
In twelve sleeps’ time it will be my birthday (don’t ask how old I am!); in fourteen sleeps’ it will be the Jubilee, but – most excitingly – in thirteen sleeps ‘Pop!’ hits the bookstores and I’m getting all giddy…