So, in a month’s time, Girls Heart Books will be no more. After writing a monthly blog here for the last three years, it’ll feel strange not to spend the 23rd of every month trying to come up with something interesting to blog about, the 24th getting it down on paper/keyboard, and the 25th pulling grandma faces … Continue reading
I will proudly stand up in a room full of people and say ‘I am a slow reader!’ and frankly I don’t think there is anything wrong with that! Continue reading
When I started writing The Book of Learning (Nine Lives Trilogy 1), I was new to Dublin and infatuated with exploring this beautiful, friendly city. The parks, museums, theatres, cathedrals; there was so much to see. As I immersed myself in my new surroundings, the characters of Ebony Smart and Icarus Bean – who had been … Continue reading
It has struck me this past month or so how important a setting is for a story. This probably makes me sound quite stupid. I mean, it’s an obvious thing to say, settings are important – they are one of the key elements of any story – but I think to date I have taken … Continue reading
It hardly feels like a week since my last blog let alone a month! That’s because it’s been a really busy few weeks since getting the last notes on ‘Fenn Halflin and the Seaborn’ (to be published in July) and school visits for World Book Day, where I’ve been running workshops to help children write … Continue reading
Sometimes the ordinary can look … strange. You know what you’re looking at – of course you do! Or do you? Take a look at these photos. They’re of ripples and reflections of stones … or are they? Do you maybe see something else? Why not have a go at describing what else those pictures … Continue reading
Like many children’s authors I spent most of last week visiting schools for World Book Day. Authors are always asked where they get their ideas from but this week one student asked me where they could get ideas for starting their own stories, so I thought I would give GHB readers some story starters including a … Continue reading
Thursday, March the 2nd, was my first World Book Day as a published author. I was invited to spend the day at Bro Hyddgen School in Machynlleth, mid-Wales. It was a really poignant day for me, as my little boy, Ned, would have been six years old on Thursday, had he not died last March. … Continue reading
A very quick post from me as I’m hurriedly packing a suitcase and getting ready to go off on World Book Day school visits for the rest of the week. I was thinking about space and nature and the impact ‘wild’ spaces have had on my imagination and writing ideas – the most important and … Continue reading
I’ve been thinking about the first book I ever wrote recently, Secret of the Sirens, the first part in the Companions Quartet. As things worked out in the wonderful world of publishing, it actually came out a few months after my first published book (the other publishing house was quicker off the mark) but it … Continue reading
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