The QUIET WOMAN and the NOISY DOG

My second picture book THE QUIET WOMAN AND THE NOISY DOG has been accepted for publication by Andersen Press. I'm so excited I've been dancing to the Mazeltov track my partner emailed from Luxembourg to celebrate!

Although this is a 'mere' picture book story of approximately 500 words, it is as important to me as THE MAGIC CAFE, the 40,000 word children's novel I've spent the last two years co-writing with Alix Parker. I wrote the first draft of the picture book text 7 years ago and it wasn't until I joined the SCBWI eCritique Group, that I focused on revising it and eventually submitting it.

I crossed the threshold from unpublished to published with my first picture book, HIC! which I also illustrated. I chose not to illustrate THE QUIET WOMAN AND THE NOISY DOG - there are far more accomplished illustrators out there. I took to Ailie Busby's drawings immediately. Wait till you see her dogs!

This marks the step from the 'one and only book' to the next one and then the next...who knows - it could be my first children's novel!

eCritique and Publication

My picture book text THE QUIET WOMAN AND THE NOISY DOG has been accepted for publication by Andersen Press. Thanks to the members of the SCBWI_BI who commented on my online post on eCritique. I revised my text based on feedback and submitted it to Andersen Press a month later.

Before i die by jenny downham

Honest, touching, funny – a joyful and optimistic book that says more about living than dying. I bought it for my 15-year-old daughter to read (O.K. I bought it for myself – I want to read other Young Adult & Children’s authors) and she, knowing I stack up my intended reads insisted ‘this has to be the next book you read’.

I found myself snatching a read at every moment of the day (I stopped reading it at night about half way through – I’m a sensitive soul – for fear of nightmares).

16 year-old Tessa has been diagnosed with Leukaemia and has been living with it since she was 12. She makes a list of 10 things she wants to do before she dies; the first on her list is sex.

I can’t imagine how I would have felt reading this when I was 16. I probably wouldn’t have read it. I was such a coward and suffered nightmares. My daughter tells me she wasn’t worried about having nightmares while reading it ‘nightmares are about things that aren’t real – this book is real’.

If you have a list of books you want to read, make this number 1 - I insist.

Oswald and the End of the World By Andrew Strong

I was bewitched by the extraordinary world of Idlegreen and its inhabitants in OSWALD AND THE END OF THE WORLD. I read this book by daylight in the hills and by torchlight in my tent whilst camping in Devon. Travelling from the city, like Oswald, I found myself watching the skies for signs of the end of the world.

Oswald is thrown on to the island, a forgotten world of horses and carts and old clocks. Separated from his fortune-telling father, he is adopted in a new life in a local store where he is set to work and begins to change the fortunes of the dilapidated world. Oswald is scientific and courageous in his attempt to make sense of the strange happenings on the island while his father remains endearingly pessimistic but there is no mistaking the magic in their mysterious journey.

This is the ideal book to escape with. Now I'm back, reading it has made me want to go away again - I'd have to take Oswald with me of course.

Agents

I haven't posted for a while as I've been distracted by acting work. How come I can get an agent for acting work now? Perhaps it's because I'm not so desperate! 20 years ago, I tried so hard to get an agent and only managed to get one for TV commercial work. All the acting work I've done since then, I've found myself.

Now I'm trying so hard to get a literary agent. Hope I don't have to wait 20 years before I can prove I'm worth representing! I'm not waiting around...I'm submitting directly to publishers. Apparently, some agents won't look at you until you've had a few books published. I'm getting there. I've had one book published and my second book has been accepted by a publisher...*grin*