I'm busy... really I am!!!

Despite my lack of blog posts I really am busy at the moment. I've been working on a couple of picture books - tweaking and re-tweaking them, working on ideas for some bigger books, visiting schools and libraries and lots of other things...

Yesterday I answered questions for an interview that will be included in the North East Wales School Library Service Newsletter - interestingly enough, one of the questions was do I get to choose the illustrators  that illustrate my stories. The simple answer is no! - well... not usually... though I do sometimes get to choose from a selection of illustrators that my publishers are interested in, however, I've never had a book published without knowing who the illustrator will be. Not until now that is.


I've got a little book Splash! (only about 50 words in total - so a very small book for very young readers) which is coming out in September. The book was initially called Splish! Splash! but it seems that has changed... not a problem. Amazon tells me that it is being published in Hardback on 13th September this year... so that's good. Amazon also shows that the book has been illustrated by Sam Hearn, and the cover looks great - though I was surprised to see that the character in the story is now a girl, but that's not a problem either. After googling Sam Hearn and finding his blog   click here to see some of Sam's excellent artwork I'm delighted with what's been done and think the little book will look wonderful.

All work and no play...

I love working from home but it can be difficult at times as there are always things that need to be done or things that you want to do. You have to try and put time aside for all the things you need to do and want to do. Getting the balance right can be difficult. I spend a lot of time writing and doing writing related things - this can be Tweeting, Blogging, Replying to Emails, Writing Letters, Visiting Schools and Libraries tp share a love of books and writing and, Yes! Actually WRITING!!! We do, however, get some time to do nice family things and occasionally just cuddle up and watch some television. 

Recently we've been enjoying watching Griff Rhy Jones, Dara O'Briain, and Rory McGrath's Three Men In A Boat series of adventures on the television and on DVD. We've also had a could of nice days out...

A could of weeks ago we went up the Great Orme in Llandudno. We had planned to go up on the cable cars and then journey back down on the Great Orme Tramway - stopping off at the Bronze Age Copper Mines on the way down. Unfortunately, the cable car wasn't running for some reason so we ended up having to walk to the top of the Great Orme. All good fun though and well worth the walk as there was a cool refreshing pint of cider waiting for us at the top. 

The copper mines are well worth a look - the part you can walk through isn't huge but it's unique in the fact that you don a helmet and take the walk yourself rather than being guided by someone else. The mines are being uncovered and enlarged all the time so next time we go up there there might be more to look round. It's frightening to imagine the conditions that the bronze age miners had to work in. 

At the top of the Great Orme there's a restaurant, gift shop - and a pub that was once owned by the world champion boxer Randy Turpin - there's lots of memorabilia up there so it's well worth a trip for boxing fans.

It was a lovely, hot, sunny day and we all caught a little bit too much sun.