My Blog

Fiona was one of the first people I met from the picture book industry so I’m so excited that she’s let me take over her blog today. I didn’t really know any writers, illustrators, editors or publishers when I first signed with my agent. I wanted to learn from other people’s successes and experiences, so [...]

Once again at Picture Book Club Cottage, it's an honour to kick off the Federation of Children's Book Groups Children's Book Award, the only book award voted for entirely by children. This year, our entry on the short-list is Jazz Dog which is written and illustrated by Marie Voigt and published by Oxford University Press. [...]

At Picture Book Club Cottage we were lucky enough to be sent a review copy of this fabulous text as a late Christmas present. Anyone interested in writing, illustrating, reading or talking about picture books should try and get their hands on a copy. This revised edition has been updated with new titles, pictures and [...]

No chapters this week but I made a final visit to book club to say goodbye. We ate chocolate mini rolls and discussed how stories become books. I'm really going to miss my Thursday lunchtime dose of unfettered enthusiasm and ideas. What have I learnt over the last 4-5 months? I've learnt pre-teens and teenagers [...]

Word count = 42,524 That's all folks! Today I read the final 4 chapters of our book club story. There was some drama, a few giggles and hopefully the ending they've all been waiting for. Yes, there are a one or two plot holes to fill and some point of view issues to address. But [...]