Happy New Year and welcome to my first blog post of 2019.  

It was a busy end to 2018 with book shop events, festivals, and school visits promoting my latest picture book, The Fairy in the Kettle’s Christmas Wish.  As always it is great to be able to go into schools to read to and chat with pupils about reading and writing and to listen as they share their own writing experiences and questions. I was also extremely lucky to share my books with fairy fans at various Waterstones events and their support is something I am extremely grateful for.  Unfortunately, the snow put a stop to the planned Oban event but hopefully I will be across in the coming months with my next book. It was also wonderful to see returning fairy fans from previous rounds of events.

The start of 2019 is all about finishing pieces of writing while at the same time working on the production of the third book in the Fairy in the Kettle series, The Fairy in the Kettle Gets Magical. The illustrations (once again by the brilliant Debbie Bellaby) are with the publishers and they are currently working their magic while the font is added to the front and rear covers.  The next step is to lay the illustrations and text out for each page.  This is one of my favourite parts of the production process and anyone who knows me or my books will know my aim is always to have each page as visually exciting as possible.  Both the publication and cover reveal dates will be announced here on my website and on my social media pages…they are not too far away!

Once again Debbie’s illustrations are beautiful and her attention to detail has earned her 5-star reviews.  No surprise when you see this little teaser from The Fairy in the Kettle Gets Magical…

There is other book news to share too…but not quite yet. Another project I have been working on will be announced later in the year and is something quite different.

Meanwhile, happy reading and as always upcoming events will be posted here and on my Facebook, Twitter and Instagram pages.