I posted the photo on the left onto Instagram and the photo on the right  on Twitter to see if people could guess where I was visiting on Friday afternoon.  And the answer is of course - Seven Stories in Newcastle. The beautiful building is a renovated mill devoted entirely to  Children's Stories. You've probably guessed from the name that it has seven floors, each wonderful and unique.

Being a Children's Author gave me extra privileges and I was given a guided tour by Cathy and had a coffee and a chat with Sarah one of the CEOs who told me all about the history of Seven Stories. I was interested to know that in addition to being a story centre doing all kinds of wonderful children's literature work, it is also a museum, holding the biggest collection of children's books and manuscript archives.

If you're a regular reader of my blog you will know that the reason I knew about Seven Stories was because I met David Almond when he was a Key Note Speaker at at SCBWI conference one year. David is a HUGE supporter of Seven Stories and his wonderful description of the centre stayed with me. I promised myself if I was ever up in Newcastle I would definitely visit.

It took a while, but as I was at a pitching workshop on Saturday as part of my Mslexia Finalist prize (have I mentioned that I'm a finalist in the Mslexia Children's Novel Award 2019 ;) Maybe once or twice!) I took the opportunity to visit Seven Stories.

Very sadly David's exhibition: Where Your Wings Were had just finished (sniff) but I do remember his author story from the conference. If you're an aspiring Children's Author, yourself and you ever get a chance to read or hear about David's story - please do. It's hugely encouraging because it took him forever to become a big name in Children's Literature. The message I got from him was to keep going and write what I want to write, because I love it.

Anyway, Seven Stories is ace and definitely worth a visit. It's - a really interactive space for children and families, a centre for school visits and a general celebration of words and illustrations.

Plus, as you can see from my photos, there is a David McKee (creator of Mr Ben, Elmer and Not Now Bernard) exhibition on at the moment  and Chris Riddle has drawn all over the walls, for real! If you want to know more take a look at The Seven Stories Website.

Whilst I was in Newcastle I checked out a few more things, not really book related but worth a mention, including the City Farm, the Millennium Bridge, the Sage Centre for Music and the Baltic. The Baltic is an Art Museum which is completely free and has all kinds of interesting exhibitions on. With the risk of sounding more like a travel writer than a Children's Author, Newcastle is definitely worth checking out. 

The first school that I worked with was Woodgrange Infants. Willow Class created The Unstoppable Robot - "the story of Messy Silver Rocky, a good but messy little robot who lived in a secret lair under an old junk yard".

​In contrast the other class, Hawthorn, wrote: The Legend of the Two Battling Phoenixes, their own explanation on how the sun and the moon came to be.

Moving up to Year 3 with a class at Sandringham Primary School, the terrifying Evil Queen was created, literally bursting out the story of Alina and the Book of Monsters. 

Some of the children in Year 2 at Altmore Infant School wrote Brilliant Imagining Raven, the funny, sweet story of Brilliant, one of the Tower of London Ravens, who gets lost in her own powerful imagination. 

Last, but not least came The Repeated War, a sinister ghost story created by a class at St James' CE Primary. To lighten the dark story was  Christina, a charming, brightly-coloured fish, as big as a shark, who could communicate by making word bubbles. 

As a creator of children's books it is thrilling to work so closely with a class, capturing characters, settings, story and plot ideas and turning them into a real book that the children treasure.

It seems obvious that I would be straight into reading the new book by Katherine Rundell, seeing as I met her for the first time on Monday.

If I'm being completely honest, I've not started it yet, but it has been getting some amazing reviews, so just sitting down to read my signed hardback copy right now!

The other books that I have read recently include; A Quiet Kind of Thunder by Sara Barnard; Red Leaves by Sita Brahmachari; Last Days of the Morning Calm by Tina Jimin Walton; Boy at the Back of the Class by Onjali Q. Rauf; Dreamology by Lucy Keating; 

And The Ocean Was Our Sky by Patrick Ness; The Boy The Bird and the Coffin Maker by Matilda Woods; A Dog So Small by Philippa Pearce (coming back to as an adult - magic); The Imaginary by AF Harold; Love and Lies - Marisol's Story by Ellen Wittlinger; Every Day by David Levithan; Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen by Dyan Sheldon; You Don't Know Me by Sophia Bennett; Salt to the Sea by Ruta Sepetys; Orphan Monster Spy by Matt Killeen; Night of the Party by Tracey Mathias; Trouble by Non Pratt. Think that's all of them. I've also read some adult ones too. 

​As usual - no reviews here. If you'd like to know my thoughts I usually review on Goodreads.

Happy reading in the glorious sunshine everyone!

I did it! I met her, gave her a copy of each of my books and my all time favourite Winnie The Pooh card with a nice message inside because...well because not only is she Katherine Rundell, the writer of fantastic books like Rooftoppers and The Explorers and Wolf Wilder, she was also the judge that TWICE picked out my writing as worth recognition.

Writing can be such a solitary thing and you often have no idea if what you are doing is any good. Obviously the best thing is having readers tell you they love it, but if that reader is another author that you hugely admire, well it is like all your birthdays put into one delicious chunk of chocolate. Delicious.

I hope that Kate (first name terms now) will read my books, then keep them safe, putting them up on her shelves alongside her other children's books. 

It's true - my new book, Darna's Sky, about a girl born in secret in the underbelly of a Singapore hotel, reached the final five in the highly competitive Mslexia Children's Novel Competition 2019. The news is a really big deal and will hopefully open lots of doors for me. This is how I'm celebrating being a finalist.

NB: Kids - if you want to celebrate with me, substitute the champers (a drink you will hate until you're older) with a sparkling one of your own choice. You might like to select pink lemonade that was served at the launch of Thirteenth Wish, for example. Keep the face mask though - there's no age restrictions on that - and silly hair dos are obligatory (as in you MUST have one).  

OK, so I know that I didn't actually win, but the final five is REALLY good.

However, if I'm being completely honest, there is a slight feeling of deja vu. Let's not forget that my debut,  Jarred Dreams was also shortlisted in 2015 by the National Literacy Trust when I entered into their New Author competition. Even one of the judges is the same this time round - the amazing Katherine Rundell, author of Rooftoppers and The Explorers.

BTW I am going to meet Katherine Rundell next week as she is doing a talk at David's Bookshop in Letchworth. I think there's still some tickets if you want to go? Click on this link to find out more: Davids Bookshop Events. I'm really looking forward to meeting her - I just hope I don't get star struck. She writes so well, and her books are very popular - she's like a rockstar! 

Finally back from my amazing adventures. I wrote NOTHING whilst I was away, but I've had loads of advice, help and support from some amazing people in Singapore.

The first picture is Marian Mariano. She was my sister-in-law, Nicola Harayda's (pictured with Marian in the photo below) helper. She lived and worked with the family in Singapore for many years, becoming a close friend.
 
Marian's help with the fourth book has been so valuable and I'm very grateful to her for everything she has given me. She is a kind, warm, generous person, full of life and I hope that she will stay in touch even now she is off on her own new life adventure which has taken her away from Singapore. 

Nicola has always been supportive and encouraging of my writing and without her help this fourth book would not have come to life. The idea stemmed from a trip to Singapore two years ago and I've been playing around with it ever since. Nicola is one of the very few who has read the book in its' current draft. I was quite nervous of her opinion, but thankfully she loved it.

Nicola also told me all about HOME, an organisation in Singapore that helps migrant workers. Through HOME (Humanitarian Organisation for Migration Economics) I met Karien Van Ditzhuijzen (pictured left below). Karien used to manage HOME and is an author. She read the story and has given me some excellent advice to improve the book and make it more authentic. I'm very grateful to her. 

I visited the HOME office and met with Desiree Leong (pictured below to the right). She is a Legal Consultant at HOME and helped me with some of the details of the book.

I'll be quiet on my blog for the next few weeks as I am off on another adventure. This time it is back to Singapore, a country I have visited a few times, as I have family there. 

For those of you who have been part of any of my recent school visits, you will know that my latest book (not out yet) is set in Singapore. It is difficult for me to tell you anything else about the book as it is currently doing well in a competition and it is important that I remain anonymous. The results of the competition are to be announced in June, so watch this space and keep your fingers crossed for me!

Part of the Singapore visit will be to check details and make sure the new book is authentic and accurate. It is also to see family and visit the amazing sites of Singapore.

It is an incredible place to visit, I love it. We're also going to Vietnam for a few days AND stopping in Dubai for a few nights on the way back to the UK. What an adventure!

I'm hoping to bring back even more characters and story ideas.

To make you all even more jealous of my travels here are some pictures that I took whilst on my last visit to Singapore a couple of years ago. The first is one of my favourite places: Gardens by the Bay, as featured in David Attenborough's Blue Planet series.