I had my annual ALCS statement the other day which showed that my books are being borrowed quite regularly from public libraries, despite the pandemic.

As I'm not a well known name, but books are not everywhere, so it's not a huge amount of money, but, more importantly, it made me feel really good. My books are being borrowed and being read - this is the whole point of being an author!

It also shows you, the reader, that if you borrow books from libraries it really does make a positive impact on the author's life. They get paid every time their books are lent out.

Thank you to anyone who has borrowed my books, you made my week!

Last night was a 'cross off my wish list' event: I hosted a SCBWI Panel as part of the 1-1 Festival that I'm jointly running with fellow SCBWI volunteer Mandy Rabin. 

When I joined SCBWI, back in 2015, going to events, such as the Industry Insiders panels, were one of the things I benefitted most from. I eyed the hosts with envy and last night I got my crack at the whip. I was able to lead a very interesting, open discussion with Literary Agents, Davinia Andrew-Lynch (Andlyn Literary Agency) and Christabel McKinley (DHA) and Commissioning Editor Tom Bonnick (Nosy Crow). 

All three panelists were warm, welcoming, and honest. We covered all kinds of interesting topics, from sustaining the trend of increasing diversity in Children's Publishing to how the pandemic has affected submissions. 

Here's hoping I did a good enough job that I get asked to host a few more and good luck to everyone who is having their 1-1 with an Industry Professional today. 

PS I forgot to pass on a very helpful tip that someone shared with me just before my 1-1 with Bella Pearson (Guppy Books) at the SCBWI conference - ask if you can record it. I used the voice memo function on my phone and Bella was totally fine about me recording our conversation. Can't tell you how many times I listened to that recording, it helped me enormously when redrafting Call Me Lion. Good luck!

It was fantastic to 'visit' Bromet Primary School last week as part of World Book Day week and rest assured to the children who have kindly ordered books from here, they're on the way!

Not being able to visit schools has been the most difficult part of lockdown for me and I'm so happy that children are back in classrooms on Monday. I hope it goes well.

Remember if you're interested in an author visit please just contact me. You can find out more about more by going to my author visits page. 

Thank you Bromet Primary for making me feel like a 'real author' again and good luck with your writing.