Busy Writing

Felt like I should update you all as to what I am working on.

At the moment I'm about two thirds into a first draft of my fourth book. For those of you who have listened to one of my author talks, you will know that this is still the first quarter of the 'big cake' of writing a book.

Like most authors, I keep breaking my own rules and seem to be editing as I go. At first I tried just free writing the whole thing, but I found I was going off on a little scenic detour. It was quite pretty, but  way off the story and very waffly. Since then I have had some excellent support and advice from the wonderful and very experienced Nicky Matthews-Brown (check her out if you don't already know her books). Not only is Nicky a fantastic writer who mostly writes weird and wonderful sci-fi kind of stuff for teenagers, she also lectures Creative Writing at MA level and helps people, like me, in her role as The Book Doctor. She seriously knows her craft.

Nicky's wise words took me back to plotting. Using the clock technique I mapped out the entire book. This has led me nicely back to my comfort zone of writing to a plan. NB: If you're a budding writer, or even a successful author, you might, like me, find Nicky's advice on her website really useful. She has very generously posted it for free: Nicky's Writing Tips.

Book four is already on it's second title. The first was The Invisible Child and it is now called Jasmine's Sky. If you have a preference, let me know, but the chances are of it staying either of these is pretty slim.

The book is all a big secret at the moment - mainly because I don't even know what is happening in the story properly yet, but I can tell you that most of the story is set in Singapore. 

I'm really enjoying writing it (well most of the time), but I'm also excited at Thirteenth Wish coming out.

What with unicorns and dragons and wishes and new worlds and boys dressed like knights and heroic girls and a little dog called Fuzzles there's lots to love. None of you have read it yet! I'm excited for it to come out and for you to tell me what you think. I hope you like it. Here is illustration 8 from the book: Cricket bat and Basket Ball.

If you want to come to the launch there are only 9 tickets left!.You can find out more by visiting here: Thirteenth Wish Launch
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Hope to see you there!