…unfortunately!
I’ve now uploaded the pictures to the gallery page. Just follow the link on the right to see them if you fancy a giggle! Some of them are very old and haven’t weathered very well (I’ve been carrying them from flat to flat in boxes for years!) If the response isn’t too [...]

Had a very strange dream last night. For some reason, the government placed a £15 tax on every book - including the ones you already owned. This meant that most people couldn’t keep their book collection and had to get rid of them all except for three (why three, I’m not sure!)
I woke [...]

I’m not a fan of soap operas, but I tuned into Coronation Street last night to watch the final scenes of actress Liz Dawn, who plays Vera Duckworth. After so many overly-dramatic soap deaths - ‘plane crashes, kidnappings and the like - it was refreshing to watch a simple yet dignified ending to a [...]

I ran a fun creative writing workshop with year six from St. Michael’s school in Jarrow yesterday. The event took place at Seven Stories, the centre for children’s books in Newcastle, where I am the current writer-in-residence.
As part of the workshop, I was demonstrating how to brainstorm new stories and stumbled across an idea [...]

It occurred to me after reading back over the previous post about finding a literary agent that I neglected to include one vital piece of advice: finish the book first!
It may sound glaringly obvious, but I’ve known so many writers who have an idea for a book and start to pitch it before they’re even [...]

Another of the questions I’m asked by new writers is, ‘Do I need an agent?’, closely followed by ‘How do I get one?’
My answer is always the same. No, you don’t need an agent to sell your writing; I sold my first four books direct to the publisher. However, if you want your [...]

Keen-eyed visitors will notice that I’ve updated the look of my site again - the second time in the past three months. This is because the previous design, which I liked, was taking far too long to load in certain web browsers - so, back to the drawing board it was.
I think the new [...]

It’s tough but, at some point, you’re going to get stuck. Happened to me yesterday…
I was working my way through the second draft of the third book in the Scream Street series, and made quite a few changes to several of the chapters. All was going well until I realised that the original ending didn’t [...]

One of the questions I’m asked most often (aside from ‘what are you doing in my garden?’) is how I got my books published. What’s more interesting than the question itself, however, if the belief and/or hope that there is some sort of magic formula or shortcut that I have found and can give [...]

Time to plug a pal - and it’s none other than NYC rock star for kids, Uncle Rock!
Uncle Rock is the ultimate performer for the child in all of us, with incredible songs such as Like A Pirate, Disco Nap and, my personal favourite, Sugar talkin’, Uncle Rock’s CDs are packed with great tunes and [...]