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I tend not to set any new year resolutions now. Without a doubt life will throw a massive curve ball my way and I’ll end up missing deadlines, forgetting something Very Important and generally feeling miserable for failing and it’s not even the 2nd January yet. Saying all that, there is one thing I will always keep going and that’s my jar. With £1 in the jar for every book I read this year, I’m hoping for a fantastic amount to give to charity by Dec 31st 2022. In 2021 I read 52 books which meant I could give £52

I read a lot of books. Picture books, middle grade novels, YA, crime… the list is endless but they’re worth every minute I spend devouring the words. Last year I was given a diary to record all the books I read, what I thought of them and comments I may have had about the characters within the pages. I am so glad I did this because looking back, as we all do at the start of a new year, I am amazed at the books that have crossed my path. With 52 under my belt for 2021, it was hard

In my time on this planet so far, I’ve never lived outside Scotland’s capital city. Even now, many years after I’ve left my childhood home, I haven’t strayed farther than a few miles away from my old primary school and gang-hut days. I still walk the streets where I got scabby knees from learning to ride my first ever (borrowed from a neighbour) bike and my very own new-to-me roller skates (Apollo 13s – best birthday ever). Despite my reluctance to set down roots elsewhere in the world, it hasn’t stopped me travelling and meeting people from different cultures and

When you write a new story, you create the characters as if you’re meeting them for the first time. You get to decide everything about them, from the colour of their hair to what they have for breakfast. As a writer or illustrator you get the envious task of being able to create a new being, in a new world. The opportunities to capture a personality trait in the sentences written or an emotive glance in the illustrations, are marvellously endless. Without a conceived idea or the drawings to bring those thoughts to life, I believe stories wouldn’t exist. Text

Like many others my writing life has changed. Working from home, bereft of the company of other writers unless they’re staring back at me from my screen, I miss the coffee breaks in-between writing sprints and the gluing of character arcs and plot points after seeking advice from those in the same boat. I know we’ll get back together eventually, so I shall persevere but it’s not quite the same. I have many ‘how to’ guides about writing and the creative process . Using their guidance (I have my favourites) I regularly tap out words on my keyboard in the

There’s nothing quite like the excitement of a children’s book debut that finally arrives in your library ready to be borrowed or on the shelves of your local bookshop but what about those who have had their 2nd, 6th or 99th book published? Supporting creatives on social media, buying or borrowing their books and shouting about their stories when they’re launched into the world is something I like to do. There is no magic money tree to invest in most book launches so a link-nudge, a recommendation or an on-line review is what we, as word devourers, can do to