Happy New Year! Hope everyone had a lovely Christmas break. I overdid the decorations as usual, but loved having a twinkly house and really miss all the sparkly lights now that they are back in the cupboard.

The freezing weather and long dark nights mean I often succumb to the January Blues but not this year. I am skin cancer-free, at least for now, and I have so much to look forward in the first months of 2025.

My second school reading book, The Last Zeppelin, another real-life story of survival after Terror on Titanic, is coming out with Badger Learning in January.

My story for 6-8 year olds, The Stargazers, is coming out as part of BBC Scotland’s Time for a Story series early this year and I am so looking forward to seeing the illustrations and listening to the added sound effects! Recording the story at the BBC Studios in Glasgow was great fun.

Phoebe misses out on playing in the snow, but a cloudless night sky is perfect for stargazing. Phoebe and her Gran decide to try and see the stars from her dark garden.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p07jntrp/episodes/guide

In March I’m going to London to take part in the Alexandra Palace Children’s Book Awards, as Ice Cream Boy has been shortlisted and I’ve been invited to the big award ceremony. Ice Cream Boy has also been shortlisted for Peters Books Children’s Book of the Year and longlisted for the James Reckitt Hull Children’s Book Award which is totally thrilling. The novel is now also available as an audiobook, narrated by Angus King and is currently being reprinted. I am so proud of how well the book has been received.

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I’m looking forward to taking part in a couple of lovely book festivals in the spring too so it is shaping up to be an excellent few months.

Writing-wise, I took procrastination very seriously in 2024 and know that I need to get my head down and write a first draft of a new novel between January and April 2025, so it is back to the serious business of daily word counts and Written? Kitten! (You can choose puppies if you prefer -whatever positive reinforcement works)

https://writtenkitten.co/

There is also some very exciting book news hopefully coming soon, which I am bursting to talk about.

On a final, personal note, I am loving looking after my little granddaughter every Tuesday. We visit the library in Kirkintilloch often and this week had a fab afternoon out to the Riverside Museum in Glasgow where we spotted the perfect transport to take us home. Looking forward to lots more days out this spring!

It has been a good summer, work-wise. I’ve been involved in some lovely bookish events, including Marr College’s first Book Festival and The Big Book Show at the Mitchell Library.

It was a real thrill to be invited to Arran’s Wee Mac Book Festival, Falkirk High’s Literacy Celebration event, Gryffe Valley Book Festival and the Summer Reading Challenge launch event at Paisley Central Library too!  I attended some lovely bookish social events, like the Children’s Publishing Picnic, and did lots of school events, both in-person and virtual. I even did my first zoom to Australia in June!

The new term has got off to an excellent start. I’ve been doing a six-week block of creative writing sessions with a brilliant group of young writers at the Ginger Cat Bookshop.  Joyously, in September I was invited to the opening of two gorgeous new school libraries, at King’s Park Primary in Glasgow and King’s Oak Primary in Greenock.

Being a children’s author  really is the best job in the world and it has also been a lovely distraction from some tricky real-life issues. My dad is struggling now with dementia, although he’s pretty upbeat most of the time and is very happy to chat about Morrison shelters and the Clydebank Blitz. And I’ve had my own health issue, as a tiny, innocuous looking mole under my lip turned out to be another melanoma. I had a wide local excision in August and went to Birmingham  NEC two days later to sign copies of The Titanic Detective Agency at White Star Heritage’s excellent Titanic exhibition.

I was at the exhibition for the whole weekend and while I thoroughly enjoyed the opportunity to chat about Titanic to other enthusiasts, I felt very self-conscious about the state of my face!  Thankfully, my lip is healing nicely now, I’m crossing my fingers I won’t need more surgery and feel enormously grateful to the NHS staff for their care and kindness.