May was an exciting and slightly chaotic month!  Ice Cream Boy came out with Floris Books on the 16th. The virtual blog tour, organised by the fabulous Kelly Lacey, really added to the buzz and Ice Cream Boy got some thoughtful and detailed early reviews. Huge thanks to Kelly and to all the lovely bloggers who joined the tour.

The week before Ice Cream Boy’s launch,  I managed inadvertently to get myself in a social media spat with Matt Lucas, which got so out of hand it led to me being interviewed on Radio 5 Live and appearing in an article in the Independent newspaper.

The amount of attention it got felt a little overwhelming but I am glad my tweet started a very necessary conversation. The support from other children’s authors was amazing. Having said that, I’m not holding my breath that anything will change as a result.

A lot was said on social media during that week about writing quality and ghost writers, but I wasn’t actually complaining about the fact so many celebrities are creating children’s books. I was just feeling frustrated at the privilege of shelf space and marketing celebrity authors are offered. It isn’t a level playing field and to be honest, there have been times I’ve felt like my own books are so under the radar that maybe I should consider throwing in the towel.

But like Matt Lucas, I’ve taken time to reflect. Fame isn’t something I’d relish. Wealth would be nice, and my bills need to be paid, but most of my income as an author comes from visiting schools and libraries and that’s my favourite part of the job.  I’ve spent almost my entire working life encouraging young children to love stories and as a children’s author, inspiring kids to read and write for pleasure is still my main motivation. I know how lucky I am to be doing a job I love.

Ice Cream Boy’s launch was on the 30th and I am very grateful to everyone at Floris and to the staff at Waterstones Braehead for organising such a lovely event. There was ice cream and cake and lots of people came, which is always a big relief!

Now I just have to cross my fingers and hope that readers will enjoy Ice Cream Boy. Hopefully the weather will warm up and and an ice cream themed book will seem the perfect beach read this summer.