A Clean Desk

A Clean Desk

A Clean Desk   … well, to be perfectly honest … a clean-ER desk   … but nowhere near as clean as this one. I’ve just submitted a picture book manuscript and now the waiting begins. This story nearly killed me! Dramatic? A touch, perhaps, but I...
Treasure! The beginnings…

Treasure! The beginnings…

Pirates!  The beginnings.. About eight years ago, I wrote a picture book story based on an ‘auto-correct’ phrase. Not one I made, but one that another poet conjured when we were part of a summer poetry blog called A Poem A Day. A Poem A Day was set up by...
Iceberg: From Idea to Book

Iceberg: From Idea to Book

Iceberg: From Idea to Book Picture books do not happen overnight. No books do. But man it’s exciting when they finally do make it into the world. What begins as a word or an idea, and grows and changes endlessly before submission. This story began as a poem...
Did you know?

Did you know?

Did you Know? I’ve been back working on my wip today and I desperately wanted to include ‘swash’, but no matter how many times I rework the lines, it just won’t fit. The shallow wave wash that pushes up the beach after a wave breaks has a name!...

Filling the Well

Filling the well Writing can drain your brain. Well, it certainly can drain mine. I try to keep topping up during a project, but when I’ve handed in a project, or finished editing I find that it’s helpful to consciously refill the well. That means walking...

Bursting!

It’s been a big week!Emu has been shortlisted for the Environment Award. Then there was lunch with Walker and Black Dog peoples from both sides of book-making. I received my copies of the US version of ‘Emu’. It has a dust jacket and looks very...