Just over ten years ago, Patrick and I set off on a windy, rainy day, through semi-flooded roads, driving two hours from home to Border Collie Trust, Birmingham, to find ourselves a new dog. We were still grief-stricken over the loss of our first dog, Nika (who died far too young of a terrible genetic disease), but I was desperate to have a new dog ( Read more... )

I've always loved my local Waterstones and felt really lucky, too, in how supportive they've always been of my books. It's an incredibly warm, welcoming environment in every way, and my family visits it at least once a week as readers, so of course it was the natural place to host my launch party for The Dragon with a Chocolate HeartBut I still ( Read more... )

It's January 12th - which means it's exactly one year to the day from the day that Patrick's Secrets of the Dragon Tomb was published!


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Alas, yesterday's hot chocolate experiment was such a disaster, I'm not even going to report the fine details here (except to say: TEN CARDAMOM PODS IS DEFINITELY TOO MUCH)! On the upside, though, my 8-year-old has volunteered to join with me in the experimentation process, making his own search for a new favorite hot chocolate recipe - and I have ( Read more... )

Readers who've been keeping me company for the last few years might remember that when the Kat trilogy was re-released as a boxed set, I declared its publication day (October 7, 2014) to be Hot Chocolate Day. In the week leading up to it, I posted one hot chocolate recipe after another, including guest recipes from friends. (There was Hot Chocolate ( Read more... )

By the end of a long holiday season, I'm always feeling jittery about how little writing I've been able to do, with multiple deadlines mounting in my head and frustration that I haven't managed to do more. Why haven't I somehow done more???

But here's what I have written in 2016, as an annual record for myself to look back on, because it genuinely ( Read more... )

Our Christmas tree is still sparkling in the corner of our living room, five days later. It was a lovely, busy Christmas with the kids - and I got all three of my knitted gifts finished in time. Whew! :) Now I'm knitting a scarf for myself with the lush, gorgeous cornflower-blue wool that Patrick got me for Christmas, which fills me with utter ( Read more... )

I posted last week about my favorite MG books read in 2016, and I promised to do a followup post about my favorite adult reads. Of course, I always have less time than I expect over the kids' school holidays...so this followup is a little late for holiday shopping. Sorry! However, if you (like me!) are a last-minute holiday shopper, or if you just ( Read more... )

Every year, I tell myself that I'll (somehow) get loads of writing done over the children's school holidays. This year, I tell myself, I'll definitely find a way!

And every year...

Well.

Hahaha.

Quite. We'll just leave it there, shall we? ;) (...says the woman who's managed a grand total of 430 words over the past 3 days...ah well ( Read more... )

It's our last week of work before the kids' school holidays begin...and of course, we're also frantically gift-shopping at this time of year! In case you are, too, it seemed like a good moment to start posting my totally subjective, personal lists of favorite books I read this year. (Also, I just like looking back on them!) So here is my first list ( Read more... )