Write

I have been writing for a long time. As a child I wrote diaries and stories and endless letters to penpals. I wrote all the way through university, when an offhand comment by my mum made me realise that I could actually do this as a living. So, following a postgrad diploma, I landed a job in journalism writing for national magazines and newspapers.

I can get paid to write?

Skip forward twenty years; many, many features and articles, website pieces and blogs later, I completed my first fiction novel: Sixteen Sizes Smaller. Inspired by the ‘choose your own adventure’ books of my youth, it was great fun to write – involving many chapter maps and charts to make sure everything linked in perfectly.
The world can be a stressful place for children these days. I wanted to give them (and their parents) an old-fashioned adventure they can immerse themselves in for a little while. And then again. And again.

Inspire

One of my recent projects has been working with year 6 children in a local school, producing a termly school magazine. Watching them get stuck into interviewing, creating their own content ideas and layout designs as well as writing their own reports and stories has been fantastic.