From 1 - 7 February 2021 it is Children's Mental Health Week in the UK, and this year the theme is Express Yourself.

I am very happy to announce that all the entries to the Design A Superhero Contest were SO brilliant that Ups!de Down Books and I have decided to give all the children (or groups of siblings) who entered a signed copy of Superheroes Don't Get Scared!

On 3rd September 2020, Superheroes Don't Get Scared, written by me and illustrated by Clare Elsom, joined the other 599 books being published that day. It's a strange time to be launching my debut picture book, but I've tried to make the best of it.  

As you may have realised by now, I LOVE entering writing competitions. They are a brilliant opportunity to write to a brief and a deadline, and are usually a lot of fun! 

To celebrate the very exciting launch of my debut picture book, Superheroes Don't Get Scared, I am running a Design Your Own Superhero Competition!

Yesterday I was finalising our weekly shopping list when my six-year-old put in a request for “That fruit that you can put on your fingers”. It took me a few moments, but I realised he was talking about raspberries!

I'm very pleased to say that my picture book text, Maya's Mistake, came third in the Bright Agency Picture Book Competition, with my picture book text, Sparkles Ahoy!, also being Highly Commended.

I was thrilled to find out today that TWO of my unpublished picture book texts have been shortlisted in a Picture Book Competition!

Today I received some much-needed good news. My story, The Pocket Pirate, received an Honourable Mention in the recent SCBWI Words & Pictures Slush Pile Challenge! 

I was recently invited by fellow SCBWI author, Kathryn Evans, to provide some content for the brilliant Our Corona Diary Project.

Wow! What a week it has been! It's been such a whirlwind of activity releasing Superheroes Don't Get Scared into the big wide world a little earlier than planned as an ebook! 

And here it is! POW! The amazing cover of Superheroes Don’t Get Scared, illustrated by the SUPER Clare Elsom with words by me.

Life in lockdown has a tendency to become a bit repetitive, but if you need something SUPER to look forward to, then look no further!

So, you’ve finished a shiny new picture book manuscript. Woohoo! Congratulations! Finishing any story is a huge achievement! But what next? 

In the midst of a global pandemic, with around a third of the world’s population currently under lockdown, it suddenly feels much more difficult to sit down and create stories.

There will be times, like now, when the world seems to be filled with nothing but bad news. As adults, this can make us feel anxious, or scared about what the future holds. However, we aren’t the only ones exposed to world events.

Last week I entered Vivian Kirkfield’s 50 precious words writing contest. The brief was to write a story for kids with a word count of 50 or fewer. As a picture book writer, I’m used to writing with limited word counts but this was a new challenge!

I’ve not had much time to write recently due to family commitments, so when I saw that Susanna Hill was running a Valentiny Writing Contest, I really wanted to take part.

You refresh your inbox for what seems like the hundredth time that day, and an email appears. But this is not just any email; this email is from a publisher you submitted to months ago.

Next week is Children’s Mental Health Week. It has been set up by the children’s mental health charity, Place2Be, with the theme ‘Find Your Brave’.

As Big Ben struck midnight to mark the start of 2020, I had an extra reason to celebrate – my debut authored picture book, Superheroes Don’t Get Scared, is being published this year!