I love doing book events. They’re a great opportunity to meet young readers, and I always come away feeling good about my writing. I also get to meet other writers, and there’s often a nice lunch too! I’ve been really busy in the past few weeks. I’ve been to Abbeyfest, and Cologne and Dalkey Book Festival, as well as a few schools and bookshops.

Here I am in Cologne with Eirian, my lovely interpreter.

So now I’m taking a (well-earned) break for the summer. I’m going to catch up with my editing, and hope to finish Leave it to Eva and the third Friends Forever book. I’m also going to organise my writing files, work in my garden, and if the sun ever shines, I’m going to run outside and lie down with a good book.

Another picture from Cologne

And then, when September rolls around, I’ll be perfectly refreshed and ready for the Mountains to Sea Festival. Looking forward to it already!

Anyone who knows me will happily testify that I struggle with decisions. Now though, I’m at a happy crossroads, and I quite like being here. I’m almost finished my next two books – Leave it to Eva, and the (as yet unnamed) third book in the Friends Forever series. As soon as these are done and dusted, I have to decide what to do next. I know just how lucky I am to be in this position, so I plan to enjoy this time. These are some of the possibilities running through my head:

Will I

• write a fourth book in one of the series I’m working on at the moment?
• start something new completely, but for the same audience?
• try my hand at a picture book? (only the text part, as I’m afraid my drawing skills aren’t great)
• write a book for teenagers? – (I’ve been living with three of them for the past nine years, so I have plenty of ideas)
• dust down the fourth adult book that I put aside ‘for a few months’ when I was writing Alice Next Door, but never quite got back to?
• go back to an old series (mentioning no names) and reacquaint myself with some dear old friends?
• See if there’s still time to audition for this year’s X-factor?

The postman brought me a lovely surprise today – these beautiful copies of Alice Next Door and Alice Again. I’ve always loved the original Irish covers, but have to say that these are really great too.

They’re being released in Australia this week – the first of my books to make it there. I’m hoping that Australian readers will like them, and then, maybe one day, I can be like Jeff Kinney, and do a reading in Sydney Opera House!!

While I’m waiting (and dreaming) though, I have plenty to do. Today I hope to put the finishing touches on Leave it to Eva – the third in the Eva series. As soon as that’s done, I’m going to prepare my speech and props for my trip to the Cuirt Literary Festival in Galway next week.

Then, when all that’s done, it’ll be the weekend, and I can sit back and read a good book – I can’t wait!

I don’t care what the calendar says, spring only arrived in my garden this morning. It’s absolutely beautiful, and I was very tempted to spend the whole day outside.

Only trouble is, I’m supposed to be writing two (!!!) books at the moment. I’m alternating between ‘Leave it to Eva,’ and the as-yet-unnamed third book in the Friends Forever series. So I made a deal with myself. Every hour, as a reward for hard work, I allowed myself fifteen minutes outside in the sunshine. I got lots of writing and  gardening and everyone (ie me) is happy.