Our lovely cat, Domino, died last year, and for a while we thought about living without a cat…..

………and then we met Pablo!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Pablo breezed into our lives in the beginning of May, when he was a tiny eight-week-old kitten. Now he’s a whopping five-month-old and I think it’s fair to say that he’s the new boss around here.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Domino played a big part in my Alice and Megan books, so watch out for Pablo’s literary debut!

World Book Day is always special to me (usually I celebrate by curling up with a good book), but this year it’s extra-special. This year I’ve been asked to write a special World Book Day Book. That’s a big honour – especially as, this year other WBD titles include work by Jacqueline Wilson, David Walliams and Enid Blyton!!!

Above is the cover of Fast Forward. Anyone who’s read ‘Time after Time,’ will recognise Molly and Beth, the time-travelling friends. Get this in exchange for your WBD voucher in a  good bookshop near you.

Exciting news – today is Groundhog Day!
Because of the film with the same name, most of us think of Groundhog Day as a day where boring events keep repeating themselves – but there’s <strong>much</strong> more to it than that.
Groundhog Day is celebrated in Canada and The United States. Folklore says that if the groundhog comes out from his burrow on February 2nd, and it’s sunny enough to see his shadow – then he’ll run back inside, and winter will continue for another six weeks. If it’s cloudy on that day, there will be an early spring. The tradition began in Germany, and was centred around a badger. When Germans emigrated to Pennsylvania in the 19th century, they hoped to continue the tradition – the only problem being that there were no badgers in that part of the country. Maybe they figured that one small furry creature was much the same as another – and Groundhog Day was born.
Science types will say that the groundhog isn’t really that accurate in his weather reporting – but that’s not really the point – it’s a bit of fun – and has led to a whole industry in Punxsutawney.
Don’t you just love old traditions?
(This post first appeared on www.girlsheartbooks)

 

For me, Christmas is all about tradition, when you blindly do things the same old way, just because that’s the way you’ve always done it. (I try hard not to live like that for the rest of the year!)
Every family has its own traditions, many of which seem very strange to me. One of my friends has an orange-smashing competition before dinner, and in another family they’ve been passing around the same (unopened) box of chocolates for 26 years.
One of my favourite traditions, inherited from my parents, is that the youngest child in the house has to put the angel on the top of the tree. (In my family, I was the youngest for only two years, before being usurped by my brother.)
My daughter Annie has had the dubious honour of angel-placing for all of her 21 years. Even though she’s been tall enough to do it on her own for many years now, part of the fun is that her dad has to ‘lift’ her up to reach the top of the tree. Each Christmas, this scene has been captured on film, and while there have been some hilarious photos taken over recent years, I’ve been forbidden to post them. The pictures below have been carefully censored by all involved.

(This post first appeared on www.girlsheartbooks.com)

I think it’s fair to say that when I started to write (way back in 1999!)I had NO idea what I was letting myself in for. I thought that my new job would be all about spending lonely hours at my desk, wrestling with plot-lines and uncooperative characters. And while there has been plenty of lonely character-wrestling, a huge part of my job involves getting out in the world and publicising my books. Events and festivals and social media and blogging have become a huge part of what I do. Luckily, I quite like all of this but sometimes I ask myself – what was I thinking?
For some reason, I agreed to go on live TV today! I’ll be on a very cool children’s programme called Swipe TV. I’m happy that they have a regular bookclub, and I’m <strong>really </strong> happy that they’ll be talking about one of my books – but live TV??
If I don’t post a link tomorrow, let’s never mention this again, OK?

This post first appeared on www.girlsheartbooks.com