My next book, Time after Time, should be hitting the shelves any day now.(Yay!!!!)
I’ve always loved the idea of time travel, so sending my young characters, Molly and Beth, back to the past seemed like a wonderful idea – except for all the difficulties.
I encountered lots of questions.
Here are a few:
1. Can you change the past? Beth’s Mum, Fiona, fell down the stairs and died when Beth was a baby. When she meets Fiona as a young girl in 1984, Beth is desperate to save her. But if Fiona doesn’t die, Beth’s life will be completely different, (and the first part of my book will make no sense at all).
2. Even if you could change the past, would that be a good idea? Killing an evil dictator sounds like a great plan, but what if an even more evil one emerges to take his/her place?
3. What happens if Molly and Beth meet themselves while wandering around the past or the future? It’s fun having the characters meet up with their teenaged parents, but if they meet themselves, will everyone explode or something?
Like I said, there are lots of questions, many of which have no answers (partly because I hope to write a series, and I don’t want to tie myself up in knots.)
But it’s good to leave the reader guessing – isn’t it?

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

I’m really proud and happy to announce the launch of my next book. Details are above on the cassette tape (ask your parents what that is!)

For a few hours we’ll all be going back to the 1980’s with big hair, raw silk and leg warmers! Please do join us if you’re anywhere near Dublin on the night – and bring a friend or ten  – it should be a blast.

Watch this space for a picture of me in my 1980’s finery!

When I received the first copies of my new audio books, it took me right back to the days when my children were little and every holiday car-journey, no matter how short, took more preparation than your average ascent of Mount Everest. Despite my efforts to buy engaging toys and healthy-(ish) snacks, the cries of ‘are we there yet?’ generally started to ring out before we’d made it out of the car park.
And then we discovered audio books!
It started with the wonderful Artemis Fowl by Eoin Colfer. Adults and children were hooked by the first page, squabbles were forgotten and peace came into our lives. By chapter two, we parents could no longer relax by the pool, as the children were constantly nagging us to go for ‘a really long drive.’
Of course it’s easier now, with in-car dvd players and iPads etc, but why should the kids have all the fun? The entire family could engage with an audiobook, and later, at meal-times, there were many ..er…animated discussions over the merits of the books we listened to. It was like a family book club, and those long car journeys are remembered fondly by all of us.
Happy days!

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

This could have been a very long post, but I’ve held back and limited myself to the top ten things I love about being a writer. Here they are:

1. I get paid for making things up. (When I was a kid, I got into trouble for that kind of thing.)
2. I can take a day off whenever I like. (But if my editor’s reading this, I never actually take a day off, honest.)
3. I can work in my jammies. (I think this is most writers favourite thing about their job, which is slightly worrying.)
4. I get to spend hours on the internet and call it research. (Some day I’ll definitely write a book that justifies the hours I spent looking at patterns for crochet animals.)
5. I can travel and call it research. (Hmmm, maybe it’s time to set a book in Barbados.)
6. If I had a cat, I could work with her on my lap. (Note to self – get a cat.)
7. I get fan-mail. (‘<em>Judi, your books rock my world.’ </em> Swoon!)
8. I visit schools and get paid for talking about my favourite thing – reading. (And I don’t have to correct maths homework, or do playground duty or deal with the multi-coloured droppings when the mice have been eating the crayons again.)
9. I go to dinners with like-minded people and we spend the whole night talking about books. (And I call that part of my job.)
10. I go into shops and see my books on the shelf. (And if I do a happy-dance, no-one cares because I’m an author so I can be as eccentric as I want.)
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(This post first appeared on www.girlsheartbooks.com)

I thought it was April Fools day when I read the report of the receptionist who was sent home from work because she wasn’t wearing high heels.

Could this really happen in the 21st century?

Apparently it can. The woman in question (Nicola Thorp) was told to either buy herself a pair of heels, or vacate the workplace. I’m delighted that she chose the latter, and she’s since started a campaign outlawing such discriminatory rules.

I accept that high heels can be very attractive, but I think everyone knows how much damage they can do to your spine hips and feet – (and I won’t even go into the pain that these shoes can inflict.)

It’s a free world (for most of us), and I fully support the right of women to wear any shoes they like, but when employers feel they can insist on painful, damaging footwear, I wonder about the world we have created for ourselves.

But then, maybe I’m just jealous, because I can’t wear heels without looking like an ungainly little kid who’s playing with her mum’s shoes.

(And I should point out that the shoes in the photos all came from the wardrobes of my beautiful, independent, free-thinking daughters.)

The firm in question has since scrapped the high-heel rule, but still insists that women wear make-up at all times. Don’t even start me…..!

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