Hello there fellow Children’s Writers and Friends,

What have you been up to during May? I’ve been doing a fair bit and yet I feel like it’s all pieces of a whole, or several wholes, I’ve yet to see. I’ve got about three courses on the go AWC’s Laugh Out Loud Course with Tim Harris, the last few modules of Scribbles with Jen Storer and the one I’m most excited about right now Zanni Louise and Anna Pignataro’s Picture Book Course, which starts tomorrow.

I’ve been entering competitions and am thrilled to have received a highly commended in WestWords Living Stories competition meaning I will be published in the Anthology of the same name at the end of June.

I’ve also had and will have some more manuscript assessments at Festivals and Conferences I will attend. Then, I will take this advice on board, rewrite and submit these manuscripts to whichever publishing houses best fit them.

I’m excited to attend and network with actual writers again via the Creative Kids Tales Festival next week and the CYA Conference next month as well as a live WestWords Academy meet up later this month.

A lot is going on indeed, yet it all feels a little disjointed, but I guess that is the day to day of being a writer, it’s the ‘Butt In Chair’ ✍️🏽📚words on a page, next thing on the list 📋✔️even if it seems to be for no set reason. 🤷🏽‍♀️It’s not glamorous or even particularly interesting, but it is essential.

Something else I’ve discovered is essential, is strangely enough, the opposite. That is getting your butt out of the chair. I’ve taken writing seriously before, but before I ‘really started taking writing seriously’ about three to five years ago, I used to enjoy watching a fair bit of television, generally light entertainment, sometimes a little mindless. So this month, I’ve also moved my butt out of the chair and on to the couch or the cafe seat with friends. This is because once I start to find what I’m writing boring, there’s no chance anyone else is going to find it interesting! Time to rest the mind and then refill it with some inspiration from the real world. Cue Wicked the musical with my daughter next month and bingeing on all the Ahn’s Brush With Fames I’ve missed over the last couple of seasons while I was ‘BIC’.

Short and hopefully not too disjointed this month. I hope your journey is a bit more cohesive and directed than mine has been this month or perhaps not, for we really do need all the straight, curved, flat and bumpy parts of the journey don’t we?.

Until next time fellow travellers,

Savour the quest,

Journeygirl.