What a lovely question 🙂! I had a lovely book club yesterday with some lovely y3 children, found out all about what they enjoy & am now getting a list of reading materials together to share with them for next week. Book chat is SO good for the soul!
I had a fantastic week in NYC, my first visit. What a place! Got to speak to a lot of Americans. Managed to visit a small town and hour or so away too and met more lovely people.
Also I've got my kids this weekend so I get to see their joy at the American candy and teddies.
It's been a really tough week but I got the foreword back for my new book from someone I really look up to and they said the most incredible things about me
Hard one this week. My virtual writing group met last night though and that is always good. We are a mix of genres as well, which feeds my creativity in a glorious way.
Spent the day with amazingly enthusiastic 13/14 year olds at a wonderfully inclusive school. Was absolutely exhausted but dogs need walks so treated us to an hour at the beach. Pure bliss.
The wonderful @merialc.bsky.social got me a voucher for my birthday that I haven't been able to use, thanks to Brexit. The shop's had their paperwork through to ship to NI now!
Yey for a small business!
Yey for me getting sashiko supplies to up my mending game!
On a canal holiday with the family last year no-one wanted to go to the zoo with me so I got to spend an hour in the lemur enclosure without anyone complaining. It was BLISS.
Less fiddly than they look. I got the Corleone Family Recipe Book for Christmas so I've fulfilled a lifelong ambition of saying "Leave the gun. Take the canoli" - although the absence of a gun did leave dinner guests confused.
A good friend with a special needs child FINALLY got a car that they so desperately needed. We found the perfect one by chance when I took them to a dealership looking at some cars that we saw online but in person just weren’t right.
😃My first full week on Bluesky thanks to your advice and I’m loving it.
🤘I’m also unmasking as the little socialist activist that I am, which is nice.
😋And! I’m getting pizza from my favourite place tonight to celebrate getting 🎺halfway through the rebranding work.
A reader reached out to let me know they liked my book. That never stops making me smile, but in particular my book about being genderqueer made them feel seen, and that makes everything worth it.
1) We're nearly done with all the sodding house renovations,
And
B) I put together a thing for people to use when playing TTRPGs and people are buying it! Creative writing that isn't comedy! And people like it! This is strange and new to me
You need to bear in mind how awful the old carpet was, and that that is what we still have in the bedrooms. Not as threadbare as it was on the stairs, but still thin, hard and rough. (Getting the bedrooms done is for future us!)
I’m not surprised! I remember walking into Waterstones Cardiff and seeing the display - and thinking what an amazing accomplishment! So many of my favourite authors!
Contract signed
Friend won a PB prize 🥳
Started some edits
Survived an author visit to a Squirrel pack (think younger and more free-range than Beavers)
Passion fruit martinis last night
Pretty top week, all in all 🤪
Hi Louie! My good news is that my latest book came out yesterday 😁 I'm currently sitting in my car eating a packed lunch between two school visits 👍 #authorlife
Finally getting moved in to my new garden studio, which has a steady temperature. Very nice after years working in a mostly far too hot/far too cold conservatory
Two good news things in this photo; the newbie book - World of Wanda' published yesterday (whoo-hoo!), but also... just the dog. My mutt is ALWAYS good news, every week, every day. #DogBless
I was put in touch with the company of actors who inspired my latest book, Things We Do For Love, and was able to send them a book to thank them for the inspiration. Such a lovely feeling! 🎭💕
Reminds me of when I accidentally got covered in luminous goo at The Big Chill festival, and a steward ushered me to jump the loo queue to wash it off.
"Out of the way! I'm radioactive!" 😂
Such a lovely question! After 2 months off for a bereavement I came back to work this week and started editing a fantastic YA novel. Also, memories fluttering about what my own WIP is about. Haven’t thought about it since December. It’s nice to be back!
I’m finally allowed to say - my flash fiction story has been shortlisted for the Edinburgh Flash Award! I posted this on my social media this week and it was unbelievably lovely reading all the happy comments 😊✨
This good boy does not have kennel cough* and is now registered with a vet. Plus tomorrow it's the 3 week anniversary of Rubiks becoming part of our family. Very grateful to Battersea dogs and cats home for letting us take him home with us!
*It's reverse sneezing.
I parceled it out through the course of the week but my brain is still understandably fried and looking forward to the end of the work day so my weekend of rest can begin. It feels SO much lighter at the same time though!
I had a real life meeting with my agent! I finally submitted a (very short) first draft of a silly kids book! I saw some colour drafts of my bird book and they were beautiful! Weeeeeeeee!
🐢
Ready for the self-doubt to creep back in at any moment, but right now I'm happy.
OH YES good point, doing another set of AAA episodes tomorrow night! Yaaaaaaaaaaay ☺️❤️🔥
Anyway, looking forward with absolute glee to what looks like a truly chaotic dinner with you and Karen 😂😂😂 given the state of our brains this morning 😂😂😂😂
Spoke at a @librariesconnected event in London, advocating for closer links between library services and small publishers, using successful things i've done at work as examples of how great results can be ahieved even with shrinking budgets and staff capacity 🙏👌
Been banging this drum for a decade but it's only since 2022 i've been in a role at work that allows me to make the decisions to implement it and try to advocate more widely; forever grateful to LC for giving me a platform to do it nationally but the best thing of all is that other library
I have no idea if it’s any good or not (films are made for audiences to judge, after all) but it was a total RIDE to make it and yes, things have been learnt.
Thanks, getting better now! I had to cancel going to see Kinky Boots on Wednesday night! Gutted but wasn’t well! So the news my favourites will be on tv soon cheered me up! Have a great weekend x
I have finally tied up the millions of plotholes in my MG and it's now beginning to make sense! Plus I finally have enough words. Just need to change them for better ones now.
I met a member of my book group to join her and her adolescent puppy for a walk/fetch session, preparatory to my sometimes borrowing him to walk him on my own. She gets a break, and I get to borrow a doggy.
We had a visit from incredible poet @afharrold.com as part of Children’s BookFest. AF entertained and the BookFest handed out 180 signed copies of his new (not even out yet) book. What a day! Highlight of the year!
And I got to visit Phil and his kids, which was equally brilliant, and it was very nice seeing my daft little new (forthcoming) book in the flesh for the first time too. Happy week!
Comments
Also I've got my kids this weekend so I get to see their joy at the American candy and teddies.
Spent the day with amazingly enthusiastic 13/14 year olds at a wonderfully inclusive school. Was absolutely exhausted but dogs need walks so treated us to an hour at the beach. Pure bliss.
The wonderful @merialc.bsky.social got me a voucher for my birthday that I haven't been able to use, thanks to Brexit. The shop's had their paperwork through to ship to NI now!
Yey for a small business!
Yey for me getting sashiko supplies to up my mending game!
*Camps overnight under the letterbox* 😄💙🍓
🤘I’m also unmasking as the little socialist activist that I am, which is nice.
😋And! I’m getting pizza from my favourite place tonight to celebrate getting 🎺halfway through the rebranding work.
https://bsky.app/profile/laurahallain.bsky.social/post/3lhl2ar7zik2u
1) We're nearly done with all the sodding house renovations,
And
B) I put together a thing for people to use when playing TTRPGs and people are buying it! Creative writing that isn't comedy! And people like it! This is strange and new to me
https://bsky.app/profile/brainmage.bsky.social/post/3lhjttikcpc2e
Friend won a PB prize 🥳
Started some edits
Survived an author visit to a Squirrel pack (think younger and more free-range than Beavers)
Passion fruit martinis last night
Pretty top week, all in all 🤪
And always joyous to see the Waterstones Prize listings. It’s such a feat. Congrats to all! 🙌
PS if anyone is looking for a children’s illustrator or comic artist please holler! 🫶
https://bsky.app/profile/theomnisis.bsky.social/post/3lhg73qqkb22t
"Out of the way! I'm radioactive!" 😂
*It's reverse sneezing.
🐢
Ready for the self-doubt to creep back in at any moment, but right now I'm happy.
Anyway, looking forward with absolute glee to what looks like a truly chaotic dinner with you and Karen 😂😂😂 given the state of our brains this morning 😂😂😂😂
And, even more amazingly I’ve had a massive personal and professional epiphany as a result!