Guest Post by Samuel Langley-Swain – Author and Founder of Owlet Press. Diversity : We’re only just scratching the surface. Having been an adoptive parent in a two-dad family, it’s been great to see some key titles like ‘Daddy, Papa and Me’ and ‘Tango Makes Three’ representing our family make up and recognising the positive […]

Guest Post by Linda Newbery Usually the idea for a novel comes to me slowly, over weeks or months; it’s unusual for me to know the precise day, and even time, when I first started thinking about it. But for The Key to Flambards I know precisely. I was about to set off for Cornwall […]

Guest Post by Sophie Green. Picture the scene: The night sky hides dark clouds, rain falls and a lone saxophone tune drifts out of a basement nightspot. Steam rises up from the drain covers to hang over the pavement like graveyard mist, or maybe it curls through pools of lamplight and then disappears into the […]

Year 9 have just given their feedback on this blog post.  ‘It’s not very interesting, Miss. No offence.’ ‘You need to have a snappier opening. Perhaps include some more engaging adjectives?’ ‘I can’t even tell who your target audience are, Miss. Or are they just old people?’ When I started writing a book alongside my […]

Guest Post by Jay Hulme I often say that if I didn’t already love poetry by the time we studied it in secondary school, I’d have hated poetry. The work we studied didn’t reflect our lives or experiences, and the idea that form stood above all else was frustrating to say the least. All of […]

Guest Post by Ziggy Hanaor I set up Cicada Books when my eldest daughter, Edith, was a baby. I had been working as an editor for an art and design publisher, and had achieved a few successes. Setting up a company seemed a good way to be my own boss and control my working hours, […]

Guest Post with Tom Fletcher. When we heard that there is a sequel to the biggest debut middle-grade novel of 2016 The Christmasaurus due for publication this October we had to find out more and set about asking author Tom Fletcher lots of questions on the latest title. We are thrilled to be able to share […]

Guest Post by Elizabeth Wein Sometimes when I’m visiting a school and talking about my books, I challenge the students, “How much do you really know about World War II?” It’s not meant to humiliate anyone – quite the opposite. I’m the first to admit, and I like to point out to others, that the […]

Guest Post by Emma Carroll. I’m always on the lookout for story ideas. It’s pretty normal for me to have half a dozen stacked up in my head like aeroplanes waiting to land. I might not use them all, but they’re there, and that’s something I find very reassuring. Ideas, for me, are like reading […]

Guest Post by A.F.Harold Although I’ve written a number of children’s novels (including the practically brand-new-as-this-blog-goes-up book The Afterwards (illustrated by Emily Gravett)), I began my journey into the world of children’s books as a poet. In fact, I began my journey into books of any sort as a poet, making little photocopied-and-stapled-together booklets of […]